Show HN: Tifuhash - Tiny Fast Universal Hash, using 64-bit continued fractions - <AUTHOR> https://www.npmjs.com/package/tifuhash <comment><USER2>
       > t.hash(0.00000000000000001)
       '0000000000000000'
       > t.hash(0.00000000000000002)
       '00000000ffffffff'
       > t.hash(0.00000000000000003)
       '00000000ffffffff'
       > t.hash(0.00000000000000004)
       '00000000ffffffff'
       > t.hash(0.00000000000000005)
       '00000000fdffffff'
       > 0.00000000000000001
       > t.hash(1e17)
       '5555555597d44646'
       > t.hash(1e18)
       '55555555ac43d2d1'
       > t.hash(1e19)
       '55555555acd2b64f'
       > t.hash('\000')
       '0000000000000000'
       > t.hash('\000\000')
       '5555555592244992'
       > t.hash('\000\000\000')
       '0000000000000000'
       > t.hash('\001')
       '9224499200000000'
       > t.hash('\002')
       '33333333dedddddd'

<comment><AUTHOR> _Edit: Update. I pushed a new version that addresses the collisions presented by dchest. I invite you to take a look. Thanks!_

\--

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. Well done finding all those collisions. This is serious! Here's an issue: [https://github.com/dosaygo- coder-0/tifuhash/issues/3](https://github.com/dosaygo- coder-0/tifuhash/issues/3)

Tho it's already valuable enough you pointing this out -- if you have any ideas on how to improve for these cases, please let me know!

Note to self: This community is so good. If something technical gets a bit of traction, you can count on people to find some holes in it. Very valuable. Just wanna say words can't express my gratitude at people's efforts at this. It's very helpful.

<comment><USER3> Dumb questions, why is this a problem?

       t.hash(0.00000000000000002) == t.hash(0.00000000000000003)

How often would this cause issues in real-world?

<comment><USER4> If you use it for a hash table, every collision has to be "resolved" in a way that takes time: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table#Collision_resolutio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table#Collision_resolution) .

So if a hash function has lots of collisions it will use the memory of the hash table less efficiently and cause inserts and lookups to be slower. I think collisions are undesirable for other reasons too, none of which are coming to me right now.

<comment><USER3> But doesn't every hash function have some collisions? Why would this particular example be very bad?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm of the same mindset. I mean -- surely there are some collisions always. And I actually liked the property of the original version that a zero value hashed to all zeroes. While the rest of the pre-image was shuffled. But I suppose that being able to compute collisions is not a great thing. You may think that if it is not intended to be used in a cryptographic sense it does not matter. However, if you can easily compute collisions you could, theoretically of course, launch a denial-of-service attacks on a service (cache denial) by sending lots of values to the same hash slot. I mean, with probing and so on there are ways around this and in the end maybe the conventional wisdom ought to be revised, maybe there isn't so much to worry about from a few collisions, even easy to compute ones. But, as it stands, right now, the market demands collision resistance. So I damn well gave it to them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In addition to the things others have pointed out, note that "universality" is a well-defined concept w.r.t. hash functions: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_hashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_hashing) \- you should probably not use it to describe your hash function if you can't show universality.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it is probably universal, but I have to show it to know for sure. I'm going to keep calling it universal until I know more.

I think I note it in the README, but some reasons I think it is probably universal are because tifuhash can be parameterized, and it has good independence properties ( passes PractRand ).

Showing it is universal or not is another step. I suppose I could experiment, to see if the collision probabilities match the criteria for universal or k-universal. Or maybe I could show it. For showing it, my next step is to read over this paper[1] to see if I can use its methods to show universality. I think it is using properties of the bits under multiplication. And I believe one avenue would be to show it using properties of the bits under division. I don't know how to approach the bits under division right now.

[1]: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.06804](https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.06804)

<comment><USER5> I admire your confidence but I don't share it - showing universality for a complex construct like yours is rather nontrivial. You should really start by testing with SMHasher, though. Best of luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for encouraging me to use SMHahser.

I posted the SMHasher results here: [https://github.com/dosaygo- coder-0/smhasher/blob/master/tifu...](https://github.com/dosaygo- coder-0/smhasher/blob/master/tifuhash.results.txt)

And my SMHasher fork testing tifuhash is here: [https://github.com/dosaygo- coder-0/smhasher](https://github.com/dosaygo-coder-0/smhasher)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sorry, I can only read this as "Today I Fucked Up hash"

<comment><USER7> It probably is. So what is wrong with say MurmurHash that you have to hack your own?

<comment><USER8> Yeah, it's one thing to create it for fun, but why publish it as a library for general consumption?

<comment><USER6> I strongly disagree with this idea - code should always be released! If it's good, we can avoid rewriting code and have more options for hashing, and if some people point out problems with the code, the author can learn from their mistakes and fix them if possible - they wouldn't want to use it in their private code with the mistakes.

I think this thread is more negative than the author deserves. The method of hashing is novel and could possibly lead to exploration in the area, and if not that, where else could the author post to get feedback from the author of murmurhash??

I think the only problem here is that they advertise it as production ready/universal without evidence or rigorous testing, rather than "hey, here's a cool hash I came up with."

<comment><USER8> > I strongly disagree with this idea - code should always be released!

There is a difference between releasing code, say on github, and putting it out there like it's ready for use in a production system, like in a package manager. I only said the later shouldn't be done, not the former.

Rereading, I guess that wasn't exactly what I said. I can't seem to edit now, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Novel: using division, or using floating point division, and discarding the > high-order-bits ( as we do here ) is not used nor studied so much, if at > all, in hash construction

Is that because division is slow compared to bit operations?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it's something like that, that division is slower than multiplication in the chip.

Also, a lot of hashing had to do with prime fields, and polynomials in them, and people seem to be able to do most of the maths without division. Or when they do divide, then are using powers of two, so thru can just use bit shifts, which are faster.

So there's a lot of "discrete" type math in hashing...i don't see why we couldn't have more continuous or factional math.

Afterall, Huffman coding is good, but arithmetic coding, which i believe uses fractional math, is better. Probably more hashing can be done the way that I'm doing here. So happy to find this new thing.

I'm thinking FPGA... They do floating point right? GPU? Same right? I think continued Egyptian fraction hashing could be on the up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Uses two 64 bit floating point integers for calculation"? Floating point integers?

<comment><USER11> My snarky self woke up and said "That's an appropriate name for the integer simulation of JavaScript".

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is connected with a truly amazing website that does not make my eyes bleed in any way.

[https://dosaygo.com/](https://dosaygo.com/)

<comment><USER13> I'll say this though - the site is absolutely 1000% more usable than the single-page-app-that's-actually-a-document style du jour. Just tone down the colours and remove the horizontal scrollbar (put the two things one below the other). Other than that, this is definitely a motherfucking website :) ( [http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/) )

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for saying this. I am fond of my robust as nails site. I like that it can work on lynx. I shall take your improvement ideas under advisement.</comment></comment></comment>


(UK ruling) Content is 'made available' in jurisdiction where server is located - <AUTHOR> http://out-law.com/page-11561

<comment><USER2> If it holds up, then that should kill off the constant suing of web site owners for libel in the UK even when a given site is hosted outside of the UK. The UK's current libel laws are due a makeover but in the mean time they are being used to suppress legitimate comment and free speech.

<comment><USER3> The UK is not a single jurisdiction. Scotland has a separate legal system from England and Wales, based on different principles; while most legislation has run in parallel since the Act of Union, English libel law doesn't apply in Scotland -- instead we have a defamation law:

"Under English law ... In the case of libel (the recorded statement), the victim can win damages even if he has not suffered financial loss as a result of the statement ... In a Scottish action, _it is necessary to show that some harm has been caused_ " (Source: <http://www.out-law.com/page-5624> \-- my emphasis).

This is good news for me personally because my blog sits on a colo box in Scotland. (And when was the last time you heard of a libel tourist suing someone in a Scottish court? _Riiight_ ...)

<comment><AUTHOR> The principal difference in this regard is that Scotland makes no distinction between the two forms of defamation that the English call libel ('written') and slander ('spoken'). The money is in libel.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> N.B. this has not yet gone to a full trial, this is a preliminary judgement.

<comment><USER4> And it's going to last about as long as it takes the court to add up the income from libel tourists and the losses in people moving their data centres out of the UK

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> That's remarkably sane.</comment>


CTRL-F – Search, for the real world - <AUTHOR> http://www.ctrlf.io/ <comment><USER2> How is this different from Scanbot, or (I presume) other similar programs?

Oh, answered my own question - unlike Scanbot, the processing is local; there's no need for a network connection and no cloud storage.</comment>


The Gun-Law Loophole That Entices Tycoons and Criminals to Play Cop - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-15/the-gun-law-loophole-that-entices-tycoons-and-criminals-to-play-c <comment><USER2> This sounds more like a problem with accountability for police departments than a fundamental flaw in LEOSA. Bloomberg is fundamentally opposed to any sort of pro-2A stance, however, so they would much rather blame the supposedly-lenient gun laws.

<comment><USER3> Considering it's nigh impossible to get police departments to be accountable (who watches the watchmen?), I'm siding with Bloomberg that if we want to solve this problem, we'll have to change the laws first (and hopefully accountability will follow).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It seems simple enough to fix. Just add a paid hours requirement to the exemption, something like 500 hours in the previous 12 months or so.

Or just get rid of it entirely.

<comment><USER5> Reserve police officers often undergo the same training and perform the same functions as full time law enforcement officers in many areas. There isn't any need for HR218 changes and police standards are set on a state by state basis.

