Show HN: Harmopark – Web tool to visually build chords and progressions - <AUTHOR> https://www.harmopark.app/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hello HN,

I'm Pedro, the creator of Harmopark ([https://www.harmopark.app](https://www.harmopark.app)). A year ago I found out about this interesting hexagonal lattice named 'Harmonic table' and decided to build a web music tool whose UI includes this note layout with the purpose of exploring harmonic concepts and helping with composing.

Features:

\- Build chords in a visual way and get their possible symbols immediately.

\- Harmonize scales and their modes. Display a chord chart based on any scale.

\- Create chord progressions and visualize them while they play.

\- Easily switch progressions to any parallel scale/mode you want.

\- Get a mirror version of a chord progression using negative harmony concepts.

\- Use modal interchange borrowing chords from the parallel and negative progressions to create more interesting harmonic sequences.

\- Export progressions as MIDI files to work with them in a DAW.

\- Share progressions via link or embed code.

\- Just use the harmonic table as an instrument to play around on. Sound can be adjusted choosing among several synth presets and effects.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

<comment><USER2> this is truly really cool! are there any resources you'd recommend to learn more about this area of music theory?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!

I used Wikipedia quite a lot when researching on the harmonic table format, chord naming and symbols, scales and modes, Roman numeral analysis, and similar stuff. I found myself frequently visiting threads in [https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/](https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/) and [https://music.stackexchange.com/](https://music.stackexchange.com/).

And of course there are great Youtube channels about music theory (I linked some of them in the Credits page of the website).

Most of the time I just search in Google and jump from blogs to forums to dedicated websites until I find what I'm loooking for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very interesting, I'll definitely play with it for a bit! I came across this concept of "lattice" about a year ago too, with this beautiful song using it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1C9VFqJKo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1C9VFqJKo)

A couple of comments: \- Why select notes by right-clicking rather than left- clicking? \- When building a chord, it shows the name on top and the scale degree below. But it's the opposite when I drag it to the chord progression zone, it confused me \- Might be worth it to add a few tooltips or links for help (eg explaining what's a "parallel progression") \- I don't understand why notes are more or less red \- It'd be useful to show the scale degree of each note in the lattice (in addition to the note itself and its octave)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your helpful feedback! I believe that lattice in the video is a Tonnetz. The Harmonic table and the Tonnetz are topologically equivalent, actually. I had doubts about the right-click being the best option to select notes. I thought a new user would left-click on the harmonic table initially, before reading anything, and I wanted that to just produce a sound rather than making an unwanted selection. But it's something I'm willing to change if more people finds it strange. I think you're right about the label order thing in chord buttons. I guess I found the Roman numerals more relevant in the progression context, but I agree it can be confusing. There's a help page (/how-to-use.html) with instructions and explanations of some concepts like parallel progression, but maybe a few tooltips can be helpful. Notes that have a lighter color are those that belong to the currently selected scale, to ease identification. At the same time, notes are slightly darker as they get lower in pitch. I like your idea about adding the scale degree label to notes. You mean something like 1, b2, 2, b3, 3, etc.? I'd have to make sure it doesn't get confused with octaves, though. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hey Pedro,

Awesome work. Some 'notes' (pun intended):

\- demo mode, click it to load a set of chords to show what the end result would look / sound like

\- real time midi output rather than the built in synth as an option

\- allow 'chords' of only one note to be dragged as well as placeholders to build on later.

\- ability to erase a single chord from a progression, rather than only all of them at once.

Super nice work, thank you for making and posting it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback!

\- Progressions can be shared as a link, so a demo could be just a link like this: [https://www.harmopark.app/?s=bVw_q_qn7g7JBH0GB1n1g3d7a_en9g7...](https://www.harmopark.app/?s=bVw_q_qn7g7JBH0GB1n1g3d7a_en9g7J9a_en7g7d7W_qpHJFb_yFihWHVq_SpKd5y4WFyhYHVq4t-anOaTdFp9ieeeeeeeefmaj-1). That's the famous Pachelbel's progression; it's embedded as an example in the 'How to use' page.

\- I'd like to explore those MIDI possibilities, both input and output.

\- It's possible to use a simple power chord dyad (root + fifth) as a roughly neutral placeholder.

\- Individual chords can be removed by dragging and dropping into the Trash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Somewhat related - here's my hexagonal musical instrument for Android: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.castlewrat...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.castlewrath.hexpress)

Unlike Harmopark's focus on composition and music theory features, my app is all about preforming music in real time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, nice work! That's right, I wanted this tool to be browser-based and sound processing is more limited in a browser than in a native mobile app. So the focus is not on real-time playing. Still, you can do cool stuff on tablets.

<comment><USER5> Now I've spent some time with harmopark, let me share some thoughts.

Experience is somewhat clumsy on laptops without mouse. Maybe in 'select mode' the left click could also toggle selected nodes. On tablet the interface makes more sense.

I like how easy it is to enter a progression and generate a musical loop. Harmonic table is great choice for working with chords.

Arpeggios sound great. With a bit of reverb and delay there are some nifty soundscapes in there. The synths themselves could use some improvement.

Sound settings could perhaps be pulled out of modal into main page? I had fun fiddling with settings, I'd like them to be more accessible & exposed.

It would be nifty if 'explore harmony' chords could be dragged onto progression track. Maybe clicking a chord in that modal could make it a active selection and than it could be dragged from selection info.

Thanks for sharing this with us. It looks great already and I'll drop in occasionally to check for updates.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's some valuable feedback, thank you very much!

When you say laptops without mouse, are you talking about using a touchpad or a touchscreen? The "Play mode / Select mode" switch is only visible on touch- enabled devices and doesn't really affect mouse or touchpad clicks. Using a touchpad, the left button plays and the right button selects/deselects. I suppose what you mean is that I should modify the behaviour of the mouse/touchpad in the case the mode switch is visible. That seems reasonable.

I'm not an expert on sound synthesis and most of the included synth configurations are library defaults, or presets I found somewhere. I'd like them to have a bit more character, and it would also be nice to add some more. This is an area I could work on, I agree.

Someone else here has suggested the same thing about making the sound settings more visible. I think it's a good idea, I'll see what I can do!

I thought about adding that feature in the 'explore harmony' modal but I was concerned about having to choose a specific voicing for the chords. But I guess it shouldn't be a big deal: if the provided voicing is not the best to integrate in your progression, you can always modify it.

Great comments, thanks again. And good luck with your Hexpress app!

<comment><USER5> Just to follow up on the first issue: my laptop has a touch screen. The framework I use (Love2D, which is built on SDL2) can detect this and receives multiple simultaneous touches.

In Harmopark the touchscreen is detected, but multi-touch doesn't work. Therefore I had to use touchpad.

Auto-voicing is complicated and it's very culture-specific. One good implementation is this: [http://www.sealab2021.tv/etcetera/choir/](http://www.sealab2021.tv/etcetera/choir/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, I see. I use p5.js to handle input, and I've just read this in the reference: "The touches[] array is not supported on Safari and IE on touch- based desktops (laptops)." Is that your case?

That link you shared is amazing. I've just visited David Li's website and his work is so cool.

