Prime number patterns - <AUTHOR> http://chrisdavies.github.io/primepattern/ <comment><USER2> Ulam's spiral is fascinating, too. I've recently discovered this excellent prime number distribution visualization page, which combines the general idea of Ulam's spiral with other things: [http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/spirals/](http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/spirals/)

<comment><USER3> This is pretty cool, but seems like an illusion in that it appears to show a pattern where there isn't one. At least not exactly.

Firstly, the formula traces a spiral. If you plot every point, that is. You only plot a point if it's a prime, but it's still always going to trace a spiral!

Still, this only-plotting-primes business leads to new, unexpected patterns emerging. Yet, if you think about it, that's not altogether surprising really. Patterns emerge not so much in where the primes are, as where the primes aren't. Once you go beyond two, anything divisible by two can't be a prime anymore. Same with three. Same for all numbers, because that's what prime means. As a result, you get a pattern. It just so happens that this is what that pattern looks like when you plot it on a spiral rather than a straight line, or in a grid like the OP.

The grid has a similar effect, but the pattern forms vertical lines depending on how many of the prime factors within the set divide evenly by the modulo divisor chosen. Or the divisor +/\- 1, which gives rise to diagonals (try adjusting the number up/down by 1 to see this effect).

<comment><USER4> Thank you, your explanation was a deep insight into those patterns for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I always thought these attempts were interesting, because the patterns depend completely upon the visualization implementation and not directly on the pattern of the prime numbers. Is there some way to find prime number patterns without depending on a specific visualization?

<comment><USER6> i've had the same thought, but I dont think theres anything wrong with the fact that patterns are only noticeable in a certain visualization. A pattern in a decimal number wouldn't be discernible in another base for instance. Its may just be that finding the right visualization might be the way to discover new insights.

<comment><USER7> See Sociology.

The model / metric forms the inference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't have a very strong math background, but it seems to me self-evident that the strong vertical striping, for instance, would be a trivial artefact of the modulus rather than anything interesting about the prime numbers themselves.

This leads me to suspect that the rest of the linear striping has a similar explanation which is simply less obvious to me.

This in turn leads me to wonder what it is, exactly, that we're looking at. There will always be patterns visible because there is a deep connection between the ability to form a pattern and not-being-a-prime-number; the latter always implies the former, if not the other way around. So how does one perceive a "subtle" pattern of primes when not-being-a-prime is a property possessed by an overlay of an infinite number of patterns?

</comment><comment><USER9> Try 4513 for two divergent lines in the first million and almost complete randomness in the 50th million.

<comment><USER10> That's a prime number and those diagonals were present for all primes I tried. There's probably a name for that.

<comment><USER9> There are two non-parallel lines in 4513( and I'm not talking about the two sets of parallel lines crossing each other ). Look carefully, and ignore other parallels. I haven't seen any such clear example in other primes( or any other number for that matter ).

I though it was interesting so here is a picture: [http://i.imgur.com/KpbfuSz.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/KpbfuSz.jpg)

Between the purple and blue lines, there are a couple of segments desperately trying to form a line, but failing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> the UI is very nice... where did you find 50 million primes? [https://github.com/chrisdavies/primepattern/tree/master/sets](https://github.com/chrisdavies/primepattern/tree/master/sets)

I found them: [https://primes.utm.edu/lists/small/millions/](https://primes.utm.edu/lists/small/millions/) He says: Usually it is faster to run a program on your own computer than to download them.

Here in numpy:

      import numpy as np

      N = 1000000

      n = np.arange(N)+2
      p = []

      while(len(n) > np.sqrt(N)):
          p += [n[0]]
          n = n[np.where(n% p[-1] != 0)]

      print len(p), N/np.log(N)

<comment><USER12> I like this way of using numpy. This resembles the sieve of eratosthenes, so you'd think it was fast.

However `n%p[-1]` isn't fast to do, your inner loop ends up taking nearly linear time. At least linear in the final number of primes, which is larger than `N/logN`. Hence your algorithm runs in `N^(3/2)` whereas eratosthenes is `NloglogN`.

Funny how many versions of this algorithm there are out there.

<comment><USER11> I noticed it ran a bit slow... it is supposed to be Eratosthenes Sieve

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I noticed that comparing sequential mod N (1260, 1261, 1262) you can see the composite lines rotating (which makes sense because the lines follow the 2s, so a mod of a number makes the 2s on each line be 1 or 2 pixels apart the lines appear diagonal.)

This isn't a huge insight, but it does feel like a jumping off point for looking at the patterns -- a sort of lattice or baseline by which to compare the rest of the static.

This app makes me happy. :-]

</comment><comment><USER14> This is great, although it's obviously hard to draw conclusions. I'd love to see the same sort of visualizations done for 50 million (or however many) random numbers drawn from a distribution that vaguely mimics the primes.

</comment><comment><USER6> Github source: [https://github.com/chrisdavies/primepattern](https://github.com/chrisdavies/primepattern)

</comment><comment><USER15> Assuming the black striped continue forever for "prime mod 1260", does this mean we can quickly weed out non prime numbers?

<comment><AUTHOR> I was wondering that, myself. The magic number seems to be 210. (1260 is 210 * 6)

<comment><AUTHOR> You'll also notice that between the black stripes, there is a somewhat denser white stripe. A while back, I calculated the number of primes in those white stripes, and the number was a good bit higher than the over all average.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 2310

<comment><USER17> Yeah, I just did the same thing. 2 _3_ 5 _7_ 11 Unfortunately, it didn't yield anything much more interesting than 1260...

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If a pattern were found that allowed primes of arbitrary size to be computed trivially, how would this impact cryptography?

<comment><USER9> There is such a formula, it is very simple

      n^2+n+41

It doesn't generate sequential primes.

That doesn't really matter, checking if a number is prime can be done in sublinear time complexity. The real problem is factoring large numbers.

<comment><USER19> It also stops generating primes for n=40. See

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_for_primes#Prime_formu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_for_primes#Prime_formulas_and_polynomial_functions)

<comment><USER9> It never stops generating primes, but it doesn't give a prime for every n.

<comment><USER20> Then why is it better than just

n

which also doesn't give a prime for any n, but does generate them all.

<comment><USER9> Because it grows exponentially. ( And it is interesting )

In reality you will use a O( (log n)^6 ) algorithm.

<comment><USER19> I think n² grows quadratically rather than exponentially.

<comment><USER9> ::blush::

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> for 1618 (golden ratio x 1000) there is a straight line right in the middle of the screen. Best visible when scrolling

<comment><USER22> This kind of really obvious single line will occur for anything which is 2 _prime number. 1618 = 2_ 809, so all numbers of the form: n _1618 and n_ 1618+809 are composite. There is no other 0<c<1617 where n*1618+c is always prime, so the line is really obvious.

<comment><USER23> Your division signs got parsed as italic typesetting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> 31415</comment>


When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20027122/vanmoof-tv-on-box-damaged-bikes/ <comment><USER2> I've always been curious about the shipping process. I have met or know 7 people who work/worked at the shipping hub in my city. I always ask them how the packages are handled. Every one of them said that they (and all of their coworkers) handle all packages on a scale ranging from rough to purposefully damaging. One guy told me how he targets boxes marked Fragile for extra abuse when he's exhausted/angry/having a bad day.

I predict that a package being treated delicately throughout the entirety of it's route would be the outlier. Every package is at some point flung across a room/truck. The only question is if it is going to hit another box or a much harder surface.

this is all anecdotal, but seems to fit with the stat that roughly 10% of all packages in the United States are damaged during shipping.[0]

[0]: [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/adriana-dunn/one- in-10-ecomme...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/adriana-dunn/one- in-10-ecommerce-packa_b_4371992.html) \-- couldn't find a direct link to the case study.

<comment><USER3> You know these people, so do you have any insight as to _why_ they did this?

Is it envy? "Screw this guy getting his fancy TV that I don't have." If not, what?

It seems needlessly cruel. I assume these are good people?

<comment><USER4> I've worked on multiple shipping and loading docks. If you haven't had this type of work experience it would be difficult to understand that the entire line is one big connected system. If just one person stalls their part of the process, the other pieces both upstream and downstream are affected. And believe me, everyone on the line instantly knows who is falling behind and you'll begin to feel the eyes on you immediately. If the issue is not resolved quickly, the entire line might need to stop, which is rule #1 that you don't ever do. Sometimes you just get behind and realizing you need to catch up quickly, 0 fucks are given. If you're stacking and shipping a pallet every couple minutes then you're not going to care about a single case or two being damaged. Is the box torn open because you threw it? Fine, turn it around on the pallet so no one can see the tear - problem solved. Is the supervisor riding you for being too slow? Fine, I'll show them who's slow, because it isn't me - look how fast I can do my job (without caring about what gets broken). Your job isn't to care what happens to these thousands of mystery boxes you're handling each day, it's just to get them out the damn door on time.