[http://www.lapdonline.org/join_the_team/content_basic_view/5...](http://www.lapdonline.org/join_the_team/content_basic_view/542)

<comment><USER4> We disagree that it is okay for wealthy people to buy badges.

I'm pretty okay with letting reserve officers that don't do a lot of duty fall through the cracks, that's a better tradeoff than selling Stephen Seagull a badge.

<comment><USER5> > We disagree that it is okay for wealthy people to buy badges.

I don't think you should be able to simply purchase badges. I think reserve officers should go through the same hiring process as full time officers and attend a police academy.

<comment><USER4> So we just need to wait for the worst state to improve their standards for issuing badges then?

Seems like it might be a long wait.

<comment><USER6> Seems to me like it should be up to the state and the people in it to change their rules, if they desire to do so. It looks like the problem is the federal legislation which seems to override state decisions on who is allowed to carry concealed firearms and when.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is no 50 state concealed carry license. In many states, applicants for licenses must be residents of that state. This makes armed security that can follow protectees across any state border impossible without such legal hacks.

<comment><USER8> So? States should be free to decide the terms of concealed gun carriers in their states.

If you're rich enough to travel with people with hidden guns, you can get them licensed in the states you plan to visit.

<comment><USER9> > you can get them licensed in the states you plan to visit

You should reread the OP, many states do not allow non-residents to get permits. So someone who needed body guards would need a different set of body guards for every state they visit that doesn't honor their permit.

<comment><USER10> They could solve that problem by getting that state to honor the permits from the state issuing the permits to their bodyguards.

<comment><USER7> That would require legislation. As it stands, it is still impossible for bodyguards to have 50 state CCW without legal hacks like this one.

<comment><USER10> Then they should not carry guns where they do not have a valid permit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A man was killed in Tulsa by a wealthy "volunteer" deputy. This is all part of a larger problem of police accountability and training more than gun laws.

</comment><comment><USER12> If you didn't need a license to exercise a constitutional right this shady shit wouldn't exist.

<comment><USER13> There is no constitutional right for the concealed-carry of a gun.

<comment><USER14> The Constitution doesn't address whether the right to bear arms is either open or concealed carry. The Constitution does not _grant_ this right - it, among others, is considered a _natural_ right, applicable to the free people. It only lists this right, among others, to emphasize that government is not supposed to infringe upon it. We all see how poorly that enumerated philosophy is followed, understood, accepted, or defended.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Bill of rights has a something similar.

</comment><comment><USER16> The problem that they are carrying concealed weapons is minor compared to the problem of giving out cop badges for money. Just when I thought I couldn't respect cops less, they do this. It's not a few bad apples, it's a barrel full of _only_ rotten apples.</comment>


A New Kind of Start-Up Organization for a New Kind of Lansing - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/a-new-kind-of-startup-organization-for-a-new-kind-of-lansing/262614/

<comment><AUTHOR> I live nearby and know the founders of the NEO Center. I think what is significant is how the founders used the L3C low profit corporation to pull this off. This law has never to my knowledge been used to start an incubator.

If you live in Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming this is an option for creating a startup hub.</comment>


DeFUDing "DNSSEC has failed" - <AUTHOR> http://nohats.ca/wordpress/blog/2014/03/23/defuding-dnssec-has-failed-by-jeroen-van-der-ham/

<comment><USER2> > the last step is to send your DS record to your Registrar which involves > using their custom webgui to send them the following data [...]

When deploying DNSSEC, I found it surprising that no one has built a protocol for this. Some registrars seem to support in-house web APIs, but there's no one standard™.

Anyway, very good response overall. I understand the original writer wanted attention as he wrote "I did put things more bluntly to get attention, and that has succeeded. I hope to have better news later next week" in HN comments.

</comment><comment><USER3> Although it wasn't the intent of the post, I am bookmarking this as "How to setup DNSSEC" for future reference.

<comment><USER4> Actually I half suspect that the intent of the _original_ post was to elicit a DNSSEC-enthusiast-approved how-to like the one we see here. After all, the best way to ask how to do something online _isn 't_ to ask politely while including all relevant details, but to obnoxiously claim to the right audience that it can't be done.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: how much does a user cost FB yearly in operating costs? - <AUTHOR>

Roughly? <comment><USER2> Well it depends on the user. If it it a user like me, that has 1 album with 10 photos and update my status once in a blue moon... well not a lot, but, if it's somebody like my mum's cousin that updates there status every few hours with 10's of comments, and has around 30-50 albums with an average of 100 photos each, well it costs them much much more.

</comment><comment><USER3> Until they go public, it's impossible to really know. Even a rough estimate could be way off.

</comment><comment><USER4> Find out their monthly burn rate and divide by 600MM

So, in may 2008 they were said to burn 150MM / year.

Lets assume thats doubled - so, 300 MM per year.

300/12 = 25MM per month 25/600 = .04 cents per month, per user.</comment>


Cheesemaking tips from the ancients - <AUTHOR> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/eat-cheese-mostly-fresh-not-too-much <comment><USER2> If you ever read "Le Têtard", a biography of the French best seller author Jacque Lanzmann, you'll learn some very funny things about the 1930 French country side.

One of the details that sticked with me was that, in his village, there was a lady whose job was to pee on cheeses. She'll go from cheese maker to cheese maker, and do her thing on each piece.

Also a windmill gore accident, bestiality with a cow, rape by a grandma and mugging by the police.

But the cheese pee is still my favorite.

<comment><USER3> There doesn't appear to be an English translation, is there?

<comment><USER2> No idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are a plethora of online guides to DIY cheese-making but I'm wondering if anyone on Hacker News has any specific books or websites they would recommend for the first time cheese-maker. I appreciate the guidance.

<comment><USER5> I'm a very novice cheese maker. I also recommend watching Gavin Webber's youtube videos to understand the basics. He's probably not the best cheese maker in the world, but he's refreshingly honest about his mistakes and he shows videos of where things have gone wrong and what he thinks he should have done differently. One thing's for sure, though. He dominates cheese making videos on you tube :-)

But other than that, I think the best thing is just to make cheese. My wife is in charge of the credit card in our family and when I told her I wanted to make cheese, she wisely suggested that I see what I could do with things I could find at the grocery store -- just to see if I would still be interested after 3 days (she knows me well!)

I started with some fresh cheeses -- mostly ricotta. I learned why UHT milk can't be used for anything other than ricotta. I experimented trying to make cheese from yogurt and discovered why that doesn't work. I did many google searches about how rennet works and how acid curds are formed (I believe it is the University of Wisconsin that has a really good page somewhere about how casein micelles knit together in a variety of situations, but I can't seem to find the page right now).

In the end I discovered that you can make a hard cheese by inoculating milk with yogurt (thermophilic culture), bringing the temp to 42C, letting it ripen for 40 minutes, then slowly adding citric acid while stirring slowly with a whisk. The resulting curd will melt slightly (!) and you can ladle that into a camembert hoop (which I fashioned by cutting the ends off of a pet bottle and poking holes in the side with an awl). If you drain for 4 hours, flipping every hour, it will form a delicate cheese that you can brine. It's essentially a lactic cheese (even though the final curd is made with citric acid, not rennet). I let mine age in my regular refrigerator and it eventually formed a rind. I'm still waiting to taste it, but I've done a couple of cheeses that way and eaten them fresh and they were delicious (tart, crumbly, like a Caerphilly or Wendsleydale). I've also tried making a fresh cheese with a butter milk culture (mesophilic) with a washed curd. It was also delicious, but I'm not sure that washing the curd actually did anything -- it's already too acidic at that point.

Anyway, I feel like it's almost like playing a game without reading the spoilers :-) It's super fun just experimenting and by and large you can make a cheese of _some_ description. I need to wait until winter to do some more "normal" cheeses, but my experiments have whetted my appetite (and I've unlocked the "you can use the credit card" achievement).

<comment><USER6> You ought to throw your hat into the YouTube cheesemaking ring!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For anyone interested in cheese, I really enjoyed the book "Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese" by Bronwen Percival and Francis Percival

<comment><USER8> The title alone deserves an award. As a hobbyist cheesemaker, thanks for the suggestion, too.

<comment><USER9> It's not a hands-on book, though, but more of a detailed history of natural cheese-making.

<comment><USER8> No worries. I'm as interested in the history as much as any particular recipe. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> blessed are the cheesemakers

<comment><USER11> it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's documentary series "Cooked," especially episode 4 where he delves into fermentation.

He visits a convent where the sisters are making raw milk cheese. It's fascinating.

[https://www.netflix.com/nl-en/title/80022456](https://www.netflix.com/nl- en/title/80022456)

</comment><comment><USER13> You just made me want to make my own cheese! Thanks for that!</comment>


The myth of Japan's failure - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-true-story-of-japans-economic-success.html?pagewanted=print <comment><USER2> There's a lot to admin about Japan, but this article is hackery at best and deceptive at worst.

The article is almost solely focused on Tokyo. Yes, Tokyo is still doing well. It's still one of the richest cities in the world. But Tokyo cannot be held up as "Japan", just as New York cannot be used as representative of the entire U.S.

Life expectancy in the U.S. has gone up by 4.43 years since 1980. All rich- world countries has seen a similar increase. [1]

Unemployment is lower in Japan because labor force participation rate is (much) lower. The popular is older, far fewer women choose to work, and many men have dropped out of the workforce (a similar phenomenon is happening in the recovery here). [2]

Cell phone supremacy? You mean the iPhone which is designed in California? [3]

He links to Shadowstats which is a conspiracy theorist website about understanding CPI. CPI is one of the most scrutinized measurements out there.

