An attempt to make a font look more handwritten - <AUTHOR> https://jvns.ca/blog/2020/08/08/handwritten-font/ <comment><USER2> Looking at the results as compared to the actual handwritten text, things that come to mind as missing:

\- Direction of the text (we don't write exactly left to right, we strive for that but end up going slightly up or down, usually correcting the tilt of one word in the next as we notice the deviation).

\- irregular spacing

\- Some letters invade the others' space (the g's for example end up going a bit under the previous letter).

The combination of those three is, I think, what gives the artificial text the feeling of being a row of invisible boxes each filled with a character. Still, the result is extremely cool!

<comment><USER3> The "connect" in the first image is going upwards I think

[https://jvns.ca/images/font-sample-connect.png](https://jvns.ca/images/font- sample-connect.png)

<comment><USER4> "Connect" is a picture of his actual handwriting; the black text is the first version of the font.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Shout out to everybody who, unlike the author, has mostly illegible handwriting and wouldn't want it immortalised in this way.

<comment><USER6> Hah, that's actually why I want this. I'm a lefty, and that pretty much guarantees sloppy handwriting. I like how using fonts makes it look so much cleaner. The only problem I had before reading this was that the results were _too_ clean.

<comment><USER7> > I'm a lefty, and that pretty much guarantees sloppy handwriting.

Is that true? Why would being lefty mean sloppier handwriting? Smudgier maybe because of left-to-right writing system, but sloppier?

<comment><USER8> Pushing instead of pulling the pen, at least that seems part of it in my case. I've seen people write 'top down', but...

Regardless, 'how people write' has typically been designed by righties. Fascists. Oh how they mock us.

<comment><USER9> Do you actually push instead of pulling for English as a leftie? I ask because you definitely don't need to "push instead of pull" for RTL languages if you're right-handed (though I'm not suggesting nobody does; I'm sure some fraction of people do), so it's hard for me to see why that would be true for left-handed folks in English.

<comment><USER6> Look at the angle of the pen/pencil when a right handed and a left handed person is writing. The lefty is indeed pushing the point into the paper. Right handed people drag it.

The lefties who try not to push it curl their wrists into that weird lefty- pose. That way does allow them to drag it. I don't do that, thankfully. It looks pretty bizarre, because writing shouldn't require such acrobatics.

<comment><USER9> I think I miscommunicated my thoughts, but I was neither trying to say there aren't left-handed folks who push, nor that there aren't ones who pull with a weird pose. Rather, I was wondering if these are actually needed, or if one could do it differently (yet comfortably). Because I believe for LTR and RTL languages, people comfortably write with their right hands holding the pen at basically the same angle regardless of the text direction. Compare [1] with [2] for instance. In both cases the pen tip points to the "north northwest" (so to speak), yet the languages go in opposite directions.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-i9yA_OHs&t=3m59s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-i9yA_OHs&t=3m59s)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwUkseFmqb4&t=1m19s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwUkseFmqb4&t=1m19s)

<comment><USER6> Yes, I see.

I worked in Riyadh for a while. When it came to numbers, since they would generally be writing in Arabic, they'd leave a gap, and then write Western numbers LtoR, before going back to the start of the number and continuing on RtoL in Arabic. That's when it hit me that people who write Arabic push the pencil in the same way that lefties push it in LtoR languages.

Interestingly I didn't see even one adopt the Lefty-hook hand with their right hand. Unfortunately I never noticed anyone there writing Arabic left-handedly. And I watched for it on purpose, because I was genuinely curious about that.

One thing though, is that Arabic letters are formed in a different way than Western letters are. I suppose Western cursive gets close - but cursive is where lefties push the pencil most, and where writing begins to suffer. (Yes, as per other comments, there ARE lefties who can be tidy. But that's like saying there are grandma's out there that can't cook. Of course you can find examples if you look for them.)

Incidentally, I don't do the lefty-hook thing either. But I'm well aware of it since it is part of so many lefty jokes, and I have seen quite a few people who do it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have a font that I made based on my own handwriting that does this. Three variants is really not enough to feel organic, five or six is.

Spending a while tweaking kerning in Glyphs helps too. When I'm using it in something, then every time I notice some bad kerning, I'll dump the text into Glyph's preview window and tweak things. It is an ongoing process. Still needs a bunch of characters, too, I think it's missing numbers and some important punctuation...

(Also looking at my blog the last time I fucked with it was probably around 2015. [https://egypt.urnash.com/blog/tag/font/](https://egypt.urnash.com/blog/tag/font/) )

<comment><USER10> I think the first chunk of code in [https://forums.adobe.com/message/1785905#1785905](https://forums.adobe.com/message/1785905#1785905) has what I used to make it cycle between multiple copies of each letter.

The "programmatically generate a lot of ligature pairs with random choices as to which variant" is clever, but I feel like it's gonna be pretty obvious - you'd get the same ligas a lot in common words like 'the' and the eye would pick that out very quickly!

(also man this font I was working on has some crazy ideas in it, I really like the 'switch to italic glyphs by putting a slash at the front of the word' idea. No faffing around with a separate font. Very weird but very useful for the case of "lettering my comics".)

One major difference in how I approached this problem was to work from an existing corpus of letters drawn with the natural rhythms of handwriting, too. I took a bunch of hand-lettering I'd done and worked from that instead of drawing each letter in a little box for a program to parse...

<comment><USER11> > switch to italic glyphs by putting a slash at the front of the word

Wait, are you saying it might be possible to implement typesetting rules by _creating a font that interprets syntax_?! As in egypturnashs-markdown- renderer-font.ttf??? That is both horrifying and wondrous.

<comment><USER10> Yep!

OpenType can do some very very complicated things; I would honestly be surprised if it's _not_ Turing-complete. But it is also one of those languages where a lot of things are _possible_ but actually doing them is pretty tedious. Take a look at some of the links at the end of my notes on this font and you'll see what kind of repetitive horrors have to be generated to do Weird Stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> open-source-ux Making a font can be very detailed process and often a slow process. I really admire font makers and type designers who put so much effort in creating fonts.

Here is a very informative and enjoyable look at how one visual designer went about creating their first handwritten font:

 _The process for making and selling a font:_

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

</comment><comment><USER6> This is great. I attempted a couple of handwriting fonts before, but could never get them to look like my actual writing which is never nearly so uniform (even if I tried). I wrote a letter to my sister who, even after mix-n- matching the fonts to make it as realistic as possible, said it looked like it came from robot-me. I'm going to try your method, because I still have application for a more hand-written looking font.

</comment><comment><USER12> I once spent some effort to make my handwriting very legible, without concern for calligraphic sensibilities. For example I had serifs on several but not all letters. Perhaps such handwriting (and similar efforts) would lend themselves more to handwriting fonts than digitizing handwriting that is not practiced for legibility. I mean: perhaps it would look handwritten when digitized more so than fonts based on handwriting not optimized for legibility (optimized in the sense of my effort). The author's handwriting looks quite legible. I wonder how they approached their own handwriting before digitization.

<comment><USER13> > I once spent some effort to make my handwriting very legible, without > concern for calligraphic sensibilities. For example I had serifs on several > but not all letters.

As far as I'm aware, it's perfectly normal to write 'I' with serifs and everything else without.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've seen this problem discussed multiple times. People want 'handwritten' fonts for one reason or another, but then once you notice identical letters you can't unsee them.

The thing about ligatures is that they don't permit true randomness, but you can cycle through a set of glyphs for a letter—if I understand correctly, you don't even need neighboring letters for that. However, people stop after adding just a few variations, and that still looks mechanical because the same letters occur many times in a paragraph. For good results, you should just keep throwing more variations in—like a couple dozens I think (maybe depending on the frequency of a letter, but then if you come upon 'QQQQQQQ Inc.', the effect will be ruined).

Also, invariably people tune kenning in 'handwritten' fonts. Why? Pretty sure they don't do that with actual writing, do they? If anything, I'd add some subtle sloppiness to the font generator's output.

</comment><comment><USER15> I often get mail from AT&T or some other big-corp with a handwriting-like font on it, but they aren't sophisticated enough to vary the letters, so it's a dead giveaway that it's just junk mail. Sadly, the day those guys manage to apply this tech convincingly is the day I'm going to end up opening a lot more junk mail.

