HaikuOS x86_64 port part of Google Summer of Code - <AUTHOR> http://haiku-os.org/blog/xyzzy/2012-04-29_gsoc_introduction_x86_64_port

<comment><USER2> This project is very much challenging and fascinating too. And Google Summer of Code is an incredible program for university students to get seriously involved in such projects and open source in general. Last year I worked on porting NetBSD userland to MINIX 3 as part of GSoC and believe me it was an invaluable experience for me which isn't even remotely possible without such program. This year I will work on porting GNU Compiler Collection to HelenOS ( [http://blog.vivekp.me/2012/04/25/port-gcc-to-helenos-gsoc- pr...](http://blog.vivekp.me/2012/04/25/port-gcc-to-helenos-gsoc-proposal/) ) as part of GSoC and I am already very excited. I wish this guy good luck and thanks Google for running such amazing program successfully!

<comment><USER3> HelenOS looks very cool and a port of a compiler to it sounds like a great project!

But why GCC? GCC is the crufty old compiler of yesteryear. It's a solid workhorse but big and inflexible, and in my opinion its importance will be waning as LLVM/Clang matures. Had you considered porting LLVM/Clang instead?

<comment><USER4> The reason is that Clang does not support all architectures that HelenOS needs support for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I take my hat off to the guy undertaking this. I wish there had been a Google summer of code when I was at Uni. University was some of the best time for programming I ever had. There is so much hunger and energy, and now there are sponsored projects to match. I am very glad that these programs exist.

</comment><comment><USER6> I really hope a "first year computer science student" can handle this kind of undertaking. Before having taken classes in assembly language programming, operating systems, computer architecture, programming languages, compiler construction and software project management, I could never have been able to make these kinds of commits. If this coder manages to make this port, he will really have earned my respect, before even having completed most of his undergraduate career!

<comment><USER7> Haiku OS has been in GSoC quite a few years now and tries to to evaluate students skills very carefully before accepting them. Anyone that has been accepted has had to prove their skills and interest. Also there is a pool of core developers ready to answer questions should they arise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This guy is undertaking a very complicated task, I wish him good luck!

</comment><comment><USER9> I hope <http://etoileos.com/> gets a SoC too!

</comment><comment><USER10> So awesome that Haiku is still making progress. Really hope to be able to run it as a full time OS in a few years. Linux has just never lived up to the level of UI polish/consistency I enjoy.

<comment><USER11> Whilst I agree with the point that Linux UIs are not great - that has nothing what so ever to do with Linux. Linux knows nothing about the UI layer which is all X11. There is no need to replace the OS to get a better UI.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Algorithms of decision making? - <AUTHOR> Does anyone have a thought process for making a decision that has served them well? A way to choose between options and opportunities?<p>Or really any ideas or concepts that might help in the decision-making process. <comment><USER2> I try not to make 'context free' decisions. What is relevant to one decision is not necessarily relevant to another and even when two decisions share a relevant feature, the weight of that feature is probably different.

And I accept that I'm going to make more mistakes (I've already made enough that perhaps one ought not to use my decision making advice).

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks I really appreciate you taking the time to answer. It helps.</comment></comment>


Selectivity vs. Critical Thinking - <AUTHOR> http://infovegan.com/2010/07/20/selectivity-vs-critical-thinking

<comment><USER2> This is the "smart" guy trying to save the world type of thinking. See what Steve Jobs said in his 1996 interview:

".... When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth. ...."

[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs.html?pg=4&t...](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs.html?pg=4&topic=&topic_set=)</comment>


Is Node.js Dying? - <AUTHOR> https://www.geekyhacker.com/2020/05/19/is-node-js-dying/ <comment><USER2> Deno is highly unlikely to replace Node. Instead it will just inspire some forward improvements in Node just like the node.js / io.js fork did back in 2014.

io.js was separate from Node for a while, had a few core passionate fans, but didn't really see widespread adoption. It inspired node.js maintainers to do better though and eventually the two projects merged together and Node became better for it.

JS itself has been around for 24 years now and has gradually evolved over the years with new keywords and functionalities to keep up with the times. Node has done the same, and can easily adopt many of the things that Deno has.

<comment> http-teapot If Deno could run popular node libraries as-is then it'd be an easy sell but imo, except for security, the issues it solves doesn't outweigh the cost of migration, if possible at all.

<comment><USER2> Right. If io.js couldn't become popular enough to fully replace node.js even with backwards cross compatibility with existing NPM packages then Deno is an even harder sell.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think Deno will eventually replace node in mindshare and deployment numbers.

What percentage of nodejs packages run on both node and the browser and do you expect that number to go up or down over time?

If it goes up -- the percentage of node packages that run on deno also goes up.

Code that runs in the browser is very valuable because it is an incredibly widely deployed user eyeball platform ... the browser _is_ the center of the javascript ecosystem -- and so there is already built-in pressure to migrate from node to deno -- especially if/when deno's browser matching api implementations become part of the compatibility testing matrix for a major browser vendor (like chrome or firefox) ...

Deno will surf uphill on the ever rising value of browser compatibility until projects are actively weeding out any dependencies which "run only on node".

Even given the huge dependency graphs of node applications -- you don't really have to replace that many high level dependencies before you've migrated yourself to deno ... -- and you will experience incremental benefit for partial steps along the way as you do ...

</comment><comment><USER4> No. Saved you a click.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's tough to be certain about anything, but I could see a future where URL- syntax imports are absorbed by node. Whether or not Deno becomes a true successor to Node will be predicated on businesses seeing a painful problem (security) being solved by Deno.

In a world with Docker, encapsulating a node process to a limited file system seems like an acceptable enough of a solution today (note: I am not a DevOps person, there likely is more nuance here)-- it's challenging to assess if the benefits of Deno outweigh the pain of migration.

Regardless of the outcome, all efforts to improve the server-side JavaScript space are appreciated.

<comment><USER6> Url import is already there [https://www.npmjs.com/package/require-from- url](https://www.npmjs.com/package/require-from-url)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing --that is awesome the functionality exists-- but I meant native support by the require command.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Oh no, HN is turning into slashdot

</comment><comment><USER8> is 'is node.js dying?' the new 'is php dying?' ?

</comment><comment><USER9> Betteridge's law of headlines</comment>


UK Govt accepts all 10 points of the Hargreaves IP Report - <AUTHOR> http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse

<comment><USER2> I personally took part in the public consultations and workshops that formed the basis of the Hargreaves Report and was genuinely surprised not only by the committees detailed understanding of the issues involves (I learned a lot), but also their genuine openness to discuss new and controversial ideas.

However, I have close links with the Carbon trust and understand all too well how reports such as these are paid lip service by the government, and to a large degree used to force through unpopular and even corrupt legislation with tenuous links to original issue for political points or monetary gain for individual MPs.

Take for example the Carbon Trusts recommendation that _old refrigerators posed a significant environmental risk_. The trust put forward the idea that people should no longer be able to dump their old refrigerators along with regular waste, but should instead send their refrigerators to dedicated recycling centres where they could be properly dismantled. The Labour government took that idea, but failed to follow through on the dismantling process, so we ended up with _fridge mountains_ up and down the UK, causing more environmental damage than the old system of just chucking them where ever you wanted to. Not only did this score some serious political votes with environmentalists, but a lot of money changed hands in the process of creating this new "infrastructure"

So it is with a cautious mindset that I approach the governments acceptance of the Hargreaves report. And there are a couple of things I think we need to be careful of, but most importantly, we need to keep a very close eye on this...

 _Point 4: A digital copyright exchange will facilitate copyright licensing and realise the growth potential of creative industries_

We have to be careful that this doesn't open the door to a new kind of patent troll. If the government puts this out to the private sector (which they probably will), we could find ourselves lumbered with an Intellectual Ventures style monster who didn't even have to buy the original patents in the first place. It's a guaranteed certainty that someone out there is looking at the notion of a Digital Copyright Exchange from the point of view of making an absolute killing, and given the UK governments willingness to grant unreasonable favours to the private sector over the past 20 years, this has to be a very serious concern. Nothing that follows point 4 in the governments response is legally binding.

I'm not saying a DCE is a bad idea, I think it's a great idea, but it needs to be a not for profit venture, ideally controlled by the state. The second the people responsible for running the DCE start making profit, the game is up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Whilst I agree that the DCE could be a disaster if applied to patents, I think they are very explicitly aiming that at the copyright problem, which is very different.

I also don't think the DCE can or should avoid aiming to make a profit. On the contrary, the only way to get a decent DCE in place will be to have multiple players competing in the space, which seems to be both the Hargreaves report's and the government's view.

Effectively, what we're talking about is a kind of iTunes-like marketplace for automated, mass licencing of copyrighted works, to make the process straightforward, transparent, predictable, etc. I don't see how preventing those from making a profit would help.

<comment><USER2> If the desired effect a a DCE actually manifest themselves, it would be better to keep it non profit and state run since any operating costs would be offset by the increased productivity in the wider economy. And if the mandate was issued by the public, based on frequent public consultation, it would essentially future proof itself.

