Interracial marriage in US became legal only in 1967 - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage#United_States <comment><USER2> This is a bad post for HN. Wikipedia links are good when a topic hasn't had much or any discussion, and then only if there isn't a good alternative article available. But since race relations in the US are the most-discussed topic of the moment (perhaps in the world? and certainly here), this is the worst-possible use of Wikipedia on HN.

For some reason, this issue about Wikipedia submissions has been coming up a lot lately: [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20wikipedia%20HN&sort=byDate&type=comment)

Moreover, you editorialized the title to make it more inflammatory. That's exactly the opposite of what the site guidelines ask: " _Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don 't editorialize._" If you wouldn't mind reviewing [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and sticking to the rules when posting here, we'd be grateful.

<comment><AUTHOR> The char limit on titles in HN doesn't let you post the original title, how would you fix such a thing given this limitation?

<comment><USER2> The original title looks like "Interracial marriage" to me, which is plenty short - so I'm not following your question.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This title is somewhat inaccurate as there were a number of states where it was legal before 1967. 1967 is when the Supreme Court decided anti- miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, forcing all states to allow it.

<comment><AUTHOR> You see the glass half full, I see the glass half empty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yes -- in my lifetime. Amazing to think about. (I was born in '62). And here I am--in 2020 and I'm married to a same-sex partner. This was shocking when I was growing up. In the North where I was you'd see interracial couples but it was very, very rare.

I remember seeing a movie when I was 10 or so called Future Shock (in 1972) that had a scene with a same-sex wedding and the audience gasped! (It was the second feature at the Uniondale Mini Cinema.)

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

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the Alvin Toffler link! I haven't watched "Future Shock" for _decades_ :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I remember the family drama and strife (real or fake, who knows, but the topic was chosen for the audience regardless) around interracial marriages being a common feature of daytime talk shows at least as late as the mid- or maybe late-90s.</comment>


Firefox Developer Tools: Accessibility inspector - <AUTHOR> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Accessibility_inspector <comment><USER4> I hope this means the developer tools _themselves_ will actually become accessible. As a blind web developer running Linux and Orca, bunches of things have been broken for a very long time, to the point where I'm considering switching to ChromeOS and running Linux in chroots/containers just to get a better set of web development tools. I'm glad that they're empowering developers to create accessible websites, but if blind/disabled developers were empowered to _develop_ on equal footing, then that'd be another way to achieve the same goal.

As one example, I can't navigate the network inspector via keyboard in any meaningful way. Firebug used to have this nailed, to the point where you could even enable an accessibility mode (though arguably accessibility mode should have just been the _only_ mode.) And yes, I'd happily file issues for this and half a dozen other things, but at some point I actually have to do my job, and in this case that might mean jumping ship to a browser that seems more accessible.

<comment><USER5> Unfortunately, we live in a highly competitive/growth demanding times where companies chose to invest resources only on areas where they see good returns. This means that for-profit companies, like google, in long run would do far less than non-profit companies, like firefox,for special need audience.

<comment><USER6> Why is that unfortunate? If a company lack financial incentive to build something, means not many people want it, or the little that do don't want it enough

<comment><USER7> Or the ones that do want it enough don't have the means and the tools to de- marginalize themselves.

In this caae, I hope you're seeing the (sad and obvious) irony.

<comment><USER6> Even if all disabled people would have been poor, if there was enough of them, then relevant solutions would have emerged (similar to how cheap food came to be).

Disablities are unfortunate and sometimes sad. However, the way the market works is not. There are limited resources, and they are being distributed where the demand is highest.

<comment><USER7> Apple spent plenty of years doing what they felt was right, and not chase the highest demand.

On that example alone, I feel you're being short sighted.

Put another way, you're under the impression this is about people with special needs. Not at all. This is about people with special needs AND the people who believe they deserve the same "fair chance" the rest of us get. Not all of use are self-absorbed.

p.s. re: "similar to how cheap food came to be"

Seeing how this got us obesity and all the diseases that go with it, I'm not so sure you're model / mindset is the one that's ideal. Perhaps it's time to think more holistically?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> As a front-end developer, accessibility has always been a way for me to describe to non-technical people what I actually do for a living.

Saying: "I build web applications" means nothing to them, and saying "I create website" makes you look like a wizard doing some black magic.

But saying "my job is to make websites accessible to everyone: we are used to use a screen and a mouse, but what if you are blind or deaf? Those people should not be allowed to go on any website? My role is to make those people able to browse the web, as you and me" give them an example of what kind of problems you actually solve as a web developer.

<comment><USER9> > _Saying: "I build web applications" means nothing to them, and saying "I > create website" makes you look like a wizard doing some black magic._

Who are these people? When people ask what I do I just tell them "I'm a developer; I make websites" and they understand what I do enough to move the conversation forward. Is there other context I'm missing?