</comment><comment><USER16> I remember back in the dark ages (before the 2000s) playing with Postscript to add random perturbations to letters in order to generate semi-convincing "not obviously printed" address labels (for competition entries.)

Occasionally it would perturb too hard and you'd end up with one or more legs of your letter at some distance. Most aggravating.

</comment><comment><USER17> If you took this to the extreme and added glyphs and rules for for each letter combination (e.g., aa, ab, ac, ad ...), that would probably get you something that looked pretty natural for text that didn't have repeated words too close to each other (since the same word will look identical).

</comment><comment><USER18> On a slight tangent, back in the day it was easy to knock up a Java GUI for an app, only to present it to a client who would then mistakenly think it was the finished product.

There was a pluggable look-and-feel for Java Swing called the NapkinLAF, which presented the UI using a pseudo hand written font and irregular lines.

Clearly writing Java GUIs have been dead for a while, but the project lives on at [http://napkinlaf.sourceforge.net/](http://napkinlaf.sourceforge.net/) and has some screenshots of what it made the GUI look like.

<comment><USER19> Yes, back when OS/app appearance was still very customisable, themes like that were not uncommon.

...and if sites which contained lots of mobile screenshots like damnyouautocorrect.com (seems to have disappeared, and I can't find anything on what happened to it...?) were any indication, it seems a lot of people like script fonts too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The introduction to OpenType options is awesome! Sounds like we could set up a font to display smart quotes while still copy-pasting code snippets as dumb quotes!

</comment><comment><USER21> It would be interesting to see if an AI can learn about the movements that trace someone's particular handwriting, perhaps it can identify and reproduce the different "styles" involved (i.e from person to person).

<comment><USER22> This problem was more or less solved with neural networks in 2013, see [https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.0850](https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.0850). I've implemented a similar model in javascript that you can interact with: [https://seanvasquez.com/handwriting- generation/](https://seanvasquez.com/handwriting-generation/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> As a highschooler, sites like Calligraphr and this advice have been a blessing in circumventing arbitrary "you must handwrite this" requirements for assignments.

</comment><comment><USER24> I've seen some interesting things done with Rune. For example: [https://observablehq.com/@illus0r/calligraphy](https://observablehq.com/@illus0r/calligraphy)

</comment><comment><USER25> Not related but your website loads instantly it's refreshing.

</comment><comment><USER26> Is there a software that draws text as if someone is writing it? each letter drawn starting from one point and slowly going to the other end, words written drawn one letter at a time.

<comment><USER22> Perhaps something like this? [https://seanvasquez.com/handwriting- generation](https://seanvasquez.com/handwriting-generation)

<comment><USER27> This is awesome. The fact that it writes the same word very differently each time is impressive. Would be interesting to know the underlying mechanics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Neat! With real writing it's nice to be able to use the random variations and patterns in writing as landmarks.

I always thought that would be useful on a screen.</comment>


Runtime.JS – Operating system kernel built on V8 - <AUTHOR> http://runtimejs.org/ <comment><USER2> This is eerily close to some of the things discussed in The Birth and Death of JavaScript[1].

[1] [https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and- death...](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of- javascript)

<comment><USER3> My thoughts exactly. I recently posted the link to that talk here on HN somewhere, and now seeing this is really creepy. Especially:

>All kernel components, device drivers and user applications execute in a single address space and unrestricted kernel mode (CPU ring 0). Protection and isolation are provided by software. Kernel uses builtin V8 engine to compile JavaScript into trusted native code. This guarantees only safe JavaScript code is actually executable.

>Every program runs in it's own sandboxed context and uses limited set of resources.

<comment><USER4> How's that creepy?

It's freakin awesome!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A lot of these ideas seem really good. I like that all processes run in CPU ring 0 and safety is ensured by the VM. It seems like this is more flexible and allows for more easily provable safety guarantees. That said, I think javascript is the wrong way to go, and especially how they're doing it. Javascript carries with it the idea of garbage collection, which is fundamentally incompatible with hard realtime systems because it can create unpredictable pauses. What happens when a driver is communicating with a graphics card over a PCI bus or with an SSD over SATA and suddenly there's a GC pause? It might miss some bytes, and in the worst case scenario, the serial data stream will still be valid and the driver will carry on like nothing happened, returning corrupted data.

I'm somewhat confused about the concurrency model in Runtime, The frontpage says it ditches traditional preemptive multitasking in favor of an event loop, but another pages says it runs a v8 isolate on each core. I'm going to assume that this means on my machine with 8 virtual cores there would be 8 parallel event loops. An eventloop for multiplexing OS processes on the timeline is simply not appropriate for the general usecase. If any process performs a CPU- bound operation, it would block all other processes in the same v8 isolate. This system is also not very good for multicore operations, it's impossible to properly balance to load on each core, leading to poor performance. Traditional kernels can run a single thread on core A one millisecond and core B the next, but even if it's possible to send a process between isolates, it would be a lot less efficient than simply remapping the address space.

I think it would be much better use LLVM bitcode instead of javascript. Instead of JIT compilation, the Kernel compiles the program to machine code when it loads it into memory, verifying that it's not using any unauthorized constructs statically. LLVM bitcode is already being used like this by PNaCl. It offers the same security guarantees as javascript, but without the overhead associated with it.

<comment><USER6> > I like that all processes run in CPU ring 0 and safety is ensured by the VM. > It seems like this is more flexible

This approach has a few issues which make it impractical for use by a real general purpose OS:

* it moves all work related to safety either to the dynamic compiler (not so bad), when it can statically prove that the code is safe or onto the critical path if it cannot statically prove it safe (which generally causes significant slow-downs). For example a traditional OS will use VM to isolate application memory (where the performance impact comes from the occasional TLB miss), while this sort of approach might require boundary checks to be compiled before many memory instructions

* the problems mentioned above could be mostly avoided by requiring use of a language or bytecode format designed to allow the compiler to use static checks, but then all your applications have to use it (which is what Runtime.JS does)

* it potentially allows more complex interactions between the OS/VM and the application compared to traditional system calls, which is the sort of things that often enough creates hard-to-predict side effects

> allows for more easily provable safety guarantees.

I don't know about that, hardware is normally formally verified, while software normally isn't. While hardware bugs still exist, there are far fewer than in software.

<comment><USER7> This approach tried in the past multiple times:

\- Mesa

\- Cedar

\- Smalltalk

\- Lisp based OS (Interlisp, Lisp Machines)

\- Oberon and derivatives

So I think at least for home systems it could work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Similar, more mature projects based around other languages: Erlang: [http://erlangonxen.org](http://erlangonxen.org) C#: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_(operating_system)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_\(operating_system\)) C#: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharpOS_(operating_system)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharpOS_\(operating_system\))

<comment><USER9> Haskell's :

\- House [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(operating_system)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_\(operating_system\))

\- HOP (House parent) [http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/299](http://lambda- the-ultimate.org/node/299) (topic recurse on jnode and others)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> They seem to be rolling their own HAL? Quite terrible if you think about it. Someone should really start a project that strips down Linux to the point that you could use its HAL for projects like these. I've heard things like USB or Ethernet drivers are incredibly hard to implement, let alone graphics drivers.

If we want a future in which it is feasible to design an operating system from scratch we really need some nice way of decoupling HAL implementations from the OS. At the moment we can't even separate graphics drivers from window systems, so perhaps it's a naieve desire.

<comment><USER11> You can forget about Linux in this regard. It is a giant bloated blob where "striping down" is very hard. On the other end there are some promising projects like [http://osv.io/](http://osv.io/) or Minix. Actually Microsoft did a good job on separating graphics drivers from everything else, to the extent when you can just restart the driver when it crashes.

<comment><USER3> This reminds me of the Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate [0]. It's interesting to see how a microkernel approach is today more useful for derivative projects and a monolithic blob like Linux is good only for distribution as Linux as a whole.

[0]: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.minix/wlhw16...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.minix/wlhw16QWltI\[1-25-false\])

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I was hoping this would be getting V8 to run on the bare metal, removing the need for an operating system underneath. That part would be very cool.

<comment><USER13> When will V8 itself be written in js and emulate a v8.

<comment><USER14> Mozilla Research did this a few years ago: [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Narcissus](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Narcissus)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> OS Kernel in JS? As seen many times before on Hacker News (And it still blows my mind) just go whole hog:

[http://bellard.org/jslinux/](http://bellard.org/jslinux/)

<comment><USER5> jslinux is a virtual machine compiled with emscripten + a barebones linux distribution. It's very different from this project.