That's not to say it shouldn't generate a lot of money, it easily could. I imagine a world where a DCE becomes so successful that it generates enough money to create new and advanced institutions for the arts and sciences, enabling Britain to invest heavily in its long term future.

However, if it were private, that revenue would not be put to such a good use, and the public would have no say in how the DCE operated. Any attempts to correct any inefficiencies or inequalities in the DCE would meet fierce legal opposition.

We don't know what the landscape will look like in 20, 30, 50 or a hundred years. Why saddle ourselves with an immutable, or near-immutable DCE?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Some good quotes:

Orphaned works:

 _There are opportunities too in respect of so-called orphan works (Recommendation 4). The Government agrees with the Review's fundamental premise that it benefits no-one to have a wealth of copyright works be entirely unusable under any circumstances because the owner of one or more rights in the work cannot be contacted. This is not simply a cultural issue; it is a very real economic issue that potentially valuable intangible assets are simply going to waste. The Government will this autumn bring forward proposals for an orphan works scheme that allows for both commercial and cultural uses of orphan works, subject to satisfactory safeguards for the interests of both owners of 'orphan rights' and rights holders who could suffer from unfair competition from an orphan works scheme._

No software patents:

 _The Government will resist extensions of patents into sectors which are currently excluded unless there is clear evidence of a benefit to innovation and growth from such extension_

Anti-patent trolls:

 _IPO will investigate the scale and prevalence of issues with patent thickets, including whether they present a particular problem to SMEs seeking to enter technology sectors. IPO will then explore options for addressing any problems identified, which could include coordinated international changes to patent fee structures if the issues prove to be international in scope._

<comment><USER3> > _No software patents:_

We _have_ software patents in the UK, we just don't have them "as such"(!). I'm pretty sure your quote means business methods.

Whilst Aerotel/Macrossan has reinforced the notion of requirement of a technical effect the MPP says that the Macrossan methodology of assessing patent applications against SS1(2) is in effect the same as the "technical contribution" assessment given by following the previous established case law, Fujitsu et al. [MPP 1.10.2].

The EPO's position has liberalised somewhat and UKIPO hasn't followed (though they're supposed to assess similar parts of the law consistently with the EPO approach).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, sorry, that's what I meant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Plans to create new exceptions to copyright laws, including a "limited" right to copy legitimately purchased copyrighted material for private use were announced in the Government report. "

<http://www.out-law.com/page-12128>

So if I read this right, they are _planning_ on legalising the act of ripping music off your Cds and listening to them on an iPod.

This isn't radical. It isn't even up-to-date.

</comment><comment><USER5> All governments, everywhere, suck, but the UK coalition appears to have been sucking less than most recently...

<comment><USER6> Give them time - I will admit that they do seem to be doing an unexpectedly decent job so far, but even New Labour seemed to be decent enough in their first couple of years.

Edit: Maybe what we need is a limit on the number of years a PM can serve for?

<comment><USER5> I have this pet theory that coalition is always going to be the way forward for the UK. All the mainstream parties have some pretty good ideas, with a few pieces of radical idiocy on the edges. In coalition, parties can drop the radical bullshit parts, while implementing all the sensible ideas they have.

<comment><USER7> However, this system also blunts such 'radical edges' as civil unions, equalizing the age of consent, reform of drug laws and large infrastructure reforms.

<comment><USER6> We should have some way of the public identifying "extraordinary" issues (e.g. online petitions) and then having periodic referendums where the public can vote directly on these topics.

Otherwise, as you point out, there are many topics that will simply be ignored.

<comment><USER3> We do have an online petition system, <http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/>.

I'll agree that we need some system like that in Switzerland where a large enough proportion of the population can force a referendum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> To sum it up, it seems like it's a step in the right direction.

IPO's response to each 10 points: <http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse-full.pdf>

</comment><comment><USER9> Make it law and then I'll be impressed.</comment>


Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust? - <AUTHOR> I know many of us are probably experiencing some anxiety about potentially or actually losing our jobs.<p>For those of you who made it through the 2008-2009 financial crisis or the dotcom bust before that, how did you do it? Do you have any particular advice for weathering this storm? <comment><USER3> I've built up a life around me that appears as if I make half what I do. My peers all have a second car and lots of nice luxuries that I don't. As a result I could take a job that pays half what I get now and wouldn't have to change a single thing about my life.

Stability for my children is the most important thing for me.

I also think that most of us are likely well into diminishing returns for what happiness can be bought. Really second guess your need to buy those nice things and that extra big house. You might not actually need them.

I appreciate this is longer term advice. Hard to act on any of it now.

<comment><USER4> Seconding this. If you live well within your means you can get through almost any crisis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> 2001-2002 was brutal; I'd built a career around a dying language & I wasn't living in a major tech hub. I lived off savings and contract work from a company that was terrible, but had entrapped customers into their terrible software, so they had a steady cash flow.

By 2008 I was in California and had been working for tech giants. When the housing bubble popped I was laid off but quickly landed at a non-profit. Fun fact: non-profits are exempted from H-1B caps; as long as you can get hired, you can stay. I worked for what most San Francisco techies would have considered laughable wages.

On the other hand, working for that non-profit was probably the portion of my career that will have the highest impact on actual humans. Most tech industry jobs are the poem Ozymandias, except everything turns to dust in 4 years rather than 4,000. If you find yourself unemployed, it's probably better to be underemployed at a nonprofit.

<comment><USER6> Yeah dot com bust was much worse. I mean the market was over-inflated with flash developers with 6 months experience making $100k and sysadmins fresh out of their MCSE cert course making 80k. I joined a travel startup as the CTO when the dotcom bust was looking like it was coming in 99. 9/11 knocked us down for a little while but we built it back up and exited in a sale to Hotels.con.

08 was much better for me, I had a steady job with Marriott and tech skills where very much in demand.

Dot com bust was a bad time to be out on the market the 08 crash was not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You will have a unique experience. One thing I learned through the dot-com days was that there were wildly different experiences. I struggled to find employment but after a lot of hustling finally found one as was surprised that most of the people I worked with barely knew there was a problem. They continued to have employment and all they knew is they got up in the morning, went to work and got the same paycheck they always did. It was like musical chairs. As long as you had a chair you were fine. If you didn't have one when the music stopped you were devastated.

I was in NYC during the 2008-9 financial crisis and did my best to make sure I always had a chair but here's the difficult part, people can give you tons of advice on what to do but you don't usually have many options available to you. You pick the best option you've got an go with that. It's all you can do.

We all know something big has happened but I don't think anyone can say what that thing is. It's going to be complex and defy and single explanation. I think the most you can say is that there is a great deal more uncertainty in the world than there was before and a great deal more randomness.

Outstanding people will be destroyed and unworthy people will find great opportunities and there wont be any more reason than just because. That will probably make you feel very uncomfortable.

Do the best you can and persevere.

</comment><comment><USER8> Working for a traditional tech firm, I went to lunch or happy hour every week with my more adventurous former peers who had moved to dotcomland. Since I could never "get it" (whatever it was they were doing, or how it was ever going to make money), I just took the salary increases old tech made to stay competitive.

Post dotcom bust, moved to CA and got a rent controlled apt and stayed with old tech. Researched how to short the housing market but never managed to find Michael Burrey. 401k / investments were highly defensive by 2007, took a 10% hit.

People need to look for something beyond changing the world through their jerbs and start living well below what their lifestyle can afford. Perhaps it's having Depression-era relatives, or going to school with boom-and-bust oil kids who got a corvette from daddy and then had to drop out of SMU when daddy went bankrupt.

The cycles are like spring and fall. Whether you or Wall Street see it or not, it will always come. Always. Squirrel away those acorns and good luck.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm old enough that I went through both, but I've been lucky in both instances.

2000: Moved to San Jose that summer (my first job) to "make it big" at a friend's email startup. The crash hit a few months later. I was lucky enough that the company stuck around for a few years, and I moved to the midwest in 2003 where it was cheaper.

2009: Savings cut in half, I looked a long time for a new job, and ended up moving back to San Jose to get one. I put most of my remaining savings into the only house I could afford (which was barely livable), but it seemed like the only chance I'd get to own real estate in California. I ended up not liking my new job, but I couldn't afford to quit. After a long search, I was able to switch into a much better job, and I lived pretty well for about 4 years in San Jose before once again moving back to the midwest.

Everyone else has covered the basics of handling these difficult circumstances, but to reiterate:

1\. Try to have some savings. If things have looked good for a long time, get conservative with your money. I neglected to do this before the 2008 crisis, and lost much more of my savings than I should have. On the other hand, coming out of a crash can be a great time to invest.

2\. Be frugal and flexible. Be willing to cut back your life style, and be realistic about how stable your job is, and how long you can live without it. Be willing to move to take opportunities, or take up a different line of work if needed.

3\. Keep up with and help out the people you know. Band together with your friends and family.

4\. This too shall pass. I'm worried this current crisis will be the worst I've seen, but even if that's true we'll eventually get through it.

Best of luck to everyone out there.

