Child's play - <AUTHOR> http://devreaction.blogspot.com/2017/04/childs-play.html <comment><USER2> I don't know that it is worse for devs than other workers. Have any of you seen the incredibly demeaning chanting/cheering fake-excitement bullshit that service workers have to put up with[1]? And that's for shit pay, little meaningful chance of advancement and crappy alternatives.

Being talked down to by a bean counter in a superhero suit is empowering in comparison.

[1] For one example, google "wallmart pep rally".

<comment><USER3> This was satirized pretty well in the movie Office Space with the "15 pieces of flair" thing...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm far removed from this particular scene, but doesn't anyone else get the sense that we as a world culture are starting to get a better grip on the concept of taking care of one another? Surely "infantilization" is one possible awkward misstep in such a process, but the signs mentioned don't point only toward immaturity. They also point toward fun, work-life balance, and broader availability of gentle workplace training and onboarding. Guess I could be wrong, but I'd rather have this kind of infantilization than some of the other missteps like dehumanization that we see in other work environments. People can be taught to grow up over time, but oppression is a much harder problem.

<comment><USER5> There's nothing funnier than watching a new manager who's good with clients try to onboard somebody.

I wish there were firmer guidelines and pay structure around the title, "practice lead", that it came with the same face time with the C-Suite, and non-billable hours to actually do the job of onboarding and workplace training as managers get.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I feel like we've been infantalizing an entire generation. From where I stand it seems like marketing to millenials is oddly pedantic. Meme culture, "doggos", baby talk in tweets and texts, "adulting" and the strange pedantic tone you see in ads, all feel connected. I'm not sure if it's developer thing, or just a cultural thing.

Granted, I'm well aware the above is almost a caricature of what an old guy would say. Happens I guess.

<comment><USER7> Well a couple of decades ago IBM for example had very "infantile" rules "fired for being seen in a Mc Donalds" let alone the older IBM songbook tradition!

<comment><USER8> IBM was controlling, not infantilizing (at least with that example).

Infantilizing is companies thinking that they can win over employees with ping pong tables, free sodas, and not give them, you know, actual compensation.

Of course, as the dot com boom demonstrated, many in our industry fell for it.

<comment><USER7> Well I think having a company songbook and starting the day with a song just like primary school is.

<comment><USER8> That's fair. I was specifically referring to the McDonald's bit (and what I know of their former dress code). I had meant to look up the songbook thing.

EDIT: Actually, looking at that songbook, I'd still say it leans more towards controlling than infantilizing. By having people participate in a common display like that you get them to act as a group (positive thing), but based on the lyrics they're almost like corporate versions of jingoistic/nationalistic songs. It's a brainwashing thing.

This is still very different than infantilizing. It does signal a lack of respect for their employees (to a degree). But it does not indicate treating them as _children_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you don't want to be infantilized, don't go to the conferences where you feel infantilized and don't find your jobs through contracting firms that treat you like an infant.

You are not powerless in your situation. Stand up for yourself.

<comment><USER10> Bingo! Vote with your feet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > "I hate being called 'IT'"

Oh man I hate this. An "IT" job to me just means an admin job where the subject of the admin tasks happens to be computers.

It's worse when "IT workers" try to lump actual technically-skilled roles in with them, like it's just another task to be performed.

<comment><USER12> Um wow there's a lot wrong with this comment. But that aside, what if I told you programming was just modern accounting, glorified data entry? All programmers do is put code into repositories. Very very few people are actually inventing new systems and algorithms. If you're a "framework programmer" you know what I mean.

Anyway point is it's a spectrum. Yes some "IT" labor is menial, but I also know IT people who know way more about security and networking and identity etc. than most software engineers will in their entire career.

<comment><USER11> I would put security experts and networking experts in the "technically- skilled" category. However, my experience of most people who have something like "IT security" in their job title, is that they're just the guy who updates a spreadsheet that has a list of security policies in it, and they send emails out to people who have breached one of those policies. Admin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's a big difference between "childlike" and "childish." I see nothing wrong with professionals that engage with media and culture that stokes our childlike sense of wonder and play, and I count us fortunate indeed to live in a time and place where such luxury exists. It never ceases to astonish me just how far geeky interests have invaded the mainstream over the years.

A danger is the potential exclusion of people who do not participate in that specific culture, and that's something I'm more cognizant of now than I was in the past. If you should have a concern about the interweaving of tech professions and geek culture, I figure this is the most important one.

As an adult, my relationship to comics and geek culture has definitely changed enormously from where it was when I was a child, a teenager, or a college student. Things I thought were awesome I now see as cheesy, trite, or problematic. Things I didn't appreciate earlier on have come to take on new resonance. A few things have remained constant. The opening fanfare to Star Wars, for example, when infrequently presented in a dark theater, will probably never stop sending shivers down my spine.

The trick, then, is to approach the intersection of tech professions and geek culture as grown-ups, shrugging off the (usually blatant) attempts at manufacturing hype, and enjoying the real connection that our culture affords, without pursuing it to exclusion.

</comment><comment><USER14> Seems like this has been a common thread in tech for a long time. In Douglas Couplamd's 1995 novel 'Microserfs' one of the main characters lamented how tech employers infantile their employees. Perhaps this is a lingering effect from the early days of home computer when there was a large explosion in very young programmers and things have just carried over through the years?

</comment><comment><USER15> The consulting shops get a hefty cut of the pay (and it's hard for them to find and place talent too), so they feel compelled to do everything they can to make things work. Not to say these things aren't patronizing/infantilizing and due to be shut-down, but until the supply/demand situation works itself out, we'll likely just replace one weird attention/talent-grab gambit for another.

Another possibility would be for these companies to just pay more and "cut the crap". If companies paid more, there would be more talent on the market (presumably) and companies wouldn't need to put on the dog-and-pony shows to attract and retain because the economics are doing that for them.

(And of course there are people who like the dog-and-pony shows and the 'un- corporate' vibe of these things. Power to them, but at least personally it would be nice for the "cut the crap and pay more" idea to be more common.)

</comment><comment> mewse-hn I don't think some leader acting like Michael Scott and dressing up like Captain America points to a broader problem of childishness in the industry. I'd agree with other commenters that the reference to "a female or two [to] work the booth" is more problematic, culturally.

</comment><comment><USER16> Infantilization seems to be a wholly inaccurate description of the behavior; "pandering" or "courting" is much more accurate.

TBH, if folks are having fun, and companies want to join in, I see nothing wrong with it. Devs are likely aware that the companies don't normally wear super hero costumes, and companies are probably aware that making a good first impression is only the first part of a successful relationship.

The blog post seems to have a pretty toxic view of employers (there are a bunch of assumed "to be explored" paragraphs), and I think that view is poisoning the entire experience.

<comment><USER2> Companies don't wear superhero costumes. Companies also don't have fun or awareness. This is because companies are a collection of contracts, not living things.

Some person dressed in the costume. They may have been "representing" a company, but that doesn't matter. It was still a human acting like a condescending twit for their own reasons.

I'm not sure what's "toxic" about identifying insulting behaviors in others. I don't want to be around people who do things like that, whether or not I work for them, and many others feel the same way. Being an employer doesn't mean you suddenly get to be horrible and not get called on it. (It just means your employees might be afraid to call you on it until they can get out from under you.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > If you've ever been placed in a job by a contracting firm, you know this > routine. Oftentimes, the agent will meet you at the employer's office, and > walk you in.

This is a thing? Never seen this!

<comment><USER7> This is a W2 "contractor" aka disguised employment with shit rates for the contractor.

Id expect 2.5 to 3x my FTE rate in the UK where in the USA people seem surprised that people dare it ask for even 20% more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Most definitely my favorite example of this ever:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5LiUrezV6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5LiUrezV6k)

<comment><USER19> I like this one. It's funnier.

"This reminds me of north korea"

[https://ytcropper.com/cropped/YZ5ad7ac55e5e3b](https://ytcropper.com/cropped/YZ5ad7ac55e5e3b)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Salesforce is a big time offender here.

Trailhead Conference was absolutely pedantic not only did you have the booth babes with the cheap Chinese promo objects. They turn the Moscone center into a goddamned forest, we're talking theme park level decor complete with furries.

I found it cult-like and infantile. Seemed like people were eating it up, not really ever going back.

-Grumpy 30 y/o dev

<comment><USER10> I sat in a fiber glass canoe with an oculus VR head set to play a custom made Salesforce game...

This company sells a CRM...

But what they really sell is a dream but you gotta pay to play. The bigger they get the more they take away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Isn't this just a reflection of changes our culture generally?

When I was a kid "grown men" were only allowed to be really into sports or maybe cars. Now those barriers of what is "acceptable" for adults to be into (among other things) are broken down.

As far as someone dressing up as a super hero for a professional conference; I'm sure if you could dig through the reports of Comdex from the 80s you'll find lots of ridiculous stuff. Most of which would be totally unacceptable today.

Also I think the author maybe should have taken a little more care when referencing attractive females working the booth to contextualize it for people that won't give him the benefit of the doubt that he was pointing out it was absurd. Gender politics being a hot button issue right now.

<comment><USER21> None of this post is new or groundbreaking, it's been that way at every conference I've been to for 15 years. If anything we've moved to less booth babes, more kitchzy comic book characters - that's ok with me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Trade shows or any place where you're basically a sales prospect are all about infantilizing you as much as possible. An adult thinks long-term, is independent, makes/does things using skill, doesn't need pampering... and a host of other characteristics that are inconvenient to the sales process.

</comment><comment><USER22> If Captain America was instead dressed in a suit, would more people talk to him? In almost any context? I doubt it.

