What is Docker and When to Use It - <AUTHOR> http://www.centurylinklabs.com/what-is-docker-and-when-to-use-it/

<comment><USER2> There is a comment from Nick Stinemates:

> Docker certainly has an opinion about where the industry should be headed, > and there are companies who believe and have invested in that vision, and we > definitely applaud their efforts.

> Industry change is a long, arduous process. Not everyone has the benefit of > being able to make those bold investments, and for them, a more evolutionary > approach makes a ton of sense. As a result, we're seeing massive adoptions > in traditionally cautious verticals, taking advantage of Docker as a part of > solving specific issues.

So, docker has a monopoly on "vision" now, and anyone not marching to the beat of the docker drum simply has no vision?

Give me a fucking break.

<comment><USER3> Who said that we have a monopoloy on vision? I didn't. Please don't put words in to my mouth.

Even further, had you read what I was responding to, which is

> If you use Docker, you have to accept and follow it's philosophy and model.

It's actually precisely against the very idea that you're suggesting. Very frustrating.

Maybe putting it a different way will help. What I said was that, we have an _opinion_. Through our marketing and documentation we promote the values of said vision.

It's pretty bold for the author to claim what Docker is and how to use it, what it's not, etc. when plenty of people are using it for those cases pretty successfully.

<comment><USER2> OK, I may have mis-interpreted your comment, but the second sentence to me, really nailed home the perception that you were saying "Docker is the future, its only 'inflexible' (aka "conservative", "traditional", etc) shops not jumping in two feet first.

<comment><USER3> Yeah. You really misread. I said those companies ARE jumping in. And it's incredibly surprising. Never would have thought we'd reach the penetration we are so quickly.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: 7K now or a chance to play for £1MM? - <AUTHOR> Heart Radio in the UK are running a competition whereby they give you an opportunity to take an amount of money now (minimum £500, but so far has ranged from £2,000 to £7,000) or forfeit the money to accept entry into a £1,000,000 draw to be held in the first week of May (7th). One person will win the full amount.
They randomly select an entrant every weekday morning, and it costs each entrant £2 to enter. The number of rounds played each day is flexible upto a maximum of 8 rounds.
The more people that forfeit the money and enter the £1MM draw, the less the odds of taking the pot (to date 7 people are in the draw). A total of 9 people will be selected from this group, 1 more round will be played, bringing the total to 10, and then 1 lucky winner will be selected.
Each morning on the drive in to work I've been thinking about the odds, and a logical way to play for someone with low, medium, and high net worth. The more I think about the problem, the more complicated it becomes.
Today, you can win £7,000 now, or forfeit for the chance of £1MM. I don't like the jackpot odds, so I'd be inclined to take the money today. But I'm interested in the thought process of the rest of HN. <comment><USER2> Take the gurantee, the whole point of these sorts of things is to cash in on the people who risk choosing number 2.

<comment><USER3> From the description they are limiting the number of people in the draw to 10. They won't be cashing in anything by collecting £20 in total...

So it's £7,000 or 10% chance of winning £1 million.</comment></comment>


"Unknown or expired link." - <AUTHOR>

Can somebody please explain why this happens? I'm pretty sure there is solid reason behind it, but it just evades me. Why expire? <comment><USER2> They refer to closures stored on the server. If they don't time out eventually, you have a memory leak.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, but the default timeout is too low. I can rarely get three or four pages deep into HN before the timeout. It seems like this changed recently.

<comment><USER4> I've noticed the same thing; the timeout value seems to have changed sometime in the past week or so. I now routinely get the "expired link" message after only a little bit of HN browsing. :-(</comment></comment>


Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares - <AUTHOR> http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112661209/young-gorillas-observed-dismantling-poacher-snares/ <comment><USER2> I can't help but read this with a pinch of salt. Yes, it's fascinating that these gorillas have learned this new behavior and are passing it down. And I think almost everyone wants to see endangered species protected. Yet I can't help but feel there is something quite pretentious about all this. We sit here cheering on the destruction of these traps, when in all likely-hood there are people who depend on them for sustenance. And really it's rather disingenuous to call the people setting these traps "poachers". Normally when you think of poachers you think of thuggish killers only in it for a profit. But even in this article, which to me appears quite biased, they admit that the traps are set by local bush-meat hunters. What they do might technically be illegal (though those laws likely only exist because of Western pressure), but to them it's just a way of life. I know Diane Fossey had trouble with the locals when she first showed up and started dismantling traps. I seem to remember from an Adam Curtis documentary that they even killed a couple gorillas just to spite her. But I don't think they have a complete disregard for the natural world that surrounds them. They just hold their own survival/advancement in higher regard. And who are we to really judge that, given that most Western affluence came at the expense of vast ecological destruction.

And imagine what it must be like for these people to see some foreigners come in and spend tons of money and energy on saving gorillas and basically treat you as the enemy. I'd probably be thinking, why the hell aren't they helping me instead, is my life worth less than a gorillas to them?

I don't have any great answers to all this. Like everything there is a lot of gray area to this story. But hopefully while we cheer on the survival of the gorillas, we should also spare a thought for the survival of the local humans as well. This article certainly didn't. In fact it pretty much cast them as the villains who were heroically thwarted by a couple brave young gorillas.

<comment><USER3> > I can't help but read this with a pinch of salt. Yes, it's fascinating that > these gorillas have learned this new behavior and are passing it down. And I > think almost everyone wants to see endangered species protected. Yet I can't > help but feel there is something quite pretentious about all this. We sit > here cheering on the destruction of these traps, when in all likely-hood > there are people who depend on them for sustenance. And really it's rather > disingenuous to call the people setting these traps "poachers". Normally > when you think of poachers you think of thuggish killers only in it for a > profit. But even in this article, which to me appears quite biased, they > admit that the traps are set by local bush-meat hunters. What they do might > technically be illegal (though those laws likely only exist because of > Western pressure), but to them it's just a way of life. I know Diane Fossey > had trouble with the locals when she first showed up and started dismantling > traps. I seem to remember from an Adam Curtis documentary that they even > killed a couple gorillas just to spite her. But I don't think they have a > complete disregard for the natural world that surrounds them. They just hold > their own survival/advancement in higher regard. And who are we to really > judge that, given that most Western affluence came at the expense of vast > ecological destruction.

Maybe I am reading this wrong but I am getting a sense that you think Africa is filled with "noble savages" who are getting corrupted by western influences. Having grown up in Africa, let me hasten to assure you that there are enough Africans who care a lot about making sure that their beautiful flora and fauna is protected for future generations. Simultaneously it is Human nature that there will be people who either out of desperation or malice wish to kill and plunder wildlife. I don't buy the way of life argument when one gets to use sophisticated weaponry (guns may or may not be used in this case but there are enough cases where guns are used to wipe out wildlife) to plunder the wealth of the country. I hate to use a straw man here but I could very well use the same reasoning to argue that one shouldn't interfere in the Hutus vs Tutsi's war because tribal strife has been going on for centuries.

> And imagine what it must be like for these people to see some foreigners > come in and spend tons of money and energy on saving gorillas and basically > treat you as the enemy. I'd probably be thinking, why the hell aren't they > helping me instead, is my life worth less than a gorillas to them?

> But hopefully while we cheer on the survival of the gorillas, we should also > spare a thought for the survival of the local humans as well. This article > certainly didn't. In fact it pretty much cast them as the villains who were > heroically thwarted by a couple brave young gorillas.

You are arguing a false dichotomy here. Helping people by pouring money into Africa hasn't exactly been useful. The entire clothing industry in Africa is hosed because some wise people had the bright idea of donating a ton of used clothes there. Same with the agricultural industry where local farmers can't compete with "free aid".

<comment><USER4> Thats not a very generous reading of the OP.

He is reacting to the implied (though I didn't think it was very strong) characterization of local hunters as poachers. They're hunting to eat and using (presumably) the same type of traps that they're used for generations. That fact makes gph feel some sympathy or solidarity with them and I think a lot of people agree.

