Show HN: Fully-Featured Browser P2P WebTorrent Client - <AUTHOR> https://btorrent.xyz/ <comment><USER2> Love this.

What can you tell us about how you are powering this tool?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's Built with: WebTorrent, AngularJS, Skeleton, Normalize.css, Moment.js, ui-grid, pretty-bytes, ng-file-upload, ng-notify.

Written in Jade, CoffeeScript and Sass. Developed using HarpJS and hosted with nginx pointing to 200.html as SPA.

Hosted in my dedicated server in PA, USA. Powered by jsDelivr and CloudFlare.

GitHub here: [https://github.com/DiegoRBaquero/BTorrent](https://github.com/DiegoRBaquero/BTorrent)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Awesome, bro</comment>


YCatalyst is HackerNews in Node.js (Coffeescript/FOSS) - <AUTHOR> http://ycatalyst.com/r/XUn0ObcwYHgT

<comment><USER2> Let me be the first to say, good job. It's great to see node and coffe getting more love as they're both really fun and neat. I see you're setting up a sandbox for us HNers which is probably best to show HN something they can actually use and draw some more attention towards your project.

Heres an idea for you, we all seem to love delicious and bookmarks. Why not integrate bookmarking into this project (private by default) but allow the use of 'publishing' to ycatalyst, or viewing previous discussions on already 'published' bookmarks/topics. You could then generate 'site' posts which are from hot/popular bookmarks, (I'd also try to keep who bookmarked it private by default).

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds easy and useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> With this invite system, you're deterring users who would otherwise make comments that showcase your real-time features.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah. I'll get a test server up soon so people can test the latest github version, with open invites. Thanks for this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So... while this is cool and all, this isn't anything revolutionary or even 'new' that couldn't have been done in any other scripting language/framework (and, in fact, I daresay it could've probably been done faster in another language/framework).

While I believe Node is pretty frickin' awesome, I don't see a point in glorifying concepts that have already been done to death. Nodes entire architecture allows so many more possibilities than just a HackerNews clone, so let's see it instead of constantly reinventing the wheel.

<comment><USER5> Any cool examples of Node stuff you'd like to mention?

<comment><USER4> I'll just leave this entire list here: <http://nodeknockout.com/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> > crypto.createHash('md5').update(password).digest('base64')

Any reason you chose md5? Props for at least salting and running it 1000 times.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, I just wanted a well optimized hash function. Would you suggest another?

<comment><USER6> You might also consider bcrypt. See:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=762708>

For a discussion on it.

<comment><USER7> Absolutely!

<http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "password must be 5 to 20 characters".

Why 20? Where did that number come from?

<comment><AUTHOR> too short? too long? i just wanted to cap it somewhere.

<comment><USER8> Too short. Why the need for a cap? Its hashed anyhow right?

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah. I'll cap it at 1024 then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> nice seeing my lib (validator) in use. Also, damn CoffeeScript is sexy</comment>


Your App Sucks; One Star - <AUTHOR> http://skylarsch.com/2014/01/09/your-app-sucks-one-star.html

<comment><USER2> Exactly. It's at the point where we practically need a required class in high school to teach people how to interact constructively with the maintainers of software. A particularly good class would be the one teaching people that hardware and software configurations are incredibly complex, varying so much that even the _best_ software will eventually fail to anticipate some issue. There are problems that simply _cannot_ be found until a user talks to a developer!

People who are angry enough to torpedo a project might not realize just how easy some software fixes can be, _if the developer is told more about the problem_. When users E-mail me about a problem, often I can fix it within hours (or even minutes!) once I know what to look for. A return address is also important because sometimes I have to ask follow-up questions; besides, when I'm done I always want to send a link to the fixed version.

I've done open-source for a long time. In the beginning I was outright shocked at how some people behaved, much like this article states: even though I had not received a single E-mail (to my clearly-published address at the time), I would dig up _scathing_ reviews of my stuff on web sites back in the day. I used to be mad, and sometimes I wondered why I bothered to work on anything (much less give it away for free). Eventually though I decided that I needed to take _all_ input — even the "angry anonymous coward" kind — and use it as fuel to improve whatever I could.</comment>


Show HN: Asmble – Compile WebAssembly to the JVM - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cretz/asmble <comment><USER2> > Everyone is focused on targeting WASM with several languages but is missing > the big problem: lack of a standard library

I'm not so sure that's a problem that would benefit WASM to solve. Right now the imports Emscripten provide are the defacto standard lib, which does shape how other projects approach WASM.

I feel a large reason behind seeing so many interesting toy projects that use WASM (and it's quick cross browser adoption) is due to it having such a small scope. Define a portable, easily optimizable VM.

The big challenge there is to support higher level concepts like GC, you need to make that work at a machine level, not a standard library level.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed it is not for WASM to solve. I'm just stating the ecosystem issue because everyone thinks compiling their favorite language to WASM provides immediate interoperability.

<comment><USER3> When I was working on it the accepted solution was to compile as linux and statically link musl into the wasm binary, leaving mostly __syscallN symbols unresolved. As such it's a matter of implementing those on an as-needed basis (in javascript for emscripten and in java here). I at least successfully got sqlite opening a database in a pure java transpile that way. While it's a possibly inelegant approach on the face of it linux does at least have an aggressive 'dont break userspace' attitude and there is longstanding prior art for this on freebsd.

see: [https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/blob/6dc4ac5f9e4d8484e...](https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/blob/6dc4ac5f9e4d8484e273e4dcc554f809738cedd6/src/library_syscall.js)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey, I wrote one of those too :P I went the route of compiling to java source code rather than bytecode though. I'll definitely give this a look through when I get some free time, glad to see others want it to happen (though as you allude to jvmci / truffle / sulong and friends are kind of a game changer).

* [https://github.com/wrmsr/wava](https://github.com/wrmsr/wava) \- be forewarned though I never got around to giving it any polish and it's based on a dated version of wasm

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice! I too thought about transpiling to it (as I have in other projects transpiling to things like Go) but I wanted to see how close to the bytecode I could get some of the translations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think we've come full circle.

<comment><USER5> to java applets??

I don't quite get the joke...

<comment><USER6> HN should convert the homepage to a transcompiled Java Applet for the next April Fools.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I see what it is and I think I understand what it does, at least as far as the high level description goes. I am re-working some C++ code to work when built with emscripten as asm.js and I have a passing familiarity with web assembly.

But why does this webassembly to JVM bytecode converter exist?

Is this some kind of research project? If so, great no more explanation someone wanted to see their limits and learn in the process, great.

Is this for some professional purpose? If so then I am much more curious. Who has a need to convert stuff in the browser to JVM code, and what benefit do they gain?

<comment><AUTHOR> I touched on it in the README FAQ under "Why?". Basically I am just doing it for fun and becoming more familiar w/ the technologies involved.

Also, it's not "convert stuff in the browser", WebAssembly has non-web goals [0]. There can be benefit in libraries sharing a common bytecode.

0 - [http://webassembly.org/docs/non-web/](http://webassembly.org/docs/non- web/)

<comment><USER7> "Just for fun" is a great reason.

I was unaware of the non-web goals of WebAssembly, Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Might this be useful for incorporating C or C++ code in an Android app without having to use the NDK, compile for multiple architectures, and have to use JNI to bridge to the Dalvik/ART world?

<comment><AUTHOR> Probably not without some considerable effort. I touched on this in the README FAQ, but basically to use Emscripten-compiled code with this, a runtime layer will need to be written which I haven't done yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Where are the Java bytecode to WASM compilers?

<comment><USER10> TeaVM [1] does this, but I don't know much about it.

[1] [https://github.com/konsoletyper/teavm](https://github.com/konsoletyper/teavm)</comment></comment>


Fitbit for Dogs - <AUTHOR> http://www.whistle.com/ <comment><USER2> I look at this and think "finally, someone's found a way to capitalize on the disposable income of people whose homes are already full of exercise bikes being used as coat hangers and whose wrists are nearly ready to collapse under the weight of their fitbits, pedometers, and GPSes."

Here's the secret to health and exercise: you have to want to do it. Another $100 device to tell you "you're still not doing the thing you said you want to do but that you're not making time for" if it's not something you want to do. I run and love to do it. Here's how I know I'm different from other people this way: when I started running a lot (about 6 years ago) I would ask friends if they wanted to go for a run and they would say "no." I wanted to get fit, but I also wanted to run. I know people who ask "how can I run more?" and I ask "well, do you enjoy running?" and usually they say they don't. I don't tell them they need to buy different shoes or gadgets to try to coerce them into doing it, I suggest they look at other kinds of activities that will fulfill them and try to incorporate that into their life.

