Update HN: Amazon has thankfully removed my free ebook - <AUTHOR>

Just an update from yesterday (though, I guess for a lot of you it's the same day) regarding this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2876637
Amazon has de-listed the book. Shortly after the post appeared on HN, someone from Amazon contacted me and told me it was being taken care of. A couple hours ago I got an email from the copyright group responding to my original notice saying the item was being removed and it might take 2-3 days. But it seems to have taken a lot less time as it's now gone
I've asked Amazon if it's possible to make the process more visible and suggested any content with common licenses (searching for a link to creativecommons.org for example) would be wonderful.
I'm obviously very thankful, but I do wonder what the outcome would have been without the visibility HN brought to my litte issue. <comment><AUTHOR> Another update, I'm being told that it shouldn't have taken as long as it did (both from the initial takedown, and then once it was brought more directly to their attention yesterday). I'm getting a good sense that

a) this isn't how it should work

b) this isn't how it normally works

c) they'll work to improve it

Hard to ask for too much more

<comment><USER2> Keeping something as big as Amazon reasonably usable is hard. But they have a pretty significant focus on improving the user experience. The culture is also less problematic than Microsoft and they're much easier to connect with than Google (e.g.).

They have their flaws, but they often do an admirable job for such a large entity.</comment></comment>


The Art of Voltage Probing - <AUTHOR> https://circuitcellar.com/research-design-hub/the-art-of-voltage-probing/ <comment><USER2> this picture is worth 987 words:

[https://circuitcellar.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/03/343-Lac...](https://circuitcellar.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/03/343-Lacoste-Figure_14.jpg)

although these 13 words help it get to 1000:

"An example of a quite exotic old probe, a 40-kV rated Tektronix P6015"

<comment><USER3> Using that thing must be quite a hair-raising experience.

(The "Z0" probe idea is great, though, I shall have to remember that one)

<comment><USER4> I've used the similar Fluke 80K-40 a number of times up to 20 kVrms. The arcing is always concerning, but it's surprising how safe it feels to hold.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So honestly, this demonstrates the value of an education in the field. The EE BS degree has a tremendous focus on theory and students don't really get a great appreciation for the reason that it has such a focus. But if you thought about it, you'd realize that if you're measuring, say, the voltage across a capacitor, there should never be any fast dv/dt spikes. The physics doesn't allow it, which means you're measuring something else. You can either hand wave and say how it can't be, and ignore the spikes, or you can set up the measurement properly to exclude them.

This later approach takes experience, which is harder to teach. Most of us pick it up from years in the lab, or occasionally reading an article from a master like Bob Pease.

It's a shame we haven't figured out a good blend between theory and practice that can produce a graduate who actually knows this kind of stuff. But I suppose the field of electrical engineering is so broad that if we tried, school would either take 10 years or would produce such a finely tuned graduate they'd be useless for anything else.

</comment><comment><USER6> There are a lot of "third hand" probe holders such as the QuickProbe:

[https://tyrosys.com/quickprobe](https://tyrosys.com/quickprobe)

<comment><USER7> I like tacking on stubs of precut 30awg wire if signal integrity isn't an issue. It's much easier to manage multiple probes and you aren't constantly worried about losing contact. With problematic packages that can't be probed directly you can tack a wire onto a nearby resistor or slip it into a via if you planned ahead and made them big enough. Then you're ready to securely hook on with a scope probe or grabber clip.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone know of a voltage probe/meter that measures driver impedance along with the voltage?

<comment><AUTHOR> I also want a solution, but I think the measurement is far from straightforward. So far what I've found are ( _Disclaimer: I 'm a sysadmin, not a qualified hardware engineer, it's just for fun_):

* Using a Vector Network Analyzer and do a S22 (S11 on a two-port VNA) measurement directly at the output driver - it's exactly what we want by definition. But the measurement is not passive and you are connecting the output of the VNA to a "hot" output driver, guess what could possibly go wrong? Both the chip and the VNA can be damaged if it's not done properly. It's quite a headache for testing RF amplifiers.

Even if the setup is a success, everything else connected to the output driver can distort the measurement. But I believe it's easier on low power logic circuits. You add a DC-block to the VNA, get a test fixture and do Open/Short/Load calibration, then solder the output driver on the fixture and turn it on, drive the output high, measure it, drive the output low, measure it again. But it certainly needs to be done on a test fixture in a controlled setting, not an actual live board. I'm not sure if the approach I just described can work yet, I'll do some experiments in the future.

* Weng-Yew Chang, et al. proposed output impedance measurement by current injection using two reproposed wideband oscilloscope current probe (Tektronix CT-6, $1000) and a standard VNA. You hook both probes at the output side of the driver, connect them to the VNA, and do your measurements as usual [0]. Apparently it's already the standard practice for measuring DC power supplies (e.g. see PicoTest Signal Injector manual [1]), and they simply applied the same trick on output driver.

* Richard Allred proposed a method at DesignCon 2014 [2]: First, get a multi-GHz oscilloscope, get a Time Domain Reflectrometer, do a lot of TDR measurements while the board is unpowered. Then, power on the board, measure the real output signal on your oscilloscope. Next, solder a shunt resistor at the output, repeat the measurement. Finally, do a lot of linear algebra on the measured waveform using previous TDR data to remove the influence ("de-embedded") of the interconnection (cable, board) from the signal, and do more algebra to get the complex impedance of the output driver on the Smith Chart.

Expensive equipment and a considerable amount of work. But Allred's work is used on 10 GHz+ systems, and it's designed to be applied directly on the board, without the use of a test fixture, and avoiding a that can potentially upset the output.

[0] [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1109/APMC.2009.5384220](https://sci- hub.tw/10.1109/APMC.2009.5384220)

[1] [https://www.picotest.com/images/download/injector- manual-1.1...](https://www.picotest.com/images/download/injector- manual-1.1.pdf)

[2] [https://www.sisoft.com/elearning/secure/files/2-WE4_Practica...](https://www.sisoft.com/elearning/secure/files/2-WE4_PracticalMethodForMeasuringDigital.pdf)</comment></comment>


Aggregating Data Registries with Go - <AUTHOR> http://eris.okfn.org/ww/2011/03/gockan

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it depends. For the class of "quick hack to get some data from a JSON API and munge it" having to model the data can be a burden. Just using a Python dict and getting the values out is initially quite a lot simpler.

However for anything more complicated than that you start having to model the data anyways, in Python or Go or any other language otherwise it will quickly devolve into unmaintainable spaghetti. In this case, I was forced to do this early on, which made me think through the structure of the program more thoroughly than I might otherwise have done.

</comment><comment><USER2> Interesting read for sure. And certainly nice to see Go being subjected to some real-world use.

About the need to represent the CKAN ORM in Go, in order to get some useful JSON deserialization going; I have found this be to useful myself in a few cases. mainly when wrapping RESTful services exposed as JSON.

You mentioned it was 'unexpected', but would you also qualify it as a downside to the way python handled this?

With a large object model, I can see how maintenance becomes a little tricky. Specially since Go has no notion of object relations.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thinking about this some more, I think to replace model.Package with an interface. The existing struct of that name will become JsonPackage that implements it. This is because the CKAN representation of a dataset has some modelling problems (that are being addressed in parallel by the CKAN team) and it isn't clear that the existing models as represented in the JSON should overly inform the functioning of the ckand aggregator.</comment>


Do you know your bitwise operators? - <AUTHOR> http://quaxio.com/know_your_bits/

<comment><USER2> Validator seems broken.

<comment><USER3> I certainly can't get it to work. For the first problem, I tried:

      function one_bit(x) {
        return x & (x-1) == 0
      }

Only to see this error:

      Expected "}" or comment but "&" found.

WAT

<comment><USER4> It appears to have a limited JS validator to prevent you from using anything other than the limited operators it allows.

<comment><USER5> It really doesn't like having anything after "return" except a single value or variable.

<comment><USER4> That's not it. For example, it accepts "return x|x&x;" . The restriction is that only a handful of Javascript operations are allowed. Anything else gives a hard-to-understand error message.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is stated to be a puzzle. But, when does this actually get used? Are there use cases of bit manipulation in JS? I've never understood when using bit operators could be necessary or even useful. Of course, I'm speaking from my experience building web apps; ruby, python, js, php, etc. I don't have much other programming experience

<comment><USER7> To do this exercise in javascript is pretty silly. But as a systems developer, I can tell you that bit manipulation happens all over the place in my line of work.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is nothing inherently javascript about this, besides providing a UI to validate the answer (that's when the validator works...)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That will get fairly hairy, given that JavaScript doesn't have integers. x should be expected to be a IEEE 754 double (can one discriminate between NaNs in JavaScript?), but might also be a string (does "@" have one bit set?, or might it be EBCDIC?), an array, an object, null or undefined (do those have a bit pattern?)

<comment><AUTHOR> JavaScript supports various bit manipulation operators, which treat their operands as 32 bits (and return a numerical value).

<comment><USER8> Because of that, I am not sure can use them to count the number of 1 bits in a JavaScript number. For example, if x&0xFFFFFFFF equals 356621, what do you know of x?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is making me crazy, does someone have the solution?

The best I could come up with is:

function one_bit(x) { return 1 >>> (x & (x + ~0)) }

("x + ~0" is equivalent to "x - 1")

But this doesn't work when x is 0 All other case should be fine, afaik.