<comment><USER16> JSLinux is actually not compiled with emscripten - it's written directly in JavaScript. There are some more notes on how it works here: [http://bellard.org/jslinux/tech.html](http://bellard.org/jslinux/tech.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What if I actually like using threads instead of that fancy single threaded event loop?

</comment><comment><USER18> A few weeks ago when coreutils was released re-written in rust, I decided to check if Atwood's Law held true for coreutils as well. At the time I didn't encounter a JavaScript version of coreutils, but with a project like this showing up, I guess it may only be a matter of time.

</comment><comment><USER19> I can't stop asking myself ... "BUT WHY?!". I'm sorry for being sarcastic, but what could be the benefit of using such an OS?

<comment><USER3> Actually, I think there's a pretty good motivation behind this.

When executing JS code in a browser, it runs inside a safe VM and can't touch any of the memory or variables that don't belong to it. However, the browser itself has to go through a lot of the abstractions and safeguards required by the kernel in order to run. Particularly, every syscall induces a context switch which costs a lot of CPU cycles. This happens on every operations that needs access to hardware, such as reading from a file or from a socket for IPC. Also, the kernel needs to update the MMU registers so it can map its own address space, invalidate the whole TLB, etc etc etc.

The basic idea here, it seems, is to avoid all these costs and build the system so the user can run nothing that isn't a VM. The VM will provide fail- safes and terminate offending code. This allows everything to run in a single address space and under ring 0, thus avoiding context switching.

This is beneficial to (and only to) code that we used to run under a browser or some kind of JS virtual machine (Node.JS servers come to my mind here). Web apps such as editors (Atom maybe?) or any other kind can now run natively and run way faster, which is very important on low-cost low-end machines, without all the overhead that they know pay twice (first to virtualize JS from everything else, and then to virtualize the browser processes). However, the raw performance that can be gained from writing fast C/C++ code will essentially be lost. The more JS code you were running before, the more a naked metal JavaScript OS will benefit you.

It's not clear to me if this will ever be necessary. What I just said is the justification of the idea, just from the top of my mind. Anyone feel free to correct me if I screwed up the argument :)

<comment><USER20> It's a cool idea, why implement it in a shitty language?

<comment><USER3> Because, sadly, everyone is hopping on the JavaScript bandwagon. But it's not as bad as it seems. There is CoffeeScript which is IMHO a considerably better language, and there is ClojureScript which brings the wonders of Lisps into JS. And for simple webapp logic I can tolerate JavaScript. It's also an uncomfortable but true fact that JavaScript is today one of the most-used languages in the realm of forward-driving forces of tech (that would be the startups). Most GitHub repos are in JS, too.

However, the lack of integers will always be my pet peeve, and I really can't imagine how could someone arrive at such a horrible idea.

<comment><USER21> Depending on your use case, you can use Int32Array

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Int32Array](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Int32Array)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> ah- >Runtime.JS uses global non-blocking event loop to dispatch tasks for the whole system. Preemption is supported by design (and by V8), but haven't been implemented yet.

How would you implement preemption in an event loop based system? Can you just stop execution of functions in the middle, run a different function for some time and then continue with the original one?

<comment><USER22> Yes, V8 supports this for contexts. Each program runs in its own context. Engine puts interrupt guard checks into every function and every loop. So its possible to interrupt context even in a middle of infinite loop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Similar project: jsos

[https://github.com/charliesome/jsos](https://github.com/charliesome/jsos)

</comment><comment><USER24> A truly OS based on a dynamic language. Beautiful. A round of applause. All the best to this project.

</comment><comment><USER25> Does this mean we can run JS on embedded systems / low cost CPU ? That would be awesome.

<comment><USER26> You would need a JS runtime compiled for your target device, or a standalone JS compiler for your target device. EDIT: Assumed you meant running JS on-the- metal. If you're running an OS then you could just have a JS interpreter (or V8) running on it.

How do you define an interrupt handler in JS?

<comment><USER7> By exposing an API on the runtime?

No different from any other language.

<comment><USER26> Except that the compilers and toolchains already exist for other languages, and --as far as I know-- don't currently exist for JS.

If I wanted to run $SOMEFILE.js on an msp430 today, how would I go about it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> See also [https://github.com/NodeOS](https://github.com/NodeOS)

I don't see any mention of node. Is the plan to implement a whole new suite of low level libraries with different APIs?

<comment><USER10> NodeOS is more like a Node/Linux, which after a while we would just call Linux because it's shorter and catchier ;)

Runtime.JS seems to be a full operating system, not just a suite of tools on top of Linux. If it gets in any usable state it would probably be possible to make a Node implementation that works on Runtime.JS. The node implementation would be pure Javascript and would be wrapping around the low level API's of Runtime.JS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Who's got my heady JS-to-ASIC compiler?

<comment><USER28> You know, I'd been considering doing a something-to-Verilog compiler for a while; with a brutally restricted subset of JS it should be possible.</comment></comment>


Crapularity Aesthetics - <AUTHOR> https://makingandbreaking.org/article/crapularity-aesthetics/ <comment><USER2> Who's bright idea was it to let web pages mess with my mouse cursor? While I'm waiting for browsers to remove this user-hostile anti-feature, I can at least fix the terrible design with Firefox's Reader View.

</comment><comment><USER3> What the heck is going on with that web page...

Replaced cursor Giant black box at the top Moving text

O_o

<comment><USER4> At first I thought it was a meta comment on the overall influx of Crap, but I think now it was meant somehow non-ironically.

<comment><USER5> This is ostensibly an art blog, so they are probably attempting a "brutalist web" aesthetic.

Reminds me of khole.net.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> They Yoko'ed that site way too far.

<comment><USER7> Lennon was a junkie and an asshole. He is responsible for the breakup of the Beatles. Yoko is a convenient target becuase she is weirder than John

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A fitting title for that webpage.

</comment><comment><USER9> We're down derp. And deep. Marie Kondo is the compelling evidence, that and "the little book of calm" and Reddit pages dedicated to memes and recursive humour

</comment><comment><USER10> The only "crapularity" that really matters is climate change (and sustainability in general). If the ecosphere is destroyed, no one is going to care about movie reboots.</comment>


4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@DaleBeran/4chan-the-skeleton-key-to-the-rise-of-trump-624e7cb798cb <comment><USER2> The first part was OK but then the writer seemed to be trying too hard to shoehorn an agenda and started changing the facts to fit the opinion.</comment>


Show HN: My new OpenVZ-oriented distro based on el6 - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I've been working on a distro that incorporates OpenVZ virtualization technology with an OS base derived from el6 upstream.  It has all the usual features of el6 (gnome2 desktop, apache 2.2.15, php 5.3.3,etc) and has an OpenVZ kernel along with OpenVZ utilities built into the distro without any further tweaking.
Here's the project URL:  http://www.classiccitytelco.com/?page_id=488
It's really a labor of love for me as I've always loved fedora/rhel and openvz but always hated the amount of time it took to get all of that working correctly when setting up a new server or workstation (from installing the kernel, the 3rd party repos, setting sysctl.conf just right, etc) and RHEL, CentOS and Scientific kindly ask not to expect support (community or commercial) when you use a 3rd party kernel.  As a result, as it's our main focus, we are offering this distribution for anyone to use free of charge.
I hope you guys enjoy it and I welcome any comments or questions that you may have.
edit: fixed spelling <comment><USER2> * What happens with the transition to cgroups, checkpoint restart? * How is openvz going to handle btrfs?

For those reasons I'm going to stick with mainline and wait as all the bits are almost implemented and the wait be within a year.</comment>


Why I Love Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/11/why-i-like-twitter.html

<comment><USER2> Don't make the mistake of getting mobile updates from him on Twitter, unless you want your phone buzzing all day :-p. Reading his Tweets are worthwhile though.

</comment><comment><USER3> hehe, <http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/11/28/whos-the-addict>

At least he practices what he preaches :)</comment>


Teach the tidyverse to beginners in R - <AUTHOR> http://varianceexplained.org/r/teach-tidyverse/ <comment><USER2> I agree with you.

Not just because tidyverse is "easier" but also because it teaches the right mental constructs to think about data.