</comment><comment><USER10> I always changed my life shortly before one of these crisis took effect. Why? I don't now... Dot-Com bust: After school in 2000, I worked for a small startup which hired me full-time because I was able to code in Java. I had to quit this because of mandatory military service (was still mandatory in Germany in 2000) and later moved out of my home town to study computer science. For me, I could only pay for this with a side job and in early 2001 there are still huge job opportunities if you had some coding skills. I don't now, but I opted for the least modern industry and went to a company building software for steel-rolling and warehouse logistics. When the towers collapsed I was in the first month in the job and in my studying city (Aachen). Everything else went down but the industry I worked for was quite immune. They even kept me as a student worker while laying off other employees around me. I learnt a lot in this times, because I worked with developers having a coding experience of 40years AND they were open for new stuff. In 2007/2008: Ok, I skipped a lot of studying in between and in 2007 my employee offered me a full time job (skipping studying completely). I refused and quit the job from my side. Lived on savings and started to complete studying full-time - <USER2> everything went down. I actually owned some stocks and hedged them with put- options 4 weeks before the stock market collapsed. Sold everything with no losses. During studying I went for the more theoretical parts of computer science - that turned out to be very helpful because with most modern tech, I just needed to conclude which theory now was brought to live. Now: I quit my well paid consulting job in December 2019 to build a startup. Selling digital marketing products for brick&mortar business. Not the best thing for the moment, but I got some cash in the backhand and lets see if this (unintended) strategy pays off again.

</comment><comment><USER11> In my experience, the last hired are the first laid off, regardless of performance. This applied in a large corporate context, involving human resources and myriad decision makers far removed from immediate work.

If your network primarily consists of coworkers, they probably won't be able to help you find new work that you'll be interested in. Don't hold it against people if you don't get referrals.

People are generally good, don't forget that. Situations compel action from the top down (to say it nicely).

This debacle isn't like the Financial Crisis. I worked in finance for almost ten years and was directly impacted by industry changes. Head count wasn't restored to pre-crisis levels. There were permanent, structural changes. The situation now is different. Government and shareholders aren't compelling structural changes. This is cause for hope, but sometimes getting what we wish for isn't what is best for us.

I turned hardship into opportunities for advancement. It came at great personal cost. Yet, I believe that the best days are ahead of me because of what I did in response to career instability. My story is far from finished. So, I am hesitant to give advice. However, I am comfortable with advising anyone considering business school for job change or advancement to reconsider, assuming you are paying. Tuition is higher than ever. Student loans and other debt will constrain your decisions and opportunities. Academic accomplishments can be achieved without taking on $175,000 in loans. Business school is rewarded by students more than students rewarded by business school. An MBA is highly regarded by those who have them. The reality is that these people were going to succeed regardless of the degree. While they are complicit in perpetuating a myth, it is largely a consequence of bias.

If you are laid off and would like perspective from someone outside of your network and can relate, you can contact me.

</comment><comment><USER12> Nothing changed for me 2008-2009. My company was (still is but not with me) in finance sector and apparently all those banks needed companies like us to implement new regulations and stuff which came as a result of the finaancial crisis.

We also did write financing software (which calculates your monthly rate) and that became more popular too.

I'm not really sure how corona will play out but right now i'm again in a very stable position: Company is very big and is in the software area which is quite critical to companies. I was thinking about becoming a freelancer but never liked the idea too much because of risks.

I also never bought a car, don't have any loan and no kids. If i would get fired now, i would need to find a job in 10 month.

</comment><comment><USER13> nothing stays the same. it will pass. you end up wiser, stronger, and if lucky.. a more conscientious and humble human being.

<comment><USER14> I like this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I didn't really experience the 08 crisis directly but the aftermath for sure as I got my degree in 10 and the market in my home country was really bad at that time.

Had to go back to my less than stellar family for a year and a half, all of us surviving on the struggling family business while slaving away pretty much all the time.

Got a way out to move to Belfast and build a career slowly moving up from shit job to less shit job.

While lots of it has sucked, in hindsight it was the best thing that happened to me.

So you know, there might be a silver lining, maybe it's even platinum but you can't even tell yet.

</comment><comment><USER16> I graduated college right in 2001 and needed Visa sponsorship. A complete no go. I was unemployed for all practical purposes for 3 years until May 2004.

I remember job requirements turned absolutely bonkers with every acronym under the sun and 20 years of experience required to boot.

I took the opportunity to go to grad school and spent hours every day building projects with technologies I thought worth while. It paid off.

When the economy picked up again I had an awesome portfolio and a huge variety of skills. I had even published a book on MySQL while unemployed for wrox press.

Ironically I was making the biggest money in my life in tech 2008-2009

</comment><comment><USER17> One of the biggest differences during the dotcom crash was how much of it played out online. There was so much chatter in online forums and websites like f*ckedcompany. This crisis seems silent in comparison.

<comment><USER16> Omg, I loved f*uckedcompany.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> 08 - Cut all losses and moved into the cheapest possible place to rent in less than desirable neighborhood. Didn't buy a single thing that wasn't needed to survive. Found myself humbled AF yet constantly starving for success (and food!). Worked 60-70 hr weeks between 2 jobs (every single day of the week) for FIVE years straight (no exaggerations) until the storm passed and I was in a better place. Ended up selling the company I formed during that period just last year :)

Learned a ton about myself and the world outside...never been so alive!

</comment><comment><USER18> In 2000 I was lucky (?) to be working for a stable company developing a product with a bright future. During the dotcom boom, the main developers on the project, including me, got retention bonuses so we wouldn't quit and run off to the Valley.

In 2008, at the same job, the company had instituted a hiring freeze, but we were still solidly profitable so we weren't really concerned.

In 2020, I've already taken a pay cut to help keep the business afloat (different company). Oh, well :-(

This, too, shall pass. But it's gonna suck for a while.

<comment><USER19> I cannot agree with this strategy at all. Pay cut requires a time cut. And with that extra time, do whatever you want, but one of those things might be finding alternatives. It is not your responsibility as an employee to prop up the business.

SBA Payroll Protection Program. Your company could take out a loan and pay you 100%. 8 weeks is forgiven (strings are attached). The interest rate beyond 8 weeks loaned is 0.5%.

<comment><USER18> You're right; it's not. But as an adult, I get to make that decision.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I keep my expenses at 20% of my post-tax income, in part to avoid any impact from deep or prolonged crises.

</comment><comment><USER21> Got a job at a company selling a legitimate project, lived within my means.

</comment><comment><USER22> I was lucky. Kept my job. Was renting. 2008 made no difference to me.

<comment><USER23> Same, except that I bought and didn't rent. Same for previous bubble bursts

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Went to college (msc) - it's subsidized/ free in Europe

</comment><comment><USER25> I went through both but they were both at weird transition times of my life that they basically didn't have a real effect (or at least, it all seemed normal enough for me)

dot bomb: I was 22, had worked for Red Hat since their IPO in 1999. I hadn't gone to college, and was working in developer support, then QA, when I got laid off, it was kind of like, eh, oh well, gonna move back in with my parents. We get along so it was kind of not a big deal. I had saved a ton of money from working and having no social life.

Ended up moving to California, playing a ton of EverQuest, learned to surf, learned Kung Fu, and started to take classes at a community college.

My best advice for anyone early in their career/life with a lot of flexibility and privilege is to spend that time acquiring a new skill that is unrelated to the field that you are already in. It's a great time to develop an alternative/fall back.

I decided after the dot bomb that I was going to be a luddite and not focus on computer related work, so I started studying physics.

I got my degree and ended up building and maintaining a cluster for processing satellite image data, so basically got right back into tech.

That brings me from 2003 to 2008!

I was going to get a PhD, then my advisor died, and the satellite I worked on got shut down (government defunds science in recessions!) so I got bitten by my own advice! I don't regret it, though.

At that time, I had just finished my undergrad, and had started working full time in the research group I had worked in as an undergrad. When things finally sunk in economically, I had to go back to part time temporarily, but again, and this might be a theme, I had enough saved up and enough of a personal cushion to ride it out for the six months it lasted until we got a fresh grant.

I ended up leaving academia to get back into tech, and here I am again, and I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the coming chaos, which is weird to say, and I know it's going to be a lot harder for others.

My sisters both have work that puts them at a huge risk, and are struggling with that, but tldr;

\- save money

\- don't panic sell if you have investments

\- if you can, buy now :)

\- seriously and intentionally develop a new skill, hobby, or interest

\- make new friends, reach out to folks, build a more robust social network

What you can't control, and what usually is behind "how I survived X" is privilege though.

I have a colleague who is kind of a "prepper" but in the last downturn, he used that as a way to feed himself and his wife for six months (boat rations, rice & beans, etc...!) and volunteered at a mechanic shop so he could learn to fix/build cars (he offered them SEO in trade). Now as a hobby he sometimes buys cars, soups them up, and sells them.</comment>


A new approach to China: an update - <AUTHOR> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html <comment><USER2> Pretty frightening that they need to reiterate this (they mentioned this in the original announcement): _Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them. Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced since we made our announcement in January, they have continued to focus on serving our Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of them._

<comment><USER3> If the Chinese government is going to hold some google employees responsible (for whatever), do you think reiterating that statement is going do anything?

Don't be partisan.

