Google Alerts Will Change Your Life - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/jotform-form-builder/google-alerts-will-change-your-life-aaad9ba9bc4a

<comment><USER2> Not mine.

I often keep my iPhone powered off so I wont be bothered.

A couple days ago I read that the iWatch is selling poorly because it is only really useful for notifications. There are some occupations where one needs that but there are many other well-established ways to receive notifications.</comment>


Web designer from Argentina realigns new Twitter.  - <AUTHOR> http://www.rodrigogalindez.com/archivos/realigning-the-new-twitter/

<comment><USER2> Not a fan of this "realignment". In an effort to stick to a grid, the spacing has become all uneven.

Here: <http://www.fileability.net/snaps/twitteruneven.png>

Same colored arrows point to spaces that _should_ have the same size, because they represent the same thing.

The problem with grids is that they're a blunt instrument. You still need to use common sense. There's no conceivable reason why the "Home" button in the top bar should align to the second panel. That would seem to imply that the Home button does something to the second panel, when in fact it controls both.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1) Numbers should not be moved to the right on the titles (ie follow 87)

2) He changed the background color lighter to show more contrast on the blur, even though bg colors are customizable in twitter, thus creating an unfair comparison.

3) Top black bar items not aligning with the grid may have been intentional. It's not part of the layout but intended to be a separate object that is part of the view port. I'm sure it was intended to seem like the bar was an extension of the browser, not part of the web site. In this way, it does not distract from reading.

4) His contrast with background colors on the "tweet box" area, the feed, and the right side was done poorly, completely breaking the concept of main vs sub content on left and right. The original background colors are much better in clearly segregating left from right, and devaluing content on the right.

Designers forget (esp those with print backgrounds), UX is not simply about making things look pretty, but also being able to trigger an emotional response and create a connection with the end user.

Ironically, Doug Bowman's latest post on StopDesign talks about the Uncanny Valley. This theory applies here too. Rodrigo's design looks way too much like a static blog, and makes me feel uncomfortable.

Although aesthetically pleasing at first sight, this guy still has a lot to learn from Doug Bowman.

His design honestly looks like a Wordpress Blog theme, not Twitter.

<comment><USER4> Why shouldn't numbers be moved to the right of titles? As a non-designer, I find it nicer to see at a glance what is happening?

That said I agree with the rest of your critique...

<comment><USER3> takes longer to scan. Also the inconsistency, notice on the right margin he uses numbers to represent data, then later uses it as a control link to filter / edit data. It should only be the latter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Using a 1080px grid is a big no! I assume there would be a considerable percentage of twitter web users with a 1024x screen resolution. On twitter's scale, even a small percentage(say 5%) would run into millions and showing them the horizontal bar is definitely not a good idea.

<comment><USER6> Some might also not use the full width of their screen. Is there any good data on this?

My browser window is nearly always about 700px wide – that's half of my screen. Two-finger scrolling makes vertical scrollbars just as easy to use as horizontal scrollbars but 1000px wide designs are not optimized for 700px wide windows [+].

I certainly don't want websites to start using 700px wide layouts. I would, however, love to see more websites that change their layouts depending on the width of the browser. Twitter could drop one column if needed. Many browsers already make such changes easy and it is just as easy to force the common denominator layout on older browsers. That would be completely in line with progressive enhancement.

[+] To all the web designers out there: I can understand that it is not exactly your priority to make it easy for someone who like 700px wide browser windows to use the website you are designing. But could you please at least test whether everything still works even when the browser window is that narrow? I really should always be able to scroll to any button and backgrounds shouldn't disappear.

<comment><USER7> Seriously? 700px? I realize there's a class of users that doesn't browse full- screen, and that a site with a broad an audience as Twitter is bound to encounter every variety of screen resolutions, but there comes a point where if a user elects to operate their system in a non-standard configuration they can't expect the designer to accommodate those requirements when there's already two solutions available to accommodate this choice: scrollbars and the zoom-out feature available in every browser.

While developing alternative display modes for non-standard resolutions is certainly possible, it unquestionably increases the time and expense of design, development and testing for what is arguably a negligible gains in terms of the percentage of users you're serving.

<comment><USER6> I understand that it is additional work and I really don't want to be demanding. I'm happy when a website merely works. (I'm not sure how non- standard windows not spanning the entire width of the screen are. That seems like the default behavior of any browser window on the Mac. I would love to see data.)

It's just that many, many websites are being optimized for low resolutions on mobile devices anyway. It would be great if that work could be repurposed for the desktop.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think the problem here is the disconnection. According to CRAP principles (contrast, repetition/rythm, alignment, proximity) related items should be in proximity with each other.

IMHO Rodrigo's design does better on contrast & rythm but there's a disconnection between related elements which can cause confusion. If I had to solve that I should try using a light background to enclose items that belong one with another.

I think that, regardless of the results I find this kind of exercise very useful. It's very hard for someone living in Argentina (or anywhere outside SF or NY) to be commissioned with a work of this caliber, so it's very ratifying to think "Could I do it better?" even if the answer is "No, I can't"

On a related note, is good to see Bowman work again after disappearing that many years inside Google.

</comment><comment><USER8> if you like this, this guy's style reminds me a lot of Khoi Vinh's, who also has done a famous realignment mockup: <http://www.subtraction.com/2009/09/15/our-craigslist></comment>


Nexus 5x on sale now - <AUTHOR> https://store.google.com/product/nexus_5x <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10297879](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10297879).

</comment><comment><USER3> Minor gripe: Who thought it was a good idea to make a charger with a permanent cable attached? [https://store.google.com/product/usb_c_charger](https://store.google.com/product/usb_c_charger)

<comment><USER4> That's a fair point, but what else would you do? I guess have another USB-C connector on the charger base and the cable is basically an extension?</comment></comment>


Singapore Says Musk's Electric Cars Are About 'Lifestyle,' Not Climate - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-21/singapore-says-musk-s-vision-promotes-lifestyle-not-climate <comment><USER2> > "What Elon Musk wants to produce is a lifestyle," Zulkifli said Wednesday > when asked about the entrepreneur's comments. "We are not interested in a > lifestyle. We are interested in proper solutions that will address climate > problems."

Electric cars are poor, even counterproductive stand-ins for long term solutions such as public transportation and the elimination of the suburban commuter lifestyle. They hide a multitude of externalities forced on the public and not paid for directly by owners or manufacturers.

Climate change aside, it's not hard to imagine a country as densely populated as Singapore opposing electric cars.

<comment><USER3> > Electric cars are poor, even counterproductive stand-ins for long term > solutions such as public transportation and the elimination of the suburban > commuter lifestyle. They hide a multitude of externalities forced on the > public and not paid for directly by owners or manufacturers.