But I don't think I need a smart algorithm to harmonize a melody. In the case of my "diatonic chords chart", I already know what notes to put in the Harmonic table. My voicing concerns are simply about the octave to use and the position in the hex lattice. The voicing itself is constructed out of stacking thirds, roughly speaking.

By the way, I've already added this feature following your advice: the last pressed chord button will be selected in the hex lattice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Neat. I think it would benefit from having a traditional keyboard/chromatic layout alongside the hex lattice. Sometimes I want just one note that would easier to grab off the keyboard than get from switching keys/scales.

Although perhaps I'm not the target audience.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure I understand. Why do you need to switch key/scale to select a single note? The notes in the harmonic table are always the same, the only thing that can change is the enharmonic spelling.

<comment><USER6> Just how I think about music-- seeing a chromatic representation alongside the hex lattice would help me get the note I want faster; I often think in terms of intervals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Really cool! And not only that but very intuitive and fun to use. I can see a lot of music makers who lack the theoretical background get great results out of this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much! I'm happy you find it intuitive and fun to use, and I hope the tool is useful to people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Very handy for songwriting. Great work :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! I tried to aim for that goal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> should this work on Firefox (60.6)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it should. I've tested the website on Windows Firefox and iOS Firefox and it worked OK, except for some sound distortion when selecting certain synth presets, like "FM". But I think that's a bug of the sound library I'm using and I hope it will be fixed soon.

<comment><USER10> For me it does not work on Firefox 66.0.

<comment><AUTHOR> On what platform? What are the issues you experience?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> very cool</comment>


Babies 'cry in mother's tongue' - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8346058.stm

<comment><USER2> Ugh not this shit again. I want to stab the BBC's science writers a thousand times.

Here's an analysis of the paper that article is based on by a linguist: <http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1869>

Charts and voice spectrums ahead! So buckle up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great link. Thanks for posting a link to a blog post about the actual science.

It's always good to consider issues of experiment design

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

when reading any news article.</comment></comment>


Show HN: CommonClip – Simple file sharing for project teams - <AUTHOR> https://commonclip.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi hackers,

CommonClip is a super simple file sharing platform. We've made it incredibly easy to use and kept only the most essential functions for file sharing.

CommonClip lets you create a share link, that not only allows others to access your files but also lets them upload their files without creating an own account. This means that with CommonClip you're not just sharing files, you share the tool itself.

We're looking forward to hear what you think about it.

Thanks!</comment>


Elon Musk's X Æ A-12 baby name choice might not be valid in California - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/07/entertainment/musk-grimes-baby-name-california-scli-intl/index.html <comment><AUTHOR> > Names can only use the 26 alphabetical characters of the English language, > according to the state constitution. Not only does this spell trouble for X > Æ A-12 Musk, it also means bans on diacritical marks, such as accents in > names like "José."

Wait, what? The English language does not have words like café or attaché?

Musk's and Grimes' choice is stupid, but the law seems stupid, too. José is a perfectly fine name.

<comment><USER2> Here is an interesting article from 2015 discussing the issue: [https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2015/apr/11/california-b...](https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2015/apr/11/california-birth-certifcates-accents-marks)

It seems especially dumb given that (as the article points out) that accent marks are used in the names of state landmarks, state parks, etc.</comment></comment>


The Bielefeld Conspiracy - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHcZciihJw <comment><USER2> I actually live near Schitt's Creek, and have been there many times.

Mind you, that's not the town's real name, and it's actually parts of a couple of towns northeast of Toronto. Anyone who goes on motorcycle rides to Port Perry, or takes a trip to the famous Richter's Herbs, tend to drive through them, even unintentionally or unknowingly.</comment>


Zuck, wash your hands - <AUTHOR> http://zuckwashyourhands.com/ <comment><USER2> Can anyone with local knowledge comment on the following?

 _In the days that followed the burning of the coach, riots broke out in Gujarat that left hundreds dead, most of them Muslims. As the massacre continued, journalists, activists and several senior police officers in Gujarat who spoke to the news media on the condition of anonymity said that Mr. Modi's government was complicit in the violence. Mr. Modi, for his part, asserted that the violence was "a spontaneous reaction of the Hindus."_

 _While reporting from Gujarat on the aftermath of the riots, I stumbled upon the fact that a senior minister in Mr. Modi's cabinet, Haren Pandya, had testified in a shroud of secrecy before a tribunal that was investigating the cause of the riots. When I approached Mr. Pandya about this, he told me that he had told the tribunal that on the night of Feb. 27, Mr. Modi held a meeting with senior police officers and bureaucrats during which he is alleged to have instructed the police to allow the mobs to vent their anger on Muslims. It is a charge that Mr. Modi has consistently denied._

 _Mr. Pandya, who was a political adversary of Mr. Modi, told me that he did not attend that meeting, but that other people who were present had told him what had happened._

 _Months later, Mr. Pandya was found shot dead in his car. When Mr. Modi went to his house to pay his respects, Mr. Pandya's widow told him he was responsible for her husband's death and asked him to leave. But a few months later, several Muslim youths were arrested in connection with Mr. Pandya's killing, and their motive was said to be vengeance for the riots. Twelve of them were later convicted of murder by a special court and sentenced, but the Gujarat High Court overturned the murder convictions, alleging flaws in the investigation. The Gujarat government and an investigating agency have since challenged this in the Indian Supreme Court._

Shaking Off the Horror of the Past in India [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/asia/16iht- letter16....](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/asia/16iht- letter16.html)</comment>


Petition against UK Home Office plans for surveillance and encryption backdoors - <AUTHOR> https://act.openmedia.org/saveoursecurityuk <comment><AUTHOR> The actual document is here:

[https://www.openrightsgroup.org/assets/files/pdfs/home_offic...](https://www.openrightsgroup.org/assets/files/pdfs/home_office/ANNEX_A_Draft_Investigatory_Powers_\(Technical%20Capability\)_Regulations.pdf)

<comment><USER2> Is it safe to share this if a UK citizen? I.e. would a UK citizen be criminally liable under the Official Secrets Act or similar.

<comment><USER3> The Official Secrets Act must be signed by you and pertains to 'official secrets' you may become party to as a servant of the Crown. It is not illegal to share this as a common civilian. Whether it is safe to do so is another matter entirely.

<comment><USER4> If the Official Secrets Act applies to you, it's an offence to break it even if you've not signed it.

[http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summ...](http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7422)

edit: beat to it by a minute!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not only is this stupid from a technical point of view but it could ruin the UK software industry because who in their right mind would buy any software knowing it is deliberately compromised?

<comment> mike-cardwell Yet people and governments around the World still use IT services provided by the USA, even though they know their data is utterly compromised by doing so.

<comment><USER2> The USA does not ban secure software completely. At the moment there is a chance that a US or UK company's software is government compromised. If this bill becomes law in the UK then all UK software must legally be government compromised.

<comment><USER6> they do. Steven Levy's crypto wars highlights the lengths America went to destroy secure software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> interesting loophole:

"relevant telecommunications operator" means a telecommunications operator, or a person who is proposing to become a telecommunications operator( b ), but does not include a person who provides, or who is proposing to provide, a telecommunications service only in relation to the provision by that person of banking, insurance, investment or other financial services.