<comment><USER10> In France, roughly 12% of people don't use the Internet - [https://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/State-Of- Inter...](https://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/State-Of-Internet-in- France-2017_may2017.pdf)

In Indonesia, millions of people say that they don't use the Internet - <USER2> they _do_ use Facebook - [https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users- have-no-id...](https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea- theyre-using-the-internet/)

For all of us, it's worth stepping out of our bubble to see how other people perceive what we take for granted.

<comment><USER11> Those are really interesting statistics. Would be a good idea to look those up before traveling on business

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For every website a client has asked me to check SEO reports and the like, I get 0 requests to check accessibility or any mention of it. I do my best to make what I build accessible with the time I have, but clients (and many employers) seem blind to it. Has anyone had any success with getting accessibility taken more seriously in these contexts?

<comment><USER13> Nope. It is deeply misunderstood across the 'industry'. Blank stares ensue.

There is opportunity in this as SEO (a 'service' that can be sold) really depends on accessibility. I find people still concerned with 'keyword frequency' and whether they have their H1 tags in the right place when it comes to 'SEO'. Nobody is talking about making the web better for everyone (which includes the customers with no accessibility problems) and that being the central plank of better sales.

A further problem is that web 'design' agencies do not have the sales staff to sell accessibility. The pitch should not be that hard given that the baby boomer generation have all the money and need spectacles to read anything closer than arms-length away.

I also have yet to see anyone offering accessibility audit services where a genuine, registered partially sighted person does the auditing and testing. This could be end to end, i.e. ordering the product and returning it, with all emails checked along the way, complete with physical packaging.

We assume 'we know best' and that we know what a screen-reader user would want rather than reach out to anyone who is practically blind and ask them what they think. Patronising!!!

<comment><USER14> Those services definitely exist. I've used the DAC[1] in Cardiff before for indepth review from expert users of assistive tech, but I've also taken part in standard user research with people with accessibility needs (ranging from blindness to motor problems to severe dyslexia). One thing to bear in mind when doing user research like that is that bringing people into your lab won't work: people who use assistive tech setups tend to customise them to fit their needs, so you need to get out and observe 'in the field' if possible.

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

<comment><USER13> The [http://digitalaccessibilitycentre.org/](http://digitalaccessibilitycentre.org/) website is awful. Efforts like this give accessibility a bad name.

Accessibility isn't about designing websites that are exclusively for special needs people. It is about making websites work for everyone, whatever device they are on. Part of that ethos is sticking to convention.

So what is so awful?

The navigation is awful. It changes from the homepage to one of the other pages.

Their use of mini-font sizes is also a bit silly.

Even the URL structure is a bit silly, nobody needs to have index.php in a URL to make it mysteriously more accessible.

Their headings have line heights that mean 2-line headings are mangled together.

If you run a outline on their pages the content does not reflect what is shown.

I would be embarrassed if I worked with these so-called accessibility experts, their efforts sideline what accessibility is about. Cringeworthy and awful!!!

<comment><USER14> No comment on their site, but their employees helped me discover and resolve problems I never would have, for example a breaking problem in Windows 10 high contrast mode, or a problem with a specific version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking that was earlier than the one I had been testing on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I use the Accessibility Inspector in Chrome's devtools. But in both the cases of Firefox and Chrome, it should be remembered that the Accessibility Inspector is only a partial view into accessibility issues, and that better extensions exist to show you a broader picture.

See this article for suggestions in other better tools and techniques:

[https://www.24a11y.com/2017/accessibility-testing-tools- desk...](https://www.24a11y.com/2017/accessibility-testing-tools-desktop- mobile-websites/)

</comment><comment><USER16> I agree with ndarilek's comment. When the Firebug team started making firebug.next, there were huge problems with the inbuilt dev-tools. They then decided to merge the two projects and stopped developing Firebug. I had expressed my concerns to them after trying the beta for a long time. The team was very receptive of the comments, but sadly not much was implemented until I stopped using FF as my main browser. Even to this date, the Firefox Devtools are nowhere near Chrome's. Yes, there are some very useful features added in Firefox's Devtools but the performance is very poor. Especially the Scripting tab. Try setting a breakpoint in a half-decent webapp - the whole browser(!) hangs for atleast 10 minutes, sometimes forever. There were problems with displaying raw JSON response in the network tab too for a long time - <USER3> had the funtionality, so was shocking to see FF drop it in favour of a very clumsy and inaccessible tree view. Then, when FF Quantumcame, I flocked back to FF thinking the devtools would be fixed too. Nope. I have been a long time FF user (I think since v1.5, Netscape before that), and would very much like to use FF as my main browser. But as a web developer, it's impossible to use it. The sheer number of hours wasted just trying to keep my browser to not hang trumps my fanboyism. There is nothing better than what Chrome offers in this area.

<comment><USER17> I use Firefox's dev tools for my work on FastMail and Topicbox (the other guy who does the most frontend work uses Chrome). Firefox's debugger is definitely painfully slow when paused and stepping, but I can't reproduce what you say about full-browser hangs. Setting a breakpoint completes within a few hundred milliseconds (most of which is just rendering).