[1] [http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&#...
[2] http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/JPNLFPRNA
[3] http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/18/the- iphone-4-tops-handset-s...

<comment><USER3> It also has wonderful quotes like: "The Japanese are dressed better than Americans. They have the latest cars, including Porsches, Audis, Mercedes- Benzes and all the finest models. I have never seen so many spoiled pets."

Americans do the same crazy stuff, but they do it in a way that looks unremarkable to other Americans.

<comment><USER4> That sentence made me wonder if the author had never been to California. Speaking as a Brit, that sentence could so easily apply to any non-American's perspective on people in that state (I've only really spent time in NY and CA, BTW, so I acknowledge that my perception of life in the US is just as skewed as the author's pereception of life in Japan, but in a sense that's exactly my point).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let's look at one metric that supersedes all (in my opinion):

According to, Japan's unemployment rate has been no higher than 6% over the last 32 years (1980-2012).It's currently at 4.5%[1]

Compare that to the US, who's unemployment rate has been at worst 10% over the last 32 years (1980-2012). It's currently at 8.5%[2]

Why does this supersede most other stats? Because we simply need to keep people busy "doing things", otherwise (as you're seeing in the US) riots/protests break out, crime goes up (crime is largely a result of poverty), and people don't have the means to keep themselves healthy. What more do you need from a society? I understand people will say "but we need growth". I ask why? What is the end result of growth that makes societies "better"?

[1]<http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate> [2][http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united- states/unemployment-r...](http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united- states/unemployment-rate)

edit: 32 years...doh!

<comment><USER6> It reminds me of my first time visiting South Korea. While there I observed people who's job it was to wear a cute uniform and bow to cars entering the parking garage at the local department store, people hired by companies to stand in the aisles at the local supermarket holding packs of coffee or shampoo or whatever and dance to loud techno music (usually young women in short skirts and thigh high boots, bizarre to see families shopping for vegetables, fighting their way around scantily clad 20 year olds in the middle of a dance routine around the cabbage aisle), and other similar, "keep people busy" type jobs. I'd be highly surprised if these folks made more than $3-4/hr, not even remotely a living wage.

\- checking on the numbers, the minimum wage in South Korea for 2011 was about $3.75. I'm guessing when I first went there in 2003, it was even lower.

\- in 2006 I visited and remember having to make my way around a gauntlet of guys in doorman uniforms, who's job it was to bow to people entering the hotel, and another guy who's job it was to push the "up" button to request an elevator. That's it, that was his entire job. For eight hours a day, he stood outside of the elevators, waiting for guests, and pushed the only button to request an elevator (there was no down button the hotel I was staying in).

So yes, while the unemployment figures were pretty good, the actual "work" that people were doing was essentially meaningless.

I've never been to Japan, but I'd be highly surprised if there weren't similar analogues.

<comment><USER3> All marketing is "keep people busy" work.

In Australia, people don't like service-people. There's this weird pseudo- independence thing, where we'd like to believe that we haven't oppressed any workers to get our cup of coffee. It's not a problem if the coffee was grown by plantation slaves, and made by a Philippino guest-worker on an exploitive H1B1 equivalent visa, but the waitress had better be quick, efficient, and get out of our way so we don't feel sorry for her. If it's a waiter, he'd better be even quicker, because we detest seeing men do degrading work even more.

So all the marketing is depersonalised. Cafes might have lavish interiors which were extremely labor-intensive to build, but the work is all done behind closed doors. People will pay lots of money for seamless advertising and marketing, so you can't see that a real human being had to put the sign together.

It's kind of strange.

I'm sure service people hate their jobs, and do kind of meaningless stuff, but no less than the rest of us.

<comment><USER7> Having worked in retail and service jobs, I can tell you that a generous fraction of Australian consumers _rely_ on the lowly checkout chick / salesman / service assistant / phone operator etc as someone to prop up their self- worth through condescension.

<comment><USER3> If you want to do something bad to a person (i.e. slightly inconvenience them) it's a lot easier to justify if you hold them in contempt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The overall point of the editorial might be right, but some of the metrics that it mentions are random or problematic. The number of high-rise buildings constructed? That says more about how little buildable land Japan has than it says about the strength of the Japanese economy.

The article also mentions electricity "output" (a.k.a. consumption), which has grown faster in Japan than in the US. The article spins it as an indicator of the strength of the Japanese economy, but you could just as easily describe it as a success story about US conservation efforts.

And some of it is just strange. Michelin ratings as a measure of the strength of an economy? Cultural factors matter as much as economic strength, there.

Japan might actually be doing better than people in the US think, but this article isn't a good argument for that position.

<comment><USER9> > And some of it is just strange. Michelin ratings as a measure of the > strength of an economy? Cultural factors matter as much as economic > strength, there.

I was in a theater on the 4th to watch _Nausicaa_, and one of the previews was for a documentary about some sushi chef. Breathlessly it mentioned that he was the first Japanese restaurant to receive 3 Michelin stars.

I was a little astonished. 'Yes, I know 3 Michelin stars is very hard to get, but this must've been in the last 20 or 30 years - how could Michelin have deprived _Japan_ of any 3-star rankings for so long after WWII? Their restaurants are not unusually better these days than they were over the last century or two.'

The obvious answer is that Michelin didn't have any real presence but began ramping up relatively recently (perhaps during the bubble). So it wouldn't be surprising if the coverage continued to increase despite whatever the true trend of Japanese restaurant quality is (up or down).

<comment><USER10> From what I've been able to find, it looks like Michelin didn't review Japan at all until around 2007-2008.

<comment><USER9> That would make sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have been following Fingleton, the author of this article for quite a while. His main thesis that "Japan's lost decade is an illusion" has not changed much over the years. In fact, he was among the group "Japan bashers" in the 90s, and their main argument was that Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) was intentionally trying to paint a grim image of Japan to gain advantage in trade negotiations. This argument holds little water these days: it is next to impossible to hide information about the true state of a country when access to information is so easy thanks to the Internet.

Fingleton also claims that Japanese are early adopters in technology, which is only partly true. Japanese, in general, prefer to excel in something by using manual skills and they take great pride in that. They resort to technology only when manual skill is not enough. Making good cars require industrial robots so they have plenty of them, but in other parts of the industry, adoption of advanced technology can be quite limited. In other words, Japanese companies often find themselves at local maximums as compared to their American counterparts. Just look at the current state of Japan's once great electronics companies: Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, NEC, Hitachi, etc. Only Canon seems to be doing fine these days.

<comment><USER12> _This argument holds little water these days: it is next to impossible to hide information about the true state of a country when access to information is so easy thanks to the Internet._

It's actually quite easy:

Step 1: recognize that gathering macroeconomic statistics is really hard. One example: if people previously spent $3 on salsa, but now they spend $5 on guacamole, what is the inflation rate for mexican dips?

Step 2: come up with a catchy title for a statistic, and make sure reporters know all about it. E.g., "the burrito index, which measures how much good mexican food costs."

Step 3: tweak the definition of the statistic until you get the result you want.

Want more inflation? All mexican dips are equal, so inflation is up 66%. Want less inflation? Guacamole is 2x better than salsa, hence dips have actually dropped in price 17%.

<comment><USER13> except salsa and guacamole are interchangeable.

it doesn't seem to me you can easily exchange one component of CPI with another?

<comment><USER14> What Americans typically refer to as "salsa" is not interchangeable with guacamole.

<comment><USER15> > What Americans typically refer to as "salsa" is not interchangeable with > guacamole.

It is for people who don't want either one.

This effect explains why different people see different amounts of inflation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> One of the most important lessons that we have learned from the past years is that you cannot look at a country's standard of living in isolation. You also have to look at the debt levels to see if it is sustainable in the long run. Japan has the highest government debt-to-gdp ratio in the world: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_pub...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_public_debt) (higher than Greece!). I suspect that they have a huge hangover coming their way.

<comment><USER17> They have a uniquely high level of internal debtors, the government bonds were bought by Japanese people much more so than other citizens buying their countries' bonds. I didn't understand why this made a difference though.

<comment><USER18> It does make a difference in that Japan could finance the public debt entirely by itself. The country has a trade account surplus, it's not them being indebted to others, but others are indebted to them.

That makes it unattractive for speculators to bet against the country. Countries like China or Germany are in a similar position.

<comment><USER19> They have had a historically high internal savings rate that allowed this. One thing to keep an eye on is their terrible demographics. I believe Japanese citizens as well as the largest institutional buyers (Japan Post etc) have just recently become net sellers of JGBs as they move towards liquidation to fund retirements.

Japan currently funds more than half of their gov't via borrowing, with the demographic shift and the internal demand for JGB turning towards net negative, they will increasingly rely on external buyers of their debt. I believe China has been a buyer of late.

What has worked for Japan historically may not work so well going forward.

<comment><USER20> I've read that most of this money came from retiree savings, which are rapidly running out. Furthermore, the younger generation doesn't have such savings, yet alone the population, to keep such a thing going.

In a sense, this system of internal borrowing in a hidden tax. While it of course is not mandated, it's required in order to keep things going smoothly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Words do not exist to explain errors in this article. The world's most populous island improved internet infrastructure? Wow! Life expectancy increased, just like in every other OECD nation? Wow!

The appreciation of the yen is a result of the deflationary pressure that crippled the Japanese economy from 1995-2005.

He links to shadowstats, a known internet cook hangout. It's like linking to a global-warming denial site.

"Japan leapfrogged the United States in the space of a few years in the late 1990s and it has stayed ahead ever since, with consumers moving exceptionally rapidly to ever more advanced devices."