I'm absolutely not a relativist. That said this is the extreme example were not looking at things relativistically at all is absurd. You're expecting people who haven't changed their lifestyle and environment in recent generations and live off the land to assign similar values to animal conservation as you do.

That is not too far from telling a remote indonesian tribeswoman to cover her breasts because she's been immorally immodest.

<comment><USER5> People who eat animals they illegally killed are not poachers?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _In what can only be described as an impassioned effort to save their own kind from the hand of poachers_

There are ways to describe it that don't attribute human motivations to gorillas. I don't really believe this is a reputable source.

This is a bit more reliable: [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young- gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/)

<comment><USER7> It's a mistake to think animals are so different from us. They don't all have the same nuanced emotions, for instance cats seem to lack guilt, they're not nearly as wired to be social, but dogs, being pack animals have it in abundance.

Even rats have empathy as proven in an experiment: <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/rat-empathy/>

We're about 80% the same as animals when it comes down to it. The difference is important, absolutely, but not as significant as you'd think.

<comment><USER8> Could some animals have some _richer_ emotions which we don't have? For example, some animals with Tetrachromacy can have a reacher color space than us. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy>

<comment><USER7> Many birds can see ultraviolet, it's fairly common since it seems to allow them to differentiate flowers the same way many insects do. Some flowers look completely different in the UV spectrum ([http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-473897/A-bees...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-473897/A-bees- eye-view-How-insects-flowers-differently-us.html)). This is why it's important that many types of pet birds have some natural daylight.

As for emotions, that's a harder thing to prove. Dolphins are intelligent enough they should be classified as sentient non-human persons according to more progressive scientists. They have the richest range of emotions we've seen outside of chimpanzees, and to be honest, chimpanzees are so very nearly human it's quite amazing. They don't seem to lack any faculties that humans have, but some of their emotions are just less pronounced or developed.

Sometimes it seems the only reason that chimpanzees aren't affected more emotionally is that they don't understand the implications of what's happening. It's just ignorance more than a lack of emotion.

What might exist in the way of emotions humans don't have is things that are bio-chemical. Nature has a way of "rewarding" behaviors that are productive with a positive feeling. Do cuttlefish feel something other than love when doing their dances? What does an octopus, which has a nervous system entirely unlike a mammal or fish, feel when going about their day?

<comment><USER9> _more progressive scientists_

I don't really like to hear scientists described as progressive or non- progressive. I would prefer to hear that they are more or less sceptical.

<comment><USER10> I read "progressive" as an ethical statement. Unless you can demonstrate a "scientific default" ethical system that all scientists should adhere to, this seems like valid distinction

<comment><USER9> _Progressive_ means the scientists advocate reform or "new, liberal ideas". All of which is fine in their private capacity, but if these scientists are influenced in their scientific output by being progressive then they're not doing their job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interesting the part about non-interference:

"But Vecellio said it would go against Karisoke center policies and ethos to actively instruct the apes. 'We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don't want to affect their natural behavior.'"

It's the Prime Directive in the 21st century.

<comment><USER12> Actually that analogy doesn't hold up all that well. In Star Trek, the Prime Directive applies to populations which have not yet invented the warp drive. Since the gorillas have already shown themselves capable of dismantling snares on their own, they've essentially demonstrated a development level that would make it OK to share "snare dismantling technology" with them.

(Wohoo, Star Trek discussion! On a completely unrelated note: Today sees the US release of Star Trek: TNG season 1 on Blu-ray, which is the result of a remastering effort of unprecedented scale, going back to the original film negatives of live action and VFX elements and essentially repeating most of the post-production process using modern technology - compositing, editing, the works. They've spent a double-digit amount of millions of US dollars remastering season 1 alone, and have dozens of people working in three shifts 24/7 to complete two seasons per year, including several veterans of the original crew. The effect is something as if you had to watch the show through a sheet of smoked, colored glass up to now, when someone has finally taken it away.)

<comment><USER13> There's a danger in taking Star Trek too literally; they often break their own rules in order to suit the needs of their plots. That said...

The warp drive rule was a threshold thing. Before a civilization reaches warp drive, they're not supposed to receive any help at all, even with technologies that they've discovered. Once they reach warp drive, then it's time to make first contact and start to tell them about the galactic birds and bees.

Warp drive is a beautifully natural threshold within the Star Trek universe. Unfortunately, in our world today, we don't always have nice boundaries like that. Is trap-disarming for gorillas a threshold event analogous to warp drive, or is it more like a significant but ultimately incremental step in a long journey? I don't think there are any easy answers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Just need to give them guns now.

<comment><USER15> I guess it can't be worse then giving them to our own Army. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Z_haZqh60> (Pat Tillman case) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-EwReGl88o> (Laveena Johnson case)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Would be much cooler if instead of dismanling the traps they moved them to the paths that hunters go through to check if anything got caught.

</comment><comment><USER4> If this stayed the same for long enough to be meaningful in evolutionary terms, this would end in very smart apes.</comment>


Technical Cofounder - How much equity do I ask for? - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/12mchj/technical_cofounder_how_much_equity_do_i_ask_for/

<comment><AUTHOR> Reddit is generally lower quality than HN, but this is a pretty good discussion!

I think the big mistake was not starting with some form of agreement or understanding on what the split would be. But what's done is done, and it's interesting to negotiation from that postponed position.

Maybe I'm ruthless, but in my mind the technical cofounder would own all the code he's written so far. And he should use that as a bargaining chip-- I'm assuming it would be easy to keep the source code from the business cofounder, and even if he couldn't the business cofounder can't do much without the first dev.</comment>


The Case for Permissive TypeScript - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
I've been leading development on a large-ish TypeScript codebase. We've been having a lot of success with an extremely permissive compiler configuration, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
1. Writing types slows down development, particularly if you're using lots of local ad-hoc data structures that aren't reused throughout the application.
2. The best part of JavaScript is its usefulness in rapid prototyping, so it's important not to smother this with policy.
3. Types are useful, but only sometimes. Forcing types makes the tinkering/experimentation process harder. Not enforcing types at all allows the programmers to exercise discretion, and rapidly prototype workable code.
4. Programmers having discretion over whether to use types is a good thing. Not every data structure needs a type def. TS devs understand that function parameters and reused objects need types, and they can choose to use them when it's convenient.
TL;DR: I believe TypeScript should be viewed as a set of features to compliment the mature, powerful, and dynamically typed JavaScript language. Types are useful, but shouldn't be forced.
What are your thoughts on this? Agree? Disagree? <comment><USER2> I agree that you need a pragmatic approach to using types. That said, I also strongly believe that meaningful use of TS is a vital requirement for any project that will be maintained over time or involves multiple people.

I wrote my thoughts here:

[https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2019/11/blogged-answers- le...](https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2019/11/blogged-answers-learning-and- using-typescript/)</comment>


Ask HN: Which is the best PHP & MySQL CMS out there? - <AUTHOR>

Which is the best cms out there, based on PHP & MySQL?
I am looking for:
1) relative stability ( can't afford to experiment for this part now)
2) very good online/published support
3) ease of starting (for a guy new to CMS but is comfortable with using PHP/MySQL, though not an expert)
4) capable
5) flexible (in terms of how easily the standard templates can be hacked, modified, etc) <comment><USER2> I would suggest wordpress(<http://wordpress.org/>) and it definitely has all the features that you are looking for.

Very easy to hack, good theme options(both free and paid), good documentation and many venues to ask doubts if you have any.