The fancy JSON thing: if you collapse the "JSON" expander you'll see another, "Response payload", which shows it as text. (If JSON is expanded, Response payload may not expand properly; that's a bug. I haven't reported it despite knowing about it for a while.)

Firefox has been my primary browser since 0.93, save for a year or so on Chrome when I had to run it from a USB stick and Firefox got just _too_ slow there. Nightly has been my daily driver for most of this decade.

<comment><USER16> The JSON thing they have fixed - I think I didn't make it explicitly clear in my comment. But it was that tree view for quite some time after the new devtools revamp.

About the full browser hangs - maybe it was my own system, but I usually had Slack and Gmail open. And those tabs already ate a lot of RAM, making FF sluggish. Opening the scripting tab on my own dev site used to make the browser just get stuck. Devtools didn't use to respond either, but clicking on the close button sometimes worked, so I had to hope that I could click on the cross button without triggering the dreaded "This app has stopped responding" dialog.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Great to see browsers adding accessibility in their devtools since a few months!

One thing I don't understand here: why is the Accessibility tab not shown by default? Accessibility is something lots of developers don't even know about. I'm sure having the tab visible by default would help greatly in making developers more aware of it.

<comment><USER19> Just guessing here, but if this feature is new, you'd want to show it to people who know what they're doing and look for it actively.

This way you can get feedback from experts in the field to refine the interface and features. Once you have a solid viable product, you can show it to the rest of the world and see how well it serves the needs of people less in the know, without frightening them with a half-baked tool.

<comment><USER20> No, it slows the performance of dev tools and increases the memory usage when turned on. It is addressed in the article, as stated by someone else.

<comment><USER18> Having the tab shown and having the accessibility tool working and consuming resource seems to be two different things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Good timing. I'm currently working on an existing app that is targeted specifically at those with accessibility issues as part of a larger service offering. More so towards those with hearing issues.

This is a good first step, I have been using the WAVE accessibility plug in for Firefox to identify missed issues in my first run through of the app.

Luckily, we have an employee with a visual impairment that we can utilize for real world testing of the app.

This really is its own specialty.

</comment><comment><USER22> This is great news. Just making it easier for developers to see the impact of small things without having to go look for tools to do it is huge in this area.</comment>


Trim - <AUTHOR> https://www.npmjs.com/package/trim <comment><AUTHOR> Can someone explain why that library has over 1M downloads over the last month. I'm a old school programmer and i learned how to trim a string starting from pascal. Now we are here, 20 years later and we need an external lib to trim a string? Then there is the security risk and the risk of a bug in the lib, it has happened, a by mistake uploaded lib.</comment>


How Digg does continuous deployment - <AUTHOR> http://about.digg.com/blog/continuous-deployment-code-review-and-pre-tested-commits-digg4

<comment><USER2> As awesome as continuous deployment is, it is a large overhead to get going. This is especially true if you don't have high test coverage already. For smaller teams and projects, you can simply remove the _automatic_ step. Invest some time in packaging and deploying your product in a repeatable, reliable way. And don't re-invent the wheel, really investigate the standard tools for your language and platforms.

<comment><USER3> If the point of continuous deployment is to get rid of deployment pain, it fails miserably.

I've tried to do continuous deployment for a smaller, one man, project and it was effectively impossible. It was too much infrastructure to maintain for one person.

The real question is does it save time at the end of the day? The overhead to set it up and keep it going is astronomical.

<comment><USER4> For a larger, more complex project, it's a godsend though. Not just in terms of saving time, but also in terms of preventing errors that happen when you do things manually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What about the user acceptance testing stage? The way the process was described in the article, looks like the process is code -> run unit tests -> run automated tests -> code review -> deploy. I may be missing something, but at which point are the features actually in front of the eyes of the business users who requested them?

Unless programmers are business users themselves (which in Digg's case, I think is highly unlikely), it's very risky for business users who requested the features to first see them in production. Even with all the tools that they have, the chance of simple misunderstanding and "No-no, that's not what I meant!" is always there. That's why I think there should always be a user acceptance stage, where users get to play around with the release (ideally, with data as close to production one as possible), and 'ok' the release for production from there.

Also they didn't mention QA at all. Unless QA are the ones that are writing Selenium tests at the same time devs are coding the feature.

<comment><USER6> The whole point of continuous deployment is to separate code deployment from feature release. A typical way to orchestrate actual feature releases is to deploy the code ahead of time and later "flip a switch" to enable the feature. If you need to run it by test users, selectively enable the feature for just those users - there's your QA procedure.

<comment><USER5> Hmm, I guess that would work, but it seems like an incredible amount of overhead to me. So you'd need to code that "switch" for every bugfix/feature? And even if there are libraries to do that, you'd still need to add custom code for every one.

Also, in this scenario you'd need to test every single combination, because what if you test A,B,C together, but then business wants to hold off on B, and if you enable A and C, that would break things?

And then enabling them for specific users only.. oy. What if it's a db schema change? Run db scripts to alter tables in production, every time we 'flip the switch'?

