Most marketable skill to teach oneself? - <AUTHOR>

I'm tired of sitting around after work and not doing anything productive.<p>I am tech savvy, like everyone else here.  What is the most marketable skill I can teach myself?  Guides would be appreciated. <comment><USER2> Right now, probably writing iPhone/iPad apps.

<comment><USER3> To expand on this, the apple documentation is great. See <http://developer.apple.com/iPhone>

<comment><USER4> voted up for invisible irony

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> To love learning. What are you trying to market? Find a job? Get a raise?

Anyways for some actionable advice: writing well is in shore supply as well as being able to give a good speech. If you are a technical person learn usability as that gets overlooked very often. (see don't make me think by Steven krug) I think anything you learn will give you a context in which to learn other material so no learning is in vain.

<comment><AUTHOR> My end goal would be to find a new job and move to a completely new place. I like learning for the sake of learning, but learning as a means to an end (new job) is my goal in this instance.

Thanks for the reading recommendation, it definitely looks interesting.

<comment><USER3> No worries about the link. You can easily burn through that book in a few hours but the concepts are timeless.

What stuff do you know right now? Where do your interests lie? If you are halfway decent at programming in ruby/python/c++ you should be able to hammer your way into a nice job at a company of your choice. I was helping my last employer interview programmers and it was abysmal how many could not even pass a basic FizzBuzz test in the language of their choosing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Chances are you already have all the hard skills you need.

The most useful skill is communication. Being able to "talk the talk", market yourself and come off an interesting and intelligent individual is the greatest asset somebody can have.

Also, learn another language (aim to know three). This is especially important if you happen to live in Europe where most companies are a mixed bag of various nations.

<comment><USER6> When it comes to learning another language as a marketable skill your mileage will vary massively. If you do not have other reasons for learning the language, your ROI could be negligible (or negative).

To learn a language well enough for it to be of the level required ('marketable skill' level) will take a very long time. Even then, it may be unnecessary.

I concur that communication is one of the most useful skills. My writing and public speaking always brings questions and is often a topic of conversation. That I (attempt to) speak the language of the country I live in and have knowledge of a number of others? It's never mentioned.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Try self-improvement. Improving who you are is never a bad idea and often leads you into other areas of development. It can lead you to explore new ideas and learn new skills which in turn can be marketable. Try to start off with reading "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". I thought this book was wonderful.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've actually already read the Stephen Covey book, what others would you recommend which are of a similar nature?

<comment><USER7> I found the first edition of StrengthsFinder very intriguing. It's the type of book that gives you a paradigm shift.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What do you want to do with your "best marketable skill"? Earn more money? Join great startups? It will help us give you some advices.

<comment><AUTHOR> The end goal would be to find a new job.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> To love what you do.

<comment><USER10> How is one supposed to teach itself to love what he does?</comment></comment>


Job interviews go both ways  - tomh- http://blog.indextank.com/1122/job-interviews-go-both-ways/

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh yes. A thousand times yes.

The one time I /needed/ a job, there was a Brass Ring job fair happening in San Jose; one of those affairs where you can (and I'm not kidding) smell the desperation and fear as too-well-dressed people tender their fancy (but essentially vacuous) resumes to harried booth staffers who ("please, dear Lord") just want to end their lives. If you've ever been on the booth side of one of these, you know what I mean.

I went to a booth belonging to a start-up I'd never heard of, presented my resume and mentioned that I had about 20 years experience doing C.

"Really?!" I've never actually seen someone's eyes light up with real light, but the guy I was talking to came really close. The interview the next day was a breeze and I was sitting in a cubical in a Mountain View start-up incubator (The Landings, natch, third time there) within a week. Nice to have a paycheck again.

But.

I won't bore you with the details, but this is where I learned the phrase "Train Wreck," from a guy who left two weeks after I came on board. Let's just make a list: Patterns, Cargo-Cult Programming, a product with 200K SLOC that could have been replaced by 1,000 lines of Perl, and some of the worst code I'd ever seen. Add to this a VC fight (the banks interviewed us worker-bees to try to figure out what was going wrong) and the execs bringing in a psychiatrist to interview the employees, ditto. When I quit, six months later, the prez broke down in tears, begging me to stay.

The interview goes both ways. Oh, yes.

</comment><comment><USER2> Too right. I've been in on a lot of interviews, and only rarely has the person asked questions about the working conditions, the state of the development tools, and other relevant things. The people who did were either very good at their job, or troublemakers. Or both. lol

So when I went job hunting this year, I asked some of those questions. Not as many as I should have, but enough. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

The questions also tell the prospective employer things about you, as well. How much you know about a functional work environment, how likely you are to try to change internal processes, etc. It can be good or bad, depending on your attitude and questions.

</comment><comment><USER3> In case anyone is interested, EOF in C is "out of band" in a sense.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1437241/endoffile-in-c- eo...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1437241/endoffile-in-c-eof)

</comment><comment><USER4> I've never really felt that I learned much of anything by asking questions of potential employers. It either got a rehearsed B.S. line, or I made them uncomfortable and they were less likely to then hire me.

I do, however, come away with very clear opinions of employers, but this is based entirely upon their behavior during the interview. Not focusing on my answers (one guy brought a laptop to the interview and browsed his email while I was talking), asking keyword trivia, or generally coming across as a prick means I definitely _don't_ want to work there.</comment>


Being at the birth 'can make dad feel a failure' - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282770/Being-birth-make-dad-feel-failure.html

<comment><USER2> I'd love to know the details of this study and what percentage of men felt that way. Being there by my wife's side to comfort her and cutting the umbilical cord helped lead to forming the initial bond. I can't imagine how men could start out feeling like a more successful father by not being there for the birth.</comment>


Microsoft redesigns Live.com - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/30/microsoft-redesigns-live-com <comment><USER2> As a Google user (gmail, calendar, reader, notebook) taking a look at the new Live.com frontpage, it looks nice. No scrollbars at all unlike yahoo.com and the images used seem to belong in the page. Unlike the text they keep adding to the Google front page, these links seem thought out as to where to place them and what to keep.

<comment><USER3> What's thought out or well-placed about the link I see on the front page?: "Can you guess today's hottest celeb? Check xRank Celebrity." I can't recall anything similar on Google's.</comment></comment>


Damnatio memoriae - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae <comment><USER2> This is one of those interesting concepts that are inherently meta, since any reference to a successful target, ipso facto, voids the success of the technique. Even the order to forget person X is paradoxical, because its own existence guarantees its own failure.

It reminds me of that old chestnut where you can break a certain thing by saying it's name aloud: "Silence".

<comment><USER3> Few names survive beyond their great-grandchildren unless there are contemporary records to remind people. After the statues are destroyed and books containing are not allowed to be published very little will be left.

Think about how little you know of your own great-grandparents.

For the future, imagine a world where no book, weblog, or tweet is allowed to contain a two word phrase matching a particular SHA-1.</comment></comment>


Talking Behind Your Back [video] - <AUTHOR> https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8336-talking_behind_your_back <comment><USER2> This is my first time hearing the term 'ultrasound tracking'. This is another good reason to avoid apps which require access to your microphone for no apparent reason.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think I'm going to invent a device that puts out a sound that cancels ubeacons. Heck, I might just write some software and unleash it to an unsuspecting world and drown out all subsonic frequencies.

</comment><comment><USER4> very interesting thing, but the reliability is big challenge.</comment>


German Court Suspends Driver for Adjusting Wiper Speed in Tesla Model 3 - <AUTHOR> https://insideevs.com/news/436912/driver-suspended-adjusting-wiper-speed-model-3/ <comment><USER2> Hopefully I don't lose my license in the US for screwing up in the car wash, where setting a Model 3 into neutral takes the dexterity of a skilled surgeon. Hey Elon, when you detect I'm in a car wash (you already turn off the automatic wipers in there), can you put a big button for Neutral on the screen. My wife practices setting the car into neutral before entering the car wash, and even then, she's only 75% successful.