<comment><USER3> wordpress.stackexchange.com is a great (new) WordPress resource.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> <http://croogo.org/>

</comment><comment><USER5> seriously, the best CMS is Drupal. Wordpress isn't a CMS, it's a blog engine.</comment>


Can you Crack It?  Break this cypher, get an interview with GCHQ - <AUTHOR> http://canyoucrackit.co.uk/index.asp

<comment><USER2> Ok, now these kinds of challenges are not really good. The reason is that without any extra property, they are trivial. Here is why:

Let's assume you have a cyphertext c, of length l (ie |c| = l). Now I take a plaintext p of length also l (|p| = l). Let the key k be c xor p. Now

       c xor k = c xor (c xor p) = (c xor c) xor p = 0^l xor p = p

Where 0^l is a string of l zeros. So yeah, given one cyphertext, I can craft a pair of key and plaintext such that there is a cypher (simple xor) that, given the cyphertext and the key, outputs the plaintext.

What is worse? I can craft |E|^l of such plaintexts (where |E| is the size of the alphabet).

So yeah: this test only checks if people know basic cryptography and boolean algebra. Which tends not to be a very good test[1,2]

[1] <http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/07/why-the-new-guy-cant-code/>

[2] <http://devinterviews.pen.io/>

<comment><USER3> also, it's even not a case of "crack this and get an interview" it's "crack this and get to apply for the same vacancy that gchq publish on their homepage": job id 35874.

But, it's a good publicity ruse.

edit: the pay's not even that great.

<comment><USER4> Is that salary listed yearly? If so I can understand why they have to do something like this to get people to apply, I earned more than that while working in retail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just in case no one gets it in time:

Pr0t3ct!on#cyber_security@12*12.2011+

<comment><USER6> <http://canyoucrackit.co.uk/soyoudidit.asp>

<comment><USER7> Which leads to <http://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/cyber-jobs/>, then [https://apply.gchq- careers.co.uk/fe/tpl_gchq01ssl.asp?newms=...](https://apply.gchq- careers.co.uk/fe/tpl_gchq01ssl.asp?newms=jj&id=35874). They don't even seem to track who solved it or not, unless they look at the referral URLs on Google Analytics.

<comment><AUTHOR> -1 to GCHQ for not even tracking who solved their damn riddle and actually using that as a bozo filter. Duh.

<comment><USER8> The Australian equivalent (DSD) did a challenge like this last month. Same deal - x86 assembly to decrypt a message and reveal a secret URL. They too had no tracking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can anyone here point me in the direction of what I should be reading in order to attack a problem like this.

I literally have little to no idea how to start.

Give me a reading list, or outline the first few steps!

<comment><USER10> Here's a good start to find out about the employer:

[http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/aldrich/vigila...](http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/aldrich/vigilant/lectures/gchq)

If they sound interesting to you then read the plenteous clues in the HN thread from this morning.

It would be pretty hilarious if no actual British citizens figure it out for themselves.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> According to <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15968878> it's for GCHQ rather than MI5.

<comment><AUTHOR> My bad, corrected.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Working on it here: <http://forum.xda- developers.com/showthread.php?p=19888836>

</comment><comment><USER13> don't know if this means anything at all but exif info on the photo has a comment: QkJCQjIAAACR2PFtcCA6q2eaC8SR+8dmD/zNzLQC+td3tFQ4qx8O447TDeuZw5P+0SsbEcYR78jKLw==

</comment><comment><USER14> Previous discussion from earlier today: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3299155>

</comment><comment><USER15> are we crowd sourcing intelligence tasks now?

</comment><comment><USER16> So did anybody genuinely manage to figure this out for themselves without google?

</comment><comment><USER17> Why oh why wouldn't they put this up there in a copy-able format? Why an image?

<comment><USER18> Spoiler: because the image displays some x86 code (its RC4 with a fixed key), the image file itself contains the ciphertext (in a PNG iTXt block).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Are Americans eligible to apply?

<comment><USER20> I don't think so. They don't even take non-British EU citizens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> /index.asp oh please, what's a challenge worth when I can find out the solution without solving it, by going to the application url. My naive proxy thought it's advertisment and didn't allow me apply hehe.

also we're lucky they exclude non-british folks, that way they interchange doubtable trust measures with infosec beginners.</comment>


Coding as art not prostitution - <AUTHOR> http://veritable.tumblr.com/post/203573638/coding-as-art-not-prostitution

<comment><USER2> Please don't use a fixed width text-area and <br> on every line. It looks horrible if the text needs to wrap-around.</comment>


The Myth of Prevention  - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204005504574235751720822322.html

<comment><USER2> How about not letting the AMA artificially limit the supply of doctors? How about letting patients care for themselves? Acquire their own medicine? Ask for their own blood tests and monitor their own hormone and chemical levels without having to go to a doctor? This guy is a doctor, no wonder he doesn't mention allowing people to not need him. Imagine if we forced companies and individuals to go to people with computer science degrees to get help with their computers.

Seems like if we'd remove the medical doctor gatekeepers and allow people to care for themselves, then health care costs would go down.

It seems so strange that in a free nation, it is illegal for citizens to care for their own health.

<comment><USER3> Disclaimer: I am a physician.

There are greedy physicians. There are bad physicians. These physicians can drive up health costs. I do not find, however, much evidence to support the idea that physician reimbursement has anything to do with our high national health costs.

Most I know are neither bad nor greedy. Generally, my colleagues are the best, most compassionate, smartest humans I know. The physicians I know have worked 60-80 hours a week for their entire professional lives, went into enormous debt to finance their professional educations and make between $140-200K annually before paying for their own expenses, health care insurance, sick time, vacations, etc.

I understand what you are saying about taking your health destiny into your own hands. Most physicians, including myself, want you to do just that, and will work with you to encourage you to efficiently and cheaply monitor and care for your own conditions. Most of us feel that has to be the future. Most of us believe strongly in preventive medicine, and feel caring for chronic disease is like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

I'm with you, notwithstanding your hyperbole about the illegality of caring for your own health in a free nation.

But I think you might agree that when your 9 month old starts wheezing one February day in the midst of a common respiratory syncytial virus outbreak, despite all the self-learning you did on the Internet, you're probably best advised to seek counsel, evaluation, and treatment from someone who has seen a few cases of RSV, seen a few more cases of how fast children can go down with something so seemingly simple, and can treat it effectively.

<comment><USER4> The problem is not with physicians, rather its a structural problem with the American political system.

I have no doubt that you and many of your colleagues are compassionate and well intentioned. But you also pay dues to an organization that has a political lobbying arm. This is of course, entirely understandable. Washington has a ton of power, power which can be used to steam roll you. Thus you support an organization that has a goal of looking out for your interests in Washington. It does so quite well. Too well, in fact. As a result of AMA lobbying, America has far fewer doctors than most other developed countries. The result is higher prices for consumers, and no evidence of better care. See: [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/04/05/the- futility-o...](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/04/05/the-futility-of- trying-to-control-health-care-costs-in-a-country-short-of-doctors/) Again, I don't blame the doctors, I blame the design of the political system that creates constant factional fighting over the resources of the country, with some factions getting screwed and others doing the screwing. ( Oh Madison, how wrong you were ... )

Part of the way the restrictions of new doctors work is by restricting medical schools. This of course drives up the price of medical schools, sending doctors into massive debt. Frankly, there is no reason that doctors need four years of college on top of four years of college on top of four years of high school. I'm sure the whole thing could be compressed into eight years, as other countries have done.

For new doctors, loosening the barriers to entry would be a Pareto optimum improvement. Salaries would fall, but so would the costs of schooling. Overall the public would benefit without harming new doctors.

But existing doctors would get screwed, as you point out. To be fair, any reducing of the barriers to entry should include compensation for current doctors.

<comment><USER5> Often, when laws are changed, some people lose out. Easier entry/certification. Changing trade laws can put whole industries out of business. Zoning laws can make your property double of half in value quite easily. Emission controls can make your car worthless.

Every time a politician sneezes someone get screwed. You can't compensate everyone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> We need to change all parts of the system:

For most situations most doctors are over-educated: why should a podiatrist require 8 years of schooling to remove bunions or do surgery on an ingrown toenail? Does a general practioner need 12 years of training to prescribe an antibiotic for a severe infection? Are economics, politics, physics, calculus and other courses really necessary for a brain surgeon to do his job or for a nurse practioner to give tetanus shots?