<comment><USER6> If a user can't see the feature, it doesn't exist. Typically enabling a feature means revealing it at the view layer, which is quite simple. Any DB schema change can take place ahead of time.

As for the complexity of testing permutations of features - that sounds like a problem with your Q&A process, no matter how you implement it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Weird. I submitted this last night, and it was auto-killed.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1539899>

<comment><USER8> You should have complained to pg. I had a similar thing happen on a digg blog post, and he reinstated it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Has a regular user of Digg and an alpha tester for Digg4, I have to say I am quite impress with the rapidity and the quality of the changes. The real-time digg count updates give quite a good feeling to the website in general since you have a feeling to participate in something bigger. The update has been on the right track and I hope the best for Digg.

<comment><USER10> The "my news" front page has made it vastly more useful for finding things I'm interested in. Though until it's out of beta and friends can use it fully it still feels a bit like the "like" button in google reader.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Also impressed that Flickr uses continuous deployment. <http://code.flickr.com/blog/2009/12/02/flipping-out/>

</comment><comment><USER12> Could someone name other companies that do continuous deployment? I've only heard that IMVU uses buildbot.

<comment><USER13> Buildbot is used for continuous integration, which is a big step along the path to continuous deployment. A lot of companies are doing this today. Fewer are doing continuous deployment. kaChing has some posts about their setup:

[http://eng.kaching.com/2010/05/deployment-infrastructure- for...](http://eng.kaching.com/2010/05/deployment-infrastructure-for.html)

[http://eng.kaching.com/2010/06/applied-lean-startup-ideas- co...](http://eng.kaching.com/2010/06/applied-lean-startup-ideas- continuous.html)

And I believe many of the companies featured in the Startup Lessons Learned conference are doing continuous deployment:

<http://www.justin.tv/startuplessonslearned/videos>

There's a lot of momentum towards this. The company I'm at is working to get there.

<comment><USER14> Yeah, it's important to make the distinction between continuous deployment and continuous integration.

Continuous integration is a fairly simple thing: detect a new source commit, run a battery of tests on it, report back. Hudson is a really good one (of which the original author is a main contributor, and I did some plugin work for a while), and I use it as a fairly fancy looking cron as well.

Continuous deployment, as described in the article, is much more difficult. Not only do you have the slew of tests, but maybe you want more long-running tests that you don't care to run all the time. Maybe you want code reviews. You'll need to automate the actual deployment process and so on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if any company will see an opening to create an easy process utilizing all those programs which I assume have to be individually setup? I'm sure if it was easier to configure more teams would utilize that method of deployment.</comment>


I built a simple sketching/writing app. What do you think? - <AUTHOR> https://sketchwrite.com/?welcome

<comment><USER2> Looks nice but there is no introduction or anything to sell it :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess that's an open question at this point... It's still pretty early (i.e. alpha) so I'm thinking that "selling" it isn't really on the table yet. :)

Which particular aspect of Sketchwrite do you think would be most marketable?</comment></comment>


Freshdesk launches FreshSales, to directly compete with Salesforce - <AUTHOR> https://inc42.com/flash-feed/freshdesk-launches-freshsales/ <comment><AUTHOR> Fresdhesk launched Freshsales,for high-velocity Inbound Sales team. FreshDesk says it has integrated all necessary apps into for FreshSales, vital for a Sales team's performance.</comment>


What web technology would you use when dedication is not high? - <AUTHOR> Hi all,
I am a freelance developer specialized on geographical information systems (GIS). Essentially, I do custom developments involving maps, many of these developments being web applications.
However, web development is not my main activity. Apart of it, in my projects I may clean data, do some spatial analysis, style some maps, tune some database and map servers, etc.. Building a web application is a relative small part of my workload.
This low dedication contrasts with the web technology development pace. I walk slowly along learning curves just to find at the end of it that it is not the right technology anymore. It is hard to obtain a return of the investment when I am doing two to three relatively small web applications a year.
I would love to find an approach that:
* Allows me to build modern looking web applications. Responsive at the very least (Disclaimer: probably I don't know well what a modern web application now is). * Reuse parts from one project to the next. Web mapping applications are not an innovation paradigm and I end up having the same functionalities all over my projects. * Smooth learning curve, long term life. I want to have time to apply what I learn, to build on that and to know well my tools.
In my last attempt I build up a custom solution with a message bus pattern and requirejs modules. Requirejs was on fire when I took the decision but it just got marked as "uncool" few months later (bear with my sarcasm, please). It did the trick for a while though (and still does).
What technological choice would you do in these low dedication conditions? <comment><USER2> 1) Create a react app with create-react-app [0].

2) Add bootstrap as specified in their README [1].

3) Profit.