I believe too many people confuse fitness with the _goal_ of exercise. Happiness should be the goal. It's fair (and probably right) to say fitness will bring happiness, but it's important to keep those in perspective and realize that if exercise (a means to fitness) isn't bringing happiness, then maybe the exercise should change.

Lastly - I have a small ax to grind over people getting pets who aren't prepared to give the pets the attention they need to be happy. Pets need a lot of attention and activity - they express very clearly when they aren't getting enough if you pay attention. And you can calibrate the type of dog that might suit your lifestyle before you get one.

Sorry to rant over problems with fitness and pet ownership that I feel that a product like this brings up - the product itself may be totally fine and I'll probably get downvoted for saying some of this. Clearly there's somewhat of a need for a product like this.

<comment><USER3> >I have a small ax to grind over people getting pets who aren't prepared to give the pets the attention they need to be happy.

While I generally agree, how do you reconcile this with the thousands of dogs euthanized every day in kill shelters because no one will take them?

<comment><USER4> I love dogs, I think it's terrible that we have so many in shelters and so many being euthanized. I wish we could provide happy homes for all of them.

That being said, I would rather euthanize a dog than put it in a home or half- a-home where it isn't cared for in the way it should be. I would rather it not suffer at all, than for it to be ignored, not loved, or not looked after.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Honestly, I think this will benefit the owners as much as the dogs.

My dog has tons of energy and potential to exercise, but usually the problem is that I don't have the energy or time to take him outside.

I suspect that a major benefit of this product will be that it transforms owners' lifestyles, encouraging them to be more active and take breaks from being inside and/or online when necessary.

<comment><USER6> Doggie day care. It's the best thing you can do for them.

Yes, it's yuppie, but as with hiring housekeepers, it makes so many 'problems' go away.

My dogs love going to play with other dogs, toys, pools, fountains, and trained handlers, and they love coming home to play and run. They get to socialize and I still get a lot of quality time with them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you are a non-attentive, dis-interested pet owner you probably don't care enough to buy this. If you are attentive and interested in your pet this device tells you nothing new.

Fitbit works because you can correlate the data to your personal well being. Unless this device magically discerns the dog's well being I don't see how it provides any actionable statistics.

<comment><USER8> Disagree 100%. Just pre-ordered one. I am a very attentive and interested dog owner.

Here's what I'll get:

1\. I pay a dog walker to exercise my dog every-day for 1 hour. I want to make sure he is actively walking and not just sitting around the park.

2\. Dog Sleep: I want to keep a healthy sleep vs activity percentage.

I think this is great. I love this trend of constantly tracking vs going to the vet every 6 months to find out whats wrong.

<comment><USER7> Do you not trust your dog walker? That would be a problem this device cannot fix. I can tell the minute I get home if my dogs got a good walk or not.

I'm also interested in how you plan on acting upon this new knowledge about your dog's sleeping habits.

<comment><USER9> I think it's pretty clear that there's a startup opportunity here.

"Uber for dogs".

DAE ...?

EDIT: FFS, I hate this world: <http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm>.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "It's an Airbnb for dogs."

[http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs- rov...](http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rover-com- raises-7m-led-by-the-foundry-group-rolls-out-animoto-powered-video-service/)

"It's a Uber for dogs." <http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm>

<comment><USER11> Never underestimate the seemingly ludicrous amounts of money people are willing to shell out for their dogs (and other pets).

<comment><USER12> inb4 pets.com

<comment><USER11> Ha, it's a fair point, but the failure of pets.com had little to do with the fact that it was a site selling pet-related goods and more to do with poor investment choices, bad management, and unsustainable pricing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The product looks amazing. Congrats to Ben, Steven, Nate, Kevin and the rest of the team working on this. Great job.

<comment><USER14> And Brad!

<comment><USER15> And Krista!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I attached my Fitbit to our kitten a while ago. Worked pretty well and the data was interesting. Also, now my Fitbit has kitten teeth marks from her finding it something fun to chew on.

</comment><comment><USER17> If _"monitoring your dog's daily activity"_ isn't a first world problem, I don't know what is.

That being said, I would buy a similar/simpler device for my cat–not because I give a damn if my cat how many steps it takes but because I want to know where it goes all day (on a map).

<comment><USER18> And on another day: What about a version for tracking children? I have to say that I find this somewhat spooky.

<comment><USER17> I think that already exists–at least for driving and driving + texting [1]. I'm actually okay with it for those uses (I have a teen and 3 smaller kids).

I don't need to know where my teen is at all times but if I can reduce (a) her chances of dying and (b) my car insurance bill, sweet.

[1] [http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device- tra...](http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device-track-teen- drivers/nW8H8/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> _"Whistle lets you know who's spending time with your dog while you're away, be it family or friends."_

How the hell does it do that? Before I saw the founders comment here on HN I thought this was an elaborate ruse because of this "feature."

<comment><USER7> Seconded. I thought it was a joke at first, making fun of the "It's X, but for dogs!" meme.

Definitely seems like this is solving a non-problem

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I follow activity monitors rather closely. The wifi connectivity is the most unusual part of this design.

There's never been a nice, simple way to setup wifi from a small device before.

The trick they are using here is to use the Bluetooth connection to setup the wifi. It's not a bad approach (in fact, they like it so much they're trying to patent it).

But TI recently came out with the CC3000, a wifi chip that can grab the setup information on its own (well, with the help of a smartphone app).

This avoids the hassles of managing two different 2.4GHz wireless systems on a small device.

I think that's where the future of wifi setup is heading.

<comment><USER21> The fitbit aria scale had a clever way to set itself up. As far as I could tell, it had my computer join a known network, and broadcast the SSID & Password that my computer already knew off to the scale. So the scale gets put in setup mode, and listens for that temp network.

At least that's what it appeared to be doing when I set it up....

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> To me this looks like top notch execution of a silly idea.

<comment><USER23> Quantified self wasn't enough. Behold ... the quantified dog!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is a great untapped market, people go crazy for pets and spend a hell of a lot of money on them.

I think the pitch should be "turn your terrier into a tamagotchi"

<comment><USER25> Indeed. People often succumb to irrationality when dealing with their pets, and are certainly inclined towards purchasing superfluous things for them. This is an excellent market from which these guys can probably extract a lot of profit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Seems like a cool concept for owners that leave their dog at home during the day. Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to.

Or if an uncommon spike of activity happens in the middle of the day, you may want to check in at home.

<comment><USER27> "Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to."

I've checked with a webcam. Almost always sleeping.

<comment><USER28> We crate our lab mix during the work day -- he currently barks for about 2-3 minutes when we leave, chews on his toys (man he loves that kong full of peanut butter), falls asleep, wakes up for a few minutes, chews on his toys again, falls asleep; rinse and repeat.

I think we broke it down to like:

90% sleeping 5% chewing on stuff 5% sitting there doing nothing but awake

<comment><USER29> Perhaps it's just because I grew up on a farm and our dogs roamed freely during the day, but this sounds like a miserable life for a dog. Is this a common thing for people to do?

<comment><USER28> Yes, very -- it's his den. He loves being in there and enters on his own will as it's his safe place where he gets all the best toys as well as sleeps at night. A good owner will NEVER use crate time as punishment, it's only supposed to be used as a positive place. It's also important when they're young to not associate it with you leaving, so you typically put them in a few times randomly while you're home during their puppy months, and leave lots of treats/fun toys for short period where the dog can still see you. Slowly they'll learn that it's their own private and "fun" place.

It really prevents him from getting into too much trouble while we're away, but eventually when he's less "puppy" (he's currently 9 months), we'll slowly start letting him roam the house/yard for short periods while we're gone, working our way up to a full work day.

Fear not though, when we're home he's with us, and he always gets about 1-2 hours of exercise as well as a trip to our local dog park daily.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Nifty, nice job! Does it work with horses?

I feel pretty in touch with my dogs since I work from home and provide their exercise...but I could see my wife wanting to see how the horse is doing since it is kept at stable and she can't make it out every day.

Also typically horse people are super rich (tho we are not) and already paying lots and lots on horse care, might be good to explore.