<comment><USER8> Smart move. I am planning to add end-to-end encryption to my UK accounting software. Without this loophole I would have been forced to move my business outside the UK.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > 7\. To ensure that any hand-over interface complies with any industry > standard, or other requirement, specified in the technical capability > notice.

... Presumably now that the "industry standard" contains a backdoor, we (the people) can have a backdoor into this hand-over interface too?

</comment><comment><USER10> It seems there is no official petition [https://petition.parliament.uk/](https://petition.parliament.uk/)

</comment><comment><USER11> If this comes to fruition, i will never use software originating from the UK again.

<comment><USER12> Me and a bunch of IT colleagues are all planning to leave and goto Europe once this and the Brexit stuff happens. The UK's going to be left with a bunch of uneducated, old fashioned, racist and obedient zombies. So don't worry, the UK's basically done. I'm guessing less and less products and research will come out of the UK until it basically becomes an irrelevant country.

<comment><USER13> If you're really committed to leaving I suspect it would be better to do so, and get settled, in advance. Instead of on the flag-day when "everybody" else is also leaving.

Moving countries isn't easy, and getting settled in a new location takes time.

<comment><USER14> It's already too late in most cases, getting permanent residence rights elsewhere in the EU requires you to have lived there for 5 years; but there's under 2 years left before UK citizens lose their rights to work elsewhere in the EU. So you'd have to emigrate as a non-EU citizen, unless you qualify under one of the get-out clauses (eg joint citzenship, or you go to work in the EU and then have an accident that prevents you from ever working again(!))

<comment><USER15> No, that is not necessarily the case. It will depend on the outcome of the negotiations.

The 5 year rule is part of the existing freedom of movement regulation. It provides additional protection against getting kicked out in case of sickness or unemployment.

Exercising the right to live and work anywhere in the EU before Brexit takes effect may well mean that you can keep those rights after Brexit and acquire permanent residence rights later on.

Anything else would mean that hundereds of thousands of people would have to be deported, which would go against every promise made in the referendum campaign.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> You would think they might be a little less sympathetic to back doors with the NHS currently having problems with ransomware

<comment><USER17> My bet is they will turn it into an even better reason to have back doors. And no, logic doesn't come into it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "To provide and maintain the capability to disclose, where practicable, the communications, equipment data and other information in an intelligible form to standards specified in the notice and to remove electronic protection applied by or on behalf of the telecommunications operator to those communications, equipment data or other information, or to permit the person to whom the warrant is addressed to remove such electronic protection."

Could this be interpreted, legally, to exempt end-to-end encryption?

\- When implemented properly (i.e. with proper key verification UIs) it should not be "practicable" for communications operators to force disclosure of the contents of users' communications.

\- End-to-end encryption is not "applied by [..] the operator" but rather applied by the users' device.

<comment><USER18> They might argue that it is 'practicable' to force-push a software version of whatsapp that also sends the messages to the government. Alternatively, they could argue that since e2e services can't provide this backdoor, they aren't legal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've advised a few companies to register (if feasible) a company in the EU or use Atlas to try and complicate being legally compelled in issues like these. These ideas are dangerous and backward.

I can't see overseas companies trusting UK start ups with confidential trade and commercial secrets. There is already enough cooperate paranoia after the NSA was accused of spying on European corps and there seems to be evidence to suggest such a thing actually happened.

Atleast I'm not the only person who thinks these policies are making the UK a unpopular place to open shop as long as there are countries with not so oppressive laws.

</comment><comment><USER20> News article: [http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39817300](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39817300)

</comment><comment><USER21> Seriously.. how many leaks have there been in the past week?? I'm losing track.

<comment><USER22> Maybe it's time to watch Yes Minister again.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Our first Indiegogo campaign, an eInk smart display - <AUTHOR> http://igg.me/p/1131105/twtr

<comment><USER2> Why so small? I want a 27" e ink display, and I want it now!

<comment><USER2> please note that such an indiegogo/kickstarter campaign would immediately receive my cash

<comment><AUTHOR> I would certainly like a 27" display, this is part of our long term vision but until component prizes go down, we are offering a 4.4" display only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> nice!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment>


Major research breakthroughs in the last 10-15 years - <AUTHOR>

When the transistor was first introduced in the late 40s there was quite a bit of hype surrounding it, but I wonder if anyone fully appreciated the significance of the development at the time.
Same goes for the world's fair in 1893, when Tesla's AC generators were first introduced to the wider public. I can't imagine that anyone realized how significant this was. Well, maybe Tesla.
So what are some major research results from the last 10-15 years that you feel will have a large impact? <comment><USER2> Without PCR (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCR>) almost none of the biotech research of the past 20 years would have been possible. In the past few years PCR has got absurdly fast and convenient. I think RT-PCR is kind of mind- blowing. You can get an off-the-shelf solution that will (in about half an hour) screen your blood for a set of known virii. Or snoop or your food for toxins. Or whatever else you want to do with DNA...

</comment><comment><USER3> 1) Measuring the age of the universe to a few percent ~14 billion years. 2) Determining the dark energy (70%) / dark matter (25%) / regular matter (5%) breakdown of the universe to a few percent. 3) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Hubble Space Telescope and Wilkinson Probe

I'm purposely being biased :)

<comment><USER4> > Determining the dark energy (70%) / dark matter (25%) / regular matter (5%) > breakdown of the universe to a few percent.

Translation: We've figured out in even more detail how we have no idea wtf is going on in the universe

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Human Genome Project, or perhaps just its completion since it originated outside your window.

</comment><comment><USER6> Does Internet qualify? :) Probably the greatest thing that has happened in our lifetime.

<comment><AUTHOR> The internet is definitely a great example. But I guess what I had in mind was more along the lines of things that haven't borne their fruit quite yet. Things that in retrospect people will see as seminal, but that are currently still hidden in research journals.

<comment><USER7> > things that haven't borne their fruit quite yet.

Well, what about web 3.0?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Machine translation of language. In 10-15 years time, given improvement and dissemination of the technology, we might massively open up the world's communication. This could be significant as we massively increase the marketplace of ideas and communication.

<comment><USER6> Are you a MT practitioner? Email me (email in profile).

<comment><USER8> Nope. Purely an interested bystander on this one. While I hate saying leave it to Google they are working quite hard on this one and they have quite a lot of data.

<comment><USER6> Are you in a startup? I'm working on something in this area... that's why I ask. You were the first one who mentioned this (that I saw) on n.yc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm biased: functional MRI

We're just now scratching the surface as to how humans derive their intellect from 3.5 pounds of squishy grey stuff. Some questions we'll never have licked, but the future looks good.

<comment><USER2> I totally agree, even more so considering recent advances in real-time fMRI (<http://paincenter.stanford.edu/research/rtfmristudy.html>),

I also nominate EROS (<http://www.answers.com/topic/event-related-optical- signal>) as a revolution in the making. I think it will deliver some huge discoveries in the activity of the human cortex.

<comment><USER9> Real-time fMRI isn't that different - you just analyze the data on-line rather than after the scan. The most promise for me is millimeter and millisecond resolution with new scanning and analytic techniques. And that keeps getting better and better.

As for EROS (from your link): "Its biggest downside is the inability to detect activity more than a few centimeters deep, but it is a new, relatively inexpensive technique that is not invasive to the test subject."