</comment><comment><USER3> German courts should prevent tesla from selling the model 3 in Germany for not having buttons and stocks for basic controls.

We spent many years to get these things right and then some company which thinks it needs to reinvent the wheel takes us all 2 steps backwards.

VW has started doing the same crap and it's just as bad. Try adjusting your mirror while driving in the new electric VW.

<comment><AUTHOR> 100% agree. Having physical controls for the most common-used functions (eg climate control, volume) has been best practice, not only for UX but for safety. Many auto manufacturers are guilty for doing this, it just that Tesla has taken it to the next level by trying to take "form over function" to the next level.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The title seems a little bit misleading: he didn't get pulled over for driving with the wrong window wiper speed, he crashed his car into an embankment and got his licence suspended for that.

<comment><USER5> Not quite true either. He reached over and operated a touch screen device, thus causing the crash to happen, and it was using the touch screen while driving that caused his licence to be suspended. If it's really true that you can't adjust the wiper speed on a Tesla without taking your attention off the road and onto some ludicrous touch screen interface, then I have no idea why any government in the world would accept these vehicles as roadworthy; surely wiper speed is a safety critical function that must be operated quickly, by touch alone, and without having to stop and think or look away from the road.

<comment><USER6> Looks like they have voice commands for the wipers, which might be even better, assuming it correctly interprets you.

[https://www.tesla.com/support/voice- commands](https://www.tesla.com/support/voice-commands)

<comment><USER7> Well that seems like a good solution; you'd only crash the first time, when you look for the wiper controls and they're not there and you go searching through the touchscreen menus.

<comment><USER6> Or you could push the wiper button on the left, which will bring up the wiper controls on the screen.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Timelapse video of a sunspot - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvX0CIIkN1c

<comment><USER2> [Remember to press "show more", because the description of the video is long and has a lot of information.]</comment>


Ask HN: Do you think it's possible to live without Internet at home? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> As a common human being, yes. Though I imagine as a web developer, it might be difficult.

I've gone a month without any kind of technology whatsoever, and I felt fine (though I was in the outdoors and kept myself occupied). I've gone two months without Internet (just had computers to watch movies) on two separate occasions, and I was fine. In fact, before I started watching movies, I felt a creative boost. I think the lack of distractions allowed my subconscious to focus on coming up with ideas rather than processing all the background information one is normally exposed to (I also had no TV, radio, etc, just computer capable of e-mail).

</comment><comment><USER3> If you live in most of the US, you have a fair chance of finding out some day for a week or so after a violent storm blows through.

If you live in one of these parts of the US in an all-electric house, you may find that there are things you miss more than the internet--even at 39 degrees north latitude it can be pretty cold without heat in the winter. And in any sort of weather it can be pretty dry when you are on well water and have no power for the pump.

</comment><comment><USER4> Of course it is. I've done it before, it's not particularly difficult after an adjustment period if you work a desk job with Internet access.

Anyway, if you're seriously considering cutting off at-home Internet, take a look at FreedomPop's free plans, limited to 500MB-1GB of data or something per month. I haven't used them personally, but it could be an inexpensive way of reducing the allure of an unlimited Internet funnel.

</comment><comment><USER5> It is as long as you have alternative ways of getting online either at work, public library, coffee shop and/or at a friends/family member's house.

I did it for a while. Had internet at the office all day and I'd go to the public library to do stuff I couldn't do at work. Having limited internet access helped me use the internet in a more productive/optimum way.

</comment><comment><USER6> If you live in the UK, it will soon become impossible for many people to access government services / benefits in any way but via the internet.

This, coupled with the problem that the people who need these services the most also tend to be the worst off, and we have a huge, huge problem on the horizon.</comment>


Interview with the entrepreneur bringing 911 service to the developing world - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@sozh/bringing-9-1-1-to-the-developing-world-5abb027ccefc

<comment><USER2> Great initiative.</comment>


A Day in the Life of a Data Scientist - <AUTHOR> http://www.gallamine.com/2015/05/a-day-in-life-of-data-scientist-part-1.html

<comment><USER2> Wonder when the time lost to dealing with setting up and provisioning cloud machinery overwhelms the cost of acquiring some non-virtual hardware.

(also is that spike in the mac data at 960 pixels because I think that's the width of some standard iphone device, maybe some deeper digging and / or spot checkign is needed)

<comment><USER3> Author here. Unfortunately, (I've been told), common sense accounting where you look at the hourly cost of the worker vs. the cost of buying a service doesn't work in a startup. To the funding sources, my time looks free and any capital expenses are terrible. Recurring payments to AWS is what they want to see.

Also, in regards to the pixel spike, yes. Needs more checking but I was specifically filtering on "Intel Mac OS X" self-reported user agents. All iPhones and iPads I've seen report themselves as such.</comment></comment>


Hidden "Signature" in Online Photos Could Help Nab Child Abusers - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-signature-in-online-photos-could-help-nab-child-abusers/

<comment><USER2> And could help nab activists, 'traitors', foreigners, whistleblowers... As far as woes in the world go, child abusers are far down the list, recent years have reminded us.</comment>


The History of Civilization - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129947/the_history_of_civilization.php?print=1 <comment><USER2> Another interesting thing from Civilization was the copy protection. Every so often it would ask you to guess the correct symbol off page N of the manual. If you got it wrong, rather than end your game, it simply removed all of your military units.

Being that I was in 6th grade when Civ (DOS version) came out, and the rich kid down the street had it, I played for about 6 months before my parents bought me the actual game as a christmas present.

By that time I got a legit copy of the game I was a master of all things Civ... All things except the fact that you could fortify units INSIDE towns. Imagine me, positioning 8 units in an array around a town and having those units disappear every N turns due to getting the copy protection wrong.

Once I got to keep my units and I fortified one inside a town on accident, I turned into a Civ monster. Once CivNet came out I proceeded to crush all comers in my small town.

Good times.

</comment><comment><USER3> Freeciv players might enjoy [http://longturn.org](http://longturn.org) \- Freeciv games where one turn takes a day. Games usually last half a year. We've been playing it this way for ten years now, since around 2004.

<comment><USER4> It's... it's like a really, REALLY long chess game... that's AMAZING!!!

<comment><USER5> I started this comment trying to explain how Civ was not like chess at all, but concluded that the two have much in common.

There's an opening, where there are a few tried-and-true, well studied strategies, and the goal is to claim territory.

Then there's a mid-game, where all available land is claimed, and competing players start trying to steal territory from each other, and capturing the others pieces (or cities).

I can't seem to find a parallel in the end game though, it doesn't require nearly as much planning and cunning in Civ to finish of a wounded opponent as it is in chess.

<comment> T-hawk There is a parallel in the end game: Military advancements. Civilization lets you research new technology for significantly more effective military units, to ease the mop-up phase. The equivalent military advancement in chess is queening a pawn.

The difference is that chess requires continued tactical execution to get there, while Civilization lets you sit back and get there on a superior economy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Meier was also a big fan of an early computer game called Empire, which > combined Risk-like world domination with intricate city management. "At one > point, [Meier] asked me to make a list of 10 things I would do to Empire to > make it a better game," says Shelley. "That was some of his research on > Civilization."

I'd always suspected that was the case. It's nice to hear an acknowledgement, and I'm happy Empire was an inspiration.

[http://www.classicempire.com](http://www.classicempire.com)

<comment><USER7> Speaking of Empire I've always loved this article about someone who was addicted to playing Empire and developed coding skills to process the email reports to win out:

[http://www.the- scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/26419/...](http://www.the- scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/26419/title/A-Mind-Apart/)

Is there anything comparable these days?

<comment><USER6> There was another game called Empire, and from reading the article I suspect it refers to the other one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interesting story but I'm a bit offended by the description of the board game as "linear". Having played the boardgame extensively and then played the first couple of versions of the computer game to death, the inspiration was pretty obvious (the similarity between cards representing societal achievements and similar mechanics in the game is utterly striking; and the boardgame has a really clever trading game which the computer game in no way equals), and the idea that Meier didn't even play the boardgame until after designing the computer game seems to me to be disingenuous.

