Using the Kinect to Build in Minecraft - <AUTHOR> http://www.orderofevents.com/MineCraft/KinectInfo.htm

<comment><USER2> I got insanely excited thinking that I could play Minecraft with the Kinect that is being delivered tomorrow.

Using the Kinect as a 3D camera for modeling in Minecraft is pretty sweet too though. It has been pretty amazing to see what the community comes up with on Minecraft servers and how amazingly creative people are with hardware like the Kinect.

<comment><USER3> Convert Lego Blocks to Minecraft directly!

Now to figure out the reverse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Fantastic idea.... Although It's only a matter of time until someone take a snapshot of his ... and you find yourself walking around a giant... statue.

</comment><comment><USER5> That's astounding.

</comment><comment><USER6> Amazing. Both the software and his girlfriend.</comment>


Most creative people 2014  - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/section/most-creative-people-2014

<comment><USER2> "Inviting women into the workforce" is #1 most creative?? It is brave, for sure, considering that was in Saudi Arabia, but... creative?</comment>


User-Led Innovation Can't Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663220/as-apple-and-ikea-know-user-led-innovation-cant-create-breakthroughs <comment><USER2> Given the subtitle "Just ask Apple and Ikea", I was hoping for some examples where they tried user innovation and it failed. But the only supportive examples in this "article" are two people from the respective companies saying simply "It don't work."

Much of the rest of this diatribe seems to be based on the conflation of user- led innovation as focus-group and committee based design.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nonsense. User-led innovation _can_ create breakthroughs, just read Democratizing Innovation.</comment>


Why Scientists Need to Fail Better - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/30/identity/why-scientists-need-to-fail-better <comment><AUTHOR> CK Dexter • 10 months ago Oh for crying out loud. If you want to interpret the meaning, READ THE WHOLE DAMN PASSAGE. Not one mention of the surrounding txt, not a single quote of Beckett's actual words beyond the familiar soundbite.

If you read the whole piece, or even just the whole paragraph, it's clear THERE ARE NO MORALES TO BE DRAWN, it is not normative but descriptive, it tells us not what we ought to do but what the entire natural order does and will do: fail, get sick, throw up, and die once and for all, never to rise again.

It's about the absolute and final fact of mortality, the ontological unreality of progress of any kind. The total cosmic triviality of change, not its celebration.

But hey, that's just one interpretation. It might be wrong, but AT LEAST I READ THE DAMN THING.

Here's the original context of the quote:

"Say a body. Where none. No mind. Where none. That at least. A place. Where none. For the body. To be in. Move in. Out of. Back into. No. No out. No back. Only in. Stay in. On in. Still....

Somehow on. Till sick of both. Throw up and go. Where neither. Till sick of there. Throw up and back. The body again. Where none. The place again. Where none. Try again. Fail again. Better again. Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse again. Till sick for good. Throw up for good. Go for good. Where neither for good. Good and all...

All of old. Nothing else ever. But never so failed. Worse failed. With care never worse failed."</comment>


My Dad Hacks for a Higher Cause - <AUTHOR> http://davewaldman.com/2010/06/14/dads-contraption/

<comment><USER2> I've been trying to improve the computer experience of an over 80 year old relative suffering from age related macular degeneration. To make a long story short, 2 factors ruined my attempts so far: strong habits and poor technology.

This person's needs are simple: email and text editing. But going away from her Windows XP / Outlook Express failed: she felt lost. And within this technology hole, not much can be done because it's amazingly un-hackable. Everything is designed for people who see things: popups of all kinds, menus, convoluted placements. I gave her a magnifier and voice synthesis. Better than nothing but very inadequate to her needs. Even closing a window is still a pain for her.

Dream: And yet I know her computer could manage her phone book and compose numbers for her, for instance. And so many other things that could lighten her daily life can be envisioned. Even play scrabble or other games she enjoys would be better on a speaking computer, and more enjoyable with online opponents.

Much could be done, even from a startup point of view. But for now I'm running out of hope especially because it's so hard to engage old people to new things.

<comment><USER3> When my mother goes on retirement next year she wan't to learn how to use a computer properly. She know how to use mail but besides that she is completely lost and even that is problematic for her.

My plan is the following:

Buy a touch tablet with a one button design (not necessarily an iPad although that would probably be a good bet)

This is to minimize abstraction (touch the item instead of using the mouse)

And to minimize choice (if anything goes wrong you can always click on the big button in the bottom) It's the panic button.

Throw pictures of her grandson and family on it and show her how she can always have those with her. That way she will get an infinity towards the machine because it now consist of familiar faces and she loves to look at her grandson.

Preload a bunch of sites that I know she is going to use a lot. One of them is going to be a picture site that will have regularly updated pictures.

Send her an email every-time it's updated. Send her an SMS to tell her they are there.

Don't know if it's going to work, but I am looking forward to the experiment :)

<comment><USER4> I'm in a similar position with a computer illiterate mom going on retirement.

Showing her high resolution pictures and videos of my first newborn little girl via email got her attention and a load of incitament to learn at least how to email/surf.

Her internet provider also sends her an SMS automatically when she get's an email, and then she rush to the computer to fire it up and read the mail to check out the pictures.

On a downside I now recieve nagging emails like "It was long ago I got pictures of my grandchild!" ;)

<comment><USER5> Incitement is everything. 10 year ago my mother was very reluctant to do anything other than type and print on the computer. Then, when I was going on high school exchange one and a half continent over, and said I wasn't going to plan my life around being close to a phone for the few hours a day when timezones lined up, but I'd be sure to check my mail, she learned in a weekend and haven't let go for a second since.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This article definitely made me stop and think; my grandfather passed a couple months ago, and suffered from AMD for the last couple years of his life.

He had always been a fan of crosswords, and for a while my mother had been bringing over hand-copied crossword puzzles that she had enlarged to a point where he could see them. He also was having a hard time being able to see his watch anymore, but his hearing was too hard for him to make out what came out of those "talking" watches.

We had gotten him a 47" HDTV a year ago, and for a long time he was overjoyed by how much more of it he could see. I never would've thought to connect a Flip camcorder to his TV and see if it helped him read much, put his arm under it to see the watch, or work a crossword puzzle.

Impressive!</comment>


How the First World War Transformed Art - <AUTHOR> https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/art-design/2018/08/after-bullets-brushes-how-first-world-war-transformed-art <comment><USER2> Fascinating to see Vorticism spring up here of all places, even among most of the artists I interact with it's a minor footnote if even known at all. But Vorticism holds a special place in my heart with it's call to action simply for changes sake, emphasis on harsh polarisation and focus on the tensions of the past coming to fruition. Hell, the first 10 pages or so of BLAST is the group cursing the wrongs of various things with a focus on the humdrum British lifestyle and loving that snazzy new dazzle camoflauge.

I'm just going to transcribe the first of the seven part portion of the manifesto here.

"[1] Beyond Action and Reaction we would establish ourselves.

[2] We start from opposite statements of a chosen world. Set up violent structure of adolescent clearness between two extremes.

[3] We discharge ourselves on both sides.

[4] We fight first on one side, then on the other, but always for the SAME cause, which is neither side or both sides and ours.

[5] Mercenaries were always the best troops.

[6] We are Primitive Mercenaries in the Modern World

[7] Our Cause is NO-MANS.

[8] We set Humour at Humour's throat. Stir up Civil War among peaceful apes.

[9] We only want Humour if it has fought like Tragedy.

[10] We only want Tragedy if it can clench its side-muscles like hands on it's belly, and bring to the surface a laugh like a bomb."

