Xiaomi launches 49-inch 4K TV for $640 - <AUTHOR> https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv&edit-text= <comment><USER2> NB the linked page is currently for the MiTV 1 (1080p, 47"), but the topic is about V2;[1]

On the SOC side, it's 4x cortex A9 @ 1.45Ghz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU-- h265 decode at 4K/30fps, 2GB RAM

supports miracast, airplay, dlna, widi, SMB, dual band ac wifi, USB3, micro SD, bluetooth 4 (BT LE remote with finder). 15.5mm thick and 6.2mm bezel. It has everything, except the HDMI version is conspicuous in its absence-- so I'm guessing it's not 2.0, which is required for 60fps at 4K. Also not completely clear if it could actually play back 4K 3D-- perhaps this would work with h264, but for h265 it states 30fps. Released on the 27th in China, no mention of elsewhere.

1\. [http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&p...](http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv)

<comment><USER3> "On the SOC side, it's 4x cortex A9 @ 1.45Ghz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU-- h265 decode at 4K/30fps, 2GB RAM"

Is this because it is a "smart" TV, or should I expect all computer monitors to have this degree of complexity these days ?

I'd like my monitor to be as dumb as possible, thanks.

<comment><USER4> It's definitely a TV not a monitor.

<comment><USER5> The difference is more marginal than ever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Xiaomi is a really interesting company. This TV announcement is just one in a long line of recent products that promise high quality devices for low prices (recently announced Mi Pad, Wi-Fi Router, etc).

I own a Xiaomi MI2s phone which cost me about 200 euros to get shipped from a Chinese webshop and it's been working perfectly. They even update their phone OS (MIUI, based on Android) with weekly builds that are installed OTA.

Lei Jun (their CEO) really wants Xiaomi to become the Chinese Apple. Not sure if wearing black turtlenecks and hiring Hugo Barra will get them there, but I'm curious to see what they'll do next.

<comment><USER7> I find the "Chinese Apple" to be a curious desire. Which characteristics do we choose from the two? "high quality devices for low prices", is very chinese, but Apple is known for high quality prices based on innovative technology.

If he wants to build a company that makes high quality products based on innovative technology at low prices, then he could find great success.

Alas, in my experience, no companies besides Apple are actually interested in consistently producing innovative products.

This "Mi" site is full of derivative devices using off the shelf technology (android, for instance) in moderately nicely designed plastic cases.

<comment><USER8> I think he meant scale. Competing with Apple in Apple's niche isn't good idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I use a Seiki 50" 4K display for coding and it was a revelation. I love all the bezel-free screen real estate and I would never go back.

For watching full screen video, I just drop the resolution down to 1920x1080 to overcome the 30hz limitation the display currently has.

More competition in the ~50" 4K space is welcome news.

<comment><USER10> I use a 39" 4k Seiki, and I've been very happy with it too. Paid $420 about a month ago (it's $500 from Amazon right now), and it's a pretty amazing amount of real estate without a bezel. 30hz is a little annoying for some tasks, but for coding and other static applications, it really doesn't bother me.

<comment><USER11> I've recently done the same. Still trying to get my work environment set up decently. We need some sort of user group for people doing 4k programming to exchange ideas, tools, methods, etc.

<comment><USER12> Seems like a good idea:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/4kmonitors/](http://www.reddit.com/r/4kmonitors/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Where does this say that it's 4k? Everything on the linked page says it's 1080p, which is _NOT_ the same thing as 4k. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution)

Edit: Yeah, Ok, I just scrolled down, and realised the actual link for the TV in question is [https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&...](https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv&edit- text=)

<comment><USER14> It's clear from the Chinese version of the site that it's 4K: [http://www.mi.com/mitv](http://www.mi.com/mitv)

<comment><USER7> That's a different display. Look on the tech specs page for the chinese one: [http://www.mi.com/mitv#params](http://www.mi.com/mitv#params) and compare it to the OP: [http://www.mi.com/en/mitv#fullspecs](http://www.mi.com/en/mitv#fullspecs)

For example, the CPUs are different, one's a snapdragon 1.7GHz, the other is a Cortex A9, 1.4GHz. (Different GPUs too.)

Not to mention one explicitly says it's 1920x1080, while the other is "4K".

<comment><USER14> You're right. There's a number "2" after the name of the TV in Chinese. Maybe the Chinese site is the second generation Mi TV.

<comment><USER7> The price on the Chinese page is 3999 yuan, which translates into $641, indicating this is the model the OP meant. So it looks like the OP linked to the wrong page by mistake and got version 1 instead of version 2.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Does this display offer a 60 Hz refresh rate at 4K via either modern DisplayPort or HDMI 2? As I mentioned in "4K is for Programmers" [1] and its follow-up [2], the 30 Hz refresh offered by the current generation of 4K televisions is the principle deficiency when using them as monitors.

30 Hz is of course workable, which is precisely why 4K is for programmers, after all. :) But all of us would take a 60 Hz option in a heartbeat if it were available.

That said, I prefer the 39" form factor offered by Seiki for 4K. Around 50 inches, a computer's display should be 8K+.

[1] [http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for- programmers](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers)

[2] [http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers- redux](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers-redux)

<comment><USER16> "This site does not support Internet Explorer 8 or older."

Au contraire, IE does not support your site. Actually, I can't even test if at least it renders the page in text mode because you blocked it, end of conversation.

I'm at work and our desktops were migrated from XP this year and we're stuck with IE 8, beucase it's "compliant" (with what, I wonder). I can't even load the cached page from Google...

This is very annoying, the site is just a blog, not a complex webapp that must ensure correct rendering and JS execution.

<comment><USER15> Sorry about that. I'll make it a point to remove that too-forceful block soon. In the meantime for what it's worth, you can read the ramblings via the RSS feed: [http://tiamat.tsotech.com/tiamat.rss](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/tiamat.rss)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Do I want Android TV? Yet another clunky interface, yet another clunky remote, etc?

I recent got a Chromecast and now manage my TV via my tablet or laptop. I get a better experience with my tablet and would love to see TV's shipping with Chromecast built-in. I retired my Boxxee and I no longer think about buying a Roku or AppleTV.

</comment><comment><USER18> I see a few people in this thread saying you would need an amount of luck to actually get one of these, can anyone shed some light on why?

And possibly what someone might do to actually get one shipped out to Australia?

<comment><USER19> Whenever they release a new gadget, they make the announcement and then make you to wait. Their online shop has this queuing system which is super hard to get in whenever they make a new release. And it usually get "sold out" in a matter of minutes or even seconds. The majority of the consumers won't get hand on it months after its initial release. And interestingly, when this happens, usually the component price has dropped quite a lot where the price/cost ration is far less impressive. However, they still get to keep the reputation that they sell "quality" stuff at an insanely low price.

The whole process sounds like a shady business to me, but apparently they grow super fast with this kind of strategy. So yeah, I guess what do I know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> As for all the too-good-to-be-true Xiaomi products, you have to enter a lottery draw before you can actually buy one. The chance of winning is pretty slim.

<comment><USER21> You can easily find a all new resale with 10% more on Taobao. It is still a reasonable price. You can consider Xiaomi outsources retails.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'd love this as my primary monitor for work. Finally the perfect Monitor for a tiling window manager.

</comment><comment><USER23> 49" is fairly small for a 4K TV; you have to sit quite close to be able to perceive the resolution difference and get the IMAX fill your peripheral vision effect.

[1] gives an ideal distance of 1 to 2 meters.

Gamers often do sit that close, so it would be interesting to see how well it does as a monitor replacement, like the 39" Seiki's that some are using. 49" UHD is the same as 4 24.5" 1920x1080 panels so would not need any sort of scaling in legacy operating systems.

1: [http://referencehometheater.com/2013/commentary/4k-calculato...](http://referencehometheater.com/2013/commentary/4k-calculator/)

<comment><USER24> Amusing experiment: have people hold their two index fingers in front of them aligned with the sides of their TV, with their elbows bent an 90 degrees. I find people tend to sit progressively further away from a screen the larger it is, so the screen size proportional to their field of vision remains the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Article link should be to here: [http://www.mi.com/mitv](http://www.mi.com/mitv)

This article is linking to a 2K tv:

From main page: "Mi TV is virtually frameless. We use one of the best panels from Samsung and LG to create a 47" 1920x1080 Full HD television with a super slim profile and an 8.4mm frame"

From specs page: "Size47" Resolution1920×1080(1080P)"

Maybe $640 is a great deal for an android TV with all these features? I don't really know, but it's a very different thing from a $640 4k TV, like the Seiki.