That's a big problem it will need to overcome to compete.

<comment><USER2> While RT-fMRI is an incremental technological advance (it's just faster data collection with some spiffy signal processing) it hugely broadens the scope of fMRI's usability. The hemodynamic delays of traditional fMRI are atrocious. For the first time fMRI is giving us access to _when_ brain activity happens, which is nearly as importnat as knowing _where_. If you look at the biofeedback work being done with RT-fMRI you'll see it's extremely exciting.

Also, I don't view the depth restriction of EROS as a very big problem. There are enough mysteries lurking in the top 3 centimeters of your brain to keep academia busy for a hundred years.

<comment><USER9> I don't know about the BOLD delay being "atrocious". We get good temporal resolution and it's getting better and better (hundreds of milliseconds for some paradigms). I agree though - the biofeedback stuff is very exciting.

As for below the first few centimeters, that's where the control network is in mid-brain structures. That's kind of important, and if EROS can't penetrate deeper and with precision it's not likely to be widely adopted.

<comment><USER2> I think part of the reason neuro-imaging is so preoccupied with midbrain structures at the moment is because their activity is simpler and easier to correlate to the brain's inputs or outputs. With the huge boost in both spatial and temporal resolution EROS provides we can put more focus where the cognitive action is (the cortex).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> 0\. Sophisticated manipulation of nanotubes.

1\. Metamaterials (discovered in the 40s, but only confirmed in the late 90s).

2\. Weird properties of DNA. Your DNA, for example, contains encodings of many of the viruses you are immune to; in certain cases they might even "spontaneously generate".

</comment><comment><USER11> Probabilistic Robotics (think the Darpa Car Races)

<comment><USER12> This is the one.

No more big rigs, ups drivers, fed ex drivers, taxi drivers, pizza drivers.

The tech seems extensible to store shelf stocking, so a pretty big chunk of _all_ transportation of goods should be automated.

It's easy to envision a retailer that has automated delivery from the factory floor to the store shelf.

This will be huge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Better wireless data. I know this isn't really new, but I know it's a recent deployment in countries like Bangladesh. It gives you the opportunity to lay a communication foundation throughout an entire third-world country at a significantly reduced cost than laying down cable. I also remember reading that in some countries, copper wire would be dug up by surrounding people to sell. It's nearly free infrastructure.

</comment><comment><USER14> Stem cell research and cloning. Growing replacement organs and/or cell sets to "repair in place" damaged parts of the human body is going to have the greatest impact in the long haul.

The mechanical heart is another wonder from medical science as well.

</comment><comment><USER15> In 5-10 years, I'd say personal fabrication.

In 10-15 years, I'd say perhaps Human Genome

<comment><USER16> I think he meant last 5 - 10 years?

<comment><USER17> He is talking about the last 5-10 years... Personal fabrication has been available in a limited form for a few years ago, and Human Genome Project started in... 1990 iirc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wireless electricity.

<comment><USER19> That's one Telsa himself was working on 100+ years ago.

<comment><USER20> Yes, but he didn't get far enough with it to be feasible for everyday life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> How about some gene therapy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy>

<comment><USER22> I think this will be the one, but we've got a couple years, at least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Almost everything will have a great impact. Alone those small achievements don't have great effect, but together all of this is driving us to singularity (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity>). Ray Kurzweil had a talk about this on TED (and his books are interesting too).

</comment><comment><USER24> synthetic biology.

here's a fascinating TED talk from craig venter. (if you haven't heard of him, he was instrumental in the human genome project.) <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/6>

the part that was new to me was the idea of synthetic bio solving our energy problems.

</comment><comment><USER25> Support vector machines and other practical realizations of statistical learning theory research that began in the 1970s.

<comment><USER2> Why single out support vector machines? Sure, the kernel trick is neat but there's really nothing about them that stands out above other classification methods. It would make more sense just to say "the field of machine learning".

<comment><USER25> It's a practical (especially for small to medium sized data sets), effective way of doing machine learning that has a highly sound theory behind it and doesn't require arcane tricks that are rarely or never written down, unlike old-style artificial neural networks.

The interest in kernel methods is proof that there's nothing more practical than a good theory. :)

<comment><USER2> At the same time, I think it's astounding how often k-nearest neighbors (a method considerably simpler than SVMs) is either the best or second-best classifier for a dataset. I'm not trying to pit SVMs vs. neural networks...rather I'm saying most methods of machine learning (neural nets, SVMs, gaussian mixture, kNN, what have you) can be effective and none stand out above the rest.

<comment><USER2> Woops...forgot the squeeze an "often" before the "either"...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> "When the transistor was first introduced in the late 40s there was quite a bit of hype surrounding it, but I wonder if anyone fully appreciated the significance of the development at the time."

Uh. From what I've read, it was on page twenty-something of the NYT, with a blurb about how it might be used in hearing aids.

</comment><comment><USER27> Why are you so sure the transistor and the AC generator were not expected to change the world? Inventors often envision sweeping changes as a result of their inventions.

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm surprised no one's mentioned it: Dexter.

<http://www.paulgraham.com/anybots.html>

</comment><comment><USER29> 1\. Internet

2\. Human Genome

3\. Nano-technology

<comment><AUTHOR> Nano-technology is one of these buzz words that's been applied to everything from MEMS to car polish creams. It's so amorphous and vague that the only definition I can think of is "anything that's pretty damn small." I'm really not sure if it's a useful term at all anymore, or if it just obscures whatever it's used to describe.

One of my good friends is doing his PhD on MEMS micro-manipulators. But his work falls under non-linear control systems. Can it be described as nano- technology? sure, but what does that tell you? it hardly clarifies what his research is about, it just makes it sound like he's seeking funding from gullible VC's :)

<comment><USER30> Yeah, nanotechnology was coined to mean molecular manufacturing -- mechanical chemistry. Unfortunately, it's been applied too widely, and so we now have to use these clumsier terms to describe Drexler's idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The concept of SENS and the "engineering" approach to ageing. <http://www.sens.org>

</comment><comment><USER32> photovoltaics, slow but steady. not much else counts if we don't have the juice to run it. continuing with the energy theme, the fusion reactor is approaching unity with the next iteration predicted to >= unity, if that bad boy can generate more out than in, we'll be in a very different world 50 years from now.

</comment><comment><USER18> Quantum teleportation.

</comment><comment><USER33> Genetic algorithms.

<comment><USER4> Older than 15 years:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm#History>

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Cloning and aerogel

</comment><comment><USER35> Semantic web. I'm suprised no one mentioned it.

<comment><USER36> I think this is more of a _planned_ research breakthrough. I.e. the type that doesn't happen.

<comment><USER35> I think every research breakthrough is planned. Impact on civilization is what counts. I just have an impression people are not aware of the huge impact Semantic web will have. Why there are no more startups dealing with SW problems?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think pg's point is deeper than that. Research breakthroughs are made by one or two (usually one) very smart guys. Breakthroughs don't happen because consortiums and commitees declare "let the web be sematic!", which seems to be the case with the sematic web idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Christmas Tree Machines. We've seen the beginnings of home fabrication (including fabricating entire homes!) but as this technology progresses, it will impact the entire supply chain and wholesale/retail sector. May be a hundred years, though. But we've seen the beginnings already.