<comment><USER23> Sure. Most would rather speak to someone in a suit than in someone wearing their underpants on the outside and with full-on nationalistic emblems on their spandex uniform.

<comment><USER22> What version of Captain America has underpants on the outside? I'm not familiar with that version of the character's outfit...

On a more serious note, the point of the comment is that if the context allows you to be taken relatively seriously in a superhero outfit, it might not be a bad idea to attract people to a booth... Yes, those contexts might not be extremely common.

<comment><USER23> > _What version of Captain America has underpants on the outside? I 'm not > familiar with that version of the character's outfit..._

Perhaps you only know him from the movies?

Most versions of Captain America do have this characteristic:

[http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/captainamerica....](http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/captainamerica.htm)

[https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2016/05/07/captain-america- cost...](https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2016/05/07/captain-america-costumes- evolution-super-soldier-infographic/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> to be honest I find it hard to take writing that uses "females" as a synonym for "women" super seriously

<comment><USER14> In current culture, especially SV, not all women are female. It is necessary to specify female if one is actually referring to biological sex instead of cultural gender. Some find this an annoying distinction but it is the cultural norm in an increasingly growing number of places.

<comment><USER25> But the story obviously wasn't referring to biological sex, but rather to the gender presented by the booth-worker. So "female" was also the incorrect term, besides being off-putting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I do wonder why something so serious has turned into something so childish.

But then the other day I got a haircut and while waiting to pay spied a shelf full of beard products in that cute, hipster art style, the whole display blending in perfectly with all the other hair products. It's difficult to watch something we have defined as the apex of manliness (beards) being treated with the same tone of voice as cosmetics and children's toys.

Infantilisation is endemic at the moment, and I see it as part of a comprehensive attack on American masculinity.

<comment><USER27> But even those cases where the beard products are on wire shelves with minimalistic old school labels, that's still just a marketing trick where someone did analysis and thought that strategy would be better for their demographic.

If you want to escape infantilisation, you need to in many ways escape consumerism and go back to the days of just whipping up your own beard oils.

<comment><USER26> Exactly. That popular, cute 'craft' style is winning out because it resonates with the target audience. (Same with that popular, functional aesthetic you describe.)

I guess I am against the softening of traditionally 'hard' things. Painful to watch our world (even software!) devolve into bright colors and cute mascots.

One could also interpret this phenomenon as young adults refusing to grow up -- hanging on to childish symbolism concomitant with the rest of millennials' (economically necessary) delayed development into adulthood.

And for the record I am (unwillingly) part of the millennial set and do not have a beard.</comment></comment></comment>


A quick survey for software developers in startups and small businesses - <AUTHOR> Greetings.
Here's a little survey I'd like to hand out to all the software engineers, developers, and programmers out there who currently work in startups or small businesses.
I myself am part of a small group that created this questionnaire for research and marketing reasons, and we'd very much appreciate the input and feedback. It shouldn't take long; just 10 straightforward questions.
This is my first post on HN, and I sincerely hope it doesn't go against the guidelines. The link to the survey is below and in the first comment.
Thanks!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t-Je8Yeiuczmz0yYc_PYJKSGAHvJvdGVGNq9wDm8xTU/viewform?usp=send_form <comment><AUTHOR> [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t-Je8Yeiuczmz0yYc_PYJKSGAHv...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t-Je8Yeiuczmz0yYc_PYJKSGAHvJvdGVGNq9wDm8xTU/viewform?usp=send_form)

<comment><USER2> You are posting it at wrong time of the day/week. Try Monday 11:00am PST

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll try that, thank you.</comment></comment></comment>


HN Puzzler - <AUTHOR>

Here's a puzzle for anybody that would like to take it up today:
I just heard a jet fly overhead. Curious, I went outside. As we all know, sound travels much, much more slowly than light, so the jet was gone from sight by the time I started searching for it, even though it still sounded like it was overhead.
Now, given the speed of sound, and a jet flying at 500 mph, at what elevation would the jet need to fly in order to create the greatest angle between where the sound from the jet is coming from and where the jet actually is?
If anybody wants to kick it around, I'll warn you up front that there are a couple of tricks to finding the solution.
EDIT: As commenter pointed out, the question is a bit incomplete. I'll change that to mean "at what elevation and distance from the observer would the jet need to fly in order to create the greatest angle between where the sound from the jet is coming from and where the jet actually is?"
Assuming we are on planet earth and standing standing still in a flat desert. <comment><USER2> Under a number of assumptions, the plane should now be heading away from you, at an angle of about 19.2 degrees from the vertical, and the altitude does not matter. A more precise estimate of the angle is 90 * atan2(sqrt(76 * 76 - 25 * 25), 76) / atan2(1, 0).

Key assumptions are that there is no wind, the speed of the plane is a constant 500 mph, the speed of sound is constant at 760 mph (actually untrue in real life, see [http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/elevation-speed-sound- air-...](http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/elevation-speed-sound-air- d_1534.html)), the airplane is maintaining a constant elevation, and the curvature of the Earth is irrelevant.

In that situation the actual elevation of the plane doesn't matter. Look at the triangle formed from where the airplane let out the sound, where the observer is, and where the airplane now is. If you double the height of the airplane then that becomes a similar triangle with all lengths doubled. So we may as well assume that the sound traveled for 6 minutes, so the plane has moved 50 miles and the sound moved 76.

It is easy to verify that at any point in time the rate at which the airplane is adding to the angle between where it was and where it will be depends on how close it is to you (the closer the better). From this it is easy to show that the maximum has to happen with the original position of the plane, the observer, and the current position forming an isosceles triangle. And that happens when the observer, the half-way point for the plane, and the current position form a right-angled triangle with opposite 25 miles and hypotenuse 76 miles. So the adjacent is sqrt(76^2 - 25^2).

The rest falls out of the definition of atan2. (Assuming no careless errors.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think you can assume a constant rate for the speed of sound.

Sorry, not trying to add new parameters, but the question is based on a real- world scenario. So air density has to play a factor (although it's certainly fair to assume density changes evenly with altitude instead of the much more complicated real-world situation)

I would have brought up density, but it was one of the gotchas, and I was curious to see who spotted it first.

<comment><USER2> When you allow variable air density, and variable speed of sound, the problem depends strongly on what assumptions you have made there. For example one complication is that if the plane is high in the sky at a 45 degree angle, _even if it isn't moving_ it will sound like it is in a different place than it really is thanks to refraction.

Those variants of the problem are much harder, and less interesting to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow. Didn't think of refraction. Wonder how much the delta in appearance and sound source for a high altitude jet is due to refraction?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There is insufficient data to answer this question.

Perhaps the jet is flying on the other side of cloud cover, on the other side of a mountain range, or inside a canyon. What elevation is the observer? What is the velocity of the observer to the light reflected from the jet and what is the velocity of the observer to the sound coming from the jet? What is the temperature of the air or medium that the light and sound are travelling in. How do we know it is the jet making noise?

This kind of poorly thought out question that makes me want to quit software development, which is full of users with requests like this.

<comment><USER4> Oh come off it. There is no cloud cover, the earth is a flat plane, the flight path is level, and we're assuming standard temperature and pressure. Lightspeed may be neglected, and the observer is at rest with regards to the earth and atmosphere. The jet is making noise.

Pedantic people who can't do back-of-the-envelope calculations due to "underspecified" problems piss me off, partly because I used to be one of them. ;-)

<comment><USER5> Yes. Make reasonable assumptions and document them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> How about:

Standing roughly between the apparent location of the noise and current apparent location of the light reflected from the jet with the jet flying as close to your elevation as possible, and assuming the jet is flying in a straight line over the observer on a flat plane (i.e. not the earth, which is round) and assuming we can rule out all other factors.

<comment><AUTHOR> If the jet is flying in a straight line over the observer then the angle to the jet and sound both would be the same, ie, the jet is approaching directly at the observer (or leaving), so there could be no delta between the sound angle and the light angle.

<comment><USER3> ??? I misunderstood you to mean the angle between the apparent source of the sound and the apparent source of the reflected light from the jet. Perhaps you could draw it out to explain what you are looking for.

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

If the jet is flying at your altitude directly at you, it appears as a speck and the speck just gets bigger as it comes closer and closer to you. The sound comes from the speck. There can be no delta.

I guess at the exact instant the jet flies over your head there would be some delta, but at that moment the jet is almost directly on top of you. Sound traveling a few inches from the jet engine to your ears, even as slow as sound is, would happen pretty quickly in comparison to the jet moving (which is slower than sound)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 0</comment>


BitLegacy - Bitcoin inheritance service - <AUTHOR> http://bitlegacyservice.com

<comment><USER2> This is an idea Joe and I came up with tonight after almost dying from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, would love to get the feedback from the Hacker News community.</comment>


History Is Written by the Losers (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2016/11/history-is-written-by-losers.html <comment><USER2> How about when the winner creates an official version of history? My own country took easy way out by banning history from being taught in secondary schools in an attempt to cover one huge blotch. And replaced History classes with what's essentially patriotism with a fancy name.

They made previously compulsory subjects: Biology and Economics optional but this basically pointless subject IS compulsory for entry into tertiary institutions.

History classes have been reintroduced recently but the textbooks are comical.

China is rewriting history in real time with its media and internet censorship.

Summary: I'll revise this title: History is Written by the Losers Unless the Winners Have Something to Hide

<comment><USER3> The article is highlighting some exceptions to the usual rule.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was surprised not to see a mention of the Lost Cause narrative of the American Civil War.

<comment><USER5> Are there any great historians of the South who push the Lost Cause while being acknowledged as great, on the same level as Machiavelli, Thucydides, or Sima Qian? If there aren't, then it's not an example and so there is no point in mentioning it.