</comment><comment><USER25> It isnt 4K!

      Samsung and LG to create a 47" 1920x1080 Full HD

<comment><USER26> It is, check the Chinese site: [https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&...](https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv&edit- text=)

<comment><USER7> Different display completely than the one linked here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Is this actually possible? Can they really make a 49-inch 4k screen with a Snapdragon processor, etc., for $640?

<comment><USER28> No retailer good relationships with the factory bulk buying No marketing costs

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Does this have a TV tuner? I thought a tuner was the difference between a TV and a monitor.

</comment><comment><USER30> We changed the url from [http://www.mi.com/en/mitv](http://www.mi.com/en/mitv), which as countless users have pointed out in this thread, did not show the TV in question.

</comment><comment><USER31> Anyone put its traffic through Wireshark to see what it's up to yet?

<comment><USER32> _Why?_ Are you implying that it's going to do something nefarious because it's made by an Asian/Chinese company? How would you feel if people said that about American products? Maybe I should be scared about getting irradiated from American products because Americans have killed a metric ton of people using nuclear weapons within the last century?

<comment><USER33> Don't be an ass. [https://spideroak.com/privacypost/cloud-security/is-your- sma...](https://spideroak.com/privacypost/cloud-security/is-your-smart-tv- spying-on-you/)

<comment><USER32> You could have just linked to the article in question, rather than calling me an "ass". But thanks.

<comment><USER34> Don't be intentionally obtuse, then. Ass is a bit ambiguous.

<comment><USER32> What on earth are you going on about?

What exactly was I obtuse about? And for that matter, what is ambiguous about calling me an "ass"? Especially in the tone the OP used it, which was as some sort of insult because he disagreed with my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I would love a massive 40-50"\+ monitor with the standard PPI of 94. Loads of space, with no worrying about scaling issues or ridiculously tiny fonts/icons/etc.

<comment><USER36> Yeah, honestly, my favorite coding monitor is 37" 1080P cheapo Vizio TV placed a like five feet away. The eyes are most relaxed at far distances.

4K to me sounds useless, but hey, maybe it will drive down prices and if I'm stuck with one I can half the res. or scale I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Is it just me or are they advertising it can run popcorn time a the bottom of the page?

</comment><comment><USER38> Very chip, but you would need a little(I mean very much) luck to buy it.

<comment><USER39> Why is that?

<comment><USER38> In the early sale, there's not enough XiaoMi TV been produced, objectively or subjectively. if you want to buy one, you would have to rush to buy it. it needs some luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> _47 " 1920x1080 Full HD television_

Am I looking at the wrong link?

<comment><USER26> Yeah, check [https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&...](https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv&edit- text=)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> This looks interesting. Will it come to US?

</comment><comment><USER42> Any idea if this would be sold in the US?

</comment><comment><USER43> And how would one order that?

<comment><USER44> [http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-fashion-Xiaomi- TV-3D-andr...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-fashion-Xiaomi- TV-3D-android-super-TV-root-HMID-47-IPSSnapdragon-600-MPQ8064-Quad- Core/1640139661.html)

Although I wouldn't trust that completely...

<comment><USER26> Thats the old version (v1).

<comment><USER44> you're right

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Site says it's 47 inch?

<comment><USER46> They just announced it 4 hours ago. MITV2 [http://www.mi.com/mitv](http://www.mi.com/mitv) is 49-inch. They haven't updated their english site yet.

<comment><USER47> For the lazy people like me [https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&...](https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mi.com%2Fmitv&edit- text=)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> I wonder how America's Apple will respond to this.

<comment><USER4> They won't because they don't make TVs and they don't respond to competition.

<comment><USER49> I don't know. The hideous mock-up of a 4.7 inch iPhone 6 that's been floating around certainly looks like a transparent response to the trend of larger Android phones.

Apple themselves admit that growth is coming from phones they can't compete with[0]. Their $600+ phones with 4 inch screens have been surpassed in both resolution and price.

[0][http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/06/why-apple-has-to-make- bigger-s...](http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/06/why-apple-has-to-make-bigger- screen-iphones-in-its-own-confidential-internal-slides/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> how do you get one of these?

</comment><comment><USER51> whats the refresh rate on it, couldn't find where it says about it.

<comment><USER46> "H.264、H.265支持到4K@30帧/秒". 4k@30fps</comment></comment>


The Fox Knows Many Things, but the Hedgehog Knows One Big Thing - <AUTHOR> http://www.jimcollins.com/lib/goodToGreat/ch5_p90.html

<comment><AUTHOR> see also <http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/hedgehog/></comment>


Implement Worker Modules - <AUTHOR> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1247687 <comment><USER2> Can't wait to see vdom frameworks switch to their own thread Such as [https://github.com/neomjs/neo](https://github.com/neomjs/neo)

Chromium supports it so the web will move forward, with or without Firefox.

</comment><comment><USER3> Modules are the piece of js that never ever happen.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> to be more clear: this ticket got created 4 years ago.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> In case you care about Firefox not falling behind completely, please add some weight here.

Thanks & happy holidays! Tobias</comment>


Markov mashups of Erowid trip reports and ICO whitepapers - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/icowid <comment><USER2> These are pretty good. Kudos to the Markov Curator (that should be a job title for someone somewhere).

For those not familiar with Erowid, there's this New Yorker article:

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/23/the-trip- plann...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/23/the-trip-planners)

I didn't know about it before reading it. I since have made a donation. Not because I'm a user of psychoactives but because it represents for me what the web once was and what it should be.

</comment><comment><USER3> The KJV / ICO Markov mashup linked in the bio is just as good

"Then he turned again unto the disciples, and said unto him, Get thee up to 300 users. Like our posts: 10 shares / like."

</comment><comment><USER4> For some reason this really reminds me of parts of Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling.

</comment><comment><USER5> this is just what today called for</comment>


Facebook Android Flaws Enable Any App to Get User's Access Tokens - <AUTHOR> http://threatpost.com/facebook-android-flaws-enable-any-app-to-get-users-access-tokens/102724

<comment><USER2> Facebook is doing what no developer has done before by throwing people and money at it. Maybe they should go a little slower. I don't see anyone breathing down their necks in this type of software.

But the broad concept used by Facebook is the future of mobile software, especially on Android. Instead of making apps bigger, make a suite of cooperating apps and services.</comment>


A brief history of your investors (and their investors) - <AUTHOR> http://venturehacks.com/articles/history-of-investors

<comment><USER2> It seems there might be some circularity in the bipolar returns and the "therefore, we have to bet on 1000x winners" mentality. If every bet is a huge one, a bipolar distribution is what you'd expect to get, isn't it?

Just a guess, but I wonder if that's partly due to the relatively low capital needs for technology startups compared to some other businesses. Maybe the mid-range profitable companies, the sort that will plateau at $1m/year profits with 5 employees, just aren't seeking VC funding at all, because they have enough in savings/friends/family funding to get off the ground?</comment>


Case Study of a Business Model With Built In Exponential Growth Factor - <AUTHOR> http://successnexus.com/quick-exponential-growth/

<comment><USER2> The linked page is just a short summary with some metaphors prefacing it. The real "case study" (a 5 minute YouTube video and short Q&A article) is at <http://mixergy.com/iwearyourshirt/></comment>


Remote Desktop web client now generally available - <AUTHOR> https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2018/07/16/remote-desktop-web-client-now-generally-available/ <comment><USER2> any self hosted alternatives you know of?

<comment><USER3> This is already self hosted.

<comment><USER2> It looks too convoluted and limited to win10.</comment></comment></comment>


SEC wants python code for simulations of financial instruments. See; Accelerando - <AUTHOR> http://jrvarma.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/the-sec-and-the-python/ <comment><AUTHOR> Now, if only they add a provision that enables wily coders to earn bounties on finding flaws in the assumptions...

<comment><USER2> In almost all cases where you have a prediction, you can put your money where your mouth is. If you find a flaw in the original program, you can make better predictions than it. Then you can invest in things that correlate with the correctness of your prediction (or you could just use Intrade).

<comment><USER3> This is why program trading code is such a closely guarded secret, any why this was such a big deal <http://blogs.reuters.com/archive/tag/sergey- aleynikov/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Written by cstross ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cstross> )

<comment><USER5> * waves *

(Currently stranded in Akihabara by an angry Icelandic volcano god ...)

<comment><USER6> Ouch, I'm about to pop back to the US from Saitama... why the hell are you staying in Akiba? There are plenty of nicer places to wait out volcanic doom...

<comment><USER7> Isn't Akihabara like the tech-mecca of Japan?

