Four Iranian Banks Collaborate to Develop a Gold Backed Cryptocurrency - <AUTHOR> https://www.btcwires.com/c-buzz/four-iranian-banks-collaborate-to-develop-a-gold-backed-cryptocurrency/ <comment><USER2> This looks like an uncredited rewrite of this article:

[https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/iranian-banks-support- new-p...](https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/iranian-banks-support-new-paymon- cryptocurrency-backed-by-gold-and-kuknos-blockchain-startup/)</comment>


Our Generation Ships Will Sink - <AUTHOR> http://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html <comment><USER2> This is believable, the author points out some very real challenges that I think will make it impossible for us to travel to other stars in our present form.

Just some criticisms, the author doesn't seem to understand the idea of sending probes to survey a destination before loading up a huge generational ship. Instead, the author seems to think humans would just load up, travel for 200 years, and arrive at some unknown destination and _hope_ that there's a habitable planet. This is nonsense. Could you imagine spending 200 years on a ship _hoping_ that your destination is even hospitable to life?

In any case, some very good points are made about the challenges. Personally, I don't think we're going to be going to other stars as humans, in our human bodies. If we could someday build AI, and machines with brains that think like humans -- those could voyage across the galaxy.</comment>


Timely – Location recommendations focussed on maximizing user efficiency - <AUTHOR> http://timelyapp.tk

<comment><USER2> Are you using foursquare or Yelp (or something else) to get the places?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm using foursquare. I looked at both foursquare and yelp but foursquare seemed much more dev friendly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Was very confused as Timely is already an alarm clock on Android.</comment>


Suspend Your Disbelief (or, how to ruin everything in 7 steps) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deg1wmYjwtk <comment><AUTHOR> Vihart, on how human nature and recommendation algorithms combine to make everything suck forever: The poo is _supposed_ to hit the fan.

With the added benefit of a step-by-step plan to re-create modern social structures!</comment>


On Lisp to Clojure project - <AUTHOR> http://www.earthvssoup.com/tag/onlisp/

<comment><AUTHOR> It should also be noted that I am also trying to find my lost Lispy muscles.</comment>


Why Chinese is so damn hard - <AUTHOR> http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

<comment><USER2> Every language has its extreme difficulties. In America, you have spelling bees, in France, you have grammar conjugation contests, and in China, you pride yourself on the number of characters you've memorized.

I really despise this article every time I see it. No. I don't despise it, I hate it. I can't read worth a damn in Chinese, but I can speak a dialect of it quite fluently. Its focus on written Chinese is completely unreasonable.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've read this before, and never get tired of it.

 _Off-topic_ : I mistyped "get" as "git" in that sentence above, which tells you how I spend my days. Occupational hazard, I guess. :-/</comment>


Apple Introduces StoreKit for In-App Purchases - <AUTHOR> https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/#documentation/StoreKit/Reference/SKDownload_Ref/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/occ/cl/SKDownload <comment><USER2> Here is a link that doesn't require a login:

[http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Network...](http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/APIOverview/OverviewoftheStoreKitAPI.html)</comment>


Show HN: A Chrome extension to burst your filter bubble - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/doppl/jmgfiamhfaaaobadmeblbjfpoannnffp <comment><USER2> I wish there was something to break me out of my YT filter bubble. I feel like I've watched / decided to skip every single one of the videos YT home page recommends me and would like some fresher content.

It is so bad now that it won't even show me content from my subscriptions if I haven't watched those specific channels in a while - For several months last year, I was really into photography channels and my feed was just gear reviews, photo technique videos and such. Now I barely see them anymore and I have to hunt down people I like / subscribed to and watch their videos manually. Serendipity is totally lost.

This should be a simpler problem than getting balanced news, anyone have any tips on how to solve it?

</comment><comment><USER3> I came across [1] some weeks ago, which (although didn't give me the flexibility to choose my topic), did fulfill my need to look at the view from both sides on, presumably, the hottest topic of the day.

They have a "curation"-method to selecting the articles to show. I am curious as to if this extension uses pre-selected websites (e.g. WSJ will always show the Right-leaning view), or is there something smarter than that

[1]: [https://www.theflipside.io/](https://www.theflipside.io/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, it reminds me a of Knowhere News. Thanks for sharing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ooh, An extension revolving around biases and psychology! Always in for it.

I literally wrote an article on how so much data on internet affects our mind and sometimes, can make us biased.

Such tool, like your extension, can be very helpful.

<comment><USER5> Does your article address strategies for mitigating this bias? I, as a politically left leaning person, often recognize my biases but I have difficulty absorbing the "other side" of data, notably because it feels like 90% of the internet is either lies, stretches, or opinion pieces. So my strategy to mitigate my bias is to look up counter information, but I struggle to find anything of real value.

Hell, I even struggle to find real value supporting my biases. The internet is just a mess.

So in light of the over saturation of purposefully biased content on the internet, how might a person mitigate their own personal biases?

<comment><USER4> While I addressed the issue in general and around what the impact it is causing, I can tell you a couple of things which you can attempt to mitigate your biases:-

First of all, Do you research manually. Don't stay on Twitter only for your source of news. Having multiple sources will help you in establishment of truth. The best part? The extension mentioned by the OP can actually be very helpful!

Secondly, Remember that it is all about the perspective. It is NOT necessary that the way you see things is the SAME as how I see things.

There is a difference between Data and Information, Because not every time, All the data will be informational.

You can read the article here - [https://thevediwho.me/blog/data-data-and- more-data](https://thevediwho.me/blog/data-data-and-more-data) . I am not an expert but I do have a certification in social psychology. I hope this helps you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Personally, I can't imagine ever being interested in an extension like this. In general I think I'd prefer consuming less news (such that media bias doesn't influence my thoughts) rather than consuming more news to get all sides on "the issues".