Minor css bug for firefox/win <http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS>

</comment><comment><USER31> There is potential to save a ton of money in vet bills via early warning of potential disease in pets[1]. Activity and food intake information is enough for many. Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life.

[1] Obviously the response cannot be to go to the vet for each alert, but instead to take some action at home.

<comment><USER19> _Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful._

If you are not already aware of your dog's food intake there is already a big problem and a pretty good chance that you are a disinterested owner. Dogs should be fed a certain amount of food each day. The dog's food bowl is not an all fido can eat buffet that is constantly refilled.

 _I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life._

It seems that before the USP shift you would need some actual research and judging from the answer to "What research supports Whistle's approach?" there is no research to support this proposition.

<comment><USER32> There are two schools of thought out there. And I think it boils down to your specific dog. My dog _used_ to get enough of a workout that I could leave her with a free feeding bowl. She was at a GREAT weight. Then she had a knee injury and she started gaining weight. Since then I've switched to timed feedings.

Also from their site... <http://www.whistle.com/support/>

"Whistle is supported by veterinary research around activity and behavior as a measure of pet health from leading academic institutions such as the University of California at Davis, North Carolina State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. We work closely with the veterinary community to bring new data to this research across a much broader population of dogs."

<comment><USER19> I have never heard a vet, breeder or trainer recommend free feeding a dog.

Also from their site? That is not an "also" that is what I was referring to. You read that paragraph and concluded there must be research supporting this? When I read that paragraph the first thing that I was _"where are the citations?"_

<comment><USER32> Serious question, would you read the citations? I'd be curious to read them too, and it is concerning that they don't have citations.

<comment><USER19> I would probably skim the citations to see if there was anything interesting in them and or any insight into optimal use of the data. But mainly the big thing with the citations is that the citations would back up the claim that the product was supported by research. Right now its just ad copy...

<comment><USER32> Yeah citations would make this more reputable, and as it stands it's just a claim. But I prefer to trust that they have done some studies on this topic. I'll verify it later, but trust for now. Also, I can't imagine a vet saying that this kind of data on a dog would be "bad" in any way. And it's usefulness will be found through time and trials. Just as most studies are backed after peer review and being open to the test of time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Give me a device that can tell when my dog is about to try to go to the bathroom in the house and corrects that behavior automatically with a dog whistle and you have yourself a winning product.

On top of that, just add features that trains the dog for you. Like automatic "heel" commands or making sure the dog doesn't crawl onto the couch and leave dog hair all over it while you are out of the house.

Use geofencing to make sure the dog can't wonder past a certain distance from the house without hearing a dog whistle. It would be like a reprogrammable electric fence without all the cost of burying wires in the yard and worrying about the wire getting cut by accident and the dog running away. Add geolocation so I can have a "Where is my dog?" feature, just like I can already find my iPhone.

</comment><comment><USER34> Be sure to implement an owner shaming feature: "Your dog has been more active than you today!"

But in all seriousness this looks great. My wife and I both use Fitbit and have joked about attaching it to our dog's collar to see how active he is.

</comment><comment><USER35> What about the dogs privacy ?

<comment><USER36> I'm not sure there is any animal less concerned with privacy than a dog :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> "So you took the dogs for a long walk then, and didn't just stop at the pub?"

</comment><comment><USER38> This looks like the kind of product that will do well in San Francisco -- SF is where the venn diagram of "dog owners" and "gadget owners" overlap.

<comment><USER25> Also, most of the cohort of SF residents fit into the most important category, "people with more money that they know what to do with."

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Firstly I thought it was a parody, then I moved to the Company page and figured out it isn't. Well, maybe there is a market for this after all.

<comment><USER40> I still can't tell if it's really good satire or actually real. I'm waiting for Jonathan Swift to show up at any moment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> If the app allowed me to asses my dogs mood then this would be useful. I have an extremely energetic West Highland Terrier and there is a fine balance between enough exercise to tire him out and too much to turn him in to a grumpy, slightly snappy, stroppy teenager. We think the sweet spot is somewhere between 45 mins and 1.5 hours of walking per day - which is quite a big window

<comment><AUTHOR> That's crazy I have a Westie also, and you are right on point with trying to find the right balance.

The reason I posted this was that I love the concept of tracking the amount exercise "Toodles" is getting to see how it affects her mood. The device looks like it's on a big dog, and I'm wondering how it will look on a small/medium size dog as well.

<comment><USER41> Agreed, I guess there is a minimum size that they could go down to but if it was ok I would buy one.

I think people forget how much a dog's mood is affected by their walking time - playing is all well and good but there is something primal for a dog about walking, especially walking with intent/purpose.

I think with big dogs it's fine to just exhaust them and they'll loll about and doze but with a small dog if you push it too far you just get a grumpy git.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> A friend from MIT is doing something similar with a great team.

<http://www.fitbark.com/>

</comment><comment><USER43> New: you've always thought of your dog as an extension of yourself, now it can be an extension of your quantified self!

I'm sure this has a market, but taking your dog for a walk and getting regular check-ups at the vet seems to work relatively well for most situations.

</comment><comment><USER44> Design looks fairly similar to Misfit Wearables (<http://misfitwearables.com/>). Not quite as sleek but I don't expect the user to complain.

</comment><comment><USER45> I just pre-ordered! What a great idea! My whole business life revolves around charts and graphs. I can't wait to apply the same level of deep analysis to helping my pet stay healthy and happy!

</comment><comment><USER46> I can't put my finger on it, but this app makes me very sad.

</comment><comment><USER47> Not sure this service lives up to such an awesome domain :/

</comment><comment><USER48> I want one for me! :)

</comment><comment><USER49> But what about the cats?! Cats care about fitness just as much as dogs do. When can I order a feline version?

</comment><comment><USER50> Was going to buy one until I saw "android coming soon"

Build android first, or at the same time, or no thanks.

</comment><comment><USER51> Thinking about getting one of these for my GF to make sure she gets enough daily exercise.

</comment><comment><USER52> Instead of spending time setting goals, monitoring progress and charts, worrying about unmet goals, and god knows what else why not just spend that additional time with the poor dog. If you do that, I am pretty sure that you will be able to gauge your dog's health better than this. Don't mean to offend anyone just my 2 cents.

<comment><USER53> False dichotomy, one does not preclude the other.

You can very well spend time with your dog, and still enjoy the metrics that this thing will give you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> This is just cruel. Just take your dog(s) for a run once or twice a day.

</comment><comment><USER55> Why no GPS integration? Would it affect the battery life to poorly?

<comment><USER13> I have a buddy that works at Garmin and from what I understand, GPS receivers are a huge battery drain and they are also pretty big/heavy in relation to other sensors. If you look at GPS running watches for instance, even the small ones are pretty beefy and they only last up to 8 hours while active.

<comment><USER20> Well, the way it would work (and I'm sure how the TAGG does it) would be to leave the GPS and cellular modem powered down most of the time.

But say once every 30 minutes, they would all power up, grab the GPS data, fire off an SMS message with the coordinates, then power back down again.

It's not perfect, but it's a good compromise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> I'm really shocked that whistle.com was available or attainable.

<comment><USER57> They raised $6 million already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> I wonder how dog would think about it?

<comment><USER28> Guaranteeing my labrador would find a way to get it off and eat it... total punk, that one

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> finally! this has been a major pain point for me in the past

</comment><comment><USER60> Will this tell me how many times per hour my dog licks his balls?

</comment><comment><USER61> that is one expensive ass pedometer.</comment>


Rooftop solar is now cheaper than the grid in 42 American cities - <AUTHOR> http://www.utilitydive.com/news/rooftop-solar-is-now-cheaper-than-the-grid-in-42-american-cities/352799/ <comment><USER2> Solar is cheaper because of you suckers that don't have panels. There is a good government subsidy up front which people know about but the real secret is green energy credits. The green energy credits that the power companies are required to buy from home owners are worth at least as much as the electricity. If it wernt for these incentives then more efficient things like solar hot water would win out, but instead I put a PV array on my roof. When I got my panels the anticipated payback period was just 5 years in Massachusetts.

<comment><USER3> I'd like someone here to mount a moral case for why driving up the price for regular users of power to subsidise solar panels is acceptable?

Would anyone accept that increasing gas taxes to give Tesla owners a cash payment is an ethical proposition?

The people most affected by increased electricity prices are the poor. These are the people most unlikely to have solar panels.