</comment><comment><USER38> less is more (all-time record)

</comment><comment><USER39> The internet is just a more sophisticated version of the cave drawing. The Genome is a discovery, not a breakthrough. The last true breakthrough was splitting the atom. Perhaps creating life from Methane gas and electricity would qualify.</comment>


Critical and Significant Dates (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://skeena.net/kb/big%20list%20of%20critical%20dates.html <comment><USER2> Does anyone have experience with using a list of dates, or bad input strings in general, in testing? Have you found significant, realistic errors and how did you go about setting things up?

<comment><USER3> See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10035008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10035008)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow, what a comprehensive page! Truly a labor of love... or hate of time issues.</comment>


How To Hunt a Submarine  - <AUTHOR> http://www.unz.org/Pub/NewmanJames-1957v04-02160

<comment><AUTHOR> The classic paper on operations research from WWII republished in James R. Newman's _World of Mathematics_. Useful as a model of finding down aeroplanes as well. I remember reading it in the 1950's and finding it amazing.</comment>


Radio to match your mood (anything to avoid Spotify) - <AUTHOR> http://musicovery.com/

<comment><USER2> Why avoid Spotify?

</comment><comment><USER3> I am also confused as to why you want to avoid spotify - I have had nothign but great expirences with it. The bitrate on this is a rate amount lower than spotify's as well. Lower than youtube in a number of them too..

</comment><comment><USER4> been working on something along the same lines as this. The rise of the "affective layer" is well on its way...

</comment><comment><USER5> doesnt like +'s in email addresses..</comment>


We're Living In the Most Creative Time In History - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120131/23562317608/were-living-most-creative-time-history.shtml

<comment><USER2> ...and so have mankind said at all times in history. To believe that we live in a golden age is no different from what the Romans or Egyptians thought.</comment>


Men not at work: Why so many men aged 25 to 54 are not working (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2016/08/15/men-not-at-work-why-so-many-men-ages-of-25-to-54-are-not-working/ <comment><USER2> I've started some treatment recently, and for some reason I immediately started dating and looking for mates again.

I quickly realized how difficult it is. You can't find women unless you have a job, while women have made outstanding progress in education and the workforce, and for some reason they have a hard time dating people who have a less comfortable situation than themselves. I don't want to ride the whole mensright bandwagon or to criticize feminism, but it can be a difficult source of unhappiness for some.

I dated this young mother of two who managed to be a teacher for kids, she got help from her middle class parents, I can really say that when you feel the class struggle seeping into your love life, it is a very weird feeling. Of course it's not the only reason, I'm not saying it, but it can the source of other problems.

One generation behind us, women still sort of relied on men, and now that the tables have turned, women might need to make a compromise.

Not to mention the whole tinder generation which is making things a little weirder.

EDIT:

This comment is full of personal opinion, so take it with a big grain of salt.

<comment><USER3> > One generation behind us, women still sort of relied on men, and now that > the tables have turned, women might need to make a compromise.

You mean the system was heavily stacked to make women reliant on men. I won't call that a compromise.

The tables haven't turned, the game changed. We have drastically removed many of the forces meant to keep women as dependents of men. If the tables had turned, then men would be systematically be kept out of jobs, particularly high paying careers. They most certainly are not being kept out of those jobs.

<comment><USER4> Yes, this, a thousand times this.

People look at stuff like alimony or whatever and think "oh women just get all the breaks". When really, stuff like that exists because women were expected to forego career for marriage, etc., essentially shackled to a man for life.

Women being independent, expecting a guy to have his shit together? I think that's great. I say bring it on. Independent women are far more interesting to talk to, and if I have to have a good job lined up, well, that's how you play the game.

Now...if society is breaking in a way that it's tough for men to get good jobs, then let's look at that. Women aren't to blame for that, though. Let's look at what's really going on.

<comment> J-dawg So what do you do when there simply aren't enough jobs for most men to "have their shit together"?

What are all those men going to do when they have both no stake in the economy, and little or no chance of finding a woman to love them? What percentage of men like this can society handle before some sort of tipping point is reached?

I refer you to this comment from "wingless" from another discussion currently on the front page:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13795855](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13795855)

I'm always aware of this whenever the usual stuff about the "gender pay gap" gets trotted out by the media. Men and men women are playing entirely different games in the employment market. A woman is working for the money and whatever satisfaction she derives from the job itself. A man is working for his ability to attract a girlfriend, his status in society, his entire sense of "value". It's hardly surprising that men are motivated to choose riskier and higher earning careers.

<comment><USER4> What I'd do is this:

1) Vote for politicians who are going to create real structural change in society, e.g. Bernie, not just systems maintainers like Hillary, or rich guys who want to rip us off, like the guy who won. (And really work at a local level to enact structural systems changes!)

2) Work to change the cultural baggage around one's value being tied to one's day job. Make it sexy to be a poet, writer, singer, househusband, whatever, derive personal/interpersonal value from something other than a career. (And again, work at a local level to make it OK not to have a big thriving career, since it's not gonna happen for a lot of folks.)

That's what I'd do. The system of "men are worth something because of their career" is broken, and will never come back. I wouldn't even try to resuscitate it.

<comment> J-dawg >Make it sexy to be a poet, writer, singer, househusband, whatever, derive personal/interpersonal value from something other than a career.

I would dearly love to believe this is possible, but I fear it's not. I don't think (most) women are capable of overcoming their programming to seek a high- status provider.

<comment><USER4> Really? I give women more credit than that.

For the first time in how many centuries, they don't have to be chained to some dud with a good job, and they're figuring out what they want.

Good poetry? Being a good househusband? There's going to be quality in that.

World's changing, and you can't get away being a schlub just cause you've got a good job anymore. I say bring it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The explanation is that the government massages unemployment figures to make the economy look better than it is. The government has been doing this for decades, under Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. Unemployment is one of the most widely watched and therefor political numbers; anyone who is in power wants it to look as good as possible.

One of the tactics to make the official unemployment rates look better is to classify some unemployed workers as "not looking for work." Voila! They don't show up in the official estimates and it is their fault!

Most economists are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other powerful institutions that have little interest in questioning the official numbers. Hence lengthy academic discussions to try to "explain" the seemingly odd behavior.

<comment><USER6> It's shocking, just plain shocking, how short people's memories are, in regards to their own governmental details. The manipulations to deflate the unemployment numbers, I was cognizant of in high school, have never stopped. New techniques come up every administration (seemingly every year). It's like how "the tech industry innovation value" is now added to the UDP arbitrarily. Smoke and mirrors. Google "US employed population" then click "What percentage of the US population is working?" -

What percentage of the US population is working?

According to the October jobs report, the seasonally adjusted employment-to- population ratio was 59.2% last month, one percentage point higher than it was a year earlier. Over that same period, the "official" unemployment rate fell from a seasonally adjusted 7.2% to 5.8%.Nov 7, 2014

<comment><USER7> 59.2% is quite misleading because it includes students and retirees. The next two paragraphs from your own source[1] say:

        One reason for the difference is that the share of Americans saying they
        don't want a job has trended up since the Great Recession: from 31.9% of
        the working-age population in October 2008 to 34.6% last month (on a
        non-seasonally adjusted basis). Some of that increase, though, may be due
        to Baby Boomers reaching retirement age; as they leave the workforce over
        the next several years, labor economists expect the employment-to-population
        ratio to trend lower. Young adults staying in or returning to school also
        may be a factor.