Even as the war dragged on Lewis' work as a war painter would inform his works. Take a look at earlier Vorticist works and compared it to "A Battery Shelled", they're less abstract once the concrete reality of the trenches had affected the artists. It's an interesting shift that others involved or near the movement would mirror, a brief expenditure of energy followed by a burning out and attempt to return to normalcy. It's a shame Vorticism was such a small and short lived movement, but what can you do when a good number of your artists were jumping to join the fight and promptly got themselves killed like Brezeska? At least we can still get high on Pounds work and whatever was scrounged together to be documented (and not left in the back of a taxicab).

If you're looking for a good read please give BLAST and BLAST: War Number a read, they are truly amazing and underappreciated works and you may find something to take away from it. I'm extremely grateful to have picked up this particular dusty book from the middle of the stacks in Canada.

"A Battery Shelled": [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Lewis%2C_Perc...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Lewis%2C_Percy_Wyndham_- _A_Battery_Shelled_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)

"Blast (PDF link)": [https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1143209523824858.pdf](https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1143209523824858.pdf)

"Blast: War Number": [https://monoskop.org/images/c/c1/Blast_2.pdf](https://monoskop.org/images/c/c1/Blast_2.pdf)

"Enemy Of The Stars (2015/200 views)": [https://vimeo.com/129298317](https://vimeo.com/129298317)

<comment><USER3> I absolutely love vorticism. I produce new editions of classic books for Standard Ebooks and used vorticist artists for cover art a couple of times recently: Edward Wadworth's Rotterdam for Edwin Abbott's Flatland[1] and Paul Nash's The Ypres Salient at Night for a collection of Wilfred Owen's poetry[2]. As well as reading BLAST (which one really should do), there's a compilation of art called "War Paintings & Drawings"[3] produced by the UK government that has some prime examples of less abstract vorticist paintings.

[1] [https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/?query=flatland](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/?query=flatland)

[2] [https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/?query=wilfred+owen](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/?query=wilfred+owen)

[3] [https://archive.org/details/warpaintingsdraw00grea_0](https://archive.org/details/warpaintingsdraw00grea_0)

(I'm also super-jealous that you found a physical copy of BLAST!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was only vaguely aware of Vorticism before reading this, and I was amazed at the look at their short lived 1914-1915 journal BLAST -- the cover art and even the typography are rather reminiscent of modern counter-cultural "zines".</comment>


Facebook hires one of its biggest privacy critics to oversee WhatsApp privacy - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/facebook-hires-nate-cardozo-eff-privacy-critic-for-whatsapp-privacy.html <comment><USER2> That's one way to put it.

Another way to put it is that they bribed the critic with hush money.

Unless his employment is not tied to an NDA (highly improbable), even if Nate thinks they are acting genuine, this could just be a move from the top to shut him up.

<comment><USER3> Even if he doesn't have a NDA it's still a direct conflict on interest at the very least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting, they've removed the critic and made him an ally. It's smart for them! It sux for everyone else. Even if the critic is tough, they have removed him from constantly stirring controversy. They are probably paying him very well.

</comment><comment><USER5> One the face of it, this is the most mature gesture out of a corporation in recent memory.

<comment><USER2> But it's facebook, so I'd guess this misdirection from the privacy-defeating measures they've also added.

<comment><USER5> I don't trust them either, but the move itself is impressive.</comment></comment></comment>


PostgreSQL Begins Landing LLVM JIT Support for Faster Performance - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PostgreSQL-LLVM-JIT-Landing <comment><USER2> I'm working on this. The summary at Phoronix isn't really accurate. The presentation linked is about a different effort to integrate JIT into postgres.

> "JIT-compiling expressions for PostgreSQL has been found to be up to ~20%+ > faster in database tests like TPC-H."

It's more for some queries (2.2X for Q01), less for others.

> Creating indexes was found to be even 5~19% faster with this JIT mode. > Overall, quite promising improvements. "

There's no JITing done during CREATE INDEX atm. That'd be very worthwhile to do, but I just don't have the cycles to get it done for v11.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> slide:

JITing PostgreSQL using LLVM ( by Andres Freund, 2018-02-03 )

[http://anarazel.de/talks/fosdem-2018-02-03/jit.pdf](http://anarazel.de/talks/fosdem-2018-02-03/jit.pdf)</comment>


Why We Should Stop Grading Students on a Curve - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/why-we-should-stop-grading-students-on-a-curve.html?src=me <comment><USER2> I never under stood grades or raises using a curve.

1 your sample size is too small. 2 promotes competition instead of collaboration

Now I get raises at the company level are limited by a budget but pushing that down to the team level seems ludicrous.</comment>


Why Tumblr Porn Is Great for Women - <AUTHOR> http://testkitchen.huffingtonpost.com/tumblr-porn/greatforwomen/ <comment><USER2> I wondered about the url testkitchen.huffingtonpost.com and after reading the article I know why. This lone article has 4 different page feels to it. It's like the web designer had spent the day on HN, found all these cool new designs they wanted to try and mashed them into one site.

On the upside I have a new page to add to my class examples of "what not to do" on a web page.</comment>


Tips for reading new code bases - <AUTHOR> https://blog.safia.rocks/post/170269021619/tips-for-reading-new-codebases <comment><USER2> Past, extensive HN discussions on the topic:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9784008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9784008)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11197822](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11197822)</comment>


How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer? - <AUTHOR> (Ok, take two without attachment) Hi, I'm a self-taught, 39 year old Python web/database coder, now looking to get into a full time position after 8 years of freelancing. My problem (I think?) is that I'm not what is considered a catch to the stereotypical founder: no CS degree, been working on regular Python+SQL projects, not young. I know I'm competent, I've been inhaling CS and coding books for years and have taught myself some tricky stuff like microcontroller assembly and real-time audio/midi app development in C.  But maybe I don't know how to properly present myself to people who might be interested in someone like me, or know who those people might be. I hope there are some companies who are actually impressed that someone has had to do all the running-a-business stuff in addition to coding, and has experience being completely responsible for the clients and the bottom line? Any one have thoughts on what kind of places those might be or what to stress in applying? <comment><USER2> I went through this in 2009. What I found was that no one cared about my degree (also non-CS), but a lot of companies were incredibly hesitant to hire me _because_ of my business experience. I got questions like, "After being your own boss, why would you ever want to work for someone else?" and "How do I know you're not just going to quit in a year and start another company?"*

I rewrote my resume to emphasize my experience as a developer and downplay my experience as a founder, and that was what ultimately got me a job. You want to be truthful on your resume, but you also have to present yourself as someone who is a logical fit for the position being offered.

* It took two years.

</comment><comment><USER3> I feel your pain, I'm in a similar position. I just turned 40, have experience in PHP, Rails, lots Javascript (including Backbone, Knockout, a bit of Angular and learning Ember now), a bit of Python and learning Scala. No degree, and most of what I've worked on were internal corporate tools or start-ups that are no longer around.

I've been building out sample apps in newer Javascript frameworks so that along with learning the newer stuff, I have something in my portfolio that I can point too.

What I've found in my interviewing is that the biggest concern people have is that I'll stick around for a few months to a year and then move on, it wasn't until an interview last week that I explained to the CEO that the work I'd been doing was always project work, I didn't regularly just pick-up and leave jobs. He wanted me to work for 60 days without pay so he could be sure that I wouldn't leave without giving 60 days notice.

I'm in Sydney, Australia, and need full-time work to keep my visa or else have to go back to Canada. Where are you based?

<comment><USER4> _He wanted me to work for 60 days without pay_

Run.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you've got a reasonable amount of Python experience you shouldn't have any trouble going from freelance to permie, just apply for regular python roles (assuming that's what you want). You might want to be upfront about salary expectations because permie places might think you're likely to be expensive because you've been freelancing.

</comment><comment><USER6> I interview a lot of people. My experience is that people with degrees are better are a little better at algorithms and they know big-O complexity. People without degrees hate it when I ask big-O complexity problems.

However, I think the programming ability is something that's gained by doing and not by studying. I think the programming abilities, knowing how to debug, the languages, the IDEs, the people that know this well, are the ones who are passionate about programming.