<comment><USER4> China is not stupid. They already look bad, and retaliating by ruining a few Google employee's lives is not going to make them look better. When China starts alienating the western companies, they are simply going to leave, leaving China with nothing. That would not be good for them, so I think they will try and avoid it.

<comment><USER5> The Chinese Government simply does not care what others think of it - especially the west.

All you need to do is look at the case of Stern Hu and Rio Tinto to find out how much the Chinese Government cares about its reputation amongst western corporations.

<comment><USER6> Interestingly, Stern Hu pleaded guilty to bribery recently:

[http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Stern- Hu-...](http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Stern-Hu-pleads- guilty-to-bribery-report-pd20100322-3S7SU?OpenDocument)

<comment><USER7> Are you surprised?

How long do you think it took for them to beat it out of him?

<comment><USER6> We'll have to wait for the sentence to be handed down, if any jail time / execution is handed, that would really be interesting!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> IMO, the most valuable thing to come out of all of this is the China apps status dashboard:

<http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en>

tells us what China is currently allowing, blocking, or partially blocking.

<comment><USER9> What do "Web" and "Sites" mean? I assume one tells us whether China is blocking Google search results.

<comment><USER10> Web = Search Results; Sites = A Google Apps product and personal websites hosted by Google

<comment><USER9> Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The last paragraph says a lot between the lines. "Please don't put our employees in jail."

<comment><USER12> They really should offer to relocate them to the US

<comment><USER13> Unless Google has closer ties to the government than I was aware of, they don't necessarily have that power.

<comment><USER14> It's relatively easy for a company to relocate employees, as long as it has a reasonable need for specifically those people. If it wants skilled employees with a native-level knowledge of the language and culture, it wouldn't be hard to relocate them. Having said that, it's entirely possible that those employees don't want to be relocated. If my company's relations soured in my country, I'd rather quit and find a new job then leave for the company.

<comment><USER13> Re relocating to the US, specifically: I've been through the H-1B visa process - I have the visa, but I never actually jumped. Quite apart from times when it's oversubscribed and becomes a lottery, there are any number of small hurdles you could fail on.

But if it's relocation to anywhere not-China, then yes, that ought not to be too difficult.

<comment><USER4> There are visas other than H-1B.

And, Google just needs to get the people out of Mainland China. If their safety is in danger for actions that they had no control over, I'm sure some country will give them asylum.

Or maybe China realizes that it lost, and will model the rest of the country after Hong Kong. (Remember, Hong Kong _is_ technically mainland China.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It is possible the Chinese government will only partially block google.com.hk. This it how it has often worked with Wikipedia. You can browse the site, but as soon as any forbidden phrase is passed over the TCP connection it is cut. Then all access to the site from your IP is blocked for a while. This makes the service very intermittent, and makes it difficult for users to distinguish between censorship and overloaded servers. There is also the question of what will happen to the google.cn domain, as all websites in China are required to have an ICP license from a government agency.

</comment><comment><USER16> _"It's entirely legal ... We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision"_

Not much of a leg to stand on. I wouldn't want to be a Google employee in China right now.

<comment><USER17> My main fear is that China will use this opportunity, as the Chinese proverb goes: "kill the rooster to warn the monkey" - i.e., arrest/charge a few higher-level Google China people (Chinese citizens, they won't touch Americans).

Public opinion in China re: Google is very, very much sided with the Chinese government - people in general believe Google to be bullies pushing their American-style beliefs down their throats, and the people I've spoken to almost unanimously think that it's about damned time Google left China.

If a few key people are arrested/charged for conspiring to violate the law, it would be a major PR victory for the PRC domestically ("government stands up to Western bullying tactics, no safe refuge for collaborators" and the such), not to mention potentially warding off other companies trying to make the same stand.

Interesting times.

<comment><USER18> I'm just wondering where you get this public opinion, which is quite different from what I heard. And I'm in Shanghai, China.

<comment><USER17> See my other post below, but to add:

A lot of what I'm basing this observation on is poking around in Xiaonei (Chinese Facebook knockoff), the chatter in there is alarmingly (and almost militaristic) anti-west. This may be because the part of the social graph I was looking at was mostly upper-class Chinese (being that my main "in" with the Chinese is international students/expats, who are much better off that most).

It is likely (in fact, most probably) that the working class Chinese would have entirely different views.

<comment><USER19> Very interesting that you mention militaristic. Been observing similar attitudes and frankly it scares me.

<comment><USER20> Just nationalism.... the tea baggers are just as vitriolic...

<comment><USER17> Not sure why you got downvoted - I would say the comparison is apt. I've seen some disturbing things on Xiaonei, things like a map of the USA with a gigantic PRC flag sticking out of it, and other bits of aggressive nationalistic posturing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hey Googlers on HN, I live in China and access Gmail from my local connection. Where is my Gmail data located?

<comment><USER22> Disclaimer: this is not an official answer from Google, and while I have worked there I do not at present.

There are data centers around the world, however Google only stores sensitive data in locations where it can guarantee security and privacy[1]. Quoting from an official blog post from 2006,

"Protection of user privacy -- We will not maintain on Chinese soil any services, like email, that involve personal or confidential data. This means that we will not, for example, host Gmail or Blogger, our email and blogging tools, in China."

What this means is that your data could be stored in a number of countries, which will include a copy in the U.S. and _not_ include a copy in China.

[1] [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/testimony-internet- in...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/testimony-internet-in- china.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> In some ways I can't believe they actually did it.

</comment><comment><USER24> That's actually brilliant. They're both complying with the letter of the law and forcing the Chinese government to actively shut them down. I hope all their non-Chinese employees have exited the country...

</comment><comment><USER21> Some things I used to be able to search for on google.cn, but are now filtered by my ISP (via connection reset):

[http://www.google.com.hk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com.hk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=六四) (6/4)

[http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=zh- CN&source=hp&q...](http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=zh- CN&source=hp&q=天安门+1989) (Tian'anmen 1989)

I'm sure a native Chinese can give a better list. Superficially at least, it looks like ISP level censorship has gotten worse.

<comment><USER25> Isn't it a little scary to search this stuff in China?

<comment><USER26> Probably not. China is not North Korea, I would guess nobody really cares what you are searching for.

(Conceptually it's probably not that much different from children watching M-rated movies. The government in the US doesn't care, even if they know children are watching that stuff. Police won't come busting through your door. They are only interested in making it impossible for children to buy that stuff. The problem in China is of course that much more stuff is blocked and not just for children.)

<comment><USER27> Definitely not. It's just a connection reset. People won't be put in jail because they have searched these.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> And all this time analysts were saying Google would stand down from its principles on this matter. I quite like this page: <http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en> as well as the general tenor of these actions.

</comment><comment><USER29> For all the rights and wrongs of such a decision; kudos to them for going through with their threat.

<comment><USER30> I thought their threat was to leave. They haven't exactly left. It's more like they've thrown more doodoo into fan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I have some colleagues and good friends in Beijing, most of them coming from various provinces to Beijing for their jobs - they are not high up in the ladder socio-economically. The impression I get is that they love China (to the extent of choosing not to go abroad to live and work), but resent the party's overbearing ways. They are not going to go out and protest, but that doesn't mean they like their government much either. They tell me banned publications are fairly widely available, if you know how to find them, and many of them are fairly knowledgeable about stuff the party doesn't want them to know about.

<comment><USER32> Funnily enough I have colleagues in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc who feel exactly the same way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Could this be the first big salvo in a protectionist effort against Chinese imports? It certainly provides some political cover for the Treasury to declare CN a currency manipulator in the next couple of weeks.

Are there any projections out there of how tariffs would affect technology the markets?

<comment><USER34> The two things are completely unrelated. How does Google ceasing to self- censor results in mainland China have anything to do with the Treasury's response to Chinese currency policy? It would be a mistake to conflate the two.

<comment><USER33> I realize they are unrelated, but it takes only one fanned spark to ignite nationalism. It's one thing for China to down a spy plane, but what Google is doing is taking the high ground. It just feels different, like the environment is being prepped for more severe action.

[edit] And I don't even mean a coordinated salvo, but rather the type of event that historians will one day look back on, as a turning point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> <http://www.google.cn> now redirects to <http://www.google.com.hk/>, and there is a line of message saying _欢迎您来到谷歌搜索在中国的新家_ , which means "Welcome to the new home for Google Search in China".

</comment><comment><USER35> Whatever this leads Google needs to stay in China even if they ban it in Hong Kong.

Supposedly one of the reasons Google's stand has been so "principled" is because of Sergey Brin's early years in the Soviet Union.

That begs the question though, if the Soviet Union had Google and the internet would it have collapsed sooner or would it have taken longer?

</comment><comment><USER36> I think it is funny that I am visiting China right now and I cannot see the article because googleblog.blogspot.com is blocked. I'll have to bookmark it to be read when I get back home.

<comment><USER37> I found a copy of the text on: <http://en.mye.ir/a-new-approach-to-china-an- update/> available from within China.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I haven't seen anyone mention, how long it'll take for China to ban Google from Hong Kong. I understand it runs the place already (indirectly maybe), sure they'll have to change laws, but I haven't gotten the impression that that's an obstacle.