I'm all for allowing people to put their money into whatever they want. I am against subsidies for solar or any other energy, when those subsidies are paid for by the other users. It is very unfair on low income households.

<comment><USER4> >The people most affected by increased electricity prices are the poor.

If you want to see where solar panels have _really_ taken off, you should pay a visit to the third world where the US government isn't subsidizing them.

<comment><USER5> Demand for solar panels may be higher in some of the third world communities since it is one of the few sources of electricity; there aren't too many grids to connect to.

<comment><USER4> Point being that it's one of the few power sources that ARE available to poor people, especially poor people who are not on the grid.

It's pretty much just that and diesel generator, in fact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It is interesting that Hawaii isn't at all mentioned, considering that electricity is 30 to 45 cents per kWh and the electric company limits the number of grid-tied solar installations per neighborhood.

No where in the US is solar more cost effective than here, and the electric company is restricting homes from installing solar. The alternative is to go fully off-grid with battery arrays, but that is more than most people can handle.

<comment><USER7> Not that they have to go fully off the grid all the time, just when they want to use solar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Packaged right, this could give electric cars a big push. A Nissan Leaf sports a 26kW/h battery; a rough guess puts the cost of a home solar charging system dedicated to the car at about half the price of that car. For context: charging it from 110v is like running a moderate hairdryer for the charging period (up to 21 hours for a full charge, which is unlikely needed).

Packaged right, this could get a big push for dedicated A/C operation. Home cooling being most needed when sunlight is strongest, solar could significantly reduce or outright replace the considerable power needed for cooling - and do it with a minimum, if any, battery buffer.

<comment><USER9> One of the most important attributes of solar power is that it produces peak power during peak usage times -- the middle of the day, when people are running the air conditioning, businesses are open, computers are on, and so on. With a grid designed to provide continuous power at off-peak levels and solar filling in for some of the shortfall at peak levels, that allows a reduced number of peak-only reactors.

<comment><USER10> An earlier post linked to a California operator's report: [http://www.caiso.com/documents/flexibleresourceshelprenewabl...](http://www.caiso.com/documents/flexibleresourceshelprenewables_fastfacts.pdf)

...that shows peak load is actually 6pm-9pm.

<comment><USER9> From the report, just before the graph -- _" The net load is calculated by taking the forecasted load and subtracting the forecasted electricity production from variable generation resources, wind and solar"_

In other words, _after_ projected solar generation is accounted for, the peak remaining power need for the specific grid in question is at 6-9 pm. (Other parts of the paper describe the "belly of the duck" being caused by "supply from solar generation resources" \-- reducing the need for the rest of the grid to supply daytime power.) The paper in question may also be describing a residential-only grid.

Residential peak usage is from 6-9 pm, but when commercial/industrial power usage is accounted for, the peak is more like 2-6 pm. See the chart at around the 2/3 point of [http://www.mpoweruk.com/electricity_demand.htm](http://www.mpoweruk.com/electricity_demand.htm) . Also note that residential demand may peak earlier on super hot / high sun days, as shown at [http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/hot-and-heavy-energy-usage- ho...](http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/hot-and-heavy-energy-usage-how-the- demand-and-price-for-electricity-skyrocketed-on-a-100-day/) , and tends to peak later in the winter due to electric heaters kicking on in the evenings ([https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/295225/Seasonal_variations_in_electricity_demand.pdf) ).

Of course, I'm glossing over a lot of complexity here. Each region is going to be different depending on a lot of factors. But in general, having a decent amount of solar power generation can help meet demand at the peak of commercial/industrial demand.

<comment><USER10> ah, thanks for explaining the details!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is Nick Carr's "The Big Switch" in reverse as I predicted years ago. It used to be the case that centralized distribution was cheaper, than, as described in the book, every factory having its own water wheel power plant. The technology is getting good enough now though that each endpoint can be self-sustaining, and even provide services - just as the internet should be - every endpoint providing and consuming. This trend will be massively disruptive, and expect centralized services to do just about anything they have to, to protect their dinosaur business model.

</comment><comment><USER12> Having had solar panels on my roof for nearly 15 years now I can tell you that the 25 year warranty is optimistic at best. Our panel maker, Sharp, cannot replace panels under warranty (180W) because they no longer make them and have no replacement stock. We discovered this when we tried to exercise the warranty on a panel that failed.

<comment><USER13> As with any warrantied product there are likely provisions for that in the warranty - you should either get cash value compensation from them or an equivalent modern panel.

Just because your first attempt resulted in a 'no' doesn't mean you are without recourse...

<comment><USER14> You have to be careful to match the panels though - slightly different specs can cause problems for your setup. The same goes for batteries - mixing new and old will degrade your new batteries. (Lead acid batteries at least)

<comment><USER7> Sure, but in the long run it is far better to take the new panels and tweak your system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I believe this is the development that will let us avoid run away catastrophic warming.

In order to avoid catastrophic warming we have to reduce emissions by something like 80% by 2050. That seemed a pipe dream before cheap solar panels, now it feels inevitable to me.

70% of the power generated by a coal plant is wasted in the transmission line before it reaches your home, distributed generation has this huge efficiency benefit going for it.

The Chinese solar industry has gotten the price down below .50 per watt this year, in a few years it won't make sense to add carbon-sourced marginal capacity. Almost all of new demand can be satisfied with solar pv. We will have to solve the energy storage problem, and I think we will. Superconducting magnetic energy storage gives me hope.

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

<comment><USER16> Solar is only a piece of the puzzle.

The main issue is that in the US, we use up twice the amount of electricity in the day than we do at night. Spinning up and spinning down the turbines / generators causes enormous amounts of waste.

Green energy can't "spin up" and "spin down" like coal, oil, or nuclear.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/10/07/what-is-the- hol...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/10/07/what-is-the-holding- capacity-of-the-us-power-grid/)

Some large percentage of our grid (in particular, the "dynamic" portion) will have to be Coal, Oil, Gas, or Nuclear. The Gigawatts of energy differential between day-usage and night-usage foregoes any hope of storing that energy.

<comment><USER17> here in NZ (no subsidies in our electricity market) we are about 70% renewable via hydro and geothermal. we run a parallel 'reserves' market (everyone does, it's there to take up the slack of a plant tripping out). typically a hydro plant will run 'tail depressed' which means it's not as efficient as it could be but can scale up within 7 seconds (there's another 7 minute reserve market). prices adjust, people get paid to conserve fuel (water) but it's availalbe when needed. fast start gas turbines are also common but these tend to be at the 10-15 min mark (which is still blistering!). tl;dr 'green' energy _systems_ spin up and spin down just like the regular kind...

<comment><USER16> Hydro is one of the best "green" energy sources, and we definitely need more of it.

The downside is that rivers of the size that can power a Hydro-dam are relatively rare, and ecological issues (flood zones, and whatnot) need to be taken into account.

So I'll amend my original post with Coal, Oil, Nuclear or Hydro.

Solar and Wind are absolutely terrible at "spin up" and "spin down". So other sources are needed to cover the differential.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The report estimates an inflation rate of 2.7% but the core inflation rate is currently much closer to 1.7%. They therefor underestimated the cost of the loan which will make solar panels more expensive.

<comment><USER19> But core inflation excludes energy costs..

<comment><USER16> Energy costs are much lower today. Have you noticed the $2.00 gas signs?

<comment><USER20> You should not confuse a temporary turf war between tight oil drillers and the Sauds with long-term energy cost inflation.

$2/gal isn't sustainable for anyone except consumers, and it won't last more than a few months.

<comment><USER21> Oil futures for 2020 are trading at $67/barrel. If you think that's low, maybe you should buy some. If you think that's right, maybe this will last more then a few months.

<comment><USER20> I stick to equities and food commodities for trading. Trading oil at my scale (<$10MM/year volume) is like walking into a Mos Eisley cantina inebriated and with cash hanging out of your wallet. I'll make you a Long Bet [1] though if you're interested (a beer of your choice if you're right).

[1] [http://longbets.org/](http://longbets.org/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Does this factor in the huge tariffs on panels made in Asia?:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/business/energy- environmen...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/business/energy- environment/-us-imposes-steep-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-panels.html)

If it doesn't then the picture won't be as nice, but if it does then imagine what the situation _could_ be like.

<comment><USER10> > but if it does then imagine what the situation could be like.