<comment><USER10> That would work if the `>>>` operator worked as expected, but actually it just looks at the first 5 bits of the second variable so that `a>>>b` is effectively equivalent to `a>>>(b&31)`. His description of it is wrong.

[http://jsfiddle.net/Ayzkt/2/](http://jsfiddle.net/Ayzkt/2/)

<comment><USER10> Here's an ugly solution.

[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/8364074](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/8364074)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice. Find a shorter one now (afaik, the best score is 12 and it's like in golf, smaller scores are better).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The validator doesn't work at all.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry. Fixed.</comment></comment>


Success in Sacramento: Victories for Privacy and Transparency - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/success-sacramento-four-new-laws-one-veto-all-victories-privacy-and-transparency <comment><USER2> EFF has been having a marked increase in its success rate lately. Good to see.</comment>


Food for Thought on Fast Page Start - <AUTHOR> http://at.cantl.in/nerd-stuff/2012/11/29/fast-page-start.html

<comment><USER2> >"Can you live without jquery? ... Still, if you are serious about performance, 32kB over the wire will offend you"

I am pretty sure most sites will link to google's jquery, which will probably be cached by the user's browser.

<comment><AUTHOR> As true as this is, there will always be some cost. Whether it's a teenager who just cleared their history after some lewd excursions or a company director after power cycling her iPhone, not every cache will be warm. Since sites that require jQuery tend to depend on it to work at all, we do put considerable faith in that HTTP request going flawlessly for our fast page start. Of course there are a host of reasons why we would do this, but I think it's worth being aware that, as the saying goes, _you don't get for nothin'_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I learned something today. The limited concurrent requests by domain surprised me. The in lining of header CSS is counter intuitive as well.</comment>


Alphabet to develop high-tech site in Toronto: sources - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-canada-development/alphabet-to-develop-high-tech-site-in-toronto-sources-idUSKBN1CM265 <comment><AUTHOR> Techmeme summary: _Reuters: Sources: Alphabet to help develop a section of Toronto 's waterfront as a testbed for smart city concepts, will place 300 employees at the site_</comment>


How MeUndies built a $32M company - <AUTHOR> https://jilt.com/upsell/meundies-experience/ <comment><USER2> Pretty sure all their success is due to this Bill Burr ad [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtD0p6BIic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtD0p6BIic)

<comment><USER3> They targeted the podcast space pretty significantly, i've heard about them for years on Harmontown.

<comment><USER2> They target the podcasts with pretty big audiences too!! I've heard ads from Rogan and Ferriss too!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What does it mean to be a $32M company? Based on whose valuation? I don't get why this number is such a prominent feature, and then is never explained. And is $32M a big number? Compared to who? This all seems strange to me.

<comment><USER5> Inc.com lists 2016 revenue as $32.6. Also interested in more information as to where that puts them though.

<comment><USER6> Hanes Brands does $6.4 billion in sales for example (obviously including all of their business).

$32.6 million in sales is a small company in the underwear business. Men's underwear (boxers, boxer briefs, briefs) in just the US + Canada is a $5.x billion annual business at retail.

There's also this amusement:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_underwear_index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_underwear_index)

<comment><USER7> Sometimes some of these industries, not hyped like every tech companies and don't get much media attention from Business magazine, are just mind blogging big. And that is just Man! Which I assume spend comparatively VERY little money as compared to woman underwear.

P.S - From wiki "The premise is that men's underwear are a necessity in normal economic times and sales remain stable. " Am I the only one who don't think of it as necessity? Or is this a US thing?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who prefers cotton boxers to synthetic boxer briefs.

Pros of the cotton boxer:

* More breathable

* Less scratchy

* Less "death grip on your junk"-y

* A lot less expensive

Cons:

* I guess they dry slower, so if you need to hang dry your underwear and have them be dry by the next morning, you'd have to use synthetic? But that's about it

I've tried synthetic boxer briefs from ex oficio, duluth trading trading, meundies, calvin klein, saxx... They are all categorically worse than plain cotton boxers.

<comment><USER9> > prefers cotton boxers to synthetic boxer briefs.

Modal is beech tree fibre and cotton. It doesn't seem super synthetic to me, although some argue chemical treatment of the tree fibres make it that way: [https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-wash-modal- clothes-2145794](https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-wash-modal-clothes-2145794)

I don't subscribe to MU by the way, I collected t shirts and one point and used to date a girl with a textiles degree. I had one t-shirt that felt magical, she told me it was modal and I learnt what it was. Now I buy cheap modal t shirts and underwear from Amazon.

<comment><USER10> Modal is just Rayon no? I had the same misconception about "hemp fabric", turns out these exotic "natural fabrics" are just Rayon made using a novel source of cellulose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Dropshipping underwears from Blackspade @ Turkey and charging customers with x5 price?

<comment><USER12> Haha, ding ding ding we have a winner.

<comment><USER13> Is this actually what they do, or is it a joke that went over my head?

<comment><USER14> Former employee from there, that's exactly what they do. Shipments come private labeled from turkey.

<comment><USER15> wow, so much for disrupting the underwears space

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Sure it wasn't just good marketing? I can't get any content without hearing an ad from them.

<comment><USER17> I started getting MeUndies with my partner, who'd been subscribing since they opened in LA just down the street from where she worked. They make a great product, chose to ally themselves with good causes, artistic collaborations, and the one-design-a-month made it a fun way to rotate new matching underwear with one's partner.

As someone who's been a customer of theirs for a long time, I think they're valuable because of the service they provide.

<comment><USER14> I'd reevaluate that statement. Their founder is a convicted felon for knowingly exposing people to asbestos.

<comment><USER17> I hadn't heard this. Can you provide a reference for me?

Edit: [https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/regional-director- calif...](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/regional-director-califco-llc- property-management-company-sentenced-12-months-and-1-day)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Maybe it's cause they charge $24 for a pair of underwear? I don't necessarily doubt their quality, but the most I'd be willing to pay is half that.

<comment><USER19> Its only $16 if you're a member which is a core part of their business model.

<comment><USER20> Wonder how successful their subscription model is. Clothing doesn't have a natural fit with recurring purchases as it doesn't solve a problem for the consumer.

<comment><USER21> Depends what kind of clothing. Imo socks and regular underwear (had to differentiate "regular", because it doesn't include specialty/novelty stuff) are semi-disposable kind of clothing that isn't meant to last a long long time. I would never get a subscription service for normal clothing, because I take care of it and it usually lasts a while. Underwear and socks (especially) is the perfect fit for a subscription model imo.

<comment><USER10> I haven't bought new underwear in about four years and my oldest pair just ticked over a decade.

Duluth boxer briefs, and before that, when they were good, Ex Officio. I highly recommend them for their long life and comfort.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm an absolute sucker for any Keith Haring artwork and they had a pair available only to subscribers of the product. I wound up enjoying the comfort of the product as much as the art and have been a satisfied customer since.

<comment><USER23> Automatic upvote for that beautiful man Keith Haring but... he's dead? How could they have artwork only available to their customers?

<comment><USER22> It was his artwork as a print and proceeds went to the Keith Haring Foundation, which receives royalties from its licensees and is a major funder of HIV-AIDS organizations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Why was that Facebook advert banned? It's literally someone just wearing the product isn't it? It isn't explicit even for an underwear advert. Or am I missing some cultural context or implication in the image?

<comment><USER25> Facebook's ad policies disallow "sexually suggestive content". Their definition is pretty broad ("excessive visible skin"): [https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/prohibited_content/adu...](https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/prohibited_content/adult_content)

MeUndies has a page of others that Facebook banned, some of which are perhaps more suggestive than the ad featured above, but barely: [https://www.meundies.com/too-hot-for-facebook](https://www.meundies.com/too- hot-for-facebook)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Reads like a paid article. A 7-8 year old company that heavily advertises builds a $32million company. Profit anywhere?

<comment><USER27> I really like their concept. I can see why people would sign up for this. I just didn't like their small selection of designs. The impression I got from their website was that they only have a handful of fabrics that they use for both male and female. I was expecting more rainbows and unicorns, but the one rainbow unicorn male boxer design didn't grab my attention like I thought it would.

Still beats paying $5 a pair for generic boxers at walmart. If I had the extra cash, I'd say why not and sign up.

<comment><USER28> >> I just didn't like their small selection of designs.

They may only have a small-ish selection of designs at any one time, but they cycle very quickly; if you subscribe you get a new/unique design each month.

<comment><USER29> Seems so odd to me. How often do people need new underwear?

<comment><USER30> Right? I've been wearing, and training in, the same 8 pairs of ExOfficio for 5 years now and they still look fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I heard of them through some twitch streamers and it looked pretty good. I bought some of their lounge pants and they are really nice, easily one of the most comfortable items of clothing I own.

<comment><USER32> >> easily one of the most comfortable items of clothing I own

Isn't this the sole responsibility of lounge wear? What else does it do?

<comment><USER23> I feel like I should downvote for the sarcasm but it was so funny I was compelled to upvote. Sorry, PP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> ah yes, an excellent "tech" post about how to get rich by marketing something pedestrian. lol at everyone here who doesn't see how transparently their "tech" interest is actually just an interest in getting rich quick.