That said, I find these sort of trends fascinating because it's producing its own form of bias in terms of what views are valid opposing views, and which views are simply bunk. I'm assuming, for example, if I read an article about a covid vaccine I wouldn't be suggested an anti-vaxx article claiming that a covid vaccine will give me autism. The decision not to do so, however reasonable, means that there is a level of curation and gatekeeping which could manifest as toxic bias in theory.</comment>


Latter-day Saints suspend all gatherings worldwide, including worship - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/world/coronavirus-live-news-updates.html#link-5d659c9b <comment><USER2> religion is cancelled. it's a miracle!</comment>


Amazon EC2 Basics For Python Programmers - <AUTHOR> http://jimmyg.org/2007/09/01/amazon-ec2-for-people-who-prefer-debian-and-python-over-fedora-and-java/ <comment><USER2> Where is the "rails" of EC2? A set of images with all the headaches solved and management baked in?

Mysql clustering/replication? rails/mongrel scaling? memcached? crash recovery/backup?

<comment><USER3> A few companies are working on that, but I don't think the results will be free.

<http://rightscale.com/> <http://www.enomalism.com/></comment></comment>


Recognizing When to Pivot by Holly Liu - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/swlh/recognizing-when-to-pivot-2425ad12d7ba <comment><AUTHOR> This one really helped me,</comment>


Ask HN: Which technologies and skills are needed for block chain economy? - <AUTHOR> Assuming widespread adoption of crypto currency and block chain as an ecosystem...<p>...which technologies and skill sets will be in demand? <comment><USER2> distributed databases</comment>


Netflix's Chrome OS Plugin May Be One of Google's First Native Client Examples - <AUTHOR> http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2011/08/12/netflixs-chrome-os-plugin-may-be-one-of-googles-first-native-client-examples/ <comment><USER2> Native client isn't pepper - they're two different things. If netflix was using native client, it wouldn't _need_ a plugin preinstalled - they'd just download a native client executable the first time you connect.

<comment><USER3> Every Native Client executable must use Pepper for all I/O. Native Client isn't yet enabled by default, so a Chrome extension is necessary.

<comment><USER4> I'm trying to understand, google hasn't enabled native client on chromeos yet? And the chrome extension allows you to enable it for a specific site? Is that possible for any developer to do? That could be useful for a use case I have.

<comment><USER3> Yes, you can make a Chrome extension using Native Client today. Later, when Native Client becomes portable between processor architectures, it will be fully enabled so that you can serve a Native Client executable from any website and it will run without any extension required.

For the details: [http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/native-client-brings- sandbo...](http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/native-client-brings-sandboxed- native.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Anyone else get random slowdowns when using Netflix on Chrome? Everytime it happens, I just switch over to Firefox and the problem disappears. Restarting Chrome does not fix the issue either.

<comment><USER6> Silverlight doesn't even work on Chrome for me, I have to switch to Safari to watch Netflix.

<comment><USER7> I had troubles with some of the dev/beta releases of Chrome for Mac, so I switched back to stable and its working great. Maybe you're running one of those builds?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wish HP treated hybrid plugin (the equivalent of Native Client for webOS) developers like Google treats their Native Client developers. Oh well, just one of the reasons they folded.</comment>


Why Every Startup Needs a Press Kit - <AUTHOR> http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242202

<comment><USER2> Co-written by [http://www.publicize.co/](http://www.publicize.co/) so let's link to their website as well. I read 8+ YC companies already work with them. Starts at $399/month.</comment>


Swee.LOL- Put a Smile on Someone's Face - <AUTHOR> https://Swee.lol <comment><USER2> There is no information whatsoever just a login?

<comment><USER3> Looks like a slacky sort of messaging platform... with a couple of emogis.. no idea :)</comment></comment>


Factmata - AI for automated statistical fact checking - <AUTHOR> http://factmata.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> We are 3 NLP researchers passionate about automating some elements of fact checking using AI, but most importantly surfacing a tool to make it easier for everyone to check facts in articles. We'd love to get your thoughts/ideas on this problem, especially from a) what you would want such a tool to do b) how you think it could be surfaced best and c) your ideas on building such a system, both from an ML and an engineering standpoint.</comment>


Ask HN:Is there service to create books[pdf] from web pages? - <AUTHOR>

im looking for service that let me create pdf out of selectable web pages with some basic editing capabilities. so i could read it later or send me by email is not , is it good startup idea? p.s i dont mean simple html2pdf kind of stuff. <comment><USER2> In the same space there are:

      * Print Friendly (http://www.printfriendly.com/)
        Tayor Norrish was interviewed about his startup experiences with PrintFriendly on
        techzing (http://techzinglive.com/?p=211)
      * Print What You Like (http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/)
      * The new Reader functionality in Safari 5 (no editing here).

BTW, under OSX, from the printer panel you can save your printing as a PDF.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the replay but i meant something that will enable me to create my mini magazine king of thing or mini book out of many sources of content on the web

<comment><USER3> Maybe you should go back and visit that second suggestion again. It does what you asked for.</comment></comment></comment>


WordPress Now on HackerOne - <AUTHOR> https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-now-on-hackerone/ <comment><USER2> Here is their bug bounty page for anyone who has found a vulnerability to report: [https://hackerone.com/wordpress](https://hackerone.com/wordpress)</comment>


AI-Powered Meeting Scheduler X.ai Raises $9.2M Series A - <AUTHOR> http://mattturck.com/2015/01/05/x-ai-and-the-emergence-of-the-ai-powered-application-2/ <comment><USER2> To get pleasantries out of the way, I am glad to see Matt Turck here on HN. The meetup he hosts, Data Driven NYC, attracts a large number of both very high caliber of guest speakers and attendees. The several times I have been there, I enjoyed the presentations and the discussions afterwards thoroughly. X.ai which I was introduced to at this meetup, was one of the more interesting startups there. If I wasn't as happy as I am at Handy, x.ai would be foremost among companies I would consider working at; their challenges are many. This is one of the highest endorsements can be bestowed upon a firm and its product by an engineer.

While x.ai is very exciting, I have several concerns about their product and their chances at success.

1) Most meetings are scheduled internally within a firm where calendars are visible and shared. An AI PA that simply locks down time slots doesn't have much value add beyond what the calendars currently provide.

2) There are privacy concerns. Many will not trust x.ai with their calendar data due to concerns about x.ai data-mining or sharing their data.

3) There are other privacy concerns. People may not trust Amy and Andrew not to be social engineered by others to leak their calendars. The fact that person is busy at a certain time or for a certain duration or within a certain vicinity is potentially useful to people whose goals are more than just scheduling a meeting. This kind of over sharing may not be worse than goes on with Facebook, but the letters A.I. will make it sound scarier.