<comment><USER6> It is, but, well, I guess I'm just a weird nerd... you can buy the same (new) electronics at pretty much any Yodobashi Camera store, and if you're not heavily into action figures, anime, or porn, than there isn't much else in Akihabara, in terms of food or nightlife.

It's a fun shopping day, but if I was going to spend a week or two in Tokyo... well, I'd go to Osaka. But failing that, Shinagawa and Ikebukuro have better dining, Shinjuku has everything, and there's a ton of restaurants near the Tokyo station.

Although, if you want good food, and you don't feel like paying for the 'atmosphere' of a high-class restaurant, stay somewhere near a major university (Waseda, Tokyo, or Chuo). The restaurants all cater to students, which means they're cheap-ish, but not so cheap, that the quality suffers.

<comment><USER7> Interesting; thanks for the insight.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The SEC should have gone with JSON or YAML rather than XML though, as long as we're trying to keep things readable.

Otherwise I applaud this requirement for filing.

I would love to run to track the history of all submissions over time and see which are the most accurate performers.

<comment><USER9> XML has the advantage that validation is part of the DNA of the data, while JSON is useful the world of JSON validation is not mature by any stretch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _Accelerando_ available here:

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

Go. Read.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is exactly like locking the barn door after the vampire bats have bled the horse to death.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is such a good idea - and so obviously for the public good - that I am 100% confident it will not be adopted.</comment>


Efficient and Playful Tools to Teach Unix to New Students  - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1717

<comment><USER2> Full PDF available here: <http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00574783/en/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks.</comment>


Uber CEO Shielded from Stock Drop by Options Repricing - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/articles/uber-ceo-shielded-from-stock-drop-by-options-repricing <comment><AUTHOR> "The exercise price of Mr. Khosrowshahi's options was lowered to $33.65 per share by the company early last year, eight months after they were issued at $41.65. Such repricings have become rare at public companies due to fierce opposition from investor advisory firms and other investor groups. The repricing, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing but hasn't previously been reported, could cause some investors to view Uber's board more skeptically, said an investor group."</comment>


How to short bitcoins - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/69630/how-to-short-bitcoins-if-you-really-must/

<comment><USER2>
      There are only 11 million bitcoins in existence, and there
      can never be more than 21 million, so it's not a very liquid
      market. If a way ever emerges to break bitcoins up into even
      smaller fractions, that might solve the problem

Bitcoins can be broken down.

1 BTC = 10^8 Satoshis.

So 21 million bitcoins are actually (21x10^6)x10^8 = 21x10^14 units of currency.

</comment><comment><USER3> It isn't loading the right article?!

Got it: [http://qz.com/69630/how-to-short-bitcoins-if-you-really- must...](http://qz.com/69630/how-to-short-bitcoins-if-you-really- must/#69630/how-to-short-bitcoins-if-you-really-must/)</comment>


Photos with Smartphones Removed - <AUTHOR> https://www.removed.social/united-states <comment><USER2> Note that they are not photos where the cell phone was removed by Photoshop, they are just people pretending to have a cell phone in their hands. From [https://www.removed.social/about](https://www.removed.social/about) :

> _The large format portraits are of individuals who appear to be holding > personal devices although the devices have been physically removed from the > sitter's hand. They are asked to hold their stare and posture as I remove > their device and then I make the exposure._</comment>


Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros? - <AUTHOR> I came across this photo (potential casing for new MBP): http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2016/05/macbook_pro_2016_case_top.jpg
Notice the missing top row of function keys. People have speculated that this top row may be replaced by an OLED touch screen.
Comparing the above photo to the Macbook keyboard, it would seem that the top row includes the escape key: http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/11/retinamacbookkeyboard-800x484.jpg
If this is the case, any software developer that uses the escape key a lot may not be very happy. <comment><USER2> I'm in the market for the new MacBok Pro and the OLED row makes me excited, but as a Vim user the lack of an physical escape key would be problem for me.

I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl and I'm glad that MacOS provides this option out of the box, but Caps Lock as Esc is not an option for me. I hope there will be an out of the box way to map Escape to something sensible. I'd trade ~ for Esc anytime, as long as ~ and ` are accessible via the OLED strip.

<comment><USER3> > OLED row makes me excited

Can't imagine why. It sounds incredibly dumb.

Probably have to live with it since no one else seems to be able to make a really high quality laptop. sigh.

<comment><USER4> > Probably have to live with it since no one else seems to be able to make a > really high quality laptop. sigh.

My solution to this has grown more and more to be "do everything on a remote box via SSH" and then it doesn't matter what laptop I use.

I am a heavy Vim user, so this is easy!

<comment><AUTHOR> The MBP is nice b/c of the retina screen. Most laptops have crappy screens. In fact, I would go as far as saying that the MBP has the best screen by a decent margin.

<comment><USER4> I definitely have to agree, but they're getting serious competition on that front now. The Surface Pro is very close in ppi to the rMBP. Vendors are asking for this to compete with Apple.

<comment><USER5> PPI isn't everything. The quality of the glass/plastic is also an issue. My DELL 4K monitor certainly has the resolution, but it also looks like I'm staring at a textured surface because they use cheaper acid etched plastic as the anti-glare solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Back when the iPad was released, I ran a 6 month experiment to see if I could live as a developer using only the iPad and the cloud. My initial findings were quite positive, and the first few weeks were exciting and new.

As time progressed, task switching and copy/paste were obvious shortcomings due to limitations with iOS, but the experience was mostly bearable but not awful.

Towards the end it became unbearable as the escape key was so engrossed with all things unix/linux that i gave up a month early.

If the escape key is actually vanishing, I am completely confused. macOS is a unix derivative and apple has a boatload of developers. Why would they want to alienate us?

<comment><USER7> Have a blog / write up which chronicles your experiment? I always wondered if I, or anyone could do this when i first got my ipad.

<comment><USER6> Yes, but it was posted company internal and I do not have the rights to republish. What were you most interested in so I can summarize in a paragraph or two here?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I ended up with a ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen 2 -- it has a five row physical keyboard, with the top row as a virtual keyboard.

It was constantly registering touches on the top row when I didn't want them. With a laptop, I commonly rest my hand on the keyboard and touch -- but don't depress -- keys.

Today it's only used in a desktop configuration with an external keyboard.

I'm not the only one who felt this way -- see, for example, this Ars review of the gen 3, which said of the gen 2 keyboard:

"...the keyboard shed its top row of function keys, replacing them with a software-controlled touchable strip, and used a peculiar arrangement for buttons including home, insert, backspace, and delete. The result wasn't better; it was awkward."

[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/thinkpad-x1-carbon- re...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/thinkpad-x1-carbon-review-a- fine-heir-to-the-thinkpad-name/)

<comment><USER9> Lenovo has a bad track record with all things touch. For example, I have a w530 and the trackpad is terrible. Apple, on the other hand, has a history of well engineered touch hardware, especially the touchpad.

Maybe a touch strip will be great or maybe it'll be rubbish, but don't pre- judge the feature based on Lenovo's increasingly shoddy engineering.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been using an external keyboard (Realforce 87U at work. A 104 w/ Cherry Blues at home).

Other than the coffee-shop crowd, how many of you would say you're exclusively a laptop-keyboard user? Not a dig, just wondering.

If Apple offered an iPad Pro, running OSX with USB ports (or a thunderbolt port usb hub) for a physical keyboard, I would switch over in a heartbeat.

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually use my laptop keyboard almost exclusively (my setup is MBP + external monitor). I have an external keyboard that I use every now and then, but I love the portability of being able to pick up and move.

<comment><USER6> Even though I have a full desk setup with keyboard, mouse, I do spend quite a bit traveling for work. Also, its very convenient to occasionally unplug and move into the living room so I can spend time with my family if i need to work late.

<comment><USER4> I have (and when I need to, carry around) a KBC Poker when I'm traveling and it was worked out well. I don't use the mouse for anything but web browsing honestly and if I'm doing that or working late, I'm not really effectively getting any work done anyway.

I mean, I see the appeal though...it's just the typing experience on that keyboard sucks so much to me it's borderline-unbearable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's really hard not to see this as just a continuous and perpetual dumbing- down by Apple of all its products, to the point of uselessness for essentially anyone who isn't an 80 year old grandmother who's never used a computer before and needs to use skype.

<comment><USER11> On the other hand, the touch bar might introduce opportunities for more sophisticated and flexible interfaces.

<comment><USER10> Will it, though? I feel like we're in the part of history right now where - when it comes to computers anyway - we're going with what's cool rather than what works. I'd say in general touchscreens have continued to be an utter failure as a general-purpose input device, and that's why we only see it on toy devices. Anything where what you type matters still uses some kind of mechanical feedback.