I think beginners should spend a lot of time just thinking about normalization (Normal form and all that good stuff), and tidyverse directly encourages that.

There are some interviewers who want to test people's knowledge in the base language (particularly with Javascript), and I haven't understood that since you'll constantly be learning new libraries. It would be better to throw people an entirely new library and ask them to figure out how to use it.</comment>


Startup Lessons – A tiny little android app - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrova.startuplessonsbyharsha

<comment><USER2> Is this just an app with slides and quotes on a colored background?</comment>


Ask HN: My manager is asking me to violate MS licensing. What should I do? - <AUTHOR> The company I work for has a bunch of servers in colo running our websites. We've been a bit loose on Windows Server licenses in the past. We have some, but they are mostly OEM and a variety of versions. However, the big issue is around CALs and external connectors, of which we have none.
I had to research licensing in depth when putting together a proposal to replace all the servers. It turns out that we should have External Connector licenses, as well as about 35 CALs for internal users. We can no longer claim ignorance on this issue.
The company has decided to move fully to AWS in the next year, so the requirement has changed to keeping the colo going for 6 to 9 months. I supplied estimates to management of the cost of getting the licensing in order - around £7k. My manager has strongly suggested that his preference would be just to forget about it since it's only a few months and we've got away with is so far.
The management seem to think that MS can only request voluntary audits and that the worst case risk is that we'll be forced to buy what's required to become compliant.
My question is how I should respond to this, and what the law says. Bear in mind we're in the UK and the law may be different here compared the US.
(1) Is MS entitled to forcibly audit us? (2) If we violate the licensing, what is the worst case? Can they enforce fines on the company? (3) Is this a criminal matter, or a contractual/civil matter? (4) What is the personal liability of individuals here? Are IT/Sysadmin people able to be held personally liable in law?
We actually received a voluntary Microsoft audit some time back (maybe 18 months ago), when we had a different IT manager and a dedicated sysadmin. The sysadmin did the audit work, but then he was made redundant. MS came back with a load of queries, but our IT manager at the time just ignored it until it went away. My concern is that this might flag us up for a more aggressive audit at some point. <comment><USER2> 1) Yes. Microsoft/BSA can require/force an audit[0].

2) Microsoft/BSA can fine the company[0].

3) Civil. It is only criminal if the company was producing pirated materials for profit (e.g. pumping out cracked copies of Windows to sell on eBay). The BSA normally sues companies in civil courts and extracts license fees and fines.

4) You have no personal liability from Microsoft. Between Microsoft and the company it is a contract dispute. However arguably if the company you worked for did get sued and lose a good chunk of change, they could in turn try to sue you, but I've never seen that and it is pretty easy to CYA via documenting the issue for them.

Overall I'd say that as an individual employee you have little to no exposure (other than getting fired). As a contractor "it depends" on what you did and didn't do (since a contractor can be treated like a stand alone entity, and blame can be shifted in part or entirely onto them).

[0] [http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/applications/sme- fined-2...](http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/applications/sme- fined-24000-after-software-whistleblower-squawks-3260660/)

<comment><USER3> BSA = Business Software Alliance They can call in audits (its part of the software licencing agreement.. They are a nightmare.. A friend many years ago had to deal with them when someone was fired and dropped a dime on his company.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As long as you've raised the issue to your manager, they're responsible for it.

They've given a reason, and this includes a business case for their justification. You're neither responsible nor accountable for their decisions (which you've informed them of).

You have raised your concern.

A bigger question for me, is this a systematic thing in your company? Or just your manager? Or ripping of other things is OK too? If so, at some point there will be negative repercussion, and at that point no order of internal memos will separate you from the brand you worked with.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you've reported your concerns in writing (email), keep a local copy in a pst and take it home. CYA.

I don't know how the situation is now (US or UK), but in past years the BSA could show up in the US with warrants and a US Marshal or two in tow to force an audit on their terms.

</comment><comment><USER6> Don't they have some number to call to drop a dime on this kind of thing?

<comment><USER2> Indeed. But how is that in the OP's best interests while they still work there?

<comment><USER7> To live in an honest society, you have to insist on honest behavior.</comment></comment></comment>


Sci-Fi Author Robert Heinlein Was Basically MacGyver - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2019/02/geeks-guide-gregory-benford/ <comment><USER4> Wow, that's cool. MacGuyver is one of my childhood TV favourites and a classic character. I love how he refuses to use guns. And Heinlein is one of my favourite quotes:

> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a > hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build > a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, > act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a > computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. > Specialization is for insects.

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

<comment><USER5> Remember that Heinlein saw E. E. "Doc" Smith as a MacGuyver.

FWIW, I don't like the Wired piece. It's a second-hand description based on the views of Gregory Benford. I don't think that the descriptions given - building his own house with an unusual design, and being a good shot - <USER2> sufficient to qualify as being a MacGuyver.

Certainly there's more to Heinlein than those, like working out orbital mechanics on paper for part of a plot point.

But other than his SF writing, does his MacGuyver-ness really stand out from other mid-20th century tinkerers?

<comment><AUTHOR> Heinlein was fearless. His opinions and ideas would be 'frowned upon' in our times.

On a diff note ..There has been some difficult concepts to swallow in his books...but also so many that were mind blowing.

I love almost all of the Lazarus Long stories. The writing style and language is a tad stilted now..I guess it's because most were written prior 50s. Remarkable mind!

<comment><USER5> Your praise seems to me quite anodyne. He has plenty of ideas and opinions, some of which were frowned upon both then and now, some of which were not.

As a simple example, he was in favor of public nudity, and thought that would be the way of the future. (Eg, the idea that appropriate dress for dinner was either "formal dress or formal skin.") Public nudity was a US subculture then and now (and elsewhere; see Freikörperkultur (FKK) in Germany), and still "frowned upon".

As a more difficult example, he advocated mass decentralization of the US so that we could survive a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. He seemed to be an early form of prepper. From the low number of bomb shelters built, even in the height of the crazy, it was a frowned upon view then, and now. (Dyson, in his 'Disturbing the Universe', also points out the destabilizing effect on MADD if the US were to conclude it could survive a nuclear war.)

OTOH, some of his ideas were frowned upon then but not now. His treatment of women and minorities was complex and too complicated for a full discussion here. I do want to point out this discussion between Cronkite, Clarke, and Heinlein during the Apollo 8 moon landing - [https://youtu.be/b3LhFaPDeD0?t=1455](https://youtu.be/b3LhFaPDeD0?t=1455) . Heinlein advocates for women in the space program, and says that women would be equally good astronauts as men, and with a lower weight penalty. Clarke objects to the idea of an all-woman crew, and Cronkite agrees saying they wouldn't be able to decide which two would go down to the Moon's surface.

I suspect there are still many who frown on women in the space program, but it's far less than it was.

I give these examples to show that it is possible to highlight specific opinions and ideas of his. Heinlein expressed so many opinions and ideas, and someone who agrees with his early views that a strong world government was needed to ensure world peace (a la 'Space Cadet') might strongly disagree the view that "An Armed Society is a Polite Society".

I don't know how "fearless" is a way to describe him in a way which is notably appropriate for him.

FWIW, while LL was introduced in the 1940s in the serialized magazine version of 'Methuselah's Children', most of the LL stories were written after 1950.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think his views on nudity would have been the least offensive. Example..To Sail Beyond The Sunset was really weird and awkward in so many ways but at the same time, it is a book that I have read and re read many times. He certainly empowered many young female readers..but at the same time, there was also Friday which dealt with the difficult subject of rape. He was a feminist no doubt but he also had some antiquated ideas (like women's role in society l and the glorification of procreation). He was a femininist without doubt.

My favourite wrt his treatment of gender is I Will Fear No Evil. Was he sci fi writer or writer of social commentary? He was a legit sci fiction writer and one of my favourites is All You Zombies where he deals with the paradox of time travel and ideas like when you are your own grandparent was definitely different. His juvenile series (Have Space Suit, Will Travel) were all benign enough for young kids without any 'corrupting' thought seeds and upsetting parents. His stories about parallel worlds and lives could be said to border on metaphysical. His all encompassing free love themes might have been scandalous and pornographic at his time altho it might merely invite eye rolling or nervous dry laughter now.(I don't know..I can only imagine how it was in those times)

You are right about his contradictions but he had lived long enough to see waves of changes in society. (I might be wrong about the timeline of his various works pre and post 1950s) He was a military man and likely was always a libertarian. And likely an atheist. He was also from an entirely different era. But this theme was always to question authority and not accept what's handed to you..and always strive for freedom as a personal goal. As a girl, that was important to me and to be able to place freedom over everything else.