On what planet does the author live? The smartphone was invented here and the US leads the world in smartphone adoption. The Japanese are still texting on 9-keys.

I can't go on.

<comment><USER22> Re: phones -

In 2005 my friend had a Japanese phone which had high speed Internet, video calling, and an ssh client among other things.

The US had the Razr.

Don't change history, smartphones were widely popular in Japan well before anywhere else in the world. The iPhone was just the first usable smartphone for the rest of us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I think this "lost decade" talk is mostly a matter of perspective, Japan is the nation in the world that, of any I can think of, could most afford to "lose a decade". An older population, a shrinking population, and a very high savings rate means that deflation was not as hard on its economy as it would be on an economy like the United States. In the US and many other economies inflation helps consumers with their debt, population growth requires that the overall GDP grow significantly to keep pace, and a younger population means many young people need meaningful work to sustain themselves while an older population can live on savings and supplement with poorly-paid employment to hobble through to retirement.

Some of the arguments may also be unfair:

The author breaks down GDP on a per capita basis to make the argument that Japan might have grown faster than the United States since 1989 - but Japan is 2 decades our from their financial collapse and the US only some 4 years after a similar event.

Unemployment in Japan has always been much lower than the US, so comparing them now as some sort of evidence regarding a "lost decade" is not meaningful.

It may also be that, since the population is shrinking, the life-expectancy gains are more of a collection of a dividend from past public health improvements than any reflection of recent health care system improvements. (I.e. all those old people living longer from better care in the past vs. relatively younger people dying from other causes to lower the average.)

</comment><comment><USER24> I think a major factor determining your opinion on Japan's "lost decade(s)" is how you view inflation. Those who stand to benefit from more (stealth) inflation (politicians / bankers with access to the fed discount window / those with highly mortgaged real-estate) will see those decades as truly lost, but those that generally stand to benefit from less inflation (savers / "main street") will view those decades in a more positive light.

</comment><comment><USER25> I remember a recent article on the same wavelength, here on HN - but I can't find it.

Anyway, I agree that GDP shouldn't be idolized, just like no single metric should be.

<comment><USER26> I do too -- if you find it, leave a comment here please!

<comment><USER26> Rather, here it is: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389678>

<comment><USER27> Both articles are actually by the same author. His blog is at <http://www.fingleton.net/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I have some friends who don't travel internationally and who have totally bought into the propaganda that the USA is better than any other country using any metric.

Love of one's own country and mild forms of nationalism are good things, but they should be tempered with a realistic view of the world. In the USA we have a clear and present danger to the economic health of our country: spending too much money on "defense."

<comment><USER29> I know a lot of people like that where I grew up. My sister jokes that if nothing else the USA is number one in self esteem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> It is easy and popular for westerners to romantacize Japan - but it has serious and structural problems. When analyzed on its own (instead of comparing it to the USA) it becomes readily apparent.

I will just say a few observations which show that the picture the article paints is not quite accurate.

Firstly, yes there are many people with fancy clothes. What the author does not say is that a lot of those people live with their parents - and their whole income is expendible. I don't know if this phenomeneon started after the bubble economy, but it is quite shocking.

Then there is the fancy cars - what is the percentage of car ownership?

About employment - finding permanent employment for young people has become almost impossible. Many young people now have short term contracts or do so called "arebeito" (extremely short term work with hourly wage). This is clearly not optimal and is a new in this generation.

Japanese health care is a joke. They spent a lot on the last years of life (everywhere you look is AED machines), but nothing on the quality of life. Japanese dental care is below third world country! The majority of people do not get orthodontal treatment even when clearly necessary. Take a look next time you walk around.

Another example of the quality of health care - I've spoken to two dermatologists (from national health care in Japan) and they don't even know about ruaccutane (isotretonion). This surely is a basic treatment that in some cases are necessary?

Japanese banking is pathetic. It seems they do everything by hand - which is nice but inefficient. With my non-japanese banking I get internet banking for free and ATMs are open 24/7. Good luck getting that in Japan.

Typed on iPhone so sorry for typos.

<comment><USER31> There's quite a bit of disinformation in your comment.

* that people live with their parents is only "shocking" if you happen to come from a country where that is considered taboo. In many countries it's not considered shameful to live with your parents while you're single. It didn't start after the bubble, it started like 1000 years ago. Yeah, there's a downside to it, but then there's also a downside to getting into debt in order to live by yourself.

* the percentage of car ownership is quite high. Just google it.

* "Japanese health care is a joke" compared to what? Look at life expectancy numbers, doctors per capita, etc.

* Internet banking has been around for years. ATMs are open 24/7 in convenience stores.

* etc

<comment><USER30> > In many countries it's not considered shameful to live with your parents > while you're single.

I can completely understand that you want to live with your parents when you are studing (or a young working adult). But 28years+ is becoming a bit ridiculous. Maybe it is because a lot of people are not getting married anymore. But the point is that many people (and some of my friends) can not afford a really expensive apartment. Tokyo is expensive to live in.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make is the Article's comment about the clothes young people wear - it is quite deceptive to use such a metric.

> * "Japanese health care is a joke" compared to what? Look at life expectancy > numbers, doctors per capita, etc.

Life expectancy is higher in Japan partly because of diet (there are not that many overweight people - that is almost the norm in USA and Aus. Even trying to get overweight with the FAtkins diet followed in USA and Australia would be prohibitively expensive in Japan).

The USA's life expectancy is also lower due yo violent crime, excessive deaths due yo traffic accidents, AIDS and other lfestyle diseases).

Yet life expectancy is not the only measure of health care. There are other factors such as quality of life. The simple fact is that dental care in Japan is far behind the west (and I am not talking about the poorest of the poor without proper dental care, but fairly rich upperclass people).

> ATMs are open 24/7 in convenience stores.

That is true, I grant you that. 7-11 ATMs are open, but you will not find your banks ATM open after 19h00 (e.g. JP postbank).

PS: The goal of my post is not for Japan bashing but trying to give an unromanticized balanced view. There are many things wrong with the Japan, just as there are many things wrong with the west.

<comment><USER10> I'm with on most of that, but what do you mean by "FAtkins" diet?

Severe carbohydrate restriction may be to difficult for most people to stick with, and therefore not optimal for keeping the weight off. But there is is irrefutable evidence that carbohydrate restriction will result in weight loss.

<comment><USER30> I was refering to a diet full of delicious red meat, bacon and carbohydrates. The diet is popular in many countries and I love it too.

But it is a simple fact that such a diet is impossible in Japan. The price of meat, especially red meat is extremely high.

PS: I agree with you that a carbon restricted diet has obvious healt benefits. My point was that following an unhealthy red meat diet in Japan is impossible due to price.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Japan has the highest debt/GDP ratio in the world. It's true most of that money was lent by Japanese people, but as the population gets older people will start draw down their savings. The government will be forced to go to international markets to service the debt, and then the wheels are going to come off. If they had to roll over that massive debt at 3% interest service on the debt would consume the entire budget.

They'll have to impoverish the savers through inflation of the yen, assuming that's a political possibility. Is this the sign of a healthy economy?

The "lost decades" are not a myth. Japan has been able to preserve the appearance of wealth by borrowing it. Of course the country has great infrastructure. It was all built on borrowed yen in a futile attempt to stimulate growth. But the bill is coming due.

</comment><comment><USER33> My main takeaway from this article and these comments is that it's devilishly difficult to make international economic comparisons.

As one commenter mentioned such activities quickly disintegrate into highly subjective "meaning of life" debates.

This is incredibly important because a lot of policy analysis depends on making international comparisons. If such comparisons are really intractable problems then what does that say about the potential for effective policy making?</comment>


The Illustrated Guide to Law - <AUTHOR> http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/archive

<comment><USER2> Better organization of content maybe? Too many drafts everywhere and the few comics I could find were not making their point explicit.</comment>


Why would tech investors finance a coffee retailer? - <AUTHOR> https://pub.nerdic.co/why-would-tech-investors-finance-a-coffee-retailer-86621f27c3c3#.93uqx92z9 <comment><USER2> Nice article, thank you!</comment>


Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/qualcomm-microsoft-announce-snapdragon-835-pcs-with-gigabit-lte/ <comment><USER2> > With a Snapdragon inside your PC, you'll no longer need Wi-Fi to fetch your > latest e-mail and catch up on Twitter. Instead, you'll be able to get online > wherever there's cellular connectivity.

I'm not buying the optimism, especially not in the US. The cellular data is still horribly limited. In Canada it is even worse. The "unlimited" plan is surging back, but it has automatic throttling at varying points.

Oh and since we're talking Microsoft and Windows, you can't control data usage. Windows 10 uploads your personal information at unknown intervals and downloads ads and sponsored apps without consent.

What good is faster cell data with horrible data limits and an OS with a poor concept of when data is permissible even in the "Enterprise" edition?

<comment><USER3> You've been able to limit data usage on Windows 10, if not from the start, shortly thereafter.

"Set as metered connection" under the connection settings.

You can disable telemetry at any point if you want to. The only "unwanted ad" \- that everyone constantly complains about, is for onedrive. Guess what - every time I log into my mac, it asks me if I want more icloud storage. So literally the same thing. Ubuntu wasn't much better with their Amazon experience. If you're going to tell me to install Gentoo or Arch on my daily driven laptop we aren't having a rational discussion.

I've _NEVER_ had Windows download a "sponsored app without my consent". What third party app is this you speak of?

<comment><USER4> I've had ads on Windows lock screen ("Get fun facts, tips, tricks and _more_ on your lock screen"). I was fairly sure I had turned this off, and it was weeks before I saw an ad (replacing Spotlight background), but once I did see an ad, I wrote my own program to set the lock screen background and stayed well away from the MS Spotlight.