Maybe with haptic feedback that'll change, but for now any attempt to move mechanical keys to touch-screens are, for me, a net negative just because of the basic facts of reality.

<comment><USER12> Toy devices? Are you not exposed to modern mobile devices?

Anyone with a child that has access to a tablet can tell you that touch-input is succeeding.

<comment><USER10> I call it a toy, you express indignation and then use children as an example.

The way children use toys is not the way adults use tools. Touchscreens have proven great for "consumption" devices like phones, and have proven pretty terrible for most everything else.

I'm not being too hard on them I should say, but anyone who thinks traditional input devices will be replaced in general purpose computing with touchscreens ignores decades of history and basic physical reality.

<comment><USER13> How does your hypothesis square with the physical reality that a declining share of users use non smartphones for ANY type of computing activity, and sales of touchscreen only devices exceed sales of keyboard controlled devices by an order of magnitude (with that gap growing every year)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Apple could easily persist an ESC virtual button in the same spot. Or provide a user setting to do so.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think they'll absolutely do this (assuming there isn't a physical ESC key). But, I think the experience would suck for users that are hitting ESC all day (e.g., vim users)

<comment><USER11> If I were them, I would have kept the physical ESC and power keys at either end and fit the touch bar in between.

They still could; the part in that picture might not be final. (It probably is though.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think they'll just replace the tilde key with the escape key if the photo is a new MBP.

I press escape OFTEN, but tildes rarely. For the most part its to get into consoles in games or other dev functions - I could see myself losing it and not being too sad.

<comment><USER12> The tilde key is also the ` key. (I have no idea what the name of it is).

That's used in markdown and ES6 pretty commonly.

Losing that key is a problem for me.

<comment><USER15> Backtick. It's also used in bash scripting; and in Slack and presumably some other chat services it's used to delimit quoted code (forcing monospaced output).

</comment></comment></comment><comment> a-no-n If there's no hackable non-Retina-like model with user-upgradable to 16 GiB of memory and dual SSDs, the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) MD101LL/A will be the last MBP I buy. Overpriced, soldered-on memory is BS.

</comment><comment><USER16> I use VIM. I will not be upgrading to the newest apple products. I think I'll phase them out instead.

<comment><USER17> Maybe you should wait until the products are released before judging them.

Also, a VIM user that actually uses the escape key? I don't know how you tolerate that. I bound jk to escape years ago, and in the rare case where I'm ssh'd into a machine that doesn't have my vim config I still find ^[ easier to type than escape (which is probably because I bound caps lock to control so ^[ is easy to type).

<comment><USER18> I don't use VIM a lot, mostly when committing stuff in git, so I'm quite naive about it.

How would you get out of insert mode by writing jk? Or, how would you write jk in insert mode without exiting?

<comment><USER17> Add the following to your .vimrc:

      if !&insertmode
        inoremap jk <esc>
        snoremap jk <esc>
      endif

(the insertmode bit can probably be dropped, but it's technically correct)

With this mapping, typing "jk" in insert mode acts as if you'd hit escape instead (so it doesn't type the j or the k). To type jk in insert mode without exiting, you either wait a second after hitting the j (once it shows up on screen you're good) before hitting the k, or if you're impatient you hit another key and then hit delete before the k, e.g. "jj<delete>k". The reason this mapping is popular is because "jk" is extremely rare to type in insert mode; you usually only type it if you're typing out the alphabet, or if you're talking about how you map jk to escape.

The only annoyance here is if you type j by itself, you don't actually see the letter show up immediately. This is because Vim is waiting to see if you're going to type a k. If you type nothing, after a second Vim will timeout and decide you're not invoking the jk mapping after all (and will then show the j). Or if you hit anything besides k then you're obviously not triggering the mapping. You can observe this behavior with any other multi-character mapping you might have as well (e.g. anything with <leader> or <localleader>).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What about the up and down arrows? There's only key there in your first image..

<comment><USER11> The up and down keys are half-height without a spacer between them. Together they take up the same space as one letter key. That's the way it has been on Macbooks for a while.

The change on that keyboard is that the left and right keys are now full height; they used to be half-height with a half-space above.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Hm, how long until there are Linux drivers for this ?</comment>


Amazon: Keep small seller exception "very low" in tax law - <AUTHOR> http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/11/amazon-keep-seller-exception-very-low.html

<comment><USER2> Yeah, like we should be listening to Amazon.

They won't allow non-pro merchants to collect sales tax and they charge 3% to collect taxes on pro-merchants.</comment>


Ask HN: What is your biggest business pain point? - <AUTHOR> I'm on the hunt for business problems. What are business problems that you will pay for a technology solution? <comment><AUTHOR> came across this by @joshkaufman [https://vimeo.com/71250239](https://vimeo.com/71250239) , "shut up and take my money". A framework on coming up with ideas and validating them

</comment><comment><USER2> I'm with you man. What we need is a way to get in front of CEO's, presidents and managers, get their attention and listen.

<comment><AUTHOR> indeed many problems are locked in exec chambers.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What API to the physical world do you wish existed? - <AUTHOR> Inspired by the recent post on the startup that turns your emails into physical letters, I was wondering what other opportunities exist like this. What service do you wish you could initiate online (through an API or otherwise) that would have a real-world outcome? <comment> mike-cardwell I'd like to be able to pay other people to phone up companies on my behalf to do things like closing accounts or changing my address on accounts. Ie, so I could go to a website and fill in a quick form with the following info:

Phone water company X on phone number N Close my account Information you might need: My name is Y, my account number is Z, my address is A and my password is B

I hate having to speak to people whos job it is to try and stop me achieving my goal, ie cancelling accounts. And having to wait on hold, and having to phone back when the call queue is shorter. etc

I guess you could create a dedicated API wrapped around Mechanical Turk, and then stick a website in front of it.

<comment><USER2> I'd like a trustworthy and central repository for my current billing/mailing address that all the big companies simply "subscribe to". When I move, the update should be pushed to every bank/magazine/delivery company.

<comment><USER3> How about just never changing your address? I use Virtual Post Mail but there a a bunch of companies offering virtual mailing addresses. I couldn't be happier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's not very realistic, but my body health status API would be awesome: see what vitamins or minerals does it lack, body temperature, level of cholesterol, blood pressure, levels of hormones. That would allow to create insanely useful and impactful applications!

<comment><USER5> Yes, this! For years I have been complaining about how silly it is that I know far more about the day to day condition of my vehicle than I do about my own body.

<comment><USER6> Yes, the fact that I have to physically go to a doctor is absurd. I want real- time feedback of how bad (or good) the meal is that I'm eating right now, as I'm eating it. I want to get warnings and reminders of the vitamins and minerals that I'm low on. Even hydration. Everyone says that if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. Getting in the habit of staying hydrated is hard work. Little help here?

I suspect that most of this stuff will have to wait for nanobots. Any way we can do this sooner?

<comment><USER5> I don't think we need to wait for nanobots, the technology is already here now to accomplish real-time monitoring. Here is one example for blood glucose monitoring implant: [http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/wireless- im...](http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/wireless-implantable- glucose-sensor-could-revolutionize-diabetes-treatment)

<comment><USER6> Implant is 1.5 inches wide and half an inch thick? No thanks. I'll wait for the nanobots.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Get realtime satellite pictures of any geo coordinates as shown in Hollywood movies, govt/military probably has access to it, but if it was available then people can see how humans are treating earth and its ecosystem, this can lead to sustainable development and can help a lot in natural disasters

<comment><USER8> We're not too far off: <http://urthecast.com>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Shopping. Plenty of places in the UK have online shopping with home delivery but the interface is terrible. If they published an API someone could do a proper job of it. I would pay a fair bit of money for a weekly box of food with a list of recipes for each day so I don't have to make decisions. Even better if I can thumbs up/down each meal and the system learns what kind of food I like.

<comment><USER10> I am a web developer at Ocado. I have forwarded this on to my boss. Realise, of course, that this isn't simply a matter of releasing an API.

I do like the idea of a system that learns recipes that you [probably] like, and sends you their ingredients and a recipe every few days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Not sure that this really counts as an API, but I'd like a converter between things in my life which require polling and a push sort-of interface. Here's an example: I ordered some things from eBay, and I'd like to confirm that they arrived in one piece. After clicking "buy it now", I have to somehow remember to confirm within a couple of weeks that the items arrived. I used to add a calendar task N days out with a note like, "ensure delivery of XYZ". However, I've fallen off the wagon on this of late. The fundamental problem is that there is no ebay-originating tickler event which lets me know that it's time to validate delivery. As an analogy, I think I'd like a way to add cron jobs for my life. Imagine your phone asking you, "Hey, did your package arrive?" If you affirm delivery, nothing more happens. If you say no, a task gets added to your todo list to figure out what went wrong (wife mis-placed package, etc.). You can also say "bug me later."