Depends on how much of the "asian manufacturers are artificially deflating costs through government subsidies in order to buy up global market share, therefore we need tariffs to level the playing field for domestic manufacturers" argument you buy.

<comment><USER22> Actually, none. If they can provide solar panels for free for the rest of the world let them. That's a subsidy of other governments with as ultimate beneficiary local citizens.

<comment><USER10> > with as ultimate beneficiary local citizens.

Yep. See the Thiel essay about how the point of business is to acquire a monopoly, at which point you kick back and let the cash flow come in because there's no competition: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition- is-for-l...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for- losers-1410535536)

One theoretical use of tariffs is to sacrifice economic efficiency in the short run to maintain healthy competition in the long run. Don't get me wrong -- tariffs also serve many more interests (protectionism, regulatory capture, etc.), but the there still is a short-term/long-term difference I think you're discounting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I've got a mix of evergreen and deciduous 30+ meter trees on my lot that produce (eyeballed) about 25% roof shade in winter and about 50% roof shade in summer. For aesthetic reasons, the trees are non-negotiable: they stay (and neighbors' trees provide morning and evening shade; equally non-negotiable). It appears that kills the deal; the linked PDF says my region could expect about $60 worth of power a month without the trees, but with them I'm guessing it would be at best $40 a month, which isn't going to cover a 5% interest cost.

</comment><comment><USER24> Solar panels would be fantastic at my townhouse in San Jose, where the sun shines 300 days a year.

Unfortunately, my HOA bans rooftop solar panels.

<comment><USER25> You may have already done so, but you may want to see if that restriction is in conflict with CA law: [http://solar- rights.com/files/THE_CALIFORNIA_SOLAR_RIGHTS_AC...](http://solar- rights.com/files/THE_CALIFORNIA_SOLAR_RIGHTS_ACT2.pdf)

<comment><USER13> The roof of a condo is often considered common area, which is excluded from the linked law.

OTOH, parent can (and should) work with the HOA to get those CC&Rs changed. In the uber-green region that is the valley, it should be pretty easy to get a group of like-minded owners together to approach the board, or even get a member or two elected.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Interesting stuff, but there are financial assumptions being made here that should be examined.

1\. The 25-year ROI is tied to the projected price of electricity moving forward. It is simple market issue that if and when more and more people start using these systems, the utility-based kW price will (must) come down and therefore, the ROI will change, perhaps dramatically.

2\. What about the opportunity costs of such a significant financial commitment? Have they been examined in any way?

</comment><comment><USER27> Sunshine. They talk about a 5kW system, but do they use some theoretical cost or do they consider the amount of sunshine in each location. When I see Detroit at #25 I'm suspicious because we have a lot of grey days.

</comment><comment><USER28> Impressive given how cheap gas is now. Solar has gone down even faster?

<comment><USER29> petroleum is not a significant fraction of energy on the power grid.

[http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and- you/](http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/)

<comment><USER30> It looks like about 1/3 to me. I would say that is significant. I wonder if the study would have the same conclusion now that oil costs about 1/2 of what it did several months ago.

<comment><USER31> Natural Gas != Oil. These products might come out of the same well but do not track prices.

All oil based products are less than 1%. Nat Gas is 27%, Coal 39%.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Will new solar panels last 25 years? Most of stuff on the outside on my house doesn't have a lifespan that long. You could end up paying off the loan after the panels have stopped working.

<comment><USER25> Most are warranteed at a particular percentage of nameplate capacity (95%+) at delivery and then in a straight-line decay after a certain point out to a certain level (75-80%) at 25 years.

[http://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media- library/wa...](http://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media- library/warranties/wr-sunpower-limited-product-and-power-warranty-pv- modules.pdf) [edit: better link], for example. that is 95% through year 5, then .4% linearly through year 25, or 87% of nameplate at year 25. They are a premium vendor, but the warantee structure is fairly standard across legitimate vendors.

edit: [http://www.yinglisolar.com/assets/uploads/warranty/downloads...](http://www.yinglisolar.com/assets/uploads/warranty/downloads/PANDA_standard_110928.pdf) \- 98% at install, 92% at 10 years, and 82% at 25 years.

edit: [http://www.trinasolar.com/downloads/us/products/EN_Trina_War...](http://www.trinasolar.com/downloads/us/products/EN_Trina_Warranty_Jan_2013.pdf) 2.5/3.5% in year 1, 0.7/0.68% through year 25 (80.7/80.18 % at end) for poly/mono- crystalline products, respectively ... and so on.

<comment><USER33> an upvote is not enough, thank you for a response with hard numbers and multiple linked sources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Seattle is on the list! I'm pleasantly surprised.

<comment><USER35> Seattle actually gets a decent amount of insolation compared to Germany: [http://www.greenrhinoenergy.com/solar/radiation/images/World...](http://www.greenrhinoenergy.com/solar/radiation/images/World%20Insolation%20Direct.jpg)

As we know, Germany isn't shy about its solar investment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Like most things, making a capital investment results in a cheaper cost than consuming a service.

The problem is, you need to invest $30k to save $50.

</comment><comment><USER37> Subsidized rooftop solar is now cheaper than artificially expensive electricity in 42 American cities.

Electricity from natural gas costs $0.03-0.05/kWh to produce and deliver.

Anything beyond that is mark up; either profit or regulatory.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28natural+gas+price+to...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28natural+gas+price+to+usd%2FkWh%29+%2F+0.30)

<comment><USER38> Any more references here? It looks like you just mean the price for natural gas futures is $0.03/kWh. I am hesitant to believe that includes production and transport. In addition, are you including the efficiency at which natural gas is converted to electricity?

<comment><USER37> I'm dividing by 0.3 to account for the efficiency of natural gas turbines. (In reality they're higher at around 35-45%)

If you assume a 100% efficient natural gas plant the cost is $0.00983/kWh (100% efficiency is of course nonsense though).

At 30% efficiency the marginal cost is $0.0327/kWh, distribution usually costs around $0.01-0.02/kWh.

This leads to a grand total margin cost of $0.0427-0.0527/kWh.

DoE estimates from 2012 show $0.0189/kWh in fixed costs.

So a combined grand total of $0.06-0.07/kWh.

<comment><USER39> What about capital costs?

<comment><USER37> "DoE estimates from 2012 show $0.0189/kWh in fixed costs."

That includes capital costs.

<comment><USER39> Fixed costs =/= capital costs.

Fixed costs are the reoccurring costs that arise regardless of production. You can build a plant with free money, but you still have fixed costs.

<comment><USER37> Sorry I meant to say that the metric I called fixed costs is actually fixed and capital costs.

Fixed costs alone are ~$0.002/kWh...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> ... not counting storage, but it's progress.</comment>


IPad as an Arcade Machine - <AUTHOR> http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/iCade.shtml?icpg=Carousel_iCade_1

<comment><USER2> Why is it that the only products I ever want to buy from ThinkGeek are their April Fools jokes?

</comment><comment><USER3> Okay, I've said multiple times that I won't be getting an iPad... but this almost changes my mind (assuming this is real and not an April Fools joke). I still won't get one until v2 ships though.

<comment><USER4> I'm presuming this is a joke, because given the restrictions Apple has stuck on emulators, I can't see them letting a version of MAME (presumably with illegally copied ROMs?) through.

That said, it's a killer idea, and I think it might well do very well if Apple would allow it.

<comment><USER5> agreed, ThinkGeek often manages to make some of the coolest April Fools joke. I want some tribbles and bits. And the iCade would probably sell like hot cakes if it was real.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Beautifully retro styled, handcrafted wooden tabletop arcade cabinet and MAME emulator for your otherwise useless iPad"

"Availability: 80's"

These things say parody to me, but if it was a real idea, I think it'd make money. Which says bad parody to me. It's like saying, hey look, here's a plausible and possibly even moderately good idea. Isn't that silly?

<comment><USER7> ThinkGeek did that before, with the 8-bit tie in 2007. It was an April Fool's joke, but so many people actually wanted one that they started producing it for real.

<http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/>

<comment><USER8> And the Tauntaun sleeping bag in 2009, apparently: <http://www.thinkgeek.com/tauntaun/index.html>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm waiting for a real version Super Steve Bros.

<comment><USER10> It wouldn't happen on the iPhone/iPad. Making any references to Steve Jobs (even slight ones) is against App Store policy.