<comment><USER5> I don't usually think of "frowned upon" as a euphemism for "offensive", so thank you for explaining what you meant. I asked if you could mention some specific "frowned upon" ideas of his, and I'm still not sure. Was it free love? Or libertarianism? Surely not feminism, which is the third theme you mentioned.

It's hard for me to understand the full context of his later books, like TSBTS. It feels as if he is trying to be semi-autobiographical, or at least informed by personal history. The history of books like Peyton Place, and the Kinsey Reports, show that a lot of how people actually lived wasn't talked about. And of course there are communities which experimented in free love, perhaps the most famous of which is the Oneida Community in the 1800s. This makes it hard to tell how much of TSBTS reflects how things were, or if it was only a small free love culture, or it's his projection of how it should be.

When you write "empowered many young female readers", which stories supported that empowerment, and what sort of empowerment was it? I don't think TSBTS is the go-to story for women who felt empowered by Heinlein.

To make myself clear, I think Heinlein had many strong women characters. Edith Stone is a medical doctor, and Hazel a "founding Father" of Luna, a skilled pilot, and better at writing space opera than her son. Wyoh is another "founding Father", and critical to the revolution. "Jack" in 'Tunnel in the Sky' is equally as skilled as Rod - they are part of the same class test - <USER3> Rod's wiser and older sister even more competent. Holly, the protagonist of 'The Menace from Earth' and one of Heinlein's few female protagonists (in 1957 no less), aspires to be a starship designer, and is doing well at it.

I could go on, but I think this helps show that I have an idea of what I am talking about.

My observation, though, is that Heinlein shows (IMO as a white male from the US brought up in the Protestant faith) how strong women can still do well in a male dominated societies. For examples: the ship captains and judge in 'Rolling Stones' are men, and the mayors in 'Tunnel' are both men. "Jack" disguised the fact that she is a woman. The plot of 'Menace' is based on Holly's relationship with Jeff, her starship designer partner. It goes from friendship, to jealousy, to love, and at the end she's thinking about marrying Jeff and including changing her name.

Or, take "Cliff and the Calories", where the protagonist Maureen decides that she needs to lose weight because "It started with Cliff - most things do. I am going to marry Cliff, only I haven't told him yet." She doesn't think it's because of her "so-to-speak physical attributes. ... I have yet to find the girl who would swap a twenty-one-inch waist and a good silhouette for sterling merit ... a few wolf whistles never did any harm and are good for the morale."

Oh, my. And there's a line meant as a joke "if you will have that carried in by eight Nubian slaves" ... that didn't age well!

Anyway, by the end we find that Cliff loves her Rubenesque figure, takes her to the museum to show what that means, and '"What this country needs," said Cliff, "is more plump girls - and more guys like me who appreciate them." ... Cliff is such a wonderful man.'

Again, the story is based around the female's relationship with a man.

There are plenty of stories with a strong female character who isn't a love interest. Take "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel." Peewee, the genius tomboy, is more like a kid sister, though I think there's an intimation at the end that she and Kip should be together once she is old enough. Mother Thing is an extremely competent female character, whose actions are more behind-the-scenes and supportive.

On the other hand, we also find that Kip's mother was his father's "star pupil". Yet for the entire book she's there to be supportive. We have no other information about her background, and it seems like a one-off line to justify why Kip may be smarter than Peewee.

There's also the gender essentialism of "Mother Thing" and, later on, "Father Thing". One of Heinlein's other characters (Hilda? in 'Beast'? brought up the idea that males and females are two different species - something makes no sense to me.)

(I've spent too much time on this, so I'm not going to dig up my books to verify all the names now.)

There are several strong female characters in "Citizen of the Galaxy". The woman on the slave planet who helped Thorby escape. She knows how to survive in a patriarchal society, including bribes. The mother of the captain of the Sisu, which is a matrilineal culture, and the Margaret Mead character who explains is. I read this as bringing in his readings from the new results from cultural anthropology. This is one of the things which makes Heinlein's readings so distinct. The last is the woman at the end who switches her proxy votes to give Thorby the election win. She knows how to survive in a patriarchal society by being smart but hiding it as a society girl.

(See also the passenger in "Starman Jones" who is part of her planet's upper class, and who hides her chess expertise from Jones.)

So, I can agree that Heinlein is a feminist, but he sits somewhere between first-wave and second-wave feminists both chronologically and in terms of ideas. He lacks the vocabulary and concepts that the latter feminists movements would develop.

What makes it more complex is that we are seeing things often through his characters. Take the transvestites in "The Year of the Jackpot", aka, the "Silly Season" story. They are described as:

> The male member of the team wore a frilly feminine blouse but his skirt was > a conservative Scottish kilt, his female companion wore a business suit and > Homburg hat; she stared with lively interest

We soon find out that the female is also a lawyer, and are correctly suspicious of the protagonist's intentions ("Potty") towards the woman who strips on the street ("Meade"). Heinlein didn't have to make the female transvestite be a lawyer, but he did, and he describes their attire as being in good taste.

Then later on, Meade comments that the transvestites were 'characters in the mixed-up clothes' while Potty describes them as:

> male-and-female dress customs were arbitrary, but they had seemed to be > deeply rooted in the culture. When did the breakdown start? With Marlene > Dietrich's tailored suits? By the late forties there was no male article of > clothing that a woman could not wear in public but when had men started to > slip over the line? Should he count the psychological cripples who had made > the word "drag" a byword in Greenwich Village and Hollywood long before this > outbreak?

Does Heinlein consider them to be 'psychological cripples'? Or is that only the views of the character?

We then see "Or had it started with the resurgence of Scottish nationalism reflected in the wearing of kilts by many Scottish-Americans". Which ties into LL who wore a kilt.

Which ties back to 'To Sail Beyond The Sunset', because it's showing us that the culture back in the 1950s was much more complex and knotty then the simple version that tricked down to me when growing up.

This complexity embedded in his stories, even in one-off comments, is why I think it's hard to figure out Heinlein's views simply by reading his books. That's why I think you should highlight specific themes and details, rather than stick with anodyne generalizations.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow! First of all, thank you for writing this!

(Also, English is not my first language. So somethings can get lost in the English to English translations)

I agree that his opinions re women are sometimes contradictory. I can only make assumptions about the man and the times that created the man.

1\. His free love and ideas about open marriage refreshing. I do have a dim view of the notion of 'marriage' as we know it and I am not sure if its the same as Heinlein's POV re marriage.

2\. In a way, he celebrated marriages and multiple unions but it is rather peculiar in that he didn't see that as female empowerment as feminists would see it because of his view of the role of 'women' and his celebration of motherhood.

3\. The rape of Friday Jones and her sexual aggressiveness and the bizarre notion that she would end up with her rapist. I don't know if a female author would have ended the story like that. Friday was a peek into a future with Heinlein eyes ..he did that a lot...sometimes his books were a collection of ideas rather than scenes or even a plot... imagining futures and that's why he is awesome. But sometimes his gender was painfully obvious. Friday was an example.

4\. On another note, he did un-humanize Friday. She was AP..she wasn't human. She was not a human female afterall. But in the end, she had to embrace indiginities of human females to be one of them.

5\. Heinlein's girls in the Juvenile series grow up to be the same confident achieving women in the books for adults, but they wear this aggressive sexual mantle that sits uncomfortably and seems artificial. He is likely projecting his own male desires upon a female character. His female characters are almost male in their sexual proclivities. It's jarring and awkward.

It's not unlike...in a more benign way..Hollywood where the industry just doesn't know how to write female characters. There is either 'chick-flicks' or flat two dimensional women created by male writers.

I often wonder..can I flesh out a male mind with my words if I were a writer? That would be difficult. Even if I were to have a great understanding of the male of the species, I cannot possibly encompass all the types. I would have to resort to borrowing from archetypes.

Heinlein created his own female archetype but they acted like men. (I think he was able to confront that in I fear no evil.