I'm not sure that I've done a good job articulating what I want, in part because I only have a vague notion of what would help me out. I do know that keeping all sorts of "polling lists" in my head (or even in a calendar/todo list) is very stressful. I'd love to offload the work of remembering this stuff to a trusted assistant.

What other things in life are missing async callbacks?

\- Cancelling X service before it auto-renews next month/year/whatever \- Generally, any task with the word "confirm" in it \- Audit-related tasks such as making sure my client writes me a check for the amount I invoiced.

One could implement basic "tickler" functionality at first without any back- end integrations and then build one-off interfaces for common use cases -- for example, use the eBay API to observe purchases I've made and add ticklers based on the auction's stated delivery dates. Maybe this service also grabs tracking numbers and digs a level deeper for you. "Remember to grab your package from the front porch -- there's a 90% chance of rain tonight!"

<comment><USER12> A simple todo list with a "later" option could do that. I.e. you write

      "Receive package" (Report in 2 weeks)

So, your todolist is empty but you can safely remove that task from your mind as it will remind you in any due time. (I.e. 2 weeks in this example)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Object retrieval. Little helicopter UAVs that can buy you a pencil or a granola bar, or pick up a flash drive or some paperwork from your house, and fly it out to you.

<comment><USER14> We'd slowly turn into that lost human civilization from Wall-E.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'd like an API for places that have bad customer service. Ideally, there would be an automated boxing glove set on the customer service representative's desk, that I could tap into in the case of bad customer service, and I could bop them in the face. There's been several times when I'd like to reach through a computer or phone and hit them (Note: I'm not an especially violent person). Those companies could monazite the process and make money off their poor customer service (There's been times when I'd definitely pay for that).

<comment><USER12> Or the inverse.. if you've got a good service, you opened up your iphone and just click "Nice service"; it's indirect publicity. You could go one step further and click the name of the employee. So, it'll be a kind of "Employee of the month" in a less cheesy way.. customer decides instead of the boss choosing someone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> undo

If you are truly God, please implement ASAP

<comment><USER17> Ha, wouldn't that be a useful function. Extremely dangerous as well. I could see people using it and violating causality in ways unimaginable.

<comment><USER18> More thermodynamics than causality. Most physical processes are reversible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> An Errand and Task API. Child shuttle/delivery API. Hardware store parts-in- stock API.

And, because I'm in Seattle....a Weather API (with CRUD capabilities.)

<comment><USER20> Hrmm... sat here thinking about the question, then thought 'a weather API would be nice, let me see if anyone else already answered that'.. ctrl-f weather.. oh great, the one guy who mentioned a weather API is also from Seattle.

<comment><USER19> I think this is simply validation of the idea...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Google Maps for retail stores. (Standing in a store): "Is X in stock?" "on which isle is X located?"

</comment><comment><USER22> I want search functionality at the grocery store.

</comment><comment><USER12> "Search into what I'm currently looking right now". I'm at the library, I need to find the number "x8iz8x7c8z" somewhere.. meh, lost of time. I'm at the grocery store searching for a particular cheese: "Search moz". I'm driving and I want to find a particular street.. "Search [street-name]" and when it's in my vision, it'll be shown.

Basically, a small camera on my ear or something that watch in real-time with AI to recognize text. And then, a small 'bip' + a red light pointing to it.

<comment><USER23> In other words, you want to be the Terminator.

Join the club.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> GeoLocation for Keys. (literal keys)

<comment><USER25> There's a few devices like this out there, usually with a limited range and audio-only alerts though: [http://www.amazon.com/EZ-FIND-Item-Design- Electronic-Locator...](http://www.amazon.com/EZ-FIND-Item-Design-Electronic- Locator/dp/B004FVFGMW/ref=pd_sim_e6)

Full geolocation would be quite a bit harder, what would be the use case where you'd need to, say, plot the location of your keys on a map?

<comment><USER24> Yeah.. Totally Agree.. Geo Location is like absolute file path (absolute co- ordinates on the map), but, relative path (relative to the user) is more sufficient here..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Google is pretty much working on this: telling a car to go where I want it to go.

</comment><comment><USER27> I'd like each parking meter to have an API. When you park, you tell your phone what the API endpoint of the meter is, via QR code or whatever. Then you can continue to monitor it, and pay the meter, remotely. Or if there are ordinances forbidding parking more than N hours it alerts you.

Probably wouldn't happen as cities are addicted to parking ticket revenue, and there are unionized meter readers.

<comment><USER28> Parking meters are often designed to Make long term parking inconvenient and make short term parking available.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> A find() method for physical objects that'll return co-ordinates of where it's located. Very useful for locating people as well.

<comment><USER29> I guess it can be done using some combination of RFID/Building Map, GPS/Google Map and an app(mobile/tablet/web) to manage it all.

We need cheap, mini(or sticker like)RFID/GPS systems, so that we can just stick it to the items we want to track.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> A bit different. I think every person should have their own API. Something standardized. This would be all their data and different methods/permissions to access it. Furthermore you should be able to host/move this data where ever you like. Any service can have read and/or write access to your API depending on your preferences.

<comment><USER31> You _want_ to live in the Matrix?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'd like to be able to ask a question to the planet (Or at least anybody who's ready to answer it _right now_ ). So I ask:

"What's 2.2kg in lbs" (0.10cent)

Someone on their computer just google it, type the answer and receive 0.10cent.

So basically, it's IRC + Stackoverflow but in real-time and you pay to get the answer _now_ without searching. People could wait for the metro or the bus with their phone and see the questions and could click [answer] if they know the answer (or know how to get it really fast) or [next] to get another question.

Ideally, an expert in a field could make real money in situations where he/she would lose their time. Waiting in a queue to pay? Just answer 1 10$ question. Waiting at the metro/subway? Answer a couple question.

Looking for the name of a street? Lost? Searching for ketshup in the grocery? Just ask and put your price.

<comment><USER32> Aardvark did this: <http://vark.com/>

<comment><USER12> Cool but sad :( <http://blog.vark.com/?p=379>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Learning: A matrix-like api would be just great.

</comment><comment><USER34> Money.print(currency, amount) → Banknote or nil

</comment><comment><USER35> google search on books - on the back cover.

I'd like a digital wall paper on my walls so that I could change how my walls look every day.

</comment><comment><USER36> not really an API, but related: touchless/cardless ATM:

an App on my phone which I can use to find the nearest ATM and make a withdrawal. It knows my account credentials. I tell it how much cash I need. The app generates the transaction, encodes it in the QR code. I show the phone screen to the ATM's camera. The ATM dispenses the cash, takes photo of the person receiving the money and attaches it to the transactions log/statement.

No germs exchanged, no risk of skimming, more security (password vs. 4-digit pin code), no need to carry the ATM card around.

<comment><USER37> You're worried about catching germs from an ATM?

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I want an API to tap into time itself. Eventually, I'd want to be able to travel through it, but in the beta I'd settle for just the ability to pause it whenever I like. :)

</comment><comment><USER39> My brain.

<comment><USER40> yeah i'm working on that one. soon enough friend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Prices of auto services local to where you live (e.g. oil change).

</comment><comment><USER42> I would like:

1\. An API to connect to non-profits and donate to them.

2\. An API to retrieve college textbook information..like what are all the courses for the fall semester and their required textbooks.

</comment><comment><USER21> What are the (non-spoiled) contents of my refrigerator?

</comment><comment><USER43> Well I'd like a search function. I'm sure it's possible somehow, you need cameras everywhere and / or microships in everything.

</comment><comment><USER44> Chicks, man...

<comment><USER2> you mean... a... Woman Decoder?

<comment><USER45> No need to decode if you can call API methods, receiving proper replies. You start learning (reverse engineering?) the subject's behavior based on responses to methods.

OK, I'm thinking as I type. The API must represent a functional system (i.e. function calls do no have side effects, produce the same output given the same environment) for RE to work. The first million iterations of such an API would not 'feel' functional because humans tend away from rationality (insert gender-prejudiced joke here.)

I suspect that once you get down into the tiniest bits of the human system (quantum behavior in brains, if indeed that's even necessary for consciousness), you can get much more functional results. Then, that gets us into eliminating chaos (replacing it with knowledge) in complex systems.