1\. Break the entire medical profession down into smaller specialties and provide only the necessary training within those specialties. Sure, some should take the entire 12 years college + med school + internship + specialist training, but most won't. This would open the profession to competition and provide thousands more medical workers.Doctors won't like this: they'll fight it every inch of the way, down to refusing to train people. But it must happen. Perhaps only a massive natural or man-made disaster can overcome the resistance of the AMA and doctors and cause this to happen.

2\. Mandate that statistics be maintained and published, complete with names, so you can judge who's good and who isn't; who takes risks and who doesn't; who's pricey and who is cheap. That way you can choose better and practitioners can be more easily regulated.

3\. Eliminate HMOs and private insurance companies: they just don't work. The only insurance solution that will work is one wherein the government maintains the insurance pool. As long as insurance companies exist they will continue to cherry-pick patients and use legal tricks to eliminate patients who develop costly medical conditions.

4\. Eliminating the HMOs and insurance companies immediately gives a gain equal to the profit of those firms. Increasing efficiency (automation of paperwork, scheduling, etc.) gives further gains. Improved technology can also reduce costs (something rarely pointed out about medicine). And we haven't brought up the drug companies yet.

There's lots of room for improvement in the current system, but the doctors, insurance companies, drug companies and the HMOs don't want to change the status quo. And they're the only ones with representatives (their lobbyists) in Washington.

</comment><comment><USER7> My solution: Free market. Let anybody practice medicine. No state licenses, no medical school degrees required. No controlling number of physicians entering the system each year. If you are good, you will stay in business. Let free market weed out the good from the bad.

</comment><comment><USER8> "It means that all of us—doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, drug companies, nurses, home health agencies, and so many others—are drinking at the same trough which happens to hold $2.1 trillion, or 16% of our GDP."

16% of GDP? Other developed nations pay much less: on average 9% of GDP (<http://opencrs.com/document/RL34175>). Health care in the US isn't 67% better than in other developed countries.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have experienced health care in the US and now Sweden. I can say whole heartedly that I prefer the Swedish system. Perhaps that's cause I have a chronic condition that is costly. I could never get insurance on my own in the US, at any price. I pay more in taxes in line with what my perfectly healthy friends in the US have paid to get comparable insurance (of course if they use it for much they risk rescission and will have to fight the insurance company to pay the bills they should).

In Sweden they worked quickly to put me on a safer and cheaper drug, one that most of the US is dragging its heels to get into place, why cause it costs less than half to treat a patient this way. Office visits go down because it is entirely self-administrable, instead of an IV that has to be done in a clinic.

No matter what medical system you choose there are going to be mistakes and deaths, I just prefer the Swedish system that seems to triage and try and use resources wisely.

I've had things in the US turn into unnecessary tests and hospital stays, in Sweden they recognize this and treat me appropriately. Of course I can't blame doctors in the US, they have the fear of a big malpractice suit if anything unordinary were to happen.

<comment><USER10> The problem in Sweden is (a) queue time and (b) the administration burden disincentives doctors from finding complex problems that aren't obvious.

About (b), I think it might be better in the rest of Scandinavia. My personal experience -- I had a simple knee problems for decades (the sport doctors finally fixing that said it was common to drag them around for that long...) My experience here isn't that atypical.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is written by someone who in their own words is more focused on treatment than success.

 _"The Doctor" happens to be my favorite painting, mostly because of the story behind it: Sir Luke Fildes lost his oldest son_

 _I have a print of the Fildes painting close at hand, a reminder that all the marvels of science, all the advances of medicine don't replace what patients want of their doctors and what most of us wanted to offer when we felt the calling to medicine: the opportunity to be fully present at the bedside, to bring the human comfort that only the presence of an attentive physician can bring, to convey to patient and family the unspoken promise, "I will stay with you through thick and thin."_

I don't care if it's a person, robot, or pill, just fix me.

</comment><comment><USER12> Sounds like fear mongering to me. If a doctor wants to spend time with their patients having electronic medical records shouldn't stop them from doing so. I don't think I even agree with the premise that people want their doctors to be their buddies holding their hands. I think most sick people want to be cured. The days of having one family doctor are gone. You'll get bounced around to various specialists if you have any serious problems anyway. As we've seen in other areas technology has an incredible ability to get results if used correctly. I have faith most medical professionals are smart enough to use a computer or electronic testing equipment.

Either way the status quo is unsustainable. If something isn't done about it now we'll have a medical crisis in a few years/decades that is every bit as bad as the credit crisis was. And we'll sit around and say gee, someone should have done something about it sooner. It's too bad everyone was so terrified of change and willing to let the rich & powerful con them into thinking everything was just fine when it really wasn't.

</comment><comment><USER13> I liked it up until the part about cost-cutting:

> Which brings me to my problem with the president's plan: despite being an > admirer, I just don't see how the president can pull off the reform he has > in mind without cost cutting.

This suffers from two fallacies - the first is that this is not a zero sum game. We may spend just as much on health care but get more value for the dollar and thus live healthier lives and thereby be more productive.

The second problem is the "broken window" fallacy. Doing unnecessary healthcare is a not a reasonable thing to keep people employed. If you take that money out of healthcare it won't just vanish, it will go elsewhere and be productively employed to generate real value for the economy. Far from being a problem with the plan it is the most powerful argument in it's favor.

</comment><comment><USER14> Refreshingly honest.

I'm impressed to see this sort of viewpoint in the WSJ.

<comment><USER15> Not sure why you got downrated (I had exactly the same thought, based on years of reading the WSJ). I found the piece thoughtful and plausible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm glad someone else finally said it: Early detection is neither.</comment>


Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free? - <AUTHOR> I recently stumbled across a link in another thread to "Economics in One Lesson" and thought it was incredibly interesting. https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Economics%20in%20One%20Lesson_2.pdf
What are some other interesting reads—whether PDF, website, doc, etc—that are freely available?
One of my favorites that I find thought-provoking is the "Procedural Content Generation in Games" book (http://pcgbook.com/). <comment><USER2> I built [http://hackershelf.com](http://hackershelf.com) just for this. It's a crowdsourced listing of legally free books on just about any topic.

<comment><USER3> I love this. I'll be signing up.

Just one thing, browsing by topic doesn't seem to have any sort of rhyme or reason in its ordering aside from some vague first-letter ordering. For example, there are numerous "I" categories, with one "I" for "interactive" and another one for "Interactive". One grouping of "I"'s includes tags "ios", "iOS", and "ip", but the next "I" grouping below just contains "IP"

Edit: I see the ordering issue now. There's a list of topics. The list is printed out in alphabetical order. But for some reason when the first letter of a topic changes between capital letter and a lowercase letter, a new letter grouping is created. Probably it's creating a new category whenever the first character changes, but it did not take into account capital and lowercase characters being different.

<comment><USER2> Thank you. I'm not actively maintaining it anymore, TBH, but I've been getting bug reports/feature requests lately [meaning actual people still use it] so it might be time to reconsider that stance.

<comment><USER4> It sounds like if you open source the code, you could get some pull requests pretty easily.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just a bit of caution. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a group devoted to specifically advocating one branch of economics, Austrian Economics. Part of this branch is staunch Libertarianism, but they don't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status or action.

I'm not here to debate the merits of the Austrian branch compared to other branches. I just think that it's important to have a general and unbiased understanding of the other branches of economics before reading a text which is effectively a criticism of those branches and an advocacy for one specific branch.

<comment><USER5> _but they don 't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status or action_

To be fair, that doesn't mean they are wrong. Certainly we've seen plenty of cases where people built incredibly complex, elegant and expressive models of economic systems, which turned out to be completely broken.

That said, I know of at least some Austrian economists who think the Austrian school should make some effort to better ground their ideas with mathematical formulations, but I haven't followed things closely enough to know if much, or any, work has actually been done in that regard.

