The iPhones 7 - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2016/09/the_iphones_7 <comment><USER2> >I think the real performance story with the A10 Fusion is not what it scores on benchmarks, nor how fast it feels in use, but what it does for battery life with its truly innovative dual two-core design. When high performance is called for, the A10 Fusion uses two performance optimized cores. When it's not, is uses two energy-efficiency-optimized cores. To my knowledge there has never been a system like this in a phone.

Well, that's just wrong. Android phones had this years ago. The near ubiquitous Snapdragon 810 uses a Big.Little architecture.

<comment><USER3> Technically, it's not wrong because the statement is prefaced with 'To my knowledge'. Whether the author's knowledge is more extensive in the domain of the history of Apple's iPhone color offerings than the domain of mobile processor technologies implemented withing the industry does not alter the technical correctness of the statement.

<comment><USER4> Oh, come on! It would take 2 minutes for him to verify his statement.

<comment><USER3> Technically, the author already verified their statement by examining the extent of their knowledge. Personally, I would not be surprised if the author chose their words with an eye toward ensuing social media interactions and the nature of the blog's readership.

It is not a technique about which I believe I am unaware or have not employed on the interwebs to dampen the apparent appeal of argumentative replies, and I suspect that I am probably not mistaken about that belief. YMMV, but I feel it is probably sometimes advantageous to write in such a way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> First, I am not Gruber.

Second, the hate he gets on every comments thread is very fun and entertaining to read, but I think it is often misplaced, and always ad-hominem.

Yes, one third of the 'review' is about the finish, and yes one third of the review is about home button usage patterns from Asia, but personally, that is why I read them, that is why they are _unique_ , because they are not _cultural_ reviews from The Verge, or _technical_ reviews from Ars Technica, or _node process_ reviews from Anandtech, which I also read. That is also why I don't read Engadget's review, or Gizmodo's one (are they still online?); their reviews are a subset of the others.

This is clearly a case of niche focus, he writes stuff others won't. And I'm glad I get to read his writing because, and this is the important part, _I get to make my own mind_ , I don't have to agree with him.

<comment><USER6> Thanks man. That's exactly what I try to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Why am I incapable of either discerning or caring about any of this? I can't help but be impressed by his incredible attention to detail and his understanding of the design choices and their ramifications ... but I still feel like I'm reading about the mating habits of some alien species. Interesting yes. But also bizarre and faintly ridiculous.

<comment><USER8> People have different tastes and obsessions. I enjoy Gruber's writing about Apple products, but his extreme obsession on other topics baffles me. YMMV. I think it's a good thing that there are lots of different types of people on the world. There's extreme value in that diversity.

<comment><USER7> The thing is I totally agree with you. Intellectually speaking I try to respect the diversity. But viscerally I react with complete bafflement.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This reminds me of people who I dealt with in retail.

People would buy beautiful laptops, with glossy finishes, interesting detail. Yet, people would never pull the original plastic off the surrounding covers or back cover. They would bring in their computers to be worked on and have this hideous, dirt crusted, half pulled up, sheet of plastic flapping in the breeze on their computer. I would ask them why they did this and they always said the same thing: "Because I don't want to scratch the laptop."

I would then go through my speal about how, if their entire purpose for keeping the plastic on was to keep it looking pristine, why did they put up with it looking like shit for years. By the time they get sick of dealing with said plastic, they will pull it off only to realize that the dirt and grime that has accumulated under that plastic causes tiny scratches in the surface of their laptop.

In summary: Laptops with plastic on them looked like shit to begin with, once removed the laptop still looked like shit from leaving the original plastic on. Take the plastic off, enjoy how beautiful your laptop is and try to take care of it to the best of your ability. Nothing lasts forever.

<comment><USER10> Laptops are still in the "big investment" category. (I put that in quotes because many, even the majority, of non-apple laptops cost less than a phone).

When my wife replaced her 1st gen macbook air she brought it to the shop to have the data transferred. She's a painter and it was covered with drips and smears of paint and had various nicks and other blemishes -- it was plainly a working tool. All the staff at the Palo Alto Apple store came to take a look at it because they were not used to seeing a machine not treated with kid gloves.

<comment><USER5> Do you happen by any chance to have a photo of said laptop?

<comment><USER10> I doubt it -- it was a long time ago, and why would she take a picture of her laptop? (I am sure it is in the corner or background of various photos though -- these things are ubiquitous).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I find it fascinating that a review of an extremely complex piece of technology devotes 1,500 words to the _color_ of the _back_ of the thing. What a world.

<comment><USER12> Agreed. The over-fascination with a feature of a product that is only apparent _when you aren 't actually using the product_ is optimizing for an edge-case.

<comment><USER13> What percentage of these phones are going in a case as soon as they're bought?

<comment><USER14> A large percentage. However, a surprisingly high number of my friends are rocking their phones without a case lately. It makes me nervous considering how fragile they are, but I think there's some appeal to going caseless, though I'm not sure what it is.

Perhaps it's easier to slide into your pocket?

Or maybe it's more about letting everyone know that you have the latest phone? Who knows.

<comment><USER15> For myself, I go caseless because, 1) I like the feel of a solid metal device in my hand over plastic or rubber, and 2) it's thinner without a case, and easier to handle.

I have a leather wallet case that the phone slides into easily for when its in my pocket, as I wouldn't want it to get damaged being jostled around, but it's quick to take out when I want to use it.

<comment><USER16> Do you have a link for your case?

<comment><USER15> [http://kavaj.com/iphone-6-plus-cases-black/](http://kavaj.com/iphone-6-plus- cases-black/)

I use the Miami that's at the top of that page. It was 20-someodd US dollars on Amazon, and has held up well for the year I've had it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I iPhone 6s+ owner here with iPhone 7+ on order. I wish some of the reviewers would cover the voice quality when using the iPhone as _a phone._ The iPhone 6s(+) added another microphone for noise cancellation and also it uses H.265 for FaceTime Video compression over cell networks (2x H.264 compression) and one is able to use VoLTE (I'm on Verizon). But I'm always looking for better cell phone quality.

I actually received a phone call while just to about to get on a NYC subway, 1 story below ground and the person couldn't wait until I took my subway trip, so we chatted for awhile while several subways passed both uptown and downtown (they come every 3 - 5 minutes in each direction). She claimed she could here me speaking just fine even when the subway is arriving :-)

But sometimes, people have trouble hearing me on the iPhone and on the Apple $80 in-hear microphone.

I'm curious if there are any upgrade to the iPhone 7 that improves the voice quality and I wish at least one reviewer would test this out.

Also, as an aside, I'm disappointed that the iPhone 7 doesn't cover band 66 (AWS-3) spectrum. I guess there aren't any modem chips out yet (at least not from Qualcomm which is what the Verizon and Sprint CDMA phones use).

Still in dense markets like NYC, even though Verizon has far more spectrum than AT&T, I expect that in the next year or two the existing spectrum will be filling up.

I've been using the iPhone leather case since the 5s (when it first came out) and I've only had one screen break.

<comment><USER18> Sounds like you should be doing this. I'd read it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I love the part about AssistiveTouch. I was just in China last week and also noticed this and couldn't explain it. I thought it had something to do with Chinese writing/characters. But this makes more sense: "why don't they click the home button? Because of a widespread misconception that the home button will wear out, thus reducing the resale value of the iPhone."

<comment><USER20> > _widespread misconception that the home button will wear out_

I don't know if Apple finally fixed that in the iPhone 6, but it was everything but a misconception, I had the problem in my iPhone 3G and iPhone 4s my girlfriend in her 5s. Many friends in different versions of the iPhone.

The _home button_ did break after some use.