Consider: knowing how that precise collection of molecules (that tasty roasted meat, whose chicken was raised on marigold petals but once ate a bug or three) will affect the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems of a human; initially when the odor affects the receptors in the nose and ultimately after digestion has done its job and delivered all the tiny chicken bits to cells in the human body. And between those times, how anticipation from delayed gratification ("we'll wait for Grandma to arrive before we eat") affects the effects of the food on the human. And from here, chaos theory...

I pontificate muchly and pointlessly, but it was fun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> An API to pick best developer who can write code on my behalf :-)

</comment><comment><USER2> DVRs. For when I space out in long lectures or meetings =)

<comment><USER47> Definitely my cable box/DVR. Not only for better search (and ANY starch of OnDemand material.) It does such a horrible job of "DVR" functionality it's sad. Constantly clipping shows despite setting it to record minutes early/late.

Sure, I probably just need to get Google TV or Tivo, but you'd think it wouldn't be a Herculean task, y'know?

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> It would be nice to call someone's car.

</comment><comment><USER49> The Human Body. Oh wait. We already have one.</comment>


Show HN: Domain Name Generator with similar word matching - <AUTHOR> https://mixmatchdomains.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I built this using React, websockets, and node.js. React used the branch with hooks in it.

On the back end I am using these npm modules to find similar words: synonyms, moby, thesaurus, an-array-of-english-words.</comment>


Compiling a list of website monitoring tools - <AUTHOR>

What do you use to monitor your website uptime and performance? Pingdom or something else? <comment><USER2> We use Wormly for external monitoring. The one thing it has going over Pingdom is that they do outbound calls too, not just texts. It's nice to have that layer of redundancy (on top of PagerDuty + Nagios for internal monitoring).

</comment><comment><USER3> My company has tried quite a few, but in the end settled on Panopta. No false alerts which many of the others suffered from. Very helpful support staff. And pretty in-depth and complete feature set.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> We use Pingdom for some things but the UI is a bit awkward and drill-down analytics doesn't seem possible.

</comment><comment><USER4> New Relic (powerful) or Site Uptime (basic and cheap)

</comment><comment><USER5> NewRelic is good</comment>


I've made an open source flappy bird clone - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy-bird Hi guys! Getting a ride on all the hypeness involved on Flappy Bird game, i've created a clone of the game, with almost all the elements involved in the game, using MelonJS , a fantastic javascript game framework. Hopy you guys enjoy!<p>https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy-bird <comment><USER2> Text-only version [http://www.philome.la/VideoJames_/the-pipes-are-my- solitude/...](http://www.philome.la/VideoJames_/the-pipes-are-my- solitude/play)

<comment><USER3> And a text-only version with a bit more player agency [http://jsfiddle.net/dariusk/3Evm4/10/embedded/result/](http://jsfiddle.net/dariusk/3Evm4/10/embedded/result/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is now the second Flappy Bird clone within 24 hours and sometimes I wonder what's going on in such people. Talented coders who can program like hell but are not able to find an own idea or at least to steal some neat idea and make it better.

Do they really think because it's open source or HTML5 makes it better?

<comment><USER5> This is not the second one, nor will it be the last. Kongregate alone has dozens: [http://www.kongregate.com/search?q=flappy](http://www.kongregate.com/search?q=flappy)

It's just hype. If people are motivated to learn new skills because of it, then that's a good thing.

<comment><USER6> I showed my son how to open the debugger and change the opening width in the pipes to make it easier. After he took a picture of a score >1000 to show his friends, he started to mess with all the other variables.

The he asked me to teach him how to make his own game.

Win.

<comment><USER7> now teach him wireshark and let him hack/stalck some of his friends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why is this important? What makes this different from any other open source game clone?

<comment><USER9> Somebody made a project they were proud of. Some other people liked it and upvoted it.

Your attitude is why the creator of Flappy Bird took the game down in the first place.

If you don't like a submission, flag and move on.

<comment><USER10> I don't think you're supposed to flag submissions you merely don't like.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I don't get it. This is a clone of that very old Helicopter Game. Which I played for some hours then never touch it again. What is it that people are so addicted to?

I am really looking for some clever games I could play on my phone (WITHOUT being online all the time) but everything I find and people seem to like a popping bubbles and this. This can't be it...please...

<comment><USER12> The difference is that with the helicopter game, you have control over the vertical acceleration. With this game, the control directly applies a vertical impulse. Slight difference.

<comment><USER13> This game is also _much_ harder than the helicopter game

<comment><USER14> I still find Badland much more enjoyable and interesting.

I would really like to see the user engagement metrics for Flappy Bird and Badland, compared to install base.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What developpers don't understand is that people don't actually like/want that game.

It's an inexplicable trends, even if your clone is super awesome no one will want to play it (it apply for every clone it's not an personnal attack).

<comment><USER16> I am 100% positive this was just an exercise for the developer, not an attempt at getting people to actually play his clone. It also gives code for people who wonder what goes into making a game like Flappy Bird, which I have been asked twice in the last week by people who don't code for some reason.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is Flappy Bird the new "Hello World!" for game engines?

</comment><comment><USER18> A word of warning: looks like you're using the original ("'original'"?) copyrighted assets from Flappy Bird. Legally speaking, you can't distribute those and your Github repo could be served a DMCA takedown at any time. Consider finding CC replacements.

</comment><comment><USER19> I'm currently making a clone as well. Expect it to be out in a week: [https://github.com/grant/flappy-frog](https://github.com/grant/flappy-frog)

<comment><USER20> Seems the most identical so far. The speed is perfect! I'm waiting for this... Good job!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Wow this game is really hard. 20 minutes in and my best score is 3.

<comment><USER22> Seriously I'd rather walk on coals! People who enjoy this game must be serious masochists!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> There's already [https://github.com/C0deH4cker/FlappingBird](https://github.com/C0deH4cker/FlappingBird)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice one! But this is a javascript, i guess is more easily to play/install/etc..

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Am I the only one who reacts on the graphics rip-off?

Sure, clones are okay in my POV but when it goes to a level where even the graphics are identical to the original...

</comment><comment><USER25> I think what makes flappy bird hard for beginners is that there isn't a practice mode which would let you play in invincible mode.

Dying at the first (or maybe second, third, or fourth) pipe makes it hard to get into a rhythm.

I considered making a Flappy Bird Practice iOS game, but am concerned about getting the physics right for the work you do with it to be meaningful.

</comment><comment><USER26> There appears to be a bug where you can get caught in a "death loop" on game start. Click to start the game, but let the bird fall and immediately die. Every subsequent restart of the game will lead to an immediate restart loop when you try to start clicking to play as the intro rises.

I'm using Chrome version 32.0.1700.107.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello dapak! Will check this out!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> When you die you have to use the mouse to restart. That is super annoying, I want to keep my hands on space.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello aardwolf, you can press the enter button to go back!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Somebody should do a graph of all the clones that will flood the market.

I've got twenty bucks that says there will be 50 clones across all platforms within the next 30 days.

Having said that, hell, I'll give you an upvote. Best of luck to all takers.

</comment><comment><USER29> I hate it when people mix tabs and spaces

[https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy- bird/blob/master/js/ga...](https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy- bird/blob/master/js/game.js)

<comment><AUTHOR> wow, that's a strange stuff, i use VIM with 2 spaces for indentation for js code. Will try to fix that. Thanks man!

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Me too, but mine is for iOS7: [https://github.com/joeblau/FlappyBlock](https://github.com/joeblau/FlappyBlock).

Mine was more of a learning exercise in playing with the iOS7 physics engine.

</comment><comment><USER31> I took this clone and tweaked it so that pipe gap starts out big and gets narrower as time goes by. Makes a good little coding exercise, and I find it a lot less frustrating to play that way.

<comment><USER32> Are you going to put that up on Github?

<comment><USER31> Probably not. It's only two lines of code.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I must not be cool because I find this Flappy Bird issue to be utter nonsense. This whole thing (everything relating to Flappy Bird) is asinine and unworthy of anyone's attention.

</comment><comment><USER25> Desired features:

* track high score

* Use full screen on mobile (or lock the rotation)

* friendly mobile URL

Edit: Also, not sure what score is compared to 'steps' or how to increase it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice! I am putting some sound as well. Thanks for the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Are you tempted to add a lot of source code comments, because this is an educational project?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an excellent question! I am thinking on a blog post explaining all the development process alongside with the commented code

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Anyone can share me the physic in Flappy Bird :( I'm cloning in J2ME

<comment><AUTHOR> you can check this piece of code: [https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy- bird/blob/gh-pages/js/...](https://github.com/ellisonleao/clumsy-bird/blob/gh- pages/js/entities/entities.js#L36-L46)

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> How did this get so many points?