Sure, but that's the solution you get from people who've never really experienced a well designed public transportation system. It's essentially a "faster horse" solution to traffic pollution issue which doesn't address the reasons behind the insane amount of tarmac space in modern US cities.

<comment><USER4> People aren't dumb. Building a city requires decades of coordinated action by thousands to millions of people, and it only works if rich people volunteer or are coerced to give up the disproportionate amount of real estate they enjoy, and no one gets a luxurious amount of space. It's not a matter of individuals seeing the light.

<comment><USER5> It's also a matter of the government allowing a city to be built. This sounds trivial, but is actually the biggest component to the lack of affordability in SF and NYC.

There are places where a lot of people want to live, but the gov't is actively preventing housing being built there. Instead of allowing the next increment of development (SFH -> missing middle -> mid-rise apartment buildings -> high rise apartment buildings), many US cities do their best to block development wherever possible. The only developments that can make it through the process are 1) huge, 2) well-backed by capital, and 3) hugely profitable.

We need less Hudson Yards, and more of [https://twitter.com/mnolangray/status/1163863367439802369](https://twitter.com/mnolangray/status/1163863367439802369)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In Singapore they have monopoly on car servicing and distribution. C&C takes care of Benz and Performance motor for BMW. Then Japanese and Korean cars are also by single distributor entities. They control the price and the market.

Also Oil and Gas is core industry for Singapore economy. So when anyone fills gas it helps government revenues and generate jobs. Climate is not the primary concern given the small footprint of Singapore.

Also if Tesla comes in Singapore as it is perfect place for its range BMW, Benz which are the primary brands will suffer heavily. Also thousands of jobs repairing gasoline engine, oils, filters will be lost. Since electrical car do not have as many mechanical moving parts as traditional gasoline car it will reduce maintenance costs and car servicing and parts related business.

So Singapore won't let Tesla setup up easily. It will be taxed higher than other electrical car companies which works on fringes and do not threaten the oil and gas related automobile jobs and taxes.

<comment><USER7> >Climate is not the primary concern given the small footprint of Singapore.

I would have thought that given its geographical location, climate would in fact be a primary concern of Singapore. So why is it not? One could hardly accuse Singaporean government of short-sightedness.

<comment><USER8> > ...climate would in fact be a primary concern of Singapore. So why is it > not?

Literally the second sentence in an article that was submitted:

> The city-state, which has said its efforts to cope with climate change are > as crucial as military defense, has prioritized greater use of its trains > and buses, Masagos Zulkifli, minister for environment and water resources, > said in an interview Wednesday.

<comment><USER7> But climate change is global, not local. So it would seem that worldwide adoption of electric cars would be in Singapore's national interest, assuming they genuinely see an existential threat to Singapore from climate change.

And yet, they make statements like this which seem counterproductive. So, why?

<comment><USER9> I would guess Singapore wants to encourage a local electric vehicle industry and will shelter it from competition in the early years.

<comment><USER10> No. Singapore is a tiny city state with a service based economy

<comment><USER11> Dyson is setting up an EV plant in Singapore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> They're not wrong. Buses, trains and cycling don't have the appeal of a sporty private car, but in a dense city they're much much more efficient.

<comment><USER13> About the appeal - it depends on your cultural background. Here are some other ways people from different backgrounds think about this (not necessarily consistent with each other):

* A private car is bulky and noisy, bicycles and pedestrians aren't. * Lazy people drive in cars, healthy people walk or cycle. * A private car removes you from society, while using public transport/walking puts you with a group of peers, and cycling is a bit more singular but you're still surrounded by your peers with no physical barrier. So using a private car is somewhat disdainful towards the rest of society. * A car is either a truck for people who need it to move things around, or if its a private car - it's probably some young man wasting his money to feel macho.

<comment><USER14> Do people who don't own or have interest in owning a car really get that upset about other people's choices? The way you've worded those makes it sounds like they're feeling pretty judgemental.

<comment><USER15> I live in SF, previously Chicago, and I'm annoyed everyday at:

* I have to cross large streets that have been built for cars all the time

* Public transport sucks

* The city is against other modes of transportation like kick scooters and people comolain about how much space they take when you have large cars parked everywhere

* Because people move in cars, no area is really densed. Restaurants and bars are miles apart.

* Because few people take the bus, there are all sorts of crazies there. I took the bus twice when I moved here and almost got beatten up the first time, witnessed someone getting mugged the second time. I'll never take the bus again here.

* When I'm in the shuttle, and the traffic is freaking slow, I look outside the window and see one person per car. Why don't more people take shuttles instead of taking so much space on the road? Well there is no public transport.

* Noise, noise, noise

* The roads are all broken. Shuttle rides are uber bumpy.

<comment><USER16> I think this is nuts. I lived in san Francisco for many years and the entire city is accessible by public tranit. The city is even building more like the new subway line.

And Chicago takes the cake for crazies on buses. Ive never felt so unsafe on a bus as Chicago.

Id rank san Francisco's situation on par with londons core urban areas. Maybe you're also including the surrounding burbs?

<comment><USER17> Which line were you on? I take a bus to work every day in Chicago, and I've felt unsafe maybe once or twice. Definitely felt way less safe walking through downtown SF with the homeless population heckling me for my soda.

Chicago's public transit ranks _much, much_ higher than SF's. The fact that you compared it to London shows just how conceited you are.

<comment><USER16> > conceited

I don't think that's quite the word you're looking for.

We took the bus from downtown to UChicago. The express was fine, but on the way back on the regular, going through south side. It was way worse than SF.

That being said, the commuter buses in Chicago and the L were basically as nice as any other respectable public transit option.

> The fact that you compared it to London

In both cities I have lived near the downtown core. In both cities I was able to get mostly where I wanted to go in under an hour, within and immediately surrounding the city. SF is moderately better in that, within an hour and a half on public transit I can not only visit the city, but also wilderness in Marin county.

> Chicago's public transit ranks much, much higher than SF's

I don't buy most 'rankings'. Portland, where I live now, is supposed to have one of the best transit systems on the west coast. We're looking for neighborhoods to live in. From one neighborhood six miles from downtown, it would take me one hour by bus to reach the city. In SF, I have lived in the city, but I've also lived in Silicon Valley (~ 40 miles away, but still only an hour to SF via Caltrain), and in Marin (~15 miles away in San Rafael, but still only an hour to the city). Still, Portland for some reason is ranked higher. Portland is about on par with Los Angeles. The system is slow. Something is wrong with most rankings IMO.

But what would I know, I'm just some guy who's lived in a bunch of cities, and never commuted by car to work, ever.