<comment><USER3> Oh, I completely agree. It's important to be critical. This is why there are several branches of economics. It's just that if someone unfamiliar with the field wanted to know about economics in general, I wouldn't have them first read _Das Kapital_ or start by showing them papers from the Heritage Foundation or CATO. This sort of reading comes later. Build a foundation first before building a house.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love "Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces":

[http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/](http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/)

Really useful book and really accessible (both because it's available for free and also because it's written with a lot of skill and friendliness towards the reader).

I recommend it in particular to those who for whatever reason never took an operating systems class (e.g., you were self-taught or didn't major in CS). This book will really demystify a lot of stuff for you without overwhelming you at the same time.

<comment><USER7> I second this recommendation. Not being a CS major I didn't take an OS course so I worked through the first part of the OSTEP book and found it to be very well-written and much less intimidating.

I haven't finished reading it entirely yet and didn't do any of the labs but I liked the big picture approach it took to OS design.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sicp is available for free

[https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/](https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/)

<comment><USER9> Wow I had no idea you could get this for free! Thank you!

<comment><USER10> Just to be clear, the official publisher page for SICP includes (and in fact) hosts the contents of it: [https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/) (includes links to programming assignments etc.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Warning: Shameless self promotion.

LinuxVoice magazine is available for free nine months after publication. The issues can be found here: [http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons- issues/](http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/)

Quite a bit of our content is about programming and tech in general, so you may find something you like even if you're not a Linux user.

<comment><USER12> Wow, CC BY-SA (Share-alike) and not CC BY-NC-SA (Non Commercial) like I expected. I commend you guys for believing in your publishing model and vision by taking that risk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A few of these are already posted (or will be) but here you go:

\- [https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/)

\- [http://www.withouthotair.com/](http://www.withouthotair.com/)

\- [http://www.harriman- house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-c...](http://www.harriman- house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-coplin/the-rise-of-the-humans/)

\- [http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)

\- [http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons- issues/](http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/)

<comment><USER14> Adding to the suggestion of HPMOR, Worm ([https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/)) is excellent and well worth a read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> ... and when you've done educating yourself for the day, relax with a superb novel, licensed under CC: [http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm](http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm)

</comment><comment><USER16> Javascript Allongé is one of my favorite programming books ever: [https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read](https://leanpub.com/javascript- allonge/read). I think it's a great book even if you don't program Javascript, because the way Braithwaite talks about programming language techniques is so interesting. I had been programming Javascript for a long time before I read this back, and afterward, it changed my whole point of view on how it could be used.

<comment><USER17> Actually, the original version of this book is no longer for sale. The link for the updated free version is here: [https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read](https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read)

Or, if you want to buy it in other formats, here: [https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix](https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix)

<comment><USER16> Ah, thanks, wasn't aware of the update!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Some classic poems, they're short, but you'll find yourself rereading the ones that really engage you occasionally throughout your life. Here's some I found to be immediately accessible, to get you going.

Poe's Raven - [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713) Dulce et Decorum Est - [http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html](http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html) The Charge of the Light Brigade - [http://poetry.eserver.org/light- brigade.html](http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html)

<comment><USER5> It's funny, I never cared much for poetry until I started listening to Iron Maiden and found out that "The Trooper" is based on "The Charge of the Light Brigade", as well as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" being based on a Samuel Taylor Coleridge work.

Now I enjoy reading both Coleridge and Tennyson quite a lot (as well as a few other poets, although it will never be my primary interest).

And people used to say that heavy metal was bad for kids... feh.

<comment><USER19> In the other direction, I never understood rap until I studied Anglo-Saxon poetry. It has the same muscular rhythms and concern for status and manliness. I'd love to see a rapper do Beowulf!

<comment><USER20> Not rap but take a look at Marillion's Grendel on Youtube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (754pp) - [http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf](http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf)

The Condensed Wealth of Nations (86pp) - [http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/conde...](http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/condensed- WoN.pdf)

<comment><USER22> Some related readings:

Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) - [http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html](http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html)

Adam Smith's Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms (1763) - [http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621) (warning: long page)

Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) - [http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365) (warning: long page)

Francis Hutcheson's An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1726) - [http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry- into-...](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-into-the- original-of-our-ideas-of-beauty-and-virtue-1726-2004) (warning: long page)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> [http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/](http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/)

An example-driven guide to design patterns used in Games. Some overlap in to more general design patterns, but it provides especially tangible examples for those, too.

</comment><comment><USER24> "Introduction to Statistical Learning" ([http://www- bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/](http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/)) gives an excellent foundation for all machine learning approaches.

<comment><USER25> The accompanying videos are also well worth it : [http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to- machine-l...](http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to-machine- learning-in-15-hours-of-expert-videos/)

<comment><USER24> Hey, thanks for that! Added to my watch list.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Eloquent JavaScript. A delightful introduction to JavaScript and programming in general. [http://eloquentjavascript.net](http://eloquentjavascript.net)

</comment><comment><USER27> Mises.org is a Libertarian propaganda site. That PDF hardly contains everything you need to know about Economics, unless you only want to learn a bunch of Libertarian talking points.

</comment><comment><USER28> Marx's Capital is available here: [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/), and there's a great free/open course to help you get through it here: [http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/](http://davidharvey.org/reading- capital/).

It's a fairly hard read, but I've gotten through the first few chapters so far and found it very insightful.

</comment><comment><USER29> "The Macroscope" by Joël de Rosnay, a book on the systems approach

[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html)

This book is an excellent, easy to read introduction to cybernetics and systems thinking, with applications to living organisms, the economy and the world as a whole. The main theme is that the complex systems which govern our life should be looked at as a whole, rather than be taken apart into their constituents. The different systems, processes and mechanisms are beautifully illustrated with examples and pictures.

Although the text is over 20 years old, this visionary document is still highly relevant to our present situation and state of knowledge.

It is particularly recommended to people who wish to get an understanding of the basic concepts and applications of systems theory and cybernetics.

<comment><USER30> Thanks for this - wasn't expecting to see a systems book pop up in this thread!

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> The Nature of Code is one of my favorites free reads [http://natureofcode.com/book/](http://natureofcode.com/book/) It addresses topics from physics and math, and how to apply them to your code to make it more _natural_

</comment><comment><USER32> Oldie but goodie. A contrarian view of business from a prototypical hacker, Don Lancaster. I re-read this every few years to regain perspective.

The Incredible Secret Money Machine [http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf](http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf) more of Don: [http://tinaja.com/](http://tinaja.com/)

       -G

</comment><comment><USER33> If you're already at Mises.org you should read

Ethics of liberty [http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp- content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28...](http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp- content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28Murray%29%20-%20The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty.pdf)

For a new liberty [https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Libert...](https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf)

If those are to your liking they contain some great reading lists. A lot of the books in those lists are also available for free at mises.org

</comment><comment><USER34> Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface, by Bret Victor [http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/](http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/)

(or PDF: [http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf](http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf))

<comment><USER35> Along with everything else Bret Victor has done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> 'Rationality: From AI to Zombies' is available on a pay-what-you-want basis. It talks about cognitive science, ethics, human (ir)rationality and how to improve it, among other things. It stems from the Lesswrong Sequences [2], which have a lot more content, but are a bit messy.

[1] [https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai- zombies/](https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/)

[2] [http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials)

</comment><comment><USER37> _Debt: The First 5000 Years_ [1] Anthropological analysis of finance.

 _With Each & Every Breath_ [2] Highly practical primer on meditation and how it works, from a Thai Forest tradition perspective.

[1] [https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf](https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf)

[2] [http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBrea...](http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBreath_v130123.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER38> Feynman Lectures on Physics

[http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/)

</comment><comment><USER39> All of Cory Doctorow's books are free online: [http://craphound.com/](http://craphound.com/)

I enjoyed Little Brother and its sequel Homeland quite a lot.

</comment><comment><USER40> These are fiction, but they're really enjoyable futurist sci-fi. The first one is about the singularity, and the second one is a really unique and interesting take on artificial intelligence.