The mood issue is real as well and it's less about personal feelings in general and more driven by how you're being treated at work. Any shift in the normal routine can set the mood of the entire warehouse and in return lead people into not caring. It could be announced mandatory overtime or even something as simple as removing something from the break room. Retaliatory action isn't seen as an inconvenience against the customer, it's a middle finger to corporate. You treat us like shit and we're going to make you feel it too, proxied through customer complaints about broken or missing items. Some individuals do go off the rails and it's usually related to some sort of perceived slight against them by the company. A lot of these could have been squashed if the manager didn't throw up their arms and say there was nothing they could do about it; take it up with HR. Most of the time if someone in corporate had just listened to the issue and let the employee get it off their chest, that would have been enough to calm the anger. What many white collar employees in the front office don't realize is how seriously some small and inconsequential issues can matter to blue collar laborers. This could go on and on about blue vs. white collar relations and management practices, but the point is that it's not about the customer so much as it is about internal politics and maintaining the status quo.

<comment><USER5> That all makes sense, but it doesn't explain why shipping workers would be EXTRA careless with items marked fragile. I would expect equal carelessness with all packages.

<comment><USER6> I believe it does: "Retaliatory action isn't seen as an inconvenience against the customer, it's a middle finger to corporate. You treat us like shit and we're going to make you feel it too, proxied through customer complaints about broken or missing items"

As a customer, if my box arrives smashed I am angry. If my box arrives smashed with a "Fragile" sign printed on it, I feel insulted. I guess in the second case the complaint is going to be worse and the reputation of the shipping company damaged even more ("They can't even deliver a 'fragile' parcel properly")

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've often wondered about what you would discover if you were to send accelerometers through various channels, over various distances, and inside of various packages. A database of carrier/packaging/haul distance/acceleration history tuples would be a valuable B2B product for many manufacturers.

<comment><USER8> This sort of thing already exists, albeit in a low-tech method, using ball bearings or coloured gels. For example: [https://spotsee.io/wp- content/uploads/2018/06/tiltwatch-plus...](https://spotsee.io/wp- content/uploads/2018/06/tiltwatch-plus-2.png)

<comment><USER9> Clever, although with an accelerometer you may also keep track of which stretch of the journey they get handled the roughest.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Boeing does this with their seats in the factory too, they put a picture of a Lamborghini on the seats since they cost the same.

EDIT: Yes, it's hard to believe a seat costs the same as a Lamborghini, that's exactly why they put the picture on it. This is mainly for the first class seats, though rows apparently cost about the same too.

<comment><USER11> Only certain high-end business/first seats I assume? I can't believe a standard economy seat costs $200,000+

<comment><USER12> [https://247wallst.com/aerospace-defense/2014/06/03/why-a- boe...](https://247wallst.com/aerospace-defense/2014/06/03/why-a- boeing-747-8-costs-357-million/)

For some perspective a Boeing 747 costs $357,000,000 they have a seating capacity of 416.

416 x $200,000 is only $83,200,000 so...honestly...I could see it.

<comment><USER13> It's hard to say how much anything actually costs in aviation because _no one_ pays list price and are outfitted per the buyers' specs (why airlines all have their own in cabin look). Discounts are usually north of 50% off "list". Economy style seats don't have a lot going on and definitely don't cost the same as a Lambo.

You can even buy your own if you want to be uncomfortable in your own home:

[http://usedairlineseats.com/product/set-of-coach-class- tripl...](http://usedairlineseats.com/product/set-of-coach-class-triple-seats- used-airline-seats/)

<comment><USER14> > Economy style seats don't have a lot going on

Actually they do. The drive to make thinner and lighter seats means lots of exotic materials can go into them. If the seats include in-flight entertainment devices, that'll increase the cost too. Plus the seats still have to be certified to the same stringent safety standards as the first-class seats.

Of course the claim was that a row of economy seats costs about what one first-class seat does. I think that's believable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've given up being able to receive certain items via mail where I live in NYC. Amazon only ships via UPS. They smashed two $300 humidifiers in a row by bouncing them around on their sides despite the box clearly labeled to only move while upright. I'm still waiting to get a refund on one of them weeks later. They managed to break both tripods I ordered as well. I kept the second as gluing the broken bit is easier than dealing with yet another return.

</comment><comment><USER16> The effect of this trick will diminish quickly when everyone copies it. I wonder why this bike company was eager to reveal their trick if it was so effective. Perhaps the free advertisements they gets from news reports are more worthwhile?

<comment><USER17> Once this trick becomes widely know then TV manufacturers will see a spike in damaged goods after they've benefited for so long.

<comment><USER18> Not to mention all the TVs damaged by disappointed bike thieves.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This reminds me of a company "Atheist Shoes". That had to put just "Shoes" on their boxes because it greatly reduced delivery problems in US (no effect in europe).

</comment><comment><USER20> I still don't understand why there has never been a push to hold carriers responsible for the goods they damage. Could you imagine dropping your car off to be repaired at your dealer/mechanic and being held responsible for anything _they_ broke?

Manufacturers and retailers should push to hold UPS/FedEx/etc. responsible if damages are above a certain metric. (If they do already, it's clearly not good enough.) The 20% damage rate for this bike company is insane.

</comment><comment><USER21> I wonder if another dimension got negatively affected, such as theft (porch pirates or the like).

<comment><USER22> TV thieves will be disappointed, but may become fit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> The king snake called, it wants its strategy back.

This is a clever trick, but like the king snake's mimicry of the venomous coral snake, the long term result will surely be reduced efficacy of the markings on the bonafide item.

</comment><comment><USER24> prev [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12572465](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12572465)

<comment><USER25> Almost exactly the same threads too, including mentioning of Boeing aircraft seats.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Our hard drives for mainframes used to come with glass tube force exceeded indicators and ,'tipped in transit' markers. Five cent gizmos which meant you could refuse to accept or RMA.

<comment><USER27> Kinda ironic considering how much force a HDD at rest can sustain...let alone tipping.

<comment> jon-wood Hard disks these days are much tougher than the ones used for old school mainframes, or for that matter just old school hard disks. Back in the day there was a command to park the drive heads so they wouldn't bounce around during transit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> -1 to bycicling.com for not linking to the vendor's website. It always bugs me when the best things about the web over print isn't used appropriately...

[https://www.vanmoof.com/en_us/](https://www.vanmoof.com/en_us/)

</comment><comment><USER29> "Someone" put this up on HN 2 years ago....

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12572465](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12572465)

</comment><comment><USER30> We had 7 42" 4k monitors delivered and all 7 were damaged. I'm glad we were on the end of the bell curve. :D

<comment><USER31> Seven times? I would get mad as hell after the third one and go fetch it myself.

<comment><USER30> No, the 7 were delivered together.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Or label the box "Live Crickets"?

[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/29/i-ordered...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/29/i-ordered- box-crickets-internet-it-went-about-well-youd-expect/)

</comment><comment><USER33> I had a large electrics/computer supplier tell me they would no longer sell my company TV's due to the fact that so many that were shipped in the southeast US arrived damaged and had to be returned. This is one of those think outside the box things that don't scale.

</comment><comment><USER34> In the early days of Apple when they first started shipping computers to Japan they were getting transported in refrigerated trucks. The transport company saw the logo and just assumed it was fruit.

I've lost the source for this, I believe it was in the book "Apple Confidential 2.0"

</comment><comment><USER35> Why not including an Arduino-logger with accelerometer, tilt-sensor and clock/timestamp. This way you could figure out where in the transport the rough handling is happening.

</comment><comment><USER36> Well, duh. If I have a finite amount of time I'm going to treat an electronic glass sandwich with more care than a box with a steel frame in it.

</comment><comment><USER37> Another way to interpret this is, the bike company cheaped out on proper packaging for the bikes in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER38> It makes sense for them to do this, from a selfish perspective, but this is an iconic example of why we can't have good things. If more shippers do this, handlers will just ignore the caution signs.

<comment><USER39> Handlers are already ignoring the caution signs, though, just not for (at least) one product, TVs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Psychologist have found that people will cheat least in controlled tests when someone is watching. Even if the person can't audit them.

EVEN if no one is watching and it's just a picture of an eye.

</comment><comment><USER41> I've heard only item not tossed/thrown around at FedEx/UPS/etc is any box labeled as hazardous material.

Every other boxes are treated equally, tossed/thrown.

</comment><comment><USER42> I wonder what are the % of damage from Online Shopping. Online Retailing is basically moving the cost of High Rentals to shipping / delivery.

</comment><comment><USER43> I ORDERED A DAMN BIKE, NOT A TV! oh...

</comment><comment><USER44> high quality, expensive bikes are usually designed to withstand a good amount of physical abuse and dynamic loads under a 90kg rider. i wonder what kind of damage they sustained. bent spokes? brake/shift levers?