<comment><USER17> Just wanted to chime in and let you know _conceited_ was precisely the word I was looking for. You sound excessively proud of your city (SF) to a fault.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Isn't that the commonly understood strategy of Tesla?

You can't start with the environmental benefits as the main selling point, it has to be a good car. Especially when Tesla started, the base cost of EV tech was extremely high, so the only market-competitive 'good' car you could build on top of it was a luxury car focused on optimising performance, comfort, brand, etc, with a very high price tag.

Obviously as the price of the base tech falls, a mass market car will emerge that's actually good, and sells, bringing the environmental benefits along with it not as a primary thing but a secondary one. That's the way it has to work (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective). Also seems that's exactly what Tesla is doing, I don't see any evidence to the contrary.

<comment><USER19> Any 'mass market car' can by definition not be good for the climate/environment. Cars, whether electric or other, are unsustainable.

<comment><USER20> That is false in the case where the mass market dramatically improves global supply chains for batteries/storage. When the world has low cost batteries, solar energy will dominate due to the fact it is approaching order of magnitude lower $/kW costs than extraction fuels.

<comment><USER21> All of these cars use precious metals and resources which come from (probably) China who pollutes like hell to get them so who knows what the long-term ramifications are.

<comment><USER22> What precious metal in a BEV?

<comment><USER23> Cobalt

<comment><USER24> The largest export of the DRC. [0]

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_industry_of_the_Democra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_industry_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> > _" it would be difficult to develop adequate charging stations with 85% of > the population living in high-density, government-supported housing."_

This is a common fallacy. If there is already somewhere to park the car, then you already have somewhere to install charging. In a highly developed city like Singapore, the electric grid already extends almost everywhere.

> _" hydrogen is a better long-term solution than electric vehicles for > decarbonizing transportation, in part because of the carbon footprint from > mining the metals needed to produce car batteries and the issues around > their eventual disposal."_

Batteries aren't free, but neither are electrolizers and fuel cells (limited life span, large quantities of platinum and rare earth metals needed for catalysts, etc). The lifecycle efficiency of battery electric vehicles is much better than for hydrogen fuel cells, and the infrastructure requirements are much more managable.

<comment><USER26> Batteries will get greener over time. Their main components, lithium, steel,aluminum, carbon, water, these are not dirty materials. Cobalt and other rare metals, yes those must be minimized, which may be why Tesla bought Maxwell which has non cobalt cathode tech, and which has supercapacitor tech that may supplement the battery. In short, EVs will get cleaner over time, let's not throw them out or slow adoption. We desperately need a cleaner atmosphere and they will somewhat help with that by replacing ICEs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Singapore has always been super anti personal vehicle... they have a big excise tax on personal vehicles. Far removed from the context of America where everyone has a car

</comment><comment><USER28> Any time you see an article promoting hydrogen as fuel, be suspicious - it's likely being promoted by the oil industry.

As of 2000, 95% of hydrogen production is sourced from 'steam reforming', basically breaking off hydrogen gas from fossil fuels: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen#Steam_reforming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen#Steam_reforming)

Sure, everyone knows you can get hydrogen from nice clean electrolysis but it's not nearly as cheap (energetically) as getting it from fossil fuels.

Anyways, the oil industry would be relatively happy to a move to hydrogen so they could continue being the primary suppler of fuel.

</comment><comment><USER29> It seems his thoughts apply to any EV's not just Tesla's, but invoking Elon's name in there gives the statement media wings.

<comment><USER8> Maybe that's because Elon directly criticized Singapore's government a few months ago?

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1080829741056159744](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1080829741056159744)

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1080888452256657408](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1080888452256657408)

<comment><USER30> "Singapore has enough area to switch to solar/battery & be energy-independent"

How does something so mild get labeled as criticism?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Accessibility and empowerment are important to liberal society. The fact is that there is high demand for motor vehicles even in large municipalities for children/families, the disabled, the elderly, or anyone moving large packages. This is a plurality of the populace, even in urban centers. Banning cars in favor of public transit will greatly reduce their mobility and their voice in society. Electric cars are a great way of serving this demand with a much smaller local and global environmental impact. The fact that the wealthy also enjoy the comfort of private vehicles doesn't make them immoral.

Certainly we can use fewer, greener parking lots. Certainly we can use better public transport. Certainly the _majority_ of transit in Asian and European metros is public, and should be in America. But a plurality of transit even in the densest hubs is private. There are plenty of cars, and there is plenty of real need for them.

Condemning cars is reductionist and elitist, and at the risk of an ad-hominem attack, usually advocated by those who can afford expensive taxis when they need them, and don't often need them since they are young and single.

Maybe the dynamics will change with self-driving vehicles whose hiring will be more economical than ownership. But that is so far not a practical short- or medium-term reality.

</comment><comment> Digit-Al I found the last paragraph particularly interesting. I have a friend who is a real car enthusiast; he owns several classic cars which he maintains himself and takes to car shows. A few weeks ago he said that he believed that hydrogen fuel cells were the future, not electric cars.

I don't know enough about hfc's to have an opinion but I followed the link they gave and it looks like they could still be a way off in terms of practicality.

Anyone here have an informed opinion they'd be willing to share?

<comment><USER32> Fuel cell cars exist and you can buy them. Examples:

\- Hyundai Nexo: [https://www.hyundaiusa.com/nexo/index.aspx](https://www.hyundaiusa.com/nexo/index.aspx)

\- Toyota Mirai: [https://ssl.toyota.com/mirai/fcv.html](https://ssl.toyota.com/mirai/fcv.html)

\- Honda Clarity: [https://automobiles.honda.com/clarity-fuel- cell](https://automobiles.honda.com/clarity-fuel-cell)

\- Lexus LS next year: [https://www.motor1.com/news/362598/lexus-ls-fuel-cell- spied/](https://www.motor1.com/news/362598/lexus-ls-fuel-cell-spied/)

They're practical realities today. They have fast fueling with good range.

<comment><USER33> In California. They are completely unfuelable elsewhere!

<comment><USER32> They can be refueled in

\- South Korea: [http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/south- korea/](http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/south-korea/)

\- Japan: [http://hydrogen-navi.jp/en/index.html](http://hydrogen- navi.jp/en/index.html)

\- China: [https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-06-07/chinas-largest- hydro...](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-06-07/chinas-largest-hydrogen- fueling-station-opens-in-shanghai-101424532.html)

\- Europe: [https://h2.live/en](https://h2.live/en)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I really love the pragmatism of the Singaporean Government sometimes. Other countries are nowhere near as pushed for resources and consequently don't do anywhere near as good a job as them of facing big, gnarly problems like this. Kind of a pity, really.