If I interviewed you, I would ask you some basic Python questions. I would make you code and solve some simple algorithm questions. I would also ask you some SQL questions. I would expect that you could write a SQL statement that does a join, a group by, uses a having clause.

If you can demonstrate this knowledge in an interview that's awesome! If the interview doesn't go well, don't worry too much about it. Try to learn what you didn't do well on, then try again.

</comment><comment><USER7> I have issues that are similar. I am 35 and have been doing freelancing/contract work for a lot of years. So I think actually this last contract might have hired me but they used the fact that I had been freelancing and knew that I would take a contract instead against me. Not because they didn't want my help, but because they knew they didn't actually have to hire me to get me to work for them, and so wouldn't need to bother with health benefits or a hiring committee or anything.

</comment><comment><USER8> People here told me that I could make money by teaching myself some code. After seeing a lot of these posts, I am really starting to doubt it. You have so much experience, expertise, and you're a successful freelancer. And you have to ask about jobs? What am I getting myself into... I am 31, I might as well go try to be a professional golfer or something else hilariously impossible. Seriously, I think my life is going to be over soon. There is nothing I can do.

<comment><USER9> I feel you tanbo. I've been teaching myself and considering a career change through one of the bootcamps. Always makes me wonder how I'm going to suddenly become more employable than someone with years of experience. Haven't quite figured this one out.

<comment><USER10> > How I'm going to suddenly become more employable than someone with years of > experience. Haven't quite figured this one out.

Well, you'll be asking for lower salaries than them for a few years, so that'll help. :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What projects have you worked on during your freelancing? Is there some tool out there that you made? Have you fixed a bug somewhere? People usually don't just want to hear "I can do xyz" they want to see stuff. Remember Feross Aboukhadijeh who created youtube instant [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Instant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Instant) , he was offered a job by youtube CEO not long after.

</comment><comment><USER12> I would advise you learn some cutting edge tech, become good at that, and then people will be begging you for work.

<comment><USER13> Any example?</comment></comment>


Making Long-Distance Business Partnerships Work - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/smallbusiness/24sbiz.html?_r=3&ref=smallbusiness&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

<comment><USER2> It has worked well for me. 8 years ago I met a Russian guy in a forum and we've created several products together and been reasonably (though not stratospheric) successful. We only met, for the first time, two years ago. Sometimes it comes down to gut instinct, even thousands of miles away. We couldn't do it without the technology, but it works really well with it.

One interesting point is that we get on better remotely than I ever think we would if we were in each others faces day-in-day-out

</comment><comment><USER3> Ben - congrats on the NYTimes coverage!

After seeing your iChat video + Trac setup working at your co-working space, I went looking for a collaboration setup for our remote team (Trac just never did it for me.)

We've settled on Google wiki + Lighthouse integrated with GitHub. We're also testing Campfire for "watercooler" team chat (when IM isn't necessary)

<http://sites.google.com>

</comment><comment><USER4> we have to do long-distance at my own organization so I found this interesting.

</comment><comment><USER5> this is an awesome article</comment>


Fourtones - play Songs to learn Chinese characters - <AUTHOR> http://fourtones.com

<comment><USER2> "You must sign up with Google Chrome" ?

Note: seems to be unreachable from China itself

<comment><AUTHOR> China basically blocks anything the mentions the word China/Chinese so unless your server is in China your site is going to get blocked. Even if it doesn't get blocked it's going to be too slow to use so if you are serious about supporting Chinese users then you have to setup shop in the mainland. Yup, Chrome. This website was made by 1 person, it relies heavily on javascript apis that are only in HTML5 spec ; we do plan to support other modern browsers at some point but Chrome is the 1st choice for us.</comment></comment>


How Gin Became the Meth of 18th Century England - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/30/how-gin-became-the-meth-of-18th-century-england.html <comment><USER2> Actually, after first getting to really know gin at 37, I did some research and found this great article: [http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Mothers- Ruin/](http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Mothers-Ruin/)

Introducing me to the works of William Hogarth (see linked article). I was very surprised that it actually was the Dutch that introduced gin in the UK ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin) ). Funny, I like gin more than I like 'our own' 'jenever'. It's a great drink, neat or otherwise. I understand how this could have caused all this mayhem way back.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the comment! Aside from providing me with a fascinating article, it finally solves my uncertainty about 'jenever' being linked to 'gin'. I've been trying to explain what it was to my expat friends, and gin is something they understand.

(still can't get them to enjoy raw herring though, which is traditionally paired with gin, especially when the new catch, Hollandse Nieuwe, is in...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> No mention of how British colonials were drinking it to cover up the awful taste of quinine, taken to combat malaria.

<comment><USER5> That just sounds like an excuse to drink gin. Disclosure: I like the taste of Indian tonic water

<comment><USER6> Your genes actually play a large role in how you perceive the taste of quinine [http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/quinine](http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/quinine)

<comment><USER7> There's a Surprisingly Awesome episode about Broccoli and part of it is about genetic taste preferences and some people taste quinine in it. Very interesting episode:

[https://gimletmedia.com/episode/6-broccoli/](https://gimletmedia.com/episode/6-broccoli/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article didn't really say anything interesting. Is there a better article or even book about the gin craze and its effects? Is this just clickbait spam?

<comment><USER9> _Gin: A Global History_ covers it some, though that's not the main topic of the book. [http://www.amazon.com/Gin-Global-History-Reaktion- Edible/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Gin-Global-History-Reaktion- Edible/dp/1861899246)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm surprised they discussed gin in 18th Century England without mentioning Hogarth. He drew some great images of the chaos that gin caused: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane)

<comment><USER11> They did mention him.

<comment><USER10> Ooops.</comment></comment></comment>


PDP-11 Booting - <AUTHOR> http://trmm.net/PDP-11/Booting <comment><USER2> I had an LSI-11. It was a real sweet machine. DEC completely missed the micro revolution - they could have owned it. So sad.

<comment><USER3> They tried. Remember the DECMate and Rainbow and all those? Our school taught us MACRO-11, pre-standard C, RSX-11, and Pascal on them. They aimed at the small office and word processor crowd but were poorly marketed. They included such dirty tricks as putting glue in the peripheral card slots of cheaper models, to differentiate the expensive models.

[http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=468](http://www.old- computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=468)

<comment><USER4> As I recall, DEC didn't like the idea of people formatting their own floppy disks, either, and didn't supply a FORMAT utility, even with the version of MS-DOS shipped with the Rainbow. The idea was that you were supposed to buy preformatted disks from DEC instead. A major exception was that the Heathkit H-11 (an LSI-11/23 in Heathkit form) actually could format floppies under HT-11, its variant of RT-11.

So much potential, and they blew it all on petty BS like that.

<comment><USER5> It's easy enough to see the mistakes of yesteryear in hindsight but there is plenty of similar behaviour today.

Everybody that sells objects really yearns for a subscription model and everybody that sells objects through a subscription model would like to have a subscription based service model, and failing that they'd like some advertising money to go with their other offerings. And some companies want all of those at the same time.

<comment><USER2> Hindsight? Everyone knew that floppy thing was a mistake the moment it was unveiled. People actually laughed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you find getting a real PDP-11 too much trouble, consider using the SIMH emulator:

[http://simh.trailing-edge.com](http://simh.trailing-edge.com)

SIMH does lack the visceral appeal of putting your hands on the console though...

</comment><comment><USER7> Isn't this cheating? I thought the bootloader was supposed to be input in using the toggle switches or keypad, and only then can you boot off paper tape. Lazy kids these days.