6\. Incest with pedophilia. Very uncomfortable. Even like when it was LL with his own clones. Sometimes he comes across as an apologist for adult-child sex.

7\. I find the idea of group marriage appealing, but have a dim view of 'marriage' itself. While a lot of his views are mind expanding and forward thinking, when you stumble upon the suspicion that it is likely an old man's dirty fantasies especially in light of his women all wanting to be baby making machines, it throws you off.

8\. I don't know how to divorce Heinlein, the visionary from Heinlein, the horny old man with dirty fantasies. Is he one or the other? Is he both? Can I hug the one without feeling icky about the other?

<comment><USER5> Given your interest in 1, I think you should read more about the Oneida community, as they were one of the rare cultures which encouraged group marriage. See also [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_marriage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_marriage) , which specifically calls out Heinlein. There is also the polyamory (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory) ), which is an active subculture at least in the US, as well as swinging ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_(sexual_practice)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_\(sexual_practice\)) ).

The various literature about traditional poly marriages, which are nearly all polygamous, does not describe a system which aligns well with current ideas of feminism. That said, I know very little about the topic, though I did read 'In my father's house : a memoir of polygamy'.

Some cultures, btw, have legal rights for cohabitation which make it equivalent (or nearly so) to marriage.

There is a body of Heinlein studies, including the Heinlein Society ( [http://www.heinleinsociety.org/](http://www.heinleinsociety.org/) ) and Patterson's extensive biographical works. For example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20021016160050/http://members.ao...](https://web.archive.org/web/20021016160050/http://members.aol.com/agplusone/robert_a._heinlein_a_biogr.htm) . If you really want to know more about Heinlein-the-person, you might try those. I decided it wasn't worthwhile for me.

Friday, as you point out, is a difficult character to understand. She is an AP, raised in a creche, trained as a spy/agent/courier. Not only was her life was not her own, but her views were even less her own than for most. She may have been trained that her body wasn't her own, that rape is an appropriate means for the field she was in, and taught to expect being raped and how to manage it. And most people saw her as a non-person, including her family in New Zealand. That makes it really hard to disentangle Heinlein-the-person vs. his portrayal of a character.

(The family in NZ, and the quick breakup after they find that she is an AP, is an example of Heinlein depicting a negative to a group marriage. It seems they were more into her for her money than for emotional attachment, and that one or a small number of people in the marriage can force the others to expel a spouse.)

Regarding, "she had to embrace indiginities of human females to be one of them" \- this is a topic which comes up when I read discussions about the problems facing trans-women. That's another topic I know little about, beyond following a couple of blogs and watching the ContraPoints videos at [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvsIonJdJ5E4EXMa65VYpA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvsIonJdJ5E4EXMa65VYpA) .

Regarding "His female characters are almost male in their sexual proclivities." I ask that you re-think that. The idea of female/male proclivities is cultural. I am a male, and don't have the 'proclivities' that Heinlein characterizes. Some males are also asexual, and don't have any proclivities. Your sentence would suggest that neither of us are really male.

I can't explain the incest thing.

"Adult-child sex" is different, though potentially overlapping. (I think Heinlein was referring to incest between consenting adults, so 'child' in the sense of 'the adult's adult child' is closer.) Still, that does occur a few times, like in "The Door Into Summer". Quoting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer#Major_the...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer#Major_themes) :

> The early Heinlein biographer and critic Alexei Panshin, in his 1968 > biography Heinlein in Dimension, took note of a controversial theme: "The > romantic situation in this story is a very interesting, very odd one: it is > nothing less than a mutual sexual interest between an engineer of thirty and > a girl of twelve ('adorable' is Heinlein's word for her), that culminates in > marriage after some hop-scotching around in time to adjust their ages a > bit."[3]:149–150 The novel "worried and bothered" John W. Campbell, who said > "Bob can write a better story, with one hand tied behind him, than most > people in the field can do with both hands. But Jesus, I wish that son of a > gun would take that other hand out of his pocket."

Note also later on that page the description of "Frederica Virginia "Ricky" Heinicke, physically an 11-year-old girl but emotionally almost adult. Like all Heinlein's heroines from this period, she is an intelligent redhead, and clearly modeled on Virginia Heinlein, even having a version of her name and her childhood nickname, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."

As another example, Tom's great-grandniece in 'Time for the Stars'.

I think to understand Heinlein's female characters, you also need to know more about Virginia Heinlein and their relationship. And be aware that the Heinleins were not always truthful about their accounts of their history. See the note in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein) that 'Grumbles From the Grave' "hews closely to his earlier official bios, omitting the same facts (the first of his three marriages, his early left-wing political activities) and repeating the same fictional anecdotes (the short story contest)."

You write "can I flesh out a male mind with my words if I were a writer?" The classic SF example is James Tiptree, Jr. which was a pseudonym of Alice Sheldon. Quoting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree_Jr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree_Jr). :

> Readers, editors and correspondents were permitted to assume sex, and > generally, but not invariably, they assumed "male". There was speculation, > based partially on the themes in her stories, that Tiptree might be female. > Robert Silverberg wrote "It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a > theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably > masculine about Tiptree's writing. ... Harlan Ellison had introduced > Tiptree's story in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions with the opinion > that "[Kate] Wilhelm is the woman to beat this year, but Tiptree is the > man."

<comment><AUTHOR> \+ I am familiar with Oneida. I am not so much interested in group marriage as I am in the institution of marriage itself..as in why do we need it? I have thought long and hard about it..if we didn't have religion, would we need the institution of marriage? Marriage or rather formal legal marriage seems to be largely for the benefit of the state so they can tax and interfere with lives of citizens. Religion itself seems to need a large population all the time...I have never believed that there has been a true separation of church and state anywhere in the world...the state just seamlessly took over the power over how people live from religious institutions.

If we magically 'forget' the concept of marriage, as we know it tomorrow..what would change for us?

NOTHING.

\+ Re Friday: I wonder if Heinlein made her AP only because she could be considered as 'the other' which likely separated the experiences of her character from the writer and the reader's own identity and projections. If that's what Heinlein tried to do, he failed.

I am trying to tie this back to how we would..in the future..consider cyborgs or robots or other APs. What would define sentience? I think heinlein..in his own way...was probably testing..Asimov like..rights and treatment of sentient non humans.

\+ re male/female sexual proclivities, I think Heinlein did not take it lightly. I will fear no evil was entirely dedicated to the questions of what defines gender and what is it like to be trapped in the other genders body/mind. He approached the subject fearlessly. But apparently he was gravely ill and we don't know who really 'finished' the book beyond the first draft. But it certainly sounded like Heinlein. This is one of the reasons I adore Heinlein.

\+ you said, "your sentence suggests that neither of us are male". You inadvertently touched upon a pet theory of mine. That 'malesness' is a mutation. All zygotes are female by default. It's because of SRY gene that it turns 'male', as it were...being 'male' is merely 'not being female' having mutated from the default. So I consider the Y to be largely faulty code. I am not being a 'rabid feminist'...I have been called that before but it can't be more further than the truth..I do not hate men...I just find them amusing and interesting and annoying until I find them alien.

Regardless, I am sure this wasn't the response you were expecting. So back on topic..female desire and sexual proclivities are somewhat standardized ...that doesn't mean that women veer from the norm. (Ditto with men), but the awkwardness with Heinlein's portrayal of female sexuality bordering on aggressive male sexuality seems forced because it's almost like he wants to imprint maleness as default upon the female. It's just ...well..odd. It doesn't 'fit or sit well'. I cannot articulate better.

\+ i did not know about Virginia and Heinlein. Having said that, I often think of the other masterpiece..Nabokov's Lolita. But HH took the voice of the unreliable narrator. Towards the end, the reader had empathy for HH because they have walked down the path with him and at the end of it, they want to hold his hand and comfort him. He is a monster but we feel sorry for him. We 'understand' him. Heinlein otoh is icky..his characters are aloof and we don't want to be seen walking with him.