<comment><USER34> Reminds me of when a snack company (I think it was Naturebox?) insisted in their advertising that they used sophisticated machine learning to match you with the perfect snack. Or how MIT graduates are using machine learning to disrupt the wine-a-month club industry.</comment></comment>


Fashion Freedom Initiative - <AUTHOR> https://fashionfreedom.eu/ <comment><USER2> For everyone else wondering what exactly this is, I finally found an explanation in their blog:

 _This new organization exists to fund the development of open source tools so that designers and makers like you can create ethical and profitable high quality garments and is dedicated to reducing waste and improving labor conditions in the fashion industry. We address these challenges in a practical way by producing the (software) tools of change._

[https://fashionfreedom.eu/2017/11/who-the-is-the- ffi/](https://fashionfreedom.eu/2017/11/who-the-is-the-ffi/)

<comment><USER3> Oh my god. All I got from their website was bullshit on 'fostering collaboration'. Thanks a lot!

Actually, I would pay for a service which would provide such explanations for most website and webpages I browse!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> After speaking with someone who knows, "freedom" here relates to "freedom from the manufacturing restrictions that make it hard to be an independent designer". Apparently things like production minimums are one of the main reasons independent fashion companies go under.

That being said, I personally don't see much here outside of statements of their intentions & values. On their blog there is a broken link to a github project (now found at [https://github.com/valentina- project/vpo2](https://github.com/valentina-project/vpo2)) to a Qt/C++ pattern- making app (GPL3) for anyone interested in that kind of work/being a part of this community.

Between the 3 blog posts, hero-image of a book you can't buy, and the founder's profile picture being a pokémon, I think it's early days and shouldn't be judged yet.

</comment><comment><USER5> Okay, I love the idea. I see some typos and awkward phrasing that sounds like "Engrish" to me. It desperately needs a "start here" section and a better means to convey to people what this is about.

I have long wanted to do something in clothing, but I am very aware that bespoke clothing is simply out of reach, price-wise, for most people. My mother sews beautifully and trained with a tailor briefly in her teens. She sewed a lot of my clothes when I was growing up and I routinely stood for fittings. She also sewed a lot of clothes for my kids when they were little. I lived far away and took measurements periodically. In addition to knowing how to take measurements, I am handy with a seam ripper. But the kind of skill my mother has is beyond me.

So my long standing fantasy has been to do a line of mass customization clothing. My thought is this would potentially be a means to leverage technology to provide semi custom clothes at a fraction of the bespoke price.

I would love to see what this organization can do to lower the barriers between me and this daydream of mine. Because it has always seemed to be an aspiration completely out of reach for me. But I only have some vague idea of what they do thanks to one of the comments * here, not because of the information on the landing page of their site.

* [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15846271](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15846271)

<comment><USER6> > "So my long standing fantasy has been to do a line of mass customization > clothing. My thought is this would potentially be a means to leverage > technology to provide semi custom clothes at a fraction of the bespoke > price."

I have similar dreams. I have some ideas on how to simplify the design of Jacquard looms, which I see as a vehicle to get there, but these ideas are just at the exploratory stage at the moment.

If Jacquard looms are new to you, I can recommend this video introduction:

[http://youtu.be/K6NgMNvK52A](http://youtu.be/K6NgMNvK52A)

Something I think about often is how to roll out tools like this to the mass market in a positive way. I can see some downsides in democratising fashion, but handled right I think it could be an enormous source of joy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I immediately thought of freedom from fashion.

Like real good jeans, freedom to wear real workwear at work (yep, I miss blåkläder and snickers).

Or even a good old-fashioned uniform. It doesn't need to be camo or even green. Just made for usability instead of making a statement.

Ironically the biggest "statement" we could make right now using clothes would be that.

</comment><comment><USER8> I guessed from the title that this was looking to secure a right to dress as one wished in the EU. In particular to wear a head covering or full body covering that might be associated with a particular religion. Like it would be cool to wear a miter even if you aren't a Roman Catholic bishop.

<comment><USER9> See generally

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This looks like an environmentalist group. What does it have to do with "Fashion Freedom"?</comment>


Voronoi Airports: all 54,000+ of them rendered in WebGL - <AUTHOR> https://voronoi.surge.sh <comment><USER2> Nice!

But it'd be nicer with earth's rotational axis staying in the same place.

In app.js, switching from THREE.TrackballControls to THREE.OrbitControls will make it behave like this:

[https://threejs.org/examples/misc_controls_orbit.html](https://threejs.org/examples/misc_controls_orbit.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right and I often go back and forth on both controls when making experiments like this. I like the freedom to explore the scene with TrackballControls but I think you're right and the OrbitControls makes it easier to use.

Thank you.

<comment><USER2> Ah! I didn't get the opportunity to look up you other projects from

[http://callumprentice.github.io/](http://callumprentice.github.io/)

before commenting. These are quite impressive.

How much work did this one

[http://callumprentice.github.io/apps/country_selector/index....](http://callumprentice.github.io/apps/country_selector/index.html)

take?

How would you rate the difficulty of doing something similar with:

* clicking areas brings a popover for more info

* from PostGIS latlong polygons for, say, France's regions (and maybe hierarchical subdivisions)

* replacing polygons by ones with finer details as a region is being zoomed on

* coloring the regions according to a choosable statistic

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. * Clicking areas is straightforward.

* Not familiar with the data set you mention but so long as it's mostly documented it should be okay.

* I've never tackled the idea of a hierarchal map even with vectors so I don't know - with the right data, the bit I'm most concern about is the transition from one data set to the next.

* Coloring regions is straightforward

I don't have spare time to do it but am happy to help if you get stuck.

<comment><USER2> Thanks a lot for this reply!

> the bit I'm most concern about is the transition from one data set to the > next.

Yep. I have dabbled a tiny amount with three.js; my understanding is that there would be at least some kind of lag, as a new geometry is inserted into the pipeline. I don't know about trying to transition a mesh into another one.

> I don't have spare time to do it but am happy to help if you get stuck.

Damn, I was not expecting that you would even ponder doing it. You seem like such a nice person.

The context of my asking is a for professional project where some visualization could help in selling it. Customers love the shiny. If I go on doing it, I'll let you know!

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure thing - always happy to help where I can.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice! Two things:

1\. Can you put two separate opacity controls for the base map and the Voronoi regions? I like the appearance of the original better than anything I could configure with this single opacity slider.

2\. A lot of regions meet at the north and south poles. That's something that the original doesn't have, so I'd guess that's an artifact of numerical errors.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea re: point 1.

Point 2 is the main thing to fix. I think it's because I don't have a concept of wrapping when I generate the cells initially.

Thanks for the feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There is something weird I've noticed: the map appears to be above the Voronoi graph, so when you set its opacity to 1 it's impossible to see the graph. I was playing with that because I was annoyed by the graph at the antipodes and I wanted to get rid of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep - i really need to stencil the cells onto the map vs try to make them co- exist - I'll add it to the list.

<comment><USER4> Can't you do something with some kind of generalized z occlusion? (I guess that would be r).

However it doesn't seem that your cells are using geodesics, so it's probably not on the surface.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, yep. I tried to create a great circle routes between the cell vertices if the line is longer than a threshold value. I might also see about filling each cell with triangles which I'll also need to make work with geodesics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One usability issue I noticed with both this and the original inspiration is that it's hard to keep the globe in the usual north-south orientation. I feel the map would be easier to stay oriented in if the the north-south axis were restricted to the YZ plane (i.e. on screen vertical/directly toward the user normal to the screen).

<comment><USER6> One way to solve this is to at least treat dragging near the center of the screen as a simple rotation around the axis perpendicular to mouse motion. When dragging the mouse by the side of the screen (up-down near the side or left-right near the top/bottom), do the same but also gently rotate the previous rotation axis itself too. I've also noticed that the rotation does not exactly follow the mouse when the globe is zoomed in to show all the small airports in Europe.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks both - zoomed in controls definitely need some work. I changed the controls to a new model after another comment here which I think is better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cool, but mouse sensitivity is too high / doesn't scale with zoom

<comment><AUTHOR> Noted and agreed - I added to the list of things to work on. Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> There was a popular discussion about Voronoi Airports on the front-page of HN yesterday referencing a different project: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17337600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17337600)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> [https://i.imgur.com/izznX19.png](https://i.imgur.com/izznX19.png) Is this just an artifact of how the cells are rendered or some strange collection of airports off the coast of Africa. Thinking it must be the former..

<comment><USER9> Looks like that is at 0 latitude, 0 longitude, so that might be a result of bad input data.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh yes of course. Nice find.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Gorgeous! I did notice that the international date line is marked as a voronoi border from north to south pole. If you can do some modulo math trickery you should be able to fix this. You can find all of the cells/airports forming the border to the east of the date line and add fake airports to your data set with longitude 360 larger than the original cells. These will be used to create the correct voronoi border with the cells just to the east. Everything else will stay the same.

Thanks to the transparency of the globe I noticed this when @MereInterest pointed out the 0 0 coordinates of several airports.

By the way if you can find a way to add the airport call letters to the cell when clicked that would be amazing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great suggestions - thank you. Added both to the list.

Excited to work on that tonight when my daughter goes to sleep :)

<comment><USER10> I'm looking forward to every update that pops up. Really inspiring!

I made a small error in my explanation for the date line: I meant to say "voronoi border with the cells just to the west" (instead of east)

By the way if you have a list of the 0 0 coordinate airports, I can do a best effort search for their correct location. Let me know,

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you - I don't see any 0,0s in the source so I think it's something I need to take account for in the voronoi package - I'll add it to the list :)

<comment><USER10> if there aren't any 0 0 coordinate airports in the data set, maybe there are some strings that are not parsed as numbers and thus coerced to 0, a space or a non printing character (like a carriage return) can make something that looks like a number, not parse properly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> When I raise the Earth opacity to try and hide the opposite-side-of-the-globe cells, all the cells are hidden by the Earth layer, just purple dots left.