<comment><USER4> Machiavelli isn't mentioned in the article, so I assume you are including the comments, and this is what I was referring to as well. The thesis is "history is written by the losers". In the comments other examples are brought forward, including Machiavelli and Churchill. The Dunning School narrative is a prominent example of this, and is arguably more apt than these other examples because that is precisely its main thrust: to glorify the losers and denigrate the winners.

Besides which, "whoever is mentioned needs to be as great as these three" is your own special rule for which only you are the judge, which is not a particularly convincing argument to anyone but yourself.

<comment><USER5> > Besides which, "whoever is mentioned needs to be as great as these three" is > your own special rule for which only you are the judge, which is not a > particularly convincing argument to anyone but yourself.

If Tanner had meant 'any random historian', he would have said so and used them (and also disagreed with the example I provided of Machiavelli, who is a famous example of this trope). He used the most relevant examples, like Sima Qian and Thucydides, who he writes about extensively elsewhere, and note by the way the context here of the Thucydides Roundtable. It is a basic fact of linguistics that you choose examples to be as central and relevant as possible ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle)). Nor am I sold on the Dunning example. It may be well known to you, but it's not that famous, and Dunning wasn't even from or educated in the South, much less was involved in the Civil War or Reconstruction in any way as a loser.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13011872](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13011872)

</comment><comment><USER7> The other thing is that winners don't experience reality.

Success doesn't teach you anything. It just makes your life easier and this ease can give people false confidence.

<comment><USER8> > Success doesn't teach you anything

I can't think of any sense in which this is true

<comment><USER9> I think an illustrative example would be certain young professional athletes who struggle when they reach the level where everyone is as good of an athlete as they are. Throughout their amateur careers, they excelled by being a far better natural athlete than everyone else, and may have not learned as much in the way of strategy and tactics because they could win regardless.

I think another example could be very smart kids who breeze through school on raw intelligence and struggle when they reach something slightly beyond their natural abilities because they've never learned how to deal with difficult subjects.

I don't think most success is this way, but I believe it can be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "History is written by the winners" I hate this quote because it is often used to argue a point without having to provide any other facts. Just saying that is sufficient to invalidate a whole narrative.

<comment><USER11> It doesn't not to have fact to be supported. Is can be simply a redifinition of winners, as who get to rewrite and distribute history.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> My mother tongue is not englisch. Does

> We say that history is written by the winners. That is sometimes true. We > have no Carthaginian accounts of their war with Rome; few historians today > have much sympathy for Hitler.

mean, that WWII history is written by the winners or loosers? Because as an Austria an least in can intensely confirm that the history I perceive is not written by the loosers.

<comment><USER13> In that context, the author is giving examples of history being written by tue winners.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Haven't read the article, but the title is quite an argument. So the Nazis will write the history, according to the title? Or the author redifined the meaning of losers?</comment>


Is the ridesharing war over in the US? - <AUTHOR> Do you think Uber has won the ridesharing war? What will happen next? Are there other big opportunities along the line people might overlook? <comment><USER2> I really don't think we have seen a winner yet. There is going to be a crash due to regulations, licenses, and just pure shady business practices by both Uber and Lyft.

I suspect that within the next five years we see some kind of cracking down. Whichever one can survive that and/or adapt will be the winner.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this is just an early flash in the pan. The VC subsudies will fall off, regulations will be enforced or relegslated, and the real costs of operating will catch up with both providers and operators. We will be back to taxis, but now with apps.

</comment><comment><USER4> Over ?

What planet are you smoking?</comment>


Days since last Facebook scandal - <AUTHOR> https://dayssincelastfacebookscandal.com/ <comment><USER2> This should really be labeled "Days since last negative article about Facebook", correct? In particular the 4/16 entry "15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook" doesn't really sound like a scandal actually happened on that day.

Out of curiosity, are these manually entered or scraped with some kind of sentiment analysis? EDIT: I see now that it's maintained on Gitlab.

</comment><comment><USER3> Good idea to drive visibility and raise awareness.

Data needs some polishing and it would be good to focus on something more specific then scandal, possibly classify each entry. Eg. Data breach, organizational issues,...

It would also be great to go back in time much further - who knows maybe there are even patterns...

</comment><comment><USER4> "It's always day 1" philosophy is very different at Facebook.

</comment><comment><USER5> I would love to see a full list that goes back the last 5 or so years.

<comment><USER6> Me too, I'm adding more scandals at the moment (I'm not the maintainer, but the project is on GitLab)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Site taken down? pressure from fb to stop it?

</comment><comment><USER8> It's brilliant!</comment>


The End of the University as We Know It - <AUTHOR> http://the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1352

<comment><USER2> Does anyone else find it shocking that Yale will spend $600 million on a dorm to increase capacity by 1,000 students. That's a whopping $600,000 per student dorm room divided by the number of students per dorm. One source put the average dorm room at 12' x 19' feet split between two people. That's 114 square foot per person, or $5263 per square foot. Trulia puts the average cost per square foot of housing in New Haven, Connecticut (Yale's hometown) at a mere $102 per square foot. This means they are spending a 51x premium. San Francisco prices, as high as they are $626. These two dorms are 8x more than the San Francisco price. How can this even be justified?

Ref: [http://downtownnewhaven.blogspot.com/2008/09/ramsa- selected-...](http://downtownnewhaven.blogspot.com/2008/09/ramsa-selected-for- yales-600-million.html)

[http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/New_Haven- Connecticut/mark...](http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/New_Haven- Connecticut/market-trends/)

<comment><USER3> A) Some of the space in these new buildings is being used to "ease overcrowding in Yale's existing facilities", so it is disingenuous to look solely at the increased number of undergraduates they will house.

B) While dorm rooms are usually small, there is often a lot of shared space in the building: it is thereby also disingenuous to compare the cost per square foot in a dorm to that of an entire apartment.

As an example of this, the "residential colleges" that Yale has also include dining halls (as demonstrated in the architect's renderings of the plans for this particular construction plan).

C) When planning new buildings for what are pretty much best described as small cities, you also have to think about the surrounding infrastructure; apparently part of these projects is about revamping the nearby streets to handle the increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic that will result.

D) This kind of expansion isn't just about new places for people to live and eat: if you look at what the money is being used for, it includes a dance studio, a fitness center, two cafes, three art studios, four computer labs, a theatre... and this isn't even a third of the list.

\--

Now, one can certainly argue about whether they really need to do all of this and whether they are getting the most value from the things they have decided to do, but you really can't just say that all they are doing is providing a place for 1,000 undergraduates to live and then start doing the math: those people need things to do, activities to be a part of, food to eat, specialized equipment and rooms for whatever their specialities are.

(Also, I take issue with the idea that, even if it made sense, they could just "buy a three-bedroom home in New Haven for every new student it is bringing in", as the article examines, or could get the average rate on square footage as you do: there probably aren't even 1,000 houses on the market, so in addition to drastically alternating the demand market for housing in the area, which will itself alter the price, they are going to need to do new construction, which has massively different ramifications than just buying existing housing.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The education is peripheral to the experience of the university. Harvard, Yale, and other brand-name colleges command a premium because they insert you into the network of a higher economic class. University is a coming-of-age experience, where teens become adults. Sitting in Mom's basement doing online coursework for a degree is fine, but misses the point.

Yes, the Internet has disrupted many business models, and there will definitely be losers: textbook manufacturers is an obvious example.

In the final analysis, kids need a transition from their parents. For some that is military service, for some it is going off to college at 18/19, for some it is a brief period of independence at minimum wage followed by living at home into their 30's or until they get married and their wife/husband becomes their new parent.

The current proliferation of online studies is fueled by the GI bill and employer tuition-reimbursement programs for people already employed. Online study is not for everyone, it takes a lot of dedication and commitment to complete a class, much less a degree.

We are seeing an evolution, not a revolution.

<comment><USER5> "The current proliferation of online studies is fueled by the GI bill and employer tuition-reimbursement programs for people already employed. Online study is not for everyone, it takes a lot of dedication and commitment to complete a class, much less a degree."

To the factor you mention I'd add the ferocious institutional will of the universities for expansion in any direction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cool, another article on a site visited primarily by computer scientist claiming that a degree isn't necessary...when the HR departments for these companies LOOK FOR A DEGREE...cool.

<comment><USER7> Applying to a company big enough to have an HR department is probably a mistake.</comment></comment>


Coinbase #1 on AppStore - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/07/coinbase-hits-top-spot-on-apples-us-app-store/ <comment><AUTHOR> There's a rule of bubbles. When Joe Bloggs on the street starts investing, that's just about the time the bubble pops.

I think coinbase being #1 on the appstore might just be a signal of that moment!</comment>


Clarifying GDPR - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/xowap/clarifying-gdpr-1gld <comment><USER2> I'm a US resident visiting my European home country for Christmas, and I'm astonished at how much worse the web browsing experience is, now that the GDPR is law.

The cookie notices of old have turned into full-screen modal dialogs that are deliberately designed to be as obnoxious as possible. These dialogs list hundreds of cookies under multiple tabs and are filled with legalese that any normal person will immediately dismiss. A common trick seems to be to have an "accept all" button that is prominently displayed, but if you want to reject every cookie you have to click onto another tab, click a button to toggle all the switches off, then click "save & exit". The "save & exit" button is often initially off-screen, and the worst offenders even disable elastic scrolling on mobile to make it as annoying as possible to reach. These shenanigans make private browsing mode particularly intolerable. I hope to see a legal judgement that makes these dark UX patterns explicitly illegal, but I'm not holding out hope. Either way, asking users to decide which third-party companies can set cookies is plain stupid and ripe for abuse.