Sid Meier's career was _built_ on producing computer-versions of classic boardgames.

<comment><USER9> _> Sid Meier's career was built on producing computer-versions of classic boardgames_

What? No it wasn't. It was built on flight simulators and wargames. Look at the list of games he worked on:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier#Games](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier#Games)

Before 1991 (the year the first _Civ_ came out), it's nearly all flight sims, with some original IP ( _Pirates!_ , _Railroad Tycoon_ , _Covert Action_ , _Sword of the Samurai_ ) near the end of that run, as he began to grow away from his partner Bill Stealey's focus on flight sims into a designer in his own right.

<comment><USER8> No-one remembers Sid Meier's flight sims.

 _Sword of the Samurai_ (haven't played it) looks like an adaptation of _Samurai_ an Avalon Hill (actually bought from another game company whose name escapes me) which itself was essentially _Kingmaker_ reskinned for feudal Japan. _Civilization_ was clearly inspired by _Civilization_. _Pirates!_ was -- as far as I know -- pretty original (and my favorite of the lot). Covert Action looks awful but I've never played it and hadn't heard of it before looking at the wikipedia list.

<comment><USER10> > No-one remembers Sid Meier's flight sims.

Don't say so :) . One of early books of Victor Pelevin describes "a problem" one avid player of F-19 had because he played too much.

Some players still remember that F-19 had an interesting "unreal" bug, which allowed to fly without fuel arbitrarily long (and quite slow). Upside down. It was possible to start playing the first mission (say, Russian North) ranking as lieutenant and land the first time in the highest possible rank with all imaginable awards. F-19 was, in a sense, interesting enough to be remembered.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As someone who lived through those times as an avid gamer, and spent countless hours suffering from "one more turn" syndrome, I really enjoyed this piece. I wish I could tell clearly when it was written. As for this line: "Meier began coding Civilization on the IBM PC in early 1990, soon after MicroProse killed a sequel to Railroad Tycoon that he and Shelley had been working on," all I can do is /sob.

<comment><USER12> You can get the Railroad Tycoon collection, including Sid Meier's Railroads! on Steam: [http://store.steampowered.com/sub/326/](http://store.steampowered.com/sub/326/)

And you should!

<comment><USER13> Sadly, they dumbed it down a lot - as someone who loved 3, Sid Meier's Railroads was a disappointment in that they handicapped the economics an d make route laying a lot "simpler", and not in a good way. I would kill for an updated version of RT 3.

<comment><USER14> I was in Hamburg earlier this year, visiting among other things: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniatur_Wunderland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniatur_Wunderland) and I thought to myself, wouldn't it fun to play with those train routes again? I bought the "Railroads!" again on Steam, and had a lot of fun for 20-30 hours. Then I read the Railroads! wiki page and found out Sid Meier wrote it exactly because he visited the same Wunderland 7 years before.

Like me, he just wanted a fun train game, not a ruthless economic simulation and i think Railroads! has filled that niche well.

(It's not quite trains, but if you want a resource management game where you have to be careful, try the city builder Banished, built by a single developer)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Civ is definitely my 'alltime most played game' (though Portal2 comes close).

It's awesome to see such a good writeup.

<comment><USER16> same here, i think its probably one of the only franchises where i have played all of the sequels. playing Civ 5 a bit now until beyond earth comes out. Alpha Centauri was really fun and had some really cool features, i hope beyond earth really is a "spiritual successor" as they claim..

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I really enjoyed 4X games back in the genre's heyday. Not only Civilization, but also Colonization, Master of Magic and Master of Orion 1&2.

Have there been any new turn-based 4X games in recent times? I remember looking for a 4X flash game in 2010 and coming up empty handed. I don't really have time to play that kind of game anyway, but those were good memories.

<comment><USER18> Colonization beats hand down Civilization for me, anytime. It's more realistic and coherent (the tech trees in civ feel completely artificial) and it's great fun to play as different nations. The manual itself was also a great read, teaching you many thing about how the actual colonization took place. One of the best games by Sid Meier.

<comment><USER19> There was a hysterical review of Civ IV: Colonization by Ben Fritz that was so over the top with political correctness it almost had me rolling on the floor laughing. Seems his blog has gone offline, though. Some excerpts here: [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84721-Civilization...](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84721-Civilization- IV-Colonization-Called-Morally-Disturbing)

<comment><USER20> "Political correctness"? Ben Fritz was _completely correct_ to ask why people are celebrating the colonial era with entirely unchallenging entertainment products. Colonization as a historical event was absolutely horrific and to make a _game_ , something just for entertainment, in it without acknowledging this is straight-up wrong. Meier consciously skated away from the fact that _colonials enslaved and exterminated other human beings_ in order to sell a game, and fucking well should be faulted for it. I mean, for god's sake, if you have a mission in a settlement and you start shelling it with artillery the natives will _flock to your mission for protection_. Do you, like, not see how shitty (not to mention ahistorical) that is? Or is it just that it didn't happen to white people so it doesn't matter?

And that isn't to say it's a bad game when divorced from the failure to accept and reasonably present the historical context that Meier wanted to play in. It's a tremendous game. I still think _Colonization_ is a more fun experience than _Civ_ , and the _Religion and Revolution_ mod for Civ4Col is absolutely fantastic. But the game cannot be divorced from the astonishingly shitty historical context. RaR also does a lot (not as much as it could, but a lot more than anything Meier or MicroProse or Firaxis ever did) to make you answer those questions, too, and is a much, much better game for it.

<comment><USER18> > Meier consciously skated away from the fact that colonials enslaved and > exterminated other human beings in order to sell a game,

I don't agree. Colonization as a game clearly shows there were different methods to colonize the new Land based on the nations' strategies. The French, for example, were rarely known to exterminate locals, on the contrary usually forged alliances and friendship with local populations. That's what you see as well in "The Last Mohican": french colons being very close to Indians, and there are many sources to confirm that point. So Colonization was not all done the Spanish way, and most of the deaths the locals endured came from viral infections spreading in non-immunized populations and certainly not slavery or battle. There were reports from Spaniards entering cities in south-America, expecting resistance but instead finding most of the people dying from infections.

<comment><USER20> The French certainly did, you're right, and _Colonization_ even namedrops the _coureurs de bois_. But (as far as I can tell) there is not a single use of the word "Africa" in the game. The only mention of "slavery" that I can find in the game--which I have installed, because _aside from its super problematic presentation of history_ it's a really great game--is in the little Colonopedia blurb about Bartolome de las Casas...where they then elide that he _advocated enslaving Africans instead_. (And, certainly, he later recanted that position. So say that too! But paint the whole picture.)

So, sure, you're right, #NotAllColonizers--but seriously, do you think that the ability to play in that way obviates the duty to actually present history as it, like, _was_ , and not as will make your purchasers feel comfy?

Art is hard. Come correct or don't come at all.

<comment><USER18> > But there is not a single use of the word "Africa" in the game.

OK, I'll grant you that, but at the same time, massive slavery scale occurred mainly after 1600-1700 (see Wikipedia reference below) so while slave trade started earlier it was not prominent in the early colony days, and it was first led by Portuguese and Spanish before other nations opted in.

> It is estimated that more than half of the entire slave trade took place > during the 18th century, with the British, Portuguese and French being the > main carriers of nine out of ten slaves abducted from Africa.[44]

Certainly the game is not perfect on that aspect, but since it's an American game, it would probably be very sensitive to touch upon that subject in the first place. I can't even imagine how that would be sold there if slavery had been integrated.

<comment><USER20> _> OK, I'll grant you that, but at the same time, massive slavery scale occurred mainly after 1600-1700 (see Wikipedia reference below) so while slave trade started earlier it was not prominent in the early colony days, and it was first led by Portuguese and Spanish before other nations opted in. _

The game ends in 1850 if you haven't completed the Revolutionary War before then. And Simon Bolivar is available as a "founding father". He was born in 1783. The 18th century is very much in play.