<comment><USER21> Happened to my younger brother on two generations of iPod touch also.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Say what you want about Gruber's breathless/obsessive style, but as an upgrading iOS user, I found two bits very useful that weren't in the other 2 reviews I read:

-Jet black is the grippiest iPhone finish ever -no OIS on the telephoto lens, making it much less useful than the default lens for night photos and video

<comment><USER23> > -Jet black is the grippiest iPhone finish ever

The only reason I use a case on my iPhone is because without one, when I'm holding it, I feel like I am constantly on the verge of a rapid unplanned jettison. The thing is so slick and thin that I can't grip it very well.

I'm a-ok with micro-abrasions and treat my phone well, so maybe I'll spring for the jet black version.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The jet black ones look fantastic to me as well and I had worried a bit about durability since I've dropped, scraped and generally abused every phone I've had and I don't like cases.

I may be a bit unusual in this, but I actually want a _smaller_ screen. Like everyone else, I want the phone to be thinner and lighter too, but I miss the days of being able to take my phone with my in my pocket when I go out running. a 4" screen at current iPhone thicknesses would be amazing. I'm not going to watch movies or write long HN comments on a phone. I just need something _small_ that works for checking email, texting and playing me music.

Also on the topic of size, as my screen resolution keeps increasing over the years it feels like John is writing in smaller and smaller text! By changing literally nothing, he's been offering a worse and worse UX.

<comment><USER25> If you want a smaller screen take a gander at the iPhone SE. My biggest disappointment with the keynote is that they didn't update the SE's internals with the new A10, expanded memory, and storage. It's kind of annoying that the company assumes if you want a smaller screen you must be on a tight budget and willing to accept compromises. This holds true for most Android phones too, smaller screen == poverty option.

<comment><USER26> I think it might update on another schedule. It was introduced in March: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I think it's really strange that the headphone jack wasn't mentioned at all in the review. In the one instance he refers to it he says "where the whatchamacalit jack used to be".

<comment><USER28> He made an entire blog post 110% or more on side about the courage to remove the headphone socket, and how it would make the world a markedly better place and cure world hunger. Of course it's hardly the first time he's had a ridiculously pro-Apple position.

Came up on HN the day of the event I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> > Second, both black finishes exemplify Apple's obsession and mastery with > materials engineering.

But first, the Jet Black one is going to scuff and nick like hell. But because of feelings Gruber thinks it's both better and a demonstration of materials mastery and engineering.

Thanks Gruber, 12 paragraphs defining why a poor materials choice that requires a case (which counters the thinness of the phone which was the justification for why the headphone jack is gone) is a demonstration of mastery.

Here's the tl;dr of any Gruber review of an Apple product, he loves it. All the issues are examples of courage, and all the real problems don't get talked about ("where the whatchamacallit jack used to go"). He'll point out a token "problem" but, just like in this example, he then goes on at length about why it's actually some bold solution to a problem that's not actually a problem but is really about how dumb some users are (so dumb that the thing they're doing wrong even gets an entire paragraph of a footnote about how Apple is even helping them through the hopeless superstitious morass of their lives).

Even points that might be interesting to read about (the camera) can't be trusted because he's such a compromised reviewer.

A much better, and still favorable, review is the other one on the front page today by the Verge. There's issues with that review as well, but at least the information in the review is well balanced and considered and not thousands of words of apologia and user blaming.

<comment><USER30> Why does it require a case? Its a matter of taste, which obviously makes it not required.

<comment><USER31> It requires a case because Apple must have designed it assuming everyone uses a case anyway. I've used every iPhone I've ever owned without a case, every version from 2-6. I'm always careful with them. I've never broken a screen until iPhone 6, which I've replaced and broken yet again, because it's so slim and the rounded edges are slippery. It's the first iPhone I've really disliked, design-wise. You have to use a case to avoid dropping it. Most egregious though: the thing will not lie flat on a surface thanks to the camera lens protrusion. And since the lens sticks out, I'm much more likely to grab it by the lens when pulling it out of my pocket (everything else is so slick) so my photos are smudge-blurred (along with countless photos I receive from my parents phones) unless I take time to wipe the lens on my shirt.

I just ordered a 7 and will begrudgingly order a case along with it. I felt like the 5 was the pinnacle for exterior design, and I considered buying the new 5 SE version of that, but I really need/want the latest internals given the amount these devices cost.

Edit: cleaned up some writing in the last paragraph

<comment><USER32> View from the other side:

I'm empathetic. I upgraded a Samsung S5 to an S7 and I'm mostly extremely happy. The phone is astounding, the weight, speed and battery life are brilliant.

Unfortunately, they've done something to the design and finish. It's _much_ more slippery than the S5. I _never_ dropped my S5, and in the 2 months I've had my S7 I've fumbled and dropped it multiple times. No damage yet, but I feel like it's a matter of time. I usually use phones without a case, but I feel like I should buy one for this phone!

EDIT: The S5 has "rubberized" textured back panel and grooved edges. The S7 has a mirror-smooth back panel and shine edges. I feel that they've sacrificed function for form here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> > I wouldn't be surprised if the news stories and pundit hot takes about jet > black iPhone scratches and scuffs outnumber those about the Samsung Galaxy > Note 7 literally exploding and hurting people.

Haha, probably so.

</comment><comment><USER34> The Note 7 recall resulted in a $20B market cap drop for Samsung, about 15%. I'd bet good money at poor odds that 'scuffgate' will not have anywhere close to the same impact.

<comment><USER35> He's specifically talking about pundit hot takes though. Would you take _that_ bet?

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> tl;dr please?? It's too much to read for me!

<comment><USER36> Why downvotes :(</comment></comment>


Megaupload Takedown Questioned By Users, Lawyers - <AUTHOR> http://informationweek.com/news/security/client/232500305

<comment><USER2> I really liked this analysis in Salon: [http://www.salon.com/2012/01/21/two_lessons_from_the_megaupl...](http://www.salon.com/2012/01/21/two_lessons_from_the_megaupload_seizure/singleton/) Sorry for the extended quote, but it's a great article.

> (1) It's wildly under-appreciated how unrestrained is the Government's power > to do what it wants, and how little effect these debates over various > proposed laws have on that power. Contrary to how it was portrayed, the > Obama administration's threatened veto of the NDAA rested largely on the > assertion that they did not need a law vesting them with indefinite > detention powers because they already have full power to detain people > without a trial: not because any actual law expressly vested that power, but > because the Bush and Obama DOJs both claimed the 2001 AUMF silently > ("implicitly") authorized it and deferential courts have largely acquiesced > to that claim.

> That's more or less what happened with the SOPA fight. [It] sends a very > clear message when citizens celebrate a rare victory in denying the > Government a power it seeks - the power to shut down websites without a > trial - only for the Government to turn around _the very next day_ and shut > down one of the world's largest and best-known sites. Whether intended or > not, the message is unmistakable: _Congratulations, citizens, on your cute > little "democracy" victory in denying us the power to shut down websites > without a trial: we're now going to shut down one of your most popular > websites without a trial._

> (2) The U.S. really is a society that simply no longer believes in due > process: once the defining feature of American freedom that is now scorned > as some sort of fringe, radical, academic doctrine. That is not hyperbole. > Supporters of both political parties endorse, or at least tolerate, all > manner of government punishment without so much as the pretense of a trial, > based solely on government accusation: imprisonment for life, renditions to > other countries, even assassinations of their fellow citizens. Simply > uttering the word Terrorist, without proving it, is sufficient. And now here > is Megaupload being completely destroyed — its website shuttered, its assets > seized, ongoing business rendered impossible — based solely on the unproven > accusation of _Piracy_.