[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog- static/fiction/accelera...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog- static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html)

[http://lifeartificial.com](http://lifeartificial.com)

<comment><USER19> My novel "Darwin's Theorem", which is about stories, evolution, religion and science, is available for free: [http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub](http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub)

It's character-driven pure speculation on big ideas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Higher Order Perl: [http://hop.perl.plover.com/](http://hop.perl.plover.com/) On Lisp: [http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html) Also [http://it-ebooks.info/](http://it-ebooks.info/) has a wide selection of free ebooks with ads.

</comment><comment><USER42> The first amazing thing I found on the internet:

[https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page)

in early 1994 over gopher at 9600 baud for a penny per minute. Still amazing.

<comment><USER43> Me too! And today, I always keep a pocketful of classics on my phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> How to Design Programs 2E

[http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/)

This book is much more than the intro to programming that it appears to be. It is a foundational approach for producing robust programs, regardless of your implementation language or level of experience.

<comment><USER29> Unfortunately it looks like the authors never completed the next book on the series about real time programming. How to design worlds. [http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/](http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/)

<comment><USER44> Thanks for pointing this out. I was interested to see they credit Paul Hudak's "Haskell School of Expression" for inspiration. I will have to take a fresh look at that given my newfound appreciation of HTDP (due to stumbling across Norman Ramsey's assessment of it). Also need to look deeper into Hudak's FRP now that I think about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> This repo maintains list of free programming books [0].

Many of the books at Green Tea Press[1] are available for free:

\- Think Python: How To Think Like a Computer Scientist

\- Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics in Python

\- Think Complexity: Exploring Complexity Science with Python

\- Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers

\- The Little Book of Semaphores

\- Physical Modeling in MATLAB

\- Learning Perl the Hard Way

few others. Do check the site.

Secondly, books by Al Sweigart[2] are also freely available. They include:

\- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python[3]

\- Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python

\- Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

\- Making Games with Python & Pygame

[0] - [https://github.com/vhf/free-programming- books](https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books)

[1] - [http://www.greenteapress.com/](http://www.greenteapress.com/)

[2] - [https://inventwithpython.com/](https://inventwithpython.com/)

[3] - [https://automatetheboringstuff.com/](https://automatetheboringstuff.com/)

</comment><comment><USER46> Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality [http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)

<comment><USER47> Seconded. I also recommend the podcast version, at [http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/](http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/) .

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> [http://learncodethehardway.org/](http://learncodethehardway.org/) Great books not just about the language, but the tools that help make utilizing the language that much easier.

</comment><comment><USER49> The novels and short stories of Peter Watts (scifi) [http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm](http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm)

</comment><comment><USER50> The Art of Unix Programming: [http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/](http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/)

<comment><USER51> A very good book - a solid, down-to-earth approach to designing and implementing programs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander

[https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage](https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage)

<comment><USER53> I had no idea that was online. Thank you for posting it.

For my contribution, I would suggest [http://bartleby.com](http://bartleby.com) as a source for literature.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> (1) _Lions on Unix_ (PDF and source), [http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php](http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code)

 _" Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code by John Lions (1976) contains the complete source code of the 6th Edition Unix kernel plus a commentary. It is commonly referred to as the Lions book. Despite its age, it is still considered an excellent commentary on simple but high quality code."_

(2) _Harper 's dictionary of classical literature and antiquities_ (1898), 1750 pages, [https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog](https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog)

(3) _Oxford English Dictionary_ (1888), 15000 searchable page scans in a Windows app, [https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407](https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407)

</comment><comment> jay-saint Butterick's Practical Typography [http://practicaltypography.com](http://practicaltypography.com) is a must read for anyone in design or UX field.

Everyone should read and take to heart the condensed version [http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten- minutes.htm...](http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html)

</comment><comment><USER55> The Tao Te Ching is available for free [0].

It's the basis for the Eastern philosophy of Taoism. Religious or spiritual or not, I find this collection of verses to encourage different forms of lateral and vertical thinking that I may otherwise miss.

Anyways, might not be for everyone, but I enjoy it.

[0] - [http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm](http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm)

</comment><comment><USER56> Self Service Linux: Mastering the Art of Problem Determination [http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/0...](http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/013147751X_book.pdf)

Great book on debugging issues on Linux \w strace, gdb, core dumps, etc.

</comment><comment><USER57> We send a daily newsletter with one really interesting thing to read. Here are the past 40 or so that we've sent: [http://readthisthing.com/archive](http://readthisthing.com/archive)

I think you're more talking about books, but still thought this might be relevant to what you're after.

</comment><comment><USER58> The short stories of P.G. Wodenhouse, just to see what real mastery of the English language looks like.

<comment><USER59> Good to see a fan of Wodehouse :) I like his longer works better. I read ukridge and mulliner nights a while back. They were good but not as good as jeeves and the others.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> CQRS Journey

"This guidance is designed to help you get started with the CQRS pattern and event sourcing. It is not intended to be the definitive guide to the CQRS pattern and event sourcing. Instead, it's a journal that describes the experiences of a development team with no prior CQRS proficiency in building, deploying (to Microsoft Azure), and maintaining a sample real-world complex enterprise system as a reference implementation (RI) to showcase various CQRS and ES concepts & techniques."

available as PDF: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/jj554200.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/jj554200.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER61> Steal This Book: [https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook](https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook) (Apparently no longer available from LeanPub... heres's a dropbox link: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?dl=0) )

Don't Just Roll the Dice: [http://download.red- gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf](http://download.red- gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER62> Papers We Love[0] is an interesting collection of computer science papers.

[0] [https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we- love](https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love)

</comment><comment><USER63> _" What are your recommended reads that are available for free?"_

Ask Professor Steve. [0]

I ran into Steve on HN back in 2010 and went for a walk with a mob of economists. [1][2] The key thing I got talking to Steve? Economics is fundamentally flawed. Read with caution.

Reference:

[0] [https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen](https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen)

[1] [http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html](http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html)

[2] [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054)

</comment><comment><USER64> This translation of Suvorov's "Inside the soviet army" was a real treat to a history buff

[http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html](http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html)

Actually quite topical given russias recent escapades - this details pretty well the society and the power dynamics that gave birth to the current situation. Also reads like an alternate version of "Catch-22" except the content should be 100% autobiographical.

</comment><comment><USER65> Learn C and build your own Lisp [http://www.buildyourownlisp.com](http://www.buildyourownlisp.com)

</comment><comment><USER66> Fixed To Flexible – The Ebook by Todd Sattersten. It is about cost, price, margin, and the options we have for how to sell. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The- Ebo...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The-Ebook)

</comment><comment><USER67> Perhaps not sequential reading on your laptop but very useful none the less...

[https://openstaxcollege.org/students](https://openstaxcollege.org/students)

Selected excerpts from the Physics and Biology volumes have been used by colleagues of mine to support background reading for pre-university students in the UK.

</comment><comment><USER68> [http://swiftlang.eu/](http://swiftlang.eu/)

Available in .MOBI, pdf, ePub or Online

</comment><comment><USER69> I'm giving away "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" book for anyone who wants to pay shipping, [http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612](http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612)

</comment><comment><USER70> Tesla's "My Inventions" autobiography

[http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp- content/uploads/Nkol...](http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp- content/uploads/Nkola_Tesla_My_Inventions.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER71> Warren Buffett's letters to sharelhoders: [http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html](http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html)

This is pure wisdom (a lot of economic subjects, but not only).

</comment><comment><USER72> Test-Driven Development with Python [[http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.ht...](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.html)]

</comment><comment><USER73> Tuning for Speed by Phil Irving - [http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf](http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf)

Combustion engine tuning. Very accessible yet deep.

</comment><comment><USER74> Self Plug. I maintain a list in my personal web page for reference

[https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free- books](https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free-books)

</comment><comment><USER75> On the Shortness of Life

[http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e...](http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e.html)

</comment><comment><USER76> The writings of Mencius Moldbug: [http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/](http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/) Mind- bending writings on politics, history and economics.