<comment><USER8> The old DG Nova S/330s had switches, I recall, though the only ones I ever dealt with booted from disk or magnetic tape.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Oh man, that 4th-to-last picture fills me with happiness. So old school. Is that the drive head? Love the Vernier scale made out of PCBs. And the big-ass cast iron parts. And the 1/4"-20 socket head bolts. And the ultra-sparse through-hole PCB in the background. That picture made me so happy. Wish I had been around back in the day to program one of the old machines.

</comment><comment><USER10> That's not how I remember it, somewhere you have to (occasionally because it's real core) toggle in the bootstrap using the front panel switches .....

<comment><USER11> Is it possible you're thinking of the PDP-8? The PDP-11 didn't have switches; it had a keypad (shown around halfway down the page), and could also have a boot ROM (present on this machine).

<comment><USER4> Some -11s (like the 11/20, 11/35, 11/45, and 11/70) had toggle switch front panels. The 11/34 had the octal keyboard, and some systems like the 11/44 didn't have much more than a power switch.

My high school, back in the day, had an 11/34 running RSTS/E with a bunch of terminals hanging off it. Our classes taught BASIC-PLUS and COBOL (actually WATBOL), but no assembler.

The biggest irony? Back in 1980, my teacher was warning us about Year 2000 issues. Some years back, when I got a RSTS/E 7.0 system (the version that my high school had) running on SIMH, I discovered that 7.0 wasn't Y2K compliant!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting to see the origin of the UNIX "unmount" command being an actual physical operation.

</comment><comment><USER13> It is the machine operated by the guy recruited by Travolta in "Swordfish" in that fancy way, with that casual scene of Halle Berry and a hacker named Torvalds; what a salad.</comment>


Is Sending Text Reminders Behavioral Economics? - <AUTHOR> https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-the-status-quo/201911/is-sending-text-reminders-behavioral-economics <comment><USER2> Is running regressions machine learning?

<comment><USER3> I'd actually say yes to that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Everything that's cool gets diluted and repackaged. Perhaps there's something like euphemism treadmill when whatever could work as a marketing term gets that treatment until it means nothing like the original.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's a clickbait-and-switch headline, here's the subheading:

> Due to some bait-and-switch, the label is increasingly losing its meaning.</comment>


The Polyamorous Christian Socialist Utopia That Made Silverware - <AUTHOR> http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-polyamorous-christian-socialist-utopia-that-made-silverware-for-proper-americans/ <comment><USER2> For what appears to be such a well researched article, the author completely gets the theology of Methodists and Baptists wrong. Not only does he do a poor job of trying to explain Arminianism, and he associates it with Baptists, which it isn't, but he says the Baptists and Methodists originated as part of the Second Great Awakening they both predate it by a century or more. Also I have never even heard of "perfectionism" and a quick google/wikipedia of it turns up no reference other then to this specific cult. As a clarification Puritan and Calvinist theology would hold to the "sainthood of the believer" which appears to be identical to the idea of Perfectionism raised in this article.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't put it quite so starkly as "completely... wrong". It was a jumbled time for the movements and sects of Protestantism.

Perfectionism was a valid strain of Methodism, see Wesley's sermon: [http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/John-Wesley- Sermons...](http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/John-Wesley- Sermons/Sermon-40-Christian-Perfection). There are PhD's thesis I could point you to if interested (look through Notre Dame's archives).

Sainthood of the believer is a bit different from perfectionism, as perfectionism was the final stage of the christian journey in some strains of Methodism (vs. the predestined state).... but it all got a little messy in that era.

Regarding that it's true both baptists and methodists originated well before the 2nd great awakening, but both certainly saw big growth due to it.

All of that fun history stuff aside, the Oneida Community was clearly off in terms of normal Christianity theology and practice (and the article points to many examples of poor discernment). They made a nice brand of silverware though!

<comment><USER4> "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." -Matthew 5:48

<comment><USER5> It's actually pretty rare among Christians to believe that this implies that ceasing sinning is possible. The Nazarene denomination is really the only notable group that believes that today.

The more common understanding is that lines like this are meant to drive to despair ("Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" -Romans 7:24) anyone who thinks they're getting close to perfect obedience. Only the perfect obedience of someone else (Christ himself being the only one fitting that description) is suitable to reach glory.

<comment><USER6> > The Nazarene denomination is really the only notable group that believes > that today.

At least not entirely correct. The group I belong to considers this important. We are only a few thousand though.

<comment><USER2> What group would that be if you don't mind sharing ?

<comment><USER6> Not here to advertise or linkspam so, using rot13, here is the website:

uggc://npgvirpuevfgvnavgl.bet/

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I just read a great book called Paradise Now about 5 different Utopian movements in the US, Oneida being one of them. It seems the most successful colonies blended business savvy with a coherent set of values and cultivated familial closeness. Capitalist individualism obviously dominated the 20th century, but I can imagine a tech-focused system of common ownership making a comeback.

[https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Now-Story-American- Utopianis...](https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Now-Story-American- Utopianism/dp/0812993705/ref=sr_1_3)

<comment><USER8> But isn't the common thread that all of these groups ultimately failed?

<comment><USER9> Capitalist individualism will ultimately fail too. Nothing lasts forever.

<comment><USER8> Care to elaborate?

Most of these cults/communes don't make it past the first decade. The longest lasting ones rarely make it past a century.

So far "capitalist individualism" seems to have a better track record than that.

<comment><USER10> Capitalism, when not regulated, tends to increase inequality. This will, eventually, lead to instability and a societal reset.

<comment><USER8> Capitalism doesn't need to be perfect in order to be a better system for organizing a society than communism.

<comment><USER10> OTOH, communism doesn't need to be perfect to be better than unregulated capitalism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Whatever else they did, the Oneida Community certainly created a lasting brand. I bought this $13 santoku knife at Safeway 6-7 years ago, and it's still going strong:

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Q8TXFA](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Q8TXFA)

Easily as good quality as some of my much more expensive knives.

Of course the brand has been sold, and it's probably just a label on products they import from wherever, but _somebody_ is paying attention to quality and value - and I appreciate that!

</comment><comment><USER12> I keep seeing the assumption, that anything that ceases to exists is a failiure. I feel that this could not be further from the truth. Perhaps the members were happy for a time and then died. Just because a woman ceases to be beautiful with age does not mean she was never beautiful at all. Go make some mandalas people [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala) !

</comment><comment><USER13> This is one of my favorite stories that hardly anybody knows about. I actually did consulting for Oneida briefly a long time ago, and I don't think anybody there had a clue that it was started by a communist sex cult.

<comment><USER14> Really? I live ~20 miles away, and it's pretty common knowledge here...

<comment><USER15> Likely the people that work for Oneida aren't going to get into the Commie Christian Sex Cult origins with a random contractor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The Mansion House is really lovely building that has been well kept up. It's a popular field trip destination for local schools.

You can stay there: [http://www.oneidacommunity.org/lodging-rentals/overnight- gue...](http://www.oneidacommunity.org/lodging-rentals/overnight-guest-rooms) (they even have several apartments they rent out)

</comment><comment><USER16> This is a fascinating read. What I got from this is it's important for men to be laid regularly or there is a risk they will go and form a cult cum commune in a 100 year experiment that always ends badly.

How many women have formed cults? They are not as driven by sex, and cults seem to be closely connected to sex, either the embrace of it in some way that is against current convention or the puritanical rejection of it.

And thank god for the invention of the the condom. In perspective it has to be the most important human invention in 2000 years finally freeing women from the risk of childbirth or disease for every encounter. I think this in many ways fundamentally changed the evolution of our social structures.