<comment><USER45> My last bike came damaged. The box with the steel frame suffered a minor hit I didn't even notice it until after my shop reported the damage. Bent the right rear dropout less than two millimeters, dropouts are where the wheel axle connects to the frame. This prevented the rear tire from inserting and had bent the location of the rear derailleur mount.

Repairing wouldn't necessarily be safe and would definitely invalidate the warranty, luckily the company I bought it from sent me a new frame after I gave them proof of shipping damage.

<comment><USER46> This kind of thing weirds me out to be honest. I've had this kind of conversation with serious cyclists before where I've been told that it's impossible for cyclists to ride on the footpath in places because the uneven cement slabs would damage {some part of the bike I don't remember or care}. You're here telling me that a 2mm twist in part of the frame is a serious problem for attaching the rear wheel, and that it would be "unsafe" to have a skilled technician fix it (presumably by just twisting it back?).

What kind of piss-poor engineering is going into high end bikes? $400 bikes don't have this problem. I've legit thrown (albeit cautiously to make sure it doesn't bounce) my bike over a 1m drop on it's side several times and it's fine other than the kickstand being a little bent.

I'd never spend $1500+ on a bike that can't handle a 2mm deviation in the rear fork. Over the lifespan of the bike it's /definitely/ gonna have some part of it deviated by 2mm through normal wear and tear, so if that's gonna break it beyond safe repair then that's a pretty useless bike. Am I the crazy one here?

<comment><USER47> It's quite hard to damage a dropout with the wheels mounted if not by way of a major crash.

But the rear triangle of a bike remains pretty weak in shipping as the rear axle is not in place.

<comment><USER46> Isn't that something that could be solved by shipping it with a 50c piece of metal between the bars during shipping as a surrogate for the wheel axle? Given the list prices, seems like they could stretch to that, and it'd be more reliable than hoping the delivery man will be more gentle because he thinks it's a TV box.

<comment><USER44> yeah, with proper supports in the right places, none of these shenanigans/hacks would be needed.

<comment><USER45> It came with some cheap plastic covers on the dropouts, nothing structural. That's a good thing to look for in future purchases though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> On my boxes, I put biological hazard symbols...

</comment><comment><USER49> when all bike companies put a tv on their boxes, shipping damages of tv's went up.

</comment><comment><USER50> Going back up after this article

</comment><comment><USER51> That's truly thinking "out of the box"

</comment><comment><USER52> Now TV damages is gonna start going up once they find out

</comment><comment><USER53> Did they control for the 100 other reasons why this might have happened?

</comment><comment><USER54> If a bicycle in a box can be damaged in transit, one wonders about the quality of its construction.

<comment><USER55> Carbon fiber bikes can absorb a lot force through the frame from riding forces, but you can bang it moderately on a tree and it just breaks. That is just something cyclists accept for the lighter weight.</comment></comment>


Google's Go is TIOBE's programming language of 2016 - <AUTHOR> http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ <comment><USER2> ... and Dart is the runner up in terms of gaining popularity in 2016 according to TIOBE.

<comment><USER3> It is too early to happy. I think the reason of dart popularity in the last month is Dart WM 2017.

Source: [https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=da...](https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=dart,%2Fm%2F0h52xr1)

<comment><USER4> TIOBE methodology uses [<language> programming] as the search term, exactly for this reason. So Dart WM will not move the needle there.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do hackers use Ebola? - <AUTHOR> Im genuinely curious: A post yesterday told a story about the discovery of Ebola. I asked how this was relevant to me as a hacker (seeing we're on hackernews) and within 3 minutes I was downvoted into oblivion, flagged and had the comment removed. But Im still wondering...<p>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21461101 <comment><USER2> You are using a too strict definition of on-topic. The site is not only about programing.

From the guidelines [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

> _What to Submit_

> _On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes > more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the > answer might be: anything that gratifies one 's intellectual curiosity. _

</comment><comment><USER3> What are you asking lol?</comment>


An Augmented Reality Game Escalated into Real-World Spy Warfare - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwnwzj/how-an-augmented-reality-game-escalated-into-real-world-spy-warfare <comment><USER2> Click bait.

It wasn't "real world spy warfare", which makes me think of Hong Kong protests vs China. It's literally just players cheating at a massive scale in a real world game by (in some cases) stalking others and taking the game too seriously.

A good read though, if you're into AR games.

<comment><USER3> If it was from anywhere else other than vice I'd agree the title's pretty clickbaity, but that's pretty much what I expect from them.

I'm not sure how i really feel about AR games. They look kind of fun, but I've seen a lot of people get really into Pokemon go, to the point where they put themselves at risk. I was in a car with a guy that played it when he suddenly threw his phone at me so I could catch a Pokemon for him while he turned left on a 4 way intersection onto a 6 lane road. That scared the shit out of me, he had been trying himself with his phone on the steering wheel before he realized how dangerous he was being. It was almost as bad as being in a car with a drunk driver.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was hoping this would be something like a nation state manipulating an AR app's reward locations to pick up images or audio from hacked phones. Has anyone tried that yet?

</comment><comment><USER5> I love these gaming story. Reminds me of the EVE online stories which also have crazy espionage going on.

<comment><USER6> This made me think of Eve, too.

Same kind of intense involvement.

Too bad they're such a time suck... you have to have time for a normal life, or you burn out.</comment></comment>


Releasing BadgerDB v2.0: Compression, Encryption and Caching - <AUTHOR> https://blog.dgraph.io/post/releasing-badger-v2/ <comment><AUTHOR> BadgerDB is an embeddable key-value DB written in Go language. We're excited to release BadgerDB's v2.0, which introduces compression, encryption and integrates with Ristretto for caching. If you're a Go user, do try it out!

</comment><comment> A-AronBrown Thanks to Badger coupled with msgpack we haven't touched our beloved SQLite in over a year, and now might get to delete 3 more layers we've added on top</comment>


Pocket spectrometer lets you measure the molecular makeup of anything - <AUTHOR> http://inhabitat.com/worlds-first-pocket-molecular-sensor-measures-the-chemical-makeup-of-everything/

<comment><USER2> Finally, a real tricorder to call my own! ([http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/a6eb/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/a6eb/))</comment>


Explore connected papers in a visual graph - <AUTHOR> https://www.connectedpapers.com/ <comment><USER2> This could be extremely useful. I tried it on one physics paper and the results made sense, and led to discoveries of relevant publications. Very nicely done.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best way to "teach" programming? - <AUTHOR>

I have been given the task to teach programming basics to the build and design members of my robotics team (FRC #2415). We are constrained to C++ as a language. What are the best methods for teaching intelligent people with little to no programming experience the basics (from simple things like loops and if-elses to more complex topics such as inheritance and pointers)? <comment><USER2> I've been teaching myself how to program, and I've found this link on SO to have all the links hackers send when people ask them "how do I learn to program?":

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3088/best-ways-to- teach-a...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3088/best-ways-to-teach-a- beginner-to-program)</comment>


Google wants to generate green electricity at prices that rival coal. - <AUTHOR> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-more-renewable-energy.html

<comment><USER2> This would be a really big deal if they could beat coal energy inside of a decade. That would justify their stock price in an instant. Beyond that link, they're hiring for a new Director of Other. That would be a cool title to have.</comment>


Ask HN: Interning as a developer this summer - <AUTHOR>

Note: apologies for posting this under a dummy account; would rather keep this anonymous on HN, but I'm happy to be more candid via e-mail.
I'm a CS undergraduate (2/3 years completed). I really want to experience working in the Valley this summer. However, as a UK citizen, I find the visa situation to be a little daunting.
Apparently there's a shortage of talented developers though. So I had this thought: in exchange for visa help, flights and somewhere to sleep, would a startup be likely to take me on?
Just to clarify: I would essentially work for free over 3 months to cover the hassle involved.
Here's some of my experience over the past year:
- Wrote non-trivial iPhone/iPad apps (+ some Android experience)
- Server-side APIs: Python+Tornado, MySQL (involving lots of data)
- Analytics on top of a Hadoop cluster for a large global telco, dealing with petabytes of incoming data (ongoing -- also involved in deploying the cluster)
- Web visuals using ExtJS, Google Maps API, RaphaelJS
Would love to hear if this sounds even remotely plausible.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Dont sell your self short! Interning (work for free or for cheap) is common in fields where there are tons of students looking for jobs (publishing, fashion, film, TV). In development it isnt the case, there is always a shortage of good people. If you do intern, make sure you get paid a reasonable wage! Something on the order of 20-25/hour. When I interned about 15 years ago I made about the equivalent of 50K/year. Not great, but certainly not free. I had found free lance jobs on my own paying about $50/hour.