[0] [https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react- app/](https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app/)

[1] [https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react- app/blob/m...](https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react- app/blob/master/packages/react-scripts/template/README.md#adding-bootstrap)

</comment><comment><USER3> Learn the language (javascript) not the latest framework. That way whatever the latest framework is when you next get a job you can pick it up easily. That said though, don't use a framework 'just because', use the right tool for the right job, and 99% of the time the client doesn't know or care what you use, unless they're insisting on the latest buzz word.</comment>


Show HN: Pinned tweets (an idea) - <AUTHOR> http://swapped.cc/blog/pinned-tweets

<comment><USER2> These launched with Twitter's redesign last year. <http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/12/b2b-twitter-brand-pages/>

The "Promoted Tweet" pinned on top of brand pages is auto-expanded, so realistically most companies will probably be using it to showcase a video or graphic rather than trying to engage in 140. Oh well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, no, these are different. They are pinned to the poster's page, not mine.

I am suggesting to let Dell throw a tweet at the top of _my feed_ when I next refresh it (and then let it fall down as usual), but unlike existing promoted tweets do it only if I follow Dell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I talked about something similar, some time back. [http://www.geekybuddha.org/blog/2011/07/16/sticky-tweets- mak...](http://www.geekybuddha.org/blog/2011/07/16/sticky-tweets-making-more- sense-of-twitter-profile-feature-request-to-twitter/)

Good to see someone thinking in that direction.

<comment><AUTHOR> Similar, but different. Your idea appears to be in the works - <https://twitter.com/#!/joeweston/status/201999848378089472>

<comment><USER3> Awesome! Glad that I was thinking in the same direction. Now twitter, please hire me!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's probably less awesome that you envisioned it :)

Twitter seems to be oddly focused on offering ad options only to larger players, be it companies or celebrities. I think they are completely missing the point of a metric ton of average Joes wanting to stand out on Twitter too, and there is a way to do it without making things (too) obnoxious.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice idea, I can certainly see myself using this.

I would let followers disable/ignore pinning by specific posters, and notifying latter on how many ignore their pins. It's a gentler form of a negative feedback. Unfollowing seems to be a bit too drastic.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a sensible suggestion.</comment></comment>


Microsoft Donates ASP.NET Ajax Library to the Codeplex Foundation - <AUTHOR> http://codeplex.org/news.aspx

<comment><USER2> They're dumping it because its crap and doesn't work with other libraries

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> They've also changed the license to BSD.</comment>


First version of WireGuard patchset submitted to LKML - <AUTHOR> https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2018-July/003176.html <comment><USER2> Very excited about the WireGuard being mainlined in the kernel, it's a pity that the window for a patchset for 4.19 is already closed. But while I'm fine with the wireguard-dkms dynamic module on Linux desktop/server systems, I'm especially looking forward to the merge into Android/AOSP asap, that's my main pain point.</comment>


Ask HN: What tech stacks do online games use? - <AUTHOR> As far as I know most games are built using low level programming languages such as C++ but what other technologies do they use when it comes to building online multiplayer games especially a game like PUBG or Fortnite which are massive hits <comment><USER2> Elixir or Erlang. [0]

[0] [https://www.erlang- factory.com/upload/presentations/395/Erla...](https://www.erlang- factory.com/upload/presentations/395/ErlangandFirst-PersonShooters.pdf)

[1] [https://blog.activision.com/call-of-duty/archives/a-look- ins...](https://blog.activision.com/call-of-duty/archives/a-look-inside- demonware-the-unsung-heroes-powering-your-online-gaming-experience)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing this How do they handle the server load when they have so many concurrent connections

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I worked for years on client and content side of a medium size MMO, closely with a colleague who was in charge for server side. It was successful in the sense of people paying a monthly subscription fee for playing.

Every time someone asks me for advice in this field, I just tell this: make a prototype of a very simple game (cards, board...) where you have a limited number of players. Take care of anyone wanting to cheat (i.e. sending crafted packets) pretending to have a service where your users value fairness and no cheaters.

Why? Because once you do that 99% well enough for a simple game, you realize the huge amount of work it takes for games of other sizes.

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://www.babylonjs.com/](https://www.babylonjs.com/)

[https://playcanvas.com/](https://playcanvas.com/)</comment>


Animal Copies Reveal Roots of Individuality - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150512-fruit-flies-individuality/

<comment><USER2> This question can't be answered so pick one and go with it.</comment>


Insights into the Future:  - <AUTHOR> http://www.informationsecuritybuzz.com/insights-future-interview-javier-arrospide/

<comment><USER2> Looks like a great product! What does everyone else think?</comment>


Otto's Self-Driving-Truck Tests on CA Roads May Run Afoul of State Regulations [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Otto-Testing-Operations.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> Car and Driver obtained Otto's internal description of how the system works.[1] It turns out that the Otto delivery of Budweiser beer publicity stunt[2] wasn't entirely real. They tried different roads until they found one their system could handle well. They ran the route five times, debugging. For the actual event, the truck was surrounded by chase cars and lead cars to make sure nothing unexpected happened.

In typical Uber style, it now comes out that Otto has been testing on California roads without getting a CA autonomous vehicle testing permit and reporting their accidents and disconnects. Car and Driver reports they get a lot of disconnects.