To this lay user, so far this law appears to be a complete disaster for web usability, and business as usual for the big players (Google, Facebook, Quantcast etc). In fact, you could argue that the GDPR concentrates power in the hands of those megacorps. I am a privacy advocate but I think the GDPR is a joke, at least as far as tracking cookies are concerned.

<comment><USER3> I would expect to see at least some legal judgement against dark UX patterns. I was quite heavily involved on the technical side in GDPR compliance (EU company) and my understanding from the legal folks was that the regulation strictly forbids at least certain types of UX patterns, e.g. opt-out is a big no-no, consent should always be opt-in, you can nudge the user towards consent, the purpose of data processing must be expressed in an understandable language, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Seems good overall, but unfortunately the article reinforces the myth that the GDPR applies to EU citizens. The regulation never mentions citizenship; for non-EU companies¹, it applies to "data subjects who are in the Union". A French citizen living in the US is not "in the Union", yet an US citizen living in France is.

¹ EU companies/organizations have to apply the GDPR to _everyone_

<comment><USER5> So why can't we have a GDPR notice only for IP coming from EU, and the notice will have a single accept all button and call it a day ?

GDPR is so much hassle right now that hurt small business more than those big Internet giants.

<comment><USER6> "accept-all" style buttons are explicitly no longer allowed. This is a good thing as now on most websites I get a decline option that actually works, as opposed to previously where the options were "accept" or "gtfo".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Surprised it didn't mention that consent doesn't mean 'agree to everything or get lost'. For many sites, it seems the only thing they do is ask you to agree to every tracker in existence sight unseen or leave, with no option to choose what cookies you want to allow or to view the content without them running.

Would also be interesting to see a legal critique of the equally common practice of assuming the user gave consent the minute they scroll the page or click anything on it. Seen a few companies argue that, and I suspect it's probably not compliant with GDPR (no matter how they spin it).</comment>


Zoom-based productivity hack gave me my focus back during coronavirus - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/90504724/i-was-more-productive-in-one-deep-focus-session-on-zoom-than-in-the-last-8-weeks <comment><USER2> Similar: [https://www.focusmate.com](https://www.focusmate.com)</comment>


Yahoo to buy Imgur? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/11/imgur-yahoo-image-sharing-reddit

<comment><USER2> you'll need yahoo ids to see the images ? will it be shut down, like flickr ?

</comment><comment><USER3> It would be a smart buy.

</comment><comment><USER4> Reads like an ad</comment>


Ask HN: What other outlets are there to ask technical questions? - <AUTHOR> Stack Overflow isn't working anymore. Technical questions are met with a condescending "What have you tried?" or "This is a duplicate." It feels like one of those customer service centers where people are trying to hang up the phone as fast as possible, rather than trying to help.
SO management seems to have prioritized politeness, but this just sort of ends up as passive-aggressive bureaucracy - don't ask for best practices, don't start questions with "how", informing you that questions of this phrasing are often downvoted or ignored. Ideally, it would be like the other Stack Exchange communities, but it's not, and here we are.
Quora does this, but there's but it's a gated community that makes it not easily searchable. I'd like something I can invest my time into helping answer questions as well, and is a little friendlier. <comment><USER2> we could start some cool, HN related subreddit for this.</comment>


Zenefits (YC W13) Rolls Its HR Automation Services Out To All 50 States - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/14/zenefits-rolls-its-hr-automation-services-out-to-all-50-states/

<comment><USER2> We have been using Zenefits for a couple months now and I have to say I am incredibly impressed. They are lightning-fast on customer support and their onboarding for new employees is super simple. They have saved me many hours and at least part of one tree.

<comment><USER3> I don't get the 'at least part of one tree' ?

<comment><USER4> I believe he is speaking about a reduction in paperwork on his part, because they are handling that for him.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I saw the Zenefits guy at a college talk recently, and I loved his perspective, which was diametrically opposite to silicon valley hype. His take was, find an "unsexy" problem and build your startup on that, because the chances that you're solving a real problem that real people encounter is much higher. Glad to see it's working out for him!

</comment><comment><USER6> We've also been using Zenefits for a while now and it's amazing. Let's just say I have a lot less headaches to worry about and I can focus on more important things.

Parker and team are killing it. This is going to really disrupt insurance agencies.

</comment><comment><USER7> So curious, how do they compare against somebody like Algentis? Do they handle all the same services or just insurance?

<comment><USER8> Algentis companies are our favorite kind of client. We'll save you $2,000 / year per employee if you switch from Algentis (you won't have to pay any more algentis fees) and you don't have to change your existing health insurance (ie everything about you current plans, pricing, insurance cards, etc stays exactly the same). Best of all, it will only take you 60 secs to switch. We just need your policy numbers for your insurance, and then we'll set up payroll for you outside of Algentis -- usually through ZenPayroll, but can do it with whoever you'd like.

<comment><USER9> We switched to Zenefits from Algentis and couldn't be happier. The only thing we lost was some HR work (employee handbook generation, etc.) but saved many many thousands of dollars.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm glad to see they're rolling out all over the US. I really wanted to use them when I first heard about them but couldn't. It looks like I still have to wait until 2014 until they support a small business (i.e. < 20 employees) like mine, but I'm glad to hear they're on track to handle it.

Now the next question: who is going to buy them, how long will it take, and when they are finally purchased will they be torn apart by the buyer?

<comment><USER11> They aren't free, but these guys cover more benefits than Zenefits does. The business model isn't exactly the same either, but they do cater to small businesses. I have no financial interest in them, but I've been using them for like 15 years to handle my benefits, and off-and-on one other person on my payroll.

[http://www.mbopartners.com/](http://www.mbopartners.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> My understanding is that Indinero [[http://indinero.com](http://indinero.com)] is a superset of this, with a focus on accounting. Or are the two complementary?</comment>


Facebook Activates "Like" Button - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/09/facebook-activates-like-button-friendfeed-tires-of-sincere-flattery/

<comment><USER2> Does anybody else find the concept of liking rather loathsome? Tumblr implemented this too. It adds nothing. I don't care who "likes" something. If anything, it just adds to the addiction that builds up online, where everything is a numbers game. Getting "3 people liked this" as feedback tells me nothing and if anything makes me more reluctant to put up something that won't garner likes.

<comment><USER3> ja2ke likes this post.</comment></comment>


This DJ Has Released the First Full-Length Album Using the Ethereum Blockchain - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nevzbz/this-dj-has-released-the-first-full-length-album-using-the-ethereum-blockchain <comment><USER2> > Ujo made headlines in 2015 for partnering with Imogen Heap for a single that > was distributed on the platform and paid for using the ethereum blockchain.

and sold 222 copies total, and literally got more press articles talking about its huge success than it did paying customers.

[https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/imogen-heap-tiny- human-...](https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/imogen-heap-tiny-human-total- sales-133-20/)</comment>


Ask HN: Review my bootstrapped startup, Moment Garden - <AUTHOR>

My co-founder and I created Moment Garden as a simple and secure site for parents to save and share memories of their children with their close family & friends.
We allow parents to save stories, photos, and even video by simply emailing their moment to their child's custom Moment Garden email address (e.g. email@example.com), much like Posterous does for blogs.
All data is private by default, and parents have complete control over which family and friends have access to view their Moment Garden timeline and receive updates of new moments.
We have not officially "launched" (as in sought out press), yet through word of mouth we have seen some good, early growth.
We'd appreciate feedback from HN regarding the site, the messaging, usability, and usefulness. Any other ideas are welcome and appreciated as well!
http://momentgarden.com <comment><USER6> Very cool idea. I've been wanting something like this for a while, but for my own memories.

I have a pretty horrible memory, and I'd like a simple site what I can email or SMS or enter posts about things I do, or random memories from my childhood. When I get older, I'll wish I had entered them all somewhere.

Privacy would be my main concern - I'd want to permission it only to my wife and children, and maybe a few others. I'd want my data encrypted, so admins can't even see it.

Something like this would also be great for couples - <USER2> relationships over time and being able to look back on them later. Emails could automatically go out on a certain date every year to remind you of something that happened on that date.

Also important would be getting my memories out. If the system ever went defunct, I'd want my data emailed to me or something.

<comment><USER7> Thanks for the feedback!

Privacy is a big deal for our users and we take it seriously. Only the people you elect to see your garden will see it. Data encryption for storage and transportation (SSL) is on the horizon.

We're currently working on an export feature to automate the retrieval of your moments but in the mean time, if you email us we'll zip them up for you.

It's funny you mentioned the relationship use case since we have a few users that are already using it for that. One of them is using it like a time capsule and giving it to her boyfriend for their 1 year anniversary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Love it. I'm a mom and I already know I'd use this.

Currently we use a combination of Facebook and email to get stories and pics out to people. So it would be nice if we could continue using them that way (ie. family members subscribe via email, and when we post something it automatically emails them the new text/pics AND it also posts on our facebook accounts)

My husband's response when I showed him the link: "thats brilliant / why didnt i think of that / damnit / its awesome" (over IM)

<comment><USER7> Thanks for the feedback! You can add family members to contribute and they can elect for immediate, daily or monthly digests. Although not "automatic" yet, you can choose to share individual moments (and only those) of your garden to Facebook and we'll even show the comments in your garden.

We hope you like it, and feel free to send any comments/questions our way!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I love it, we do this with facebook but it is clumsy and facebook is constantly trying to make the stuff public.