Spotlight itself is an ad for Edge; if you want more information on the photo, it'll pop up in Edge, not in your default browser.

Windows installed a bunch of sponsored apps / icons when I first installed it. Xbox, Skype, Groove, Money - they may all be owned by MS, but they're still crapware as far as I'm concerned.

<comment><USER5> One of the most despised things, for me? In Edge, Cortana popping up, when I go to the driver download site for my laptop, "Can I interest you in a coupon?".

"No, you can't. Fuck off." Excuse the language.

<comment><USER6> You can disable Cortana

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I look forward to learning more about this product. I love that we're moving non-x86 into mainstream consumer products like this (and not limited to low- end chromebooks, e.g.).

ARM SoCs lack the backward compatible x86 BIOS-style bootstrap. This is great because it's kinda crazy to think about booting into stuff like MBR, real mode, etc in 2017. But this is bad because without good standards it's really tricky to have a generic installer for another OS. Also, all or nearly all ARM SoCs have signed bootloaders. Great: less fear of a rootkit/virus hiding in my system. Awful: often used to protect subsidies or other business model hijinks; can't install an alternate OS.

<comment><USER8> This is lunacy. It will break compatibility with nearly all software out there. From games to productivity apps. Like the stuff I actually use a PC for.

<comment><USER9> Productivity apps are almost never developed in assembly language. They are developed in some high level language, so for each of such language, assuming the Windows 10 APIs are the same (which they WILL be, no need to change them):

\- Java

Java applications will not require any recompilations, they will run immediately because they run on a JVM

\- C#/VB/F#

Those applications still will run right away because they run in the .NET CLR virtual machine.

\- C++, C

These applications, considering they are already using the Windows APIs, should recompile with few changes.

Games, nowadays, are also developed using frameworks. They mostly depend on the GPU nowadays, and the GPU was never x86 architecture either, so no big change there.

<comment><USER10> Memory model and byte order is enough to add breakage to stuff written in all of those languages.

<comment><USER11> I believe Java and C# enforce specific byte orders to get around this issue, so I doubt you'll see a problem there unless interacting with C++ libraries.

<comment><USER10> Not if you're converting bytes into integers, for instance. E.g. [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.bitconverter...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.bitconverter.toint32\(v=vs.110\).aspx) \- it's arch specific.

<comment><USER11> Interesting, similar functions in the Java world are always big endian:

[http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/math/BigIntege...](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/math/BigInteger.html#toByteArray%28%29)

Seems like a rather poor decision on Microsoft's part. Fortunately rather few things interact with data this way anyways, most serialization formats are text based or include endian information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is actually a very bad thing.

Qualcomm is decidedly against open source and open firmware, this will bring the closed disposable worthless logic board with the unmodifiable OS from your phone and into your laptop.

Microsoft likes it of course because it means more control for them.

TL;DR: Intel is not being abandoned because it's too closed, it's being abandoned because it's too open!

<comment><USER13> My thoughts exactly. Wintel PCs are becoming too closed for comfort (see Intel ME, trusted/secure boot, etc.) and slowly degrading in terms of backward- compatibility, but they still have that legacy of openness inherited from the original IBM PC/AT of 1984 and continued throughout the 90s.

I wouldn't even want to call these "PCs" anymore. These are essentially locked-down mobile devices running a crude approximation of a real PC environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14>
        Asus, HP, and Lenovo are all planning to introduce Snapdragon Mobile PC systems
        at some unspecified time in the future, for some unspecified price.

In other news, today at the Vaporware Expo every computer manufacturer announced plans to release a new device featuring unspecified hardware at some unspecified time in the future for an unspecified price.

<comment><USER15> Any threats to Intel's (almost?) monopoly on laptops/desktops is a good thing.

<comment><USER8> Competition yes, but I'd prefer from AMD rather than a different CPU architecture.

<comment><USER16> Isn't AMD emulating x86 over RISC anyway?

<comment><USER17> as is Intel, I don't think there has been a true x86 CPU in a while

<comment><USER18> I did hear this from my Prof in our university too, where can I find information about this?

<comment><USER19> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode)

<comment><USER20> I think you were thinking of microarchitecture, microcode is related but probably not what parent meant.

Information about Intel internal architectures is highly confidential, but there are remotely related technologies that are generic and public, for example [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_renaming](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_renaming)

<comment><USER19> Nah, Tomasulo and all that jazz (microarchitecture) is about improving performance once you've got a defined instruction set.

Microcode (which is one of those highly confidential things that both Intel and AMD hold close and dear) is about doing an on-the-fly CISC to RISC transformation because you realized that the legacy x86 ISA is an absolute pain to handle (but you aren't willing to give it up).

<comment><USER20> I believe you are confusing microcode (which is mainly used for complex and slow instructions and does not need to be RISC) with micro-ops which is the Intel lingo for the internal RISC operations.

Register renaming is a key part of high performance ISA emulation. The x64 has 16 gp registers but the internal RISC normally has 80. Of course this is also a key part of OOO and alike as you mentioned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm really excited about ARM laptops, but only if:

* They have laptop-class performance, not tablet class performance * They can have more than 4GB of RAM * You can put reasonable sized standard SATA SSDs in them, or user-replaceable M.2 drives. * You can easily wipe Windows off them and put Linux on it.

<comment><USER22> > You can easily wipe Windows off them and put Linux on it.

None of the modems are going to be supported in Linux because they all use blob drivers and are wholly proprietary.

ARM has no bios or standard boot procedure. Google requires coreboot on Chromebooks, for example, which allows Linux to run on the ARM targets. It is unlikely ARM laptops without Google's strong arm are going to support coreboot.

Qualcomm specifically leaves significant portions of the support code for their SoCs in binary blobs, unable to be used in generic kernels. There is no Linux kernel level support for almost any Qualcomm SoC, and even then they are often some of the _better_ ones. The other "real" options are third parties with ARM's own CPUs on them, which would have ARM's GPUs which have no real device support in Linux (Lima is dead) compared to Qualcomm parts (Freedreno sees updates). Nvidias chips are probably the closest to usable, and Samsung's Exynos are completely unusable and mega-proprietary (you will have a hard time finding even custom Android ROMs for Samsung SoCs).

The ARM ecosystem as a whole is really, really toxic. It is all NIH'd out the butt, there are no standards, everything is proprietary, and nobody contributes upstream. By comparison, x86 is an angelic fantasy.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h > ARM has no bios or standard boot procedure.

Doesn't this system use uefi?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> There is a bit more detail here (with pictures)

[https://www.notebookcheck.net/Prototype-of- Snapdragon-835-po...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Prototype-of- Snapdragon-835-powered-notebooks-unveiled.224926.0.html)

<comment><USER24> That PCB is very small! And it doesn't look extremely packed either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> _> the new operating system will include x86 emulation, giving it the ability to run 32-bit Windows desktop applications unmodified_

Is this emulation done with a combination of hardware & software?

<comment><USER26> I believe this is WOW64 (used to emulate x86 on x86-64 in Windows) extended to support ARM64 targets.

<comment><USER27> There is no emulation in the traditional sense involved in running 32 bit x86 code on x86-64, the code is run directly on the CPU, only thing that needs to be "emulated" is the OS's ABI for system calls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> > Gigabit LTE

Wow, now I can bust my monthly data allotment in just a second! (or ~6s if you get the "big" data plan)

<comment><USER29> There are set-top boxes, from ISPs that are also mobile operators, which embed femtocells. When a mobile subscriber is using such a femtocell, it doesn't count towards the mobile data cap.

<comment><USER30> Imagine the convenience of having a wireless network in your own home!

<comment><USER29> Although of limited range, the femtocell is public, not limited to the landline customer's use. This handily covers shadowed areas in cities as well as remote areas, reduces load on main cells, and Tx power needed both ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The last thing I want is more engagement in my current relationships with cellular service companies.

If Qualcomm and Microsoft really want a game changer, they should sink some of their vast resources into making mesh networking take off.

</comment><comment><USER32> I see this as an attack on ipad for business. I worked for a company that had to support ipads for business, we were using Xamarin and it was a slow and painful, expensive process but the systems were easy to manage, although using an onscreen keyboard was limiting. Imagine the same benefits of ipad for business without having to license a private app store from Apple. Imagine the cost per unit is lower and you can use .Net without the pain of Xamarin involved to roll out software as regular win32 binaries instead of jumping through hoops to produce an ios app in a .Net based business.

</comment><comment><USER33> Does anyone else get the cold sweats just thinking about a _Windows_ machine sitting essentially naked on the internet? Sure, Windows has a firewall. I still wouldn't really trust there are no zero days in it. This will make a damn fine Chromebook or Linux machine. Windows? Particularly with Qualcomm writing the unauditable radio stack? (See Google's Project Zero for why _that 's_ a bad idea.) No thanks.

<comment><USER34> Every mobile operator puts devices behind nat. There aren't enough IP addresses to go around otherwise.

<comment><USER35> Only for IPv4. Most carriers also currently offer IPv6, and route directly to devices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think this is GREAT news, because it implies the following.

a. - Intel and AMD losing their pseudo-monoply on PC/laptop chips, perhaps enabling bringing some prices down.

b. - Mainstream PCs abandoning the old x86 (+IA64, AMD64) instruction set for a more modern instruction set which (i guess) enables more modern, more power- efficient architectures.

but _much more exciting than the above is that..._

c. - The jump to a more power-efficient CPU will enable me to have a nice desktop PC with, say, 128 cores, and with no extravagant cooling system or ridiculously high power consumption (I need to pay the power bills, anything that will be on for at least 8 hours a day will be watched for power consumption.). I know that there are already ways to take advantage of GPUs, but they are for specific operations. A desktop PC with a huge lot of cores will bring more generalized performance improvement.