<comment><USER35> If you smoke weed they throw you in jail and beat you.

<comment><USER34> I'm aware of that. I was talking about their pragmatic streak that enables actually doing something about climate change, rather than their authoritarian one that thinks corporal punishment is fine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I'll just leave this here to add a bit more background:

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

<comment><USER37> Not really relevant.

Singapore itself has huge financial disincentives to car ownership to begin with, they actively discourage it with huge fines. That's for gas using cars, and has been the case since decades.

It's also not that they worried that the insignificant market share of Tesla globally would live them without international buyers for their oil (which is a mere 5% of their much diverse economy). Besides, the dispute with Musk was over domestic use.

They are truly against cars, and in favor of buses and subway (which are both excellent in Singapore, which is also quite bike friendly).

</comment></comment><comment> lota-putty Bicycling to work everyday is about Climate.

Edit: [http://www.globalstewards.org/reduce-carbon- footprint.htm](http://www.globalstewards.org/reduce-carbon-footprint.htm)

<comment><USER38> In Singapore :-) you do know what sort of climate they have there.

One of my co-workers went out there (on a full ride expat job) and had to give it up as the climate affected his asthma to much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Well, he ain't wrong. Nothing like a 35k base cost to show off that sweet startup money.

<comment><USER40> In Singapore, a Toyota Corolla costs you around $100k. (Seriously.) A parallel import Tesla S via Hong Kong is over $400k.

[https://mothership.sg/2018/06/tesla-cars-for-sale- singapore-...](https://mothership.sg/2018/06/tesla-cars-for-sale-singapore- price/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Singapore is in an interesting position, because anything they do to mitigate air pollution pales in comparison to the Malaysian fires that annually fill their air. It's hopeless until the situation with their geographical neighbors change.

</comment><comment><USER41> Electric cars may be a lifestyle, but electric mopeds are a solution. They reduce congestion, consume far less energy per mile traveled, and are generally a greater way to get around the city - especially if you join a club and share the devices among a group of people who are interested in maintaining them and using them effectively.

So, all Tesla really needs to do is make an e-moped. I'd sign up immediately - I love my Unu, but it needs a bit of the Tesla flair...

</comment><comment><USER42> if you have 'clean' electricity mix e.g. France (dominant nuclear), Norway (dominant hydro) then I consider electric car as 'ecologic' (after few years lower CO2 than conventional car).

For other places around the world where electricity is more 'dirty' just drive some small car with combustion engine and maintain it as long as possible. Small car needs less energy for transport then heavy electric vehicles.

<comment><USER43> Just the battery production can take 2-4 years to offset compare to a gasoline car[1]. Then you also have to take into account that battery have to be replaced regularly and the overall production of the car pollution.

It would be more ecological friendly to just use you gasoline car until it die and then only make the switch to electric. And even then, buying a used car and also running it until it dies might still be more ecological.

The technology will get better, on production level and on the car level. But right now, its very far from a clear cut to say if electric car are more 'green' than gazoline car (that are already produced).

Overall, the main issue is personal transportation. If you really want to be ecological, you should use mass transportation (excluding planes for short travel) whenever possible and use car sharing when you really need a personal transportation. The idea of all having a car sitting idle 90% of the time is fundamentally incompatible with ecology and electric car won't solve this.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_aspects_of_the_e...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_aspects_of_the_electric_car#Environmental_impact_of_manufacturing)

<comment><USER44> Excerpt from the source parent cites [1]:

Full life cycle assessment (well-to-wheels) comparison of four different power train technologies for _production_ and _usage_. It is unclear if the _usage_ value includes replacements and recycling. Values are in tonnes CO2 equivalent. Sorted from most to least CO2e consumed. Battery is second!

Standard gasoline engine: 5.6 + 24 = 29.6

Battery electric vehicle 8.8 + 19 = 27.8

Hybrid: 6,5 + 21 = 27.5

Plug-In Hybrid 6.7 + 19 = 25.7

edit: formatting

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Yeah, there's some truth in that.

The newest Chevy Bolt has more range than a base Tesla, btw. Progress moves on.

</comment><comment><USER20> I would love to visit a city that is only populated by e-busses and EVs.

Why? To listen...

</comment><comment><USER46> It's about life styling over the peasants who cant afford a Tesla

</comment><comment><USER47> Singapore is in a unique position. It makes sense that they have public transport as the number one priority.

</comment><comment><USER48> The debate should be public transportation vs cars for those mega cities, not against Tesla.

</comment><comment><USER49> Electric will make a huge difference when it takes diesel engines off the roads.

</comment><comment><USER50> If SG moved directly to EV share cars, and did some structural planning around them, We really would be living in the future. The french can keep jetpacks, I want a land based transport system which keeps roads as public utility value.

<comment><USER51> > The french can keep jetpacks

That looks funny, care to explain ?

<comment><USER52> He probably means Franky Zapata's flyboard: [https://www.bbc.com/news/world- europe-49225001](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49225001)

<comment><USER51> Hahaha that's great, thank you :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> In Singapore, every car is about Lifestyle and status.

</comment><comment><USER54> also [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/22/electric_vehicles_w...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/22/electric_vehicles_wont_help_carbon_emissions_target_say_mps/)

</comment><comment><USER55> Just thinking about the headline.

Turning EVs into a rich persons lifestyle is a good way to start a boom down the line.

The rich people will often be positioned to put pressure on politics and businesses as well, and they want to be able to charge their shiny toy, right?

Suddenly everyone wants a big screen in an EV cause' it's cool; "Oh, look at this rich, happy dude in his awesome toy on insta!"

Queue really, really cheap long range model 3... _cough_

Changing an already put in place lifestyle where needed (US? Europe). I personally can't tell yet if EV is the way to go, but at least it's something. Musk is obviously convinced.

So, what I'm saying is that Elon might very well be going for climate/environment, not to say there's better ways. Awesome public transit for example.

<comment><USER56> _Queue really, really cheap long range model 3_

Let's not exaggerate. We might not be talking Ferrari money, but we're still talking BMW money as opposed to Hyundai money.

<comment><USER14> I'm not much of a Model 3 fan, but the 35K model is definitely not BMW money. Factoring in lower fuel costs, it's cheaper than an average new car.

<comment><USER56> The long range model 3 is $48k, and well over $50k if you want all the fancy autopilot software extras.

<comment><USER14> Well sure, you can option many cars up to absurd prices. You can also buy a basic $35K Model 3 if that is all you want.