\+ re authors' gender..I have often thought that the most relatable writing comes from lived experiences. While a woman can write 'like a man', it might just as well because her lived experience reflected that...bit Heinlein writes women like a man. And he doesn't do it from a third person narrative but from a first person narrative..which ..like I said before just doesn't 'fit'right. But that's just my 2c.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for your clarification. I was under the mistaken assumption that you were interested in alternatives to monogamous marriage, eg, might be poly- curious. Instead, you were questioning the existence of marriage. For that you will have to look towards cultural anthropology. A quick search shows finds, for example, [http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-978019...](http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0016.xml)

> Over the years as well, anthropologists have debated what lies at the very > core of marriage as an institution and as a relationship, whether it is > economic sharing, sexual access, childbearing and parenthood, or > reproductive success. They also have debated whether marriage is best > described in terms of sentiment and subjectivity, social or mental > structures, or transactions and strategic choice.

That is far outside of my depth. I can recommend looking at countries which have both formal marriage arrangements and less formal cohabitation laws to see some of the benefits of having a legal recognition. For example, [https://www.island.is/en/family/marriage_and_partners/co_hab...](https://www.island.is/en/family/marriage_and_partners/co_habiting_partners/) says that "rights of cohabitating people are affected by whether their cohabitation is registered or not", so they exist even without formal recognition, and "Individuals in cohabitation do not bear any responsibility for each other's financial support, and do not have the right of inheritance towards one another".

As an example of the latter, from [http://hhogman.se/cohabitation.htm](http://hhogman.se/cohabitation.htm) , "Stieg Larsson, the renowned Swedish writer who lived sambo for many years with Eva Gabrielsson. When he died in 2004, his father and brother, not Eva, inherited his wealth worth millions. There were law suits and a settlement, but this could have been avoided with a will."

See also [https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/wonder-list-bill- weir...](https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/wonder-list-bill-weir- iceland/index.html) for one US citizen's view about marriage, or the lack thereof, in Iceland.

Regarding "formal legal marriage seems to be largely for the benefit of the state so they can tax and interfere with lives of citizens".

Given my quote from earlier, your hypothesis does not sound correct. As an example, the medieval Icelandic state deliberately avoided having a strong centralized state. Your hypothesis would suggest that this would mean there was no need for marriage, yet we know from the sagas that there was marriage. See for example [https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...](https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=his) , which includes descriptions of marriage in pre-Christianity Iceland.

Here is one thing that would change if we magically forget the concept of marriage tomorrow. If the next day I have a medical condition which renders me unconscious, who has the right to make medical decisions for me? I am married, so under the current legal system my spouse - someone I voluntarily decided to marry, and who best knows my opinions - has the first option. Not my family- by-blood, as that relationship wasn't voluntary.

Here's another - who has the right to visit me when I'm in the hospital?

These can all be addressed without marriage, but the result is still some sort of registration system, with some sort of arbitration system to decide how to manage conflicts. Which is close to what cohabitation systems are already like.

I cannot conjecture on Heinlein's purpose in writing Friday. It may be addressed better in some of the references I gave earlier.

Regarding again "dedicated to the questions of what defines gender", I think he did so within a binary gender essentialist viewpoint. I don't think he was 'fearless' in examining what the larger topic of what it means to be queer. The example I quoted about transvestites is one of the few in Heinlein's works. In his later novels, name one character who is asexual. 'Slipstick' Libby was a man who became a women, but her transition was nothing like what trans-women now experience.

My comments were not so inadvertent, in that you mentioned your pet theory in recent comments of your, which I reviewed before responding. However, I don't believe that your use of the terms "mutant", and the terms "male" and "female" for zygotes, have much biological meaning, and certainly not once we get into culturally-defined gender.

I also don't think your use of "faulty" has any biological meaning but is your personal interpretation. No system which has been around for 100+ million years can be described as "faulty". Monotremes don't have the SRY gene but do have males and females. The XY system also evolved several times, including in "some insects (Drosophila), some snakes, and some plants (Ginkgo)." It's further believed to have evolved from the temperature-dependent sex determination system of reptiles, meaning that male/female distinction is far older than the Y chromosome.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wrote a lot and lost it. I am going to paste what little I could retrieve..it ends mid sentence and so I don't know where I was going with it..[..][..]+ maybe inheritance laws and personal rights processes and even medical decisions will become easily streamlined.

Currently everything involves a lawyer/attorney. And time. And money.

\+ this makes me think of something else(likely unrelated. Or not.) what if..in our future..we move to entirely paperless non monetary transactions. In that we own 'credits' rather than property or wealth.

Wealth can be in the form of credits as well as all material things. And immaterial things as well. Like reputation.(I know..like Black Mirror. But not in a punitive way)

We already have credit scores. But some things are not monetized. Like intelligence or beauty or qualities like kindness. The flip side is that a lack of beauty or intelligence can stem from a biased pov. But if it is non punitive, only positives get scored.

The 'credits' can be transferable and can be inherited like any transaction. And if someone isn't on the transaction list, they are not part of the inheritance. Every time you add someone to your list, they have access to some part of your life. Maybe your accountant gets an annual retainer automatically but he can't make decisions about whether you can pull the plug. Maybe your girlfriend got downgraded to just visitation rights. So basically, the list is multi tiered.

It's also a way to keep track of ...[..]

do you think any of the above warrants comments or a reply. I had a couple of meetings so my memory is disjointed now..I can't seem to grasp the line of thought and where I was going with that...apologies. ETA: I am going to give a reply another go tonight. I am sure I had something more to say.

<comment><USER5> This conversation, while interesting, is no longer connected with Heinlein and increasingly farther from something I can meaningful contribute to.

To bring it back to Heinlein, a quote from "Space Cadet":

> The staple recreation in the Randolph, as it is in all boarding schools, was > the bull session. The talk ranged through every possible subject and was > kept spiced by Arensa's original and usually radical ideas.

<comment><AUTHOR> I must agree even though I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the engagement.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2008/06/24/full-text-an-epic-bill-gates-e-mail-rant/

<comment><USER2> If there is one man that deserves to go trough all that hell, it's Bill Gates.</comment>


A machine that tracks basketball shots - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-08/this-robot-knows-shooting-better-than-steph-curry <comment><USER2> There's already a product that I've only ever called the gun, which is a significantly better tool for the same job, imo.[1] Forces high arc, counts makes/misses, can be adjusted for moving/stationary shots, and rebounds/passes for you. In the half hour it took the author to get up 100 shots, you've taken 500 on the gun.

1\. [http://www.shootaway.com/](http://www.shootaway.com/)

<comment><USER3> Hey, i wrote this thing.

We actually have a gun (we call it the same) setup in our shop and use it extensively alongside this.

We provide quite a bit more of analysis than you can achieve by adjusting the catch net of the gun and using the stick thing on the rim for make miss. We can determine if your shot was a clean make vs a make, bank shot, and other things the article mentions. Together they are a pretty solid training setup.

<comment><USER2> Sure, but if you have a basketball background chances are you or your coaches know what the problem is anyway. Consistently short? More knees. Consistently hitting back iron? More arc. Consistently offline? Square your shoulders and set your feet better.

For the super fine tuning someone like Steph is doing, that sort of data is probably valuable, but for the majority of young basketball players doing skill development, 1000 shots in an hour is way more important than knowing how perfectly you made it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> On a related note, check out ShotTracker: [http://shottracker.com/](http://shottracker.com/)

Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors) is an endorser/spokesman. They've also partnered with Spaulding for their team oriented product.

See the video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjERMBnvTEE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjERMBnvTEE)</comment>


Google IO: A Little Badass. Beautiful. Tech and Human. Work and Love. ATAP - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbWQbkl8_g

<comment><AUTHOR> By far the most interesting talk of this year's Google IO. If you watch one talk, watch this one.</comment>


Anti-vaxxers of the digital world: Those who turn off Windows Update - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2017/05/windows-update-keep-it-on/ <comment><USER2> Kind of makes you wonder who the ignorant, coward, order-following child- killers for profit of the digital world are. Running Windows Update doesn't really compare.

<comment><USER3> haha well put. think most ppl disabled updates because of piracy to be honest. don't think ppl are anti vaxxers because they get vaccines on the black market xP</comment></comment>


Switzerland to test 'hyperloop' train technologies - <AUTHOR> https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/future-transport_canton-valais-to-test--hyperloop--train-technologies/44616820 <comment><USER2> Hyperloop only works most comfortably in very flat routes. It's something I never realized until I visited Hyperloop's offices in LA when they first started.

I got to make some early promo photos for them [0] and signed a 10-year NDA in the process. However, what I learned (which is public knowledge) that at high speeds even smallest elevation drops would make the passengers feel the free- fall sensation of being on a rollercoaster. Basically at high speeds the elevation change of the vertical vector components of anything more than several degrees can approach the free fall dropping speeds.