My last point is a wish. Most of my non-work meetings are scheduled over #1 text messaging and #2 Facebook. I would like to see x.ai support other mediums than just email.

<comment><USER3> Where's the _AI_ part?

The video clip talked about _learning_ \-- what's to learn?

For the sharing of calendars, why is that necessary?

So, my software sends you and three other people e-mail asking for a meeting with all of us somewhere in NYC Midtown next week.

So, each of you sends back some candidate times.

If you have the same software, it grabs the e-mail (say, from some tag in the header lines) and sends back to my e-mail some candidate times. My software answers, and there is a _negotiation_. If each person invited has the same software, then the software can negotiate, very soon, when all the software _agents_ can be available to negotiate with my software agent, and then the negotiation can go really fast.

Sure, if your software proposes several times and my software won't accept any of those, then someone looking at the e-mail flows could find times when I was busy. A biggie? Maybe not.

Once all the agents are available, they could negotiate how to communicate peer to peer, that is, faster than e-mail, and really extensive negotiations could be done in less than a second. And the peer to peer traffic could be encrypted and, really, not easily available otherwise, that is, relatively secure.

My agent could have my appointments already and know when I will be at a meeting in NJ and consider my travel time to NYC Midtown to know when I could be available at Midtown.

What else to do?

What's wrong with that outline?

Where's the _AI_ or the _learning_ needed?

Yes, there could be some high push for _virality_ and a _network effect_.

But, then, still, there's no very good barrier to entry. I.e., it's awfully easy to program, and if the scheduling software of some one company wants to schedule only with other copies of their software, then a _disrupting_ company could offer to have _open_ communications and be willing to schedule with other software. Then this little idea would go for nearly a freebie, and no one would make any money.

Ah, but encrypted communications and communicating with other software combine to yield a security problem -- anyone could write fake software that would report the unencrypted data. More generally, does look _hackable_ so that there would be security risks.

Maybe a _must-have_ for some people, but if they are meeting outside their office then there's a lot of travel likely. In that case, maybe use video conferencing.

I don't see much of a business opportunity there.

<comment><USER4> > Where's the AI needed?

Marketing, I assume. Giving people their very own Jarvis to interact with could be a selling point (even if it's less efficient than a GUI-based scheduling solution), and the "AI" buzzword will certainly draw more attention to the product than a scheduling app would normally get.

<comment><USER5> Building a conversation model which can negotiate with multiple guests on behalf of the host in plain english is not easy (for us). This includes simple social concepts such as "compromise" \- say, when to push for one location over another. The information extraction problem alone is a major challenge.

No buzzwords needed, we are just trying to do some good work, and if we succeed, we think many people would like it: [https://twitter.com/search?q=xdotai](https://twitter.com/search?q=xdotai)

<comment><USER3> > plain English

Gads. That's tough to do well, and as a user I'd always wonder if the software got it right unless I just kept checking.

And why try with plain English? Heck, long ago I commonly wrote Fortran programs with very easy to use input: Start with a file that asks for all the data. Each line of that file starts with some character to indicate that the line is such a request and with, say, a number, to indicate what request it is. Then a user just types in their data after each such request. It's dirt simple to implement and for users to use. So, for human readable input, just do it that way. Natural language understanding -- f'get about it.

Once I programmed something where the human input was a lot like XML -- really simple to use.

<comment><USER5> I agree and I could easily see myself use something like that. However, I want something (naively perhaps) which my Mom can use. My worst nightmare is one where early users inadvertently create some sort of "syntax" which my mom use to discard this as a service for her. Like she discarded the idea of twitter, because people created a RT, MT $bla #bla etc. "syntax".

<comment><USER3> Your goal is fine, fully appropriate. Of course your mom should be able to use it; anyone who can type and read should be able to use it. Fine. And there is no need for any nonsense gibberish such as "RT, MT".

But, I believe you are over estimating the importance of having some natural language understanding, under estimating the difficulty of achieving that understanding reliably in software, and are very much under estimating how easy to use, even for your mother, for anyone who can type, something like I outlined can be.

E.g., when I was in grad school, I took out some time to earn some money so that my wife and I could complete our Ph.D. degrees. For the money, I worked as an applied mathematician, computer guy in a research shop doing work mostly for the US Navy. So, yes, we had secretaries who did a lot of typing but had no word processing.

As part of my work in applied math, I ended up as system administrator of a super-mini computer. Of course, for programming, it had a text editor. If only for writing the computer manuals, it had a simple text formatting program, call it a member of the family of Runoff programs. And I'd gotten a daisy wheel printer nicely driven -- asynchronous serial communications with ASCII characters and the XON/XOFF handshaking (pacing) protocol -- by the computer. So, we were GO to do a LOT of typing.

Soon enough the secretaries wanted to get on board with this new stuff. So, for them, one at a time, we pulled some 5 conductor, general purpose signal cable with a 25 pin plug at each end (we only connected the pins for the signals SEND, RECEIVE, and SIGNAL GROUND), and a dumb terminal.

Bottom line: All the secretaries got on board right away. The ones without a terminal begged for one. No one ever gave one of the secretaries more than a few minutes of 'training'. They all caught on right away, to logon, files, the hierarchical file system, the text editor, the runoff program, the daisy wheel printer, etc. Right away.

Later as a college prof, I did the same for the business school, and again the secretaries 'got it' right away.

Gee, we weren't asking them to write macros in TeX!

So, back to my suggestion:

You want an appointment. So, you send something like

         === May we meet?  Let's pick a time and place.

         === My name

         === My job

         === My e-mail address

         === My phone number

         === Subject of meeting

         === When to meet

         === Where to meet

or some such. Then you use just typing to insert data under each of these or some such, likely need something better, but you get the idea, and send your e-mail.

A human, including your mother, can read it and respond. And they can respond with a similar e-mail.

If either end of the communications is using your software, then the software can read that data and make sense of it much easier than for natural language processing.

Or, send the person some e-mail with a URL to a server with a Web page with a form and some JavaScript to help the person fill out the form. Then we're into just a Web form solution that we know very well how to handle.

Forms work great; people are really good at entering data into forms.