[1] [http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/Otto...](http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/Otto-Testing-Operations.pdf) [2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0Kzb3haK8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0Kzb3haK8)</comment>


4chan discusses HN - <AUTHOR> https://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/48696148/itt-we-hacker-news-now <comment> vezzy-fnord We've had these types of threads posted several times before and they've always been fun, though it seems like /g/ are really struggling for material this time around.

That said:

> [600 points] Why only web development matters (http :// nautil.us medium > wordpress theverge gawker .com)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're not wrong, but I find it I still find it hilarious. It's a good thread for a Friday afternoon laugh.

<comment><USER2> Why not just say "you're right"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There is some inspired content in that link. My personal fave:

We're disrupting the 1gorillion dollar [insert industry] sign up for our beta to check it out[0].

[0]We just need your name, address, credit card, and birth date. To verify your a human.[1]

[1] and we store all of this in clear text files on our server.[2]

[2] which was written using [insert new hipster language] by some guy who's been programming for 3 weeks.[3]

[3] but we promise not use your data to mine the shit out of you and sell it to advertisers.[4]

[4] jk

<comment><USER4> Some are kinda on point:

      [1000 points] Some hot-button political issue that we know nothing about

      [-1 points] An O(n) time algorithm for multiplying matrices

And that's why I have been phasing my tech news away from HN.

It's really enjoyable watching the 4chan folks take the piss out of here-- though a lot of the posts are, I suspect, newfags (in the vernacular) posting purposefully bigoted things in language that isn't typical to /g/.

<comment><USER5> > And that's why I have been phasing my tech news away from HN.

To where?

<comment><USER4> Lobste.rs is a good place, sometimes 4chan (though it's mostly garbage, at least it's honest and obviously garbage), sometimes the relevant project issue trackers and website myself, sometimes twitter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "[145 points] Node.js + ASM.js + Angular.js + Coffee Script: how I built my static website"

<comment><USER7> That one made me laugh out loud. Some of them are quite good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> [213 points] Sleeping considered harmful - Why I stopped sleeping

I liked this one.

<comment><USER9> For all its immaturity, 4chan can be surprisingly clever. A lot of the commenters on that thread were complaining about having had accounts banned here, though.

<comment><USER10> Posting 4chan style comments would be a quick way to get banned from... from quite a lot of place actually.

<comment><USER11> >implying 4chan users only post like that

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's refreshing to see what people post without fear of retaliation or identification on the web.

Gold!

"Ask HN: Why won't VCs invest in our dating app, and why is it because we're women founders?"

"[1583] We taught 13 women from Sierra Leone node.js"

</comment><comment><USER13> These are great; my favourites are:

> How I rewrote Bash in javascript.

> I decided to re-implement Javascript in Javascript. It failed. Here is my > story.

> [450 points] Why I have private Github repos at my startup but everyone else > should give away their software for free.

It's so true ;~;

<comment><USER14> Can an interpreted language be completely written in itself?

<comment><USER15> yes

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Most of these are incredibly accurate parodies of HN. As someone who reads HN every day, these are making me cry laughing.

<comment><USER17> I wonder how they got to know their material so well...

<comment><USER18> I wonder too !

HN community VS 4chan community ? Really ? What if we'd stop pretending for just 1 sec, and just admit that many, many people are just the same here and there ? Where does this lead ? As many here pretend to play the game, and play hardly, because they're aware of the rules, at least a small part of them, deep in their brain, also hate it. The feeling that most of time, crazy VC and tech race just lead nowhere is real. The worm is in the fruit already, and really, I'm pleased to record so.

<comment><USER19> Anyone who actually believes there isn't a significant overlap between the communities of 4chan, Reddit and Hacker News just isn't paying attention.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Archive link for future readers : [https://archive.rebeccablacktech.com/g/thread/48696148](https://archive.rebeccablacktech.com/g/thread/48696148)

</comment><comment><USER21> Uninformed opinion I'll try to pass off as insightful and fact-centric by using footnotes [1][2][3].

[1] theatlantic.com [2] theverge.com [3] blog.tumblr.com

</comment><comment><USER22> Someone mentioned that they hated the lack of humor in HN's comments section, which I tend to agree with.

<comment><USER23> Humour is allowed here. Just not the same humour as you get on reddit, with links to memes, or annoying puns.

<comment><USER24> I've never been a part of a comments section quite as dry as this one. I feel afraid of a shadowban if I make the slightest mistake. That sort of environment doesn't really foster the risk-taking that humor often requires.

<comment><USER25> I get your fear, but it was a while back that the shadowbanning was really out of hand, with perfectly sensible people continuing to spend time and effort writing thoughtful comments, oblivious to the fact that only a handful of the userbase could even see them.

For that reason I've had `showdead` on since ever. There used to be so many normal comments grayed out because of some unrelated misstep of that user elsewhere.

But, roughly about when we got new mods (dang and the other one), that things started changing. Recently, I've pretty much only seen grayed out comments that were actually inflammatory, in some sense. Not that I'd always agree with the fact they got downvoted, but at least I could see it had to do with the content of that particular post.