<comment><USER3> > And now here is Megaupload being completely destroyed — its website > shuttered, its assets seized, ongoing business rendered impossible — based > solely on the unproven accusation of Piracy.

It was proven to a grand jury -- that's why they (and not the government) handed down an indictment.

The treatment is actually similar to what would happen to the brick-and-mortar assets of an indicted meth distributor. Normally when a grand jury hands down an indictment then business functions that aid the alleged criminal activity also get shuttered. See [http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/feds- e-c-com...](http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/feds-e-c-company- illegally-dumped-hazardous-waste-in- hammond/article_9be0350f-6ea3-59e5-901a-89c6ab633b8a.html) for instance.

<comment><USER4> It is offensive to compare a youtube/dropbox hybrid to a meth distributor. That smells of appeal to emotion.

<comment><USER5> If he wanted to appeal to emotion he'd use murder or child molesting.

When the police decide to arrest someone it's commonplace for all evidence related to the crime to be taken in as well. The fact that said evidence is needed for continued operation of your business is, sorry life's not fair, sucks to be you.

If you're a kinkos accused of committing a heinous crime with your copy machines and they need to take the copy machines as evidence oh well sucks to be you.

If you're a baker accused to knocking people on the head with your rolling pins, oh well no more rolling pins until case is resolved.

If you're an internet company accused of massive piracy and they take the servers, oh well sucks to be you.

<comment><USER6> I can't help thinking that this exact logic (life's not fair, sucks to be you) can just as easily be used to justify crime as law enforcement. Oh, you didn't realize this was a pyramid scheme? Sucks to be you, life's not fair.

I really do not think it is a constructive argument.

<comment><USER5> I'm just explaining the way it works and that there's nothing special about megaupload or new happening here:

Break the law and the police are going to take your stuff. If you used that stuff for your business oh well sucks to be you.

You may think that is a bad system and have some great ideas for liberating us from the bad police but those ideas are no more valid or invalid today then they were 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 years ago.

<comment><USER7> By using the terminology "break the law", you seem to be intentionally disregarding the fact they have not been convicted of anything, and the assertions they even did anything illegal are questionable at best given they complied with DCMA takedown notices. That they may or may not have been aware of infringement is your next response, but irrelevant since DCMA deals with response to requests, not awareness. Sites are not required to be copyright police independently determining which user backups are legitimate fair use of rips of CDs they own and which are not. YouTube is certainly aware of misuse of their site, something they capitalize on by organizing and directing users to content they know perfectly well is unlicensed such as the Beatles catalog.

<comment><USER8> > By using the terminology "break the law", you seem to be intentionally > disregarding the fact they have not been convicted of anything, and the > assertions they even did anything illegal are questionable at best given > they complied with DCMA takedown notices.

Substitute "be accused of breaking the law" for "break the law".

Yes, the police and prosecutors have that kind of discretion.

And no, grand juries are not a significant impediment. As the saying goes, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm still wondering how the US _legally_ obtained copies of Megaupload internal email prior to seizing their servers.

<comment><USER10> Can't they use the Patriot Act to do that? The Patriot Act was used to catch terrorists, and yet the vast majority of cases in which they used it are drug cases.

Ever since 9/11, this whole culture of not following the Constitution, or trying to exploit the loopholes in the laws, has formed. There's no spirit of the law anymore. Now authorities try to find the smallest possible _potential_ loophole to do whatever they want to do.

Just look at the GPS tracking issue, which normally you'd think should be illegal. But it took a 9-0 Supreme Court decision to make that clear for the authorities. At this rate, the Supreme Court will be overwhelmed with the number of overreaches by law enforcement that they'll have to decide on.

<comment><USER5> He's assuming all these emails are on an internal network.

If that were the case it's likely the government gained access from a MU employee they leaned on (there are redacted MU conspirators from the indictment who are apparently not presently being charged meaning they may have been cooperating).

What's more likely it seems is that these emails were sent internationally and the government (armed with a warrant hopefully) used their backdoors to access them. The arrests were apparently timed to conincide with many of the international employees being in NZ for KDC's birthday.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I still don't get what this fuss is about?

Do you really think that MegaUpload generated 175MM from a few users signing up to a paid account, and from ads and scams that were displayed on URLs with legit content.

If 95% of their revenue came from copyrighted material being shared (without permission), then I'd say MU was a criminal enterprise and what happened was completely okay.

If 5%, than not okay.

The supporting evidence so far points to the former figure.

<comment><USER12> We all know MegaUpload is the go-to place for pirated content. That's not really in question. The question here is: Is our government following the rules our founding fathers laid out, or do they believe they can cut straight to taking down a company 90% out of their jurisdiction without even following due process.

The whole reason it's a debate is because if we, as citizens, don't watch our government closely when they make controversial moves like this, it easily becomes a very slippery slope. If we let our government get away with something like this, where will it end? Soon, will unwarranted search and seizure will be OK for the FBI, so long as they're after "pirates?" Will we end up like Iran who can execute a programmer 'cause they said so?

Yeah, those are extreme examples, but the reason it is such a slippery slope is because our court's decisions are largely ruled by precedence. If the courts declare the actions taken against MegaUpload legal, it's pretty much "anything goes" for the FBI and DoJ to attack future, perhaps less piracy- oriented or even completely legitimate companies. All the DoJ or FBI has to say is "see, you let us do it last time with MegaUpload."

<comment><USER13> The arrests overseas we executed in full cooperation with those local countries governments. Not via some rogue operation.

<comment><USER12> Yeah I did read that. The police in the respective countries carried out the actual arrests. But since when did the U.S. see themselves the official justice department for the entire world? (I guess the answer is "since WWII") But how many people in the U.S. were being so irreversibly harmed by MegaUpload that our government felt such a need to command this world-wide operation.

<comment><USER11> > But since when did the U.S. see themselves the official justice department > for the entire world?

I'm still confused on why you're confused. MU was distributing copyrighted material around the globe.

The US gathered evidence, presented that evidence to its partners, partners made the arrest.

It's a global network, there are various treaties, and there is cooperation.

<comment><USER12> Well that's what's in question. Nobody is sure yet, but the question is: did the U.S. overstep their boundaries on this one? That's really all it is on the surface.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I guess people have quarrel with some of the tactics, but the people who ran this site are just pieces of shit. There just seems to be so little question that they were acting in bad faith. Again, if some of the tactics were bad I have no argument there, but shuttering this site overall does not exactly strike me as a travesty of justice.

</comment><comment><USER15> Maybe the Mayan predicted the end of the internet with their calendar ;)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you share links/images within a closed group? - <AUTHOR>

So, my wife and I (mostly) use Skype chat to share links with each other when the links are only meaningful to us. eg, during a session of buying something, we send links back and forth.
Our current flow, which I don't like, is copy link from url bar -> find skype window -> paste & send
I pulled this slide from a Lucene Revolution presentation: http://www.box.net/shared/in1hpkgdyndxafs7hu06 The presenter and his significant other were looking for a new car to buy and he sent links to her via email and got comments back. This is another use case I am trying to describe.
What tools do you use for such use cases? Mozilla F1 (http://f1.mozillamessaging.com/) seems to be the closest one that integrates nicely with the browser and contact lists but it is more tailored to public sharing. And I guess I am looking for something between email and IM. <comment><USER2> If you use Mac OS X, Cloud.app is exactly what you need. It puts a tiny icon in your menubar. Drag anything into the icon and it's uploaded to your Cloud.app account. The URL is copied into your clipboard automatically.

Otherwise, Google+.

(We use Cloud.app + IRC + email for collaboration. We swap IRC with Skype when we need voice. We couldn't ask for more.)