I would love an ipad app so stuff I shared would show up on a dashboard for grandma and grandpa who arent competent at using the internet (i.e. picture frame which shows the newest stuff from the kids)

I also saved a bunch of events like first food etc that I lost during a hard drive crash, love the idea of emailing to mark the events.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback and encouragement! We've created the timeline such that it looks beautiful on an iPad, filling up the full screen. However, we have our eyes on a native app as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have a few small children and I like the idea. However, I ran into a snag when I attempted to set up an account. First of all, I can't add all my children at once. I have to add a child, skip the invites, click on the child's name up top, then click "Add garden." So, unless I misunderstand, it looks like I can't have all of my children in one garden. What do I do if I want to e-mail in a vignette about two of my children or all of them? And how will my family view the timeline of all children at once? If you have an answer for this, you could make that a little more clear.

<comment><USER7> Hi,

Great feedback and we definitely need to make that more clear on our site! Thanks.

We're working on a "family" view so you can see all your kids in a single timeline. If a user wants to email a moment for two kids, they could add them both to the "to:" field and we'll show it in each of the recipient's garden and eventually combine them in the family view. However, you're right - <USER3> the web, this is not possible yet. We tried to keep things as simple as possible, but this is something we'll have to consider going forward.

<comment><USER10> Please send out a marketing e-mail when you have that ready. I think it would really make it work for us.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Very cool idea! Well designed and presented, definitely something I will be recommending to a few friends and family who have kids.

Question: on the technical side, what languages/frameworks do you guys use?

In addition, I'd love to talk to you about providing outbound transactional emails.

Good luck with this, cheers!

<comment><USER7> Thanks! We use the LAMP stack with a few frameworks (CakePHP, jQuery) and wrote some custom video processing code. Feel free to email us at firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Like it, what's the revenue model?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working now on integrating product purchases, such as photos and photo books from the moments saved in the garden.

Additionally, we're exploring a premium version with more advanced features that our users have asked for.

<comment><USER12> I would go with premium features.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> easy to click: <http://momentgarden.com>

</comment><comment><USER14> What are some of the advanced features you might provide?

<comment><AUTHOR> We've gotten a ton of requests, but among the most popular are photo albums, family gardens (showing all of a parents' children together), photo editing, and custom backgrounds.

<comment><USER15> How about making it dead easy to get all pictures in print. For example take a look at Apple iPhoto app (OSX) which allows you to easily create an album and have it print.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes yes yes! We're actually working on that as we speak.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Great idea. Reminds me of memolane.

One suggestion: Put up a real example, so people can play with the app immediately.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing Memolane. I hadn't seen that before, but it definitely looks cool.

And I really like your idea of putting a real Moment Garden on the home page to allow interaction. You're right, that would help visitors grok the concept.

<comment><USER16> Not a problem. Did you also see lifepath.me? Good to know who are also in the same space.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, we have seen that. Definitely similar concept, but different market. Really impressive implementation!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I am recommending it to about 10 people right now!!! This is very very useful!

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent - we really appreciate it! If you have any suggestions for making it better, we are all ears.

<comment><USER17> Here is a summary of feedback I have been getting from first-time new moms in their late twenties with babies between 6 months and 1.5 yrs old, moms are all top 50 university grads:

i) They loved the idea - first impression: Aww cutee!! (Which is awesome!)

ii) They didn't know what to do with the main page, how to get started - <USER4> missed the big orange join now button. Drive the getting started process harder.

iii) Felt confused by so much info about apps and such in the bottom - <USER5> them in first then go into benefits. They said you could totally do away with "Why you'll love Moment Garden..." on the main page - they were sold at "Create and Share your Child's Story". Just say how it's easy and private – sold!

iv) They thought it might be hard to maintain, tell them quickly on main page how it's easy to keep updated with emailing. Upload a short video maybe?

v) They have already had their kids, and thought "I missed my first child's Moment Garden, so I will start with the next one I guess", if someone ever says I'll will come back later, they are never coming back, promise! I think this is because you start with conception in your main page image, most parents don't think about this stuff till they have a baby, my suggestion is to start with first steps, so you don't alienate existing parents (many) at the cost of trying to capture future parents (few).

vi) There is totally a need! If you don't succeed it's your own fault. So never back off! :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, this is incredible. Can't thank you enough!

We're working on a few of these now, based on your feedback. Do you mind sending me an email? firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER17> No worries bro! Just sent you an email saying hi.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Touchdroid: Android for the HP Touchpad Project - <AUTHOR> http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?t=3327&p=67699

<comment><USER2> Sorry guys but I just don't see the point. The issue with the Touchpad was the hardware, _not_ the OS. A Touchpad with Android installed is a pretty poor prospect, frankly there are better Android tablets out there.

I'm buying a Touchpad because I love webOS, otherwise I would just go out and buy a Samsung or whatever with Honeycomb and much better hardware than the Touchpad.

<comment><USER3> The Touchpad's hardware was GREAT! 1.2ghz DUAL CORE Snapdragon S3... you can't get much better than that, and the processor blows Tegra 2's out of the water. 1GB of RAM is standard, so I think you either do not know the Touchpad's hardware, or you you don't like one of the best mobile SoCs on the market now.

<comment><USER2> If people want to spend their time porting Android to Touchpad, then good luck to them. My point was that webOS is the best thing about the Touchpad, _not_ the hardware (except maybe the Beats Audio speaker system), so why would I replace the best thing about my new tablet with Android? I'll say it again: if I wanted an Android tablet, I'd go buy a Samsung. webOS will remain on my Touchpad so I don't see the point of this project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can somebody explain the logic of porting Gingerbread first instead of starting with Honeycomb? I thought Google created Honeycomb as the tablet OS because Gingerbread didn't live up to certain tablet capabilities.

Is it easier to port Gingerbread for some reason?

<comment><USER3> They Honeycomb source code has not been released, so it is much more difficult to modify parts of Android so it would work on the different hardware the Touchpad has</comment></comment>


Four brilliant mathematicians whose genius has profoundly affected us but which drove them insane. [bbc] - <AUTHOR> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3503877302082311448

<comment><USER2> According to the film, Cantor had mental problems even before he dove into serious math - voices in his head, etc.

Turing: from the psychiatry standpoint homosexuality is a pathology too, and again, he had homosexual affairs before he started working on the problems that made him famous.

Which means, we may be confusing cause and effect here.

<comment><USER3> "from the psychiatry standpoint homosexuality is a pathology too"

Not any more, but in Turing's time yes.

<comment><USER2> Then why you think he is in the list of "crazy" mathematicians, at least according to the authors? (It may be because of the suicide though, which is considered pathology even now.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I watched the first few minutes of this a while ago. They were making unrealistic Faustian analogies, and it came off as unpleasantly dishonest.

I would contend that no one has ever been driven crazy by thinking about mathematics. We like to think that sort of thing, but the branch of science involved is almost always chemistry...

<comment><USER5> I don't know, I start to change for the worse when I isolate myself from all people while programming for a very long time. Good thing we have the internet these days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cantor and Nash went through their mental health problems at a time when diagnosis of mental issues was much worse than it is now. Lots of people suffered the same thing, genius or not. I don't think it has much to do with the fact that they were brilliant mathematicians.

<comment><USER7> And Turing's "insanity" has a lot more to do with the diabolical treatment he received at the hands of the British authorities; indeed, his suicide was arguably the rational act of a rational man.

(I'd hoped the BBC were above such sensationalism; I guess the memory of that old fascist Reith has now been thoroughly pissed upon.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Genius didn't drive Turing insane, society did.

</comment><comment><USER9> For those interested I would highly recommend "Godel Escher Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid (By Douglas Hofstadter)"

<comment><USER10> I wouldn't. There are many flaws in this book, but the main one is he gets facts wrong, both biographical and mathematical. For example, he writes that Turing died of a lab accident when in fact he committed suicide. He also tries to define consistency for all formal systems, and does so with outlandish philosophy involving "all possible universes". In fact, consistency (or inconsistency) is a property only of formal systems based on propositional logic--a subset of all formal systems--and it's easy to define mathematically. I can only imagine how many inaccuracies are in it that I wasn't able to spot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I thought the program communicated the material extremely well and I would definitely encourage others to watch it. I did feel it was a tad melodramatic but then again because the subject matter is so significant it could be in danger of being under-sold.

</comment><comment><USER12> The math material was interesting, it's a pity they thought they had to spice it up with the insanity angle.</comment>


The Calculus of Service Availability - <AUTHOR> https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3096459 <comment><AUTHOR> Implication 1: Rule of the extra 9

A service cannot be more available than the intersection of all its critical dependencies. If your service aims to offer 99.99 percent availability, then all of your critical dependencies must be significantly more than 99.99 percent available.

Internally at Google, we use the following rule of thumb: critical dependencies must offer one additional 9 relative to your service—in the example case, 99.999 percent availability—because any service will have several critical dependencies, as well as its own idiosyncratic problems. This is called the "rule of the extra 9."

If you have a critical dependency that does not offer enough 9s (a relatively common challenge!), you must employ mitigation to increase the effective availability of your dependency (e.g., via a capacity cache, failing open, graceful degradation in the face of errors, and so on.)</comment>


Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/21/21227976/vanmoof-s3-electric-bike-review-price-specs <comment><USER3> My favorite part of the review is that you can get theft insurance from Vanmoof which will pay for these guys to track down your stolen bike: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPJk8kTXA8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPJk8kTXA8)

 _The optional Peace of Mind theft recovery service costs $290 / €290 for three years. If VanMoof's Bike Hunters can't locate your bike within two weeks, they'll replace it with a bike of similar or better age and condition (first replacement is free, 2nd and 3rd cost $98 / €98)._

<comment><USER4> > VanMoof's Bike Hunters can't locate your bike within two weeks

In England, they'd locate the bike in someone's backyard, the police would say "eh, we can't be bothered to get a warrant to search this house just for a bicycle", and that would be the end of it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have had an X2 since last summer. Some points:

The hub motor is excellent. It gives you all-wheel drive which is a bit odd in a bicycle and can catch you out in very slippery conditions (mud on paved towpath by side of river, this is slippery for every bike and every foot, but the front-wheel drive can cause an extra slide).