<comment><USER77> If you are new to the neo-reactionaries here is a condensed faq for what they believe [http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary- philosophy-...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-philosophy- in-an-enormous-planet-sized-nutshell/) (it is condensed, but nonetheless humongous. You have been warned). And, from the same author, a very long list of why they are wrong [http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti- reactionary-fa...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary- faq/)

I do not at all get neoreactionaries but I find their movement fascinating.

<comment><USER76> I would recommend to others to sample the Moldbuggery list, and not to start with Scott Alexander's writings. The point of Moldbug's writings is not to be 100% accurate. The point is to expose you to new ideas and old forgotten books, so that you yourself can create a more accurate version of reality. You won't get this by reading Scott Alexander. To really get the value of the writings, you need to actually read the old books that Moldbug recommends reading. It is very, very interesting to read an account of the Revolutionary War from a Tory or Loyalist who was actually there.

 _" I do not at all get neoreactionaries"_

The first thing to understand is that many neoreactionaries live in once great American cities where the schools look like this: ( [http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/...](http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/school- violence/20110328_SV2011_Part3.html) ), many of the neighborhoods look like this: [https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1_____enUS368US369&q=urb...](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1_____enUS368US369&q=urban+decay+philadelphia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=76UkT_mrA8-30AGKlrD_CA&biw=1739&bih=1115&sei=-KUkT-76DeOW0QH_xrTuCA) and if you move to the wrong neighborhood this will happen: [http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Father-Memorial- Da...](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Father-Memorial-Day- Philadelphia-Attack-Group-Juniata-305061081.html)

When that is your daily lived experience, you start asking questions about when it all went wrong.

<comment><USER78> for an engineer, Moldbug is remarkably bad at using accurate language. for example, [http://unreserved- qualifications.blogspot.jp/2015/05/mencius...](http://unreserved- qualifications.blogspot.jp/2015/05/mencius-moldbugs-little-army-of.html)

<comment><USER76> Yeah a lot of people who like his writings have criticized that term. I don't really like it myself, but it kind of stuck. The word does refer to a real phenomena that currently doesn't have a mainstream name. So Moldbug gets credit for identifying the phenomena and picking some name for it. I'm not sure what a better name would be - the Clerisy? the Mandarinate? the Congregation?

But, it is a lot more accurate to see ideology and religion has basically the same phenomena, with belief in a deity being pretty much spurious, than it is to see ideology and religion as two entirely different things. So I give Moldbug credit for pointing out that progressivism is basically the same thing as a religion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER79> You and Your Research by Richard Hamming

[http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html)

</comment><comment><USER80> Underground by By Suelette Dreyfus [http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf](http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER5> _The Law_ \- Frédéric Bastiat. [http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html](http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html)

 _Capitalism - A Treatise on Economics_ \- George Reisman. [http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf](http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf)

The Works of Lysander Spooner. [http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2](http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2)

 _The Machinery of Freedom_ David Friedman. - [http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf](http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf)

 _Democratizing Innovation_ \- Eric Von Hippel. [http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm](http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm)

 _The Sources of Innovation_ \- Eric Von Hippel. [http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm](http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm)

 _Introduction to Information Retrieval_ \- [http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR- book/html/htmledition/irbook.html](http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR- book/html/htmledition/irbook.html)

 _Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms_ \- David MacKay. [http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html](http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html)

 _Introduction to Cybernetics_ \- William Ross Ashby. [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf)

"Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer As A Communication Device" \- J.C.R. Licklider. [http://memex.org/licklider.pdf](http://memex.org/licklider.pdf)

 _Design For A Brain_ \- William Ross Ashby. [https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb](https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb)

The Writings of Douglas Engelbart. [http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html](http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html)

and if you like maths, don't miss this great list of free maths texts by George Cain: [https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.h...](https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html)

</comment><comment><USER81> [http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/](http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/)

</comment><comment><USER82> One about physics [http://motionmountain.net/](http://motionmountain.net/)

</comment><comment><USER83> I should think there are plenty of classical texts such as Plutarch, Homer, Thucydides etc on Project Gutenburg.

</comment><comment><USER84> I like working through Richard Gabriel's books from time to time, available at dreamsongs.org.

</comment><comment><USER85> If your preferred book isn't available for free, it usually means you haven't tried at Library Genesis.

</comment><comment><USER86> noble strategy - thanissaro bhikkhu

[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/nobles...](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/noblestrategy.pdf)

Very readable introduction to the dhamma.</comment>


California Scraps Massive Courts Software Project | PCWorld Business Center - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/252767/california_scraps_massive_courts_software_project.html <comment><AUTHOR> Found via [http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2012/04/yet-another- waterfal...](http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2012/04/yet-another-waterfall- project-failure.html) where the Waterfall methodology seems to be blamed for the failure of the project, although I can't quite find evidence that the methodology would be the core problem with this project (might be coincidental)</comment>


Uncap - Map Caps Lock to Escape on Windows, Linux, and macOS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/susam/uncap <comment><USER2> Easter egg in the source code: [https://github.com/susam/uncap/blob/78f52d7b2e03fc51885c8072...](https://github.com/susam/uncap/blob/78f52d7b2e03fc51885c8072d53ff5d41fbe3ffc/uncap.c#L469-L506)

Output:

      ...............................................................
      ...............................................................
      .................. @@@@@@@ ......... @@@@@@@ ..................
      ............... @@@@     @@@@ ... @@@@     @@@@ ...............
      ............. @@@           @@@ @@@           @@@ .............
      ............ @@@               @               @@@ ............
      ............ @@@    Cutie Pai,                 @@@ ............
      ............ @@@                               @@@ ............
      ............. @@@         I love you!         @@@ .............
      ............... @@@@                       @@@@ ...............
      .................. @@@@     -- Susam    @@@@ ..................
      ..................... @@@@           @@@@ .....................
      ........................ @@@@     @@@@ ........................
      ........................... @@@ @@@ ...........................
      .............................. @ ..............................
      ...............................................................
      ...............................................................

</comment><comment><USER3> I just use AutoHotKey because I'm already using AHK for so many things.

On Windows, I think most people who would want to remap these keys are already using AutoHotKey to set up custom global hotkeys or do other tweaks.

The entire AHK script is a 2 liner that you can put into an existing script, such as:

        CapsLock::Esc
        Esc::CapsLock

Only including that here because the OP's alternative AHK example in the readme remaps CapsLock to Escape, but it doesn't include remapping Esc to CapsLock (both are necessary to swap the keys).

His current example would leave your Esc key unchanged, meaning you would have 2 escape keys and 0 CapsLock keys.

<comment><USER4> I suspect it was intentional as I too would want 0 keys mapped to CapsLock.

Is there a way with AHK to map CapsLock tapped by itself to Esc and held with other keys as Ctrl?

<comment><USER3> I've never tried that behavior and I'm also not an AHK wizard (I use it for a few global hotkeys, remapping escape and some small tweaks).

But Google came up with this: [https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/104173-capslock-to- contro...](https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/104173-capslock-to-control-and- escape/)

The last reply's code sample looks like it would do what you want in a non- buggy way. If not, there were about 20 other Google results for combo mapping CapsLock to CTRL and / or Escape depending on how it was pressed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why does one need this on macOS (which has had a dedicated toggle for this in System Preferences for a few versions now)?

<comment><USER6> For the casual reader who does not know:

* Start app 'System Preferences'

* Pick 'Keyboard'

* Click button 'Modifier Keys...'

* Per keyboard you can now configure what the caps lock key does. One of the options is 'escape'. Which is what it should be :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The tool itself is actually Windows-only, it seems.

Also, a more interesting question would be how to map caps lock to ctrl (or something else) on hold, and esc on tap, across platforms.