And TRUE hardcore multitasking...

d. - This will push all vendors and Open Source projects to improve on their compiler support for that architecture.

<comment><USER12> Just about none of this is likely (except maybe the low power stuff) given qualcomm's track record.

Even smartphone OEMs hardly have any control over their kernel thanks to Qualcomm.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I love the concept -- I already use a laptop with an LTE modem, but I really wish Qualcomm would lay off on giving their baseband such low level access to the application cores.

I already begrudgingly use a phone where I know the carrier can execute arbitrary code accessing system memory, I really don't want that on my laptop too.

</comment><comment><USER36> WiFi is to cellular connectivity what local storage is to the cloud. Apparently it's all fine and dandy, then one day someone on the other side change their mind and you lose this or that feature, in other words control.

Cellular connectivity can be useful as cloud storage can be, but I'd never ever use anything that depends on either for connectivity or storage. Moving every resource behind a tap the user cannot control is not the way to go, although I'm sure IT companies will keep pushing in that direction for obvious reasons.

</comment><comment><USER37> If SD835 is put in PCs the performance is going to be abysmal due to x86 emulation layer. Consequently, the price of the devices is going to be low, most likely in the same range as low end Pentium and Atom laptops/convertibles.

The same chip with lower performance (due to power considerations) in high end phones costing upwards of $600-900, makes it an interesting gambit.

</comment><comment><USER18> Wow, This is what I was talking about when I got down voted two or 3 days ago. Yes, ARM/Qualcomm in no position to compete with INTEL high-end desktop CPUs. But they are perfectly capable of competing in low-end market and multi- processor environment. This will hurt INTEL in long term very badly. ARM will come to the desktop. No matter we like it or not.

<comment><USER38> ARM is already in the desktop (or laptop, rather). See: the numerous Chromebooks powered by Rockchip processors:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288)

<comment><USER39> Before that, Samsung Exynos was in some Chromebooks

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A15](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A15)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> If you are part of the cult-like group that dreams of a future Surface Phone, which includes myself, this is an interesting milestone. If such a device has been in the works in the past, Intel's cancellation of Morganfield (Broxton SoC for phones) was a huge set-back.

Microsoft pursuing x86 emulation on ARM, while certainly of interest to low- cost traditional form-factors such as laptops and tablets, is also interesting because it reinvigorates the _idea_ of a Surface Phone. Of course, the reality remains to be seen.

For those unfamiliar, the concept that many of us imagine for a Surface Phone includes an evolution of today's Windows 10 Mobile _Continuum_ feature that, as with Ubuntu Phones and some fringe Android devices, allows a phone to act as a full computer when docked to a keyboard, mouse, and display. While Continuum exists today on devices such as the Lumia 950 and HP Elite x3, it is limited to Windows' "Universal" applications, and does not work with x86 or even older Windows Phone applications. Still, the appeal of a single-device lifestyle is considerable and many people would love to simplify the technology in their life to a phone that is also their desktop/mobile computer. Many of the youngest generation already do this by simply conceding (willingly or unknowingly) they will never enjoy the advantages of computing with large monitors, keyboards, and mice.

In order for a single device to successfully fulfill these multiple roles, it needs to be able to run real applications and not just in a "enlarged phone OS" fashion seen on devices such as the iPad Pro.

If a Surface Phone were to materialize, I would expect Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 to become more converged than they are today. When using Continuum on a Lumia 950, Windows 10 Mobile is doing a respectable job of impersonating a Windows 10 desktop; but it's a veneer. For a Surface Phone to be a viable computer, I think it would start with Windows 10 (full version for ARM) and adapt _downward_ to the phone form-factor, rather than today's opposite of a phone-tailored operating system adapting upward. Yes, W10 and W10M are very similar today, but a SP device would, I feel, push them closer together.

Of course, there is no genuine credible news on such as device, and Microsoft has dodged questions, even downplaying the likelihood of such a device. There seems to be a widespread opinion that one should not even _try_ to build momentum in today's phone market, which I feel is shockingly myopic and pessimistic. Of course it's not a simple matter to establish a foothold in mobile, but previous efforts, while half-hearted at times were nevertheless making (slow) progress until Microsoft pulled the rug out from beneath Windows Phone 8. The biggest challenge to a Surface Phone would be bigger than technology: it would be a test of Microsoft's commitment to the idea.

<comment><USER41> I was very enthusiastic about both Microsoft Phone and Ubuntu Phone, I still am. I'd love to replace all my devices with a single below 7-8" phone that could run x86 apps at the performance level of Macbook Air 2013. Since most of my dev work goes on in Intellij IDEs and I use cloud for more demanding machine learning tasks, I don't really need much performance from the workstation to merit having a dedicated notebook/pc for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> If you think...I would buy one of these except that it has secure boot mandatory so I can't install Linux or reinstall Windows...then you actually aren't the market for these. Companies and consumers who don't care are...and they will buy a lot of them.

</comment><comment><USER43> I'd love to buy a Windows PC with ARM, I hope this becomes true.

<comment><USER44> The surface with ARM wasn't really that good I read. I think it was the lack of ARM software.

<comment><USER43> I hope MS has learned from it's misstakes this time, I'm sure they did.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Interesting point of convergence. This is probably first really mass market mobile VR chipset for positional tracking. Unless we turn out to need some kind of dedicated CV chip.

</comment><comment><USER46> I hope in near future we'll choose what we want to install on our mobile devices and use it as desktop as well. Think of it as way better version then Samsung Dex.

</comment><comment><USER47> Fantasic, except in the centre of one of the most tech cities in the world, London, I can still barely scrape 200Kb/s with Three outside Liverpool Street.

</comment><comment><USER48> I was reading very fast "...Announce Snapdragon $35 PCs with Gigabit LTE"... I hope the price will be $35...

</comment><comment><USER49> nah, just give me the x86 win32 emulation on Android so i can ditch my laptop for mobile which already has more RAM, but i still need to keep laptop for one work app

</comment><comment><USER50> its interesting how ars basically copy paste the press release, even thus they very well know how much bs is in it.

nobody cares about integrity anymore?

</comment><comment><USER51> Yes, but does it include a headphone jack?

/s

</comment><comment><USER52> I don't see the purpose of this. Current Windows on ARM has pretty non existent support by developers.

<comment><USER53> I think you missed that news : [https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/12/windows-10-will- seamless...](https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/12/windows-10-will-seamlessly- run-legacy-x86-win32-apps-on-arm/)

<comment><USER52> This is basically an emulator though; it will be quite slow.

<comment><USER54> They showed games (WoT I think) running using this emulation, so maybe not.

<comment><USER55> "World of Tanks Blitz" \- a Phone game</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code - <AUTHOR> https://harvestsignal.com <comment><USER3> Very cool. Not sure if your motivation is to "promote local eating" or if you're trying to build a cool product that would bring in some cash... but if you're looking to monetize, I'd pay a small amount (about the cost of a magazine) for a HIGH-QUALITY set of recipe suggestions that use 6 ingredients or less, and take ~1hr to cook. (because I cook for a family every day, I don't have all day to cook, and I don't want to buy 100 ingredients I'll only use once)

The last point is important to me. Food porn is common these days, they put out these recipes with beautiful pictures, but the recipe is so impractical I'll probably never make it. Frankly, if I never make the recipe... it's of little added value to me.

<comment><USER4> Your request is different from the core value prop of OP's sites focus

<comment><USER3> It's a mailing list, not a unix app. I'm not going to be piping the output from this into something else. To me the core "value prop" of this is "inspiration" for things to make. Adding specifics to that seems like a natural extension.

<comment><USER5> You need inspiration to cook a vegetable?

<comment><USER6> We wouldn't be having a obesity epidemic if that wasn't the case.

<comment><USER5> I wouldn't say it's inspiration that's lacking. It has more to do with the fact that vegetables are more expensive and harder to get than junk food, and the contents of said junk food, combined with factors like time and cultural trends, and of course education.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Neat!

But you've got some work to do to get the data in there. I put in my Southern Indiana zip code and got 12 results back. Only one was actually anywhere near my zipcode (or even in my state). The rest were anywhere from 200 - 500 miles away. Sorry, but I don't consider Maryland to be local to Indiana.

I would suggest you work on getting data about local farms in there, and then tighten up the constraints for what is considered "local".

At the very least, in the results paragraph, change the display from "12 for your zipcode" which is just flatly false to "1 for your zipcode and 11 in the broader region" or something of that nature.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback - this is very first version, and there are a lot of improvements to make.

I think you're right about the wording, reading it with fresh eyes it is very confusing, and I'll change it ASAP.

Right now, all the farm information data is pulled from aggregated USDA data so there is a ton of work left to do to get better, finer-grained results. My plan is to look at which zip codes get the most queries and the most user sign ups, and improve results for those first.

The data wrangling aspect of this is definitely one of the biggest challenges. I've spent more time than I'd care to say extracting data from PDFs and other non-parser-friendly materials with regular expressions, and, often, manually.

<comment><USER7> Have you come across [Local Harvest]([https://www.localharvest.org](https://www.localharvest.org)) before? That might be a good data source, at least for what farms exist where. I don't know if they collect data on what farms actually grow.