The battery lasts well. I don't always need it hiked to full power (setting 4) and am happy to ride it at anything from 1-3. There is a boost button that provides extra oomph for climbing hills or getting away quickly.

It's not crazy heavy.

It's a properly vertically-integrated e-bike where everything is designed together and works together. If you want a bicycle with a motor and battery bolted-on, there's plenty of alternatives. The service has been excellent from VanMoof and the only flaw is that the rear mudguard somehow doesn't work and my entire back is covered in mud on a wet ride.

I paid full-price and it is an outstanding bicycle. I imagine the S3/X3 will be even better. I resisted the chance to buy one of those early.

<comment><USER4> Lack of regen braking is a bit of a downer...

As is no ability to 'mod' it for higher speeds (the engine completely cuts out at ~22mph).

Its weight and limited power and speed means that in a drag race with a similar strength rider against a non-electric bike, it will lose off the line and remain slower for a half mile or so until the riders get tired.

It is the tortoise in the race of the hare and tortoise.

<comment><USER6> > Lack of regen braking is a bit of a downer...

The mass of a bicycle and rider is relatively low, so there just isn't much energy to recover. It's not worth the more expensive motor and controller required to do it.

[https://www.pandaebikes.com/regen-braking-ebikes- worth/](https://www.pandaebikes.com/regen-braking-ebikes-worth/)

<comment><USER4> All ebikes on the market today already have the hardware for regen. You simply need to reflash the motor controller firmware to one which shifts the phase of the current by 180 degrees in the motor windings, and suddenly you're regen- ing. It can be as simple as a simple minus sign in the firmware source code, if only you had access to it!.

Some ebikes have firmware mods to do it - others not so much.

The main added difficulty is you can't recharge batteries too fast - <USER2> typical braking would produce too much power, and damage the batteries. If you didn't want to destroy your batteries, your regen would have to be pretty tame - more of a "gentle resistance" than "braking".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I live in Berlin where many people live in low-rise apartments with no elevators and keep their bikes downstairs. I believe this is quite common for many cities in Europe. What I don't understand is how people are charging their bikes. Are they really lugging this thing up multiple flights of stairs and charging it in their apartments every few days? I've heard it's pretty heavy. Or, does it not need to be charged very often?

<comment><USER8> They held a Q&A sessions and basically their answer to that question is two- fold if I remember it correctly:

\- removable batteries can be stolen,

\- can have issues due to bad weather.

They consider their design safer on those two points. It's imho a mistake.

<comment><USER9> Non-removable batteries are damaged by cold weather. Bringing it inside keeps it/you safer from theft, cold, and throwing out your back carrying your bike.

<comment><USER10> I knew that charging under water freezing temperatures could damage the battery, not storage or usage. Could you please share some details? I am evaluating to buy an electric bike, but during winter temperature can get to -20 °C/~0 °F, so it would be helpful to learn more about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> How exactly am I supposed to charge this? Take my bike in the lift up to the office/apartment? Maybe its because I'm not in California, but I've never seen a bike cage with charging stations -- and I'm sure it needs an expensive power brick. Without the ability to bring the battery with you for charging, this is an expensive toy for rich people in suburbia.

<comment><USER12> I have the VanMoof X2 ebike, which has the same non-removable battery. Yes, taking your bike up in the lift is what VanMoof expects you to do.

I live on the top floor of an apartment building, and it is annoying to bring the bike up every time it needs to charge, so I bought this large power bank: [https://www.amazon.com/SUAOKI-Generators-Portable- Generator-...](https://www.amazon.com/SUAOKI-Generators-Portable-Generator- Emergency/dp/B07BDCD9BQ)

I just bring that thing down to the bike parking area when I take out the trash, and charge the bike from that. It holds enough power to fill the bike.

It does add a few hundred to the cost, making it even more expensive. OTOH though I live in the city and use the ebike instead of a car, so I could probably buy a new ebike every year and still save money.

<comment><USER11> I like the battery pack more than the bike... I'd get a bigger one if I could, since running my laptop doing CUDA stuff sucks 240W.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Who produces the Vanmoof bikes?

When I looked into getting an e-bike I was amazed on how many brands just where reselling products (in their own name) made by a few Chinese factories that also sold the same bicycle on Alibaba.

I ended up getting a Xiaomi C20 which so far has served me well.

</comment><comment><USER14> I might be in the market for an e-bike.

The Cowboy looks a bit better to me with its central motor and removable battery but the Vanmoof looks more comfy. The review doesn't mention anything about that.

Is there any other significant difference between the two bikes? If you bought one of those, which criteria were decisive in your decision?

<comment><USER15> I've ridden a lot of electric bikes. To me, the hub motor is superior because it provides snappier acceleration which (to me) makes the bike more fun. The extra "kick" helps overcome the extra mass of the ebike and makes it feel like a normal bike.

try both kinds. I found the central-motor style pretty dull and sluggish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've ridden a Van Moof extensively and it's a very nice bike. Unfortunately, in San Francisco I have yet to find an elegant "normal looking" e-bike that can boost you up the hills without a significant struggle. Yes they help compared to foot power alone, but you still need to be pretty fit.

I understand the fitness requirement is also a feature, depending on your perspective. But for a lot of folks who are older or have health limitations, a nice-looking, easy to ride e-bike that could truly "flatten" San Francisco would be game changing. We're inching closer to that, and I'm excited to see it when it gets here.

<comment><USER9> What do you think of Bulls?

The Lacuba Evo Lite looks pretty normal and has a ton of power.

[https://www.bullsbikesusa.com/lacuba-evo-lite- diamond.html](https://www.bullsbikesusa.com/lacuba-evo-lite-diamond.html)

[https://electricbikereview.com/bulls/lacuba-evo- lite/](https://electricbikereview.com/bulls/lacuba-evo-lite/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Pros: The design and price. This bike would significantly improve my commute and lower my transportation costs.

Cons: Carrying a 19kg (22lbs) e-bike upstairs to my 1st floor (2nd floor) apartment a few times a week to charge it.

<comment><USER18> 19kg = 42lbs

Thats quite light for an e-bike.

There are lots of options with removable batteries, too, but if you can park/lock your bike downstairs maybe you can also just run an extension cord?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I was never that impressed with the older vanmoof models. The riding position is awful.

I was impressed (and bought) this Faraday. The faraday is just absolutely the perfect city bike.

[https://electricbikereview.com/faraday/porteur/](https://electricbikereview.com/faraday/porteur/)

For something more speedy, I was really impressed with the older Stromer (not the latest one)

[https://electricbikereview.com/stromer/st1-x/](https://electricbikereview.com/stromer/st1-x/)

<comment><USER19> Yeah, I bought a Faraday Porteur too, it's hands-down the smoothest ride on an e-bike I've ever experienced. The electric motor on the front wheel while you pedal the back wheel as normal is a unique configuration that means the different drive methods don't interfere with each other at all. On the lower setting the electric assist feels like a gentle breeze is blowing your direction. It was also my first experience with a carbon belt drive, which was a revelation.

It's really a shame that Faraday got bought out and stopped making bicycles, yet doesn't make it clear on their website that they've gone out of business, which is crucial information for anyone thinking about buying one. Some of their custom parts, like the internal battery pack, will be difficult to replace once they run out of inventory.

Today I use a Tern GSD instead (in part because of the cargo capacity, in part b/c of standard Bosch parts), and I'm trying to sell my Faraday, although the pandemic has interfered with that somewhat. If anyone is in the Philadelphia area and wants a Faraday Porteur, please take it off my hands :)

<comment><USER20> Not unique, Gocycle GX has this configuration too.

<comment><USER19> To be fair, the VanMoof S3 in this article also has a front hub motor, so clearly it is not literally unique. That said, I looked for a long time about a year ago, and had difficulty finding any other examples of front hub motors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> That custom gear box with those plastic gears gives me pause. I'm planning to buy an ebike sometime, but I think I'd go with something like a RADCity that uses off-the-shelf components. The RadPower bikes definitely don't look as cool, but the batteries are removable, the components are readily available and the price is even lower.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm baffled by the hub motor - are there any cases of hub motors superior to mid-drives?

<comment><USER23> They can used throttle only and don't add strain on the chain.

<comment><USER22> I think throttle-only would make them illegal in most EU countries (or, more specifically, they wouldn't be in the same category as bikes anymore); but also, is there really anything implicit in a mid-drive engine that prevents throttle-only?

Interesting point about the chain. What causes more strain, specifically? Essentially, if a certain power is required to go at a certain speed, what makes it different if it's muscle only, or mixed muscle/engine?

<comment><USER24> It's not that a mid-drive motor adds more wear, as you note it should be about equal to a bike with no motor. But the hub motor reduces wear, as you are applying less force to the drive train to achieve the same moving power, since the motor applies force at the wheel directly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm a bit wary of VanMoof. I don't like the frame geometry to start with, but they also offer only one frame size which is supposed to fit a wide range of bodies.

This makes me think this bike is marketed at people who perhaps have little previous experience with bicycles.

<comment><USER26> FTA: _"The S3 and X3 models are essentially the same under the "hood," differing only by frame types and wheel sizes. The S3 is designed for riders ranging in size from 170 to 210 cm (5 feet, 7 inches to 6 feet, 11 inches), while the compact X3 fits riders from 155 to 200 cm (5 feet, 1 inch to 6 feet, 7 inches)"_

IMO, the only weird thing is that the wheels of the smaller model are only 24".