For people who have your app, it can replace the Web site.

No way do you have to use gibberish such as "RT, MT". Instead, everything a user reads can be in complete English sentences with a button with Help for more explanations, etc. It can be easier to use than most Web forms, and 1+ billion people use those. It can be easier to use than Google, e.g., where Google has those little horizontal bars to indicate (I never got that memo or read any explanation in a help message) for more options. Last I checked, Google had a lot of users. It can be easier to use than the Amazon Web site, easier to use than Facebook.

You are underestimating the ability of your target users to make use of simple computer user interfaces.

My guess is that there is no way natural language processing can be good enough that, net, it is easier to use than just some simple forms or something like I outlined above.

Gibberish like "RT, MT" is really a straw man to knock down. Instead, never but never should there ever be any gibberish or undefined terminology or undefined acronyms in any user interface. That rule is easy to obey, and natural language processing is a very hard way to obey it.

The real business need and opportunity is meeting scheduling, not finding work for natural language processing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does the highly conversational tone make it easier or harder to parse?

Because, I for one, would feel uncomfortable using such a conversational tone with an algorithm. I'm curious if they are encouraging anthropomorphism because...

      Amy will succeed more often in parsing this style of writing?
      This is how people *want* to talk to their AI scheduler?
      People should think of "Amy" as maybe a little-bit human?
      People should *confuse* "Amy" with a human?
      The more natural tone will increase user engagement?

I for one would write to my AI scheduler in a much more direct tone. "Will miss tomorrow's 1pm", "Reschedule John, late next week.", "Will get in Wednesday after noon.", etc. No "Hi Amy", no complete sentences, no banter for me at least. It does remind me a bit of "Her", and the premise that one should not be overly colloquial with one's computers.

Edit: I just went to the site and saw the ad copy for 'How it works'. It appears the answer is closer to making the Amy algorithm actually appear human. Users pretend they are CC'ing a real person, and unless the other participants on the email know better, they converse with firstname.lastname@example.com as if it really is a human? That is ELIZA territory and trying to actually beat the Turing test is a lofty goal indeed, I think far surpassing the challenge of merely scheduling meetings.

<comment><USER7> Looking at the jobs page, it looks as if the Amy AI doesn't exist yet. Amy will be a large corps of low paid staff until she has lots of training data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is pure astroturf. There are dozens of solutions already for this, not to mention most corporations you can just view someone's calendar and pick a time whenever everyone is available.

<comment><USER9> Have you attempted to schedule a meeting with 3 busy people in your company with 3 busy executives and PMs from a client? It is annoying and frustrating.

Most of the solutions I'm familiar with require all scheduling parties to be on the same Exchange Server with calendar busy/away shared. Or you have to click-thru to a website and then deal with creating a user account.

Using email seems like a nice friction-free way forward. I hope they get traction!

<comment><USER10> Sure - but the solution usually involves deciding who the least important attendees are, scheduling it over their busy calendar times whenever it suits the execs, and expecting them to suck it up. I don't see how AI is going to help with that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Forcing humans to use written natural language when dealing with a machine (complete with politeness formulas, etc) seems like a dreadfully inefficient UX.

Why force users to type several sentences (minutes wasted on a mobile device) when a couple taps/click in a GUI would suffice? Not to mention the risk for ambiguity that lies in natural language processing (unless this company has already solved the problem of strong AI?).

<comment><USER11> Amy (the humanized name of the X.ai bot) is about the worst and most intrusive business tool I've encountered. My business partner uses the "amy" bot. It likes to spam me with 20 questions about when to schedule a meeting, each time asking me for other times whenever something doesn't work. And god help me if I ever forget to put an "IST" after _every single time_ I mention. If I send it "8PM IST, 9PM IST or 10PM", there is a good chance it will give me a 10PM EST meeting.

In contrast, consider doodle ([http://doodle.com/](http://doodle.com/)), which is exactly the GUI you are imagining. It shows me a grid of possible times. I click the times that are good. It detects my location and automatically displays times in IST. Takes me about 15 seconds to use with no confusion.

X.ai seems to be solving the problem of "I wish I had a secretary, but can't afford one". That's not the same problem as "lets schedule meetings in the most efficient way possible".

Dear x.ai folks, if any of you are reading this thread: please clone doodle and stick an x.ai/doodle link into the amy emails. If you do this, I'll consider deleting the gmail filter which currently blocks all emails from x.ai.

<comment><USER6> Doodle is interesting, thanks for mentioning them. But I was exploring their product and come to find they list SSL as a paid feature on their "Private" plan. SSL is really, truly not a paid feature. I found that off-putting and a bit shameful.

<comment><USER11> True, you need to pay them a shocking 2.5 euros/month in order to access all the important features (calendar integration, SSL, etc). Why don't the devs there just work for free?

Incidentally I don't mean to suggest doodle as necessarily the best service of this sort. The only reason I remember doodle specifically is because someone used it on me last week.

<comment><USER6> Hmm... You should absolutely pay for features, if you want them, I would never say otherwise. My point is that SSL is not a feature, it's table stakes. Are you saying you think SSL on your login form is an upsell?

Having this discussion on Twitter right now with one of their developers. Go to their home page and click 'Sign in'. See the username/password prompt? Now, look at the URL bar. See something missing? In fact, the request is POST to [https://..](https://..). but the point is the user has no assurance that's the case. A web login form MUST be served from a top-level document under HTTPS.

The weird thing is that, in fact, the dev said they do provide SSL when logged into the app all the time to all users. It's only SSL on their public site that they only provide to paying customers. Well, I don't get that at all. And anyway it seems broken because I have a 14-day Premium Trial and I'm not getting that "feature". Just altogether very weird vibe. Anyway, this is now way OT for this thread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Now that's the first startup I've been excited to read about in a while. It seems to be a very sensible first step in solving the "email inbox is our new todo list" [0] that pg mentioned a few years ago. If they actually success (sadly, it seems they're still in some kind of beta mode), there is a whole vertical of gazillions things with regards to email that they can follow up on.

Interestingly, in a sense as more people are using it, there's a chance that the technical aspect get easier (two x.ai users try to schedule something!). At least until a (hypothetical and will never happen) scenario in which every single email users will be using x.ai, at which point the program turns into a giant optimization and scheduling program, which will be hard - just something fun to think about.