But I empathize a lot. I've pursued a number of side projects in this space. I've worked on an online farmer's market, a plant database, and a recipe database in the hope of solving a nexus of problems around eating sustainably and sourcing food locally. The only one that ever actually made it to live was [http://www.fridgetofood.com](http://www.fridgetofood.com) and I haven't touched that in years, so it has decayed pretty hard.

I always got hung up on the data collection and translation aspect of things. It's not an easy problem to solve.

<comment><USER8> Another good data source that I've used is [https://www.farmmatch.com/](https://www.farmmatch.com/).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just a small detail: The large subscription form popping up after a search made me think there are no results initially. Maybe make sure the results are higher up, and e.g. move the subscription form to the side?

Also, a softer (lighter?) background might bring out the fruit/vegetable images a bit better.

</comment><comment><USER10> My visual experience:

1\. There is a field to enter zipcode and empty space below.

2\. I enter zipcode.

3\. Empty space filled with fields for an email and name and a "we found results banner".

4\. Because all the results were off my screen I figured it was nothing more than another email harvesting page.

5\. Later I saw it on the front page of HN and tried it again. It still looked like an email harvesting page on my laptop. Only because I had seen the comments did I think it might be possible to scroll down.

It might be worth delivering value (results) before asking for value (a visitor's email). Fresh fruits near me is awesome. Signing up for email isn't.

Good luck.

<comment><USER11> same here, assumed it was spam before realizing good stuff was below

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like this! This was an idea I toyed around with in my head for a long time. I am glad to see you actually implement it.

One suggestion I have is this: it would be great if there was a way to "peek" ahead and see what other items will soon be coming into season within the next 1-2 weeks.

<comment><USER13> I toyed with this idea just the same and expanding it to provide recipes with the peak fruits and vegetables.

Not only was collecting the data time intensive, but determining the feature ingredient(s) was a challenge.

<comment><USER14> Oh ya connecting the Yummly API[0] to this would be really cool! Simply pass the search terms that are in season and you have seasonally curated recipes.

[0]: [https://developer.yummly.com](https://developer.yummly.com)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Very nice! Next step: steer users to where they can get the produce. I would suggest teaming up with Community Supported Agriculture [1] where people can buy stuff right off the farm with subscription.

[1] [https://www.localharvest.org/csa/](https://www.localharvest.org/csa/)

<comment><USER16> I would like that too. In the LA area I have no idea where to get veggies that have been grown locally.

<comment><USER17> As a LA/OC local, we have tons of farmer's markets near us. The two powerhouses are the Wed Santa Monica Market and Sunday Hollywood market, but there are several others depending on the city you live in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I get that you don't want to show mostly empty pages(but that's going to happen most places in November), but 500+ miles seems to be stretching the definition of near. Being in Tennessee, I don't know that I'd consider various citrus fruits 572 miles in Florida to be very helpful.

<comment><USER19> nice website

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> No, not quite accurate -- the only results it returned are apples and cherries. Apples are 100% correct. Cherries are not. And there are a plethora of squashes and pumpkins recently harvested, as we just had our first frost last week, so the list is clearly incomplete.

<comment><AUTHOR> The database is definitely incomplete - I have a ton of work left to do.

There is also the problem that just because a certain produce item is being harvested within x miles doesn't necessarily mean that produce is available at local stores, and vice-versa.

My hope is that if I can get some early adopters, I'll be able to concentrate improving the data in a smaller number of targeted areas. This is the first time I've shown the site to anyone, so I'm hoping I can get some feedback to make the most effective improvements first.

<comment><USER20> Ah, see, I wasn't thinking this was about local stores. Because frankly, stores ship food in from wherever it is in season, so I don't need this info... I just look in the store and see what looks good. The better use case, for me at least, is to know when it is worth going to my local farms/markets and not even bothering with the store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> <input type=number pattern="\d*"> on the ZIP code field would be fantastic for your mobile users. (At least until you support non-US zips)

[https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and- ux...](https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and- ux/input/forms/#choose_the_best_input_type)

</comment><comment><USER22> Nice work. Worth mentioning prior art:

Harvest: [https://itunes.apple.com/app/harvest-select-best- produce/id3...](https://itunes.apple.com/app/harvest-select-best- produce/id320650307?mt=8)

Seasons: [http://www.seasonsapp.com/](http://www.seasonsapp.com/)

Locavore: [http://www.getlocavore.com/](http://www.getlocavore.com/)

<comment><USER23> Seasons: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'new' (T_NEW) in /homepages/14/d154513924/htdocs/seasonsapp.com/wp-settings.php on line 204

Uh oh…

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> How can I use this to help me eat locally? I put in my zip code for Raleigh, NC (27601), and it gives me a result of: Cabbage in Pasquotank County, but there is no contact information. How can I get some of that cabbage?

<comment><USER25> Easiest thing for you is probably The State Farmer's Market [0], corner of Lake Wheeler Road and Centennial Parkway.

We keep a copy of the NC seasonal produce chart [1] hanging in the kitchen, and sometimes remember to check it.

Seems like one option for the OP would be to let users (moderators) update the site with vendors. That's a can of worms, but it could provide local information not available from online sources.

[0] [http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/facilities/markets/raleigh/](http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/facilities/markets/raleigh/) [1] [http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/chart.htm](http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/chart.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Awesome idea. My zip (59718, MT) shows 250 miles away as the nearest food. Definitely as others have pointed out, needs a lot more data to be viable. If you are to take this more seriously, maybe target a single community and connect with local farms, i.e. [https://www.strikefarms.com/](https://www.strikefarms.com/)

<comment> d-sc You just typed out my comment for me. I tried 59715. I like to cook entirely local meals for fun and Montana has plenty of readily available farm goods for that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Would love to share this with my non-tech friends, but the data's just not there yet, and sharing with them would ruin their impression forever. Data is too sparse with respect to geography. No idea how you get the data, but increase your data density as a function of location, and you'll likely see wide adoption.

</comment><comment><USER28> The results are kind of confusing. If I put in zip code 22003 (not mine, but close, and the results are the same) it tells me "1 Result from Georgia" which is bell peppers from a place 611 miles away, then "10 Results from other states" including one place 14 miles away, and another 36 miles away.

The wording seems to imply that it thinks 22003 is in Georgia and the top result is the best, but it's in Virginia and the top result is the most distant one.

I'd also suggest making the on-page results a bit more prominent. My first reaction after typing a zip code was that I was required to give an e-mail address to view the results, and nearly gave up and left the page before realizing they were also displayed at the bottom. (The fact that only the "1 Result from Georgia" was above the fold didn't help, since it looked unrelated.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yeah, the zip database I'm using is a bit out of date (as some other people have mentioned) and you're seeing this behaviour as it thinks 22003 is in Georgia. I had a hunch people might be more interested in results from their own state even if they were a bit further away, but clearly in this case that doesn't make sense.

I'll experiment with moving the email form to under the results, or putting it behind a button. I was trying to make it low friction, but I think I might have gone a bit far.

<comment><USER28> Interesting, I take it the distances are being computed in some other way? The "results from State" would definitely make a lot more sense if they matched the zip code.

<comment><AUTHOR> Distances are being computed from a geopoint representation of each zip code (which is a bit out of date, but which I can update fairly easily) to a set of shape files representing US counties. It's intentionally not 100% accurate because the underlying math is quite slow and using slight approximations speeds things way up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is great - cool idea. I'll register as this is something I really care about and this saves me research and time. It also helps me consider which meals I'd like to make.

I'd be willing to pay a small monthly fee for this data being curated for me when you get the database a bit more fleshed out.

</comment><comment><USER30> This is a great resource. Thanks for sharing it!

I have a suggestion which would make it very useful for me: hints on when to plant. Since you have the timing for "peak season" and (I assume) the growing times to get there, hopefully it would be easy to work backwards to arrive at planting times.

As a new gardener in Southern California, I could use some help planning my planting schedule. I can get away with planting a lot of things whenever I feel like it, but sticking with the ideal times would help optimize my yields.

<comment><USER17> As someone who frequents farmer's markets often, my suggestion would to visit one close to you. I often ask the local farmers for planting advice especially since it seems our temperatures are getting wackier each season.

<comment><USER30> That's an excellent point! There are several near me so I'll ask next time I go to the market.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> About five years ago, a colleague had an idea for a social/user-driven app for seasonal food (produce, meats, etc.) He called it something like Local Bee, and then we created a version (for Windows Phone 7!) of it over the weekend at a Hack-a-thon. We actually won, though it was small (13 teams). We called it P2P Farms! We made another version (for Android Auto, before it was even called that) at another event, where it would actually alert you right in your dashboard when you got close to specified items. Then our employer started to turn it into "a real thing", and renamed it Fresh! However, I left the company around then and haven't heard much about it since.

At the time, I searched online, and found sites like LocalHarvest, Farmstand, RipeNear.me, LocalDirt, etc., each usually with a little different spin (some focus on specific food, some one farmer's markets, some on actual farms, and some on produce stands).

So you can see the challenges - data, use case, implementation, monetization, etc.

If it's from various feeds, they aren't standardized or consistent. They could update at different frequencies. They might omit huge swaths of geography.

If it's from the users themselves (i.e. you "check-in" when you find a local produce stand selling fruit or beef jerky or something), you need MASSIVE adoption and participation, and you'll probably have a 10-to-1 ratio of people that want to consume vs contribute. And how long is the data useful? Maybe they bought awesome watermelons but 15 minutes later, the last few sold out. Can you get people at the stands to update their listings?

What if you convince producers (farmer's markets, farmers) that it's worth their marketing dollars to get listed (and highlighted)? Does it follow the spirit of the app you envisioned?