If you are going to work for free, you might as well do it for yourself and work on an opensource project

</comment><comment><USER3> We've had several interns, most of which were from Canada (University of Waterloo apparently has strict experience requirements for undergrads). There's not too much of a challenge - contact different startups, you'll be sponsored, you'l come here and be put through some immigration unpleasantries, and go home at the end of three months or so.

Give it a try! HN is only one route to find internships - check with friends, online contacts, and your university to see if they have any placement program.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice. Who's the 'we' and do you still take interns? Worth a try!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interning in the states is fairly easy with a J-1 visa once you have an employer backing you. The visa costs roughly $800 (mine have always been covered by the employer). I always used CDS to get the visa (<http://www.cdsintl.org/interntrainusa/about-j1-visa/>) but I am sure there are other agencies that are just as good.

Send me an email if you need more info.

</comment><comment><USER5> We are a startup (YC W10) looking for great summer interns and would happily help with visas, etc for the right person. My contact info is in my profile if you'd like to chat.

</comment><comment><USER6> Also want to know if there any intern opportunities accept international students (etc. China) in valley.</comment>


Ask HN: Why does the game start at 8:18PM CDT? - <AUTHOR>

Just wondering if anyone knew the reason the NCAA Championship game starts at 8:18pm?  Seems like a strange and arbitrary start time. <comment><USER2> So they can fit in enough commercials to make the NCAA a profit, following the 8:00pm broadcast start time, while keeping their athletes pure and maintaining their amateur status.</comment>


Keep Meetings on Track with a Time Timer - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2019/03/16/meetings-time-timer/#.XIzqbEONnIM.hackernews <comment><USER2> According to me, managing your time in any field is very important as you have discussed in the given link. During any project or in our lives we have to manage our time. If we do not manage our time, we are wasting our time in useless activities. Because if so not have a daily schedule and we haven't decided what to do at what time, we will be thinking that leave, for now, I will complete this later. And we never do this task "later"</comment>


Living Hawaii: Henk Rogers and His Quest for Energy Independence - <AUTHOR> http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/10/living-hawaii-henk-rogers-and-his-quest-for-energy-independence/ <comment><USER2> A place like Hawaii has potential for very low energy consumption per capita: it's such an ideal environment for humans that they need little technological assistance. Little air conditioning or heating, small homes as you can spend most of the time outside, fresh food year round means little need for refrigeration etc. I think they live like that on some Greek islands and are happy and live long.

<comment><USER3> > fresh food year round

Fresh food is one of the things significantly lacking in Hawaii. The state has very little sustaining agriculture, and it has to import large quantities of its food from the mainland.

Areas like Kaneohe on the windward side of Oahu used to be the breadbasket for the islands, rich, fertile, and arable land. The tore all that up and replaced it with a city (they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot..) They've done the same all over the place, and where they haven't, farmers are preferring the more commercially valuable crops, such as coffee beans.

There is a small but growing farmers market scene, and while the food there is clearly of better quality than store bought (richer flavours, fresher), the local farmers don't produce anywhere near enough food to serve even a fraction of the market.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, this fits with what I have heard. When I was considering applying for a job in Hawaii, I asked around and was told things like "I hope you like eating spam." and "Good lucking getting fresh milk regularly." For me, this was a dealbreaker, so I did not apply for the job.

<comment><USER3> I lived in Hawaii for 4 years (wife is born and raised there). It's a truly beautiful place and I miss it dearly, I miss the family, friends and culture that I came to know and love there. There's all the normal food, milk, bread etc just as you'd expect anywhere on the mainland. Spam is a bit of an ongoing joke, although they eat a lot in Hawaii and you'll see many specials based around it, it's really not _that_ hard to avoid. Guam eats way more (averaging 16 cans a year per person vs Hawaii's 5 cans) Though they do hold an annual spam jam... [http://spamjamhawaii.com/](http://spamjamhawaii.com/) :D

There are a few reasons we moved, but largely it comes down to cost of living, poor schools and small job market.

My career options on island were pretty limited, and I'd have to be earning crazy money to afford a home & pay for decent schooling for my kids.

Places we could afford to do both would mean putting up with some of the worst traffic jams in the nation for my commute. I took a small pay cut moving to Seattle, which is hardly the cheapest part of the nation, and the money still goes a lot further!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Dick is a bad manager - <AUTHOR> http://ieatpaste.com/2010/09/dick-is-a-bad-manager/ <comment><USER2> _He'll assign a task, tell you exactly how you should do it, and then "stop by" repeatedly to check on progress._

Let's not forget the rest of the story: Dick is not a dick by accident. He chooses this management style to keep his people on edge. Do you recognize any of these other things...

1\. Dick will omit one or two critical considerations about the task that you have no way of knowing. You're expected to gain this knowledge by osmosis or through the ether. It's your fault, not his, if you don't.

2\. Dick assigns no priorities to any of the tasks he assigns. Since by definition, there will always be _something_ not done, he will choose that thing to delve into. You can't win.

3\. Dick waits until 4:55 to start a conversation. Once is an instance. Twice is a coincidence. After that, it's a pattern.

4\. Dick only uses first names. If you don't know who he's talking about, you're the idiot.

5\. Dick will pull his people off partially finished projects all the time for the emergency du jour. Then he will act as if he never did this when the bumped project is not done. Again it's always your fault, not his.

6\. Dick will always find some outlying case no one has ever thought about and drill down 8 levels deep until he's the only one who knows what he's talking about. Everyone else is an idiot.

7\. If Dick wants something, he yells. If he doesn't get it, he yells louder. If he still doesn't get it, he cusses.

8\. When you least expect it, Dick is manic. The greatest guy in the world, as happy as can be, and everyone's buddy. Don't worry, things will be back to normal tomorrow.

9\. Dick never uses formal functional specifications and rarely commits to anything in email. That way, when things are not built exactly the way they are needed, he can't be pinned down. It's always someone else's fault.

10\. People come and people go, but Dick is still a dick and always will be.

<comment><USER3> 11\. You keep Outlook calendar up to date with all your meetings, but Dick will schedule his own (useless) meetings over them because he thinks he is that important. Dick will never keep his Outlook calendar up to date as that would allow you to know where he will be.

<comment><USER4> 11b) Dick likes to show his supervisors how much work he does so he schedules meetings with his "team" at 7:30AM and 5:00PM, then takes a long lunch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A Dick-style manager is a sign that you've already hired some B and C quality employees. Theoretically the only bad hire could be the manager, but I've never seen a company with just one sub-par employee. If people don't get work done, bad managers overreact. Terrible managers will also take the opportunity to overreact when everything is going smoothly. They check on tasks constantly. They run extra meetings so that you need to have something new to report within a 5 hour timespan. They play "Gotcha!" style games. They create a butts-in-seats environment of fear to keep employees working at all times.

In some environments, a close eye is required on an employee or two. Never everybody. When Dick appears, he is a sign that a company is already trending downhill.

<comment><USER6> I once worked at a company whose culture slogan was "by hackers, for hackers." They're renouned for hiring top-notch programmers, and they really do. Ironically, since hackers don't understand management, they tended to evaluate managers only on their technical skills, not (much) on their people or organizational skills. As an added bonus, the company was in a protected industry and their first product (created in startup mode when they were really small) was a game-changer, so they were wildly successful. So they basically had the attitude "we're really successful, therefore we don't have any big problems or need to make any big changes."

Their second product was a much larger engineering effort than the first, probably 4x as many engineers working on it. I had friends working on it, they had lots of stories about poor management. In the end, it was many years late and over budget, and a year or two after the financial crisis hit, the launch partner pulled out, and the company now had a reputation of not delivering, so nobody else would touch them. (Protected industries are generally conservative, they were lucky to find one customer willing to take a chance.)

tl;dr: good hackers don't know much about management, so when left to choose managers, they're likely to choose bad ones.

<comment><USER7> This sounds a lot like a concentrated, high-speed version of what I read happened with Sun. I have only read articles here and there about it though; anybody know a good analysis of Sun's problems?

<comment><USER8> It's not really like Sun. Sun couldn't accept that it had lost the hardware game a decade before its demise. It had great kit, it was just the market was so vanishingly small that it was never going to support the mothership. It had also lost the will to give "mavericks" the freedom to do their thing. It was firing them a decade out.

"Management" at Sun was pretty tight. It's just that it didn't require that sort of management.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Dick is not a bad manager, he is a manager for a different kind of employee. I agree that Dick hurts the productivity of the Creative employee than loves his job. But on the other hand there's lot of employees that if not for Dick, would be all day slacking around doing nothing.

You can say that firing the Slacker is the solution. Unfortunately it's hard to find the Creative and most of the time that person will ask for more money than the Slacker. Plus the Slacker is able to do the job just fine with just a little bit of pushing.

If a Creative is working for Dick it's only natural for him to realize that he is not a right fit for the organization and leave. Eventually leaving only Slackers in the organization, the way it should be.