 _> Certainly the game is not perfect on that aspect, but since it's an American game, it would probably be very sensitive to touch upon that subject in the first place. I can't even imagine how that would be sold there if slavery had been integrated._

You are really underselling it. It's not "not perfect", it's _bad_. And I am an American, saying this. If honesty won't sell, fine. Don't make it. That's a better alternative than to whitewash history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> [http://play.freeciv.org](http://play.freeciv.org) \- play Freeciv in the browser.

</comment><comment><USER22> When playing the first Civ, my friends and I would start a game on one computer and then share the save file as a way to compete. Outside of MUDs and BBS games, I am trying to think of the first multiplayer game we played on token ring? Probably the Doom mod that let you do multi-player and run your own maps.

<comment><USER23> Me and my friends did that with CM (Championship Manager, now known as Football Manager)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> It is interesting to hear them talk about the game getting complex. I think in the latest version they hit that wall with the world government. It is probably one of the most unfun and distracting features that Civ games have gotten.

I do think they can add more complexity in other areas hough.

<comment><USER25> _" It is probably one of the most unfun and distracting features that Civ games have gotten."_

It's controversial, but not without its benefits. Really depends on the type of gameplay you're going for, IMO. I enjoy a very diplomatic game of Civ4, for instance, and I try to squeeze every ounce of quasi-emergent diplomacy and even policy gameplay from what little I feel is there. But I realize I'm in the minority on this. Most Civ gamers seem to prefer a purely military game. In fairness to them, that's the clearest objective of the game. But I like that Civ allows you, albeit with a great deal of against-the-tide effort, to play a different type of game.

I never made the leap to Civ5, due to what I perceived as oversimplification, and a trend away from precisely those features I liked (but which everyone else seems to hate). So I can't really comment there.

<comment><USER26> I have very strong opinions on Civ 4 vs 5. Civ 4 is the kind of game that I'll install, then uninstall a week later after too many 3am or 4am nights. Civ 5 has the same 'just one turn'-ism, but it's not _fun_ , which is weird. Any one city site is much the same as another - that feeling of finding an awsome site in Civ 4 is gone. I also miss the feeling of moving borders from 4 - the first owner of a hex has it permanently. You can have a massive city, but if a tiny village got the hex first... culture means nothing.

It was weird when it came out, that people were lauding a hex map as perfect. In reality it adds very little (given diagonals, it's less freedom of movement). But the strangest thing was... why go for a cell structure _at all_? In an age where you can calculate real distances, it's a massive throwback. Civ games are about resource management - cell-based maps are not fundamental to this.

Not to mention that they really gouge for the most minor DLC. But llike you, I perceive myself in a minority - Civ 5 is one of the most-played games on Steam.

<comment><USER27> > _why go for a cell structure at all? In an age where you can calculate real > distances, it 's a massive throwback._

Would a game of chess be any better if it featured pixel-sized cells and real distances? Some games, especially turn-based, are more fun with a limited number of acceptable actions, because they require you to think in a certain way in order to win. In a game, you may end up weighing complex pros and cons of placing a city between two adjacent cells; that gameplay element would be a lot more hand-wavy with pixel-sized cells.

That said, Rise of Nations might be for you, if that is what you are looking for.

<comment><USER26> Well, I already mentioned that the placement of cities is largely meaningless in Civ 5 anyway. Unless you're putting them right next to barren land, they're all pretty similar.

Keep in mind also that chess is an extremely abstract version of combat, whereas Civ is trying to emulate civilisations. Likewise, chess has six different kinds of pieces, all of which play very differently. Civ effectively has three: 'ranged unit', 'melee unit', and 'air unit', without much difference between ranged and melee. There simply isn't the scope for clever arrangement or movement of pieces like in chess - civ combat is more simplistic like checkers... a game which very few people enthuse about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> [http://www.civanon.org](http://www.civanon.org)

The subpage with the video (feat. Sid Meier) is offline now, but the video itself isn't.

[http://www.civanon.org/movies/trailer.mov](http://www.civanon.org/movies/trailer.mov)

</comment><comment><USER29> A guy played Civ 2 for 10 years, the result is a world like in 1984: [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playi...](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/)

</comment><comment><USER30> I think it might be good to indicate that this refers to the video game rather than human civilization (even though Gamasutra is a good clue)

<comment><USER31> And maybe that the article is from 2007.

<comment><USER30> That may be true. But why does that affect someone's interpretation of the word "civilization"?</comment></comment></comment>


Surface Go: The Better PC the iPad Pro Wasn't - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@ow/surface-go-review-the-better-pc-the-ipad-pro-wasnt-7d597c91e12c <comment><USER2> >you'll find yourself up against memory limitations with the 8 GB of RAM onboard when you're not thinking about what's open in the background

Sigh. I guess we're never going back to memory-efficient applications, are we?

<comment><USER3> I have 8GB of RAM, and I can't even open more than 10 tabs anymore, especially if one of them is Gmail and the other is Slack.

I honestly find myself using quite a bit of Microsoft Edge, because it's just so much more efficient at this point.

<comment><USER4> Same here. Firefox is also better than chrome on this.</comment></comment></comment>


Cursor:none abuse (trick users into clicking Facebook 'like') - <AUTHOR> http://jack-shepherd.co.uk/experiments/Fake-Mouse-Cursor/ <comment><USER2> A much more straightforward abuse would be pointer-events: none. Just position an element over the 'like' button and let clicks pass through it: <http://jsfiddle.net/rVxTn/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow - that is quite amazing. I wonder if that's in use in the wild yet.

Edit: It seems like this is a largely solved problem for Facebook: [http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=93201&...](http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=93201&p=1)

Could definitely still be a problem for other social/ad/affiliate networks though.

<comment><USER3> A similar click-jacking trick is used a lot for spreading videos like worms on Facebook, at least in French. Videos with baiting titles like "How could she do that?", "I can't believe she did this in front of everyone" and such.

Most people will click just to see what it might be and not miss out. Then the video player says you have to click on some letters to prove you're not a robot (clever trick, people don't think much of it because it reminds them of CAPTCHAs)

The letters actually have Facebook Like button iframes on them with opacity set to 0. I edited the opacity on one of them with the Chrome Dev tools:

<http://polyprograms.free.fr/tmp/FacebookLikeClickJacking.jpg>

Unknowningly liking the video will create a story in your friends' feeds, who will in turn click to see and spread it to their friends. No real harm is done except for the spam and all the ad views generated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It should be noted that the NoScript add-on for Firefox prevents this from working through it's Clickjacking-protection (and possibly a couple of more, cursor-specific tricks). People need to know that it does more than block JavaScript.

<comment><USER5> What website is useable these days though without Javascript?

<comment><USER4> Few of the popular ones, but there may be some misconception here. NoScript isn't meant to be blocking JavaScript for all sites. If you trust a site, which doesn't function without JavaScript, adding it to the whitelist is one click away. You get used to it quickly.

And, even in the mode where JavaScript is allowed by default on new sites, the other protections (Clickjacking, XSS, ABE, etc) still apply.

<comment><USER6> It's a little bit like the cookie-situation back when the internets were still young.

Many people (including myself) would swear by leaving the cookie notification on and confirming every. single. one. of. them.

That has long stopped being feasible and I assume it will be the same with NoScript in a few years.

<comment> timmy-turner Isn't this the fault of a bad UI mixed with bad defaults? I'm using the Cookieculler FF addon (<https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/cookieculler/>) to manage them. Instead of torturing me with a modal popup for every new site I visit, it keeps a list of hosts and cookies and trust status in the background. Using that list to protect important but delete/block all other cookies is quite convenient.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting. Chrome's "Under the Hood > Content Settings > Mouse Cursor" setting doesn't affect this. I would have thought it would prevent this.

Also, stuff like this is why we can't have nice things in browsers. You can't trust the internet.