<comment><USER17> the condom doesnt stop the spread of all stds or diseases.

but it is still better than nothing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This commune was also home to Charles Guiteau for a time, the man who later assassinated President Garfield: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Guiteau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Guiteau)

<comment><USER19> And he was such a strange kind of loser that none of the women wanted anything to do with him and he was kicked out. Twice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The Met has on display furniture designed and manufactured by members of the Shaker Community

[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shak/hd_shak.htm](http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shak/hd_shak.htm)

</comment><comment><USER21> Alice Stockham was influenced a lot by the Oneida Method when formulating the Karezza practice: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Bunker_Stockham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Bunker_Stockham)

For an in-depth history of Oneida-like continence in the West, I recommend this book by Arthur Versluis: [https://www.innertraditions.com/the-secret- history-of-wester...](https://www.innertraditions.com/the-secret-history-of- western-sexual-mysticism.html)

</comment><comment> aaron-lebo Interesting how Mormonism came out of the same area at the same time. Were any other religions or cults part of that tent revivalism culture? I thought JW's but that's further south and a few decades later.

<comment><USER22> That part of NY State was called the 'Burned-over district' because "the area had been so heavily evangelized as to have no 'fuel' (unconverted population) left over to 'burn' (convert)". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned- over_district](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned-over_district)

<comment><USER23> I read a theory once that the religious fervor may have also been fueled by upstate New York's notoriously terrible weather. It certainly encourages some prayer for sunlight! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I noticed that in the first picture in the article, the woman in the front- centre and the two women on the right appear to have no feet or lower legs. It doesn't seem be due to the length of the grass because the shoes of men nearby are visible. Also, the trousers worn by the woman standing sideways in the centre don't look wide enough to conceal her feet.

Anyone know an explanation?

<comment><USER14> I think it's a combination of the pants legs being a bit wider than you think, and the grass being a bit taller than you think. I can assure you the Oneida Community had no bizarre foot amputation practice...

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I love how many oxymorons there are in that title... "polyamorous Christian", "Christian socialist", "socialist utopia", "polyamorous utopia"

<comment><USER14> What's wrong with "Christian socialist"? While we have conflated (evangelical) Christianity with right-wing politics in the US, that is far from universal.

Most of the Christian churches described in the Bible are, in many ways, socialist communes.

<comment><USER26> And in many ways that is how the early Church started. It provided social services that the failing states of the time could not.</comment></comment></comment>


Elementary OS Freya Released - <AUTHOR> http://elementary.io <comment><USER3> Talk about a terribly designed website. If someone had no idea what Elementary OS is, the website does absolutely nothing to tell them. No list of even basic features. No explanation of compatibility or how to install it. Only a single screenshot. Why is this the case?

<comment><USER4> elementary OS have a similar mentality to the Vivaldi browser -- it's just for our friends.

Despite leading with donation panhandling.

Still, I'm using it now because I am tired of Slackware. I love Slack to bits but the amount of work involved in making my setup look and play nice is just silly. I'm looking for something like a one-click-pretty-usable Linux for random laptops/PCs I've accumulated.

PapyrOS might be nice if it's ever finished.

<comment><USER5> I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but if you really, honestly want a no- frills, easy to set up UNIX for your _personal_ computer, there really is no better machine than a Macintosh.

<comment><USER4> I agree. I have an iMac and a Thinkpad; I classify these as my work computers. I really like OS X. It blends the Unix operating system with the best looks/UI of the OS market. If I could install it (easily/legally) on any hardware, I would run it everywhere.

At home I have a collection of misfit laptops that were discarded by others or sold very cheaply. It is these laptops on which I tend to run a Linux distro (because Windows tends to be slow and no SSH; because I'm not really in the business of Hackintoshing.)

Running eOS Freya on one of them now. It's not bad. Wifi seems a bit temperamental--which is astounding given that eOS is based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu had no trouble with wifi.

<comment><USER5> > If I could install it (easily/legally) on any hardware, I would run it > everywhere.

That's why I said _personal_ computer :) Another OS X pitfall is that modern, vendor-supported versions are somewhat resource-intensive and not very fit for running on older or less powerful systems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It really saddens me how much people underestimate the effort it takes to create a good UI by saying eOS is just a "pretty Ubuntu clone".

I don't think their blog post[1] is offensive at all. Ubuntu does this too. [2]

People consider Sublime's popup and "unregistered user" acceptable. How often do you install/download eOS? Once in a year? And you use it __every-day __, not only when you do text-editing. And there is no difference between paid or free user.

[1]: [http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments](http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments) [2]: [http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=1...](http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=14.04.2&architecture=amd64)

<comment><USER7> Yes, elementary have put in a huge amount of work to produce an excellent product, and a major step towards where Linux needs to be to attract non technical users, and it is disappointing that so many people seem to be willing to throw them and their years of work under the bus for what amounts to poorly chosen wording.

On the substance rather than the wording, surely Hacker News does not agree, as a group, that open source software should never be monetized, especially on a voluntary basis. They have rewritten the Linux desktop environment from scratch, which is an enormous amount of work, and in my experience it works very well. Why not expect that you could find 10,000 users, many of whom people spending their professional life on computers, willing to pay $20 (which in the UK is about 4 cups of coffee), and actually be able to support some developers working on the project full time? That is not at all an unreasonable goal.

I know about 20 people over the age of 70 who I periodically help with computer problems, I would say about half of them still using XP on computers that cannot be upgraded to Windows 8. They principally use their computers for checking webmail and browsing the internet.

I have tried Ubuntu, but unfortunately it has all sorts of minor UI ruffles which make it difficult for many non-technical people to use. Some examples are: people really struggle to use its pop-up scroll bars, partly because the concept is apparently non obvious, and needs to be explained, and partly because they're fiddly. Then, programs often open in the background, and don't come to the front, so the only sign they're ready is an illuminated icon to the left. And, you get regular pop-up which say 'serious system error detected' which never seem to amount to anything.

And in general, I would say my experience is that it is not beautiful, polished or consistent enough to justify to non technical users the change in user interface which it asks them to make.

Linux is effectively a developer market, it is written by and for developers, to stratch and itch or for infrastructure. But there has been a consistent failure to produce an operating system that ordinary people want to use. In my opinion, Linux also needs a consumer market, which is willing to pay to bring in other professionals, principally designers, and support them in polishing the user interface, in the way that users want, to a heavy sheen. Elementary OS was a step in that direction, and it's very disappointing to see it apparently shot down for a lack of ideological purity and/or just being abrasive. Hopefully, despite the level of outrage which many people feel, they will be able to find their 10,000 users out of the general Linux community, and carry on regardless.

<comment><USER8> I went through this entire HN thread and the only complaint is that the website has no information and something like this:

> They have rewritten the Linux desktop environment from scratch

is entirely not communicated on their homepage.

People here are not familiar with the work that they've done. And I don't blame them. In the software world being able to market/communicate your work to the public is as important as actually doing the work.

I've been in plenty of threads on HN recently where people have praised the work on Gnome for improving Linux desktop usability/design (after some initial hiccups). Gnome releases videos like this that clearly demonstrate what they are adding:

3.16 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRLa5hTGkg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRLa5hTGkg)

3.14 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8Prlu3owc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8Prlu3owc)

Elementary OS should have similar information for their release.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is no upgrade path from OS Luna (previous release) to Freya. Their own web site states, "elementary OS Luna users should back up their data and perform a clean install". Given that the operating system is built on Ubuntu I should be able to upgrade from Luna to Freya without too many issues.

Disappointed? Yes. I wrote this post on my Cr-48 running Elementary OS Luna. Instead of running Apt to update my laptop now I'm browsing DistroWatch in another tab to see what else has come out.

<comment><USER10> You can install Pantheon(the eOS DE) on other distros if you want, though you'll have to put in the time and effort to get it to work and configure it.

[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pantheon](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pantheon)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Only negativity in this thread. You're being offered a desktop environment for free, and all you can do is point out its problems.

I think it looks pretty slick, and will give it a try, why are people so nitpicky here?

<comment><USER12> It's things like [1] that really irk me. Yes, they're working 'hard', yes they deserve compensation, no, there isn't any license conflicts (that I'm aware of) that would make selling eOS illegal, it's the fact that they wrote this justification to make you feel like a thief.