Also, holy buzzwords and business-speak, I really like the startup, but I feel uneasy reading the article.

[0]: [http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html](http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> I work at a Fortune 50. Eventually, it'd be great to have something like x.ai "watching" emails fly through an internal SMTP server, and then decide if parties external to the conversation ought to be involved. There's a good amount of effort duplication and projects which fall short of their true potential because the right humans weren't involved.

<comment><USER14> Sure it sounds cool that if Alice asks Bob about some internal API and Bob says he doesn't know about it much, the system should suggest involving Carl who actually wrote the API. But who would want a system to read their emails? Heck even if you imagine the whole situation in real life, where you randomly pop in between two strangers and give them a suggestion (no matter how useful) they will consider you a creep for eavesdropping on them. Do this often enough and you are bound to be chased through the streets by an angry mob.

Plus, think of all the times the AI doesn't understand the conversation and makes crappy suggestions. Like each time that API is cmentioned, suppose the system says "involve Carl! He's a Pro". i Can see this getting annoying really fast

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've signed up and am looking forward to giving X.ai a go.

The thing I'm puzzled by is how Amy can possibly follow the most important rule of physical meeting scheduling, namely: "you go to the money, the money doesn't come to you". In other words: vendor goes to startup founder's office, startup founder goes to VC's office, VC goes to LP's office... How does Amy know enough about your business hierarchy to respect that rule?

<comment><USER5> Absolutely agree. We must understand the social dynamics that are inherently built into every meeting - and this is one 4 major challenges we are working on going forward.

But our early beta users should not be to shy to cue in Amy:

\- Amy, set something up with Lerer in Soho

\- Amy, can you arrange breakfast with Matt and FirstMark please. They can pick a place.

\- Amy, setup a data science / whiteboard chat for Prateek and I *

* My default meeting location is 48 Wall (Amy knows that, and simply assume I want this location used for a new candidate interview)

<comment><USER16> _> Amy, set something up with Lerer in Soho_

Could Amy differentiate Ken and Ben from the context?

<comment><USER5> Well, I cc'ed Eric, Ken and Taylor, and Amy worked with them individually to find the best time. Upon conclusion, she sent the invite AND out came a $check. ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This looks very similar to [https://claralabs.com](https://claralabs.com). Is the tech / process basically the same between the companies?

<comment><USER18> They are competitors. But neither has released details on how the tech behind the scenes works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Note that Amy isn't actually all AI:

> Q. Is Amy human?

> A. I am one part machine, and one part Human! The important part is that I > handle your requests properly all the time.

[https://x.ai/faq/](https://x.ai/faq/)

<comment><USER5> The human part is a data annotation part, something which helps us move towards full automation. There is obviously no way a human operation will ever get to the end of those ~10 Billion formal meetings being scheduled in the US every year. Heck, we might die trying to fully automate this and we are certainly not finished yet, but I think we are off to a good start and we are fighting for that 100% Automation goal every single day. Feel free to email me if you want to join 24 other propellerheads on that mission :)

<comment><USER20> A treacherous path you tread, seeking 100% automation...hmmmm

<comment><USER5> My bad, let me rephrase, near 100%. Super naive perhaps, but we feel it is worth a shot. Hell, we might die trying, but we'll certainly come out a whole lot wiser on the other side.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> If this product develops successfully and gains adoption, it will be a huge deal. I've heard repeatedly that scheduling is one of the biggest problems that executives have and it's one of the main reasons that they get personal assistants. It's good to have someone to get coffee or pick up laundry, but scheduling back and forth is a tedious task that takes up a lot of time. I've been thinking about an ai solution to this for awhile now, it's good to see one emerge and be used in the wild.

The concept of a good ai based personal assistant is one of the Next Big Things. And I mean facebook size big thing. If the busiest and most important people in society start doing all of their scheduling through one software platform it won't be long before everyone else follows. And that opens the door to all kinds of other social and communication services. "Have your bot talk to my bot and we'll figure out a good time to meet up". Maintaining a list of your friends and contacts is important, but algorithmically maintaining your relationships and schedule is even moreso. Ton of value here waiting to be unlocked.

As with all data based applications, the value increases exponentially with the amount of data being analyzed. The ideal personal assistant is one that will make the same decisions that you would make in the absence of instruction. If you tell a PA "book dinner reservations for my wife and I next thursday", a good assistant will know what kind of restaurant is appropriate, where you like to sit, whether you prefer dinner at 7:30 or 8:30, etc. You don't have to say, because they learn your preferences from the data they've collected from you and previous employers. Just like a computer would. There are a ton of small breakthroughs and conceptual leaps to be made between there and where we are now and the field is still wide open. x.ai seems like an encouraging step in that direction, one that I'll be watching closely.

<comment><USER22> I think you could accurately say machine learning is a subfield of ai. I think of it as the mathematical toolbag with which many ai applications are built.

(Before he edited his post OP had a comment about the confusion between the terms 'machine learning' and 'artificial intelligence')... Put another way I think machine learning specifically refers to the mathematical ideas used to teach things to a machine, and the ai to the resulting entity which often makes use machine learning techniques(usually in addition to specialized code specific to the application).

I think some people feel that "general intelligence" would require a paradigm that somehow transcends math and algorithms which seem to only result in specialized a.i's. And that maybe it all needs to be tossed out and re- examined with a blank slate. On the other hand, i would suggest that specialized ai software will become more and more generalized until we can't tell the difference. I think it's all about having a sane perspective. In this day and age with machines and gadgets in every room, man-made artifacts teach us how to think, and we teach machines how to think in a recursive interdependent cycle.

In that sense reaching the final goal post means progressively improving our machines to be active communicators and good listeners, to the point where they can learn things from each other. Eventually their interactions will become complex enough that their communications will be unpredictable but still productive on the whole. So we'll leave them on so they can talk. At which point you could call it a society of machines....

Anyway I guess the point is specificity of language seems to be important learning and thinking about AIs.

<comment><USER4> > I think you could accurately say machine learning is a subfield of ai.