The problem comes when Dick is a manager in an organization that _requieres_ creativity, then you are doomed.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is a related tangent that I'd like some input on:

One of the characteristics of "bad management" that's shown here is Dick constantly hovering. At my company, we've arranged the cubicles so that they still offer privacy (walls are about 6 feet high), but that anyone walking by can see what's on the computer screen.

Would you qualify this as hovering? We generally have no issues with casual gchatting, facebooking, stock picking, and have never really reprimanded anyone for that. We also don't do any sort of Internet monitoring.

Two of our employees, however, have taken it upon themselves to re-arrange their desks so that no one can see their monitor. One of them flipped their whole desk setup around (probably spent a good morning working on it), and another employee has turned his monitor 45 degrees - to compensate he has to crane his body at such an odd angle for 8 hours a day that I wonder if I'm going to get a workman's comp claim soon.

Is it bad management if I insist that they go back to their original configuration? I wonder if they think they're trying to pull a fast one over me - do they think I'm an idiot and do not realize what they're doing? Am I a "Dick" manager for wanting to know what they're up to whenever I walk through the room?

<comment><USER11> I'm not sure about that 45 degree guy, but for turning your cube so that you face out, that's sort of natural. For some people (me...) sitting with your back to a door or an area where people are generally walking is really uncomfortable. I don't like having people behind me without knowing they're there. It's not about slacking, it's just about comfort.

<comment><USER12> I think it's a natural instinct even.

<comment><USER13> To protect against marauders ;)

<comment><USER7> Not necessarily. All it requires is that people simply don't like being startled, nothing more is required than that.

<comment><USER14> I think he was making a reference to a certain Big Bang Theory character..

<comment><USER13> Bazinga!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Dick is insecure in his own abilities and has probably hit the wall per the Peter Principle. Good managers get out of the way of their developers; Dicks micromanage and hamper the creativity and growth of their developers because they fear that one day a developer may make them irrelevant. Nobody likes to work for a Dick.

<comment><USER12> Yes. A Dick has probably risen to his level of incompetence. Or, might just be incompetant, not knowing that the hell those developers are doing all the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> From the comments:

"There is a third kind of manager, who is typically a 'nice guy' who doesn't have a problem with chicken suits or a bit of browsing or working time as long as the job gets done _but_ micro-manages the crap out you stopping by every 15 minutes to see 'how you're getting on', just like Dick. Micro-management sucks ass"

I think the third kind of manager is almost worse than Dick. Micromanagement makes getting anything done near impossible. I've taken to wearing headphones at the office and generally ignoring my manager due to him falling into the third category. The phrase "How are you doing over there?" makes my eye twitch these days.

It would be easier to stand up against Dick, assuming you have nothing to lose by losing the job. Usually the third category is the type to have his/her feelings hurt and resort to personal attacks should you question their management style.

Just my personal experience, I realize that's probably a sweeping generalization.

<comment><USER17> Man up and talk to him about it if it's interrupting your productivity. I'm sure he cares about your productivity.

<comment><USER16> Well said.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good post.

The manager doesn't always have to fit that description totally to be a bad manager. As the post suggests, if people are saying "You should check with ____ before doing that," that probably indicates some micromanagement tendencies, which are just as demoralizing and counterproductive, even if the manager is otherwise well-loved as a person by some/all members of the team.

Also, if a team member tells you: "If you want to make that change, just do it, because if you check with ____, it'll take a while or might never happen," that is a sign of an overly-political manager.

Finally, I'd like to add the "smiley"/"fake" manager attitude. It's one thing to have a fun manager, but at some point you expect that your manager is trying to get work done. If they seem always happy and poking fun at things, it can be really annoying and make you second guess why they are trying to make everything seem so fun (probably because it sucks).

<comment><USER19> Also beware the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" types who always view system design and framework suggestions as general programmer whining and thus not worth investing any time. A lot of times this is true but prolonged adherence to this will leave you with a fairly antiquated technology stack.

<comment><USER20> These tend to be the same folks who deny that it's broken, leading to piles and piles of steaming code that make adding new features and fixing problems exceedingly difficult. They routinely turn simple, six-week projects into six- month death march projects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm not Dick. But I've occasionally had employees who would have done better if I were.

Anyone have any suggestions for how to manage a team where some employees need me to be Dick and some don't? The obvious solution is to replace the employees who need Dick's management, but that's not always feasible.

<comment><USER22> Seriously no-one needs Dick management.

Some may need more support, more monitoring and so on but no-one needs to be spied on.

Give them the freedom but have five minute chats with each one each morning so you can see if they're making progress. These aren't heavy things, they're quick informal updates, what are the problems, what's done that wasn't, can I see a quick demo and so on. Outside of that you leave them alone.

If you can't do this yourself because you don't have time then get each of your seniors to do a couple of the more junior guys.

If they're not making progress then they have a case to answer and ultimately moving towards a position where if they don't improve you are looking at getting rid of them (legally, even in the UK this is possible if you show they aren't performing given reasonable chances).

Monitoring progress is fine, that's management. Insisting on watching what someone is doing all the time is something else.

<comment><USER21> Thanks, that's helpful. I think I was a little vague/hand-wavy in my use of "Dick" - I agree that no one needs me peeking over his shoulder. I guess I just feel like I can either trust someone to be diligent and focused or I can't, and if I'm not trusting someone then I'm sort of being Dick. But I suppose there are open ways of monitoring people as well as sneaky ways, as you suggest.

<comment><USER22> * slightly harsher hat on *

The other advantage of it being open is if they are messing about it's a very honest warning shot across the bows if they are being supported but are not delivering.

The drive for trust should confuse the fact that people are there to deliver software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Managing like Dick is a easy trap to fall into for middle managers. They are given responsibility for delivering something, yet have limited authority. For example they need higher level authorization for their budget.

Also, they are dependent of their workers to make them look good. Usually they rose to a manager by doing a good job as an individual contributor, where their work was completely under their control. As a manager they need their team to get the work done. They can't do it alone anymore. It is not a simple thing to learn to give up that control, and convince others to work as hard as you had. Someone who has poor leadership skills and abilities is likely to compensate by micromanaging.

</comment><comment><USER24> I agree that micromanagement (especially of employees whose job is creating things) is a really bad idea. If it's necessary, then you made a bad hiring choice and need to start looking again.

However, if a developer came in "high and wearing a chicken suit" I wouldn't care how much he got done. The chicken suit might be passable if it were casual Friday, but high - not acceptable. There should still be an element of professionalism and respect when you're working with other people, getting paid well, and clients are depending on you.

<comment><USER25> "casual Friday" is the worst idea ever. Is working somehow less important on Friday? No? Then why not make every day casual Friday.

(I am personally not bitter about this. I wear whatever I want to work, and if someone has a problem, I'll just go work for the competition instead. Needless to say, nobody has a problem :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> _Some personality types mesh perfectly well with Dick's Machiavellian management style. Specifically, it seems to work on people who don't feel very attached to their jobs. They have separate, thriving lives outside of work, and are fully able to leave all baggage at their desks before they go home._

\- meshing with the Dick style of management

\- being attached to your job

\- having a thriving life outside of work

\- being able to leave work baggage at work

I admit these aren't entirely unrelated. Being able to leave baggage at your desk mitigates the damage done by Dick. Having a thriving life outside of work helps you leave your baggage at work. If you don't have a thriving life outside work, you are more likely to be attached to your job.

However, in general these four things can vary independently. For example, I once had a Dick manager I hated, was apathetic about my job, was unable to leave work baggage at work, and had a personal life that varied from thriving to nonexistent during the time I worked for that manager.

</comment><comment><USER27> Heh. This article reminds me of a book I read awhile back, called "The Management Secrets of T. John Dick":

[http://www.amazon.com/Management-Secrets-T-John- Dick/dp/0970...](http://www.amazon.com/Management-Secrets-T-John- Dick/dp/0970874693)

The book is fiction, and written from the point of view of the manager in question, but if you enjoy reading Dilbert, this book is a pretty good read.

</comment><comment><USER28> _Specifically, it seems to work on people who don't feel very attached to their jobs. They have separate, thriving lives outside of work, and are fully able to leave all baggage at their desks before they go home._

Is this a bad thing somehow? Shouldn't we all strive to have separate thriving lives outside of work and to leave the company baggage behind when we go home?

<comment><USER29> It's poorly phrased, but I think he means to make a distinction between people who enjoy their work and get into it, and people who view work just as a way to pay the bills. The latter may need more direct and focused supervision than the former, who just needs guidance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly. I see it as the difference between "It's a job" and "It's my job".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think that's why a lot of people here have gone on to do their own thing rather than working for another Dick. Although I have to say, being your own boss can sometimes be worse than working for a Dick.