</comment><comment><USER37> Hitbox detection is off, and the physics don't feel nearly as good. There's more to flappy bird than a bird moving through pipes.

<comment><USER38> Here's a better alternative with almost identical physics to the original game: [http://maxmcd.com/fb](http://maxmcd.com/fb)

<comment><USER39> Can confirm, is thoroughly addictive. Well done.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Is this a joke or did I completely miss the point?</comment>


New Perspectives on the Active IPv4 Address Space - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.00360 <comment><USER2> I wonder how much of this recent IPv4 address count stagnation OP is talking about, is in fact due to increasing prevalence of carrie-grade NAT as opposed to real IPv4 deployment slowdown.

<comment><USER3> I wonder how much IPv6 plays a role.

Once you go IPv6, you never go back. After dealing with the hell that is limited IPv4 address space, everything just seems so easy.

<comment><USER4> This is only true if you can get IPv6 connectivity to all your important locations. This turns out to be not so easy even in 2016. E.g. Charter Cable has no IPv6. AWS has no IPv6.

<comment><USER5> AWS has supported IPv6 on the edge for several years. What they haven't supported is IPv6 internally. I sometimes wonder if it's because they are running a home-built IP stack on custom gear, and just haven't bothered to adding IPv6 yet.

<comment><USER6> The neither the newer VPC ELBs nor CloudFront support IPv6. Not even the Route53 DNS servers have an IPv6 address. With very few exceptions, there is no IPv6 support on AWS, internal or external.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Please, is it possible for someone to write a tl;dr for non english readers ?

<comment><USER8> Read the paragraph titled 9. CONCLUSION (on page 13 of the paper).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? - <AUTHOR> Wondering where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your IT predictions for next 5 years? <comment><USER2> > Wondering where do you see yourself in 5 years?

No longer in tech (34 now). Sailing around the world with my family. Semi- retired.

> What are your IT predictions for next 5 years?

Message bots will turn out to be overrated. "AI"/machine learning won't implode, but it'll continue on in the sort of discipline as data scientists. New tools built, replacing old tools, bought out or closed down, the cycle continues. Be wary of the hype train. Life is too short to burn yourself up on things that don't matter.

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple still around, but not taking over the world. Walmart might give Amazon a run for its money if they learn to ship to customers instead of having them come to stores (postal service JV?). There's still a lot of low hanging fruit for tech companies to scoop up, but the work won't be exciting (it'll be profitable though).

Learn history, so you don't repeat it. Tech is cyclic in nature, like most things in life. The key is to make hay when the sun is shining, and save for a rainy day. Or that day you decide, "I'm out".

<comment><USER3> Did you make FU money during the last boom? I missed it. 38 now ... don't really see a path out of the rat race.

<comment><USER2> Nope, just lived below my means and invested the surplus in equities and real estate. Didn't move to SF/BA (too expensive), didn't buy new cars, don't eat out all of the time, don't buy a new iPhone every time a new version is released, no cable, no Starbucks, etc.

[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich- from-...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to- hero-in-one-blog-post/)

[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly- sim...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math- behind-early-retirement/)

With ~$600k in investment assets, you'll generate ~$24k/year in dividends. A family of three traveling the world via sailboat can comfortably live on that (note I mentioned "semi-retired"; I still plan on doing consulting occasionally when I require topping up the freedom chips account).

<comment><USER4> I wish everyone in the developed world understood and internalized this perspective. That goes double for software engineers, who are well-paid relative to the median wage almost anywhere in the world.

The rat race is totally opt-in. If you're getting paid as a software engineer in the USA[1] and you're making market rate for where you live, you can easily save >>50% of your salary and retire in 10 years. And really, what you're buying with those savings are options. If you love what you're doing, no one will force you to quit once you've accumulated FU money. For me personally, even money says I keep on working in my same career with little change. But the point is that it then becomes _my_ decision, not something imposed on me. It changes your perspective (and stress level).

[1]: The US is an unusually good place for software engineers from this perspective: by moving from London back to Seattle I was able to nearly double my market rate while modestly lowering my cost of living. But even in London, it was possible to save a substantial fraction of each paycheck.

<comment><USER5> I say the same thing every time this comes up: I don't want to live like that, and neither do many, many people.

I like driving nice, new-ish cars, eating out, using the latest technology, drinking Starbucks or whatever coffee I want and having fun, even if it isn't cheap (when I can afford it). I'm not alone here.

I'm glad you've found a way to enjoy life on little means, but trying to say that it's the best way to live is disingenuous.

$600k in savings and investments means nothing if I'm not doing things I don't like. Money is made to be spent.

<comment><USER2> It's entirely true money is made to be spent. I'd just rather buy my own time back instead of spending it on unnecessary luxury items.

But then, I don't feel sorry when someone has to work their entire life to retire; that's their choice too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In my younger years, I had a neatly mapped out plan of what I'd be doing in 5, 10, 15 years.

I'm in my 30's now and I've come to realize that it's nice to have a plan so you can test out the waters, but just as important is to adjust to the new information you acquire every year about both yourself and the world (I didn't do this well at all in my 20's).

So I really have no idea what I'll be doing in 5 years. It'll likely have something to do with technology, and it'll be something that interests me and find to be worthwhile (for me personally, that means Snapchat-like things are a nonstarter), with smart and pleasant colleagues.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is a good chance for some self-reflection!

I'd like to be living somewhere with better weather than New York City. Also with more outdoor and recreational opportunities. I get really, really depressed every year between like December and April except for skiing and 1 or 2 other winter activities that keep me going. But the dreariness and hibernating bother the f*ck out of me. Yes, I know it's all about what you wear out and not the weather but really...it's not, at least for me.

I'd imagine that I'll be married to my current girlfriend. I love her deeply and it seems like that's the path I'm going to take at this time <3.

As far as work - it would be really cool if it was cyclical. Spend 2 or 3 months on, 2 or 3 months off. Working on writing code and making things happen for myself or other people. Have enough in the bank to work only when I have to only on projects I care about but still own the house I've always wanted to.

Speaking of that, I'd also either like to have bought the land and started envisioning or to have actually built by dream home, a modern house that's kind of like the one from Ex Machina, in nature and completely automated! Cliche, I know.

In an ideal world, I'd be working in some capacity to get us off this rock. Kind of hard to transition from web dev to space though, I think? Haven't tried it yet, might be time to soon.

All of the above is said knowing that I already have a much better life than most and I'm not really entitled to more, but I'll work for it and try to get it like any other human.

As far as IT - I agree with a commenter below. It's cyclical and not too much will be new. I do think something will have begun taking more of a foothold that will replace mobile phones, either AR or VR based. Otherwise probably not too much will change. Which is sad because progress is just too slow for me.

<comment><USER5> Hey! I was you last year. Hated NYC for a long time but feared getting out. I eventually cracked and just started looking for jobs in the DFW area. Took me about three months, but we made it and are getting married next year!

It's possible!

<comment><USER7> Thanks for the reply!

What made you choose Dallas Fort Worth? Where are you and your wife from? Congrats on the move!

<comment><USER5> Sure!

Much warmer weather. Very very VERY little snow. Amazing roads (I love to drive). More value for my rent money. "No state income tax." (This benefit will go away once I start paying property taxes if we ever buy a home here.) Lots of opportunity for learning how to start a business. (Lots of businesses here; many are non-tech, which I am fine with since tech companies are kind of overrated and there are plenty of big markets to tackle outside of tech.) Wife is from nearby and some of her family is here.

<comment><USER7> Very interesting. Sounds like the main reason is that your wife is from nearby though with tangential benefits?

<comment><USER5> Actually, no! That was icing on the cake for me. (I didn't need to "sell" the move to Dallas!)

I love uncomfortably hot weather, and Dallas has plenty of it during the summer months. I also hate winter, which Dallas has very little of. (We had a proper winter between November and early February, approximately, with one episode of snow that shut everything down.)

I also wanted to take advantage of Dallas's better, cheaper real estate, especially since I knew I could find a job in tech that would pay more than jobs in NYC. (My hypothesis proved to be correct --- my current salary is $10k more than what I made in NYC.) When I eventually start my business, I intend on starting it here. I have no desire to be in the Valley. I want to try as hard as I can to make something that will have investors coming to me, not the other way around. (i.e. get access to capital for essentially nothing)

Since "better" is relative, I always valued space and privacy over proximity and location. It is much easier and cheaper to get a home with a nice amount of land than it is in the NYC Metro. I would have closed already if it weren't for the amount of debt I have outstanding, but it is what it is. I love our current apartment but am afraid that we are going to be unable to afford a house when I'm ready to close and I generally hate maintaining anything myself and the complexity of real estate and taxes therein.