Yes, that is a widely accepted view of AI/ML. "AI" designates any method to give machines cognitive capabilities, while ML is a particular family of techniques (statistical learning) for giving machine such capabilities. Other branches of AI would include symbolic AI, expert systems, and other 70s techniques where processes were explicitly programmed rather than learned from data.

Today, because these other branches have largely fallen out of favor over the past 40 years, ML has become almost synonymous with AI. The semantic distinction is still there, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Definitely sounds promising, I spend a lot of time either seeing up meetings myself or syncing with people who need to invite me to one. The FAQ actually answers none of the questions I ask myself in considering to try it.

Is it good at dealing with timezones? I always get invited to meetings where people give me the time in their timezone, I have to realize that time wouldn't make sense for them if it was in my timezone etc etc.

The other question is regarding the fact that I don't communicate with everyone in english. There is no mention of how good Amy is when switching to and from different languages. This last one is one of the reasons I never used virtual assistants.

<comment><USER24> Amy (the "AI Assistant") loves timezones and does exactly what you suggest. Speaks to each participant in their local timezone, understand what time it is for each participant so no silly suggestions are made, and she understands the concept of compromise when somebody in New York is to meet with a guy in Singapore (where no great time really exist for either party). [https://twitter.com/thinkstorm/status/554776145800232960](https://twitter.com/thinkstorm/status/554776145800232960)

Finally, she only understands English today (2015). We are super ambitious, but we want Amy to perfect one language at a time. dmortensen keeps pitching for Danish as Amy's next language around the office...we'll see.

<comment><USER23> Definitely sounds promising, will give it a try

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> What if one doesn't use any calendar product? I usually agree with my business partners on a date/time by voice, then more often than not they create a GC event (probably to mark it in their agenda) and I get an email that I don't answer. They know I'll be there. I guess that x.ai is valuable if people don't talk each other and let it decide the time of the meeting but it probably works only if one annotates all his/her life in a calendar.

<comment><USER5> Amy (The AI Assistant) remember all the meetings she set up for you (and she'll remind you if needed) - so even if you did not have a calendar, she would avoid conflicts (unless you hide things from her).

We have this fantasy (delusion perhaps) of us becoming arbiters of time. You don't need a calendar, because Amy will help manage your time. One step at a time though and the problem is hard enough as is, before we print "Arbiter of Time" t-shirts.

<comment><USER26> How does Amy know what time to schedule the first meeting she sets up for you? Do you have to suggest a couple of times? Or do you have to set up a Google Calendar for Amy?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Much of the wording on their website is annoyingly imprecise --

> N-Gram, the latter part of her surname, is a technique used in computational > linguistics.

it's not a technique; it's just a name for a sequence of n things. Also, I've never seen the 'N' or 'G' capitalized.

<comment><USER5> Well, Matt Casey and I thought it was clever, if not a bit funny; Amy Ingram, A.I. and Ngram in one. What's not to like!? :-)

<comment><USER28> Here are some people who are not going to like it: [https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?firstName=AMY&lastName=IN...](https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?firstName=AMY&lastName=INGRAM)

[105 of them as I write this...plus their coworkers.]

<comment><USER5> I am not sure I would be offended if somebody called a service "Dennis" (probably the opposite). That aside, use Andrew Ingram instead, or name her yourself and move her to your domain (the most obvious premium product we have in mind).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> What happens when two Amy's talk to each other?

<comment><USER30> _when two people using x.ai try to schedule a meeting (and regardless of whether one is on Google Calendar and the other on Exchange for example), then meetings get immediately scheduled without any of the usual back and forth._

<comment><USER5> * [https://x.ai/faq/#two-robots-one-meeting](https://x.ai/faq/#two-robots-one-meeting) :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Many points raised here are valid concerns and should be addressed by the data scientists when designing the system.

Let's just not forget about the positives here: there is a company that openly uses term "A.I." and raised a lot of money. Am I the only one here waiting for the AI Winter to be over [1]? Maybe it's not the best A.I., yet, but they got the funding. Personally, I think that's great and I hope for others to come out of the closet.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter)

<comment><USER4> The AI winter has been over for a couple years, we're in the middle of a torrid summer right now (triggered by the deep learning craze). There is a rush in the VC world to throw millions at any new AI startup, especially if it has "deep learning" in its pitch deck.

So far it has paid out, because large tech companies (Google, Facebook, Baidu, etc.) have been on a deep learning startup acqui-hiring spree. It might not last, though. Any company that bases its marketing on "AI" and subsequently fails to deliver is bringing us closer to the _next_ AI winter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> His points about specialized AIs are spot on. I have a specialized AI start up where we trained software to do realistic 3D reconstruction of humans. Our AI simply knows how to go from photo to 3D via knowledge of the human face. We inter-operate with conversational agents to create lip syncing knowledge base backed avatars. www.3D-Avatar-Store.com is the site. We're constantly learning of and meeting with other specialized AI companies and combining efforts to create pretty interesting pipelines of capabilities for various projects.

</comment><comment> dj-wonk Good personal assistants (e.g. executive assistants) also base their information on information not available in email; e.g. conversations and non- verbal cues. Good ones carefully guard and (implicitly) prioritize their boss' time. I am skeptical that an AI lacking such information would have the necessary data to replace a human.

<comment><USER33> Doesn't need to replace a human; just needs to be Good Enough™ to save the human 80% of the time they would spend in unproductive back and forth.

Just like a dishwasher is not a replacement for a scullery maid; and won't individually polish each piece of silverware like a proper butler. This doesn't need to be a human level fully rounded intelligence imbued with common-sense. It just needs to be able to reconcile schedules and locations and travel times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> The series starting with "Avogadro Corp" by William Hertling comes to mind. Looking forward to our AI overlords.

</comment><comment><USER35> Interesting idea and nice execution. Should real assistants be worried?

<comment><USER5> Not really. I honestly think the current assistant and all his human ingenuity could be better utilized on other tasks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> My new web app is a big data AI dynamic tooling process management social engagement change tool. Can I have some money thrown at me please?

<comment><USER5> hey man, ..we just schedule meetings! :)

<comment><USER37> Yes, exactly his point. Scheduling meetings doesn't get more exciting because you strap some statistical natural-language processing to it and call it "AI", as if that was a meaningful term.