<comment><USER9> It was presented as a MAME game, so I'm not expecting it on the AppStore. More likely it would be a HTML5/Flash game or some emulator ROM hack or something.

<comment><USER10> _More likely it would be a HTML5/Flash game_

You know.. you might be on to something here.

Most of the old school arcade games could probably work very well as HTML5/JavaScript games if you had a hardcore JavaScript coder on the case. Even if the games were "free" on the Web, a cabinet and control system like the iCade could still be very valuable and do-able (I believe the iPad lets you use a BlueTooth keyboard, so the controls could be implemented that way, perhaps).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's an April fools joke BUT ThinkGeek has a habit of turning jokes into real products if there's enough demand - click add to cart and sign up for the email list if interested.

This is how I got my nephew a Tuantan sleeping bag - eg:

[http://www.avclub.com/articles/april-fools-joke-backfires- on...](http://www.avclub.com/articles/april-fools-joke-backfires-on- thinkgeek,26098/)

<comment><USER12> Too bad Apple would never approve an emulator. It would be cool if they got the licensing for all those games though.

<comment><USER13> Only if the emulator needed net access. An emulator with a 100 bundled ROMs is no trouble.

<comment><USER14> I'm pretty sure one of the things you can't do with Mame is bundle ROMs with it

<comment><USER13> I'm pretty sure someone could edit the line of mame source that does 'fopen(argv[1], "r")' and replace it with something more suitable for a bundle.

<comment><USER15> I believe the previous poster meant that the license of MAME forbids bundling it with ROMs.

<comment><USER13> Indeed, it does, but that's not Apple's decision. There's no reason why another emulator, such as one you write, couldn't come bundled.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is an example of a good apr1 joke becuase it'd be so awesome.

A custom cabinet and a full install of MAME with the games hosted on an external usb drive in the cabinet? It sounds crazy but I'm pretty sure it'd rule.

</comment><comment><USER17> Um...it's April Fool's day...fools.

<comment><USER8> Granted, but having seen it, I'm sure there are at least a couple people who are going to build the thing themselves.</comment></comment>


AT&T To Acquire Leap Wireless (Cricket) For Around $1.2B - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/12/att-to-acquire-leap-wireless-cricket-for-around-1-2b/ <comment><USER2> I know that people don't like large carriers getting larger. However, this is a pretty small deal. Leap has spectrum covering only 137M POPs and not in a lot of the top markets. Verizon was recently approved to gain 20MHz nearly nationwide. This is way less than half that spectrum - probably less than a third of the spectrum Verizon was allowed to buy. Leap does come with 5M customers, but Verizon will still be the largest so it's hard to see it getting rejected on customer grounds.

I know that there's a lot of anti-deal sentiment in this thread, but this isn't a significant deal that would undermine competition in the way that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal would have merged together a lot of spectrum and customers and given AT&T more power. In fact, this deal won't even bring AT&T up to the level of customers and spectrum that authorities allowed Verizon to buy. _As such, on what grounds should the FCC or DOJ disapprove of this merger?_

That's the key question and those grounds have to be consistently applied. Sprint was just allowed to bring nearly 200MHz under its roof. This deal would bring AT&T to around 100MHz. Verizon was allowed to buy Alltel with loads more customers and spectrum and then buy more spectrum from SpectrumCo. The deal would leave AT&T in second place in terms of number of customers and third place in terms of spectrum.

If we really want competition in the wireless industry, I think we should contact the FCC about making sure that sub-1GHz spectrum is spread out to more companies. Sub-1GHz spectrum travels (in the real world) significantly farther than higher frequency spectrum and that's essential for more suburban and rural coverage. I think capping sub-1GHz spectrum at 45MHz (or 40MHz or 50MHz) would be pretty reasonable and ensure that we have many companies with the resources necessary to build out a good network. There's going to be an auction in the future for 600MHz spectrum and I think that's the best place to ensure competition - by making sure that AT&T and Verizon don't grab that spectrum. AT&T and Verizon currently own most of the sub-1GHz spectrum and it's allowed them to build out coverage faster and broader. In fact, Verizon's early focus on sub-1GHz spectrum certainly enabled it to become the carrier it is today (a lot of AT&T's holdings sub-1GHz are a lot newer).

</comment><comment><USER3> How long until they're declared a monopoly for the _2nd time_?

<comment><USER4> Seriously. How did this get past the USDOJ antitrust division?

(And for that matter, are large M&A events like this approved by the DOJ beforehand, or are they investigated after the fact?)

<comment><USER5> _Seriously. How did this get past the USDOJ antitrust division?_

It hasn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Whenever I read things like this, I remember charts like these:

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870447190457622...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471904576229250860034510.html)

[http://www.wikinvest.com/image/Att_history.jpg](http://www.wikinvest.com/image/Att_history.jpg)

So, progress...

<comment><USER7> Instead of anti-trust laws* that are enforced some decades, not others, I'd rather just see market share affect tax rates.

Maybe for every 1% of the market you control, we add another .1% to your rate?

Not really sure what the right equation is, and measuring market share would be contentious...

The current system isn't without its problems though.

* UPDATE: Well, collusion would have to still be illegal, this doesn't really cover everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> For once, AT&T acquiring another company might actually result in improved service for the customers.

I say this as a 2-time former Cricket customer (once with a phone, once with a 3G hotspot) in a major metropolitan area.

Wonder if they're going to merge Cricket and Aio...

</comment><comment><USER9> Good. I don't have to answer the question of why I don't use cricket. I don't know why it came up so often but it did. Also I feel vindicated. They are the Opera of no-contract cell service providers.

</comment><comment><USER10> Mobile phone prices per minute for non-unlimited plans have been going up ever since the Sprint/Nextel merger and thanks to this will continue to do so.

</comment><comment><USER11> I wish they'd spend a bit of that money on improving there coverage/service around the country...

<comment><USER12> It's cheaper and better to buy off all but one competitor and then both jack up prices and provide no customer service. AT&T i hell bent on getting back together</comment></comment>


The Future According to Stanisław Lem - <AUTHOR> http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/09/12/the-future-according-to-stanislaw-lem/ <comment><USER2> Just an interesting aside: Lem is famously known for Solaris, mainly due to the movie adaptations. According to Lem the movies don't really reflect his vision:

 _..to my best knowledge, the book was not dedicated to erotic problems of people in outer space... As Solaris ' author I shall allow myself to repeat that I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images. This is why the book was entitled "Solaris" and not "Love in Outer Space"._

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_\(novel\))

<comment><USER3> Book was great, I really liked it. I haven't seen the older adaptation yet, but the more recent one (with Clooney) was IMHO terrible. Such adaptations make more harm than good.

<comment><USER4> The Tarkovsky version is fantastic, definitely find time to watch it. It's visually stunning. Kurosawa wrote about how much he aesthetically loved Solaris, particularly the way Tarkovsky captured water.

<comment><USER5> I am a bit late to the conversation, but apparently Mosfilm has made Solaris available online:

Part 1:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9Anstjlro&feature=youtu.be](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9Anstjlro&feature=youtu.be)

Part 2:

[http://youtu.be/yOGHMmKpASk](http://youtu.be/yOGHMmKpASk)

(Links are from:

[http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html](http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html)

there are more Tarkovsky film links there).

Word of warning: do not expect Star Wars or Inception type special effects. And this is Tarksovky's reading which, if you know Tarkovsky, he was concerned more about the human condition, than technological aspects of Sci-Fi.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Stanisław Lem had a genius for making fun of bureaucracy. I strongly recommend his novel Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. He could not criticize the Communists, so he made it about the USA, but I think it works perfectly well as criticism of any large bureaucracy. The story is about a man who is just joining The Organization and looking for his first assignment, however, everyone he runs into is unsure if they have been told the truth about him, and if they have been lied to about his assignment, and can they trust that he is who he says he is, or they don't know the assignment, but they can not reveal their ignorance, and if they are being kept ignorant, does it mean that they have been marked for elimination? The man spends the novel trying to find out what his assignment is. It's both funny and sad. Check it out:

[http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Found-Bathtub-Stanislaw- Lem/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Found-Bathtub-Stanislaw- Lem/dp/0156585855)

<comment><USER7> IMHO it is the best book by Lem (but not the most typical one).

In any case, for me it was more cognitive/philosophical: about trying to reach/understand the reality, after passing (yet another) layer of illusion.