I've been planning a move to Texas since 2012. I could have done it in 2010, but I decided to stay for an awesome job opp in NYC (which proved to be the right choice at the time; I am extremely thankful for my time there). The opportunity rose again in 2013, but I stayed for a girl. (We're getting married --- in Dallas --- next year.) I had false starts in 2014 and 2015, but I finally decided to "just do it" in 2016.

Took me three months to find a job with the same take home pay; it is surprisingly difficult to find a job 1300 miles away from you! I felt pretty worthless during that time, lol. But I did it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It will be more or less the same. New frameworks, languages and what not will show up with huge hype and then disappear in next few months or few years. Vast majority of black matter developers will continue with writing enterprise CRUD apps in Java or C#.

For myself, application that I am maintaining will turn 30 years old (Delphi 5 app) and I will probably continue working on supporting few more Rails apps as well. Oh and vineyard I planted this week, will finally give me first harvest.

</comment><comment><USER9> Looks like many people are hoping for the FU money.

If you are living in SF, you have FU money already. It's just a matter of the choice of your lifestyle. And you only need to consider those comfortable ones.

I'd say if you don't enjoy coding, stop right away. If you're smart (and there's a good chance you are if you're coding), you will easily make a living. Possibly doing something that brings you pleasure. If you do enjoy it, why would you plan to stop.

</comment><comment><USER10> Graduating grad school hopefully. Hopefully will have sweet abs and a bunch of publications and a post doc lined up.

</comment><comment><USER11> If all goes well, within 5 years Fogbeam Labs will be generating revenue, to a point that I can quit my current job and work on running Fogbeam full time.

<comment><USER12> I was curious enough to google it, and my unsolicited feedback: After skimming your site for 2 minutes I have no idea what you're trying to sell. I assume I'm not the audience you're targeting.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, the site needs some work. It hasn't been a top priority for us lately because the products themselves are still pretty far from where we want them. That said, I have a TODO on my list to rewrite a lot of the verbiage on the webpage, create explainer videos, etc. It's just a question of time and resources.

That said, it may also be that you just aren't in the target market. The products we sell are all tools for enterprise knowledge management, search and collaboration. Think "alternative to Jive Sofware products" or "alternative to Yammer", etc. If those terms mean nothing to you, then you're definitely not in the target market.

<comment><USER13> Just FYI, your site is down now. I'm getting a 404 when I try to navigate to [http://www.fogbeam.com/](http://www.fogbeam.com/)

<comment><USER11> Aarggh... Linode rebooted the VPS and Apache didn't auto-start for some reason. It's back up now, FWIW.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I will be preparing STOMT for IPO.

AR/VR will be on the hype and it's getting easier to develop AR layers. Advertising has founds its way into it.

</comment><comment><USER15> I see myself living in a new home that I built myself.

I see myself living on primarily 'passive' income from past investments--an established B&M business, mostly (it's 7 years old now), and hopefully a side- project will be generating some 'lifestyle' revenue by then.

I see myself building out a more self-sustainable lifestyle where I live, with some things like a greenhouse, small livestock (rabbits and chickens). I see myself building systems to make these also as passive as possible.

I see myself with a young child, easily the most exciting prospect.

All of these things are already on course, so I'm not just daydreaming!

Tech predictions: Who knows? In 5 years I don't expect a major shift. Mostly just a massive pile of javascript libraries. I think FB will start a downward descent which ends in them being dethroned. The current ecosystem of FB & Google knowing every intimate detail about us is not sustainable.

</comment><comment><USER16> > Wondering where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Some sort of low-level healthcare job. I'm in school for IT and almost have my bachelor's degree, but I don't live in a tech city and am unable to move. Centralization of remaining jobs combined with outsourcing of lower-level jobs means I'm having a really tough time even starting my career. I'm going to complete my degree, but I'm not hopeful of my prospects.

> What are your IT predictions for next 5 years?

I'd bet centralization of remaining jobs and further outsourcing may drop wages for the workers, and corporations alone will be the ones to benefit from this streamlining. Many industries on the web are winner-take-all(see youtube, facebook, reddit), and I see no indication that this trend will continue.

</comment><comment><USER17> I won't be in a position to say FU but will hopefully have the flexibility to spend a little more time staring at the sky rather than at pixels.

In contrast to other posters that expect more of the same in IT, I think we could see the start of a drastic change in hardware towards heterogeneous processing e.g. merging of processors and memory, more integration of specialised components e.g. DSP, FPGA, with CPU as coordinator rather than main focus. It's already starting to happen.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'd be interested to see where my current company is at in five years. The growth has been pretty impressive - but I'm wondering which employees will still be around (if they take care of their employees enough to keep them around)

Aside from that I'd like to be working in/on a different stack so I'm still learning. Ideally I'll find an OSS project to work on when I can, or start an interesting side project of my own.

</comment><comment><USER19> Financial Independence (FI) achieved and DONE working for other people by end of 2021. Pursuing my own projects and making a bigger dent in the universe.

</comment><comment><USER20> Hopefully still in software. Maybe working and expanding my side project and turning it into a viable business.

I won't be upset whatever happens.

</comment><comment><USER21> In the mirror.

</comment><comment><USER5> i'm currently 29.

34\. tech sales. still in dfw. larger network of interesting, influential people. >$215k base, more total. (still) happily married while giving my wife the option of not working or pursuing whatever she wants while i run the cash flow (hence that number as i am unwilling to compromise our current lifestyle).

done with student loans and car loans, though i plan on leasing one and opening another loan on another. i like cars. maybe a house. real estate is confusing and sounds like way more work than i want to do. reits seem easier.

unsure about kids. we are leaning on no.

of course all of this is subject to change, and I have approximate models of what these scenarios look like financially. but that's the vision for now

\---

five year predictions:

ar will be everywhere and on everything, especially clothes and on your face. i see apple pioneering this space. google has the brain power but lacks the focus and ability to execute.

AR ads will be nascent but a HUGE untapped market; this is what will finally make facebook usurp google. it's all about execution and google is just too neurotic with their go to markets. hopefully they will correct this.

VR headsets will get smaller and cheaper as hardware always does. VR movies will follow suit shortly since it adds so much more depth for telling stories with.

iOS + vdi = end of the laptop, hence why apple is super bullish on ipad Pro and slightly bearish on their mb's and desktop lines. the future is mobile, 100%

ford and gm will beat tesla at self driving by miles; they are slower but have super tight manufacturing and product workflows that tesla will have trouble matching at cost. which is still fine for them because they will provide the shovels (batteries) and will make tons doing it

somebody will figure out unikernels. they will become huge. linux in a binary. what a time to be alive. i can't wait; think of the absolutely insane density this can provide.

brick and mortar retail will continue to transition into real estate and amazon will continue to pick up the scraps. the writing was on the wall for a LOOOOOOONG time (barnes and noble/borders, anyone?) and the big retailers did nothing. too little too late for most.

</comment><comment><USER22> My saving will be at (or near) FU money level, so I'll either work less or work on stuff that pays less but is more interesting (robotics maybe?).

</comment><comment><USER23> I see myself creating something of value or trying.

I missed out on the last boom, but I still think there is plenty of opportunity still here.

</comment><comment><USER24> i'm going to be so high because a) my state just legalized and b) my partner is in the process of starting a farm :)

</comment><comment><USER25> Big jump in AI software development. I can't wait.</comment>


The Economist: Man who removed 47,000 instances of "comprised of" from Wikipedia - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/592576164687929345 <comment><USER2> Link to the actual article: [http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/04/johnson- gram...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/04/johnson-grammar)

</comment><comment><USER3> People really should listen to the professional grammarians and linguists before becoming monomaniacal prescriptivists.</comment>


How to make your customers feel safe - <AUTHOR> http://blog.usabilla.com/12-tricks-to-make-your-customers-feel-safe/

<comment><USER2> Not everyone wants to customize everything they buy. Being forced to make a lot of decisions can be tiring and annoying. By all means provide the ability to customize, but also provide a prominent "just give me the standard version" option for people who prefer that.</comment>


10 Facts on Poland for the Consideration of the European Court of Justice - <AUTHOR> https://verfassungsblog.de/10-facts-on-poland-for-the-consideration-of-the-european-court-of-justice/ <comment><USER2> Part of what makes the current situation so sad is that Poland pioneered many of the liberal ideals that the West later developed during the Enlightenment:

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/poland-was- shockingly...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/poland-was-shockingly- liberal-in-the-1400s)</comment>