<comment><USER39> _sure they'll have to change laws, but I haven't gotten the impression that that's an obstacle._

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Basic_Law_Article_23>

Last time China tried to change a law here, 500,000 people marched through the central business district, the secretaries for security and finance resigned, and the law never got passed. So no.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I hope they gave Google.cn employees a chance to resign. Ideally, a month or two ago.

<comment><USER41> Most employees can resign at any time they wish. Not sure why Google would need to explicitly "give them a chance". Am I missing something obvious?

<comment><USER40> Because when you are about to publicly challenge a totalitarian government, it might be a good idea to tell the staff in advance.

For Google, the big question about establishing operations in China was always the hostage scenario. If they can jail your people, can you really be brave about censorship? To their credit Google isn't backing down, but the risks are real and they ought to reiterate this to their staff beforehand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Respect to Google! But I'm afraid the servers in Hong Kong will be blocked very soon.</comment>


Ask HN: Does Sophia the robot have any unique capabilities? - <AUTHOR> I am visiting Sophia the robot today, but I have been wondering if she has any unique skills? Have there been any milestones in AI accomplished with her?
Because the more I read about her, the more I realize that she is just a pretty face ;) and tourism stint. Maybe I am wrong. But her skills are more of supervised learning, I don't even think it is supervised, it even seems scripted. Her jocks seem ahead of time to be learned.
What does her citizenship even mean? Does she have the same right as a Saudi woman, which, btw isn't much. Can she have a bank account? etc
Has anyone tried the Hanson Robotics API, I heard it's open source?
What do you guys know or think? <comment><AUTHOR> [https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/sofia-robot-hanson- robotic...](https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/sofia-robot-hanson-robotics-web- summit.html) For example in this article, the conversation seems scripted:

Goertzel then asked Sofia what is her next frontier and what does she want to achieve.

"Don't know, maybe the world," she said. "Maybe the world. That was a joke.

"Seriously," she continued, "what I really want is to understand people better and to understand myself better. I want to be able to do more things and soon my capabilities will be advanced enough that I will be able to get a job."

</comment><comment><USER2> I think giving a citizenship to this robot is a publicity stunt, nothing more. They might as well give Cleverbot a citizenship too.

I look forward to interacting with self-aware machines (or machines that convincingly appear to be self-aware, at least) someday, but I don't really understand why anyone is paying attention to Sophia.</comment>


Pure Profit, a look at swoopo.com  - <AUTHOR> http://theecakescraps.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/pure-profit-a-look-at-swoop/

<comment><USER2> "Paraphrased Swoopo business plan in short: find 10 people to give us $10 each and one of them will get this $20 gift card. Repeat."

Please refer to: insurance policies, lotteries.</comment>


Turning off the distracting parts of the Internet - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rescuetime.com/2009/08/19/turning-off-the-distracting-parts-of-the-internet/

<comment><USER3> I think the killer question is, "Is Hacker News in your blocked sites list?"

</comment><comment><USER4> This looks like a killer feature! I've been using LeechBlock, but this looks to be even better.

</comment><comment><USER5> On a mild tangent I stumbled across a utility that'll let you lock screen for a period of time:

[http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/05/04/reducing- inter...](http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/05/04/reducing- interruptions-with-screentimelock/)

I haven't dared install it just yet, but it might be helpful to those of you who - like me - have most of your _really_ distracting stuff running inside screen.

</comment><comment><USER6> This can be really useful. I've gotten some good mileage out of Stealth Kiwi [1], a Greasemonkey script with a similar goal. But I find it's even better if I can improve my habits to the point where I don't need such a tool.

1\. <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8616>

</comment><comment><USER7> I've tried a few such solutions. Worked for some time but there was one problem: too many clicks. If I want to use it often (and I do) even 1 click too many kills a feature for me. So if it's going to be easy AND effective - I'll happily use it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Personally I've learned to focus without aids. Though I do have one aid - <USER2> phrase "A hanging concentrates the mind." Comes up whenever there's a deadline.

There's lots to be said for aimless thought. It's where innovation comes from.

</comment><comment><USER9> Typo - "Their getting good at these tests, and it's costing us." - "They're"

<comment><USER10> While on the subject, "blcoking" in the screen shot.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah oops - it's just a mockup. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> There is already a Mac app that does this (and you choose which sites to block)

<http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/>

<comment><AUTHOR> If you read the post it mentions that apps like self control are imperfect because you have to keep telling it which sites to block. RescueTime has a huge part of the internet already categorized and scored as distracting or not and lets you tune those settings in broad strokes - so if you go to a site you've never even heard of, if it's a distracting site you'll be blocked without having to have entered it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nice idea, but I'd probably switch it off...

</comment><comment> sielskr</comment>


If English was written like Chinese - <AUTHOR> http://www.zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi.htm

<comment><USER3> I'm a true believer in the dis-value of pictograms representing words. I lived in Japan for about 1.5 years, and was amazed that you need to memorize at least 6000 kanji to be able to read the newspaper well. I was able to speak and answer the phone after about 6 months and learned their two phonetic alphabets (1 for Japanese words, and one identical in meaning but not in look for 'foreign' words. But the kanji were overwhelming.)

My theory is that all of this memorization has a cost, and I think it is no accident that languages requiring so much memory expense tend to have users less able to innovate and integrate ideas given the mental overhead required. (I was in Japan because, for those of you who have not visited, Japan has some of the ugliest urban environments imaginable and they need help architecturally. Ancient Japanese architecture from the Imperial days is beautiful, but modern work tends to be completely non-integrated and non- harmonious with a few notable exceptions.)

<comment><USER4> I'd say be careful of native bias. Usually, native speakers of a language think that their own language is easier than others--especially if they grew up with it. Each language has strengths and weaknesses.

English has its share of headaches, but you don't notice them as often if you're a native speaker. Pronunciation is a big headache. How do you know that you pronounce the "t" in "skillet", but not in "fillet"? You memorize it. How about "through" and "though"? You memorize it. Sure, there are standard pronunciation rules in English, but because there are lots of borrowed words from other languages in English, you end up with lots of exceptions--that you have to memorize. I went for a long time calling "fajitas", a fah-gee-tuhz instead of a fah-hee-tuhz.

The fact that we have a National Spelling Bee in the US and Britain only attests to how difficult it is to pair up the spelling of a word to its pronunciation. Other languages don't have this. In French, they have grammar bees for kids. Chinese speaking kids join dictionary look-up bees.

Verb tense is something that needs memorization in English as well. Verb tense changes by pronoun, by present/past/future, and by active/passive. They're just something you have to memorize. In Chinese, there is no verb tense. So that's one less thing to memorize.

Korean has a pretty simple alphabet, and it's easy to pronounce too. So by your argument, Koreans should be able to innovate a lot better than the Chinese and Japanese. While I don't have any studies to point to, I kinda doubt that's the case, because there are lots of other factors to innovation besides language, and we don't know which has more weight--we can't run a SVD on it. Therefore, I think it's quite a leap to go from native language to correlation with innovation.

If you said something to the effect of language on speed of education, then you might have something. But innovation...I'm very skeptical.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't call it native bias, but it may be an error of adjacency instead of causality. While living in Japan (in the early 90's) it was very common to hear from Japanese that their mode of operation was to copy and then improve on the copy rather than to make any great new discoveries. Also, at the time I was there, the educational system enforced strict conformity - common saying "if you see a nail sticking out, you hammer it down."

In any case, I was there as an architect, and I was amazed at how the building designs there, which were typically very strange attempts at copying other styles, were horribly integrated. Sure, each part of the building was executed beautifully, but the whole was horrible. I was among many foreign architects broght in to improve on the local design talent there. This is primarily where my observation of lack of integrative ability/innovation comes form - <USER2> built forms .

For the kanji discussion, even though there are many idiosyncracies about pronunciation in spelling for English and other languages, you can get pretty far phonetically. With Japanese/Chinese, you can't get far at all without learning so many separate images (except for the few words using phonetic alphabets.)

As far as innovation, Toyota has revolutionized business processes with their lean system, but their car designs (the look) when they are good, are most likely done out of country. (Many car design exteriors come out of California, including the look of the Porsche Cayman and Boxter, etc)

I'm seeing a pattern in my post here: maybe the memorization of all those images makes it more difficult (but certainly not impossible of course) for the language user to create visually integrative designs?

<comment><USER5> Or maybe in the rush to imitate the Western styles, the Japanese at the time discarded their traditional arts. Until they gained experience in that new style, they could hardly create visually integrative designs. They obviously were able to create visually integrative designs when they weren't trying to imitate someone else.

I don't think the use of a visual language impairs that part of the mind as much as you seem to think it does.

<comment><USER3> What is interesting is that it seems that there was a person or persons who developed the traditional Japanese style including modularity, scale proportional to humans, space usage flexibility, about 1000 years ago. That style was copied again and again. There are also many non-integrative contemporary buildings that do not try to imitate a style, so I'm still not unconvinced about this - but again this is clearly a pretty big generalization without any significant research, but something to think about.

<comment><USER5> I don't know that much about architecture so I'll take your word for it. Thanks for the conversation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is simply an utterly brilliant and original way to explain the Chinese writing system!