<comment><USER56> But we were specifically talking about the long range version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> > _"What Elon Musk wants to produce is a lifestyle," Zulkifli said Wednesday > when asked about the entrepreneur's comments._

It sounds more like he wants to turn Tesla into a taxi service:

[https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/tesla-plans-to-launch-a- ro...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/tesla-plans-to-launch-a-robotaxi- network-in-2020/)</comment>


Catalan separatist leaders given lengthy prison sentences - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/catalan-separatist-leaders-given-lengthy-prison-sentences <comment><USER2> Taking into account max sentence for sedition is 15 years and they got 12 years for sedition + misuse of public money and they'll probably only spend half of that time in prison... seems like 'lengthy' is not the correct word.

<comment><USER3> I'd say it's pretty lengthy for putting a choice on a ballot in a democracy.

<comment><USER4> What they did has nothing to do with democracy or "putting a choice". They tried to abuse their position to force their personal point of view on a whole country.

<comment><USER3> Holding a vote had nothing to do with democracy?

>They tried to abuse their position to force their personal point of view on a whole country

They're politicians. That's sort of their job. If you don't like what they do, vote them out.

<comment><USER4> > Holding a vote had nothing to do with democracy?

A vote where radical activists invested in a specific outcome store ballot boxes in their own homes? You got to be joking.

> They're politicians. That's sort of their job.

That's patently wrong, as they are now doing prison sentences for abusing their position and by violating the laws they were supposed to comply with.

<comment><USER3> You can't complain in one sentence about misuse of government resources, then in the next complain that they kept ballots at home. I'm sure they would have loved to keep the ballots in the proper government places, but soldiers with guns tend to be persuasive. If you don't provide a legal method for political dissent, don't be surprised when people choose an illegal one.

>now doing prison

This proves nothing but a government wanting to quash dissent.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Open Source Web Framework on Linux? - <AUTHOR>

Hi everyone, we are embarking on a new journey here. Everyone, is, for the most part, are windows developers. We made the decision to go the linux/open source route for our new project (maybe?). We are trying to decide on a framework to go with and having a hard time coming up with a decision. One of the biggest requirements we are want is to have similar executing speed to c# & asp.net mvc. This requirement kind of throws out RoR & Django/python. We "prefer" a statically typed language but it's not a hard set requirement. We dabbled with go & rust and enjoy both languages but I don't think rust is ready for prime time. We also worry about the ecosystem with go. If you base your business off the language and then google decided it was a "toy" project and drops its resources (ala google reader). Sure its open source which is all fine and dandy just as long someone decides to pick it up (death of ironpython & ironruby). If the community was as vibrant as RoR/Django/Node we probably wouldn't worry but it isn't. The only option I see left is either java or a language based on the JVM.  Any help would be appreciated. <comment><USER2> I think Go will surprise you. Google uses it internally and it is hardly a toy project. However, the ecosystem is currently relatively small.

It sounds like you're looking for something like Java with Play ([http://www.playframework.com/](http://www.playframework.com/)). Another langauge based on the JVM may suit you well. I recommend taking a look at Scala.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks guys i will give play a look. Never heard of it before

</comment></comment><comment> workhere-io I think you should reconsider Python. If it's fast enough for Instagram and Pinterest, it's probably fast enough for you :) Try Flask ([http://flask.pocoo.org/](http://flask.pocoo.org/)).

If you go with Go after all, try Revel ([http://robfig.github.io/revel/](http://robfig.github.io/revel/)).

</comment><comment><USER3> Java seems to fit your needs, given how you have experience with C#. Play is a good framework to work with.

<comment><USER4> Yep. Java is pretty standard in enterprise because it's relatively fast, fairly easy to program, very portable, and has a mature community and ecosystem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Django.

<comment> workhere-io Or Flask ([http://flask.pocoo.org/](http://flask.pocoo.org/))

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Grails.</comment>


Understanding Quaternions (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://3dgep.com/?p=1815 <comment><USER2> Where the author talks about imaginary numbers being completely "made up" and suggests you shouldn't bother with trying to understand them, I think that's selling them short.

Imagine, if you will, trying to explain to the ancient Greeks the idea of a number that can't be written as a division of integers (the irrational numbers). That would have seemed completely "made up" to them, but we don't really see them that way, they just "are". That concept is has since become normalized, in terms of everyday concepts (like the area of a unit circle). Similar situations arise with fractions or negative numbers to some indigenous tribes, etc.

I guess what I'm saying is that complex numbers only as fictitious or imaginary as any other set of numbers that we otherwise feel like we have a good handle on.

<comment><USER3> I like this explanation. A friend said it helped him. [http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-intuitive- guide...](http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-intuitive-guide-to- imaginary-numbers/)

Basically, multiplying by i "rotates a number" 90 degrees.

<comment><USER2> And with a little bit of trigonometry intuition on top of this, powers of i and Euler's formula become much easier to understand as well. Great ways to think about it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not bad, but I find this to be a state of the art explanation of quaternions: [http://acko.net/blog/animate-your-way-to-glory- pt2/#quaterni...](http://acko.net/blog/animate-your-way-to-glory- pt2/#quaternions)

<comment><USER5> O. M. G.

That is so awesome.... (Yes, so this probably counts as the kind of "+1" post that should be downvoted. But check out the link and if you don't think it's the most amazing quaternion explanation, then I will humbly accept your downvote.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Another good reference:

[http://www.songho.ca/math/quaternion/quaternion.html](http://www.songho.ca/math/quaternion/quaternion.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> There's also octonions and sedenions. I prefer the blanket term onion- algebras.

<comment><USER8> Thanks, my head was already hurting :P

<comment><USER9> Now your eyes can hurt as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Has anyone here ever seen a good explanation of _why_ quaternion multiplication maps to rotation concatenation?

<comment><USER11> I think of it as the opposite: there exists a Lie group of spatial rotations, so we want to use it, and we found a relatively convenient notation.

There are many other kinds of 'complex' numbers ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercomplex_number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercomplex_number)) - but you probably won't hear about them outside of mathematics and physics because they're less useful.

The same applies to 2d - the SO(2) group exists; we map it to the complex numbers because it's convenient to do math with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I love that plaque, and that Ireland is the sort of place that that would rate a plaque.

</comment><comment><USER13> This recently posted YouTube video by UNSW Professor Norman J. Wildberger discusses the discovery of the quaternions by Hamilton and the subsequent discovery of the octonians. It's 59 minutes, 30 seconds long, and it was published on March 5, 2014:

MathHistory18: Hypercomplex numbers [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw6bpPldp2A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw6bpPldp2A) [video]</comment>


How a curmudgeonly old reporter exposed the FIFA scandal that toppled Blatter - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/03/how-a-curmudgeonly-old-reporter-exposed-the-fifa-scandal-that-toppled-sepp-blatter/?tid=pm_national_pop_b <comment><AUTHOR> I love Andrew Jennings' naked schadenfreude at taking down bad guys. If we had another thousand or so people like him, the world might be a better place.</comment>


Making transparent wood [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1H-323d838 <comment><USER2> NileRed mentions this as a shout out to AvE.