        So if we look at just the 25-to-54 age group, which strips out most students
        and retirees, the employment-to-population ratio has been slowly improving
        since it bottomed out at 74.6% (not seasonally adjusted) in February 2011.
        Last month, 77.3% of all 25-to-54-year-olds were employed, which is well below
        the indicator's pre-recession high in October 2006, when 80.7% of people in
        this age group were employed.

[1] [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2014/11/07/employment-v...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2014/11/07/employment-vs-unemployment-different-stories-from-the-jobs- numbers/)

<comment><USER8> Why should we exclude students and retirees from our key employment metrics? Society must pay for students and retirees, and the higher the employment-to- population ratio, the easier that is to do.

<comment><USER7> I suppose it depends on the purpose of the metric you are evaluating. If your goal is to find the percentage of people currently unemployed because they are looking for a job but unable to get one, then it does not make sense to include students or retirees that are not currently looking for work.

Besides, I'm not sure it's accurate to claim "society must pay for students and retirees". Some students can pay for themselves (via loans) and some retirees can pay for themselves (via their own retirement savings).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think that there is more to this story that just "low education low skill men not working". I personally think that this has more to do with the poor state of psychological health at this socio-economic status.

Specifically, the people I know who fall into this category have one or more problems:

1\. One (big) problem is that they often have an enabler -- that is, someone who is supporting these folks not working in some way. The fact that they don't do more chores or childcare supports this hypothesis. As the video said, sometimes it's the wife, sometimes it's the government via disability, sometimes it's family.

2\. Another problem is issues with authority -- some of these folks are difficult or impossible to manage. Of course, sometimes it's because the company/manager is dysfunctional. Other times, the "issue" is that an employer sets healthy boundaries, and someone who does not have healthy boundaries will struggle to work within such an environment.

3\. A third problem is simply drug use. There are a not small number of jobs that can be done by people with low education and low skills, but the employee must be drug-free or must be a "functional" drug user. There is definitely a chicken-egg question about drug use, but once drug use begins, getting and keeping a job becomes much more difficult.

In the video, they say education is one of the keys to help the situation, and I am not convinced that this is true with the current state of education in the US. The education that needs to be done is more social/psychological in nature, imho. Until this happens, these dysfunctional people will continue to be dysfunctional. I don't want to pretend like this type of education is easy, but I think that it's closer to the solution.

<comment><USER10> Besides, education has never been more accessible. One can sit down at their home computer – or one freely provided by a local library – and gain skills, across a variety of professions, that can make them highly marketable.

These people aren't sitting at home watching TV because they lack education. They lack education for the same reason they are sitting at home, which is a much more complex topic, and not solved by simply making education even more accessible.

<comment><USER11> You act like lower-class "uneducated" men _should_ be unable to get a job. That's a bit messed up in my opinion. At a time of unparalleled wealth, all classes should be prospering.

Also, I say "education" in quotes because today in an age where anyone can learn anything on the internet, a lack of degree does not mean a lack of education. A degree just shows you're willing to be compliant and follow an arbitrary education system for years just to improve your social status. It doesn't mean you're unable to learn.

<comment><USER12> It sounds like to me randomdata is suggesting that personality or psychology is the 3rd missing variable, and that this psychological or personality trait leads to both joblessness and poor education.

<comment><USER11> Suggesting that an entire block of the population doing poorly is simply because they are lazy is definitely a stretch. Everyone wants to feel like they are valued and are accomplishing something. Maybe they behave this way because the opportunities for the uneducated have been eradicated due to globalization and illegal immigration lowering the value of their work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> OK, warning: what's coming is a wild personal opinion based on anecdotal experience with a couple of guys.

There are a couple of guys I know who fit into the category in the article. I don't believe that the solution proposed would have any effect. It just is at an impedance mismatch with the mindset, with the culture.

I'll mention one guy I know, a neighbor, who fixes cars in his folks's barn, for a living. He has no qualifications, no certifications and not much special equipment. I hear him doing a lot of banging. People who have not much money know him as a car-fixer guy who works cheap and bring him cars.

I very much admire his work ethic. When I let the dog out at 5:30 in the morning he is at work already, banging hard, and I often hear him at 8 at night. But he can't make any real money at it. People come to him precisely because he doesn't charge much.

To an economist the thought is that if a person could improve their economic and social standing by getting training or investing in specialized equipment, like a lift, of course they would do it. The mathematical argument is compelling.

But as I understand it, proposed solution of having these folks go in for training just does not fit the culture. I heard him the other day in a conversation about welding. He welds a little, but the guy asked him about a particular job and he had to say that for that you'd need training.

Training is never going to happen. It isn't a lack of energy, or the needed intelligence, or a belief in entrepeneurship among the men I know in this category. It is a culture thing; "school" is just a non-starter.

<comment><USER14> If you stop learning, you stop growing, financially and, much worse, intellectually. People who refuse to learn have to make peace with the fact that they remain in their exact place for the rest of their lives. However, I do ask myself, how can someone who works from 5.30AM to 8PM afford to spend any time to learn?

<comment><USER15> Let me tell you how I did it.

I found a job for which I was overqualified and when I was done with the job for the day I studied for a better job.

After doing this recursively a few times I landed a well paying job with great health insurance.

It gets easier just as sailing in the ocean is easier than sailing near the coast - you don't risk running aground.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't know that gender has much to do, necessarily, with the fact that it's hard to find a partner when your life consists of not doing much and watching reruns.

The guilt-shame-depression-guilt cycle is certainly reinforced in non-working men by indoctrination in a particular strain of patriarchal gender roles. Having a little voice in the back of your head constantly yelling at you for being a failure and "not really a man" can't be healthy.

<comment><USER11> The evolutionary strategies are different between the genders, mostly because the biologically expensive act of growing a child for months and raising it for years means women need to be more selective towards their mates.

<comment><USER16> I pretty much regard "well, sexual pressures on evolution!" to be the biologist's cop-out answer when they don't actually know what's going on.

I am male, and I would not want to date a woman who spends all day watching TV and nothing else, either.

<comment><USER11> Are you suggesting there isn't a difference in reproductive strategy between men and women? Edit: to those downvoting me, read this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mating_strategies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mating_strategies)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> One big issue with this problem is that these men are not all in the same location. Many of them are distributed through the so called rust belt areas -- I've seen maps of this previously. So simply creating a few factories here and there will only address a small part of the problem. They mentioned infrastructure improvement as a way to put some of these people to work -- I think that sounds reasonable because you can apply those jobs and money in the areas hardest hit, but if it only lasts 3 years then it doesn't solve the problem. It would make more sense to incentivize these people to move to areas where there are just more jobs available -- for example, work doing construction for somebody in Indiana for a while then transfer to someplace else. There are tons of jobs across skill levels in areas where there is a growing city. But if you live someplace where the population is declining and have less than high school education then both companies and government are not super excited about investing heavily there. Better to invest in the suburbs of Chicago or Minneapolis rather than small towns that barely have enough jobs anyway. But I think we need to help people move to places it's easier to support long term. So my point is the location of these people is a big factor.