<comment><USER8> Given what we've been seeing with attack sites, whether shock sites trying to just DoS the browser or silly tricks like making the browser POST to an irc server's irc port to spread the malicious URL, or just terrible ads and tracking that actively slow down the browser and ruin the surfing experience, I'm amazed that not more people see javascript as a built-in remote code execution vulnerability that only gains more and more features over time, sandbox or not. :)

Javascript makes a lot of cool stuff possible, but outside of some heavy- weight web applications that I have to trust anyway like my webmail interface or online storage manager, or games where the interactive components are the only reason why I'm visiting the site to begin with, I'm starting to wonder whether trusting the internet is not inviting more trouble than it's worth.

Maybe I'm "old-fashioned" but I'd love to go back to all the sites I visit functioning with just static web content, no clientside scripting at all, and letting me consume videos and stuff in a trusted media player plugin.

<comment><USER9> By default I have JavaScript blocked on all sites, allowing it only as needed, case by case, because JavaScript _is_ a remote-code-execution vulnerability of modern browsers.

More and more of the applications we use and our private data live in the cloud. We now access our personal files, manage our bank and investment accounts, and make retail purchases on our web browser.

Browsing the web with JavaScript enabled by default allows code written by complete strangers to run on your browser!

<comment><USER10> This shows a general lack of knowledge about how JS and websites work. I can't just run JS on my site that will steal your bank info. Browsers have cross domain security policies to prevent this.

There have been various vulnerabilities (especially in IE) but just like any other software they get fixed.

<comment><USER9> driverdan -- by your logic, it would be OK to give perfect strangers remote- shell access to one's computer, so long as one takes all the precautions necessary to protect sensitive files and prevent them from gaining root access.

Leave aside the various vulnerabilities (including cross-site-scripting ones!) that get discovered with disturbing frequency, and please consider the subject of this thread: it's possible to make someone click a "Like" button without their realizing it! How many other similar tricks can JavaScript be used for by people with nefarious intentions?

No matter how "safe" any runtime environment is, allowing strangers to execute arbitrary code on your computer is never a great idea.

This is why I allow JavaScript code to run on my browser only when it comes from sources I trust.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For everyone talking about JavaScript: As far as I can tell, this is fundamentally a CSS vulnerability. Something quite similar ought to be possible without JavaScript — it would just be a bit less elegant. For example, you could just make a pixel grid of divs to simulate mousemove events and position the fake cursor with CSS hover styles.

<comment><USER12> Sounds plausible (and I'd love to see an example!), but would hardly be worth the effort if JS would catch 99% of the victims.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I love it. It seems to work fine in Firefox, although the real cursor starts flashing when it's above the Like button.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's because there's a transparant DIV above the Facebook iFrame, cycling on/off every few milliseconds. This is required to maintain the fake cursor's position (without it when the real cursor was over the iFrame the 'fake' cursor would stop moving).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is brilliant, but now it's only a matter of time until it's in actual use. Sort of like how evercookie was a clever hack meant to call attention to privacy concerns, then was put into actual production sites.

<comment><USER4> Do you have any examples of sites/companies that put the techniques into use as a direct result of Evercookie exposing them?

EDIT: Why am I being downvoted for this question? I am seriously interested, so that I can avoid contact with them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure if you can say that it's a direct result of Evercookie, but a number of high profile sites use this kind of tech - for example KissMetrics.com is used by a number of big companies, and they use ETAG cookies, Flash cookies - the lot.

<comment><USER15> And KissMetrics and their customers caught heat from it: [http://www.extremetech.com/internet/91966-aol-spotify- gigaom...](http://www.extremetech.com/internet/91966-aol-spotify-gigaom-etsy- kissmetrics-sued-over-undeletable-tracking-cookies)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Odd effect. I see two mouse cursors (Mac OS X 10.7.3 + Chrome Dev Channel).

<comment><USER17> Same in Opera. I'd say it's not supported as it is quite malicious. Another example that comes to mind is changing the content of clipboard when users copies something. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOM_events#Microsoft- specific_e...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOM_events#Microsoft- specific_events)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Speaking about prevention (for the specific case of the like button), I have privoxy (1) setup to disable fb plugins with rules like these:

{+block{Facebook "like" and similar tracking URLs.}} www.facebook.com/(extern|plugins)/(login_status|like(box)?|activity|fan)\\.php

{+block{Stupid facebook xd_proxy.php.}} <http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect/xd_proxy.php.*>

The second one also removes an annoyance I see from time to time when I bypass the proxy which makes the page request again and again that xd_proxy.php file.

If I really want to like something, I disable the proxy and reload the page. I use Proxy SwitchySharp (2) for chrome to do the setup for me in pages I visit often.

1: <http://www.privoxy.org/> 2: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dpplabbmogkhghncfb...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dpplabbmogkhghncfbfdeeokoefdjegm)

</comment><comment><USER19> I tried clicking "Fork me on github" but couldn't because I couldn't position the real mouse pointer in the right place.

</comment><comment><USER20> I guess I should use this as an opportunity to remind people of the "Zscaler Likejacking Prevention" plugin for Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Opera (check the corresponding add-on stores). I use the setting "Request confirmation for all Facebook widgets" so that it asked me for confirmation before sending the Like request.

</comment><comment><USER21> Good luck faking my inverted extra large windows cursor.

<comment><USER22> And I browse without JavaScript, so the CSS style that hid the cursor actually meant I didn't see any cursor whatsoever.

<comment><USER23> Out of curiosity, aren't 90% of websites broken for you?

<comment><USER22> Yes and no. While I browse with JavaScript disabled, I have whitelist. Chrome v8 has a feature which allows you to prevent execution of scripts from a particular domain.

I've blacklisted all ad networks from executing and JavaScript but I maintain a strict whitelist which means that sites such as Facebook, Google, and any site which I browse and immediately see is broken is added to my whitelist.

When I browse a page, I can have conditional execution of the JS code, meaning that JS from 3 domains will run, but the 9 tracking JS code from all the ad networks won't run.

It's like the best of all worlds. Adnetworks can't fingerprint me, and they have to rely on cookies, plus my browsing is a hell of a lot faster because I don't have all the unneccessary JS downloading and running.

<comment><USER23> I see, thanks for the great explanation.

I admit the thought that some users aren't using JS concerns me because, while I try and always build sites with a fallback, it generally results in a lesser experience. Often fallbacks just aren't possible so I need to remove the feature altogether.

I bet there's a lot of sites that still work for you, but not quite as well as if JS were enabled.

<comment><USER22> Don't worry about users like me.

Make your content load, but anything above that, users are on their own if they decide not to enable JavaScript.

In this age, with all of the rich user applications, JS is practically a requirement.

For my startup, the frontend gracefully fallbacks to a working version for users.

For the backend, they get a blackscreen saying JS is required. If users are going to use my application, they should expect to have JS enabled for the best possible user experience.

Don't worry about it is the upshot!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I forked this to use a different exploit which takes advantage of pointer- events: none.

<https://github.com/Rob-ot/Fake-Mouse-Cursor>

</comment><comment><USER25> Cursor:none makes it cleaner, but it's not necessary. You could use a lighter cursor like cursor:crosshair or cursor:text along with the fake cursor, and I bet most people will still click using the fake one.

In fact, even if you can't change the cursor at all, you could easily create a swarm of fake cursors that would frustrate the hell out of the user.

</comment><comment><USER26> I have some input on your todo list:

If you give an id (or class) to your p tag that contains the links you said you wanted to make easier to click, then you could use css and easily add a :hover state. Then on the hover state just make the cursor normal so it's easier to click those links. Upon mouseout the cursor will go back to 'normal'. =)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for that :) I was thinking of perhaps creating an invisible target for them with the same offset as the FB like/button, so that they could be clicked with the 'fake' cursor to enhance the effect!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I don't think I'm getting the desired result... my cursor disappears, and I all I see is a static one in the top left corner above a cropped "Like" button (in french though, that may be the problem). See here : <http://imageshack.us/f/836/28545472.jpg/>

</comment><comment><USER28> In Firefox, the cursor flashes above the like button. Still easy to miss, but certainly not bad as it seems Chrome is.