</comment><comment><USER3> If both you and your wife are on Google+ I've found that direct sharing (i.e. you sharing only to her and vice-versa) seems to work reasonably well. It is browser-integrated and Google+ notifications generally mean you'll each find out something has been shared reasonably quickly.

<comment><USER4> I'm doing the same. I just share the link to the appropriate circle (I have a ton of overlapping circles - I'd rather select one circle from a long list than build up my share targets from small distinct circles) and voila.

They immediately get notified, and if they reply, I get a notification aswell, and neither of us had to leave the browser. With the G+Me chrome addon, this is all painless and straightforward.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Shared Read It Later account?</comment>


WWDC 2013 – June 10-14 - <AUTHOR> https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tickets/ <comment><USER2> Well, the rule of needing to have a dev account prior to this morning's announcement may help some of us get tickets, but it's gonna be a little nuts. I like the idea that was floated on twitter: give us a simple coding quiz. A 'Captcha' for Objective-C developers. Adding to that, make the test graded. The better you do, the bigger the pool of available tickets for your percentile.

<comment><USER3> Except that the answer(s) would quickly get spread around over social media and the quiz would lose all meaning.

<comment><USER4> No, I like the general idea. Especially if not everyone gets the same questions. Given the demand vs. scarcity, there'd be enough lag in the dispersal and consumption of answers that most of the tickets would be obtained by the intended audience.

Now we can talk about who that "intended audience" is. Certainly there are some people who belong at WWDC that don't do Objective-C?

<comment><USER3> I addressed the different questions issue with "answer(s)". But I guess I need to spell it out for you.

The whole purpose of the quiz is to slow down how quickly the tickets sell, thus giving "real developers" a pool reserved for them based on them having knowledge the average person does not have.

This reservation method would be circumvented in a matter of minutes by people collecting all the correct answers on social media.

Additionally it's pretty reasonable that anyone who wants to come who doesn't themselves know Objective-C probably has a friend who can answer the questions for them in their contacts.

This is an obvious idea which would not work enough better than the current free for all to be worth the effort. That was my point with my one line response, and I thought it was pretty clear originally.

The original commenter addressed your concern about intended audience by saying there would be different tiers of tickets available. But again, this is moot because the whole idea is too flawed to be worthwhile.

<comment><USER4> Please read <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>, specifically "In Comments". Don't say you have! Clearly you have not.

<comment><USER3> I have and nothing in there applies, but congratulations on being super condescending!

<comment><USER4> You're quite welcome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The most interesting part of WWDC is going to be seeing whether the SDKs for iOS and OSX unify.

If developers can have one code base and deploy to all the Apple products (AppleTV, Mac, iPad, iPhone) it could be a real game changer for the whole industry i.e. the first multi-device platform war. I assume MS is thinking the same way (XBox, Windows, Windows Phone) with their recent moves as well as Ubuntu.

<comment><USER6> For application logic, I agree that unification is key, but for UI/display code, this would be a disaster.

MS/Win8 has shown how frustrated people get when you try to force a common UI - It's been generally regarded as a clusterfuck.

Instead, decouple your display code from your app logic, and build related, but distinct displays for each application.

<comment><USER5> Sure. You could have a scaleable/responsive UI, separate layouts for each platform i.e. xibs or completely separate interfaces. But you would still need that common SDK.

It looks that everyone is working to that goal. But no one is sure yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The corner radius of the logo closely matches that of the current Apple TV product. Perhaps an Apple TV SDK will be announced.

<comment><USER8> Seriously? Using a rounded rectangle is fodder for product speculation?

It's a goddamn curve.

<comment><USER9> Perhaps you have not delved enough in Apple Kremlinology.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am PDT.

Nice to see they learned from last year's timing.

<comment><USER11> Agreed... Last year the company paid for my ticket this year I don't think the new place I am working can afford it. Hard to decide if I should get a ticket anyways.

<comment><USER12> Same. I'm wondering how much benefit there is to be gained by going as the videos are being posted _during_ the conference this year.

<comment><AUTHOR> While the videos are available online, what are the odds you will actually watch all of them? Especially within one week?

I'd venture a guess that most of the benefit is derived from the fact that you get to focus for the entire week on taking all of this in, rather than fitting in the videos around your work/family life/etc. That, and the labs and other in-person events that won't be recorded.

<comment><USER13> You certainly don't get the chance to watch all the sessions while you're actually there due to the fact they all overlap. There's little advantage between those who did / didn't go to WWDC in respect to the sessions.

The access to engineers and networking with other developers etc is really the main reason for dropping 1500.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh for sure, I simply meant you get to focus your efforts on learning/networking/etc full-time for a week which is rare for most of us working folks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So, what do you make of the new logo, beyond a new typeface and flat, stacked colors in a vaguely rounded square shape?

<comment><USER13> Suggests an iWatch at $199 released July 24th, an Apple TV (two sizes) at $699 later in the year and a brand new Mac Pro. Oh and completely flat design of iOS.

<comment><USER15> It'd be great timing for them to release a new Mac Pro.

But it's been great timing for a new Mac Pro for a long time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's nice that Apple offer scholarships for students wishing to attend, but it's unfortunate that they don't cover travel expenses. I would really like to apply to attend, but living in the UK and not having enough funds to travel such a large distance is preventing me.

Guess I'll have to wait!

<comment><USER17> I went in 2007 as a (UK) Student and I'd really recommend trying to find a way to do it. It becomes prohibitory expensive once you're not a student.

<comment><USER18> I was thinking of applying, but you have to apply by creating an app to show off your skills. Well that's so open ended, do I put in 1 hour or 10 hours? I really can't afford to put in much time with exams and coursework, so is it worth putting any effort in at all?

Apple do this for at least some of their internships as well. I think it's a shame because I suspect it puts many students off from applying.

<comment><USER19> My first year (2008) I made a Mac alarm clock app with the unique twist that you had to enter random characters before it can be disabled.

The following year I made a Mac app that lets you compare audio files side by side.

These were apps I wanted to make anyway and I just timed their release with the application period. Those were the first years the conference was selling out, so I'd estimate that competition was far less fierce.

Worth a shot, if you can afford the time, as the experience is exceptional!

<http://swingingsultan.com/Mac.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Great now all of us that were prepared with notifications this time cause we were burned last year are going to probably miss out again.

</comment><comment><USER21> The logo looks awful and very un-Apple-like.

</comment><comment><USER22> What is their ticket cancellation policy?

<comment><USER13> Non refundable, non transferrable AFAIK.

<comment><USER22> Thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Sold out in three minutes.

</comment><comment><USER24> 2 weeks in 2010 (my first time) 2 days in 2011 2 hours in 2012

let's break the record and make it 2min in 2013 :)

</comment><comment><USER25> ready and primed to purchase my ticket very soon!</comment>


Gopherpedia: The Gopher Interface to Wikipedia - <AUTHOR> http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?a=gopher%3A%2F%2Fgopherpedia.com%2F <comment><AUTHOR> GitHub: [https://github.com/muffinista/gopher2000](https://github.com/muffinista/gopher2000)

From a previous thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12280749](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12280749)

</comment><comment><USER2> Is there a way to access the other language versions of wikipedia with it? I would like to give my children access to the dutch or simple english wikipedia versions.

<comment><USER3> Looks like it only supports the english wikipedia: [https://github.com/muffinista/gopherpedia.com/blob/master/fe...](https://github.com/muffinista/gopherpedia.com/blob/master/fetcher.rb#L41)

<comment><USER4> Also, it doesn't appear to handle non-Roman characters. From the Wikipeida article on Tokyo: "(, ), officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan..." Or is this a limitation of my Gopher client?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting. I get interested into something, (even legacy stuff) then everyone is in.