</comment><comment><USER31> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apples_and_oranges>

I think apples should _lead_ apples and oranges should _lead_ oranges.</comment>


Microsoft reveals Windows 8 desktop UI changes, drops Aero Glass - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/18/3029547/microsoft-windows-8-drops-aero-glass

<comment><USER2> As much as I like the Metro concept, I thought that they nailed the UI with Windows 7 Aero. On top of that Windows 7 users tend to agree that it's the best that MS came up with hands down.

I don't understand why they would take such a risk. The only way this won't be awkward is to look equally good and really boost performance.</comment>


Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam - <AUTHOR> https://slowstreets.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/cycling-lessons-learned-from-amsterdam-that-no-one-talks-about/ <comment><USER4> As a dutchman visiting New York City a couple years back, naturally I rented a bike. A couple of random observations:

\- NYC in theory is ideal for traversing by bicycle. Congested yet flat, much like (old) Amsterdam

\- It's not so much the lack of bike lanes in the city, it's more the ignorance of drivers that poses a threat. I can't tell you how many times I was cut off, simply because the driver didn't see me or didn't expect a cyclist.

\- On the other hand, fellow cyclists were behaving like mad men. I can totally see why people are having issues with cyclists. Running red lights, taking sidewalks, zooming in front of cars, that doesn't get you a lot of understanding.

\- Cycling in Central Park is somewhat annoying: joggers use the bike lane because they're faster than normal pedestrians. I've been given a stink eye more than once because I wanted to overtake a jogger. How dare I use a bicycle on a bike lane...

\- The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is fantastic! Except for the parts where it suddenly stops and you're forced to cycle through heavy traffic to get around the UN building (taking 1st or 2nd Avenue). I get that this is an ongoing project, but can they at least alert drivers that they're sharing the road with cyclists at that point?

\- I did wear a bike helmet while cycling in NYC, but I wouldn't think of it at home. Cycling is relatively safe here because of the minimal speed difference when you share the road. This is backed up by numbers: there are currently 19 million bicycles and 8 million cars on 16 million inhabitants. About 25% of all movements is made by bicycle. Last year, 212 people died in a car crash, and 112 people died in bicycle accidents. The vast majority in these cases were one-sided accidents by elderly people. In perspective: only 2 children died in bike accidents.

<comment><USER5> NYC traffic and cycling is in a state of transition. Only now, after years of advocacy, are we starting to get the NYPD to even think about enforcing traffic laws, and likewise it took tons of work to get even a limited number of speed enforcement cameras to ticket drivers going over 10mph over the speed limit.

Likewise, many city cyclists still practice the lawless messenger/madman style that was necessary to survive in a city with no bike lanes and no traffic law enforcement, and others revert back to it after being cut off by turning cars and riding past 10 blocks of a bike lane being blocked by cabs and cops and ...

We're making steady progress in NYC, but we're not there yet. It seems like we're making a dent, with some actual enforcement of speed laws taking place, and widespread media concern about dangerous driving and people being killed in crashes. CitiBike bikeshare is a normal part of the city transit system, and now has competent management that are fixing its software and investing in its expansion.

As you note, there's a gap in the East Side bike path due to the UN Headquarters. It's being filled, but since the UN Headquarters is sovereign territory, it's a very complex process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Re: cars are permitted, this is true, but it's completely impractical to drive a car in Amsterdam - narrow roads, busy streets (cyclists, tourists, and the worst, tourist cyclists), and if you just need to move around inside the city itself, taking the bike or public transit is simply faster.

Re: cycling routes separated from main traffic: In most parts of the Netherlands this actually is the case. In Amsterdam though, as you can see from the pictures, there's simply not enough room for extra lanes (unless they get rid of the canals). There's barely room for a sidewalk, and those are barely walkable because of the parked bicycles. There's plenty of space (and space used) in North America, on the other hand - in fact the sprawl is the reason why people use cars all the time.

That's also why businesses in Amsterdam have no problems with having bike lanes - they know that only very few cars are physically able to park in front of their store, and that their customers either generally live close by, or are tourists walking through town.

Re: Parking, yes it is available everywhere, but Amsterdam has one of the highest parking costs of any city in the Netherlands - also again to reduce the amount of cars in the city center and discourage their use.

Bike lanes don't prevent crucial business deliveries because said trucks will just park on the bike lanes, street, or sidewalk - cyclists are agile, they can go around.

</comment><comment><USER7> Often, the problem with US cities is that they use a lot of space for parking lots. In order to be practical for walking and cycling, businesses have to be very densely packed. Having a parking lot in front of every business spaces them too far apart for cycling or walking. Thus, adding parking lots necessitates cars, and cars necessitate parking lots. A vicious cycle.

<comment><USER8> Hmmm, I would say that the typical urban US model (that I've seen) is to have centralized parking lots, not a parking lot in front of every business.

<comment><USER9> The net effect is still a reduction in the density of businesses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Being dutch I think that the roads that share bikes and cars in the Netherlands are actually not by design but by necessity. Especially in Amsterdam where there simply is not enough space. If you look in rural areas if there is room, they are always seperated. In the cases where there is no room, the buildings and/or streets are usually historically protected as monuments and will not be demolish-able to make more room.

<comment><USER11> I'm not sure that's true. I've read articles about how they intentionally create shared roads because it makes both bikes and cars more careful, similar to the initiative of removing signs and lights in traffic (which, counter- intuitively, is often safer).

Plus, I personally recall separated bike lanes being converted to shared lanes.

That said, I'm not 100% certain.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I was thinking this guy got them all, but as I just realized, here is something he did not mention: Amsterdam is _flat_. _FLAT_.

This is not a surprise, the whole country is flat anyway.

However, this makes such a big difference! In a city with several hills like Paris, cycling can be anything from lazy (going downhill) to utterly exhausting (going uphill).

* * *

There is a corollary to this, because going uphill not only requires more energy, it also makes cycling slower.

In Paris, almost all bus lanes are shared with bicycles. The only bus lanes forbidden to bicycles are the ones that go steeply uphill — because bicycles would be too slow and hold up bus traffic.

* * *

Source: currently living in Paris, I spent about 2 years in Amsterdam.

<comment><USER8> Behold, the cyclocable: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1PgmMbug8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1PgmMbug8)

Obviously, you're not traveling at top speed, but it keeps you at a constant pace and you're not wobbling all over the place.

<comment><USER12> Awesome! I had no idea anything like this existed, thanks for sharing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Funny to read about as I'm from Holland and have lived a great deal of my life in Amsterdam. A little tip for you people planning/going to Amsterdam in the future: please don't jump off the sidewalk onto the bike lanes without looking around you!

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't know about Vancouver, but here in Australia you must wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. That stops many people riding bikes (please do not argue about this, it has been done to death), and unfortunately has - <USER2> - had the unintended effect of worsening public health.

The pictures from the article show not a single person wearing a helmet... there is a lesson here I'd like the Australian regulaors to learn.

<comment><USER15> I also live in Australia, and am an avid cyclist - I ride to work every day, and I'm sorry but _no_ , I strongly disagree.

There is nothing wrong with wearing a helmet - I've come off my bike before and its made a potentially very bad situation painful rather than life- threatening - and really look, on the list of worries of cyclist, having to wear a helmet is the least of our worries.

(The law about "not riding on a footpath" is probably more annoying - occasionally, you need to, when its the only safe option).

However, what is an issue in Australia with cyclist is attitude particularly with car drivers. Until that changes, it will always discourage potential cyclists.

Whether it's cars who will literally chase you down and scream about how they "deserve to be on the road and you don't", or people who open doors into the bike lane without checking for cyclist etc.

Ironically, I find it actually tends to be the lower socio-economic areas that find the concept of cycling most puzzling.

In the more expensive areas, cycling seems to be more of a thing - sadly, road cycling is a rich man's hobby here - when you have groups of Cervelo and Bianchi's out on weekends, those people _often_ tend to be a bit more considerate when you're on the road yourself during the week.

I do wish cycling was more mainstream, or at least car drivers better educated - but I don't think that removing helmets is the way to do that.

<comment><USER16> Note that he's not arguing against the use of helmets.

only on giving people the choice: feel safer with one, wear one, if you don't don't.

<comment><USER15> It's like seatbelts - I don't know what the legislation is where you are, but over here (Australia), they are very much mandatory. The fine for not wearing your seatbelt is quite hefty.

Sure, you can argue that it's a bit nanny-state (and I know in certain countries, that's not a very popular stance), but it's also a bit of public health/safety.

Yes, sure, it's not as convenient wearing a seatbelt all the time, or wearing a helmet all the time, but over here, where we have government healthcare, it would probably cost them additional money if they had to cover potentially preventable accidents.

Also, I don't disagree that head accidents aren't the most common bike injury.

However, think about it - you graze your knees, or you break your arm - they're painful but not usually life threatening.

You hit your head, get a concussion, suffer some kind of brain damage - <USER3> are very much screwed.