So posting a joke risks downvotes, but not shadowbans.

I do agree that HN is one of the most dry, humourless discussion boards I have ever seen. While megablast says "humour is allowed here", while technically true, I really have to say there is pretty much no space for humour on HN, at all.

The only reason why there are even a few funny posts or jokes on HN at all is because you can't put a stop to humour, it'll find a way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> My fav: Why I rewrote Go in node.js in Java to play tic tac toe

</comment><comment><USER27> > [dead] I'm Terry Davis and I created TempleOS

How many people know who Terry Davis is?

<comment><USER28> Everyone with showdead=yes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I started frequenting HN because I kept encountering these kinds of problems everywhere else. Certain subjects just have more gravity as it were, and when present will inevitably take up all the oxygen in a room. The only way I know to manage it is to isolate it in sub-fora, and be very strict about containment.

An important difference between HN and other fourms I frequent(ed) however is that instead of taking offense and going on the defensive when 'attacked' by 4chan, they recognize the joke and find it funny. That alone puts HN lightyears ahead of those other organizations.

And regardless of why, it's exactly this kind of self-awareness and identity that enables people to discuss ideas without feeling threatened by them, something which has held back both social and scientific progress in the past.

<comment><USER30> _" An important difference between HN and other fourms I frequent(ed) however is that instead of taking offense and going on the defensive when 'attacked' by 4chan, they recognize the joke and find it funny. That alone puts HN lightyears ahead of those other organizations."_

This. This comment could just as easily have been on that 4chan thread as a great example of HN think to be laughed at.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> So I'm out of the loop. Are complaints about social justice warriors just a modern twist on "I'm not racist, but..."?

<comment><USER32> Not sure what you mean by that. If you are asking if they are a joke, a parody on real racists/sexists would say, then no. The complaints are serious. If you mean that people who complain about social justice warriors are really racists/sexists, well that's hard to answer, because it depends on one's definition of social justice warrior and one's definition of racism and sexism.

<comment><USER27> I think that people are now using overt racism and sexism as protest against Social Justice. Since a Social Justice Warrior will define anyone who doesn't agree with them as a racist or sexist anyway, people make it as obvious as possible because there is no escape. The only thing left is to piss them off.

<comment><USER31> The inverse happens too. Racists and sexists define everyone who they don't agree with as Social Justice Warriors. Of course, neither end of the spectrum think that the corresponding label applies to them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Even after many HNers read this thread and appreciate the points being made, I'm sure we'll still see the same "Site I made in unique2me.js" garbage headlines in the top feed. Hopefully what we all take away from this is that we need to better spot patterns of articles/blogspam and self-moderate those submissions.

</comment><comment> ryan-c > [999 points] Why we raised $6 billion in a series J and deferred IPO

I wouldn't be surprised to see this in a few years.

</comment><comment><USER34> "Edit: why all these downvotes?"

</comment><comment><USER35> SJW represent :)

I know people that don't read HN because it's too virulently sexist, so having 4chan see it as too SJW is interesting.

Will we end up with two "social justice" realities, like we have with vaccination, creationism/evolution and climate change, where it's entirely possible to spend your entire browsing time on sites that agree with your opinions on everything?

<comment><USER2> So HN "is" "virulently sexist" and 4chan merely "sees it" as "too SJW". Sigh

<comment><USER35> yeah, you're right, I let my prejudices show a bit there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I liked this one

> Anonymous 06/26/15(Fri)17:51:52 No.48697104 [600 points] [meta] 4chan > technology board satires hacker news, hilarious.

<comment><USER37> That was the original title of this thread but someone changed it.

<comment><USER38> I believe there are simply 2 submissions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9787986](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9787986)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> > Shitty layout from 2003

I actually like this layout. It's fast and easy to read, renders ok on mobile and is lightweight. I'm grateful that the maintainers didn't switch to an over-the-top look-at-my-framework.js thing just to make it look modern at the detriment of usability.

</comment><comment><USER40> Just going to point out that that link contains hate speech directed at women, people of color and the LGBTQ community. I know YCombinator's been talking up diversity as of late, so maybe a good idea to not be linking to hate?

</comment><comment><USER41> This community is a joke on every site that isn't HN. And yet, I post.

<comment><USER42> Most communities are a joke to other communities. Whether it's online communities, religions, races, countries, hobbies, whatever.

<comment><USER41> I agree, but in this case I don't think you understand the severity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> The best humor is that which is based upon reality.

And goddamn is this hilarious.

</comment><comment><USER44> Nailed it.

</comment><comment><USER45> I'll be honest - the "Ask PG" comment was kinda spot-on.

<comment><USER46> Could also be replaced with "Ask <anyone mildly successful in the industry>" and applied to real life events populated by the same crowd.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> I've been reading HN for 4+ years now, and I think that practically every post in that thread is spot-on. HN has turned into the very thing that I thought the guidelines were designed to prevent. The internet doesn't need another reddit, it's bad enough as it is.