FF 60.0.2 on Win7

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't had chance to try it on FF yet - I'll switch my box over to Windows later, install FF and see if I can figure out why. Thank you!

<comment><USER12> This is really awesome, thanks for sharing!

FWIW I see the same issue on the latest Chrome on MacOS. Maybe the cell boundary lines are ending up _just_ inside the globe's surface, and it's close enough that it ends up looking a little different on everybody's machine?

If that is the case, maybe a simple "tweak the radius of the Earth" dial might do the job :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks and yep - I need to fix this. Tweaking works but introduces some other issues depending on the hardware - I have some ideas that I'll look at tonight.

Thanks for the feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Nice stuff, As a geographer who does things with spatial data I have a love/hate relationship with Voronoi maps. although they are an easy way to create territories they often look too mathematical for most people to use. Geography often matters. Although they can be useful for some purposes. Nice fast webmap though :)

</comment><comment><USER14> It is really a shame Apple has decieded to kill WebGL2.

<comment><USER15> yea that sucks. Chrome and Firefox say they expect have webgpu behind a flag by end of year and if lucky shipping in stable by end of next. Apple is heavily involved but of course Apple never announces shipping plans

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Cool, but so dark? And where are the airports? I only see lined globe in very dark environment...

<comment><USER17> Adjust the Earth opacity level at the bottom of the page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Nice, spherical geometry is sth. I always wanted to get into. Q: Shouldn't the lines be curved, i.e. the shortest path on a sphere is a minor arc of a great circle so shouldn't the lines in the voronoi be that as well?

<comment><AUTHOR> They are curved hopefully. Most of them at least - when the line of a cell is longer than a certain amount, I interpolate the lat/lngs across the line and make more segments.

Maybe it's not working?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Seems to show recreational and military airports as well as regular passenger ones.

<comment><USER20> But not all recreational airports.

<comment><AUTHOR> Surprised there are any missing - the source list seems complete. Which one is not there?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Make the rotation speed zoom dependent. Zooming in far shouldn't increase the distance/sensitivity of rotation movements or velocity. Especially awkward on touch.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks and yep - noted a few times and definitely important to make right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> It would be nice to be able to select or deselect different kind of airports and see how the map changes

</comment><comment><USER23> Very nice.

Curious:

Most web browser maps translate my Mac's trackpad scroll events to zoom actions. Infuriating.

Only Apple's new MapKitJS does not do this.

I thought to make workaround using GreaseMonkey overrides, or whatever people do these days, but I don't do frontend stuff so would have start from scratch.

Maybe someone else has a better idea.

</comment><comment><USER24> Forgive me if I'm asking a dumb quesiton, but what are "Voronoi Airports"?

<comment><USER25> _" In mathematics, a Voronoi diagram is a partitioning of a plane into regions based on distance to points in a specific subset of the plane."_ [0]

Here, the points are airports. There was a related discussion yesterday about a similar project. [1]

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

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17337600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17337600)

<comment><USER24> thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Laptop fans hate him!

</comment><comment><USER10> List of 57 airports with lat/long between -1 and 1 from ourairports.com data set:

id,ident,name,latitude_deg,longitude_deg

18539,K22W,[Duplicate] Transylvania County Airport,-0.7,0

324674,PL-0142,Erase Me 11,-0.3,0

324675,PL-0143,Erase Me 12,0,-0.3

324678,US-0610,Erase Me 13,0.4,0

323989,AU-0112,Erase Me 26,0.6,0

324033,CA-0571,Erase Me 23,0,0.6

324533,SG-0004,Erase Me 20,0.5,0

324609,LU-0007,Erase Me 2,0,0.1

324610,GB-0518,Erase Me 3,-0.1,0

324611,GB-0519,Erase Me 4,0,-0.1

324612,IM-0004,Erase Me 7,-0.2,0

324613,GB-0520,Erase Me 8,0,-0.2

324614,GB-0521,Erase Me 9,0.3,0

324673,PL-0141,Erase Me 6,0,0.2

325010,IN-0102,Erase Me 16,-0.5,0

325026,US-0667,Erase Me 17,0,-0.5

325027,PHL,Erase Me 19,0,-0.4

325053,CA-0687,Erase Me 22,-0.6,0

325235,US-0692,Erase Me 14,0,0.4

325236,US-0693,Erase Me 15,0,0.5

325303,AE-0026,Erase Me 21,0,-0.6

325311,FR-0362,Erase Me 25,0,-0.7

325333,LGW,Erase Me 24,0,0.7

325399,GB-0530,Erase Me 10,0,0.3

325562,SA-0009,Erase Me 18,-0.4,0

325563,PK-0021,Erase Me 1,0.1,0

325721,AF-0005,F@# Off Spammer!,0.7,0.7

325899,US-0792,Not anywhere near Oklahoma city,0.5,0.7

325935,US-0794,"Not Allentown unless they moved it to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, which I doubt",0.7,0.8

325957,JNB,NOT OR Tambo International Airport,0.7,0.9

325966,US-0796,Not DTW although Detroit can be just as isolated,0.6,0.8

326149,CA-0707,yyz,0,0

326150,GB-0536,LHR,0,0

326151,GB-0537,heathrow,0,0

326153,AU-0116,SYD,0,0

326154,AU-0117,MEL,0,0

326155,AU-0118,LST,0,0

326345,MA-0002,cmn,0,0

326346,CMN,CMN,0,0

326611,NO-0074,Mike Tom,0,0

328135,EG-0005,Cairo,0,0

326459,CDG,ஜWAZIFA ღ//ღDUAღ//ღAMALஜpasand Ki Shadi Ka Wazifa +91- 9784839439,0,0

327169,AU-0122,Frank,0,0

326654,IT-0530,Libr,0,0

328069,ZA-0159,FACN,0,0

326166,RO-0029,Popasul Zburatorilor Airfield,0,0

326167,RO-0030,Popasul Zburatorilor Airfield,0,0

324828,GB-0523,Erase Me 5,0.2,0

325970,AE-0027,F*#$ Off @james_Andrew!!!,0.6,0.7

328056,HLA,Lanseria,0,0

326274,US-0813,(Duplicate)Grandpa's Farm Mendota Airport,0.000001,0.000001

326290,YMX,International Airport of Mirabel - Academy of Aeronautics of Canada Flying School training,0,0

328024,US-0883,JFK,0,0

326886,PH-0165,clark international airport,0,0

326164,US-0805,Twin Cities,0,0

326437,NL-0049,Airport Teuge,0,0

327147,AU-0120,Wbl,0,0

<comment><AUTHOR> Helpful - thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Only negative comments in this thread...</comment>


Dropbox's YC Application (Summer 2007) - <AUTHOR> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27532820/app.html <comment><AUTHOR> Prior comments on HN: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dropbox%20yc%20application&sor...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dropbox%20yc%20application&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0)

Which includes PG's notes on the app:

>> "File syncing. Superset of backups, which people will pay for. Good. Single founder. Bad. But at least he's looking for more people. Went to MIT, 1600 SAT. Probably fairly smart. Wrote a poker bot. Now I'm starting to get interested; has the right attitude. Description of the software sounds plausible but generic. Maybe it's good, but who can tell. But little sister uses it; that's impressive. Scroll down to what he understands that competitors don't get. Wow: very concise and unequivocal. I'm now basically sold. Scroll through the rest. No red flags. Did not make the usual joke single founders make when asked how long the founders have known one another. Good answer to what might go wrong. A-. (Would be an A with a cofounder.)"

</comment><comment><USER2> > # How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?

> There's a joke in here somewhere.

This line always cracks me up.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why is there a "Google Docs & Spreadsheets -- Web word processing and spreadsheets." link all the way in the footer of the page?

<comment><AUTHOR> My guess is that YC posted this and didn't notice the link in the footer.</comment></comment>


Show HN: wikiUp - Wikipedia in Tooltips - <AUTHOR> http://pmtarantino.github.com/wikiUp/

<comment><USER2> Neat idea but it is way too animated, and the animation is too slow, making it feel inaccurate when mousing from one item to another. Somehow I also got it to bounce back and forth between two tooltips really fast by mousing from one bolded text to another.

This has potential but it needs a little less bling and a little more polish.

<comment><USER3> I like the idea too! However I also got the tooltips to flicker: mousing a few pixels above the bolded text.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, I see. Yes, I should check the tooltip. Anyway, you can use your own style and edit the css file if you want less animation or something like that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks cool, but it sometimes takes a while to show up and flickers Consider fetching Wikipedia data at page load. I set the window to fullscreen, hover over Apple, move the mouse over the yellow tooltip, and move it up a little bit until it it slightly above the tooltip's top border.

It's a lot better than the one in FastestFox, though. That one is horrible.

</comment><comment><USER5> Quite similar to Google's official 'Dictionary' extension -- which I highly recommend: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google- dictionary-...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-dictionary- by-goog/mgijmajocgfcbeboacabfgobmjgjcoja)

</comment><comment><USER6> Good stuff! It'd be nice if the data was pre-loaded in some way that doesn't hinder the page load time. Not sure how, off-hand, but know it's possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> Each link is a request to Wikipedia, so I thought it would be better to request only if the user mouse over and wants to fetch the data. But yes, could be an option to pre-load :)

<comment><USER6> I haven't looked at the code yet, but how modular is the data source? Incorporating things like Google's dictionary extension could make this a pretty versatile little tool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is sharp, I like it, but just FYI: the tip never goes away on iPad.