Guy at my church, his brother in law is a cyclist. He got attacked by magpies, fell off and suffered a head injury. He can't work at the moment, and is in rehab at home.

Sure, the chance may be low, but do you really want to take it?

I would glad take a grazed knee over a head injury any day of the year. Hence why helmets are mandatory here, and not say, knee guards.

And if the government if funding your healthcare, you can bet it costs them a pretty dime to care for you for the rest of your life, if you were to suffer a disability from a head injury.

<comment><USER17> The common argument is that forcing people to wear helmets reduces bicycle use, which contributes to poorer health through reduced activity levels and poorer air quality, which creates an overall higher health cost than the injuries that would be sustained if helmets were not mandatory. This also ignores the impact having more bicyclists on the road have on driver awareness.

I'm all for wearing helmets and encouraging their use, but it's more complicated than "Helmets are safe, they should be mandatory".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There is a move in the Netherlands to get old city centers free of cars. What you see in the first picture with cars everywhere is usually only for people living there and licensed goods trucks. Delft already has such a policy and some shopping areas can only be crossed by foot or by bike.

Just as not all roads have cycling lanes, not all roads are accessible to cyclists. It's usually only smaller streets with low speeds that encourage cyclists.

To be honest, Amsterdam is really cramped when it comes to traffic. It is an old city amended with all the new stuff like cycling lanes, bus stops and no space to unload cargo.

One point they are missing: The safest bike is the one that looks most worn down and has a lock more expensive than the bike. It should also be attached to a fixed object.

</comment><comment><USER19> One more: Most Dutch don't feel the need to dress in bright colored lycra uniforms and ride $6,000 racing bicycles simply to commute to work. I'm American and an amateur racer, but I wear normal clothing when commuting to work. I'm not sure why so many Americans feel the need to "kit up" for the daily commute. I think it actually turns a lot of would-be commuters off.

<comment><USER20> To be fair, the Denver/Boulder area has a ridiculous number of semi-pro cyclists, and commuting on your race bike _is_ a convenient way to cram training miles into a busy schedule. (but they do look silly, regardless)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I read that for 40 years the Dutch principle behind road design has been that the smallest vehicles should be the safest. Everything is designed around that.

<comment><USER22> True. And for example ciclist are also protected by law in case of an accident with a car.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> These lessons are a constant part of dialogue here in the US, particularly in cities like SF and NY. I would even call them universal.

The challenge is convincing folks that they are applicable to their street. Most people here are so attached to the car as the only viable form of transportation that they do not see bikes or transit as complete transportation alternatives, despite the best formed arguments.

<comment><USER24> It can be maddening to see both how little vision and how much time change- resistant people have to protest.

Polk Street in SF could have been the coolest public space in the region if they'd simply had the balls to say "Cars dominate every other street within a mile of here. We're going to make Polk into an open-air promenade that you're welcome to walk or casually bike through." They could have even razed a building within a couple blocks of there and put it ample parking if that's what it took to make progress. Our commercial districts should be destinations, not thoroughfares, and Polk was so close to becoming that before they caved to a propaganda war by some frightened old-timers.

On a completely separate note, if you're interested in cycling policy and working with stubborn merchants like those on Polk, chat with Gary Fisher. He's a smart guy who's spent a lot of time thinking about how to work collaboratively with people who are nervous about changing street priorities. He also is pretty easy to bump into if you hang out with cyclists in SF or Marin.

<comment><USER23> It is maddening, but I also understand where some Polk merchants are coming from. They're being asked to stake their livelihood on a relatively radical proposal, at least by American standards.

I would like to see the City create some sort of financial incentive (like a tax credit) to bring them on board when it comes to safety improvements. In the long run, it would pay for itself.

I've worked with Gary in the past but thanks for the bringing him up, I'm going to reach to him and have a beer!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I live in a German city that is very bike friendly. The priority goes like this:

\- tram

\- bike

\- pedestrian

\- car

If you are driving and arrive at a T- junction for example, you need to give way to pedestrians and bicycles on the primary route, and then check for other vehicles.

Coming from the UK, this was a shock to the system. We were used to pedestrians giving way to us, unless there was a proper zebra style crossing, and even then that was somewhat voluntary. This switch around of priority is important in calming traffic and subscribes to the moto of "go at the pace of the slowest". It works rather well in my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER26> I think it's good to stimulate a healthy way to go to work (free exercise). Living in Amsterdam I'm getting 1 hour of exercise every day going to and from work. Also as cities get more crowded, bikers tend to take up less space and being less dominant in traffic.

</comment><comment><USER27> "Only 50% of the cycling routes in the Netherlands are separated from vehicular traffic."

Oh, ONLY 50%? Compare that to America, where, including protected bike lanes and bike trails, it's probably what, 5%, tops?

<comment><USER28> In "bike advocacy" circles it's common to hear people claim that bike lanes have to be separated from vehicular traffic all the time.

This is pointing out that view is wrong.

<comment><USER27> I think most people believe that bike lanes have to be separated all the time from cars for arterials where traffic moves relatively quickly. The sort of shared road space the article talks about, with intensive traffic calming, isn't terribly common in the US. I think bike advocates here would be fine with that kind of thing, too, it just may not be on their radar as much.

Neighborhood greenways are a somewhat similar idea, although it looks like the level of calming is a lot higher in the Netherlands relative to its implementation in parts of the US like Portland.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm glad this article is looking at many factors that are involved in making cities cyclable and walkable. But it seems it is missing one huge factor: the average size of vehicles in the US. It works in Europe because city cars and delivery vans are small (as illustrated in the photos). Of course this is also because of the design and growth of the city predating motor vehicles. In the US, the sunk cost in oversized vehicles, as well as marketing and regulatory capture (CAFE exemptions) mean that everything has to bend to the will of the car culture.

<comment><USER30> Only partially true. It's true that there aren't that many F150's driving around here (in absolute numbers), then again how many people drive those in American suburbia? Dutch car's aren't, on average, smaller than Camry's or Priuses.

<comment><USER31> You'd be shocked. There have been years when Ford's F series pickup trucks were the best selling car in the US. Most are bought for passenger use. In my hometown, south of Detroit, virtually every other car is a full size pickup truck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> bash-j If you liked this article you would probably enjoy the BicycleDutch youtube channel, filled with lots of great videos about cycling in the Netherlands.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67YlPrRvsO117gFDM7UePg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67YlPrRvsO117gFDM7UePg)

<comment><USER32> The videos are great, but the blog ([https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/](https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/)) is more informative, combining text with the videos, and adding search facilities (the by theme one in particular is useful)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm glad someone finally notices that cycling paths aren't everywhere in the Netherlands, and that a lot of our streets have to juggle cars, cyclists, pedestrians and trams in less space the US uses just for cars.

IMO, the main problem to changing traffic behavior in the US is the utter lack of respect for other types of traffic, enforced not just by culture but by law.

It's so weird to me that in a country where the majority supports "responsible gun ownership" people are perfectly okay with the notion that when driving a big hunk of metal you don't have any kind of responsibility not to hit cyclists or pedestrians.

</comment><comment><USER34> My opinion based purely on anectodal evidence says the essential reason why bikes are highly preferred by the people of Amsterdam is that it is mostly a flat city. Compare this to Istanbul, where even seemingly trivial journeys have 100m climbs in it.

Example for a popular home to work commute: [http://cycleroute.org/?slat=41.061029&slng=29.00681199999996...](http://cycleroute.org/?slat=41.061029&slng=29.006811999999968&elat=41.0543842&elng=28.98497999999995&mode=DRIVING)</comment>


IMF predicts slowest global economic growth since 2008 financial crisis - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/imf-global-economic-growth-great-recession-financial-crisis-8ce86d7e-698a-4947-bddb-100f8548cf22.html <comment><USER2> I am proposing that the newly printed money from central banks causes deflation not inflation. Newly printed money flows to automation which lowers consumer prices. Traditional central banks say that newly created money goes to wage inflation but that is not fully true. Further we have globalization which again lowers consumer prices and newly created local money by central banks does not effect foreign wages.

"Under this policy approach the target is to keep inflation, under a particular definition such as the Consumer Price Index, within a desired range.

The inflation target is achieved through periodic adjustments to the central bank interest rate target. The interest rate used is generally the overnight rate at which banks lend to each other overnight for cash flow purposes. Depending on the country this particular interest rate might be called the cash rate or something similar." source: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy)

\- It is just wrong to think that you can control consumer price index on a globalized market.

<comment><USER3> Consumer prices aren't really going down, at least on things people care about (food, housing, or education).

At least in the U.S., it seems like the consumer classes are pretty tapped out in terms of consumption, and wages are stagnant so new consumption growth is elusive. With the income inequality that the U.S. is current experience, there just aren't enough consumers with resources that can keep spending indefinitely.