Really, it's just an ubuntu clone with a pretty osx-like gui. This isn't really anything amazing or new, and it makes it seem like they're trying to tap into the elitist osx market. If that is indeed what they want, they should really check out [2]

So it's not really the software that's bad, really it's all what you can get on any other distro with a little work, it's their attitude about it.

[1] [http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments](http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments) [2] [http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/](http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/)

<comment><USER13> > tap into the elitist osx market

I think it would be more accurate to say that they are trying to _expand the Linux market_ by wooing those whose main barrier to using Linux is the UI/UX. Whether or not you find the endeavor to be "noble", the attempt is worth _something_ to the Linux landscape even if your takeaway is "don't run it quite like them".

<comment><USER12> Well whatever it they're doing guilt tripping people into giving them money for something that's free everywhere else isn't helping.

<comment><USER14> Woa. Wait a minute. They're merely asking for a donation, which can be set to zero. What's the issue with that? This entitled attitude is what irks me about the OSS movement at large. To a larger extent it puts me and people like me off of open source. More projects should take this approach. I thought that it's free as in Liberty, not as in ride. That's what we're constantly told.

<comment><USER12> > We want users to understand that they're pretty much cheating the system > when they choose not to pay for software.

[http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments](http://blog.elementary.io/post/110645528530/payments)

No, their clone can bitrot, they deserve it.

<comment><USER14> Wow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > open replacement for Windows and OS X

It sounds like promising a lot. So after confirming the suspicion of it not being something that would actually allow to run some essential software we still don't have replacements for (AutoCad, Native Instruments stuff, Ableton Live, etc.), but simply _yet another Linux distro with custom DE_ I wonder if this lack of information on the website is on purpose.

<comment><USER10> > So after confirming the suspicion of it not being something that would > actually allow to run some essential software we still don't have > replacements for (AutoCad, Native Instruments stuff, Ableton Live, etc.), > but simply yet another Linux distro with custom DE

What? You actually expected somebody to come up with a whole new OS that runs software written for another _proprietary_ , closed source OS?

eOS is a replacement for those users who want to browse the web, read email, watch videos and look at photographs. These people are its target demographic, not professionals who rely on specialized software to do their job.

<comment><USER15> You might want to pay attention to the word "confirming" so you would feel more relaxed about other's expectations.

> eOS is a replacement for those <..>

I would argue that for that matter it isn't a "replacement" whatsoever. If you are somebody capable of suddenly finding eOS on the internet and understanding what this thing actually is — there's a ton of "fast and open replacements" for you already. (Except, well, they are not "replacements" because they do not fulfill everything you might want to do with mentioned operating systems. But whatever.) If not — you don't even really care if you "pay" for your OS, because you're using the one that came pre-installed on your laptop, without thinking much how much money you spend on the processor, on the RAM, on the OS… it's just a "computer", you paid what you were asked for that. Nd if you would, it doesn't matter because, well, why would it matter if you want to use something you don't event know it exists?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For those wanting a little more substance, here's the blog post announcing Freya:

[http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is- here](http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is-here)

</comment><comment><USER17> Some really vindictive and nasty comments on here, it's just a linux distro!

One thing that concerns me is the upgrade path, it mentions in their docs that if you are using a previous version of the OS, you need to back up your data and reinstall.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is the distro GNU/Linux needed in 2009. I used to be a big fan, but these days I can't help but feel they are off the mark by focusing on so heavily on creating a "beautiful" 00's desktop environment when the rest of the world has moved on to new form factors, touch screens, tight coupling with cloud services, and automatic backup and recovery options.

That said, I do like the enhancements they have made to some of the 'classic' native apps (Geary is a great email client, Maya calendar works well, and I really like the shell history search baked into the Pantheon Terminal UI). Here's to hoping this release forms the foundation that allows them to tackle some of the sticking points above in the future.

<comment><USER7> I haven't used it yet, but I think this will have greater integration with online accounts, a single place to enter email accounts, calendar accounts etc which works across the system and so on.

I'm not sure about touch screens, I think most people view them as optional extras. And although of course people are shifting towards other form factors, huge numbers still use a desktop or laptop, and have no expectation of convergence between the devices.

I agree about automatic backup. I actually wonder whether that might be a route towards monetization which would be more palatable to the general community - an edition which is provided free with donations as is, and an edition which has automatic cloud backup built in, along with integration with Android and iOS devices for things like photos.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Does anyone else see a problem that they want you to input all your CC details but does not have HTTPS on by default?

<comment><USER20> thats handled by stripe..

<comment><USER21> It doesn't matter who it's handled by, the fact is that credit card numbers are being transferred over regular, non-encrypted HTTP.

<comment><USER22> Actually, it does matter.

The webpage might be http, but the Stripe Javascript library connects to Stripe's servers over _https_.

The website never sees your card number and your card number and info is never transmitted over a non-encrypted connection.

<comment><USER23> Since the page is loaded over plaintext, there's no easy way for a normal user to know that the credit card isn't being intercepted by a malicious script. It's not safe to serve a payment page over plaintext HTTP, even if it POSTs to a HTTPS endpoint as it could be modified in transit.

Stripe explains that TLS is required in their docs: [https://stripe.com/help/ssl](https://stripe.com/help/ssl)

<comment><USER22> If you read a bit further, the Stripe documentation explains that it is recommended, but not required.

You can make live transactions just fine from a regular HTTP page - <USER2> that's a good idea or not is another issue, but making Stripe payments from an HTTPS payment page is not _required_ from an API point of view.

<comment><USER23> They explain use cases for testing without HTTPS, but make it clear that TLS is required for production use.

<comment><USER22> Required in the 'it's a good idea because it will make the web more secure and make your customers trust you' sense, not required in the sense that it's something the API enforces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Refreshing to see somebody attacking the consumer operating system market. The UX and design looks super clean.

</comment><comment><USER12> I can plainly see the backlash they got from that arrogant blog post about 'making you not pay for the download of our ubuntu clone we slapped a pretty ui on' didn't do much at all.

<comment><USER14> You are relatively new here, but you should've seen this. Please read it. [http://blog.ycombinator.com/new-hacker-news- guideline](http://blog.ycombinator.com/new-hacker-news-guideline)

<comment><USER5> This is a red herring -- the OP's post didn't say anything that was overly or gratuitously negative, at least not compared to many of the other comments on this thread. It's very true that saying that users are 'cheating the system' when they expect a libre product to be provided to them free of charge when the developers of said product themselves have added little more than a glossy sheen upon _years_ of blood, sweat, and tears is an arrogant thing to say. Modifying GNU/Linux isn't new and it doesn't give you the right to say such outlandish things in defence of your own project.

<comment><USER14> You are welcome to download the source code to Elementary OS for free. Whichever way you frame your "think of the children" logic, the team at eOS are doing things the right way. The gripe here seems to be that they are monetising. Free as in liberty, not as in beer. There is _nothing_ in any version of the GPL that says money may not be charged for compiled binaries. From the debian.org site, on whose shoulders eOS is ultimately standing;

 _" Many people new to free software find themselves confused because the word "free" in the term "free software" is not used the way they expect. To them free means "at no cost". An English dictionary lists almost twenty different meanings for "free". Only one of them is "at no cost". The rest refer to liberty and lack of constraint. When we speak of Free Software, we mean freedom, not price."_

Canonical ask for donations on the download page too. The BSDs have donation drives. eOS are monetising in a different way. I have not seen the "cheating the system" comment/article and if they did say it, it was wrong. That said, it isn't there now.