</comment><comment><USER8> it's just god damn slow.</comment>


Smells of Success – Bill Gates Notes - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXbk7kotVlw <comment><USER2> Bill Gates is really impressive guy, great insights.

tldw: Public toilets didn't get used due to bad smell, we fix the smell issue, we get more adoption and it improves health conditions in the area regarding hygiene due to more people using toilets now.</comment>


The Scene at Lehman Brothers London on Friday - <AUTHOR> http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/09/15/the-scene-at-lehman-brothers-london-on-friday/ <comment><USER3> Another predictor of bad news I have observed is when the human resources (HR) department stays late.

Usually, they are the first to leave. When I've seen them stay late, the next day there were layoffs. They were busy preparing all the layoff packets.

<comment><USER4> _"... Another predictor of bad news I have observed is when the ..."_

But a lot of Startups don't have HR or departments.

The key indicator here is observing principals and noticing any odd behaviour. The example that comes to mind was a mass-sacking at a Startup I worked at where out of character behaviour of the founder(s) and various hanger-ons ( _"they all got short skin-head haircuts"_ ) the day before mass sackings. One day it was normal at work, the next day it was a meeting at an off site building where the difference between being sacked and keeping your job was being sent left up the stairs or right to get your termination notice. The difference being there is a definite "in" loop that had prior knowledge. The leader(s) did not have the balls to address the sacked staff and inform them management stuffed up, hired fast, let go slow and was running out of cash.

As for me, I got sent to the left ( _"and congratulated for keeping a job"_ ) a lot of other work mates didn't. I left after the work environment became toxic and invoked my _"no working for dickheads"_ policy. You can read about the companies fortunes here ~ <http://www.firstmonday.org/ISSUES/issue6_3/doheny/> and here ~ [http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=up...](http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=101)

Working in Startups is no guarantee to a permanent job but how you fire people is just as important as hiring them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> But I want to know: did he wear khaki on Friday, too -- or is this him "cutting loose" for his last day?

</comment><comment><USER6> the khaki guy is probably in IT

<comment><USER7> Or he is just relieved that it is over. I can't imagine working in a place like that would be fun - it could only really be about the money (and perhaps some comraderie). So when its all ending, there is kind of a release...

<comment><USER8> _So when its all ending, there is kind of a release..._

It's not just that, but also the unemployment compensation. I have some friends in the industry who can't wait to be laid off - even low-ranking positions get 3 months of severance pay from the company (+ more from the state if you don't find a job by then) amounts to a nice vacation if you're smart enough to not be worried about finding a new job.

<comment><USER9> According to friends of mine there, once its positions are unwound, the entity formerly known as Lehman's might not even have the money for this month's wages, let alone any redundancy payouts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _Maybe the truly dangerous "LHC" isn't the Large Hadron Collider, but the Lehman Holdings Collapse._

good one!

</comment><comment><USER11> What's the giveaway message from the khaki guy? He has one leg curved? He is on the side?

What am I missing? Doesn't this assume there is no other guy dressed in the -- unobvious -- black pants taking a similar pose?

<comment><USER12> Hunched shoulders means worried, or otherwise in a down mood. (The hunch is a defensive position - minimize body area available for attack.)

Crossed legs means relaxed and thus not worried. (Relaxed because crossed legs means not ready for immediate action.)

Take a class in this, or ask a friend. Movies are great for this - <USER2> someone identify each body language as you come to it. Just learn it the same as you learn math - memorize each pose until you find the underlying pattern common to all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> In Boston <http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10468916>

and New York [http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/14/news/companies/lehman_worker...](http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/14/news/companies/lehman_workers.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes)

</comment><comment><USER14> I think it means he's the smartest guy in the room.</comment>


Chinks in Leopard's Armor:  A second look at the Mac OS X Leopard firewall - <AUTHOR> http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/98120 <comment><USER2> Not exactly a security person, but methinks there's some truth to the claim that Windows machines are more secure than Macs if only because Microsoft has to have a team of people thinking about security 24/7.

<comment><USER3> It seems like such nonsense to talk about how one operating system is more secure than some other operating system since every single operating system ever written has had its ass handed to it over and over and over again by security researchers and hackers.

Having only 10 security flaws is not really better in any meaningful sense than having 20 security flaws. It's not as if you have 'more secure' and 'less secure' when you add up the mistakes on both sides. What you're really comparing is one insecure operating system to another insecure operating system and there is no solid reason to believe that computer software can or will _ever_ be secure (whatever being secure means).</comment></comment>


Russian cyberspies are using one hell of a clever Microsoft Exchange backdoor - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/russian-cyberspies-are-using-one-hell-of-a-clever-microsoft-exchange-backdoor/ <comment><USER2> Pretty smart idea.

Seems to be using mostly public APIs though?</comment>


Uber driverless cars stay on road, defying San Francisco and CA DMV - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21711904-worrying-experiments-new-form-social-control-chinas-digital-dictatorship <comment><USER2> More here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13198079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13198079)</comment>


Why I'm Frequently Absent from Open Source - <AUTHOR> http://jlongster.com/Why-Frequently-Absent-Open-Source <comment><USER2> On a tangential note, I wonder if this says something about the way in which open source is delivered in a github world? Some of the best parts of open source was the flexibility. Someone isn't maintaining a project you want? Maintain it yourself. Or switch to something that's being maintained by someone else.

This is a rather abstract thought so I apologise in advance for it. I'm wondering what an open source world/tool that embraced that fluidity might mean for end users and core maintainers. Assume a tool called gitworld existed that did this. It might look like something where you can see which forks are best maintained. Community discussions can happen around all the forks as opposed to being against a repo by repo basis. So issues and PR's created could be applied by default to all forks and we might see which forks have closed these off? If I open an issue and a maintainer fixes it on her fork, the issue would show me that it's closed there and the final build exists there. It might also be really neat to have builds that become portable across forks so when someone forks my repo, as they work on it their code gets built and packaged automatically if I've done the necessary work to set those up. (not a very practical idea given resource constraints but it would be neat).

Like I said, it's an abstract thought but given the trend that we are seeing in open source management challenges, I'm wondering if it's time for a paradigm shift as it were in managing open source projects, communities, and expectations.

<comment><USER3> I have posted a couple things related to this but never finished a complete summary of my thoughts. These two attempts come close:

In [0], I shared some really basic thoughts about how this could be done by users of a particular VCS package, git. Two line summary:

      You run `git announce [name] [tracker]` to tell a git tracker
      that you've got your own fork. If you host your repository
      in a public place, the tracker just checks your repo for
      updates so other users can stay informed.

At [1], I describe a similar system with a specific type of frequently-forked software (GPL'd tools). This seems less tied to using git. This software is available from diverse sources in multiple VCS systems and may be wildly divergent. Comparing the sources seems valuable, but difficult.

Alternatively, Fossil does "distributed version control and issues", but it's really just meant to be one central location for a particular project.

Thought I'd share. I'm on board with everything you're saying. There are clearly some issues as well, though. The biggest one I see is related to the "paradox of choice" \-- when there are four forks all just one commit different from each other, how do you know which one(s) to use? This is why we usually just follow the leader (maintainer) and use the one true source. End users don't have the ability to quickly know which patches to accept and reject. Even a reputation system wouldn't necessarily provide clean signals, due to bandwagon type effects.

Unfortunately, I already have enough trouble picking between `iron` and `nickel` as a Rust web framework.

[0]: [https://www.gaxun.net/ideas/git- announce/](https://www.gaxun.net/ideas/git-announce/)

[1]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13028079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13028079)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The point about open source being charity really resonated with me. It's like volunteering at a soup kitchen that cooks the best food in the world that then gets repackaged by a third party and sold at a huge profit and none is given back to the soup kitchen. WTF.

<comment><USER5> This is why Copyleft exists.

<comment><USER6> This is why companies like Apple and Google are ditching all projects that they can from their products, e.g. GCC is on the way out on Android NDK and Fuschia/Magenta almost doesn't have any (L)GPL related components.

Also why so many companies are happily making web apps, with everything behind server walls.

<comment><USER7> >Also why so many companies are happily making web apps, with everything behind server walls.

Which is why the AGPL exists.

I would rather have few people use my software than have it used as part of a distribution that is sold for profit by an organisation making use of extracted surplus value.

<comment><USER8> What a negative attitude. You seem more interested in preventing others from benefiting than anything else.

I wouldn't have used the phrase "extracted value" because, unlike coal, using it doesn't deplete it. The world isn't zero-sum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think running an open source project can only work for you if you have a certain level of give-an-f-ness (hail Linus). Beware, there be morons on the internet. Loads. Be very careful not to waste any emotion on them, do stuff for yourself, to make _you_ feel good! Of course this can be charity, charity can make any non-sociopath feel good.

There is a very large, appreciative silent majority out there that love what you do and use your stuff without telling you everyday that they love you. And then there are some vocal lowlifes that feel some sort of entitlement to your time.

<comment><USER10> It's a shame opening an issue can so easily be used as a frustration outlet, yet there's no equivalent feature to show that you love a project without burdening a maintainer with an issue.