<comment><USER8> It's hard to pin down a "typical" book of Lem's, but there are certain themes he returned to time and again.

1) The role of probability in life: "Chain of Chance" and "The Investigation" (the former is much the better book)

2) The role of scale in our understanding of the universe: "His Master's Voice", "Fiasco" and "Solaris" all touch on this, and are all excellent (I have a special fondness for HMV as a book that describes how scientists actually think and work in a way that nothing else I've encountered does)

3) The role of systems of control in the future of humanity: "Memoirs..." and most of the Ijon Tichy stories fall into this category, and are in my view his weakest work, although "Return from the Stars" is a brilliant book on this theme.

4) The role of cybernetics in the future of evolution: "The Cyberiad" etc.

The problem of the "silent universe" (explored mostly deeply in "Fiasco") is also one that comes up repeatedly, including a long and interesting essay in "Imaginary Magnitude".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For anyone who doesn't speak Polish and is curious, Lem's name is pronounced 'Stan-ee-swav Lem". The l with a slash is similar to a "w" sound, and the w is similar to a "v/f".

Here's a great free course for anyone interested in learning the language: [http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/firstyear/](http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/firstyear/)

<comment><USER10> Thanks a lot for that! In my current project there are quite a few Polish people, so I always thought it would be nice to learn a bit of the language.

So far we're only picking up the swearwords, so this may be a good complement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think Lem wrote sci-fi just by coincidence. Soviets would not allow any sort of criticism on serious stuff. But they adored sci-fi and cosmic future of mankind. Lem could write undisturbed on this field.

Western sci-fi authors such as Asimov and Clarke were great, but they were not best what literature can offer. In many cases they use story as boilerplate to present some technical marvel. Lem was one of the best authors, even outside sci-fi.

<comment><USER12> Lem had a genuine and lifelong interest in technology. Polish authors found plenty of ways to be critical without having to divert into genre fiction. Lem wrote it because he loved it.

I wholeheartedly agree that the need to read between the lines politically, and the belief that science fiction is a serious literary endeavor, put Polish and Soviet scifi on a completely different level of quality than in the West. (The same is likely true for other countries in the Eastern Bloc, but I'm out of my depth there).

<comment><USER13> What other Polish or Soviet authors are worth reading? (and translated into English)

I love Lem's work but that's the extent of my familiarity with Eastern Bloc sci-fi.

<comment><USER14> Jacek Dukaj is great, but I don't know when he will be translated.

He mostly writes hard sci-fi with political and philosophical elements, often about transhumanism, but he also did weird philosophical alternative history book - "Lód" (Ice).

Some English reviews of his books:

[http://greglewicki.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/perfect- imperfec...](http://greglewicki.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/perfect-imperfection- jacek-dukaj-and-power-of-mind/)

[http://www.terminally- incoherent.com/blog/2012/02/10/black-o...](http://www.terminally- incoherent.com/blog/2012/02/10/black-oceans-czarne-oceany-by-jacek-dukaj/)

<comment><USER15> Actually, on a polish fantasy convention Polcon Dukaj told a story about the attempted translation of "Lód". Hea gathered a group of seven people, Polish to English translators, russophiles, cultural experts and what not. He said, that after two days they gave up after not being able to agree on the first page. The historical and cultural baggage this book carries is just too great to be even remotely translated into english, although he also mentioned that there is a steggering amount of pirate translations into russian.

<comment><USER14> Yeah I wonder how you can translate "Pomyślało się" :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Lem is easily my favorite science fiction author. His intelligence, breadth, and sense of humor are unsurpassed in the genre and rarely found in any writer.

Anybody with a math or software bent that hasn't read his "Cyberiad" should rush out and buy/download a copy right now.

<comment><USER16> Agree. It's a fantastic book. The "Electronic Bard" (one of the stories in the Cyberiad) is one of my all time favorites. It features a computer that learns to write poetry. (The translation is masterful, too). Don't read it while drinking coffee as you will snort it out your nose. It's brilliant and wise and you're right -- few writers match Lem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I anyone wants to get into reading Lem and finds Solaris too heavy (dare I say 'boring') I recommend to start with:

\- The Invincible

\- all of the Pilot Pirx short stories

\- all of the Ijon Tichy short stories

\- Peace on Earth (the conclusion to Tichy's story)

\- Fiasco (the conclusion to Pirx' story)

Also of note is that Lem essentially "invented" Virtual Reality in the mid 60's (he called it Phantomology).

<comment><USER12> _His Master 's Voice_ is also a good entry point, especially if you've read _Contact_ by Carl Sagan. Same conceit taken in two completely different directions.

<comment><USER8> HMV also is the best single book ever written about the process of science, and the way scientists actually think. I can't over-state this. I read first read it while an undergrad in engineering in early 80's and during my graduate work in physics slowly came to realize it was the only book I'd ever read that accurately described what I was learning to do as a scientist.

Even though the narrator is nominally a mathematician, his approach to problems is fundamentally that of an empirical scientist, and has nothing at all to do with the cartoon hypothetico-deductive nonsense that philosophers have foisted upon the world as "scientific method".

<comment><USER18> >it was the only book I'd ever read that accurately described what I was learning to do as a scientist

What, politics? ;)

I read it as truly brilliant and scathing social commentary about what's wrong with the "scientific process" as practiced (and corrupted) by academic and government institutions.

The initial premise of the book, how the message was discovered, is deeply hilarious: somebody was fraudulently selling some old computer tapes of raw space telescope data as truly random numbers, and then one of their customers got pissed off that the numbers were't random enough because they repeated, and demanded their money back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "because forbidden thoughts may circulate in secret, but what can be done when an important fact is lost in a flood of impostors … ?"

This accurately describes one of the main failings of the Internet. It was supposed to give us an age of transparency, but instead it's delivered a choking fog of contradictory nonsense and rumors. It's almost impossible to see what's actually happening through all the propaganda, spin-doctoring, rumor-milling, fear-porn, and wild speculation.

The Fukushima meltdown really drove this home to me. While it was unfolding -- and after -- the Internet was simultaneously telling me everything from "it's not a big deal" to "this is an issue of human survival!" I suspected the truth might be somewhere in between, but this is a fallacy as well as an admission of profound ignorance. Somewhere in between nothing and doomsday is not saying much.

<comment><USER20> This problem has always existed; the only difference with the Internet is that it's now harder to ignore it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I started reading _Summa Technologiae_ last year, after a copy showed up at the local Barnes & Noble. I was not familiar with Lem at the time, but it caught my eye anyway. I'm ashamed to admit I got distracted, set it aside, and haven't finished it yet. My initial impression is that it's a great work, and now that I've been reminded, I plan to pick it back up and finish it sooner than later.

</comment><comment><USER22> One of the amazing things abut Lem's "Solaris" is how invested humanity became in Solaris, the planet that housed the being they chanced upon. In the story, all of science basically revolved around Solaristics - the study of Solaris. By the time the events in the book take place, Solaristics had existed for over a hundred years. In one scene somewhere in the middle of the book, the protagonist actually sits in a library and starts to describe the key works of the field, but in an indirect way of course. Lem depicts humanity's obsession with the being perfectly, yet never actually spoon feeds the reader. Even so, the reader ends up investing himself/herself into humanity's struggle of understanding the being. I was simply amazed at how he was able to achieve this using only words. I've read a good amount of sci-fi, yet no author, not even the great Asimov, was able to execute such a thing so flawlessly. I'll be sure to read more of Lem's work as soon as I can.

<comment><USER23> I think Solaristics is basically a metaphor for religion or God. How people would be able to communicate with God or a super-being if we get the chance to experience it directly. Solaris keeps cloning the psychic/memories of the visiting scientists. It can't communicate with people, but it digs through memories to understand, what are the most important thing to each scientist. But this is freaking them out. Memories are the DNA of the individuality. Without memories people would like a bulb of collective consciousness, like Solaris itself. I think Tarkovsky avoided the religion subplot because the Soviet Union's restriction to discuss religoin. Highly recommended read or watch.

funny note: it seems no one reads posted articles on hacker news... people just talk about other stuff related to the topic of the article..