<comment><USER29> and not to mention the lag when going over "clicky" button in ff

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I have NoScript 2.3.1 in Firefox with the default settings, including Clearclick protection. I have no Facebook account and no scripting is enabled for this site, including JQuery.

The site is still able to disable my mouse over most of the screen.

Am I the only one?

</comment><comment><USER31> I use Ghostery to wipe out Facebook showing up elsewhere on the Internet.

<http://www.ghostery.com>

<comment><USER32> Alternative using Adblock: <http://adversity.uk.to/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Is this news? Likejacking has been around for well over a year. Google it.

</comment><comment><USER34> Nice, can I use this to trick people into clicking an affiliate link instead?</comment>


A Bouncing Ball To Make Danger Zones Safer  - <AUTHOR> http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/start-ups/a-bouncing-ball-to-make-danger-zones-safer-

<comment><USER2> This idea (a throwable ball with imaging and other sensors) and several prototypes have appeared on HN before, the first one around 2 years ago. This exact product has reached the HN front page in the beginning of 2013 [1].

I find it strange that none of the prototypes have actually managed to reach a production stage, given that the potential market - military, LE, emergency responders is (supposedly) there. Maybe the price point doesn't make much sense, given the usual (low) prices for fixed-focus camera modules - there is no need for very high resolution here, and the balls better be semi- disposable.

There are a few other designs (and patents associated with the concept) - [2], [3] and [4].

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757971](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757971)

[2] [http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/01/21/surveillance-...](http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/01/21/surveillance- camera-ball/0iVRWJaRIlEGoQt9qRP04L/story.html)

[3] [http://www.serveball.com/](http://www.serveball.com/)

[4] [http://jonaspfeil.de/ballcamera](http://jonaspfeil.de/ballcamera) (and HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3109899](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3109899))

<comment><AUTHOR> My opinion is that it's significantly more difficult for a startup to sell to military/fire departments/etc than to the general public. What could likely happen is that some big company with "good connections" will end up developing a similar product and get the market.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3>
      What it can't do quite yet is survive a hard fall, but the company is working on that and expects to have durability testing finished this year...

Isn't its durability kind of one of the major selling points? The primary use of these is to throw them into hazardous environments. It seems to me like getting the electronics into a package that would survive the beating would be priority #1

<comment><USER4> If the aim is to gather a panoramic image while in the air, I would have thought priority #1 would be getting a compact sensor that didn't suffer motion blur when flying and spinning at the same time, in low light conditions, with battery power, low weight and a tiny lens.

I mean, my phone camera produces poor images when I'm trying to hold it still, whereas a thrown ball can fly at 80mph or spin at 20-30 revolutions per second.

<comment><USER3> At SIGGRAPH 2010, Microsoft Research showed off a technique [1] where they attached an IMU (measures acceleration/rotation) to a DSLR. They recorded motion and used it to deblur the image.

A ball flying and spinning through the air should have a fairly simple blur, though of a potentially much higher magnitude. I'm not familiar enough with the state-of-the-art, but my gut tells me that post-facto image processing could yield impressive results.

This also doesn't have to be extremely high-res sensors. A lower-resolution sensor with larger pixels would collect more light, allowing for a faster shutter speed, meaning less blur.

[1]: [http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/im...](http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/imudeblurring/)

<comment><USER4> I'm not saying it's impossible or anything. If they wanted to they could just put a bright flash on, or wait for the camera to roll to a stop, or buy a crazy high performance sensor.

I'm just saying, if I was running the company, that's the problem I'd be most worried about getting right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5>
      "To Make Danger Zones Safer"

Dangerous for who? Safer from what or whom? This "safety ball" is there to help one group of people shoot at another group of people, and it's wrong to implicitly state that one group is good and the other evil, simply by virtue that one has this Happy Fun Ball, and the other does not. What if both teams have one? Whose safer now?

I bet this would be just as useful in a home invasion, or whatever, but you know we always have to put the "WE'RE SAVING LIVES" spin on every escalation in the Limited Warfare technological arms race.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

<comment><USER6> It makes it safer for the one throwing the ball. Apparently you missed or are ignoring that those people are just as likely to be disaster responders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sometimes I wonder if I'm on hacker news or "Sky mall".

</comment><comment><USER8> My favorite part:

> Bounce Imaging is planning to sell an emergency responder version for about > $1000, a military version for something under $3000.

Because, you know, _military_.

<comment><USER3> Building it with mil-spec parts can legitimately raise the cost. Generally, components have a higher failure rate early in their life, then that failure rate goes down, and eventually goes back up. Mil-spec components are the ones which survive the early failure rate curve, so you're paying for that component, plus the others which didn't survive, plus the initial wear-in process itself.

Now, the $1000 price point on this seems somewhat high, but is difficult to judge without more specific specs on what's in it.

<comment><USER9> For custom hardware with a substantial fraction of the feature-set of a modern smartphone, plus way more sensors, $1000 seems ambitiously cheap.

They aren't going to sell a billion of them, R&D and tooling costs are going to push the price up a lot.

<comment><USER3> I know that many fire departments and other first responders are very severely constrained by budgets. There's lots of interesting things out there, but they just don't have budget for gizmos which cost multiple tens of thousands of dollars. A $1000 price point seems much more feasible. Though if you throw this into a burning building, I wonder if it would survive to be used again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Would not a small hardened quadrocoptor carrying sensors be better - presumably you could develop software to autonomously navigate inside a building.

<comment><USER11> Not until a quadrocopter can deal with a shotgun blast, buddy.</comment></comment>


Basecamp Didn't Want to Run This Ad - <AUTHOR> https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/09/03/basecamp-didnt-want-to-run-this-ad <comment><USER2> Either they're now filtering for this specific term for me, or I'm simply not seeing it. Basecamp.com is the first result for "basecamp" with 37signals.com being the second. I tried this with Chrome and Firefox with uBlock Origin, as well as MS Edge (no add-ons). I was able to see three ads before basecamp.com on Bing though.

</comment><comment><USER3> In Germany at least that practice is illegal as far as I know. You are not allowed to use brandnames in your meta info as well.

</comment><comment><USER4> So what is the ad?

<comment><USER5> [https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1168986962704982016](https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1168986962704982016)

Basecamp.com | We don't want to run this ad.

We're the #1 result, but this site lets companies advertise against us using our brand. So here we are. A small, independent co. forced to pay ransom to a giant tech company.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What the Windows update KB3138612 does? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I saw that this update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, which was never fully documented and was marked as optional, has now been marked as important by Microsoft.

I googled around but there is no info whatsoever, other than that is an update to the Windows Update software itself.

Many users reported that when they installed this when it was optional, they found to be tied to "upgrade to Windows 10" nagware. Does anybody know more?

[http://windowanswers.com/windows-10/kb3138612-update-245022....](http://windowanswers.com/windows-10/kb3138612-update-245022.html#commentlist)

[http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+update+kb3138612](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+update+kb3138612)</comment>


Riddles Hunter – Race to solve all the riddles to win money - <AUTHOR> http://www.riddleshunter.com

<comment><USER2> The Show HN rules explicitly preclude email signups. You have to have something for people to try out now.

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


View all of 365psd's files on one page - <AUTHOR> http://s3.amazonaws.com/aaronbrethorst_production/365.html

<comment><USER2> This isn't really fair to the site creator. The images you linked to are still hosted on their site and seem to be overloading their server without any benefit to them.

Maybe there was a reason they didn't want people viewing all 365 at a time?

<comment><USER3> As far as my attempts are concerned their server was always overloaded. If they were serving the files from AWS (or similar) now perhaps they could have managed a page like this themselves.

<comment><USER4> Then don't use THEIR service? Effectively DoS'ing the site isn't the answer. They weren't arbitrarily slowing things down just to piss you off. Like the OP said, they probably served so few because that's all they could handle.

<comment><USER3> True. My point was that serving static files is one of the easiest parts of a website to scale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I was looking at <http://365psd.com> a few minutes ago and was getting frustrated with only being able to view 6 files per page. So, I banged out a script to generate an HTML file that would display every image that has or will be added. And voila: it's far easier to browse. Hope you like.