The "little more than a glossy sheen" remark is off too. They are considering usability and are adding to the community. But hey, pretty doesn't belong in Linux does it? This attitude stinks and is largely why designers won't engage with the community, that and this self righteousness that pervades.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just noticed that Elementary OS iso doesn't download using HTTPS because they use sourceforge:

[https://imgur.com/ZsnQI6e](https://imgur.com/ZsnQI6e)

</comment><comment><USER25> I am loving it so far! I'm really disappointed with some of the ridiculous accusations like donations not being secure.

</comment><comment><USER26> Ooh, super excited. Elementary gave a new life to my old black macbook.

</comment><comment><USER27> My 67 y/o mother is using Elementary OS on a refurbished Toshiba L50D and she loves it.

</comment><comment><USER28> Overall; disappointing.

I am looking for a lightweight linux OS for some old laptops I am refurbishing and giving away to homeless people, so I was interested in this.

The price thing threw me for a moment...paying for software without knowing its value?

I did the $0 hack and downloaded the iso. Stuck the USB in my worse-case system (totally broken screen, low memory etc) hooked to an external monitor, and...

Nothing, except for a screen full of mountains, which was odd because every other lightweight distro I've tried worked fine.

I think maybe it detected two monitors and used the external one without the taskbar, but I couldn't really tell. The OS definitely loaded as I tried to log off and the screen for that popped up.

An OS targeting low-end machines should definitely default to dupe-ing the display on boot.

[edit] ok...can someone clue me into what I've done wrong with the explanation of my experience with trying to use it?

</comment><comment><USER29> Did anyone try it on recent macbookpro? I have one somewhere I am not using, because i did not like how kde/gnome shell looked on retina screen, and wonder if eOS solved this problem.

<comment><USER30> If you have a MBP Retina you're not using, maybe I can use it? :)

<comment><USER29> company laptop. if it would be mine - i would just sell it :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Just donated 0.04201 BTC (USD 10) and downloading Freya now. I've been using the previous version for fun and profit on a Mac mini, netbook, notebook and desktop PC since last year. Very recommended.

</comment><comment><USER32> I saw today on HN PapyrOS. Anyone can explain the difference between the two? (leaving aside that PapyrOS is still unreleased)

<comment><USER33> zer0rest, if you can read this, you are hellbanned.</comment></comment>


Avoiding a transit of the United States - <AUTHOR> https://wikitravel.org/en/Avoiding_a_transit_of_the_United_States <comment><USER2> IMO, the Wikivoyage link is a better one: [https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Avoiding_travel_through_the_U...](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Avoiding_travel_through_the_United_States)

In general I'd recommend Wikivoyage over Wikitravel - the material seems fresher and it is run by a community rather than a corporation with heavy- handed policies.

<comment><USER3> For anyone new to the distinction, Internet Brands bought Wikitravel and the community didn't like that, so they forked to Wikivoyage. IB tried suing Wikivoyage for this despite it being allowed under the content license -- either IB didn't do their due diligence on the license of the content they bought, or they thought they could bully the community fork through the cost of fighting it alone. It was eventually thrown out of court, as it should have been.

Wikivoyage is now hosted by Wikimedia, the same nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia.

<comment><USER4> Just to really emphasize this... Internet Brands literally sued one of the volunteer admins for this[1].

Please use Wikivoyage instead!

[1] Disclosure: As an admin, I may or may not have been one of the "unnamed co-conspirators" in the lawsuit before IB dropped the suit

<comment><USER3> Thanks for fighting for what's right! I was not involved and was mostly recalling on memory, did I get any details wrong?

<comment><USER4> I wasn't the one who _actually_ got sued. He had to deal with the mountain of nonsense, not me

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a sore point for me because I live in Canada but I'm from Mexico. The US happens to be between the two countries I care about the most.

In my head, I've fantasised responding to border agents' questions of "why do you want to come into the US?" with "I don't. You're just in the way."

<comment><USER6> I assume you'd be in favor of the Mexi-Canadian Overpass, then? [https://politics.theonion.com/u-s-protests-mexi-canadian- ove...](https://politics.theonion.com/u-s-protests-mexi-canadian- overpass-1819566460)

<comment><USER7> You got me with your link.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The moment I could afford to, I started avoiding connecting flights in the United States wherever possible.

The user experience is appalling, from parking lot to gate.

I have visited places that take security very, very seriously (Israel, Russia, China etc.) and all manage to make the entire process more bearable than the United States. I don't really understand why they can't make their airports function.

<comment><USER9> Because foreigners are not welcome.

Seriously, this isn't hard to understand. The US is an unfriendly, hostile nation. While most Americans, individually, are not unfriendly or hostile to foreigners, the government is decidedly so and has been for decades.

<comment><USER10> I mean we did have 3,000 people die from airplanes being hijacked and flown into buildings - the TSA didn't exist before then. Unfortunately our gov't is like an overreacting immune system inflaming the entire body and causing unnecessary damage to functioning systems.

edit: Also Canadians in here, let's not pretend like CBSA's shit doesn't stink

<comment><USER9> You should try reading the link first. The TSA is not the issue under discussion. It's Customs and Border Patrol that's the issue.

<comment><USER10> You should try reading the HN guidelines first that say not to accuse someone of not reading the article. Sometimes discussions can meander outside the original article's context.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So I always wondered - what happens if your flight has to make an emergency landing on US territory and you don't have a visa? Are the passengers held separately until they can board another flight, so they don't have to go through customs in that case?

<comment><USER12> This reminds me a recent story when Norvegian Airlines plane was forced to land in Iran due to [engine problem][1].

As a result:

      The passengers have now officially entered Iran,
      and no longer are allowed to enter the US under
      the visa waiver program. This means if any of
      them are flying onwards from Oslo to New York
      (which many are) they have to go to a US embassy
      and ask for permission. They might have to do it
      for the rest of their lives.

[1]: [https://www.airlive.net/boeing-737-max-8-stuck-in-iran- since...](https://www.airlive.net/boeing-737-max-8-stuck-in-iran-since- december-14-a-real-headache-for-norwegian/)

<comment><USER13> I can't see a single sane thing about this situation, and none of my senators seem to give a shit. When I call my comments are "noted."

It's a bad idea. It shouldn't be that way.

<comment><USER14> So vote for someone else the next time around and tweet @$incumbent (or let them know in some other way) that you just voted for $othercanidate because they do not take your concerns about $subject seriously enough. Basically just be vocal about your issue.

<comment><USER13> Do you believe this will have an effect?

<comment><USER15> Probably not in the short term and only if enough people start doing it. I like the idea of making it clear for the people you're voting for and against why you're voting/not voting for them. Hopefully, it'll influence their future platforms.

<comment><USER2> If you contact your congresscritter over their official congressional channels - email, phone, Twitter, plain ol' letter - and tell them you plan to vote for/against them because of $X, a very polite intern will tell you that they will record your support/opposition to $X but that they cannot pass along your comment on voting to your congresscritter.

Be sure to share that with their campaign: that's how you get that message through.

<comment><USER14> They can't "pass along your message" specifically but when they get several hundred people saying they didn't vote for $boss because of their stance on $issue they will find a way to let $boss know about the pattern.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm sure the Huawei executive was aware of this and actively avoided transiting through the US. She probably didn't assume Canada would also do the US's bidding.

The charges against her work with Iran had made headlines nearly 5+ yrs before she was arrested, so she must have known there was a risk travelling there.

<comment><USER17> If the Canadian government requests the United States government to detain someone, the US would. That's the nature of extradition treaties. Nobody is doing anyone's "bidding".

<comment><USER16> Sure but don't act like it's just some run-of-the-mill legal process without significant political implications for Canada and their citizens, which are most certainly balanced and considered beforehand. I doubt it's an automatic process merely because a treaty exists.

<comment><USER18> You're right! It's by no means some run-of-the-mill legal process without significant political implications.

It's a run-of-the-mill legal process that the Chinese government _has decided_ should have significant political implications for Canada and Canadian citizens. It's important to bear in mind that this was a set of decisions deliberately chosen by the government of China in response to Canada obeying its obligations clearly laid out in a readily available treaty.