Maybe is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floodgate_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floodgate_effect)

But there was a _concise_ term about that.

<comment><USER6> I believe you're thinking of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. The one where you discover about somenthing and then start to see it everywhere.

<comment><USER7> The frequency illusion is indeed real but there has been a definite uptick in posts about Gopher here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Well, that was fun for aboit half an hour, then my brain was all "so why are we parsing fixed space fonts again? Did I miss some memo?"

Would be a lot nicer with normal presentation. The menu structure works pretty well on a mobile phone. Don't miss the pictures at all. 6/10 would play with again.

<comment><USER9> gopher clients in the early 90s typically ran on a unix terminal with mono- spaced fonts, whose style this web interface is mimicking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oh, brings back memories. gopher wiretap.spies.com was always my go to gopher site.</comment>


New Dropbox Features - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dropbox.com/?p=212

<comment><USER2> Sounds great, except that there's 10+ pages (I gave up clicking next) of submissions, making the votes heavily skewed to anything that has already been voted into the first page. I suppose if I wanted a specific feature I would search for it and then vote for it, which is fine this way, but somehow I suspect a lot of people are just going to me-too vote on something they hadn't thought of wanting, even though some submission on page 50 is something they would much rather see implemented first.

</comment><comment><USER3> I love how dropbox let's any user add software they developed to work with dropbox, to the "AddOns" section of the wiki:

<http://wiki.dropbox.com/DropboxAddons>

I'm working on a printer queue right now that I'm going to link to up there.

<comment><USER4> Waiting for it..!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Any chance Votebox could be open-sourced? I'd love to use it on my own projects.

And yes, I've used Uservoice. Not a fan, personally.

<comment><USER6> What about UserVoice weren't you a fan of?

\- Rich@UserVoice

<comment><USER7> This is exactly why one should always be mindful of what one says here about software one uses. Many of those software developers are lurking here in the shadows and might take offense - Or at least be curious and want to help or correct a mistake.

<comment><USER8> You have to be mindful of what you say _anywhere_ public. Backtype alerts are the feedback junkie's friend.

<comment><USER9> What are backtype alerts?

<comment><USER8> <http://www.backtype.com/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> n-named Votebox seems to be an innovative concept, seems to be much better than systems used by for example Google communicating with users/developers. I'm speaking from experience as a developer, it would be nice to see this concept applied to API development/feature requests.

Also, nice use of the word janky.

<comment><USER10> Um, if by "innovative concept" you mean "almost exact ripoff of uservoice", then yes, I totally agree.

It is a little cleaner and much closer to the rest of dropbox's site than they could get uservoice. I'll be interested to see if they regret reinventing the wheel and thus having to spend time solving problems uservoice has already solved.

There are obviously some benefits (same login as the main site, they can implement any feature they want, looks more like the rest of dropbox)

<comment><USER11> It isn't reinventing the wheel if you do it better.

This is more like refining an octagon into a wheel without having to pay rights usage.

<comment><USER10> Well yeah, but they're still doing the same thing, which means that there are problems that uservoice has already solved that dropbox will have to deal with on its own.

For example, someone said that the search is really bad. Uservoice probably has invested a fair amount of time into searching liberally enough that it doesn't throw out tickets that do match what the user is asking for.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Scrap dealer finds Apollo-era NASA computers in dead engineer's basement - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/nasa-computer-engineer-basement/ <comment><USER2> _The archivist's final recommendation: Destroy the tapes. "There is no evidence that suggests this material is historically significant... I recommend disposal through the immediate destruction of all magnetic tapes."_

Why ? Lack of evidence does not prove that it is historically insignificant. Also being historically insignificant does not imply it has no value.

Why not convert them to a digital format and put them on the internet and let the hackers/artists/archivists/space travelers/etc decide ?

<comment><USER3> For media of this age and in poor condition, conversion to digital format is an expensive and time consuming process - they would most likely need to hire a specialty company at a rather high rate.

In the best case, the tapes would be cleaned (very time consuming) and then read on a 'newer' 7-track tape drive (although not many of these have been manufactured for decades, the 9-track format having taken over in the '60s). A more likely case is that the tapes will also require some splicing to remove irrecoverably damaged sections that cause the drives to track poorly, and probably all transfer to new reels in the process of hand-cleaning. Then the data format on them is probably unknown. It's possible, although far from guaranteed, that there will be a COBOL-type format header, but even that can be very difficult to work from. This is particularly difficult since when you miss words due to tape damage it may not be clear how many words you missed (if the drive can't track at all), and the drive may not be helpful in exposing that this happened either.

At the end of this whole process, it's likely that the tapes contain the output of a test regime or model that isn't even parsable without the original software, which could possibly be on one of the tapes but given the era and machine (probably a CDC160 based on the CDC163 pictured) is just as likely to have been on punched paper tape which would definitely not have survived this many years. We're talking a series of unitless numbers, probably from a matrix of unknown dimensions (but possibly just a series!). It would be pure speculation what they even mean.

If the data is in BCD format (possible for this machine, particularly if any non-integer values were to be stored), then it is likely in fixed-width fields and it will not even be apparent where one number begins and another ends (depending on the data, this may be inferred by padding, but the location of the decimal point would remain hard to determine).

In historical preservation, you have to choose your battles.

<comment><USER4> BCD you say? _Somewhere_ there's a COBOL programmer (who saved the world back in 1999) tanned, rested, and ready to restore this tape!

<comment><USER3> Possibly - but COBOL was actually very new when some of these tapes were made according to the date range in the article, so there's a high chance (I'd bet on it) that the tapes are not in COBOL record format. BCD was implemented in the machine language in the IBM machines and so it was widely used prior to COBOL, the CDC machine involved here does not have BCD in its instructions but still provided some support for BCD operations because like many smaller computers of the era these CDCs were often used to pre/postprocess tapes also used with larger IBM machines - in an analogy to more modern architecture, it was not uncommon at the time to 'map' on an IBM mainframe (collect data from other sources, often) and then take the tapes to smaller machines to 'reduce' (totalize, etc). This allowed for using time on the very expensive IBM machines more efficiently.

<comment><USER4> So you've already worked out all the tricky parts and done the calculations on the back of a napkin.

The only remaining question is, when can you start?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why would they destroy the tapes? Seems foolish to me.

<comment><USER6> The aliens told them to.

</comment></comment><comment> 52-6F-62 Surely they could donate the tapes to a historical foundation or society who would relish the opportunity to attempt restoration?

<comment><USER7> and relish inhaling black mold</comment></comment>


How Hollywood Killed Death - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/magazine/how-hollywood-killed-death.html

<comment><USER2> If you've ever watched someone pass -- you'd know how true this is.

Tens of thousands of times over, they've desensitized us to the most intimate and intense of experiences. Yet when it happens right in front of you, to someone you truly love and have shared your life with, it completely consumes and destroys you.

There's nothing you've ever seen on the screen that can possibly compare to it.</comment>


Our arrays aren't (2005) - <AUTHOR> http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/array.html <comment><USER2> The author seems to criticize that the Java classes are named for how they're implemented, whereas the CoreFoundation ones are named for what they are instead. In Java, though, the convention (at least in the Collection library), is that the Interface name tells you what the thing is (List, Map, Set), and the class name tells you how it's implemented (ArrayList/LinkedList, HashMap/ConcurrentMap, HashSet/TreeSet).

<comment><USER3> The author is criticizing Apple's versions, not the Java/C++ ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nitpick: the STL is not standard C++. The containers in the standard library are listed at [http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container).

<comment><USER5> The containers for the standard library are indeed at the link you provided. Those are traditionally referred to as STL containers. No?