I personally enjoy being on both the sending and receiving end of message of thanks.

Projects like this recognize this and can perhaps help break that silence of the majority [https://github.com/kennethreitz/saythanks.io](https://github.com/kennethreitz/saythanks.io)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> How does this work when you're a member of the "github is my resume" crowd? Or do you have to leave that crowd when you have children?

GitHub is not my resume. No one has paid me to work on open source outside of a few isolated instances - I did port an RDP client to SVGAlib once.

<comment><USER12> Members of "github is my resume" either don't work on critical projects that are under time pressure or don't have jobs that require them to code a lot. I was much more open to hobby coding when the job had unreasonable amount of meetings (or other socialization). When I was focusing on code/design most of daytime, I found out I was too tired even before 8 hours ticked.

Coding meant I will be less productive next day and besides, I was already coding a lot and getting better at it in work. I found it more rational to focus in my free time on things that job wont teach me.

<comment><USER13> Not everyone is tired of coding after a day work just because you are. Do you think the top professional athletes have that type of attitude?

<comment><USER12> Yes, professional athletes do recovery. They spend time wi th baths, massages and take (legal) supplements to speed the whole process. They also train super intensively, they do not train for 12 hours a day.

If you are not tired after whole day of coding, then you was not coding intensively enough or did not had to solve difficult enough problems. Of course I can slowly hang around easy code for hours. It is different when you are trying to be as fast as possible and still not sacrifice the quality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Somebody, or a group of people, needs to step up and spend lots of hours > every week to make sure code actually gets pushed through the pipeline and > issues are triaged.

This article is describing a delegation problem. The project mentioned, prettier, is developer-oriented, but let's take this to a general level.

You have to start recruiting your users to the various non-coding teams from day one. Then those users need to pick up the responsibility of recruiting.

I have not contributed a single line of code to my project of choice, LibreOffice. Yet, over the past few years I have

\- triaged thousands of issues

\- done tech/process documentation in the wiki

\- done research on web applications + a little maintenance work on them

\- recruited people to the QA team

\- recruited people to the infra team

\- recruited people to the design team

\- mentored new developers (on the process, not code), even through submitting their first patch

\- offered guidance to new contributors in every team (who is who, how to start, what tasks are available etc.)

\- made sure information flows between the teams

\- given a bit of user support (some bugs are user errors..)

There are innumerable ways non-coding users can help preserve the sanity of developers. You just have to let the users know. You have to spell it out for them, they do not know how important this simple stuff is. I did not know about it, when I started dabbling with bug testing - it was an accident!

<comment><USER15> This. Exactly this is the problem with semi-popular Free Software projects, and what annoys me most with almost-but-not-quite unmaintained projects.

It is really no problem if somebody's time is limited. But it is a problem if they don't delegate properly, and thus make it very hard for volunteers to assist them, or to even take over when the time arrives.

It's not so much about doing not enough work, it is about preventing others from coordinating their work on it.

Unfortunately, many people don't notice that they are actually doing this. They try to review more and more contributions, work starts piling up, but they link their problem is missing time, while it really is missing trust.

Also, this transition is much easier when you still have some time. When you arrive at a state where don't have any time at all, it is really hard to perform proper delegation, and one or two (hopefully not too much uncoordinated) forks are they only way for the community to reorganize.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is so true. Open source is something I do on my spare time, _if_ I have spare time available. And it often is absurd how some people seem to demand quick response times and prompt bug fixes from open source projects.

I have burnt out of one high-volume OSS project (and co-maintainer) before, and it wasn't pretty. Not for the project, not for my well-being, and not for my co-maintainer. Since then, I have been very careful about OSS commitments. I still do a lot of OSS stuff, but I don't promise any time scales any longer. That way leads to stress and problems.

<comment><USER4> I wrote about how I manage it here: [https://dev.to/yelluw/10-things-i-do-to- keep-open-source-pro...](https://dev.to/yelluw/10-things-i-do-to-keep-open- source-projects-healthy-and-stress-free)

Seems we are following similar paths. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > Unfortunately, in reality open source development is rife with problems and > is ultimately unsustainable.

This is an absurd statement given the popularity and staying power of numerous open source projects.

<comment><USER18> Not "unsustainable" for the project or technology, "unsustainable" for the human(s) supporting the project or technology.

<comment><USER19> And that is exactly one of the reason of the opensource, to get more contributor.. (instead of releasing e.g. binaries..)

<comment><USER20> You'd be surprised how many contributors actually have a negative effect on the productivity of core developers. New contributors often require a fair bit of hand holding (just like any new contributor on a codebase, even internal ones) and are not necessarily aware of the general project direction, etc.

More contributors doesn't mean more productivity, and often means less, not more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It's not impossible to set up an open source project where new contributors don't need hand holding. Set up a contributor check list and running automated tests will get you half way there. For the rest, you depend on the community you create by encouraging contributions.

<comment><USER22> 1\. People don't follow the checklist

2\. People don't understand how to fix broken tests

This piece is about is that exactly. Closing those PRs. Not responding all the time. And that being ok.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Unfortunate to see this not being in front-page right now.

I feel posts like this are necessary for people to have more perspective into things, and also raising issues that might be not obvious and easily dismissed in our current FLOSS praxis.

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't see how this is specific to open source software.

Would you feel guilty if you were absent from some other activity because of family?

</comment><comment><USER25> One day I got a pull request for one of my GitHub projects. It was unexpected. The project is an encrypted backup solution, written in Rust. It's very WIP ([https://github.com/fpgaminer/preserve](https://github.com/fpgaminer/preserve)). The pull request was unexpected because I haven't really advertised the project; it's very rough around the edges.

This wonderful fellow added additional backend support to the code; it's a rather huge diff; lots of work on their part. It made me feel really good to know that someone thought my project was worth that effort.

I let the requester know that I was quite busy and wouldn't be able to get around to reviewing and merging the pull request for awhile. That was ... I dunno, several months ago now. I feel really bad. Every time I go over my TODO list I see it and just ... just feel awful about not having gotten 'round to it yet.

Part of me feels bad because, for me, when I make pull requests against projects, I check the status of the pull requests obsessively. It's a bit of vanity I suppose; validation that someone else likes my code and work enough to fold it into their grander project. It's silly, because I don't ultimately need the validation. I accomplish enough in my career, but ... I still get a thrill from having my pull requests merged, silly or not. So I feel bad, because I figure this person probably feels the same way and is wondering why, after all this time, I couldn't be bothered to merge the request.

Part of me feels bad because I want to cultivate a healthy open source presence for myself. Why? I'm not sure, actually. But regardless, having pull requests sit open in my repos for months on end is not really helping foster any sort of reputation for myself; at least not a good one.

And part of me feels bad because that project ... I care about that project. It's actually really useful for me. But I haven't worked on its code in forever. Outside of my professional work I have the hardest time finishing projects. I've always been like that, always jumping from one idea to the next. The "Archived Projects" folder on my computer is probably 1000+ thick now with half finished things. All cool, interesting things.

Unlike the article's author, I don't have an excuse really. It used to be that I was too busy. I worked at a startup, and I'm sure most people here on HN can appreciate how much free time that left me. But now that that startup is behind me I've taken some time off to recharge my batteries. I don't have an excuse not to work on the things I want to work on, other than when I sit down at my computer and ask myself "What should I work on today?" my mind jumps to whatever the flavor du jour is in my litany of ideas. Always something new; never anything completed.

I'll get around to reviewing the pull request and merge it one day. I really will. But it won't make me feel better, because it sat there rotting for months. And I don't think the pull request's author will be happy either. They'll probably be surprised I even remembered. "[I]t's OK to neglect a project for a while" doesn't make me feel better. Knowing that it's charity doesn't make me feel better. I put way too much of my value into these projects...

<comment><USER26> If you've got pull requests you never get around to handling, I recommend the "Pull request hack"†: give the requestor commit access. This has worked well for me, and reduced my stress, and gained me a contributor who looks after the project much better than I was.

† [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357417)

<comment><USER27> > give the requestor commit access.

Why wouldn't a requestor just fork the project and continue from there?

<comment><USER28> They've already forked the project in order to make the pull request. The pull request shows that they'd like to also fix the issue for all the users of the original repo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> You pointed out three major issues, and I'd like to try to address them, because I wholeheartedly agree with you, and I also,

> love open source!

I don't have any real solutions, but I want to express my perspective anyway.

> Somebody has to pay the cost of maintaining a project.

Yes. The beauty of free software is that it _does not_ have to be _you_. That being said, it tends to be you anyway, doesn't it? The same can be said of any side-project. The beauty is that _you_ didn't lay claim to that responsibility. Since you clearly don't have the time, and rightfully so, you have lessened your contribution, or even abandoned the side project. The beauty of this is that you allowed everyone else the _freedom_ necessary to take over. Anyone can fork free software if they so desire. The same cannot be said of proprietary/closed-source software. I count this as a win for free software, not a problem.

> when we try to work together, and open source has little structure for > dealing with these problems

Like Richard Stallman, I am a stickler for words. The reason I (and Stallman) are pedantic in this case, is that I (as he) want to emphasize the real issue: Liberty. For that reason, I agree with him that "Open Source" is a poor representation of "Free Software". Why do I bring this up now? You mention structure. Freedom does not create structure; and yet, the culture that encompasses free software is very organized. That organization, however, is very different from the culture of a business. Here are a few key differences:

* No one is obligated to work on this. * No one is paid to be in charge.