<comment><USER25> Yes, I read that.

So people with body length differences of 40 or 45cm are to use the same bicycle.

I find that hilarious. There's like 20 frame sizes in that range. Most good manufacturers offer at least a dozen.

<comment><USER27> That's unfortunately not the case for ebikes. I've been looking at ebikes for a while and several highly rated manufacturers only offer 1 size of ebike and are too big for me (e.g. cowboy, propella).

<comment><USER25> If they only have one size, I wouldn't rate them highly...

Can't be good for your knees and your back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The cutaway view of the shifter shows what look like plastic gears. Is that typical?

<comment><USER29> I've got a conversion setup that uses a geared hub motor, apparently the gears are some type of nylon. They're fairly durable, as there isn't a lot of torque on the gear teeth themselves as this is a reduction gear (goes from a higher speed low torque motor to a lower speed at the hub).

I have noticed with mine that there is a bit of a stressful sound from the gears if I apply the throttle from a dead stop, esp. if up an incline. So I typically will start peddling first a couple times then ease on the throttle. Not sure how this would work on a different setup that uses a peddle sensor though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I tried to find battery specs and all I was able to get was "Battery 504W capacity Integrated LG cell Removable for servicing". Is that a typo and it is actually 504 watt hours or it is battery's rated power?

<comment><USER31> The article now claims a "504Wh-capacity battery," which agrees with VanMoof's page for the S3.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> As long e-bikes are still limted by silly 250w/500w motors they're never going to take out in the mass market.

<comment><USER20> eBikes outsell in the Netherlands.

<comment><USER33> They are booming across most of Europe. Every bike shop I see has at least a couple of models in the lineup, this is a big change from a couple of years ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> All the great things said about it are probably true. It probably is an amazing package.

... But the thing I get the most excited about is how amazing the frame with the integrated lights looks.</comment>


Brolly, an 'AI-driven' insurance app, raises £1M seed round - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/27/brolly/ <comment><USER2> For non-Britons, brolly means 'umbrella' [1] - not a vital detail, but a clever piece of branding for an overarching service like theirs.

1: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella#Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella#Etymology)

</comment><comment><USER3> AI driven. Yeah, definitely.

Sorry folks, an interactive onboarding form is not AI.</comment>


Show HN: HN-clone for 3D-printing news - <AUTHOR> http://3dprinternews.info

<comment><USER2> I guess I read this incorrectly, but I thought it was going to be a fun play on HN-clones with a 3D print of news.ycombinator.com.

<comment><AUTHOR> LOL. I'll save that idea for next weekend. ;)</comment></comment>


The C64 Mini Computer - <AUTHOR> https://thec64.com/ <comment><USER2> My first idea from the title was a historical product, something with RAM expansion, multi-user OS and hard drive. A minicomputer. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer))

<comment><USER3> Afew years ago you could have got one of these. [https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/C64DTV](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/C64DTV)

<comment><USER4> I can't shake the feel that the mini is a continuation of that. Especially i find the bundled stick to be remarkably similar...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As someone who owned a C64, the games list leaves a lot to be desired.

Some make sense, but the absence of Pirates!, The Bard's Tale series, AD&D Gold Box and Carmen Sandiago games is noticeable. I imagine the licensing is too hard. Then the missed gems like Cauldron I & II, Ultimate Wizard, etc.

I guess I'll stick to VICE.

<comment><USER6> Only a couple of those games did I recognize (I think). As far as I could tell from a quick look, not a single game I did play on the C64 made the cut. I wonder if the lack of a real keyboard severely limited the games they could include?

Just checked the web page again, and it sounds like it IS a more or less fully functional C64 -- you just need to add a real USB keyboard to type on it. Wonder if it has a way to emulate a 1541 over USB?

<comment><USER7> My reading comprehension is sht, so the keys are just for show?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> In style with NES Classic and SNES Classic, now comes the C64 in similar style - small package with a couple of controllers and HDMI. Keyboard support to write Basic. A handful of built-in games.

I guess it's basically the same inside too, some half-decent ARM A-line cpu running some emulator. I can see the appeal, although I know myself and it will be fun for a good few 10 minutes, then collect dust (not to be pessimistic or so, I just know myself :)).

<comment><AUTHOR> Also,

> THEC64® Mini will hit the shops in early 2018 with a suggested retail price > of £69.99/$69.99/€79.99.

And the controller looks similar to a Tac 2, which is a win in my book :).

<comment><USER8> I think it looks very much like a Zipstik ([http://blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2016/03/zipstik- joystick...](http://blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2016/03/zipstik-joystick- repair.html)).

The TAC-2 is smaller and a much simpler shape, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAC-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAC-2).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ohh great, 35 years old platform wars in the comments :)

The ZX Spectrum is definitely the most overrated of all of the 8-bits : it had by far the most horrid (all but monochrome !) graphics of the bunch, and few other redeeming qualities (mainly its price). And yet, there's no shortage of reissues, books, and modern worship around it. Nostalgia is a strange thing, sometimes.

The C64's cult following is much better deserved : in spite of its washed out graphics (it doesn't even have a proper red colour!), it did have hardware sprites, a lot of character and of course the SID: the most exquisite sound chip ever made !

But probably the most underrated and best 8-bit of all was the Amstrad CPC : It had hands down the best graphics of the bunch (Google ZX/C64/CPC screenshots of Operation Wolf, Gryzor, or Stormlord and you'll know what I mean ! Also, check out this recent and jaw-dropping homebrew CPC remake of the Amiga's Pinball Dreams : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVv- oBN6AWA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVv-oBN6AWA) )

The Amstrad was also the only fully standalone one, with its built-in tape deck or disk drive and sharp CRT screen out of the box (the screen also doubled as a PSU, and provided proper RGB connectivity, unlike the mushy Composite output of the C64 or ZX on the home TV)

IIRC, the C64 sold 17 million units, the various ZX variants 5 million, and the Amstrad 3 million. The markets were quite local : the C64 was king in Germany and northern Europe, the CPC was strongest in France (where nobody had ever seen a Speccy ever, and hardly any C64s) and Spain (together with the Spectrum, but not the C64)

Why the British had this strange fascination with the Spectrum and mostly ignored their also-homegrown and vastly superior Amstrad, is a topic of great puzzlement and affliction to me.

And I'm totally not saying that out of spite that the publisher of the gorgeous "Visual Compedium" retro book series, was worried that the Amstrad was "too niche" when I suggested to him that he should do one for the 8 bit with the best graphics (because let's face it, "ZX Spectrum : a Visual Compedium" is kind of an oxymoron). The latest book he had just released was about the Neo Geo. Talk about niche ...

<comment><USER10> The CPC launched in 1984, just before the home computer crash. It was a relatively expensive and unproven machine, competing in a market that was glutted with unsold stock at knock-down prices. With the required monitor, the CPC 464 cost £300. That Christmas, you could have had a Spectrum 48k Plus for £140 or an Acorn Electron for £100, with a free tape recorder and a bundle of games. Your mates probably had Specrums, so you could copy all their games for the price of a blank cassette. The CPC wasn't that much cheaper than the BBC Model B, which was the respectable middle-class home computer at the time.

The Speccy was the right computer for the times. It arrived very early on in the home computer boom and was very keenly priced, so it maintained good network effects throughout its lifespan. The machine was cheap, the peripherals were cheap and there were loads of games. Sir Clive didn't fragment the platform by introducing incompatible new models, he just kept cutting the price. The Speccy remained popular into the tail end of the 1980s, almost entirely because of the huge back catalogue of games. We loved it in part _because_ it was a bit crap and because Sir Clive was such a hopeless businessman - the British have a terrible soft spot for underdogs.

The CPC didn't sell well as a home computer, but it was quite attractive as a small-business machine - the monochrome display was cheap and reasonably crisp, the 3" floppy drive was far cheaper than 3.5" drives and it would run CP/M. Lord Sugar responded very shrewdly with the PCW series, which was tailored for business and sold far better than the CPC. Marketing the PCW as a word processor rather than a computer and bundling it with a printer was a minor stroke of genius, with the brilliant slogan "more than a word processor for less than most typewriters".

Amstrad had the last laugh by buying out the rights to the Spectrum, but the sheer quantity of Speccies that Amstrad sold is a testament to the platform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > _plug in a USB keyboard and use as a fully functional home computer_

This is weird... Why would I plug a keyboard into what looks like a perfectly good keyboard?

<comment><USER12> It is a simulacrum. Adding a real, custom tiny keyboard (which 99% of buyers won't use anyway) would probably double the price.

<comment><USER13> Understandable, but disappointing. There already are emulators for the software. For the real experience, I'd like to type using that clunky C64 keyboard :P

<comment><USER11> Exactly. A non-working simulation is something that goes strongly against the geek mentality.

<comment><USER14> Nintendo has sold a great many NES and SNES Classics with non-working cartridge drives, and I'm sure a lot of the people buying those were geeks, so it must not go too strongly against it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> On the higher end of 8-bit-micro reissues, there's the ZX Spectrum Next: [https://www.specnext.com/about/](https://www.specnext.com/about/) . The industrial design is by Rick Dickinson, who designed all the original Spectrums up to the QL.

<comment><USER16> That's amazing...if I don't like Kickstarter, can i buy one after the campaign is over?

Also, will it come with a good documentation? Things in the 80's often had phenomenal documentation that was designed to teach and not just point out the location of a few pins.