<comment><USER5> Thanks! I wish there was a single file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> And now 365psd is down. A great success

</comment><comment><USER7>
      for ($i = 1; $i < 366; $i++) {
        echo "

Download PSD

View Original

";
      }

Awesome and HN worthy, I guess?</comment>


How VP9 delivers value for Twitch's esports live streaming - <AUTHOR> https://blog.twitch.tv/how-does-vp9-deliver-value-for-twitchs-esports-live-streaming-35db26f6322f <comment><USER2> I assume this is going well for them as they have plans to transition 100% to AV1 by 2024, with the more popular content shifted by 2022.

<comment><AUTHOR> To the death of closed source streaming!</comment></comment>


South Korea Does Impeachment Right - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-12/south-korea-does-impeachment-right <comment><USER2> This essay didn't seem to take a very strong position on the relative importance of the president's unpopularity vs. violating the law vs. abuse of power. (Is the South Korean system good because it lets _unpopular_ presidents be removed, or because it makes credible determinations, or because it shows that politicians aren't above the law...?)

The article does allude to the way that a lot of calls for impeachment are strongly politically polarized from the outset. If the ultimate argument behind the impeachment process is "we don't like this president or his or her policies", a recall election or referendum process might be more honest.

I imagine many high officials from many different parties in many different countries often do things that could be viewed as abusive of their power in some way. Is impeachment a useful check on that? Would there ever be a way to persuade partisans that it's not bad or embarrassing to have your party member punished for official misconduct?

Maybe for a lot of people political ideology includes an idea that the other side is inherently corrupt and untrustworthy (not just honestly mistaken, holding different values, or representing different legitimate interests). In that case, trying to hold people accountable for official misconduct gets charged with an extra significance in rival political narratives: we have to impeach this person because it will help prove how corrupt their party is, or we can't let this person be impeached because it will wrongly taint our party with the stigma of corruption!

I read someone's analysis that strong partisanship tends to empower politicians to act with fewer restraints and less scrutiny. Maybe that was one reason, because it's less plausible to get a broad consensus in a polarized environment that a particular action was wrong.</comment>


Basic income supporters hope to force a parliamentary debate in the Netherlands - <AUTHOR> http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/10/58000-basic-income-supporters-hope-to-force-a-parliamentary-debate/ <comment><USER2> As a 34 year old with good amount of savings and a house paid off, basic income would be what I need to push me over the edge and become an unproductive member of society for at least a few years.</comment>


Ask HN: What Bare-Metal Server Providers Are Available? - <AUTHOR> For reasons, it's important that there is no virtualization.<p>I know of Scaleway, which offers ARM Systems on a chip. Any others with the same kind of control / ease of use? <comment><USER2> If it doesn't have to be in the US... I'd go with [https://www.kimsufi.com/us/en/servers.xml](https://www.kimsufi.com/us/en/servers.xml) or [https://www.soyoustart.com/us/essential- servers/](https://www.soyoustart.com/us/essential-servers/) which are both subsidiaries of OVH. These are, in my opinion, the best dedicated servers you can get for the price.

If it's got to be in the US, I'd go with IONOS [https://www.ionos.com/pro/dedicated- server/](https://www.ionos.com/pro/dedicated-server/) due to the higher cost of [https://www.ovh.com/world/dedicated- servers/](https://www.ovh.com/world/dedicated-servers/)

I would never give my money or information to AWS, cloud.google.com, Azure, or IBM's BlueBomination hosting options.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hetzner (hetzner.com) has bare metals, also have an auction [0] site where you can bid on "old" bare metal servers and get some good deals, especially if it's just for some experimenting and such.

[0] [https://www.hetzner.com/sb](https://www.hetzner.com/sb)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned [https://www.online.net/](https://www.online.net/) yet.

I use them for my important side projects and haven't had any issues. (although not to avoid virtualization, but just because it's more important for personal stuff to have fixed costs per month / not paying for bandwidth)

</comment><comment><USER5> Zare.com is a good one that I know of. UK based small business with fast and friendly support. I've used the services of the company behind them (HydraCom) since 2013 and they've always been great. I've not yet tried their dedicated servers, but I will soon have a need for one for a high-CPU workload.

</comment><comment><USER6> The leading providers IMO are AWS, Packet.net, and SoftLayer. In the second tier you have OVH and Hetzner.

</comment><comment><USER7> This server search site [1] was linked on here recently:

[1] - [https://www.serverhunter.com/](https://www.serverhunter.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice, thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Vultr does bare metal servers. I haven't used them personally, but I'm a fan of their VPS offerings.

</comment><comment><USER9> Check out the forums at www.webhostingtalk.com</comment>


Ask HN: On crawling email ids - <AUTHOR>

People use the format abc[at]companyname[dot]com to escape crawlers from getting their email ids when posting on public formus. How efficient is that?Cant the crawlers just change their regex to parse this patterns as well ? <comment><USER3> Yes and more to that point, it is trivially easy. A Stanford class had you case out for the [at] in an early assignment of writing a spam bot a few years ago. [http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/apikey](http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/apikey) might be more effective, but the best thing is just to have a great spam filter and accept that someone will guess or find your email rather than trying to hide it.

Remember that an email address can be spread around more than by crawlers too. Sign up to a grocery store discount card with it? It is in some for-sale database somewhere.

</comment><comment><USER4> Pure speculation here: crawlers go for bulk and likely don't care if they pick up garbage. There may be another level of email harvesting that goes to the level that you suggest, but in seeing all the conventions that are used like the one you show, such code would have to cover lots of them. Return might be very low.

<comment><USER5> They really don't care about accuracy at all.

For example I regularly receive email delivery attempts to message-ids - <USER2> obviously look like email addresses but are not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I would assume some crawlers are configured to find and scrape email addresses using that (now) "de facto" form and similar ones. With that said, I recently saw someone use a form similar to:

Email me at abc shift+2 key companyname period com

which, until that becomes more common, might offer better protection from scrapers.

</comment><comment><USER7> just take a screenshot of the text. like this

[http://i.imgur.com/NF2nqbO.png](http://i.imgur.com/NF2nqbO.png)</comment>


HTC and Google "in final stage" regarding sale of smartphone business - <AUTHOR> https://www.phonearena.com/news/Report-HTC-and-Google-in-final-stage-of-negotiation-regarding-sale-of-smartphone-business_id97829 <comment><USER2> >"But even though the Commercial Times provided no source for its claims, shares for the company dropped by as much as 8 percent in a single day, which we imagine would make a potential sale even easier. Meanwhile, HTC itself acknowledged the claims but publicly declined to comment on the matter."

So, a sourceless article starts rumors that end up dropping a stock by 1/12 of its value .. sounds almost like attempted market manipulation</comment>


Scri.ch, a website that let you draw. - <AUTHOR> http://scri.ch/

<comment><USER2> Heh, I've been working with a friend on something similar for a couple of weekends, but it's not completely polished yet: <http://awwapp.com/> (still a work in progress).

I made it because I couldn't find any decent full-screen drawing app for my tablet pc (which is NOT an iPad, so software is a problem), that both uses maximum of the screen real estate, and is touch friendly. So I wanted something that I could easily sketch on and then send/share the drawing result with someone.

(sorry for the bad "meetoo" form of the comment; I like the web whiteboarding/sketching, esp. now that tablets are more popular, and think it's great a lot of people are playing around with the concept).

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice! I think it's not exactly for the same purpose: your UI is very "touch friendly", and has some nice drawing tools.

Keep up the good work!

<comment><USER2> Thanks, you too, I love the idea of save & draw.

Btw I'm using an existing simple jQuery plugin to handle touch events by converting them into mouse ones. AFAICS you're not using jQuery, but you might be able to pull out the functionality you need to add to your app too, if you decide to add touch support: <http://code.google.com/p/jquery-ui-for-ipad-and- iphone/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice! Keep it simple and clean. What do you think about mine drawing : <http://scri.ch/x0> Just having some fun.