Unlike a traditional business with employees and management, nothing is imposed. The upside is that free software can evolve in ways the managers and employees either would not dream up, or simply do not have the resources or time to implement. The catch is that unless someone wants to actually do it, and that someone has the time _and_ skill, that innovation simply will not come to fruition. Businesses have the one thing that free software is missing. Almost as a pun on its name, it has no direct monetary value.

> projects go open source just for the "warm fuzzies"

> call it for what it is: charity.

This is far and wide the perspective any business has on free software. This, I believe, is the root of the problem. We as software engineers need money. As much as some of us might enjoy late nights working on projects for free, everyone who lives a full life needs an income.

Looking through the lens of impossible optimism, I see a world where companies can accept a different business model:

When a business needs a piece of software, they hire developers to create it. The devs get paid, and the business gets what they needed. The key difference in this alternate reality is that the business does not consider software (or any other "intellectual property") as a physical commodity. The software is instead, open, and free. Anyone can use, adapt, repair, etc. the software that was created.

The root fallacy is to equate software (or any digital property) to commodities. Businesses tend to get the notion that if they do not hold onto their property, they are giving it away. Ford does not build a car to give away; that would be as detrimental as theft! In this situation, Ford is out a car. The difference that makes software, etc. unique, is that you _can_ give it away _without losing it_. If more than one related project is free software, both projects benefit, and even more value comes out of what _prima facie_ is mere charity. That is why I firmly agree:

> I think it's a net win for society, even if there are big problems we still > need to solve.

<comment><USER6> > Businesses tend to get the notion that if they do not hold onto their > property, they are giving it away.

They are giving their IP away, the secret sauce how many business decisions are taken.

On companies whose business is not related to software, their in-house software contains lots of information regarding business rules how the whole company is managed.

On companies whose business is product development (not consulting), the software is the very reason the company exists, allowing others to re-sell their core business would drive them out of business.

Hence why FOSS only works when the incoming is coming from sponsors, consulting companies, training and selling books.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Edit: This attracted more downvotes than I had expected. What am I saying that is wrong here? Please comment.

I'm _not_ saying that family isn't also important —it is, I have one— just that I disagree with the opening hypothesis that open source is "ultimately unsustainable". It's completely sustainable both personally and commercially, it's just about finding your balance and as others have since said, reaching a point where you can delegate.

\---

That's an _awful_ lot of crapping over the ethos of open source just to say "I've got better stuff to do".

And all that assumes that time invested into running an open project is wasted. If you don't think your project is making the world an objectively better place, why the hell are you doing it? And that's not to mention the amount of work I've gotten off the back of being able to display my expertise.

Seriously. Open source is an investment in the community and in yourself. Like any other investment, you can make bad investments and you can make good investments and still need to exit early because you need the [time] capital back.

But that doesn't mean open source isn't good, has a place, isn't worth it.</comment>


Deconstruct Mona Lisa - <AUTHOR> http://frank.urugate.com/mural/Mural.swf

<comment><AUTHOR> webcam mode is even better -->

<http://frank.urugate.com/MyMural/MyMural.swf?mode=cam>

</comment><comment><USER2> it's funny. you could make a game of it, where two players have to remove pieces in turns and drop them into a basket until the tower falls. (or the other way around: build a tower as high as possible. player who stacks the last piece, making the tower chrash has lost.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yea that could be quite cool.

When I saw the web cam version I also envisioned something like chatroulette -- but where you move pieces around. Maybe that could be turned into a game of some sort..</comment></comment>


The Grandmother Of The Data Center, Evi Nemeth, Is Missing At Sea - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-grandmother-of-the-data-center-is-missing-at-sea-2013-7

<comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5997791](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5997791)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5996597](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5996597)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5988044](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5988044)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958974)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958691](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958691)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5954536](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5954536)</comment>


Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/28/artificial-intelligence-god-anthony-levandowski <comment><USER2> "Intranet service? Check. Autonomous motorcycle? Check. Driverless car technology? Check."

Dysfunctional ethics that led him to take property that wasn't his and make a bundle of money with it? Check.

I guess starting a religion would be a next logical step for someone like that.</comment>


A Visualization of San Francisco Crime and Police Activity - <AUTHOR> https://www.kaggle.com/sanghan/sf-crime/crime-map-viz

<comment><USER2> Cool, but very slow in my browser.</comment>


Revisiting the Moon - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/science/revisiting-the-moon.html?ref=science&_r=0

<comment><USER2> I always feel like a curmudgeon when the topic of manned space travel comes up or really space exploration in general.

From my perspective I see literally thousands of ambitious projects yearly that go unfunded that would do mankind magnitudes more good than sending people into space or generally peering upward.

I have heard the arguments ad-nausea for why investment in space exploration has a positive ROI and find none of them compelling. No, the handful of "dreamers" that it produces is not worth the billions of dollars, No, the handful of technologies [1] that we can find terrestrial use for as a byproduct are not worth the billions of dollars spent.

If invisible braces were that big of a need we likely could have found the solution through much cheaper means.

We should be putting our money into Fusion, AGI and longevity research. Not walkabouts on the moon.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin- off_technologies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies)

<comment><USER3> You say that as though we can't do both. Have you seen NASA's pathetic little budget? And who's to say it has to be a government that does this? Companies like SpaceX are stepping up and picking up NASA's slack at a rapid pace.

<comment><USER4> Is it actually meaningful to compare NASA with SpaceX? My understanding is that SpaceX's primary—if not only—client is NASA. If I've got this right, doesn't it mean that the money still comes from the Feds and SpaceX is not that different from Boeing/Douglas/North American in the Apollo era?

<comment><USER5> You're wrong. Most of their launches are not for Nasa.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I worry for humanity in the long term if the only broad direction we can give ourselves are evaluated in the framework of ROI. The very calculation of ROI assumes that there's a known and stable model for predicting both the investment required and a known output. Comparing many ROIs estimates assumes the slate of options covers the gamut of where one should invest - it could work very well for a small or midsize company with limited options going forward, but it feels like a huge fallacy to assume that covers an entire nation - let alone all of mankind.

The best answer I can muster against framing the question in terms of ROI, is that we suspect we could go to the moon and stay there longer than ever before, and that puts us on a path of opening up vastly more unknowns, more rapidly than we would otherwise encounter by staying on the Earth and sending probes with limited sets of instruments, with narrow perceptions into space.

Indeed, why would anyone travel anywhere on Earth even, when it's cheaper to look at pictures of the destination from the internet, or read the guidebook and be done.

You could dismiss this as a purely humanistic argument, but if at least some of our resources aren't allocated to get to places where we simply don't strictly know the outcomes, we will simply will never grow beyond some confines.

</comment><comment><USER7> Do people really think of the moon as "as a problem solved and a bit retro"? Anyone I've talked to about it would love to see people get back up there. Especially with the recent, incredibly expensive Mars missions, it seems like we could put a little more effort into checking out the Moon.

<comment><USER8> What would we find up there that we didn't find last time with a new moon mission?

EDIT: I guess the assumption about basketball played on the moon is that most of us would watch that on television. But how much would a team have to make in TV advertising revenues to recover the cost of sending athletes to the moon and keeping them alive there? (A similar question applies to the costs of running the Olympics on the moon.) Ladies and gentlemen, those are fun jokes, but is this kind of joking response going to prompt anyone to invest their own money in a moon mission?

<comment><USER9> It's not what we would find up there it is what we could _do_ up there.

For one we could set up a lunar observatory.

<comment><USER10> What could a lunar observatory do that an orbiting one like the planned James Webb Space Telescope or the proposed Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope couldn't?

<comment><USER9> Stay aloft indefinitely (or at least, for our purposes indefinitely). Satellite based telescopes will always have a limited life-span, either they end up dropping too low and de-orbiting or they run out of aiming propellant.

<comment><USER10> "Aloft" is a bit of a misnomer, I believe, for something sitting on the Moon.

Both of the space telescopes I mentioned are targeted for L2, which is well beyond the Moon's orbit, so there's no chance they'll de-orbit. I believe they use reaction wheels for pointing, not propellant, but as L2 is not stable, you're right that it needs some fuel for station keeping.

On the other hand, the Moon has quakes, and large temperature swings. Wouldn't that be much easier to set up an effectively stationary sunshield for the stillness of L2 instead? Plus, the Moon blocks out about 1/2 the sky, which seems like it might limit what you can do.

<comment><USER9> > "Aloft" is a bit of a misnomer, I believe, for something sitting on the > Moon.

Sure :) But it's attaching something to a satellite rather than launching a satellite. After all, the moon _is_ a satellite of the earth, but a natural one rather than an artificial one.

<comment><USER10> I still don't see what science objectives it could do better than one of the ones proposed for L2.

<comment><USER9> Really long term observations without atmospheric distortion, really long baseline stuff with very precisely defined distances between the various elements. I'm not an astronomer but there have been quite a few proposals for such observatories, all have been shot down on practical grounds, not on grounds of not having some kind of benefit.

There has been talk of very large liquid based mirrors (limited in size on earth), the far side of the moon is free from radio interference from the earth and a bunch of other proposals. All of them were shot down based on a very simple observation: we don't have people on the moon, nor do we have a power plant or a way to install this stuff or assemble it out of pieces after landing it there.

But that might change.

<comment><USER10> There's no atmosphere distortion in L2 either.