<comment><USER22> That makes sense I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> A bit off-topic, but one great polish writer/journalist that deserves to be more known is Kapuściński. His style mixes journalistic objectivity with fiction in a brilliant way.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski)

His most known book:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_(book)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_\(book\))

<comment><USER25> > A bit off-topic, but one great Polish writer

I'll pipe up for another, the dazzlingly imaginative Bruno Schulz. His work is half an evocation of his family's life in a small early 20th-century Polish city, and half cosmic and out-there. He's like a Polish Kafka, but more whimsical, less austere. He haunts his own writing like a ghost because of his shocking death and the fact that his major work was lost. This adds poignancy to reading him that wouldn't otherwise be there, like a painting that was damaged in a way that became part of the art and made it a different whole.

Two other Polish modernists that I've been meaning for years to read are Gombrowicz (Ferdydurke) and Witkiewicz (Insatiability). Both are said to be fabulous.

<comment><USER12> Gombrowicz is a genius. It's nice to see him mentioned since we just had a Borges thread, and the two were the greatest living authors in Argentina for years.

There's a recent translation of Ferdydurke that's supposed to be good. Be careful not to get the earlier translation, which was translated indirectly from a French intermediate and really doesn't have much to do with the original as a result.

<comment><USER26> Gombrowicz was a genius, indeed, and I cannot recommend his books strongly enough. However, honestly, I think that a good translation of his books is something extremely hard to do, and I am not too sure if possible at all. For me a hugely important aspect of his writings is a creative attitude to the Polish language, he was playing with it (and at times, forgive me, taking a piss of it) like no one else. I just cannot imagine how this can be translated to a different language. But it's not the only aspect of his works and I believe his dramas were successful not only in Poland.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> This is a great introduction to Lem & his writings:

[http://lib.ru/STERLINGB/catscan02.txt](http://lib.ru/STERLINGB/catscan02.txt)

</comment><comment><USER28> Alas, another thread on Lem and again no-one mentions the one text of his most pertinent to HN: Golem XIV. Think transhuman intelligence, think quantum computing, think singularity, and imagine Lem thought about this stuff in the _seventies_ and published in 1981. See [http://www.bohemiandrive.com/excritement/1/](http://www.bohemiandrive.com/excritement/1/) for a short review and summary; the e-book is available on Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER29> I know about this author from growing up listening to 'Hans Kloss Misery Hour' who is a Polish student that runs an apocalyptic/dystopian broadcast that has consistently recommended Lem.

I like his Patrick Allen narrated post-atomic disaster intros. [http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Citr-- MiseryHour/~3/gWL4KB91Z...](http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Citr-- MiseryHour/~3/gWL4KB91Zhk/20140827-230214-to-20140828-010122.mp3)

</comment><comment><USER30> >As in Lem's novella, however, this future promises not social and scientific progress, but technological hedonism and senescence.

How does one qualify such an extensive and penetrating understanding of human consciousness as to make books an edible substance as "not ... scientific progress"?

</comment><comment><USER31> I take offense with the last sentence in that article: "Nobody can really know the future. But few could imagine it better than Lem."

This simply can't be true. Lem did have a great imagination, coupled with huge talents as a writer. You could say that he was a writer with the greatest imagination.

In a world consisting of 7 billion people, it is very likely there are people out there that have much better and much more accurate imaginations, perhaps people who are correctly predicting detailed outcomes for the next 50 or 100 years.

The problem is that they are not great communicators.

<comment><USER32> taking exception maybe more proportionate to the claim rather than taking offense

<comment><USER31> true, I was feeling dramatic</comment></comment></comment>


Hacking the Xbox 360 DVD Drive (2006) - <AUTHOR> http://web.archive.org/web/20060407000310/http://www.kev.nu/360/dvd.html <comment><AUTHOR> Sadly a lot of this knowledge has disappeared, as evidenced by the archive.org link. If anyone who reads my comment has any of the tools referenced in this article, in particular FirmCrypt and its source code, please rehost them somewhere. I'm not hacking Xboxen but exploring the possibility of using custom firmware to assist archival and low-level data recovery from optical media, and being able to leverage this existing knowledge would be far better than reverse-engineering everything from scratch again.

<comment><USER2> You will most likely find everything you're looking for on the Xbins FTP! You just need to join the IRC, !list, and the bot will privmsg you with access information: [https://xbins.org/faq.php](https://xbins.org/faq.php)

The "Auto Xbins" tool (linked on the same page) is the easiest way to get access, since it combines an IRC client and FTP client and automates the entire connection process for you. Every antivirus in the world will flag and quarantine it, however, because the IRC component looks exactly like malware command&control as far as they're concerned. The convenience makes it worth manually whitelisting, in my opinion.</comment></comment>


6-year-old boy suspended from school for kissing student on the cheek - <AUTHOR> http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/6-year-old-boy-suspended-school-kiss-cheek-article-1.1543266#ixzz2nAEkQQUl

<comment><USER2> So... no interview with the girl? Glossing over the fact that he's "rough- housed" this same girl before? It sounds like this kid has a pattern of violent unwanted physical advances.

<comment><USER3> Yeah straight to prison with him.

<comment><USER2> Didn't say prison, or ruining his life or anything. But a suspension seems appropriate. And while a euphemism may be warranted for someone his age, it is technically sexual assault.

<comment><USER3> Does a 6 year old even understand what sexual assault means?

<comment><USER2> Enough to know that kissing someone who doesn't want to be kissed is wrong, and rough-housing with someone who doesn't want to be rough-housed with is wrong. It's not complicated...

<comment><USER4> You're assuming she didn't want to be kissed (we don't have the girl's perspective on this; apparently they're "boyfriend and girlfriend", which I don't think are valid terms with six-year-olds anyway...).

Expelling imho is very extreme in this case, there's other ways to communicate to the boy/class that it wasn't appropriate without making a way-to-public statement about it.

<comment><USER2> He wasn't expelled, he was suspended for one day. With so little context I can't say much else.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> he may be on the shortlist of sex pests in the future. roughhousing record? however moralizing is past it. lots of context missing though

</comment><comment><USER6> Reading the title, I thought it is India</comment>


Building a Simple EventBus in Vue.js - <AUTHOR> https://devblog.digimondo.io/building-a-simple-eventbus-in-vue-js-64b70fb90834#.m0zt726jc <comment><USER2> > In a larger Vue.js project, you would likely abstract the Event Bus into a > single file, importing it into every component file where it needs to be > used. This way, it does not pollute the global namespace.

Instead of having to import a file everywhere, I'm used to add the bus to the Vue prototype:

        // Create a bus for global events
        var busVue = new Vue()

        // vue properties
        Object.defineProperties(Vue.prototype, {
            $bus: {
                get: function () {
                    return busVue
                }
            }
        }

so I can simply use it from any Vue component:

        this.$bus.$emit('error', 'Impossible to connect to the database')

for emitting, and for binding on:

        mounted: function (msg) {
            this.$bus.$on('error', this.alert)
        }

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great addition, thank you.</comment></comment>


Where the White People Live - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/where-the-white-people-live/390153/?single_page=true

<comment><USER2> "Still, it's the poor areas, rather than the areas where whites have self- segregated, that get the most attention from policymakers, who have sought to ameliorate concentrated poverty in segregated areas by moving families from black, urban areas to white suburbs. Beginning in 1989"

It's not just whites that have 'self-segregated', it's anyone that wants to live and raise their kids in an area that isn't full of illegal drugs, criminals, gangs, and people that can't or won't take care of their own property.

I refused to subject my family to these areas and I don't care if it looks like I'm "self-segregating". I'm not going to allow someone's poor life choices to dictate my life path.

I lived in a neighborhood where this happened (government subsidy allowed the poor to move into a middle-class neighborhood at a fraction of the cost).

Skin color didn't matter. 9 times out of 10, the house ended up trashed with garbage or kids toys all over the lawn. It was un-kept and none of the rules of the neighborhood were almost ever followed.

We shouldn't be blaming anyone for actually having a nice home, following rules, being successful, and generally being a good citizen.

<comment><USER3> >kids toys all over the lawn

Good grief, what a dystopian nightmare you endured living with those savages! Sounds like something straight out of Mad Max!</comment></comment>


"Definitely Slanted Against the United States" Ray Bradbury's FBI File - <AUTHOR> https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2015/aug/24/ray-bradbury-fbi-file/

<comment><USER2> Sounds like a real credible informant they had: "The general aim of these science fiction writers is to frighten the people into a state of paralysis or psychological incompetence bordering on hysteria, which would make it very possible to conduct a Third World War in which the American people would believe could not be won since their morale had seriously been destroyed."</comment>