<comment><USER8> After doing this (ctrl on hold and escape on tap) on every system I use, I wrote a blog post with instructions: [https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/remap- caps-lock-to-escape-and-...](https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/remap-caps-lock-to- escape-and-control/)

<comment><USER9> Oh, that's nice! I had capslock mapped to control, but I wanted to have escape on tap as well. But I never bothered to figure it out on Wayland.

Turns out you can enable _caps2esc_ , which is mentioned in the blog post, on NixOS with a single line:

        services.interception-tools.enable = true;

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I solved this problem many years ago by switching to a keyboard with a better layout.

I'd thoroughly recommend a HHKB to any programmer.

<comment><USER11> I fully respect your choice :)

As a hopefully interesting comparison, for me the right choice is a logical layout that is decoupled from the physical layout. And a Russian physical layout keyboard from Apple. And an US software layout.

(I'm Icelandic and don't speak or write Russian. Not yet at least.)

The Russian keyboard has all the programming symbols in the right places, a two-story enter key, and has the key between left-shift and Z. And gorgeous Cyrillic symbols on each key, _in addition_ to the English-layout keys. Then my fingers sit on something beautiful that they know.

Russian layout: [https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple...](https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple.com/is/MRMH2RS?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_usm=0.5,0.5&.v=1520717644293)

US layout: [https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple...](https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple.com/is/MRMH2?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_usm=0.5%2C0.5&.v=1520629359080)

And I love the crisp action that Apple's keyboards have today. – I appreciate that some don't like the feel. That's why we need a rainbow of variety!

Then I remap things in software. I personally remap Caps Lock to Ctrl and keep Esc where it is.

<comment><USER12> That's interesting. When you order from the Apple website from German region, you can choose e.g. English (US) and English (International). But US region does not allow to choose English (International).

\- English (International) layout: [https://store.storeimages.cdn- apple.com/4668/as-images.apple...](https://store.storeimages.cdn- apple.com/4668/as- images.apple.com/is/MLA22Z?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=80&op_usm=0.5,0.5&.v=1498602296120)

\- English (US) layout: [https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4668/as- images.apple...](https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4668/as- images.apple.com/is/MLA22LL?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_usm=0.5,0.5&.v=1496944005839)

\- Russian layout: [https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple...](https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as- images.apple.com/is/MLA22RS?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_usm=0.5,0.5&.v=1496943898748)

<comment><USER13> English International is a good option on a Mac.

For Windows/Linux, an easily available European keyboard with the double- height enter, extra key next to Z, and most of the "programming" keys in the same place as the American layout is the British/Irish layout.

(The main difference is " and @ are swapped. Shift-3 becomes £, but that pushes # to the extra, unshifted key, which is a plus. I have never used ¬.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> On Linux you can either set it in gnome or, if you are using a wm, just run setxkmbap -option caps:escape.

</comment><comment><USER15> On Linux I use GNOME Tweaks to rebind it to escape (though you can also use xmodmap directly). It doesn't work on console, and I don't think it works in Wayland either (!!).

on Mac I use Karabiner Elements to rebind it to escape (though you can also use System Preferences).

On Windows -which I try to avoid- I use a registry edit to _disable caps lock_ which one can find via a search engine (do verify the contents). This has the advantage that you can still bind it e.g. in games (such as for push-to-talk).

For those who search a AutoHotKey (AHK) alternative on Linux, consider AutoKey [1] which has Python scripting support.

[1] [https://github.com/autokey/autokey/](https://github.com/autokey/autokey/)

</comment><comment><USER16> PSA: In VIM ctrl-c does the same as ESC. No need to remap of you relearn.

<comment><USER17> This is not entirely true, and the differences between them sometimes matter. If you want an equivalent, go for CTRL-[, which is _actually_ equivalent.

If you're interested in some of the differences, start in `:help ins-special- keys`.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> EDIT: This is actually already mentioned in the README

This seems like the wrong approach to remap keys on Windows. This tool is using a keyboard hook, so it needs to run always for the remapping to work.

Windows already has a way of remapping keys through the registry that will persist over reboots, without re-running the tool. There are many GUI tools for modifying the key-mapping in registry, I use SharpKeys ([https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=sharpkeys](https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=sharpkeys))

</comment><comment><USER19> For anyone looking for a new keyboard with custom key maps, I'd really recommend the Kinesis advantage. I switched to it 8 years ago to fend off carpal tunnel after my old keyboard was bothering my wrists. It was easy to get used to and now whenever I'm on my Macbook's keyboard, it feels archaic. It's strange that by default (probably a relic from typewriters) we use our most important digits solely for bashing on the space bar.

It also has built-in key remapping so you don't need to mess with anything on the OS level.

</comment><comment><USER20> I only use keyboards with QMK firmware these days. It's much easier to flash a new layout to my keyboard than it is to keep messing around with OS settings for keyboards.

<comment><USER21> +1. I too use a custom keyboard with QMK firmware. In addition to mapping Caps Lock to Esc, I also map holding down of Caps Lock to Ctrl.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> See also: SharpKeys ([https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys](https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys))

</comment><comment><USER23> Is this just for VIM users or is there another reason why someone would want to specifically remap the Escape key and ditch the Caps Lock?

<comment><USER24> I as emacs user prefer ESC-x to ALT-x with ESC at CAPS because it is simpler to me.

<comment><USER23> But why not real ALT-x to CAPS-x instead?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> On Windows I just use remapkey.exe.

Let's you remap _anything_ with a nice GUI editor to boot.

My non-official download here: [https://stuff.kjonigsen.net/remapkey.exe](https://stuff.kjonigsen.net/remapkey.exe)

As for random EXEs on the Internet, you'll have to trust me or find alternate sources.

It's a good tool. Does one thing and does it well.

</comment><comment><USER26> I use win compose on Windows and whatever built in tools on KDE in Linux to treat caps lock as the compose key.

This allows me to type special characters in an intuitive way, such as producing © with compose o c, or π with compose p i, along with definable custom shortcuts.

</comment><comment><USER27> Also see [https://docs.microsoft.com/en- us/sysinternals/downloads/ctrl...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en- us/sysinternals/downloads/ctrl2cap)

</comment><comment><USER28> I bind it to Scroll Lock, which I absolutely never use. That way I have a conveniently reachable key to use for whatever I need atm.

</comment><comment><USER29> Can someone explain what's the purpose of this remapping?

Is this for MacBook Pro models with a Touch Bar, or is it something else altogether? In the former case, a better title would be "Map Escape to Caps Lock".

<comment><USER30> I use vim, so esc is one of the most important keys. But I use esc in most apps very frequently. I don't use Caps Lock at all.

<comment><USER31> I still don't get it. We have a keyboard with an Esc key and a Caps Lock key. Why would I remove Caps Lock and use it as another Esc key?

<comment><USER32> Try pressing esc every few seconds for 8-12hrs a day like a vim developer does and you'll know.

<comment><USER33> (Single datapoint ahead.)

I edit my sources and remote configs exclusively in vim-likes since ~2004 (full time sw dev) and never experienced such issues. From my experience, typing or clicking speed requirement rarely exceeds that of thinking on your program. I hit esc often, but not too often, and it is not too far.

I'm not against caps->esc mapping in general, but for me this would have little to no value plus non-standard layout, which is minus, since I'm not office-only guy.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


No, I'm not going to buy your damn book - <AUTHOR> http://blog.seancallahan.com/2013/02/no-im-not-going-to-buy-your-damn-book.html

<comment><USER2> It looks interesting and is cheap enough to just buy it. But six 5 star reviews after being out 1 week and two of them are your friends gives me just a bit of pause.

Just my opinion, nothing more.

Edit: I clicked through all of the reviews and only 1 of them had reviewed more than 1 item. (and his other was unrelated to tech and from 2007)

Sorry but it really does seem like these are all solicited reviews. Which isn't necessarily bad but perhaps you should throttle back.

</comment><comment><USER3> waiting for the sequel - 'Yes, I will rub your damn face in it'</comment>