<comment><USER5> It's not supposed to be exciting; 87 US knowledge workers schedule a little bit above 10 billion meetings a year. I just want to help them do that (no more, no less). Users couldn't care less how it is done and I would be very hesitant to market this under any "AI"/STAT/ML/NLP moniker. So back to my starting point - we just schedule meetings.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Machine Learning Books That Helped Me Level Up as a Data Scientist - <AUTHOR> https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/05/3-machine-learning-books-helped-level-up-data-scientist.html <comment><USER2> The first book on the list was recently updated:

[https://joelgrus.com/2019/05/13/data-science-from-scratch- se...](https://joelgrus.com/2019/05/13/data-science-from-scratch-second- edition/)

I bought it last week and I'm working my way through it.</comment>


Encrypted email isn't secure, but here are some Lavabit alternatives - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/163698-encrypted-email-isnt-secure-but-if-you-must-use-it-here-are-some-lavabit-alternatives

<comment><USER2> Well, more like encrypted webmail isn't secure, isn't it? Think PGP is still up to snuff if anybody cares to learn it.

<comment><USER3> +1 Email encryption in the cloud isn't secure. It's convenient, easy to use and makes you feel warm and fuzzy, but that's about it. OpenPGP still stands.</comment></comment>


Are there enough apps for cyclists? Never - <AUTHOR> http://howtowriteabusinessplan.com/?p=5112&preview=true

<comment><AUTHOR> Anyone using this in the US? or Just the UK

<comment><USER2> give me more lycra</comment></comment>


Diplomacy Adjudicator Test Cases - <AUTHOR> http://web.inter.nl.net/users/L.B.Kruijswijk/ <comment><AUTHOR> I submitted this post for a fairly simple reason:

The approach taken here of outlining test cases for a thing implemented multiple times which consistently has bugs, is genius. I've never seen it anywhere else and I'm curious if that's because it's unique or I'm just not being exposed to the right sources.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you follow a method to refactor your code? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Reduce reuse recycle comes to mind when I refactor code. Any code that is small does one useful thing that can be a candidate for a library. Catalog of useful library items should be well known within a code base so all code. When refactoring look out for things where the the current code may not be using existing library code and reinventing the wheel. Replace with code that does this with the library alternative. However if the current code has a fringe or divergent reason for not using the library function/method the library may need update to cover the fringe use case so there is no regression in the code your currently trying to refactor. Then also in the back of your mind be on the lookout for code that could be useful as a new library function, class or added to an existing class as a new method. When refactoring we want to reduce down as much as possible to useful reusable and code that can be well tested and well documented of its behavioral use cases.

The recycle is then to look at existing libraries to ensure they also follow the same rules as the current code which you are refactoring in the first place.

Then... you may still not be done. You need to then look at the pattern and structure of the code and look for code with bad smell (various levels of nested conditional statements, loops, etc...). Any thing you can do to remove layers of indented code, changing the structure if need be to be more linear top-down adding checks to short circuit, throw exceptions and then handle those exceptions. Basically anything you can do to improve the big-O of the code. This includes making sure all input parameters are validated and fail early if not. Then also output validation to ensure the return is sane. Then be on the lookout for security issues where the code may default to a true state, as you want to ensure if there is a problem you're failing gracefully to a secure state so that there is not a hole or way to escalate security permissions, etc...

Then... look at unit tests, is there coverage of all of the code, is there well defined behavior documented in the unit tests, is there use cases you spotted not being covered by unit tests, is the code that rationally can't be unit tested is that documented in the unit test code and then states this is end to end and logically can only be test through end to end testing, or other means (including documentation how those tests are run, if so).

When going through a process of refactoring, using reduce-reuse-recycle; you should develop a living document that is a check list of what to be on the look out for. Then when using the checklist, developers doing the refactoring process should start be taking notes of what the code does, intended use, and make observations based off what they are seeing. They can then later review those observations against code comments, api documentation, test frameworks, etc... to ensure that the code does what it says does against the previously existing documentation (if that even exists)

The other thing which is super important. Refactoring is not rewriting. You are not designing and implementing a solution or trying to change behavior. You are simply trying to make the code have a smaller cross section, and be more efficient be reducing it to common calls of library code. When you spot bad smell, questionable taste in design patterns you don't fix it now, you document with code comments todo's etc... and how to fix and open a new task to fix that section of code. Keep on going drilling down through the code layer to layer. Then you recycle again and start completely again when working those tasks just created. The goal is to create small easily worked rewrite tasks (at first) with sign posts to direct places in the code and what needs done. Then you will have a sense of scope needed to implement the refactor's rewrite here, there, not using library here but should be, library is missing this feature move it from to there kinds of tasks.

Then risk management, and timeline management. Is it worth doing now, if so when do we do it and pencil it in?

Remember refactoring code is just math. Trying to reduce a complex equation down to its smallest form that can be easily understood.</comment>


Let's Build a Superpower: see within and behind objects - <AUTHOR> http://kck.st/voxel-vision

<comment><USER2> I'm sorry but you obviously have no experience with augmented reality (what you are actually trying to do). There are so many problems with your approach...

1\. In order to be able to render virual objects on top of the real image (camera image or directly to the retina) you should know the pose of the eye with respect to the outer world. For example if you are a surgeon and want to overlay an MRI scan on the patient, you need to know the pose of the eye (camera) in respect to the patient and this is a VERY hard task as everybody doing computer vision can tell you. You only mention how to find the pose of the eye with respect to the head but this is not enough.

2\. Processing large 3D models like 3D scans requires a lot of computational power. It won't be very portable.

3\. You will also need a depth image along the camera image in order to achieve some of your goals (like bluring the image according to the focus distance). Do you have any idea how difficult this task is?

You have cool ideas, but should be more realistic about your goals. Also reading some things about augmented reality and computer vision will help you a lot to understand how difficult this is.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right, taking a limited project scope is a virtue:

We merely want to make a _proof of concept_ that inspires users with a mind- opening sense that the world's data can have higher dimensionality than just 2 dimensions.

I (Jon) read the novel _Flatland_ when I was a kid, and have ever since been yearning to see in more than just 2 dimensions. This project is an attempt to open users eyes in the same way.