I never used the Zx before. What is the user experience like? When you boot up, can you bring up a BASIC prompt or type in Assembly?

<comment><USER17> [https://www.specnext.com/the-shop-is-now-live](https://www.specnext.com/the- shop-is-now-live) (Jun 2017)

 _the Next is available for pre-ordering here on the website. There are, though, a couple of changes we made to keep things fair for everyone: first, the shipping date is a month later than for the KS backers, they will get their boards and machines first; second, the Next now has a 20% margin over the original price_

[https://www.specnext.com/shop](https://www.specnext.com/shop)

ZX Spectrum Next board (devkit) £119.00 + VAT

ZX Spectrum Next computer £210.00 + VAT

ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated computer £275.00 + VAT

<comment><USER18> Except, as far as I can tell, all of them are not available for pre-order either (at least not anymore).

<comment><USER15> The official word on further availability seems to be "likely but can't yet confirm": [https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=696](https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=696)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The more I think about the experience we had many years ago with these simple and beautiful computers, the more I think that we should recreate the same experience for our children. I think that the path is: a very easy starting point (like a BASIC REPL) and the possibility to Peek and Poke at a later stage.

<comment><USER20> A simple fpga based machine with a simple instruction set, HDMI out, and gobs more memory than used to exist. Nicer graphics say 1900x1200 with good BASIC primitives. Instant on. SD card reader. No internal storage other than ROM.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I did not recognize any of the game titles. I was around then but I did not realize how different the titles on the C64 were to those available on Sinclair and Acorn computers.

Is this a representative selection of titles from the era?

I would be very interested if there was any correlation between home computer brands and automotive brands. Commodore was marketed in the UK in a way that brings to mind Vauxhall cars (GM).

It is too late to do the data now but in my mind Sinclair was more like Ford UK and Acorn more like a properly engineered German marque, e.g. Mercedes.

Much like you would never put G.M. parts in a Ford but you could put a Ford or GM engine in some other car, e.g. a Lotus sports car, it seems that there were reasons beyond hardware limitations for why some titles never crossed over. Only Commodore users got certain sub-genres, e.g. those text adventure things.

<comment><USER22> A bunch of these were also Spectrum hits: Heartland, the Monty Mole series, and Everyone's A Wally are some stand-outs. California Games got converted to pretty much every platform around.

<comment><USER23> Cybernoid / Cybernoid II too, I remember playing those on my 48k Spectrum.

Infinite lives if you redefined your keys as "YXES" on the original, and as "ORGY" on the sequel. Once done you'll hear an audio confirmation and you can reset them to whatever you like.

20+ years and I still remember those!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> this is a 'gateway drug' to getting a full C=64 system so you can Commodore 64 properly: Karatika, Bruce Lee, Print Shop + Epson dotmatrix printer to make banners

</comment><comment><USER25> I have just had my C64 restored by a friend. SID n VID needed replacing along with a few other bits. The video out is now SCART and it now sports an eight GB SD Card and Fastboot.

Just got it back and fired it up. Nostalgia in spades.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'd be a lot more likely to get it if it wasn't half-sized, actually. Gotta be impossible to type on that keyboard.

<comment><USER27> I'm going to assume that keyboard is non-functional but I'd happy to be wrong about that.

<comment><USER28> Sounds like it. From the About page:

>As befits a home computer you can also plug in a standard USB PC keyboard and use as a classic C64 to type in those old BASIC computer listings or program new games.

It doesn't seem like they'd phrase it that way unless you were _required_ to plug in a USB keyboard in order to type.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I would be interested if it had the original hardware.

What are the challenges in producing new C64 (and NES and SNES) with the same hardware? I believe there are a lot of modern Genesis copies using the same hardware.

<comment><USER30> Modern, real-hardware NES: [https://www.analogue.co/pages/nt- mini](https://www.analogue.co/pages/nt-mini)

FPGA NES: [http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_i...](http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=78)

<comment><USER30> Too late for me to edit, but the Analogue-NT Mini _is also_ FPGA. I got that wrong. Pretty sure the original NT _was_ fully hardware, not FPGA, but I don't think it's available anymore.

Main difference between the two linked products, then, aside from appearance and maybe build quality (can't say which is better, don't own either), is output options, as best I can tell (the NT has _a lot_ of AV out options). And price, obviously.

[EDIT] The reason video out options are important, aside from aesthetics, is that some peripherals require a CRT. Notably the Zapper.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Wondering how authentic the audio recreation will be? SID chip is very popular.

</comment><comment><USER32> It looks like this has some of the same product people as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to- TV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV) , but critically not Jeri Ellsworth.

<comment> white-flame It certainly doesn't look like a hardware reimplementation, either. It's most likely going to be ARM-based emulation. With the DTV you could at least connect it to external C64 peripherals and do cool things with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Very nice. Put together, it seems, with a very small team. Curious what their pricing will be and how they managed to license all those games. Interesting that they could include the games but then not use the word "Commodore". It appears that the brand owner still exists, sort of? ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_USA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_USA)).

<comment><USER34> On the site it suggests £69.99/$69.99

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Add Archon, Seven Cities of Gold, Alligata Blagger, Lode Runner, M.U.L.E., Bruce Lee or IK, and take my damn money, please.

</comment><comment><USER36> I dreamed of owning this computer or the Sinclair ZX80 when I was in high school. Our media center had two Apple ][ computers, but access to them was very limited. It would take me two more years to buy my own Apple IIc.

</comment><comment><USER37> I'd love to see the demoscene do something cool with it :)

<comment> white-flame It's ARM-based, so if it isn't using one of the big kahuna emulators (the RPi3 isn't powerful enough to do VICE full-spec), it's unlikely to run even existing C64 demos.

And since there's no mention of any expanded features of the C64-ness itself, there's no draw to do any development for this device in particular.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> How easy would it be to write games on this that use the joy stick, and what are the compiler options? BASIC interpreter, C compiler, Pascal compiler, Assembly?

<comment><USER38> C64 BASIC is pretty terrible -- to do anything with graphics or sound, you really have to use PEEK/POKE and do it in 6502 assembly. Aside from that, 6502 assembly is your best bet. There are lots of tutorials online for the C64 specifically, and there are good cross-assembler toolchains available.

<comment><USER16> Sounds fun, but kind of a pain. I've been meaning to write a Forth...sounds like a good project.

<comment><USER39> It is definitely doable: [https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Forth](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Forth)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Any text adventures included? I've played Zork on the C64 and it was great.

<comment><USER6> None I recognized the name of on their list, and you'd have to add a USB keyboard to type on it. (Also, speaking as someone who played lots of Infocom games on his C64, I don't think there's any advantage whatsoever to playing them there as opposed to a modern terminal of some sort?)

<comment><USER16> I've got Zork on other platforms, but it did seem cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Will it have a real keyboard?

<comment> white-flame No, only the full-sized THEC64 claims a working keyboard. The mini model just has keyboard-looking styling.</comment></comment>


I turned my old desktop into 2.5TB NAS Linux server with a few hard drives - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@janjilecek/how-i-turned-my-old-desktop-into-2-5tb-nas-backup-linux-server-with-a-few-hard-drives-1414852aa0b5 <comment><USER2> If I'm reading this correctly, there is no redundancy... so if a drive shits the bed, you've lost data... I know having a mix of drive sizes is a pain, but if you have at least multiples of 2 of each size, having a bunch of mirrors and then stripe across would be better. You do lose space, but you gain redundancy. In theory, say 6 drives, 3 different sizes, using zfs. 1 pool full of three mirrors. 500gb, 750gb and 1tb pairs would give you at least some redundancy. But this is just me thinking out loud...

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah I was thinking about doing it in RAID, but then I thought: I am gonna be using this NAS just for a redundant backups from my external hard drive and laptop, so I won't really lose anything if it shits the bed :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I would look into using ZFS w/redundancy and snapshots esp for backup purposes. This can easily tie into third-party backup services as well unless this is just for transient storage.</comment>


Using JRuby by Charles Nutter released - <AUTHOR> http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781934356654

<comment><USER2> Charles Oliver Nutter is one of those guys that helps provide a healthy dose of humility to average programmers like myself. The level of expertise and knowledge required, and the mastery of multiple languages that is necessary, to create something like JRuby is something I find mind-boggling.

Congrats to Headius for the book release and thanks for providing an impeccable example of programming excellence to aspire to.

<comment><USER3> Plus he's a genuinely good guy, a pleasure to be around. And I swear he never sleeps, given all that he gets done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I just wanted to make sure to point out I was just one of five authors on the book. The others were Tom Enebo, Nick Sieger, Ola Bini, and our fantastic lead author Ian Dees, without whom there would be no book at all. They deserve as much (or more) credit for the book as I do.

And thanks for the kind words :) I hope folks will enjoy the book and JRuby alike.

</comment><comment><USER5> Excerpts and full TOC from the Pragmatic Programmers (the actual publisher) here: <http://pragprog.com/titles/jruby/using-jruby>

(Also, a direct order form for print or DRM-free ebooks.)

</comment><comment><USER6> Why is orielly selling pragprog books?

<comment><USER7> From Pragprog's contact page[1]:

> Our paperback titles are distributed to retail bookstores by O'Reilly Media, > and are stocked and shipped by Ingram Publisher Services. Please contact > Ingram or O'Reilly to order. If you have any difficulty obtaining a > paperback title, please email us at email@example.com.

There must be some similar deal with NoStarch since their books also appear on O'Reilly's site.

That said, I still somehow wish the main link here were to Pragprog's page.

[1]: <http://pragprog.com/contact>

<comment><USER8> And it looks like this one has not landed in O'Reilly's Safari (not yet, at least).</comment></comment></comment>