I have also taken numerous train rides in Switzerland and driven through large parts of the country and I don't believe the technology can be used there as well as it could have been deployed in other routes in the world that is naturally more flat. So I'm wondering if this mostly an R&D project designed to export an entire tunnel/hyperloop making solution.

[0] [https://www.instagram.com/p/BMiyAIdhCJn/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BMiyAIdhCJn/) (photo is about 80 frames stacked. Because we only had one welder at the time and I had to reuse him and also to intricately light every parts of this lot)

<comment><USER3> The thing about ultra-high-speed is this: your benefits (travel time) grow linearly with speed, but your problems (energy, capacity, curve radii, etc.) grow quadratically.

Actually, it's worse than it sounds. Travel time has a big impact on demand-- but only within a small-ish window, about 2-4 hours. Outside of that window, demand does not respond that much to changes in travel time. That means that higher speeds are ultimately about trying to bring more destinations within the acceptable travel time window, but you also have to give up destinations within that window because the stop time penalties are too high.

Switzerland has the issue that it's just too small. With conventional 300-350km/h max-speed HSR, going from the eastern to the western edge of the country could be done in about 2 hours (recall that average speed is going to be less than max speed, particularly when stops are included), which is around the point where going faster means getting no practical benefit for people. It could serve international routes, but then Switzerland is bearing the costs without reaping the benefits, which the citizenry tends not to favor very highly.

<comment><USER4> Even the HSR that operates in Switzerland, the TGV, doesn't get up to speed until it is well within France. Switzerland tracks aren't straight enough for HSR, and it would cost a lot to straighten them out.

There also isn't a lot of demand for Geneva to Zurich in an hour.

<comment><USER5> I think the demand would come _after_ it gets built. Even bigger would be demand for Bern/Zurich and Basel/Zurich in 30min, bringing these cities comfortably into commute distance. People do that today but only if they really must.

There is an aspect of Swiss economy that makes HSR attractive: high degree of decentralization.

<comment><USER4> Those cities already feel close enough together. More to the point, I don't think Switzerland probably wants the kind of growth that HSR would enable and encourage.

<comment><USER6> No they really aren't close enough together. For example, I know someone who moved from Zurich to Olten so that their girlfriend's commute to Bern would be reasonable. Now you have 2 people with 50 minute commutes instead of 1 person with 1h45 and another person with 15min. If there was a 30min connection from Bern to Zurich it would be perfectly reasonable to live in one and commute to the other.

<comment><USER4> Again, does Switzerland really want to become one big mega city? It is up for the Swiss to decide, but a huge commute draw between Bern and Zurich (or even Bern and Lausanne) would lead to something more like Japan.

<comment><USER5> Maybe that's just me but I don't think of Japan as a bad model in how to have a dense population that is prosperous. If anything their biggest problem currently is depopulation of remote areas.

<comment><USER7> The question is about density and whether that's something to pursue even if it's prosperous.

<comment><USER8> It's an incongruous question. Hyperloops between Basel, Bern and Zurich would make them into one virtual Mini-City. The loops would also reduce density in the travel corridors preventing a California catastrophe kind of sprawl inbetween.

<comment><USER7> On the mountains that the hyperloop would traverse? ok dudes

<comment><USER8> Basel<>Bern (direct) would need tunnels.. The other 2 routes are pretty flat. Most of the Swiss economy is in the valley between the Jura range and the Alps.

The necessary tunnels for Basel would probably cost less than this:

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

But Bern<>Zurich is the SBB's bottleneck.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The Dubai-Abu Dhabi hyperloop had a lot more potential.[1] Flat undeveloped desert along most of the route, the best case for a tube train. But the UAE government is backing off on support.

Nobody really wants to build Musk's hovercraft-like system. They're all maglev in vacuum systems.

Meanwhile, Japan's JR continues to tunnel for the Tokyo-Nagoya maglev. They have 42km of working track and rolling stock. It's expensive, but it's very real.

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

<comment><USER10> You don't happen to know why nobody wants the air-bearing system? It seems like all Musk's announcement did was give cachet to tube train maglev.

<comment><USER11> Air bearings are expensive and have a very low clearance (talking about tens of microns). The lower clearance raises the issue of safety. If I remember correctly, to get that to be greater than tens of microns you need larger compressors and lower operating pressure inside the tube which increases costs and it tougher to maintain.

If you take a look at the SpaceX Hyperloop competition the teams moved away from using air bearings mostly due to the low clearances and the challenges it brought. Maybe on Mars it could be more realistic.

<comment><USER10> I don't know why I didn't think about the clearance; that's a very good point. Does the low clearance affect maximum roughness and slope of the track as well?

[edit]

Did any of the hyperloop competitors try the addition of a skirt, similar to the UK's old hovertrain?

[edit2]

Googling for "hyperloop skirt" found this article: [https://waset.org/publications/10004923/conceptional- design-...](https://waset.org/publications/10004923/conceptional-design-of-a- hyperloop-capsule-with-linear-induction-propulsion-system-) which suggests a 2cm clearance, but no clue if that's a reliable source.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Swissmetro [1] was a precursor concept publicized in 1993 [2], abandoned by 2009.

[1] [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255792073_Swissmetr...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255792073_Swissmetro_- _Project_Development_Status)

[2] PDF link to English-language report at the bottom of the page: [http://www.bfe.admin.ch/dokumentation/energieforschung/index...](http://www.bfe.admin.ch/dokumentation/energieforschung/index.html?lang=en&publication=2502)

</comment><comment><USER13> Back in the 70s: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro) [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro)

<comment><USER12> [Corrected, with thanks! I hadn't read the German-language wikipedia page, and I don't recall hearing about the roots of the idea when it was in the news by 1993.]

A research and development project was funded and launched in the 90s, while the initial concept is credited to Swiss engineer Rodolphe Nieth in 1974.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Damn it feels super weird to hear something about my childhood village on HN.

There is also a recently closed refinery there. The funny thing is that they never budgeted the decommissioning cost when it was built. So there is no money to do it and it's probably going to stay like that forever.

I hope the don't do the same for this project.

<comment><USER15> You know what is even more weird? Reading a comment on HN of another person saying he also grew up there ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> [https://youtu.be/RNFesa01llk](https://youtu.be/RNFesa01llk)

<comment><USER17> That was a good watch!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Virgin hyperloop is also planning to do testing/R&D in Europe, more specificially in the Malaga province in Spain.

[http://www.surinenglish.com/local/201808/10/virgin- chooses-i...](http://www.surinenglish.com/local/201808/10/virgin-chooses- inland-malaga-20180810104636-v.html)

</comment><comment><USER19> Why is the car ([https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/space-age-technology_swiss- team...](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/space-age-technology_swiss-team-comes- third-in-hyperloop-competition/44273992)) streamlined?

</comment><comment><USER20> If the drawing has the correct scale, it looks like you will have to lie down going through the tube. Futurama-esk.

<comment><USER21> Since both accelerating to 900kmh on such a short track and decelerating will involve multi-g forces, maybe this will be the most comfortable travel position.

<comment><USER22> I think it's the opposite really, you black out at much lower g forces when accelerating head first compared to face front.

Not proof of anything but notice rocket crew always face front.

<comment><USER21> Interesting! But presumably in this setup, one would experience both significant acceleration AND deceleration. Is there any static orientation that would minimize problems for both?

<comment><USER23> Well, sideways or rather upright (possibly in a seating position) is probably better but seems not very aerodynamic. I think those are the three possible orientations. But I mean are we seriously considering a transportation system where part of the journey is a black out/red out? The time gain by accelerating with 5g instead of 1g can't be that big (Maybe a few minutes at most?).

Edit: I'm not sure if there's an error in my calculations but with 1g acceleration it should take about 25s to get to 900km/h? That seems ok.

<comment><USER21> I agree with your calculations, but with an 1g acceleration for 25s, the train will travel a bit more than 3km, and getting to the end of the track (which is 3km according to the article) at close to 900km/h is unlikely to lead to a happy outcome.

If my math is right, in order to accelerate to 900km/h and decelerate to a stop again, all on a 3km track, requires acceleration/deceleration of a bit more than 2g.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>