Still, in this age of 100dpi 24bit color monitors, why stick to monochrome line drawings for yingzi? One could create the world's first photorealistic writing system!

</comment><comment><USER7> You mean: "If English _were_ written like Chinese".

Subjunctive mood, people!

</comment><comment><USER8> No thanks, I like my language the way it is... it was tough enough learning cursive as a kid, no way in hell I'm drawing tiny pictures just so you can better understand my language ;)</comment>


Clipboard officially open to the public   - <AUTHOR> http://blog.clipboard.com/2012/05/31/0-Going-Public

<comment><USER3> Have you consulted <http://charmhq.com/> about the similarity between your logos?

<comment><USER4> We started using our logo about a year ago (which came from a great collaboration with the awesome Jackson Fish Market team). It's kind of unfortunate, but these things happens. We registered our trademarks quite some time ago, including the single logo. So, no, we did not consult with them nor they with us. We think they are good folks, and are inclined to live-and-let- live. So for me, as long as we are in very different spaces (which we are) I see it as mostly a non-issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Couple other comments/requests.

* Make clip deletion central to the app. Should be right there with "visit". Easy cleanup.

* All the clips should be the same size. Right now I clipped the name of a book and it is twice as large as full webpages I want to revisit.

* I'm sure it's on your roadmap but I'd like to be able to share from within the chrome extension without having to go back to the app.

* Also I'm sure it's on your roadmap but search should search the pages content as well if possible.

* Probably also on your roadmap but my main problems with bookmarks as they stand now are twofold. Organization and rediscovery.

You have a good start solving the organization problem and the rediscovery problem due to the visual nature of your solution. But what I really want is some sort of reminder about old bookmarks that I haven't viewed in X amount of days.

For all non starred bookmarks keep a last viewed count. If it's over 90 days or some determined amount add it to the list of bookmarks that are expiring. Have a little icon similar to the push notification icons on iOS alerting me how many expiring bookmarks I have. Have a place to click to see them all. Provide super easy management to archive, star, or do nothing. Autoarchive after 180 days. Still keep these around and searchable but in an "expand to see archived bookmarks" portion.

Help me keep my bookmarks relevant. Please :)

</comment><comment><USER6> Not to detract from the great design and the obvious hard work put into this, but it isn't this basically violating copyright every time something is added unless you own it? Almost all of the public pictures I saw were copyrighted and I doubt the people adding them own the right to make copies or are able to give you permission to host them.

</comment><comment><USER7> So this is like a public-facing Evernote? Crossed with Pinterest?

<comment><USER8> a) Needn't be public facing. b) You have much more flexibility to select the specific bit of HTML you want. c) Does a way better job of capturing the "live" DOM context. You aren't grabbing an image, you are grabbing text/structure/etc. d) Resembles Pinterest only in that you can make collections of things and share them with people. Unlike Pinterest, the point isn't just to show people stuff, but rather to harness something useful (you are grabbing bits of structured data).

<comment><USER9> Can you elaborate on the "structured data" and how it's gonna be useful? To the average user, it seems like the biggest value proposition here is the ability to keep your posts private. For those who don't need to keep things private, how is it better than using Pinterest?

<comment><USER4> You can clip almost arbitrary parts of web pages. See <http://clipboard.com/gary/boards/examples> for a whole bunch. This makes a big difference because instead of simply having pretty pictures of food, you can save actual recipes and search over ingredients. You'll probably find <http://clipboard.com/category/Programming> interesting as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> You should add a link to Clipboard.com from your blog.

<comment><USER11> Whoops. We reskinned the blog late last night and missed this. Thanks for the tip, I've already updated the blog.

<comment><USER12> Can you make the front page slideshow stop if I click a link? It moves on faster than I can study the pictures.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there an easier way to clipboard a page bookmark rather than hovering around the border of the page until the "page bookmark" text appears and clicking?

Also if I retroactively try and remove tags from a clip that fails. I can only add tags (seemingly).

Finally _feature request_... I would love to be able to have subtags #books #fiction. Maybe #books > fiction > fantasy or something. But only have one top level tag "books" and then have a subcategory organized under the #books tag. Collapse all the entries for a subtag or something.

<comment><USER13> This.

1\. I am a self-proclaimed geek & although i love the nifty way to clip only parts of a page is awesome, its confusing, even to me.

2\. About being able to share whole page easily & quickly Amdahl's law ( focus on the common case, 80% of use) would say there should be a fast, frictionless way to accomplish clipping of the entire webpage(which i believe is clipboard's common case)

Now a -ve of doing this would be to increase complexity - 2 options - <USER2> clip entire page or parts of a page.

But, you can do this with a well designed ui element.

3\. i made this point on the beta launch hn thread, a lot of content consumption (article reading) happens on the ipad.

feature request : find neat content (from the clipboard corpus, twitter, fb, g+, prisimatic)

the clipboard ipad apps then, download a list of the top 'n'(configurable param) of articles on hn,twitter,fb, g+, to either a. locally on ipad, so can be viewed w/o a n/w connection (reading on train, public transit usecase) b. to my clipboard a/c on the cloud c. both a & b

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> please on your front page, provide a 1-line description and a compelling reason for a newbie to start using your product. I read so much faster than waiting for video to load and then watch. thx.

</comment><comment><USER15> Oh, there's no way to get from your blog to your product.

<comment><USER16> Not sure if it was just added, but there's a "go to clipboard.com" link in the upper right.

<comment><USER15> Yes. At the zoom level that's comfortable to read for me it disappears, which is why I didn't see it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One of the few sites released in the last few years that I actually find useful! Great job team this is really going to help me save content/bookmarks in a more friendly and searchable manner. I've wanted something like this forever.

My only question is.... how are you monetizing it? The browser extension can track my entire browser history. Are you uploading it to your servers?

<comment><USER17> Speaking of monetization...they acquired Clipmarks.com which predates even the defunct Google Notebook (and possibly Digg). Clipmarks.com - although popular among certain crowd - never made it big and had to rely on Ads until they gave up.

So I don't see why the Clipboard isn't going the same route.

As a former Clipmarks.com user, I have no intention to rely on any such clipping services for the daily curation I do (lately only for myself).

<comment><USER17> I told Eric Goldstein (Clipmarks.com) a long time ago that you should run the website like a head editor of a newspaper and not let everyone show whatever they're clipping on the front page of the site.

Curation based service sites have a front face which makes or breaks the adoption by those who pass by.

If you let your front face show whatever the heck people are clipping (for the sake of democracy and due to popular vote counts, a la Digg), you are letting the perception of your site go to garbage.

The perception Pinterest generated proves my point.

A visitor should be able to tell what kind of audience hangs out at such curation sites. Pinterest generated a perception of design, aesthetic, shopping etc. Its front page is well curated with a goal. Clipboard doesn't give that impression, and nor does any such clones of Pinterest.

I am not defending Pinterest over others (I don't use Pinterest), but people need to realize what they're missing when they run en mass after a successful formula.

There are so many such Pinterest-look alike sites showing up lately and besides copying the front page design, none seems to be offering anything of substance, or a reason for anyone to anchor their curations.

<comment><USER18> I think this is an interesting point. I'm not sure how you censor your front page. I personally don't really care what's there, but you could quite easily offend, and scare people away from the service.

<comment><USER17> Editing is not censoring.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Congrats to gwf and his team. I've been using clipboard from the earliest days and had a very small consulting input back in what you could call alpha. I can say that it is truly a great tool for people looking to curate data for themselves, groups of people and/or the general public.

I can't wait to watch their meteoric ascent.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've been using Clipboard for a long time now, and know several people who built the site. It's an amazing team and they did an amazing job with it. It would be easy to be discouraged with hotness of Pinterest, but they're going at it from a different, very valuable direction.

Best of luck to the Clipboard team!

<comment><USER18> What's the difference between this and Pinterest?

<comment><USER21> Upon actually using it, it's pretty much snip.it but even more difficult to read. I think Snip.it and Pinterest are not very well designed around their primary purpose - content - but posts that can span 900px high of illegible text is pretty bad, especially when you scroll a little bit more and it's just posted again by someone else.

For whatever reason, I just wrote another post about features and ways to distinguish this product from the competition in their other thread (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4049752>).

<comment><USER22> I like snip.it's design and content fairly well, and it works quite simply. The only thing wrong with it right now is a relative lack of breadth of topics represented on the front page due to the proclivities of early adopters. That will improve in time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I was impressed with the idea in the video, I have signed up, and tried to clip a picture on Quora with Chrome plug-in. I selected rectangular area. Alas, my clip is empty on Clipboard.com :(. You lost a user.

<comment><USER24> For me it was the fact that it did not work without third party cookies.

<comment><USER4> Here's the thing ... we don't actually need 3rd party cookies. However, in most browsers you need to have 3rd party cookies enabled in order to read client local storage (not a cookie!) within an iframe that's in a different domain. We so this to digitally sign the API calls so that malicious 3rd party sites can neither spoof nor read the shared secret used for the digital signature.