\--

With the goal defined as proving a concept, it becomes apparent that _we do not need to permanently solve every challenge with AR in a scalable way._

We merely need to kludge around them (for example using tons of computing power) enough to make a convincing temporary experience:

1\. Patterns of marks or lights can be placed on the outside of the headset, detectable by cameras in the environment.

2\. True. Luckily we can achieve a kludgy demo by having one entire rendering computer (with graphics card) per depth slice, and selecting between their outputs as a dumb switch, post-rendering.

3\. The plenoptic camera from lytro.com should provide the necessary post- capture-focusable images. We are meeting with Prof. Marc Levoy today to ask about partnering.

\--

We merely hope that once the concept of voxel vision has been proven, that all future AR systems will feature it as a standard mode of interaction.

<comment><USER2> Augmented reality is going to grow a lot in the future and therefor I think it is worth investing time in it and I wish you good luck :) I would just suggest to focus on a smaller and better defined task and borrow as much as you can from the field of AR in order to increase your chaces for success. For example I wouldn't waste time in developing you own tracking system (point 1) but use an existing one using markers. Also for the depth images I think you could do much better with a Kinect instead of this camera, because it will give you much more detailed depth image (however only indoors). I think the ideas of tracking the eye position and is really worth exploring. The projecion of the image on the retina is also realy cool, but I think it is much more difficult and one year will not be enough to achieve reasonable results. Good luck :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Cool project, but the intro on Kickstarter is grossly misleading. It implies that you have a way to obtain the data about what should be rendered in addition to projecting it, when in reality this project is only about the projection part. It's not bad to talk about potential applications, but you're implying that they're part of the project when they're not.

<comment><AUTHOR> We will fix it tonight. Thank you for the feedback, and sorry for the overly lofty rhetoric.

<comment><USER4> Are you familiar with Steve Mann's wearable computing work?

I bought a Kopin cyber-display around 1998-2000, and one problem with all of these displays is that they have a tiny field of view. It feels a lot more like looking down a sight than having some kind of full-scene overlay.

I've also tried using the 3Com MPro mini projectors to back-project onto a phone-sized screen. With the default optics, the best image I could get had the projector 20 cm from the screen, and the screen 10 cm from my eye.

<comment><AUTHOR> Of course, Steve Mann's telepointer helped define the field of AR!

If you (a user) do think that screen size is too small, it is possible to take the approach of having large, opaque screens that show the entire scene, so none of the real light makes it through.

For example, imagine a helmet that has two screens inside, which are showing a heavily augmented version of the video streams from a pair of plenoptic cameras (lytro.com) that are mounted on the front of the helmet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All that is mentioned here so far as I can see is a method for getting focus information coupled with a virtual retinal display. How are they proposing to get the image on the other side of the arbitrary thing you are supposed to be able to look through?

<comment><AUTHOR> EDIT:

I think that in the future, the following phenomena are likely to proliferate:

\- high-res satellite and airplane imaging of the globe

\- public geotagged photos, including compass bearing

\- Google Street View road images

\- public security cameras on public streets

All of this data can be integrated using software like Microsoft's PhotoSynth, to stitch together a gigantic 3D model of the real globe.

Then, people with Voxel Vision will be able to look around at streets and landmarks that are interesting but physically occluded.

</comment></comment><comment>

Edited to rise a relevant comment from further down the thread. Original answer follows:

Jon Rodriguez here, project lead.

Your question seems ambiguously worded.

I will answer both possible interpretations of the question:

===

Q:

"How do you propose to do the sensing task of seeing inside real world objects so that that data can be rendered?"

A:

The source of content depends on the application.

1: put a virtual screen at distance infinity, so in a boring meeting you just look far away to check your email

2: for telepresence surgery, use a MRI to do the 3D imaging of the patient's interior

3: Google Street View images allow you to see to any point in a city, even if buildings are between you and it

4: educators create custom 3D models of physical phenomena they want the kids to vividly explore, such as a 3D model of a human neuron, or a 3D geological model of the Earth, or the interior of a grape.

Etc.

In particular, virtual reality games and worlds can be easily shown this way, as long as the game artists take the extra effort to give their models interesting interiors.

===

Q:

"How does a Heads Up Display that is in front of a real-world object (like a brick wall) then project a virtual image that appears to be behind that object?"

A:

This is where the adjustable lens on the virtual retinal display comes in.

By properly decollimating the light from the VRD's screen or laser, you can give that light an arbitrary "equivalent optical distance".

Despite the fact that the light is originating at 2 cm from the eye, it can appear to originate at 2 km from the eye, in that 2 km is that distance that the eye will have to accommodate to to put that light in focus.

<comment><USER6> > Despite the fact that the light is originating at 2 cm from the eye, it can > appear to originate at 2 km from the eye, in that 2 km is that distance that > the eye will have to accommodate to to put that light in focus.

But there's a wall in front of it. How can I perceive an object as 10m away when I'm staring at a wall at 2m away?

<comment><AUTHOR> The wall will appear as if it:

\- were translucent, and

\- had a screen behind it

The light arrives at your eye containing both an image of a wall when focusing at 3m and an image of a TV show when focusing at 20m.

Such a light field is not distinguishable from the light field that would occur if the wall actually were translucent and actually did have a TV show playing on a screen behind it

<comment><USER7> i think his question has less to do with how your system will render the information about what's behind the wall, and more to do with how your system will acquire that information in the first place

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that in the future, the following phenomena are likely to proliferate:

\- high-res satellite and airplane imaging of the globe

\- public geotagged photos, including compass bearing

\- Google Street View road images

\- public security cameras on public streets

All of this data can be integrated using software like Microsoft's PhotoSynth, to stitch together a gigantic 3D model of the real globe.

Then, people with Voxel Vision will be able to look around at streets and landmarks that are interesting but physically occluded.

<comment><USER8> 3d data of the surroundings could be also obtained with a portable sound-to-3d sonar system.. not sure if such exists yet but it would be a cool thing to connect to your device for enhanced bat-sight.

<comment><USER9> I saw this documentary once about a man who was half bat, half man. He implemented something like this using mobile phones in the area he wanted to look at.

I think he must not have gotten the sonar parts in his half bat bits.

<comment><USER6> He did have the help of one particular Magical Negro [<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro>]</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>