I recommend both: AvE has a fantastically interesting folksy veneer hiding deep experience (a joy to watch).

NileRed has a much more polished style, although both are working out of garages.

To see a crossover is greatly appreciated: the core dream of internet mixing and remixing remains alive!

<comment><USER3> Dead tree carcasses? Sick!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Holy smokes! He cuts(with a lot of torque) towards his unprotected hand with a box cutter. This looks really cool, but that made me _cringe_.

<comment><USER5> As AvE would remind him: cut toward your chum, not your thumb.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> For anybody watching this who doesn't know how to use a table saw, he's lucky he still has all his fingers. I could barely watch that part.

<comment><USER6> He's not using a SawStop? That's insane... Promotional video: [https://youtu.be/eiYoBbEZwlk](https://youtu.be/eiYoBbEZwlk)

<comment><USER7> I rather dislike SawStop. It's a destructive system which is very expensive when triggered (whether legitimately or due to wet wood, etc) because it destroys both the stop and the blade. You need to repair your saw before you can continue working. Which is fine if people choose to buy it. But they have been pushing to make their device legally required for all saws, while fighting hard to suppress competing systems, thus removing consumer choice. In particular, they have killed the Bosch Reaxx, which is a non-destructive system that uses inexpensive gas cartridges to instantly drop the blade below the table. If it triggers, reset the blade, drop in a new gas cartridge, and get back to work. Love it. But I can't buy it. Thanks a lot, SawStop.

<comment><USER3> Sawstop is an innovative company that has some patents. Why wouldn't they try to use them against a competitor?

<comment><USER8> They would try to use their patents offensively if their mission is to make as much money as possible.

They would encourage manufacturers to adopt some form of safety system, even if it wasn't theirs, if their goal was to keep table saw users safe.

There is some plausible deniability if the competing systems are not as good as theirs - is something better than nothing, or does it create a false sense of security, etc. - but it is pretty clear that Sawstop values profit over the safety of people who can't afford their system.

<comment><USER3> Yes, it is a company, not a nonprofit or an industry trade group.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The end of the video mentions an application: a composite material made from a renewable resource (wood). The idea would presumably be to get a transparent, strong surface with mechanical properties different from either wood or epoxy alone.

However, the effort to process the wood, and the consumption of non-renewable resources highlight the limitations with this approach. And as was made clear from the video, the process is limited to pieces with thicknesses of a few millimeters at best.

A lot of the problems described in this video arise from the mechanical properties of the wood itself.

So, why not use sawdust instead? Its vast surface to volume ratio means that the resin should penetrate rapidly.

Also, wood-plastic composites are a thing; they're made from sawdust or whole wood:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood- plastic_composite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-plastic_composite)

How such a compsite material could be made transparent is an interesting question with potentially many practical applications.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think he missed the point that the long cellulose fibers are being filled with resin and then acting as a fiber optic channel, which is why it only works in contact with the page. And why the letters "jump" to the other side of the sample.

</comment><comment><USER11> I was surprised that he stopped using lengthwise cut pieces. They seemed better suited to compare how easily different methods allow the epoxy could enter the cellulose channels/matrix.

</comment><comment><USER12> Reproducing my comment from this video: Regarding the short cure time of the epoxy, why not put it in the vacuum with only the resin, and add the hardener only after the ethanol is evaporated?

<comment><USER13> I've infiltrated porous materials by diluting the epoxy with a miscible solvent and then replacing with less and less dilute solutions until you get just the resin. Commonly done for biological tissue samples for microscopy.

<comment><USER14> Could you explain this process in more details or link to a more comprehensive description please? Thanks.

<comment><USER13> Basically the mixture of solvent and epoxy is much less viscous and easily infiltrates the material. There are numerous protocols that describe the process. For example: [http://web.path.ox.ac.uk/~bioimaging/bitm/instructions_and_i...](http://web.path.ox.ac.uk/~bioimaging/bitm/instructions_and_information/EM/fixation_standard.pdf)

Start where it says "Dehydrate through a series of ethanols or acetones and propylene oxide." basically this is for replacing the water with solvents, if the sample is dry you can just immerse it in your solvent of choice, probably propylene oxide (toxic) or acetonitrile (less toxic), something miscible with your epoxy resin.

Follow the protocol up to the polymerization. I'm not sure if all resins are suitable for this type of infiltration but there are many suitable ones, see: [https://www.tedpella.com/chemical_html/chem2.htm](https://www.tedpella.com/chemical_html/chem2.htm)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How secure are your Ruby projects? Upload your Gemfile.lock and find out - <AUTHOR> https://hakiri.io/facets

<comment><USER2> Cool stuff. I want a badge for my project now!</comment>


From 1M to Graham's Number - <AUTHOR> http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/11/1000000-grahams-number.html <comment><USER2> So many popups</comment>


If operating systems ran the airlines... - <AUTHOR> http://www.zyra.org.uk/os-air.htm

<comment><USER2> Linux Airways

The pilots, stewards and mechanics are all either 15 or 60 years old. The planes are all either six hours or fourty years old. Wherever you turn up to fly, the plane you want to fly on is in a heap of parts on the runway and the employees are bickering over it, mostly ignoring you. A few try to convince you that it's perfectly fine by pointing to other airlines and other airports where you can see Linux Airways flights taking off on schedule, with well built aircraft and regular people working there, and publishing impressive safety and efficiency statistics. You set off to that airport instead, but when you arrive it's like chasing the end of a rainbow from here it looks exactly the same as the previous airport. You look at the previous airport, the heap of parts is gone and the planes are flying at regular intervals. You wonder if this is the twilight zone.

You get so engrossed in the heap of plane parts on the runway because nobody has let you see so much of the insides of a plane before. You spend the next fortnight redesigning the seating plan to account for passengers with Fibrodysplasia ossificans who can't bend their legs, apparently that's a big problem, not noticing that you haven't travelled anywhere yet and you had somewhere to be.

Mac Airlines

Sometimes you end up landing in a remote field; other passengers will gather around telling you which wires to pull out of which engine management units and where to put them. As soon as you take off again, everyone pulls together and says it didn't happen. Some passengers don't arrive at their destination. This never happened.

There's a bit of fuss because the Wright Brothers are dead and the passengers aren't yet sure if planes can still exist and keep flying.