So the irony is that we make our API calls digitally signed (more secure) but to do so from the context of a bookmarklet you have to enable 3rd party cookies because browsers bundle that switch to the capability that we really need (i.e., there is no "enable loading of cross domain iframes that can read client local storage securely" option because its unfortunately pairs with 3rd party cookies).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I don't know how, but your Clip-bookmarklet totally killed my browser. Had to force-kill it. Chrome 18.

Will try the extension for now.

</comment><comment><USER26> After I clip something, I keep clicking the 'saved' green tag expecting it to take me to the new clip. Just a thought.

</comment><comment><USER27> As big as pinterest is, I feel there is still many opportunities left in this space

</comment><comment><USER28> Very well designed site. Who made your intro video? Great work!

<comment><USER29> Grumo Media, Vancouver BC. We had a great experience with Miguel and team. grumomediaDOTcom.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Can I delete clips?

<comment><USER30> Nevermind. You click on the clip first, and then you get the option to delete it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wouldn't it be better to have email notifications turned off as default? That could get very annoying...

</comment><comment><USER18> Lovely sign up UI. And a very neat web app.

</comment><comment><USER18> How do you delete an account?</comment>


Ask HN: how to tear down G+ public page to avoid social engineering - <AUTHOR>

I'm trying to delete all G+ content, all that data linked to my public name makes social engineering too easy.  I can protect myself but I don't want people who know me to be affected.
The last bits still public are the "Have them in circles" block, which shows all the people who know me.  Is it possible to either hide or remove this information ?
Thank you <comment><AUTHOR> np, I managed to find a "Show people who have added you to circles" option to disable, under Account.Profile and Privacy</comment>


The purpose of brand strategy - <AUTHOR> https://simpauldesign.com <comment><USER2> This is an ad, not an article.</comment>


Coolest robots.txt ever - <AUTHOR> https://www.hackthissite.org/robots.txt

<comment><USER2> Mine includes:

        Disallow:/harm/human
        Disallow:/disobey/human
        Disallow:/harm/self

</comment><comment><USER3> One of the recent blog posts from the website is called "RIP Seadog" [0] which looks interesting. also the one called " HackThisSite Founder, Jeremy Hammond, Pleads Guilty"

[0] : [https://www.hackthissite.org/news/view/652](https://www.hackthissite.org/news/view/652)

</comment><comment><USER4> Better: [http://www.last.fm/robots.txt](http://www.last.fm/robots.txt)

</comment><comment><USER5> Disallow:/nsa

Hopefully this helps

</comment><comment><USER6> Liberal propaganda!!</comment>


Thieves escape by motorboat after royal jewels heist in Sweden - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/01/swedish-royal-jewels-stolen-from-cathedral <comment><USER2> So logically there is a market. This scheme wasn't opportunistic, it was planned and involved some investment. The perpetrators therefore aren't complete morons; they have surely thought about what they'd do after making their getaway. I would like to know something about this market for stolen unique treasures.

<comment><USER3> Not really. The only planning apparent is "had an escape vehicle", which does not meet the requirements for "not morons".

> In 2013, a crown and sceptre used in the funeral of Sweden's 16th-century > King Johan III were stolen from Västerås, another city on the shore of Lake > Mälaren. They turned up a few days later in two large rubbish bags at the > side of a highway after a tip-off to police.

<comment><USER4> Obviously the thieves weren't after them for any _mundane_ value they possessed. <insert story about occult conspiracy theory here> (Back when I ran tabletop RPGs, this is exactly the sort of thing the PCs would have done.)

<comment><USER5> I toured Castle Edinburgh a couple of days ago, and I had this exact thought when looking at a wand amongst the Scottish Crown Jewels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This reminds me of the opening scene of _The Italian Job_ (one of my favorite movies), when they drop the safe through the floor into a Venice canal, where they crack it under-water while a decoy motorboat above-water leads police on a wild goose chase.

<comment><USER7> I know it's an oldish movie, but that's really an unnecessary spoiler.

<comment><USER8> _the opening scene_

<comment><USER9> I won't complain about it being a spoiler since the sentence begins by saying that it's from a movie so anybody could stop reading before reaching the description, but it is a spoiler, it's a twist that happens that is spoiled by knowing what happens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> George Clooney doesn't exactly phone it in, but we've seen this Act 1 before, and the plot eventually, and mercifully, ends on an unlikely emotional beat that neither satisfies nor offends his uncritical fans. 4/10.

</comment><comment><USER11> There was a similar heist of Renoir and Rembrandt paintings from Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, where the thieves fled by boat too. Eventually they were found because they bought the boat the day before and the seller could lead the police to the suspects!

</comment><comment><USER12> I hope they get away with it. Knowing that the royal jewels were successfully stolen is more interesting than looking at them behind some glass for 15 seconds.

<comment><USER13> This mentality does not scale

<comment><USER14> Unrelated, but I think that this short phrase is a very good summary of Kantian ethics :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> _The perpetrators of Tuesday's heist risk up to six years in prison for aggravated theft._

Nobody hurt. No weapons seen. One witness describing a white motor boat -- which narrows it down dramatically.

I guess all you can do is wait for a mistake of some kind.

</comment><comment><USER16> They will be sold to a rich "private collector" who will keep them for a few generations then they'll be returned. The "private collector" will likely not have any issues with their moral turpitude.

<comment><USER17> Returned or sold back ?

<comment><USER18> Melted down and sold

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> If the goal is to convert these artifacts to liquid wealth, the smash-and-grab and getaway are probably the easiest parts.

<comment><USER20> It's easy enough to melt them down to revive some value. It's only hard to sell them for their historic vs material value.

So, hopefully they already have a buyer lined up.

<comment><USER21> I hope. Some valuable historical artifacts have been sadly melted, like the original Jules Rimet trophy.

<comment><USER22> Or destroyed. The Iraq national museum comes to mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Hum... I'm wondering if the police could trace a motorboat path, at least partially, studying the dislodged sediment, If you scan the bottom and find a fresh groove you could try to build a vector at least. If the trace is missing in some shallower canals, maybe they could refine the search.

<comment><USER24> Uh, lake Mälaren is 440 sq mi and up to 200 ft deep.

It's one of the largest lakes in Europe. 5th if ignoring Russia. They get so much news anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Unrelated, but eye witness here has a really interesting YT channel covering European history, it's worth a watch:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasRowsell](https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasRowsell)

</comment><comment><USER26> What's amazing to me is that the thieves face up to six years in prison for this. I feel like in the US it would be 30 years! Note that I don't actually know, six years just struck me as short.

<comment><USER24> The general idea in Sweden used to be that en criminals should become rehabilitated, rather than punished.

The crime rate is much lower than US, but I doubt it's related to the relatively lenient sentences. Right now it seems to attract burglars from our eastern neighbours more than anything else, since they risk 3-4 month in jail compared to up to 10 years...

I also doubt that many people gets "rehabilitated" in Swedish prisons - probably higher risk they are recruited to ISIS. I think the trend is that you either never do another crime again, or you continue until you either die or get old.

Because of that, I would personally like to see much harsher punishments for crimes that involves physical violence (or threats thereof) and especially repeated offences - which is more or less not considered at all in Sweden, just to get rid of the criminals from the streets for longer periods, and also stop the recruiting into the growing number of criminal gangs.

<comment><USER27> > I also doubt that many people gets "rehabilitated" in Swedish prisons - > probably higher risk they are recruited to ISIS. I think the trend is that > you either never do another crime again, or you continue until you either > die or get old.

Re-offending rates in Sweden have consistently been among the lowest in Europe by a huge margin. As of 2014 it was around the 40% mark, which is exceptionally low.

<comment><USER24> I'm far from an expert but the first google hit seems to indicate that the re- offending rate is higher in Sweden than in US, and on par with the rest of EU, except the other Nordic countries that have half the rate.

The paper looks legit. The numbers are not directly comparable, so they are probably just indicative. You might be an expert, so please correct me if that's the case.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4472929/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4472929/)

Except for Singapore, the countries at the top have a strong welfare state. Singapore might have a strong judicial system (and good education) instead. The countries are also all quite small.

Here are the reported 2-year reconviction rates.

      Norway        20%
      Iceland       27%
      Singapore     27%
      Denmark       29%
      Finland       36%
      US            36%
      Canada        41%
      Sweden        43%
      Scotland(1yr) 46%
      N.Ireland     47%
      Germany       48%
      Netherlands   48%
      Ireland       51%
      France        59%
      England/Wales 59%

Why Sweden comes out exceptionally bad compared to it closest neighbors is unfortunately not studied, and the authors are intrigued by this fact.

I'm not though; If there is an actual difference, I would guess it's related to difference in crime rate in general, which is basically caused by the much higher immigration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I want to know under whose responsibility they were when this happened. Because it should not be as easy as just smashing some glass to get to them, this feels like negligence.

</comment><comment><USER28> Like when one's watching the eponymous genre of movies, I always want people that made some (non violent) heist to make it uncaught.

Doubly so if they stole from royalty...

<comment><USER29> They didn't steal from royalty, they stole from a church that had them displayed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Bold but stupid. They have no way to sell these objects. Unless it was made- to-order, the thieves are out of luck with monetization.