<comment><USER4> I would imagine that consumer prices going down for everything but local, supply constrained goods like housing, education and healthcare, is leaving people with more disposable income to spend on local, supply constrained goods, thereby making them more expensive.

<comment><USER3> From a micro perspective, the cost of consumer goods seems to be steady but the cost of housing, education, and healthcare is increasing faster than inflation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is _growth_ adjusted for inflation here? I.E. is it _real growth_?

A 0.8% increase does not keep up with inflation, so that would already be a decline in real terms.

It seems like it does. The EU, US, and China are like 70% of global GDP. And if they're growing at 1.2%, 2.4%, and 6.1% respectively, I don't know how global growth could be only 0.8%. The rest of the world would need to be deep in the red.

<comment><USER6> I think you're posting a good question. I'm also curious. But inflation isn't fixed. How can you conclude that is not keeping up with inflation.

<comment><USER5> I don't disagree with you, but I think Central Banks would.

It's basically their job to keep inflation steady.

On one hand, we can criticize them for not doing a good job. On the other hand, if you compare the volatility of inflation vs equities vs house prices vs just about anything -- they're doing pretty good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I read recently that QE has disrupted capitalism's process of creative destruction by keeping alive companies that would have died otherwise[1]. These low-growth zombie companies drag on the economy.

[1]. [https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/qe-would-kill-finance- and...](https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/qe-would-kill-finance-and- capitalism-mckibbin-warns-20191008-p52yov)

</comment><comment><USER8> Surprised it took this long given the way the US economy is being yanked left and right on a moment's notice. Just think about how much money you could make if you could affect the DJIA with a tweet.

<comment><USER9> I wonder if it's legal for Twitter to make market moves prior to pushing out a Trump tweet. Single-signal high frequency trading, basically.

<comment> semi-extrinsic Pretty sure the answer is no. US insider trading law is very much concerned not just with whether you traded on material nonpublic information, but also on whether your trading based on this information was a breach of trust between you and the person giving you the information.

As far as I understand, overhearing a stranger discussing a deal at the local Starbucks and trading on that, is perfectly legal. But overhearing your wife discuss a deal and trading on that is illegal, as it is a breach of trust.

Edit: I managed to find the article I remember reading on this. Turns out it was Matt Levine in Dec. 2018. To quote him:

> Famously, in American insider trading law, it's legal to trade on inside > information that you randomly overhear in a train station.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-03/inside...](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-03/insider- trading-in-the-potato-trade)

<comment><USER10> Is a stranger talking on the phone in Starbucks really public information?

If so, I would start a SAAS that just puts a microphone in every Starbucks and high end restaurant in ritzy corporate areas like Bellevue, Palo Alto, Manhattan and sell that data to some quant fund. That signal could be worth billions per year

<comment><USER11> If you start that, let me know. I'll then head to my local Nobu with a friend, and pretend I'm from Adobe discussing an imminent deal to buy Docusign, while holding Docusign shares :)

<comment><USER10> I take no responsibility for model drift and filtering adversarial data is the responsibility of the consumer :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'll take 2.4% growth all day long.

The title is misleading. I don't want incredible growth, I want sustainable growth.

</comment><comment><USER13> Group of rich dudes tells world the poor are in for a rough time.

<comment><USER14> Group of rich dudes forecast the weather...

How dare they try to model a thing which is not themselves!</comment></comment>


MIT Startup Bootcamp 2011: Notes and Musings - <AUTHOR> http://onstartups.com//tabid/3339/bid/67831/mit-startup-bootcamp-2011-notes-and-musings?source=Blog_Email_%5BMIT%20Startup%20Bootcamp%5D

<comment><USER2> Duplicate. Correct one is here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3039045>

Thanks.</comment>


S2X, don't let Coinbase walk off with your coins - <AUTHOR> https://hackcabin.com/post/keep-calm-own-your-private-keys/ <comment><USER2> So wait, they changed their statement after they already knew?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, the code was open source and Bgold team made an official statement after spotting the bogus info on the Coinbase FAQ. Here's the tweet: [https://twitter.com/bitcoingold/status/921822927091372032](https://twitter.com/bitcoingold/status/921822927091372032)</comment></comment>


How to: DIY Startup Explainer Video for Under $300 (That Still Looks Pro) - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupchile.org/how-to-diy-startup-explainer-video-for-under-300-that-still-looks-pro/

<comment><USER2> A title like this screams: "Pick my example video apart." And the first thing I noticed was the vocals on this was horrible - poppy plosives and screaming fricatives. Use a pop filter to get the plosives under control and a multiband compressor for the fricatives.</comment>


How Cold Is It? - <AUTHOR> http://howcoldisit.com/

<comment><USER2> I need a widget of this for my website. Please.

He said, from Pasadena, CA at 26C in outdoor sex weather.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://thefuckingweather.com/> ?

</comment><comment><USER4> why do i have to tell you where i am?

<http://goingtorain.com></comment>


The Serverless Start-Up – Down with Servers - <AUTHOR> http://highscalability.com/blog/2015/12/7/the-serverless-start-up-down-with-servers.html <comment><USER2> I'm wondering what they're doing that they're estimating is 1 MB of data uploaded for data in, and 10 MB of data downloaded based off the following:

| We guess that such a client uses 1000 API calls per month (that's editing only), requires therefore 1GB of data in, and needs about 10 GB of traffic- related data out.

I agree with Sgoettschkes regarding Heroku, I've been using it in production for over a year without any issues at all and found it to be the lowest level of entry for scaling apps.

For example, I just spun up some new analytics software I wrote last week in golang and it peaks around 50k req/min, averages around 23k req/min, I'm using 4 nodes which realistically could probably handle 100k req/min without issue since in peak it's consuming about 50% of available resources to us as it is right now, but $100/mo is well worth it for the piece of mind, then combined with a $20/mo percona mysql server on digitalocean that averages around 4% cpu load, we're paying $120/mo to handle on the low end 927,360,000 http requests/month and all I have to do is a git push and the code automatically sets up the DB structure and DB indexes when booting the app up.

It's cool that they're using all these new technologies, but based on their numbers for me to have this software running on their setup it could realistically cost millions of dollars a month, and that's still removing the costs of cloudfront and s3 since it's not relevant in my case. Maybe on paper meshing a bunch of AWS technologies that big named companies use sounds great, but it seems like a high price to pay for the ability to say you're using these services.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you are running on Heroku or Google App Engine, you don't have a server as well. AWS Lambda abstracts the concept of a server even more, but yeah...

I also think the costs are pretty high. Of course I have no idea how much traffic and requests where calculated, so I am just guessing. As cloudfront and S3 do the heavy lifting, a cheap server or two for actual editing of the content should be enough. And they don't need to scale on the same level as there won't be that much changing for customers, so paying more than 10,000$ for that with 100.000 customers seems pretty high.

But I get what the idea behind it was, and it seems to work pretty good. Also nice to have really low costs in the beginning :)

<comment><USER4> If you would have the same setup, but with EC2 instead of lambda, you would still have the same CloudFront pricing, so you should compare the $410 lambda costs for 100.000 customers with the costs of some EC2 servers plus ELB. Of course, then, you will miss the benefits of 1. no server-maintenance, 2. no down-time or scaling issues and 3. initial startup costs - without customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For all the German fellows: I'll give a talk about "exactly" this topic including a hands-on sample at the "Monster on Rails" Meetup this week in Münster - [http://www.meetup.com/Monster-on-Rails-Web-Development- Meetu...](http://www.meetup.com/Monster-on-Rails-Web-Development-Meetup- Muenster/events/226965979/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Now, all you need is a nice open-source Framework :) [http://www.serverless.com](http://www.serverless.com)</comment>


Soaked  - <AUTHOR> http://www.granta.com/Magazine/108/Soaked/1

<comment><USER2> How timely!

Just yesterday, an Illinois Department of Transportation crew discovered one of these tunnels was underneath I-90 (Kennedy Expressway), in the heart of the interchange downtown where everything converges.

In an preventative effort to keep that tunnel from collapsing they pumped concrete into the tunnel...and managed to buckle the pavement above, cripping the evening rush hour. The emergency repair is done...for now.</comment>


Ask HN: Web IDEs with hosted VMs? - <AUTHOR>

I have been using Cloud9 for quite some time but problems with disconnecting etc. are increasing in numbers very, very fast during the past month. I have no clue about what's behind that.
So I'm looking for a new web IDE.
What I need:
Preferrably Ubuntu box with not that much power SFTP and/or SSH access to my own server Doesn't have to be online when I'm not using it 5-15 USD / month
Codebox.io looks great but signups are disabled for some reason. Other options? <comment><USER2> How about [https://www.nitrous.io/](https://www.nitrous.io/) ?

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.terminal.com](https://www.terminal.com) is also good

</comment><comment><USER4> I tried nitrious.io for a little bit and had an enjoyable experience.</comment>