<comment><USER4> The STL is a product developed and maintained by SGI. If you look at the containers listed in the article and on the SGI page, you will see a different set than is present in the C++ standard library, especially if you discount the containers that weren't in the C++ standard library when the article was written.

Now, people often refer to the C++ standard library as the STL, but the author of the article was clearly confusing the STL itself with the standard library, not just the name.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's the actual data structure behind this? Is it something like the blist[1] (i.e., counted b+ tree)?

[1] [https://pypi.python.org/pypi/blist/](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/blist/)

EDIT: Nvm, the article actually links to the implementation and it seems to be an order statistics 2-3 tree: [http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/CF/CF-368.18/Collecti...](http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/CF/CF-368.18/Collections.subproj/CFStorage.c)

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm a bit surprised that the graphs for the "standard" arrays are so flat. I would have guessed that there were be some cache and TLB effects. I'd be interested to see what it looks like on a modern processor, but the link to the source is dead. Please post a link if you find it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> TL;DR Everything you ever wanted to know about Objective-C's NSMutableArray

<comment><USER8> Your TL;DR requires me to read the article.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right, sorry about that, should have named it 'More descriptive title' instead of 'TL;DR'.</comment></comment></comment>


Organizing and Securing Third-Party CDN Assets at Yelp - <AUTHOR> https://engineeringblog.yelp.com/2019/11/organizing-and-securing-third-party-cdn-assets-at-yelp.html <comment><USER2> Yelp is maybe the shittiest company on the planet.

<comment><USER3> not even in the top 10,000. get some perspective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wouldn't be surprised if you need to install the yelp app to read this. No thanks.</comment>


Chrome continues to fall apart at brisk pace - <AUTHOR> http://www.quirksmode.org./blog/archives/2015/02/chrome_continue.html <comment><USER2> The desktop browser is great, but they gotta reign in the RAM usage. It's getting to be a problem.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. I had 1.2Gb in use from a single TechCrunch tab the other day. Was probably ads but still.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder, why is there a . TLD suffix and why does it work? I never knew..

[http://www.quirksmode.org./blog/archives/2015/02/chrome_cont...](http://www.quirksmode.org./blog/archives/2015/02/chrome_continue.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> I wonder if there is some sort of revenue share program for 3rd party browser not unlike the deal between Mozilla and Google.

This is the best reason I can come up with as to why all these vendors seem to bother maintaining their own forks.

</comment><comment><USER6> Not sure how this proves chrome is falling apart?

<comment><USER7> I guess the author meant version fragmentation. Not the best title, for sure.

<comment><USER8> CLICKBAIT!</comment></comment></comment>


Recognize Drawings Using ML Kit - <AUTHOR> https://proandroiddev.com/recognize-drawings-using-ml-kit-25e99a30a951 <comment><USER2> Whoa this is so cool!</comment>


Ask HN: Driving from east to west coast in early december, Is this a good idea? - <AUTHOR> I found a job as a full stack engineer in northern CA, will be driving from jersey with all my belonging in the car. My current planned route https://goo.gl/maps/oyzD7nE1YUG2<p>Do you think it's a safe drive, I am worried about snowy highway conditions. The reason I can't fly is because I have a pet that I don't want to put on a airplane. <comment><USER2> I drove an SUV from NYC to SFO in April 2011, alone with two dogs. It isn't a particularly bad drive but it's extremely boring.

If the weather is clear, I80 is fine across PA, otherwise I'd take 76 (wider, ploughed more often, better rest areas). 80/90 is fine across OH, IN and IL assuming routine winter weather. 80 is flat across IA and NE, but you may start running into plains winter storms. WY is a steady climb "up" into the Rockies but from what I recall never truly felt mountainous. You hit a bit of curvy winding interstate descending into Salt Lake and then it's flat again (mostly) until you hit the NV/CA state line. When I hit CA in late April the roads were dry but the snowbanks were still quite high on either side of the road.

I hit one major storm in the high plateaus of Wyoming. I ended up pulling over for an hour in a rest area until it blew through.

Assuming you have AWD or 4WD and there are no major winter storms you should be fine. Be advised that CA requires chains in the Sierras (basically Reno to Sacramento) under winter storm conditions.

If you're skilled at winter driving in the Northeast then routine storms should be ok. But pack some emergency gear and rations for yourself and your pet.

If you aren't skilled at winter driving, I'd suggest a longer route through NM, AZ and up I5 or US101 in CA.

And keep in mind, the worst part of driving cross-country isn't your driving, it's the rest of us drivers who are trying to figure out what that notification on our phone was and take our eyes off the road.

Also beware Brooklyn, IA where the state police have a propensity for pulling over _Black_ SUVs with _Black_ tinted windows and East Coast plates. In my cases, the officers seemed genuinely shocked to find a pudgy middle aged guy with two dogs.

If your pet is small enough you might consider getting a roomette on an Amtrak train. Wasn't practical for me.

<comment><USER2> Shorter alternate take: Don't check your NYC metro area street smarts when you get in the car, drive defensively, be prepared for winter storms and possibly getting stuck in the car for a couple of days in a worst case scenario, and you should be fine.

I also found it helpful to have two cell phones on completely different mobile networks (VZ and AT&T) as coverage gets spotty in the rural parts of NE, WY, UT and NV.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You're going to get at least some snow on that route. I'm in the Sacramento area now, and Donner Pass (the area around the NV/CA border) will definitely have had some snow by then. In fact, it's snowed up there already this year, though it quickly melted.

As someone mentioned, it's often a chains-required section of the interstate, and it's even been known to close for a number of hours due to snow. That said, they do a great job of clearing it as fast as weather allows.

I don't have personal experience with most of the rest of the route, but I do wonder if taking the more southern route you have on your map rather than right along the Great Lakes might make a difference in snow amounts.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it still worth it learning Mac OS app development? - <AUTHOR> Aside from famous indie successes which might induce survivorship bias, is it worth it to undergo Mac OS <i>native</i> development? <comment><USER2> Yes, absolutely, because cross-platform and web technologies can only go surface deep. What the industry really needs to spark innovation in the native development spaces is new engineering minds asking, "Why does native take so long to development?" and solving these problems to raise the bar for the rest of the industry.

People who operate and can contribute to this space can help us make the most of our hardware today, decreasing energy consumption, reducing disk space utilization, lowing RAM requirements, all to make the most of our devices.

Enhancing native UI development across the big three platforms is more critical than ever as we see Moore's law lose meaningful ground.

</comment><comment><USER3> As opposed to what? Not developing for Mac, or developing a web app, or using a cross-platform library/toolkit?

It also depends what your product is/does. If it's a barely-profitable niche product on _any_ platform, it's possibly not profitable at all on a reduced market like macOS.

</comment><comment><USER4> Probably the most compelling reason to learn macOS app development is to leverage your talent and ambition to get a job in Apple Software Engineering. Many people have done just that.</comment>


Pdftabextract – A set of tools for data mining OCR-processed PDFs - happy-go-lucky https://github.com/WZBSocialScienceCenter/pdftabextract <comment><AUTHOR> I did a doubletake; I thought I had just seen this on HN; turns PDFLayoutTextStripper was on the front page a few days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13729301](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13729301)

</comment><comment><USER2> awesome! any guidance on why I might use this rather than Tabula?