<comment><USER9> While I think location may be part of the problem, I think it's a relatively small problem. IMHO, the biggest part of the problem is that many of these people are not employable, and due to having an enabler, are not motivated to become employable. There are lots of places in the Rust Belt looking for people to hire, but they need people who will show up clean and sober who will also do the work. These low requirements probably seem like a given to most of the people on HN, but in some communities and some socio-economic classes, this is definitely not a given.

<comment><USER17> Very true. It's definitely now a situation where we are dealing with the fallout from years of not dealing with the problem. Yea I recently read a story where a factory tried to hire around 50 people and could only hire a small number due to the vast majority failing drug tests. I was actually fairly surprised to hear that. So yea now we are dealing with the problem that has been festering and getting worse for years..

<comment><USER18> _Yea I recently read a story where a factory tried to hire around 50 people and could only hire a small number due to the vast majority failing drug tests._

Maybe the problem is whatever stupidity requires/incentivizes employers to police what "their" employees do when not at work?

<comment><USER19> Depends on the drug of course, but since the vast majority of these substances are both highly addictive and also severely impact your ability to operate heavy machinery, people who test positive for (certain types of) drugs are obviously more of a liability on a factory floor. I don't think it's stupidity that makes employers hesitant in this case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I don't personally know any men in that age range who fit that description, but I can imagine that living in the middle of the country there are probably fewer jobs than people. I've heard people suggest that they just relocate to an area with more jobs, but it's very difficult for someone with little money (and many times, little education) to relocate to more densely populated areas.

As a whole, our society should not leave these people behind. It would be nice to see more education initiatives focused towards getting people fitting this description the training required to get them back in the workforce. Even if the country couldn't afford to subsidize this fully, maybe set up a plan that allowed them to pay 10-15% of their salary for a year or two like some coding boot camps do.

</comment><comment><USER21> This article strikes out at the end. The answer for the folks who have given up looking for a job isn't easier access to college as suggested.

When someone drops out of high school it's not because they had too few choices to go to college, it's because they didn't see any value in the education they were already getting.

We need more vocational education and it needs to start earlier in life.

They should also teach a class in high school called "life" in which kids have to construct a virtual life for themselves, finds a place to live on Craigslist, price furniture, calculate food expenses, gas, electric, internet, mobile, insurance, etc, etc, so they have a good concept of what they're up against. Then talk about serious alternatives to pay for that life, a vocation, the military, college professional.

My HVAC guy didn't need college; it would be a huge waste of money and it would have postponed his career by 4 years. People like him can make six figures if they're good and easily support a family of 4.

<comment><USER22> I think even better would be to make education completely voluntary. This would help highlight the benefits so that the people who don't value it could make better choices.

<comment><USER23> For minors, the decision whether or not to enroll in school would be left up to the parents, which isn't always ideal for the kid or the community (see, for example, the vaxxer movement).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> "We will have to write off one to two entire generations". This from one industrial client who manages a workforce in the rural and suburban south. Why? The skills gap. Drug abuse, particularly meth. Competition from disability, welfare and black market income sources. I've heard similar from other clients. Their contempt for politicians stems largely from their perceptions that rural/middle America has been left to rot as big cities and technology centers thrive. The recent election in the US should have been viewed by both sides as the mother of all wake-up calls for Congress and the President to deliver results. Instead... outright political civil war with both sides having blame.

<comment><USER25> The results of the recent election were driven by inefficiencies in the American electoral system, such as the electoral college, gerrymandered districts that result in Republicans holding more seats than their vote totals would suggest, etc.

The "skills gap" is largely a result of the actions of employers. There is disdain for on the job training for easily learnable, high access jobs such as waitstaff, cashiers, etc. Furthermore they aim to pay as little as possible, while being as demanding as possible. They have stopped using defined weekly/biweekly scheduling and switched to unpredictable schedules that rapidly shift total hours worked, days worked, and even reduced hourly shifts. Oftentimes these jobs do not pay markedly more than one would get struggling to get by via social programs, family/friends, etc.

<comment><USER26> > _Middle America 's stubborn refusal to move forward_

This is a form of name-calling, which the site guidelines ask you not to do: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

<comment><USER27> I vouched for GP because they seem to have removed the name-calling.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Like a lot of studies which simply count "jobs" this one misses the point. The combination of wages being driven down, broken unions and sky-high rents mean the real value of many jobs is worthless. Here in the UK zero-hours contracts and low pay are endemic whilst most low income earners rely on housing benefit to supplement their pay. Simply having a job does not mean having a living income.

</comment><comment><USER29> Among other things, this man thinks there is a causality between men playing video game and not looking for work.

[http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2016/11/erik_hurst_on_w.htm...](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2016/11/erik_hurst_on_w.html)

<comment><USER15> Can confirm, know a guy who plays video games and is not looking for work.

Playing video games _is_ his work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think it's the other way around...able men aren't looking for work because the job market isn't attractive. They must be doing something that satisfies them one way or another. I have a problem when people start pointing out that they must be junkies doing drugs and alcohol.

To think that a dysfunctional "job" is somehow superior means there is some kind of social agenda/engineering going on...blaming the people who are affected when it's clear that the problem is employers looking for cheaper outsourcing. What we have right now is social engineering and "thought leaders" trying to excuse the obvious.

I think it's extremely concerning to think someone who doesn't work isn't a productive member of society and to conclude that they're doing household chores. Many rich people who inherit their fortunes do not work, but no one says they are junkies etc...

</comment><comment><USER31> >What should we do about it? > >Government policy can make a difference, Furman argues. Improving education and access to college could help by making workers more attractive to employers. So would spending more on helping people find jobs, as other countries do. Providing child-care subsidies and paid leave could draw more men – and women — into the workforce. Expanding the tax subsidies offered to low-wage workers so jobs are more attractive would be a plus, too.

The Brookings institution rarely fails to advocate for corporation and profit- friendly solutions.

In the 30s, they solved (actually solved, rather than giving out corporate welfare) the problem with the PWA: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Works_Administration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Works_Administration)

</comment><comment><USER32> Well if these guys aren't on disability, or married, then how are they getting money for food and rent? The article never answers that question- I don't think the us safety net is comfy enough to provide rent money. Are they all homeless?

</comment><comment><USER33> I wonder why it is that articles like this, which cover issues relevant to heterosexual middle aged white men are never flagged as 'political' when they appear on Hacker News?

</comment><comment><USER34> Is finding a "wife" that important?

</comment><comment><USER35> And ( to my ear ) the always reliable Dean Baker addresses "the money thing" in "Rigged". Scott Sumner has also written at length on the subject.

There are two mandates to the Fed - price stability and ( Humphrey-Hawkins ) employment. With the exception of the Greenspan era pre-2000, Fed policy has set employment in the back seat.

Because "Inflation BAAAAD!" ( in the manner of Phil Hartman's Frankenstein's monster ).

So we have 2% growth targets that we undershoot and low growth. The population has adapted in ways described in Tyler Cowen's "The Complacent Class".