As you so wisely and correctly note, _no_ legal process is automatic. Yet routine extraditions, even of politically sensitive people, come quite close.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think the only way for the U.S. to go back to a sane system for international travelers is for people to stop visiting the U.S. for vacations. We won't change until large businesses like Disney take an economic hit.

<comment><USER20> Or for other countries to start enforcing these same policies on US travelers.

US citizens don't realize this is a problem because it doesn't affect them, so they don't try to change it.

Get the entire EU to treat us as crappy as we treat them and there will be pressure to change it. I say all of this as a US citizen who travels abroad somewhat regularly.

<comment><USER21> That won't help, because it won't affect most of us anyway. Most Americans don't even have a passport (there are currently 137 million American passports in circulation), and many of those who do are only using it to drive to Canada or Mexico.

<comment><USER20> No it won't affect most people but it will affect some; which is a whole lot better than none.

Also, it would disproportionately affect upper class and business travelers who are frankly more likely to get things done. Make it a burden for Bezos and Zuckerburg to travel and they'll raise more than enough stink. Toss in my company getting pissed at how much time I waste on paperwork every time I do an overseas trip and things could move.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> >> "The United States does not allow sterile transit, which means that even if you have an immediate connecting flight, you have to pass through Customs and Immigration. This is time-consuming and tedious"

The history behind this isn't as simple as politics. Many US airports have evolved without the physical separation between local and international departures areas. So all of the airport is "in" the US. That makes perfect sense given the geography involved. The bulk of US flights are local. Even with Canadian flights it is normal to clear US customs and immigration within Canada prior to boarding the flight to the US. So, rather than politics or protectionism, there simply was no practical need for separate terminals. Starting from that history, it is far easier to screen all passengers as they land rather than retroactively divide an airport into zones.

LAX is notable for having separate local and international terminals, but iirc everyone is still screened on landing.

<comment><USER23> This isn't all that unusual either. From what I can tell from my travel, this is more of a European thing then anywhere else, as I have not been able to transit without clearing local customs in Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Seoul or Bangkok. Call it an accident of geography - most travel in the EU is technically international, because the EU is a loose confederation at best rather than a federal government.

<comment><USER24> I was able to transit Seoul (South Korea) without clearing customs. This was in 1984, though, so things may have changed...

<comment><USER25> They haven't (as of 2018 at least).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I would extend it to - avoid transfers anywhere in North America (including Canada). US and Canadian airports are pain in the ass regarding customs and immigration. Better to transfer in Europe or Asia and fly directly from there.

<comment><USER27> Canada is massively better - many routings don't require going through security, leaving only a cursory immigration check (at special transit desks).

<comment><USER28> Er, really? Usually it's the other way around. i.e. when flying from country A to country C via country B, in country B's airport you just go through a cursory _security_ check but no immigration or customs formalities.

<comment><USER27> Yes, indeed. US/Europe to -> rest of world (except US) involves no security when transiting Canada.

Domestic connections do require security, connections to US generally require preclearance security. Connections from most other countries also go through security.

The odd thing is that they don't separate arrivals: so you'll mingle with worldwide arrivals, go through transfer immigration with everyone else, and finally you show your boarding pass and get routed either to the departure gates, or to security, based on your boarding pass.

<comment><USER27> Disclaimer: this might not be the case at all airports, but certainly YVR and YYZ have implemented this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I had no idea you had to go through customs in the US simply to transfer international flights. That's INSANE!

I've had connecting flights though Moscow and Doha and didn't need to "enter" those countries or have a visa just to switch planes. Sometimes you go though another security checkpoint, but I've never had to present my passport until I reached the destination country.

<comment><USER30> Not sure where you're from, but for many countries in the EU, you do have to show your passport, and have a transit visa, _if_ you are from a set of unwelcome countries. Many people I know avoid transits in the EU because they don't want to pay the fees for a transit visa (and because people from other countries don't need to).

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> As a citizen of a Muslim country this is very useful information, thanks a lot!

</comment><comment><USER32> I was under the impression that international flights connecting through the US put travellers in what is technically international territory, and doesn't involve any of the difficulty associated with entering the country. Is this no longer the case?

<comment><USER33> Maybe? All I can say is that last couple of times I transited through LAX, I had to go _all_ the way out through security and passport control - I could have walked out the front doors of the airport - and then _all_ the way back through. It was the same flight number, and the same physical plane that I was getting back on!

I then decided that was too much of a pain, and flew through Dubai instead, which has a _vastly_ superior transit experience!

<comment><USER34> > I then decided that was too much of a pain, and flew through Dubai instead, > which has a vastly superior transit experience!

At least assuming you're not a member of a demographic for whom that's a potentially dangerous location.

<comment><USER35> What demographic is that? (I plan to visit Dubai next month.)

<comment><USER36> To name one, trans people. It's my understanding that prescription drugs are carefully controlled in Dubai, and HRT is not permitted, and carrying HRT through Dubai can get you arrested and thrown in jail.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> What a deeply saddening state of affairs.

</comment><comment><USER38> It's always worth at least $100 - 200 dollars to avoid a US transfer. The machine guns, and tv's with propaganda of 'how great the US is' are all creepy as hell. Not to mention being yelled at by border security. Seems to be pretty common (in newark at least)

<comment><USER39> I'm not sure I've ever seen machine guns in public in the US.

I've seen them plenty in France, Germany, and other European nations.

That said, I generally recommend avoiding transits in places that have restrictive policies or excessive landing fees.

<comment><USER40> I've spotted heavily armed cops in fatigues around JFK and NY Penn Station. More often Penn Station. Did not care to stare too hard at their guns so I have no idea what they were, but large assault-styled things slung on their chests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> I can see the US perspective with concerns after 2001. It is hard to have to be scritinized, but it is a new reality.

Nothing wrong if you are a foreigner avoiding it. I don't think the anti US crowd is productive here, because they still will have to keep the measures in place.</comment>


Ask HN: When did you decide enough is enough for evaluating a cofounder? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> When fear turns to boredom aka...when you feel that you stalling hurts you more than moving forward, even if the match is not perfect.

</comment><comment><USER3> Give (almost) everyone a second chance. After that, if your intuition is telling you something, go with that.</comment>


Apple's new Mac Pro arrives tomorrow starting at $2,999 - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/18/5219306/mac-pro-2013-specifications-release-date-price <comment><USER2> So excited for the custom case / mobo that makes it impossible to upgrade any components! Totally worth it!</comment>


Stone tools may have been used before our genus came on the scene - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/05/20/stone-tools-may-have-been-used-before-our-genus-came-on-the-scene/ <comment><USER2> The question of whether certain tools/techniques such as fire and stone flaking have a single origin or were repeatedly rediscovered is quite interesting. Unlike in purely genetic evolution innovation seems a bit more likely to repeat itself but I still like to imagine that some protohominid figured out how to use fire some time a couple million years ago and everyone since then has observed how to use fire from that one lineage.

<comment><USER3> Fire is not one thing. You have quite different ideas people would have grappled with like observe naturally occurring fire (eg. from lightning, in terms of light and heat properties), tend fire, store fire, make fire, cook on fire, differentiate properties of cooked and non-cooked food, differentiate properties of heated/burned, discover heating's effect on various materials, etc.</comment></comment>


Homeless children: the hard times generation - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel <comment><AUTHOR> My wife and I watched this heart-wrenching story tonight on 60 minutes. We started to think... can there be a software solution where we can highlight stories from families and connect them to donors? The challenge is to keep the thieves out of the system and verify money is used well.

<comment><AUTHOR> We watched the 60 Minutes Overtime footage on this piece, and started to realize that maybe the solution is giving voices to the people suffering and letting them tell their stories. Not sure what to do from here.</comment></comment>