Windows 8 Air

Passengers refuse to fly because the stewardesses have new buttons on their uniforms. Passengers who try to fly are often faced with barely edible meals, luggage compartments that can't hold their bags, and stewards with barely intelligible speech impediments. The supply companies suggest these services were designed for Windows XP Air and have you tried running in compatibility mode and disabling Windows Firewall and UAC?</comment>


Show HN: Introducing Prism, an open source profiling tool for Go Code - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/geckoboard/prism <comment><AUTHOR> Prism is a tool that allows you to collect and analyze profiling data from your go applications. It is not meant to be used as a replacement for tools like pprof but rather as an alternative for cases when you:

        + want to collect profile data per go-routine,
        + do not want to manually modify your project's source to include the profiler instrumentation code,
        + want to quickly compare the performance of code between a set of git commits</comment>


Hunger Is a Gatekeeper of Pain in the Brain - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04759-0 <comment><USER2> Early comments make me think people didn't read the article. Short summary: hunger reduces long-term inflammatory pain but reduce short-term acute pain was not reduced.

<comment><USER3> When I first read the title I thought of my observation with the migraines I get. Personally, migraine _pain_ only onsets when 'everything is ok,' in terms of safety, stress, food and hydration; but the other symptoms will start at any time.

For example, while rock climbing once, I was getting down from the top of a mountain, seeing those 'squirlly refractive light worms' in my vision that some people with severe migraines get. I had all the symptoms of having a migraine--and was lucky I didn't die on that mountain--but the debilitating pain only came when I was down, in the car, away from danger, with food and water. This is how it always is.

Given this experience, I believe there must be a lot more to the psychological-physical aspect if interpretations of pain than what is shown here, and personal experiences may be why others are jumping to conclusions.

Also: those poor mice

<comment><USER4> > seeing those 'squirlly refractive light worms' in my vision that some people > with severe migraines get

Those worms are simptom that the migraine is coming, I had terrible headache several hours after I saw this light worms.

<comment><USER5> The medical name for the light worms is "scintillating scotoma". The Wikipedia article includes some artist's impressions:

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if there are people who overeat because of chronic pain.

<comment><USER7> it would be other way around, they will eat less to dampen chronic pain.

<comment><USER8> The thing is, with health, if the effect of you action are not immediat, you are much less likely to do the right thing.

E.g : i know that if a drink a lot of raw milk i generally get a migraine. But it happens 24 to 48 h later. So i still drink milk from time to time because i'm not punished immediatly. It's future me's problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "The body's basic needs include a timely supply of nutrients and the avoidance of tissue damage, which are signalled in the brain by hunger and pain, respectively. But these needs cannot be fulfilled simultaneously, because their resolution involves mutually exclusive behaviours."

Hold up. Why are these mutually-exclusive? Is nutrient intake not a subset of tissue damage avoidance?

I think I get the gist of what these sentences are _trying_ to say (acute pain takes precedence over hunger, which takes precedence over chronic pain), but that's not what "mutually exclusive" means.

<comment><USER10> I took it to be in more evolutionary terms:

* If you're hungry you need to move to find food

* If you're in chronic pain you need to rest to heal

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Consuming food is an inherently inflammatory process. Could this not explain the results?

<comment><USER12> Fasting is known to reduce inflammation

<comment><USER13> If you have persistent stomach pain not eating can sometimes do the trick if you suffer from digestive inflammation. The inflammation can be triggered by eating the wrong combination and or quantities of certain foods.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm curious if the word, "hunger" is a poor choice in comparison of using "lack of food" and because I rarely eat in comparison to most people. I've become accustomed to not having hunger overtime as a result of fasting and otherwise one meal per day. I do believe the gateway of pain is true.

<comment><USER15> I've done the same over many years, and can confirm being accustomed.

I have very different sensations now signalling "lack of food" and "craving for stuff I don't need", and the latter isn't as persuasive anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Nice that the very old natural medicine knowledge of starving and chronic pain reduction is confirmed. Unfortunately the exploration of old natural medicine knowledge is not well funded because there is no money to earn.

</comment><comment><USER17> so incoming pain signal is filtered through low-pass and high-pass filters, the intermediate output from the low-pass is modulated by hunger and then added to the unmodified high-pass signal. this sum is the effective or subjective pain signal.

perhaps this could be used for online learning neural networks (with neural plasticity): goals are eventual and dont need to be accutely achieved upon the moment of forming the goal (i.e. feeding can be postponed), while punishment of the neural network should be accute in order to focus on the problem while any information related to the problem is still present in the brain.

<comment><USER18> I think low-pass/high-pass is sort of a misleading simplification. When they say "chronic" pain they're referring to inflammatory pain, which is distinguished from "acute" pain by its source, not its time course. (I think. Not a biologist.)

<comment><USER19> Different sources might use different time codes. Anyway, inflammation likely attacks all kinds of sensors and perhaps nerves directly, so the signal is noisy, and the high frequency constituents very unstable. Whereas functioning receptor networks likely fire in ensemble, so that signal should be kind of clear. The functionally intact rim of an inflammation is a comparably large area, so that would correspond to a low frequency signal. Although, it's much more complicated, surely, I wouldn't know.

Also, hunger after a long time becomes a dull feeling, too. Less energy -> longer time to light a synapse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetites" \--Quintilian

</comment><comment><USER21> This is expected: if you get very hungry then food acquisition is more important than avoiding relatively minor bodily damage. If damage is severe, then it can override the need to get food.

If it were not this way we'd be pretty rubbish at surviving.

</comment><comment><USER22> Somewhat related recommended read: Hunger (Knut Hamsun)

[1] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32585.Hunger](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32585.Hunger)

</comment><comment><USER23> Is it possible the particular rat-food causes inflammation? I'd imagine whatever they're being fed isn't their natural diet (i.e. organic raw meat etc)

</comment><comment><USER24> After reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, I can't help but recoil in disgust at what it must have taken to produce the results for such a paper. Sure, this is interesting, but is it really worth the cost? Did the researchers or those who funded the research even reflect on it?

<comment><USER18> It's a one-time cost for knowledge that will have benefits indefinitely. I don't eat or wear animals, but I'd holocaust a million rats to solve the opioid epidemic.

<comment><USER25> Is the barrier for you species difference?

For example, medical insights provided by Nazi scientists, and to a lesser extent Japanese ones, were provided by tests on human subjects with often fatal results.

<comment><USER26> > Is the barrier for you species difference?

I haven't met a person for which this isn't true.