<comment><USER3> Tabula works on text-based PDF documents, not on scanned content so I assume it's not using OCR?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Anyone using this yet to automatically track SotA results on machine learning tasks?</comment>


What if? - <AUTHOR> http://www.medcrunch.net/what-if/

<comment><AUTHOR> are you aware of any other actors that cross that line?</comment>


Who Pays for This? - <AUTHOR> https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/who-pays-for-this/ <comment><USER2> This is an interesting concept that I hadn't thought about before. Seems similar to the rent vs buy argument for a house- spending more money in total, but spreading out the payment, can be more profitable in times where the economy is good. Of course, this assumes that the country will continue its growth at a rate that offsets the increased spending.</comment>


Government honours veterans of Bletchley Park at last - <AUTHOR> http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2245801/government-honours-veterans <comment><USER2> Long time overdue.

I also want to mention that the Polish contribution to the effort is much less known. Poland started it earlier (the Bomba project) and made a few substantial steps, was overrun by the Nazis very quickly and managed to pass it over to the British. (See <http://www.avoca.ndirect.co.uk/enigma/enigma4.htm> etc.)</comment>


The 20-year-old at heart of web's most anarchic and influential site - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/20/internet.google <comment><USER2> Creative at what cost? The racism, sexism, and willful callousness of 4chan doesn't seem to be getting a lot of discussion in the latest round of media coverage (outside of FOX News "HACKER-PEDOPHILES ON THE INTERNETS" hysteria).

"TITS OR GTFO" (said to anyone presenting themselves as female), "be an hero" (encouragement to commit suicide)... maybe these could be considered jokes in bad taste. But the racist pics and rants about "niggers"? The griefing in Habbo? The spamming webcammers with insults until they cry? The mass harrassment of people by phone, e-mail, and IM? Encouraging people to abuse their girlfriends / sisters / women in general?

Is any of that anything but feeding hate? Are communities that allow that (and make no mistake, 4chan _allows_ anything that won't get it shut down) really ones we want to glorify? There's a price to pay with anarchy + anonymity. Yes, 4chan has produced, or popularized, things that are hilarious. But it's a bit like panning for gold in a river of shit.

<comment><USER3> Personally I don't mind the inappropriate jokes/posts, sure some are racist, some are sexist, some are just plain disgusting, but that's the whole point, in the age of political correctness its actually refreshing. Step outside your comfort bubble.

And hey...if you don't like it, nobody is forcing you to go there. Everyone likes to talk about freedoms we get in this country, yet these same people who wave the flag, have no problem with taking away other people's freedoms by forcing other people to behave in only the ways they approve of.

And yes you should glorify sites like that, they let us keep the whole idea that you can have complete freedom on the net.

<comment><USER4> One cannot simply escape the influence of 4chan by not going there. It is a cesspool, and the memes that breed there spread elsewhere. Do you think the players of Habbo wanted the influence of /b? And the violent culture there was shared by meankids.org when they started to frighten Kathy Sierra -- it was only a short jump from there to the death threats, and now they've inflicted harm. She will never be the same.

<comment><USER3> maybe you should just move to China, I think their bill of rights will suit you better.

<comment><USER4> No, I'm certain it wouldn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The truth is, 4Chan is full of some of the best people in the world.

It has changed in the last few years and the change has been even more dramatic in the last 6 months or so. The long September started last year and now people are coming to 4Chan expecting nothing more than to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. They have no interest in the history of 4Chan or in creating new content.

They come because it's trendy.

Just like Usenet, /., Digg, Reddit, and someday HN, the people who matter will leave and find a new home.

<comment><USER6> I agree.

This is the price of completely community-driven content. It'll be interesting to see if we ever tend back towards moderated places or if we continue to leapfrog from community to community in the frantic hope that we'll eventually find one that isn't overridden by the masses.

Hmmm. How could I make this into a startup?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I fear what we may have just unleashed on our simple news site.

</comment><comment><USER8> 4Chan guys think it's cool to promote the Swastika: is it to offend, to shock, or do they see nothing wrong about the Nazis? Is it both?

Western society has gone awry in many ways, and 4Chan is a manifestation of this, and a mirror of it.

They've had a dig at Scientology but is there any discretion as to what's cut down? If none, then it's just vandalism.

It's all in such bad taste. Even its creator in his personal private life has distanced himself from it.

That all being said, a site like this has a degree of freedom and spirit that in a different environment, say North Korea or China, could spearhead a revolution - however for a forum to lead a revolution, even the participants need to be identified, if not in name then at least persona. Also, what would the end product of such a revolution result in? I predict self-destruction if 4Chan was the source.

</comment><comment><USER9> The real story is not the influence of 4chan, but rather it's business model. I read kind of the same article in Time. It seems, the 4chan founder is on a PR tour (PG's Submarine PR- <http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>) because of problems making money.

At the end of the story, he talks about the uphill battle to get ad revenue and in Time he mentioned wanting to sell to Rupert Murdoch. I think he's finding himself more like p0rn than digg, what's an obscene site to do?

</comment><comment><USER10> "His message was signed 'moot', a code name he uses on 4chan for reasons no one has yet fathomed."

I burst out laughing at that.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm mildly disappointed that the article mentions nothing of the precursor to 4chan, or futaba, and its cousin 2ch, which holds much more influence, albeit not in Western internet culture.

</comment><comment><USER12> 4chan is the internet's septic tank.

</comment><comment><USER13> Huh, I knew it was about 4chan

but I disagree that it is most anarchic or influential site, there are lots of chans and even wikichan.

it's all started in japan

UPDATE:

Oh, here is his photo: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/extraface/2445211563/>

</comment><comment><USER5> Rules #1 & #2.

</comment><comment><USER14> DICKS EVERYWHERE

<comment><USER10> Ask your doctor to decrease the dosage.

<comment><USER13> I think they are trying to invade :D</comment></comment></comment>


You think you hate the DMV, but the people who work there hate it even more - <AUTHOR> https://gimletmedia.com/episode/34-dmv-nation/

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't believe the sam.gov website discussed at the beginning cost $200 _million_.</comment>


Salt vs. Ansible for deployment automation (2014) - <AUTHOR> http://jensrantil.github.io/salt-vs-ansible.html <comment><USER2> Article from early 2014, FWIW. Lots of ansible upgrades and HUGE community uptake sense then. Lots of very shiny things coming in 2.0 as well.

Disclaimer: wrote Ansible. My advice is to try everything yourself, and the language and capabilities of the tool is the most important thing to like.

Ansible builds out a different form of orchestration from most, able to describe more arbitrary processes, which at least to me, was very important. For instance, it's very easy for the software to do something very different based on things learned at runtime, rather than the classic Puppet compile- execute model.

Try everything.</comment>


How the legacy of a dead mathematician can make you a better programmer - <AUTHOR> http://www.moserware.com/2007/12/how-legacy-of-dead-mathematician-can.html <comment><USER2> "I believe later that day I went to Old Country Buffet with my family and kept thinking about it. After loading up on food, we were walking back to our car and it hit me..."

Old Country Buffet = hacker fuel. Nice.</comment>


Best damn SVN client for macs - <AUTHOR> http://okoye.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/the-best-damn-svn-client-for-macs/

<comment><USER2> It's obviously multi-platform as it lacks that applesque aesthetic.

As an aside: It's hard to overstate the importance of learning to use your chosen SCM from the command line irrespective of the GUI you pick - the GUI tools invariably go MIA when the repository (or your local copy) gets pooched.