<comment><USER26> We detached this comment from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13796757](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13796757) and marked it off-topic.</comment></comment>


"Developing Erlang at Yahoo" - New Delicious was rewritten in Erlang - <AUTHOR> http://blog.socklabs.com/2008/09/erlang_is_delicious_cufp_slide/ <comment><USER2> Ahem. No, it's not. The new system is MySQL for the datastore, a huge piece of C++ for the "backend" and PHP for the front end.

The script that copies the data from the old system to the new one is what they wrote in Erlang.

<comment><USER3> @Joshu How involved are you still over at Yahoo?

<comment><USER2> I'm not. I've been gone three months now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure I'd say "New Delicious was rewritten in Erlang" is an accurate title here. More like "certain subsystems of Delicious were rewritten in Erlang." As far as I know no one (or at least hardly anyone) is actually writing web-applications themselves in Erlang, they're picking off the subsystems that fit the language's sweet spot.

<comment><USER2> So far as I know, no part of the operational system itself is in Erlang.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not that this project isn't cool, but it seems like the ICFP must be desperate for presentations if this is what suffices.

When we were doing Powerset's infrastructure I didn't even think of writing a whitepaper or anything, I didn't realize that "Just doing it functionally and in a distributed fashion" was grounds for attention.

<comment><USER2> If anything ought to be written about the D2 project, it would an illustrated guide to dysfunctional engineering processes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice example of a developer team completely ignoring management and corporate guidelines. Too bad it took them so long ;)

</comment><comment><USER7> Why is Erlang a good fit for an application like Delicious?

<comment><USER8> Check the slides, specifically #31.

<comment><USER7> I'm familiar with some of the strengths of Erlang, but the slides look like they're written from the point of view of someone that likes Erlang and was looking for a way to justify rewriting Delicious in it, rather than explaining what about Delicious made Erlang a wise choice for the task.

<comment><USER9> _someone that likes Erlang_ ... _what made Erlang a wise choice for the task_

You've just answered your own question. You can solve every problem in every programming language -- as long as you like what you're doing. If you pick a langauge you like and a project you like, it will probably get done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The presentation is definitely worth a look. Evidence of erlang becoming a solution to real problems is coming up more and more, and the examples (like this) are significant.

</comment><comment><USER11> unless its php, java, or perl, (in order of precedence), it is not a web production language at yahoo

and beyond fanboying, there is nothing particular about erlang that makes it appropriate for this problem. and don't say "scaling"...yahoo's answer to scaling is the same as google's...lots of machines (far more than needed), and lots of money.</comment>


Build your own Personal Cloud - <AUTHOR> http://ledfrog.com/blog/2011/04/tonido-run-your-own-personal-cloud/

<comment><USER2> Heh. Blocked at work for "Pornography"

Now I _really_ want to build a personal cloud!

<comment><AUTHOR> :)</comment></comment>


Logic Gates as Pulley Systems [video] - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/93042377 <comment><USER2> That's a cool implementation. It reminds me of domino logic gates: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SudixyugiX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SudixyugiX4).

<comment><USER3> This is incredible! After hearing about the MIT tinker toy optimal tic-tac-toe machine[1], I built a half-adder out of dominoes[2] around the same time period as that video and hadn't ever heard of anyone else messing with the concept.

[1] [http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1215](http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1215) [2] [http://imgur.com/a/qq7Kl](http://imgur.com/a/qq7Kl)

<comment><USER4> I was curious about other mechanical digital logic projects and this stood out in the reading:

[http://www.elazary.com/index.php?view=article&id=46](http://www.elazary.com/index.php?view=article&id=46)

The rest of the blog is pretty interesting too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This reminds me of an article written for the April (first) edition of Scientific American many years ago... 1988.

The key thing to look for is the word 'Apraphul' which is the name of the island this was 'discovered' in. The part of the text of the article can be seen at Google Books [1] (many of the articles are behind a paywall)... though finely digging enough, I found it in a forum with part of the article [2]. Still, searching on 'Apraphul Pully' can take you to a number of other interesting pages (including one discussing the article's system).

[1] [http://books.google.com/books?id=0Rb5jBg6sJwC&pg=PA117&lpg=P...](http://books.google.com/books?id=0Rb5jBg6sJwC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=Apraphul&source=bl&ots=UIPD1t3jff&sig=gKTprj2YA8TcF_WpRu6G30QvJlA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=F1SJU_fpDIONyATyoYK4DQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Apraphul&f=false)

[2] [http://s10.zetaboards.com/The_New_Coffee_Room/topic/7132776/...](http://s10.zetaboards.com/The_New_Coffee_Room/topic/7132776/1/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Fun fact, if you can build a NAND gate or a NOR gate, you can derive all other functions. This is called functional completeness.

<comment><USER7> And you have to be able to compose gates.

Not to detract from a very cool demonstration, but it appears that all of the energy comes from the "inputs" which have to overcome all of the frictional forces in the system. With semiconductor gates, each gate provide the energy required to drive the gates it is connected to which facilitates composition.

<comment><USER8> Yes, this system is also prone to 'fuzzy' states due do slight variances that would multiply quite a bit if used for a full computation. It'd be cool to see a rectifier for this system, which will guarantee a full 1 or 0 state given a marginal state, though I'm not entirely certain how you'd build one.

<comment><USER9> Mechanical engineers have been solving that problem in various ways for hundreds of years. The gate in a film projector(or camera), the steam valve block on many steam engines, even the gear selector drum assembly on a motorcycle gearbox - and the mechanical gubbins inside every lightswitch displays the sort of hysteresis you need. I bet a typical 1950's engineer would solve that problem for you in a dozen ways in 20 minutes. (these days I suspect many engineers today would reach for a microcontroller and a servomotor or solenoid...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Extremely impressive. Almost tempting enough to try and build an adder, but I fear for anything larger than a few gates the concept starts to become clunky to implement (see the gates at the end of the video ..)

<comment><USER11> I was just wondering how long it would take someone to build an adder. I wouldn't be surprised if someone went for it.

<comment><USER10> Adders are curiously simple! You just need a clock, otherwise they kind of break. How you clock weights ... hnng, no ideas there.

<comment><USER12> Pendulum clock. [http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks- watches/...](http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks- watches/clock4.htm) Was the best illustration of a simple one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> saint-loup To file in the list of unconventional computing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_computing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_computing)

</comment><comment><USER13> Nice. It made me think of this piece of art by Michael Craig-Martin. A confounding pulley system:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yQdFX7BgzA#t=354](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yQdFX7BgzA#t=354)

edit: btw I can recommend every engineer watches this BBC series "what do artists do all day". The thinking processes of artists share a lot more with engineering that I expected and I found all episodes absolutely fascinating.

</comment><comment><USER14> Obligatory XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/505/](https://xkcd.com/505/)</comment>


Mountain lion scouts out new territory through Kansas - <AUTHOR> http://www.hdnews.net/Story/lion070210

<comment><USER2> Interesting story. Website design would make baby jesus weep tears of blood.</comment>


China has 'wasted' $6.8tn in investment, warn Beijing researchers - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/002a1978-7629-11e4-9761-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3KN8tIoym <comment><AUTHOR> If you see the paywall you can read the article here: [http://forum.lankaninvestor.com/t3052-china-has- wasted-68tn-...](http://forum.lankaninvestor.com/t3052-china-has-wasted-68tn- in-investment-warn-beijing-researchers)</comment>