And do you combine approaches? Multiple ways of getting data in, keeping it updated, etc? I'm curious where you'll take this, so create an "About/News" section of your site (or Twitter) and keep posting!

Edit: Also, I realize your approach "just what fruit is in season" varies from the above variations, and so the challenges and solutions do as well. I kind of went off on tangents there! Hopefully it gives you ideas anyway.

</comment><comment><USER32> Love it. Might want to update the meta tags to remove the mention of the "preact-boilerplate." That's some prime real estate for describing your site when sharing it socially.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, thanks - done now

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Very neat idea. I'd like to make the following suggestions:

1) Some vendors of said produce. If I can get grapes that were grown 5 miles away, awesome! Now where can I buy them?

2) A filter that lets me determine the maximum distance allowed. I ran a search based on a Northern Virginia zipcode and it recommended me some Bell Peppers from Georgia...609 miles away. We're not exactly "local" at this point. Simply having a filter option to stop it from showing me anything farther than 50 miles away would be useful.

</comment><comment><USER34> 3 thumbs up!

As soon as my wife heard about it - voice of joy!

Definitely solution to existing problem + tons of potentials for business (recipes, partnerships with stores, organics, deliveries)..

</comment><comment><USER35> Nifty, thanks for sharing!

Couple of suggestions:

I signed up for the email, but I'd likely pay more attention to a monthly email as personally I get so many "weekly" email that I setup a filter consciously or not.

Second, `being` is misspelled in your post-signup message: "confirmation link to being receiving fresh produce notifications once a week." Might even be good to reword it a bit .:-)

</comment><comment><USER36> I love the concept. Rather than just listing what's 'in' season, listing what's out (among staples, fuzzy definition of what that would include) would be valuable to.

My wife tends to give me a grocery list and includes things that - when i get to the store, are overpriced/look like crap as they're significantly out of season anywhere remotely close.

</comment><comment><USER37> Hey! Very cool.

I visited the local farmer's market yesterday. Every 3rd stall had persimmons... Didn't see any in my Santa Clara County list.

</comment><comment><USER38> Not sure if it is my ignorance here, but I was actually pretty happy with the results for my zip in southern CA. There are certainly results that are not convenient traveling distance from me, but the value to me isn't in knowing exactly which farms to purchase from, but in knowing what produce I should look more closely at when I go to the market.

</comment><comment><USER39> Where is the data coming from? It tells me that things like apples, pears, etc. are at peak ripeness (true) - but then it says the closest places are 50 miles away. I know for a fact that there are numerous apple and pear farms that are open to the public within a few miles of my house (they are problem in the same zip code as my house).

</comment><comment><USER40> Good stuff! Would totally install a native app that sent me pushes when things go in/out of season.

<comment><AUTHOR> Serious question - would you pay for it?

<comment><USER41> Probably not... but the list created / produce box people / farmers would be amazing.

I could see building a business on top of this FOR SURE.

Awesome MVP

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Your zip database is old. My zip returns nothing (97078) but the old zip they split up works (97007).

</comment><comment><USER43> For the UK, I use [http://eattheseasons.co.uk/](http://eattheseasons.co.uk/) which is much simpler, but serves as a great starting point when considering what to cook.

</comment><comment><USER44> Thank you for this site. Wonderful!

One correction: 'Cantaloups' should be spelled 'Cantaloupes'.

It would be really nice to have the tags clickable (for example 'Peak', so that we can figure out what produce would be cheaper).

</comment><comment><USER45> Looks like a very neat idea.

I'm curious where the data comes from. For my zipcode (souther New Hampshire) it said apples are in peak season. Peak Apple around here ends early to late October (depending on weather).

<comment><AUTHOR> Almost all the data right now is pulled from various USDA publications which I scraped, combined, sanity-checked and cleaned up. It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do as a first-run.

I'll have a look at southern New Hampshire specifically and see if anything weird is going on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Very cool would it be possible to get a reminder of when something is in season to plant as well, this would be very helpful with my home vegetable gardening efforts.

</comment><comment><USER47> I'd love to see this integrated with [https://fallingfruit.org/](https://fallingfruit.org/)

</comment><comment><USER48> This is awesome. It would be nice to have a list of local farms that produce them, as well as farmers markets that offer them (when and where)

</comment><comment><USER49> I get wildly different out-of-state results when putting in 99114 vs 99113, even though both zips are in the same starting state. What gives?

</comment><comment><USER50> This is great! Thank you. Lots of great feedback here as well :) Look forward to following along and making more informed grocery choices.

</comment><comment><USER51> You can generally figure out what's in season by going to the grocery store and seeing what they have a mountain of for almost no money

</comment><comment><USER52> I showed this to my wife who has never been on HN and is an avid Gardener. I was excited to find some commonality in our hobbies!

She spent three minutes on it and said "this is crap."

When she entered our Dallas zip code, it noted that the nearest harvests for very basic veggies was over 270 miles away in the middle of no where. Meanwhile she's growing the very same plants in our backyard.

Gardening is far from my area of expertise. But unless we're missing something fundamental about the program, there may be some work to be done on this commendable project.

</comment><comment><USER53> LOVE THIS!!! I have actually printed out charts and put them on our bulletin board, however, not all charts are local.

Next question: Is this public code?

</comment><comment><USER54> This is nice. I'd love to see this expanded as I am sure there are more than just 4 fruits in season right now in Oregon. :)

</comment><comment><USER55> Very cool idea! Agree with the comments tying this to a Farmer's Market somehow. Would be good to get user input as well.

</comment><comment><USER56> I love it! So awesome.

I'd love to make a mobile app for it. Is it an abuse if I just pinged [https://harvestsignal.com/api/v1/public/whatsfresh/[zip](https://harvestsignal.com/api/v1/public/whatsfresh/\[zip) code]? I don't want to spam you but I doubt I'll have any traffic any time soon anyway.

</comment><comment><USER57> 6 things within a 300 mile radius and the combination does not form a complete protein...

</comment><comment><USER58> Nice 90210 reference :-) here's hoping for some data to brazilian visitors...

</comment><comment><USER59> Very cool, I always wondered about things like this but it was verrry low priority

</comment><comment><USER60> Very interesting! Can you talk a little bit about the reliability of your data?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would say that the data I have at the moment are _reliable_ in the sense that they are collated from informed, reasonably up to date sources (mainly US government sources at the moment). I would say that they are not very _complete_ and not very _granular_ yet, but this is something I am working on.

<comment><USER60> I work for a company that has very similar problems - our data is reliable, but not necessarily complete. Thanks for sharing!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> ...congrats bruuv...wanted to build something similar lack of time killed it

</comment><comment><USER62> Very cool!

Also lucky to be in a west coast state with lots of rain and lots of agriculture.

</comment><comment><USER63> >Artichoke

>Days left in season: 253

Artichokes, man. You just can't convince them to die.

<comment><USER64> I also noticed that. I tend to buy the heirloom perennial artichokes which have a shorter season than the continuously planted annual varieties. Also, saw asparagus which even near the bay area I don't think is in season, most of it seems to be from Mexico.

<comment><AUTHOR> I ran some queries and it looks like there are only about 4 weeks a year when asparagus isn't being commercially harvested _somewhere_ in California - <USER2> first couple of weeks in December and the last couple of weeks in May (approximately)

Distribution is another matter entirely of course!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> 200+ miles away. Holy hell. Are the farms really that far away?

<comment><USER66> Without knowing where you are, I'd say "probably not"; the end of November is not the best time to show this service off (in the US).

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> A great start! So exciting to keep an eye on this

</comment><comment><USER68> Super cool - awesome idea and great UI.

</comment><comment><USER69> This is awesome! Nice work :)

</comment><comment><USER70> > Chile Peppers > Chaves County, New Mexico (607 miles) > In peak season

I guess there's a reason we call this hunting season... deer, turkey,pheasent, quail, dove plus many non-game animals (hogs, etc) are in season in the midwest.

<comment><USER70> Hilariously, hunting is free-range, grass-fed, antibiotic-free, cage-free, ethically-sourced, ethically harvested, local, and sustainable, among many other things like 100% of the fees go towards habitat preservation.

Some very angsty vegetarians on HN :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Great work! Sorting by days left (asc/dec) or alphabetical would be nice.</comment>


(Homeless to Success) Help KickStart My Media Career - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skyyt/skyytmoda <comment><AUTHOR> I am an upcoming author who has begun my exploration into film. I have been homeless for one year but I have not allowed that to stop me from filming and writing my books. I do not want sympathy because I know several of you are hard working people and I believe that that is what I need to strive to be. I have spent many nights in prayer and upset with God and myself for this frustrating season. I know that many will also assume that I'm milking a story about being homeless, but I assure you that I'm being genuine. The reason I am reaching out to people via different forums is because after a year I have managed to film my content, and write 3 novels. I have completed everything I need to do to be successful, and all that is now missing is funding. If you cannot provide funding I ask that you take the time to view my YouTube channel and share it because views eventually equate revenue. I hope that many of you would find it in your heart to support me and not see me as a lost cause. I have two previous published books entitled Misandrist, and Tangled intimacy. They both can be found on Amazon website under the author name SkyyT. My ultimate goal is to reach the Forbes list and a very successful person told me that the people who would help me reach my potential would be strangers. Oh how that has been true, the people closest to me don't support me but that is because I feel there minds are to small to dream big. I will not my quest to success. With me being homeless I still have managed to finish everything I felt would lead me out of poverty. Please take the time to give my work a look and find it in your heart to help me reach my vision. In closing, please remember that money isn't the only thing that can help me; I would be grateful for the views and sharing of my YouTube channel. Be Blessed</comment>