"Really long term" on the Moon means dealing with moonquakes, which can last for more than 10 minutes. That's going to affect any baseline distances.

We can get a much longer baseline in space than on the Moon. LISA and DECIGO give some idea of how accurate we can expect to measure a baseline that is over 1 million km long. There's no way the Moon can match that baseline, if that's what you're looking for.

Labeyrie has proposed a 100-kilometer space-based 'Hypertelescope' that might be able to directly see continents on planets up to 10 light years away. I strongly suspect this is harder to pull off on the Moon, which has gravity, vibrations, and every-changing thermal stresses messing up the interferometry.

I think you are confusing two different telescope projects. Liquid-based mirrors are for optical telescopes, which aren't affected by radio interference. While there are proposals for 20m-100m liquid mirrors on the Moon, they have the big problem that they can't be pointed; it seems to be more cool than useful, as the lack of research for projects on Earth like the Large Zenith Telescope suggests.

While there's some advantage to using the Moon as a radio shield, the WP page at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon) points out other difficulties in addition to the simple difficulties you pointed out:

> Before deploying radio telescopes to the far side, several problems must be > overcome. The fine lunar dust can contaminate equipment, vehicles, and space > suits. The conducting materials used for the radio dishes must also be > carefully shielded against the effects of solar flares. Finally the area > around the telescopes must be protected against contamination by other radio > sources.

As an alternative, the radio telescope can be built in lunar orbit, as, for example, the OLFAR proposal at [http://doc.utwente.nl/75270/1/Smallsat_final.pdf](http://doc.utwente.nl/75270/1/Smallsat_final.pdf) . This seems cheaper and easier than building a farside telescope and support infrastructure with the same capabilities.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Now that we're sadly past the era of "Big Science", we need to rely on business models to get anything done. This includes trips to the moon.

I would argue though, that even if Big Science were to make a comeback, manned Moon or Mars missions would not be an efficient use of those precious dollars. There is much more pressing and productive research that is starved for funding at the moment. Robotic space exploration is cheap and effective, and scientifically far more useful.

I say this as one of the biggest space nuts I know. Let SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace do their thing and develop commercial space. We'll get our Moon bases eventually, it'll just take time to grow the economic infrastructure.</comment>


Escape from the former East Germany by hot air balloon - <AUTHOR> https://www.ballonflucht.de/html/englisch.html? <comment><USER2> Wow! Great story.</comment>


HN, help create a pool of UI component names - <AUTHOR>

When working on web projects I always have difficulties coming up with names for the various UI components that I am implementing.
To solve this problem I have put together a gist to collect some good terms. I know you guys have some great ideas. Please share them!
https://gist.github.com/iclanzan/10785774 <comment><AUTHOR> Link:

[https://gist.github.com/iclanzan/10785774](https://gist.github.com/iclanzan/10785774)</comment>


A Debate Over the Physics of Time - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160719-time-and-cosmology/ <comment><USER2> "The laws that underlie these theories are time-symmetric".

I don't get how people can say this. Quantum measurement (collapse of the statevector) is not at all time-symmetric. People seem to always leave this out in such discussions. They either view it is a temporary "problem" with the theory that we will one day fix, or just as something that is plainly not a theory. Or who knows what. The wikipedia article on interpretations of quantum physics has a giant table that illustrates the lack of consensus:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mec...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics#Comparison_of_interpretations)

<comment><USER3> Only if you believe in non-unitary collapse, which is probably wrong IMO.

Einselection is my favorite potential solution. Straightforward, clean, unitary, and the math is promising. The idea is that apparent collapse is just emergent behavior of the schroedinger equation, via induced superselection rules between incompatible measurement eigenstates.

<comment><USER2> > which is probably wrong IMO.

There are so many IMO's floating around when it comes to foundations of QM. I think that is fascinating in and of itself.

> Straightforward, clean, unitary, and the math is promising.

My IMO definitely does not coincide with your IMO :-)

<comment><USER3> My "IMO" in this case means "by Occam's razor". We don't have enough physical evidence to strongly prefer one theory on the other, so all we have to go by is simplicity.

<comment><USER2> To me these arguments involving decoherence only show that the classical world is _consistent_ with the quantum world, and indeed place constraints on the two theories in order to achieve this consistency. But in no way does decoherence (exponential suppression of off-diagonal terms in a density matrix) imply collapse of the state vector. In other words, we don't know why anything happens!

It's such a beautiful perplexing quandry, and I just don't understand this attitude of "nothing to see here, move along".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What if whatever force makes time asymmetrical also is at the root of volition and consciousness. So by definition we would only be able to experience time in one direction.

<comment><USER5> Scott Aaronson touches on this idea a bit during a discourse with Roger Penrose[1], commenting on the unification of entropy and information:

"So on the picture that this suggests, to be conscious, a physical entity would have to do more than carry out the right sorts of computations. It would have to, as it were, fully participate in the thermodynamic arrow of time: that is, repeatedly take microscopic degrees of freedom that have been unmeasured and unrecorded since the very early universe, and amplify them to macroscopic scale."

\---

[1] [http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2756](http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2756)

<comment><USER6> Well, any kind of computation that erases information (for instance, taking two bits and using them to produce one bit in an AND gate) _does_ have to increase entropy, so those two things are already one and the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I really like this theory: [http://lesswrong.com/lw/fok/causal_universes/](http://lesswrong.com/lw/fok/causal_universes/)

But regardless, what would it even mean for there to not be an arrow of time? Such a universe would have egg shells on the floor, and then waves of energy that just happen to hit the eggshells, at just the right velocity to propel each piece to assemble an unbroken egg. What a remarkable coincidence that would be. It would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a universe like that.

IMO it's just like cellular automata. You start with a "start state" of something simple or random. Perhaps just a single cell. And then it evolves into complex patterns as each time step _causes_ the next time step.

There are reversible cellular automata, that in theory don't have an arrow of time either. You could start at any state, and reverse it, just as easily as advance it. But unless you are remarkably clever, or lucky, at arranging the start state, it will tend to increase in entropy over time. Or rather, as the step counter increases.

<comment><USER8> >what would it even mean for there to not be an arrow of time?

Thermaldynamic soup? Our universe has an entropy based arrow of time because it started in a low entropy state. If a hypothetical universe started in a high entropy state, than forward time would appear no more probable than backward time. Of course, such a universe would also not have eggshells; it would just be a thermodynamical soup.

<comment><USER7> Well humans wouldn't exist in such a universe, and couldn't observe it.

But even if you started with a completely random cellular automata, it's often common for order and structure to emerge. You could even say that entropy is going in reverse. But causation and the arrow of time still only flows one direction. Perhaps given enough time, life could evolve in such a universe, and ask why time only goes one direction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've been watching quantum for the last 5 years, let's just say the next 15 are going to be a fucking trip. ;)

<3

<comment><USER10> It's been a trip since at least 1905 when we started looking into the photoelectric effect. But yeah, I can't wait until we get some more understanding of the current questions. That will reveal more questions, of course!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> [http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/10/parallel-universes-and- ar...](http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/10/parallel-universes-and-arrow-of- time.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> Upgrade the block universe to a _blockchain_ universe and you should see where time's arrow comes from.

</comment><comment><USER13> Smolin's career seems to basically be entirely comprised of telling the only people who are creating successful theories that their theories can't be right, because he doesn't like the way they make him feel.

<comment><USER5> A hunch can be a powerful thing; sometimes, it's the symptom of a nascent theory that hasn't hit the requisite critical model mass to attain that self- sustaining "eureka" moment in the brain yet.

Of course, this validates truthers as well...

<comment><USER14> Or it's just nonsense like most hunches. I hope Smolin keeps on trucking but hunch based contrarianism isn't actually a good indicator of truth.

<comment><USER15> Have you read Smolin's _Time Reborn_? I've just finished it, and while I don't agree with certain aspects of some of his ideas, I found it quite interesting and valuable.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Into the Depths of C: Elaborating the De Facto Standards [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/pdfs/201606-pldi2016-clanguage.pdf <comment><USER2> This is interesting work that I was just looking at by following-up on who funds CakeML: a mathematically-verified ML implementation. Led to Cerberus, ISA's models (including RISC-V), concurrency analysis, POSIX API models/testing... all sorts of stuff. One of those rare programs doing something at every layer of stack with theoretical and practical contributions. Check them out here:

[https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/rems/](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/rems/)

Cerberus main page and links are here:

[https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/cerberus/](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/cerberus/)

Work like this will eventually, if not already, be applied to other projects along the lines of CompCert, seL4, and static analysis. The models of real- world assembly and C come first. Then, other tools map C to assembly or specs to C. So, this is pretty fundamental stuff they're working on. That they try not to abstract away the dark corners is the real advance here as many try to cheat. :)

Note to ingve: One of those Jung-style coincidences that you submitted this around exact time I wrote up same project for Schneier's blog. I've only looked at it twice in its existence. Odds were slim we think & write around same time. Always find it interesting when that happens.</comment>


AI researchers design 'photo privacy filter' that disables facial recognition - <AUTHOR> http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/privacy-filter-disables-facial-recognition-systems/ <comment><USER2> Would different filters need to be trained against different facial recognition software?</comment>


Are 'Patent Trolls' the Secret Heroes of the Tech World? - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/25953/?p1=A2

<comment><USER2> So, patent trolls are like nuclear weapons, a deterrent component in the war to protect intellectual property?</comment>