<comment><USER4> Yours drawing is excellent. With my trackpad or even my mouse it is not easy to control to draw properly. You did an excellent job. Linux rocks.

<comment><USER3> Thank you! Yes, it would be easier to draw if we could use something else as pointer(pen) instead of mouse pointer but this was more challenging and fun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fun. <http://scri.ch/br>

<comment><USER6> <http://scri.ch/2k6> :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The only suggestion I have is the "undo" button or an eraser (please). Otherwise, it's perfect.

<comment><USER8> you could save after each stroke and hit the back button if needed

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Cool! <http://scri.ch/1in>

<comment><USER10> I retort! <http://scri.ch/1k5>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> <http://scri.ch/247>

</comment><comment><USER12> At first I didn't realize I was editing the image real time, nice trick there with the base64 encoding. Very interesting.

<comment><USER13> That's how CANVAS works. Image data is made available base64 encoded. It's actually really convenient for sending around over HTTP.

<comment><USER12> Shows how much I know about html5 :/ I've been hesitant to delve in to it, because it would drive me crazy that I can't actually use much of it when supporting all browsers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yes. <http://scri.ch/12c> It is not easy to draw, but fun nonetheless.

</comment><comment><USER14> Can multiple people draw on the same canvas at the same time? That would be interesting..

<comment><AUTHOR> No, a lot of services already do that very well, we want to keep scri.ch scary simple!

<comment><USER15> Can you name some, please? Used flockdraw for some time, but it took 1GB of RAM after short time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> would like to try this on my android. could you make it work with a touch interface?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working on it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Done. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> so it's like MS paint, except worse?

also, anyone can look through saved drawings by incrementing the drawing's ID in the URL. i think this was scrich's first penis drawing: <http://scri.ch/0b>

<comment><USER18> why am I not surprised.

<comment><USER19> in 2007 i was working on "paintbrush.es" which was basically this. (i was too cheap to spring for "dra.ws" which costs $1k and may still be available). i thought that by enabling people to do derivative drawing that it would totally revolutionize art, kill deviantart, etc. super creativity! ultimately it was a total failure and all i got were a bunch of penis drawings. i mean art is primal but i wasn't expecting the venus of willendorf

<comment><USER20> That's vaguely related to what Canv.as is doing, except that people draw on top of images borrowed from other sources.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Nice, bigger scratch pad, will go well with Khan Academy's exercises.</comment>


Show HN: Pie – an idiomatic C++ interface to CPython's C API - <AUTHOR> I recently needed to add support for Python plugins in a C++ application I am developing. CPython's C API is pretty cool, but it's a C API. I wanted something more C++-ey, so I wrote Pie.
https://github.com/ronmrdechai/Pie <comment><USER2> That's really cool, looks nice. Did you use it for something serious?

(BTW, error.h lacks of include guard)

</comment><comment><USER3> :D this looks great I wish I knew more c++17!</comment>


Ask HN: Why Don't You Read? - <AUTHOR> I usually hear about people reading a lot. I read quite a bit. Interested in hearing why you personally do not  read. <comment><USER2> When I don't read it's because of mental exhaustion from work.</comment>


Einstein's election riddle: are you in the two per cent that can solve it? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/may/04/einsteins-election-riddle-are-you-in-the-two-per-cent-that-can-solve-it

<comment><USER2> I came up with the following approach in Python last time I saw this puzzle here (see: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7734998](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7734998))

        from itertools import permutations as perms
        houses = range(5)             # numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
        for david, ed, nick, nicola, nigel in perms(houses):
            if nick != 0: continue                          # by 9.
            for tartan, paisley, gingham, striped, polka_dot in perms(houses):
                if nicola != tartan: continue               # by 1.
                if paisley != gingham - 1: continue         # by 4.
                if nick not in [polka_dot-1, polka_dot+1]: continue    # by 14.
                for mochaccino, flat_white, dbl_espresso, chai, decaf in perms(houses):
                    if dbl_espresso != 2: continue          # by 8.
                    if david != mochaccino: continue        # by 3.
                    if paisley != flat_white: continue      # by 5.
                    for car, bike, train, foot, plane in perms(houses):
                        if striped != bike: continue        # by 7.
                        if plane != chai: continue          # by 12.
                        if nigel != foot: continue          # by 13.
                        if train not in [decaf-1, decaf+1]: continue
                        for guinea_pig, squirrel, pitbull, badger, fish in perms(houses):
                            if ed != guinea_pig: continue   # by 2.
                            if car != squirrel: continue    # by 6.
                            if badger not in [bike-1, bike+1]: continue  # by 11.
                            if train not in [pitbull-1, pitbull+1]: continue  # by 10.

                            person =  {david: "David", ed: "Ed", nick: "Nick",
                                     nicola: "Nicola", nigel: "Nigel"}
                            print "{} owns the fish".format(person[fish])

Running this reveals that there is one solution, Nigel owns the fish.</comment>


Star Wars on Telnet: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl - <AUTHOR> http://towel.blinkenlights.nl

<comment><USER2> I love ascii streaming!

One of my favorite projects ever was the live streaming of the football world cup 2006 to telnet, with live commentary below the game. It was actually quite viewable and I watched a few games on it while working :).

They still have their documentation site online: <http://www.ascii- wm.net/doc.php>

The telnet server with random replays seems to be dead though.

edit: Changed wording. The old one could have implied that I worked on the project. I only consumed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Before anyone makes a snarky remark about how old this is, take a look at <http://xkcd.com/1053/>

<comment><USER4> My thought exactly. What's surprising me is that it's still online after all these years. this dates back to what, 1999? 2000 maybe?

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I keep stumbling across it every few years and being amazed that it's still online. I wonder how long it is too - I've only ever watched the first 5 minutes of it. Will be a sad day when it is no longer available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love this because it reminds me of BBS's, doors, ANSI art, and pre-web telnet sites. For example, "telnet cdnow.com" was a great way to buy music CDs.

</comment><comment><USER6> Try it using an IPv6 address ;)

</comment><comment><USER7> Cutting Edge stuff right here.

</comment><comment><USER8> Nice find. The rest of the internet just beat you to it by about 10 years :P</comment>


Slack Claims Higher Engagement Than Microsoft Teams - <AUTHOR> https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/222378/slack-claims-higher-engagement-than-microsoft-teams <comment><USER2> Is that necessarily a good thing? I find slack quite distracting for the most part because it is overused for what should be a call and giffy...</comment>


Slash Escape: text based RegEx learning game with a slasher theme - <AUTHOR> https://www.therobinlord.com/projects/slash-escape <comment><AUTHOR> I made this because RegEx can be really useful but is pretty dry to learn. The format was also pretty convenient for someone not that experienced at making web games, it's all just form submits with code that actually just evaluates the RegEx so I don't have to worry about every possible variation.

I probably spent the most time on the CSS, because making things easy to use on different sizes of screen was definitely the biggest factor. Ended up being a good opportunity for me to brush up on a few things to be honest!

I also enjoyed the challenge of adding line breaks or highlighting text while having a typewriter effect. Because I was adding a character at a time I couldn't include HTML markup so I ended up using my own symbology and interpreting that on insert. For example, text I wanted highlighted I enclosed in 'quotes' and followed immediately with $. Whenever the typewriter function sees a $ sign, it runs a RegEx replace on the most recent 'quoted' string to add in highlighting spans.

<comment><USER2> If you write something wrong on the first question, you are asked to make a pattern that matches "anything" - such a pattern would be the 8 letters "anything" literally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> To add a bit of a mnemonic element to this story, you could introduce regex syntax in ways that relate to the characters. for instance the anything but the "bear door" part. It's a good chance to have the character be puzzled ? and surprised ! in some emotive way, so then we have an emotional story to remember that ?! means "A bear?! anything but the bear"

also. It would be nice to be able to click on the animated typing text, to have it complete instantly, if you just want to try another input.

I like the atmosphere. It reminds me of resident evil.</comment>