HN has become host to feminist shilling and corporate endorsements, on top of the already flawed content model that encourages disengagement to the point where people are just reposting headlines and treating HN as a comments section for the article itself.

Either way, there's something to be said for constructive criticism like this, and HN can potentially learn from this.

It won't. But it could.

<comment><USER48> > _HN can potentially learn from this._

Learn what? The whole thread is basically a fond pop at HN, with the usual 4chan dribble thrown in (like the faggot/nigger shock commentary).

I'm not sure how the vein of commentary about the headlines being business/startup oriented is a negative criticism, since that's the point of HN - and if anything, the business side of the forum has been dying off for quite a while.

<comment><USER49> Learn not to take yourself too seriously, which plenty of folks around here do.

<comment><USER46> Don't disrupt my ego, bro.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> my fav: J(ew) Combinator

<comment><USER51> mine also

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> haha 4chan has real hackers man

</comment><comment><USER53> Well this is bit meta...</comment>


Scientists Create the World's First Evaporation-Driven Engine - <AUTHOR> http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a16045/evaporation-engine/

<comment><USER2> I also work in this space, so the headline caught my attention. This is far from the first. Some other evaporation driven engines include:

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

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_tower_%28downdraft%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_tower_%28downdraft%29)

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

The solar updraft tower and vortex engine also operate in a similar space, meaning that all of them operate using the temperature difference between ground and tropopause which feeds the water cycle.

It is my personal opinion that evaporation-driven engines (or something quite similar) are the most promising energy source (on this planet). Essentially, they are an alternative source of solar energy which doesn't have the problem of needing the sunlight to be present to work.

The main issues, as with most new energy sources, are efficiency and cost. The Columbia motor costs $5 for 50 microW, or $1x10^5 dollars per watt. You generally want something nearer 1$/watt for primary energy use. The efficiency in terms of water or thermal energy is not stated, but is likely similar to dunking birds, which have a thermal efficiency around 0.01%. The theoretically possible efficiency for the evaporative half of the water cycle is on the order of 12%, so there is a lot of room for improvement.</comment>


Mathematical Maturity - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_maturity <comment><USER2> Interesting concept. We could probably talk about "engineering maturity" with a pretty similar list of characteristic when applied to programming.</comment>


Entrepreneurialism: The Least Risky Path - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/lewis-schiff/2010/02/entrepreneurialism_the_least_r.html?utm_source=feedburner

<comment><USER2> This is resting on the rather significant assumption that you are a _successful_ entrepreneur. There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there with less than $1m in net work who are struggling in the current climate.

</comment><comment><USER3> Survivor bias?

</comment><comment><USER4> Ability to create more value == get paid more == be more secure.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone familar with iHub in Kenya? - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone know about iHub in Kenya? How is the tech scene there? Any stories or experiences (good/bad)? Thanks! <comment><USER2> The iHub is primarily a open space where developers, tech enthusiasts and investors can mingle and work together. The tech scene at the hub is currently the leading edge in the country as many of the innovations that are happening in Kenya are mostly at the hub making it vibrant and the place to be. Check out mfarm.co.ke as one of the success stories out the iHub</comment>


Ask HN: What language/framework is used to build the Amazon AWS web console? - <AUTHOR>

The Amazon AWS console feels like a combination of different code bases yet it works really well. Does anyone know what framework(s) or language is used to build the Amazon AWS web console? <comment><USER2> AWS console works really well ? It's one of the worst designed pieces of software I have ever used. Pretty much everybody who uses AWS heavily, switches to CLI after loosing their sanity working on the console.

<comment><USER3> I dunno. It depends what parts you use. I find the S3 interface is painfully slow so I end up using either command line or GUI tools. On the other hand, I don't mind the interface for EC2. If you are doing big EMR jobs, however, you need automation to avoid blowing $15 on a bum cluster.

One thing I do know is that there are parts of the AWS console that look similar but that have differences of the sort that make me think the implementations are different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> GWT, to some extent.

[https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/112686186868556352991/5...](https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/112686186868556352991/5854686915028020130?sview=7)

<comment><USER5> GWT ? Google Web Kit ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Angular</comment>


OpenPeak's VoIP Phone and Picture Frame - <AUTHOR> http://www.openpeak.com/

<comment><USER2> How much? I want to hack it.</comment>


Google Loses Key Maps Engineering Director To Microsoft - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/30/google-loses-key-maps-engineering-director-raj-shah-to-microsofts-online-services-division/

<comment><USER2> Is it just me or his claims in his LinkedIn profile sound a bit gibberish?

> worked with the Google founders and senior executives to "establish a > disciplined execution process for engineering teams and projects spread > throughout the world"

If that's the real case, I would say maybe some people at Google would be glad of this news.</comment>


Nvidia's GeForce GTX 10-Series for Notebooks Unveiled, Launching Today - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/10564/nvidias-geforce-gtx-10series-for-notebooks-unveiled-launching-today <comment><USER2> Already posted: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12296111](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12296111)</comment>