While the objects will likely be found, the saddest thing is that they will also likely be damaged when handled by a bunch of careless people. The objects are several hundreds of years old and are not made to be handled roughly. For example the Västerås objects were apparently dumped from a car and this left its marks. I'm hoping these will be returned.

I also hope the Svenska kyrkan starts to take better pre-emptive care of storing these culturally important objects.

<comment><USER31> > The objects are several hundreds of years old and are not made to be handled > roughly.

They're jewels, as in pieces of rock. What's the worst that could happen to them?

<comment><USER32> The "crown jewels" stolen are actually jewelry, not simple jewels. They include two crowns and a royal orb; they are intricately worked and include soft metals (and, of course, settings with stones). Rough handling can damage the decorative the working, break the metal parts, knock jewels out if their settings, etc.

Damaging the jewels proper is not the main concern.

<comment><USER33> Imagine being that small town jeweler that these are brought in to for repairs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Why does that guy with perfect English have subtitles?

<comment><USER35> There's a curious habit in US media to put subtitles on anyone with an accent.

I would like to think it's to make video easier to watch without sound, or for the deaf, but I don't think that's the reason.

<comment><USER36> It's for people like my parents who have a difficult time with some accents. It's just easier to subtitle it if there's any risk of it being unclear.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Freeciv, HTML5 open source version - <AUTHOR> http://play.freeciv.org// <comment><USER2> Thank you! The Freeciv web client is one of my favorite projects. As a civ fanatic I thought often about contributing, but never started to do it.

Maybe someone from the team could say a few words about the projects organisation, plans and communications.

I know there's a github repo [1], but you seem to use a TODO file [2] instead of the issue tracker and/or wiki. Is that a conscious decision? Because any issue tracker would make it easier to discuss the details of the task at hand. Or is there a mailing list/irc channel which gets used for coordination?

I would be especially interested in the client-side code which is readable but, on first sight, a bit overwhelming[3] for something one would do after a regular day job. API docs and/or (more?) unit tests would be awesome because I think one of the benefits of freeciv-web is be that some of it is/could be easy to customize for advanced players.

[1]: [https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv- web](https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv-web)

[2]: [https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv- web/blob/master/TODO](https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv-web/blob/master/TODO)

[3]: [https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv- web/tree/master/freeciv-w...](https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv- web/tree/master/freeciv-web/src/main/webapp/javascript)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the kind feedback, phaer!

> Maybe someone from the team could say a few words about the projects > organisation, plans and communications.

The Freeciv web client started as a fork of the Freeciv project in about 2007, at the time called Freeciv.net. Today the Freeciv web client is a part of the Freeciv project. However, the code-bases are still separate, so the Freeciv web client is maintained in Github, and has code in Javascript, Java, Python and C, while the Freeciv project is mainly implemented in C and is still hosted in SVN on gna.org. As for future plans, I hope to continue improving the game and making it work on more mobile devices. There are also plans for a WebGL version, but that would take much more work.

> Because any issue tracker would make it easier to discuss the details of the > task at hand. Or is there a mailing list/irc channel which gets used for > coordination?

There is a TODO-file, but the main issue tracker is on gna.org here: [https://gna.org/bugs/?group=freeciv](https://gna.org/bugs/?group=freeciv)

> I would be especially interested in the client-side code which is readable > but, on first sight, a bit overwhelming[3] for something one would do after > a regular day job.

I would be happy to help anyone setup a development environment. It is quite quick to setup a Vagrant image if you follow the description found on the Github page.

The Freeciv web client is a volunteer non-profit effort. However, all our services run on a single server, so we absolutely appreciate donation to keep the server running: [http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Donations](http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Donations)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Since today is the day of Show HNs, here's a Show HN within a Show HN:

For some ridiculous reason, I recently cloned a semi-decent chunk of Civ4 in TypeScript and made a minigame out of it: [http://dumbmatter.com/barbconq/](http://dumbmatter.com/barbconq/)

It's open source if anyone else is interested: [http://github.com/dumbmatter/barbconq/](http://github.com/dumbmatter/barbconq/)

Of course it pales in comparison to Freeciv, which is why this is only a Show HN within a Show HN rather than a Show HN on its own :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice project you've got going there, perhaps a "Find and capture the barbarian capital" mod for Freeciv (or Freeciv-web) could be something to think about.

<comment><USER3> Thanks!

The only reason I made it that way is because it let me produce something playable without yet implementing techs, the economy, real AI, etc :)

<comment><USER4> Personally, I would find even a very simple AI, as long as it plays under the exact same rules as the player, potentially more interesting than the admittedly cool stuff civ4 has. I just felt a bit cheated once I got better at the game and read up on it, e.g. there is not a single difficulty level where players and AI are simply equal, and people reported the AI having fishy knowledge of things going on at the other end of the map.

To me, even an AI that plays along very simple patterns can be fun while I am still figuring out those patterns; but if it's having cheaty knowledge, then even the fun I had becomes a bit unfun in hindsight once I saw through that.

Just my 2 cents and all that, of course, not trying to tell you how to make your game ^^ Just encouraging you that even super simple AI might be fun. Of course multiplayer is the best, but even then, having derpy AI in the middle to use against other humans = always fun, as long as the AI is consistent and doesn't cheat, IMHO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No!! No!! Civ needs to be big and bloated and slow and requiring installation (i.e., Civ V) - the only defense against the "just-one-more-turn" addictiveness is to limit availability, and you're making it available everywhere. At least my phone battery will die eventually...

</comment><comment><USER6> Pretty cool, but unplayable unless I was doing something wrong. I couldn't move the minimap unless I was careful where to click (dragging doesn't work) and everytime I tried to select a unit everything disappeared. Looking forward to playing when it works a little better!

<comment><AUTHOR> Which browser and device are you using to play the game? The controls in the game take some time to get used to, hopefully you should get it to work with some practice. Please let me know how it goes!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Played a lot of Freeciv back in the day, this is my first time ever trying it in the browser. Everything looks beautiful, but the UI with the units seems very awkward. Is there a way I'm not seeing to rapidly cycle through all the available units and give them orders?

<comment><AUTHOR> The best way to control units is to learn the keyboard shortcuts for unit commands, and use the keyboard commands in combination with the mouse, just like in the desktop version of Freeciv. So for example, first use the mouse to select a unit, then use the keyboard shortcut for goto (G), and then click on the tile you want the unit to move to.

<comment><USER7> Actually figured out an answer on my own -- the handy thing I was looking for was W (wait, I think) to skip to the next available unit.

<comment><USER7> Okay, actually the reason I was confused is the web interface seems to be very buggy. W, for instance, seems to shuffle you back and forth between two units as often as it cycles through all of them. And lots of activities, like R or I, just leave you sitting on the unit you assigned it to, rather than sending you to the next unit waiting for orders.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, there is some room for improvements in the unit controls. If you could please list all the bugs you find in unit controls, then I would be happy to fix it in the next version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's very nice to see! I have not tried it yet but now I could conceivably play freeciv on the ipad in safari, opera or chrome. How difficult would it be to package the html/js and server into a native iOS app? Is there a way to set the tiling to flat 2D instead of isometric as in the native client? I always prefer to play that way. For those wanting to play the granddaddy of Civ, try Empire or Empire Deluxe on iPad. [http://killerbeesoftware.com/kbsgames/ednew/](http://killerbeesoftware.com/kbsgames/ednew/) [http://www.classicempire.com/](http://www.classicempire.com/) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Deluxe#Empire_Deluxe/](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Deluxe#Empire_Deluxe/)

Or better yet, try the board game variants and derivatives (Eclipse, Empire 4). [http://empire-game.org/empire/history/detailed/](http://empire- game.org/empire/history/detailed/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Glad to see this is still making progress!

I've actually toyed with the idea of building an indie game by starting with the HTML5 FreeCiv UI and commissioning some professional graphics.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the upvotes to "Show HN", much appreciated. It seems that the Hacker News community really likes this game. I always appreciate the feedback I get here.

<comment><USER10> In principle, this isn't a good fit for Show HN since the project has been discussed before, including recently:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7848768](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7848768)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5716859](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5716859)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

But since today is turning into a Show HN carnival, have at it.

<comment><USER11> That's nice. I'm sure you had fun wasting your time posting this. Personally I'm glad it has been added to Show HN. I possibly would not have heard of it otherwise.

<comment><USER12> You're criticizing one of the HN mods for clarifying the criteria for what qualifies as Show HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A fantastic and inspirational work. This makes me believe I can too can make high quality games someday.

</comment><comment><USER14> This page has been down for me for the past 8 hours - is it working for anyone?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's just you: [http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/Play.freeciv.org](http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/Play.freeciv.org)</comment></comment>


Decentralized Proofs - <AUTHOR> https://metacode.biz/openpgp/proofs <comment><USER2> The sample page is more interesting: [https://metacode.biz/openpgp/key#0x6A957C9A9A9429F7](https://metacode.biz/openpgp/key#0x6A957C9A9A9429F7)

Here's the source: [https://github.com/wiktor-k/openpgp-proofs#openpgp- proofs](https://github.com/wiktor-k/openpgp-proofs#openpgp-proofs)</comment>