</comment><comment><USER3> For those looking for a more Mac like interface I recommend ZigVersion. Also here is a direct link to the SVN client discussed in the blog entry which is sparse to say the least: <http://www.syncrosvnclient.com/></comment>


Show HN: LeftRightCenter.io – Breaking news, from multiple angles - <AUTHOR> http://www.leftrightcenter.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN! I've built a tool to combat Fake News in a semi-technical way: LeftRightCenter.io allows you to check out the latest news from multiple sources. It shows the coverage of a single event from multiple news outlets from the entire political spectrum. The same issue may be portrayed in a completely different light, depending on the political orientation of the source. You can get to the bottom of what really happened by comparing the reporting from different news organizations, while being aware of their political leaning.</comment>


Microdrones, Some as Small as Bugs, Are Poised to Alter War - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?src=twr <comment><USER2> "The Diamond Age" by Stephenson comes to mind.</comment>


Lattice Multiplication – An Easy Way to Multiply Numbers or Polynomials - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A8LTptgpGU

<comment><USER2> So, this is actually identical to the standard long multiplication system, but laid out in a grid that takes a long time to draw.

Am I missing something?

<comment><USER3> Colin, some of the "reform math" programs in the United States from the 1990s to the early 2000s insisted that school pupils routinely learn to do their multiplication with a lattice, supposedly because that is easier to learn, with the result that I have had very smart pupils in my local supplemental program who couldn't do multiplication by any other method. Fortunately, these days the insistence on lattice multiplication as the best procedure for school mathematics is decried by many and is gradually falling by the wayside.

P.S. A good website for articles on education reform issues is Education Next,

[http://educationnext.org/](http://educationnext.org/)

which has much better articles than most articles that are submitted for discussion or comment on Hacker News about education reform and education policy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I could see this being an implementation interview question. Neat stuff.</comment>


The Creator of Google's Self-Driving Car Now Competes with It - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602712/the-creator-of-googles-self-driving-car-now-competes-with-it/ <comment><AUTHOR> subtitle: "Robotics pioneer Sebastian Thrun is building an open-source autonomous car."</comment>


Ask HN: Using a library licensed under AGPL v3 - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
I want to integrate spaced repetition on my SaaS app (under development) using Anki's modified SuperMemo 2.0 library, but it is licensed under AGPL v3.
As stated in the license, any modification needs to be distributed back to the community. I will not modify it, but it will be an essential component of my application. Creating a work (my app) "based on" another work (Anki) qualifies as a modification?
Do I need to open source my whole app if I use it? <comment><USER2> I'm pretty sure the answer is _yes_ , as your app would be considered "a covered work":

 _A "covered work" means either the unmodified Program_ [Anki's library] _or a work based on the Program_ [your app] _._

By comparison, if the library were licensed under the LGPL you would only be responsible for distributing copies of the library if you modfied them. Your own work would be unaffected.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I will open source it under AGPL v3 as well</comment></comment>


Europe fires warning shot against U.S. tech companies with new tax ruling - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/11/europe-fires-warning-shot-against-u-s-tech-companies-with-new-tax-ruling/ <comment><USER3> So dumb to make this about US vs EU when this is about closing tax loopholes for multinationals.

<comment><USER4> The majority of the tax to be recovered are actually related to European and not US companies: "While declining to name the companies who benefitted from the tax scheme, Commissioner Vestager said that €500 million of the total tax bill of €700 million related to European companies, a development that may appease critics of the European Commission who have accused Brussels of unfairly targeting US multinationals."

[http://www.irishtimes.com/business/vestager-denies-delay- in-...](http://www.irishtimes.com/business/vestager-denies-delay-in-probing- ireland-s-apple-tax-deal-1.2492451)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is how it has to be. This short sighted race to the bottom will not benefit anybody in the long run.

I have no sympathy for big multinationals which make a bucket load of money but still shopping around the world to get even less taxes.

It is really just a variation of big multinationals going to corrupt 3rd world countries and getting an unreasonable sweet deal from a dictator. When the dictator is thrown out and a democratic government gets in charge, the multinationals cry that their previous deal is renegaded.

The point is that any multinational has to take into consideration what it is reasonable to expect. If a deal is too sweet to be expected to last you don't get into it and start crying about it being revoked later.

</comment><comment><USER6> So, (1) companies adhered to Belgium laws, (2) Belgium laws were found to be violating international agreements and (3) _companies_ are supposed to pay for it?

What the fuck? Why doesn't Belgium pay for its violation itself? Why someone who was adhering to the law would need to pay because the law was found to be wrong?

I must have misunderstood this somehow, because this is just too idiotic otherwise.

<comment><USER7> Belgium already paid for it, in the form of the tax aid they gave the companies. It just turns out that it was illegal and said tax breaks, which Belgium already paid for, need to be returned.

<comment><USER6> > Belgium already paid for it, in the form of the tax aid they gave the > companies.

I think we must clarify things and what "it" is

(1) Giving tax break is what Belgium wanted to do. Belgium offered aid, companies took it.

(2) The fact that said tax breaks (or aid) were illegal is the violation of the law that someone is supposed to pay for.

Belgium paid for (1), of course, that was it's intention. But it does _not_ pay for (2): it actually gets it's money back because of (2), if I understand correctly. Or this money goes back directly to EU, this is not important; anyway, Belgium is not losing money because of (2), companies are.

So, companies are paying for performing action that was completely legal in the law of the country they were operating in. Companies are paying for Belgium lawmaker's mistake.

<comment><USER8> Apart from tremon's excellent point elsewhere that you've noted, don't forget this sort of thing already happens all the time.

If a region (say a state or a county in a state or a town in a county in a state) helps a company out and that turns out to be wrong, passing legislation it wasn't allowed to, why would you expect the company to also get off the hook? That would seem to provide an even greater incentive to perform corruption because once it's done, as the company you're immune from the consequences.

Especially big multi-nationals with lots of lawyers who _knew_ the possibility that this exact thing would happen. They went in to this deal knowing full well the EU might turn around and say the deal violated the company aid treaties.

<comment><USER6> > get off the hook?

Get of the hook — for what?

You automatically assume corruption, I can see why. But still, (1) getting tax breaks or government help and (2) using illegal methods to get said tax breaks and government help are two different things. If you want to punish someone for getting government help, then you're using correlation of 1 and 2, but correlation does not always imply causation. And more importantly, in case of law people generally try to determine that someone _certainly_ did something wrong instead of relying on the notion that he did it with high probability.

So, if you can prove that the company engineered it through illegal means — feel free to do that. But don't forget that there are quite a lot of completely legal and ethically clean methods in lobbying. Quite often, all that company has to do to influence policy is to meet with the official and present their reasonable point of view on the issue, without any gifts, bribes or campaign contributions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So let's suppose I am a company that saw a green field to extend to - <USER2> country which gets out of its way to entice me to come and develop there. Now I am in their yard, keeping my part of the bargain, the moment in which they draw out their claws and looking hungry at me say "you know what, forget what we've told you, it wasn't good anyway, so let's make a new deal".

<comment><USER10> I think it's fitting. When they move their business out of country to avoid taxes they can't expect the same legal protections. I'm going to laugh when these businesses move to China and the government seizes them for national interests. By avoiding taxes they are starving the dog that protects them.

<comment><USER9> A company extends itself into different countries for a lot of different reasons, not only for avoiding taxes. Besides the mentioned tax cuts, the move into Belgium could have been also because they needed a foothold somewhere in European Union anyway, and also it could have been for some level of expertise that was harder to achieve otherwise, and possibly a lot more. It's about the whole package.

China has a policy of allowing external players into its playground only in partnership with a local company over which the government has absolute power and control. That is a bitter pill to swallow, but some choose to take it any way! China can arbitrarily change its rules (which are bad enough as they are) at any time (usually into something worse), I'll give you that. But it doesn't make it feel better with going through the current Belgian/EU debacle!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Meh. What about Holland and Luxemburg?

<comment><USER12> what about them?

<comment><USER8> He's referring to the double-Irish arrangement, a similarly dodgy tax scheme used by multinationals:

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The title is totally click bait

<comment><USER14> The picture is awesome too.</comment></comment>