From my conversations with other people, the hierarchy of care is roughly:

Humans > large mammals > small mammals / cephlopods > birds / large reptiles > small reptiles / fish > large insects / trees > small insects / spiders / plants > yeast / fungi / bacteria

<comment><USER25> If this is true then why does non consenting human experimentation happen ever?

In any case, hierarchies like that are almost totally arbitrary, like anything about a culture.

I'm just poking the bear here and seeing what comes out. Let's play with this more.

<comment><USER27> Yup, totally arbitrary. That's why I prefer the poetry yeast writes about the beauty of the universe and the pain of existence to that written by humans.

<comment><USER25> Is your point that only humans have culture? There is evidence of culture and learned behaviors in animals as simple as birds.

<comment><USER27> My point is that the hierarchy is ordered by increasingly sophisticated internal conscious experience. This is the least arbitrary thing ever when it comes to concern around suffering.

<comment><USER25> My argument was more that there is no association between a theoretical "hierarchy of care" and actual, real brain sophistication. If there were, people would for example eat cats before they ate pigs.

<comment><USER21> Cats don't have much meat, I imagine larger mammals are farmed because they're large. But inhibition to eating pigs would be larger than that for eating cats, I'd agree on that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Eating disorders and self-harm seem to go together a lot so it make sense that there's an underlying connection between pain and hunger.

<comment><USER29> Except that the paper seems to find the reverse connection - self-harm is typically acute, and this is not inhibited by hunger.

<comment><USER9> Reverse that a bit more: self-inflicted acute pain overrides/inhibits hunger.</comment></comment></comment>


Samsung Creates New File System F2FS For Linux, Good News For Android - <AUTHOR> http://www.muktware.com/4485/samsung-creates-new-file-system-f2fs-linux-good-news-android

<comment><USER2> Hopefully they'll do a better job than last time they tried this: the galaxy S had a custom filesystem called RFS, in reality it was just fat32 with crappy journaling bolted on. It totally crippled the phone, causing a lengthly block every time a file was closed. It would also fight with the chips own wear levelling algorithms. It sucked. If you owned that phone and thought it sucked, with loads of UI lag, it was because of samsung's custom filesystem, which was also supposedly optimised for NAND.

<http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=799931>

<comment><USER3> I owned that phone, it did suck.

The only good thing about that phone (besides the screen) is that it was nearly unbreakable and had a great custom Rom scene. Almost all of the roms replaced the file system.

<comment><USER4> And it still has a lot of custom rom support.

I'm writing from my Galaxy S with CM10 (Jellybean) now. Naturally, it uses Ext (3?) partitions, and resizes the cache partition so I can download apps larger than 30mb from the play store (another interesting file system choice from Samsung).

<comment><USER5> I need to ask, what HN app are you using?

<comment><USER4> Just the <https://news.ycombinator.com> website.

I use the Opera labs browser. Opera, because despite some parts I don't like, it's the best I've seen at reflowing text to fit the screen (perfect for HN). The labs version, because it supports extensions, and it is the only way I can get something like Ghostery to block trackers while I'm browsing on the phone.

Do you have a particular HN app you recommend?

I was using <http://ihackernews.com> for a while, because of its mobile- friendly HTML, but it doesn't really offer anything in addition to regular HN with a good browser. Double tapping zooms to a good size, reflows the text, and snaps the scrolling to the new width, so most sites just feel like a "mobile app" anyhow.

Cheers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> File systems are extremely fickle things requiring the utmost attention to detail and quality. There is an impedance mismatch between that and most people's image of Samsung-produced software.

<comment><USER7> I don't think that's a very reasonable thing to say. Samsung-LSI (which is the "Samsung" in question here) consistently makes better BSPs than, say, TI or nvidia (with their big WinCE-like layer inside the kernel).

Samsung Mobile has a reputation for making poor quality Android UIs (though they also have a few other OS projects going on; the EFL one and something else).

Also, Samsung-LSI generally makes better SoCs than the other guys (normally the bus works properly, etc). If you wanted to pick on them in a constructive way then you could say "I hope they clean up their mess in arch/arm..."

<comment><USER8> You must not have looked at samsung's source for their recent flagship phones.

<comment><USER9> Samsung-LSI is part of Samsung's semiconductor division, it has little to do with the their consumer electronics section.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> That's interesting, because every android device I've encountered (4-5 different models) have used YAFFS, which is also a NAND-friendly filesystem. Anybody know what the difference is?

<comment><USER11> As far as I know, YAFFS is not a journaled filesystem, and is really just a simple filesystem comparable in feature set to FAT32. F2FS looks like it's trying to bring the features of EXT3 to a flash-friendly implementation.

<comment><USER12> YAFFS is a log-structured filesystem, just like F2FS. Log-structuring gives you a data organization protocol. This protocol gives you an implicit crash- recovery story, there is no need for additional journaling on top of it.

Journalling is used when some blocks on the disk are scheduled to be overwritten. Instead, the blocks are written in a separate location (the so- called journal). At a later point in time, the data blocks get overwritten. Once the data is safely on the disk (via Forced Unit Access (FUA) or a flush track cache-type operation) we can then truncate the journal.

Log-structured systems do not do this. Instead, the achieve crash safety via never overwriting data; they always write elsewhere (into something called 'the log'). Eventually, too much of this log is filled with garbage, stale data. This is when 'cleaning' occurs. However, cleaning is expensive and slow. You must read a large amount of data, figure out what is alive/dead, and then write it all out.

F2FS's contribution to FS design seems to be handling this cleaning operation in a more graceful manner.

<comment><USER13> Possibly the most succinct explanation of log-structured vs journaling filesystems I have ever read.

Thankyou.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can anyone explain why a log-structured file system is a good fit for flash? It seems that a lot of the benefits of an LFS are that it reduces disk seeks.

<comment><USER15> It has to do with the way flash does writes. In flash it actually takes longer to overwrite a bit of data, than to write that bit on a 'blank', or previously initialized cell.

Furthermore if you are going to overwrite something in flash it usually behooves you to overwrite an entire block at a time. For these reasons flash systems tend to try to often write changes in a log manner, wait for a lot of changes to pile up and then incorporate those changes back into the original by rewriting entire blocks. The log can be placed in an initialized section of the memory where overwrites are not necessary.

<comment> Tuna-Fish > Furthermore if you are going to overwrite something in flash it usually > behooves you to overwrite an entire block at a time.

Well, all block devices are written a block at a time. The way flash differs is that there are two internal block sizes -- called pages (4-8kB), and eraseblocks (256kB-4MB).

There are two states a page can be in: clear, or used. You can write at a page granularity, but only to clear pages. To clear used pages, you need to clear the entire eraseblock at a time. Eraseblock sizes are now limited by fundamental physical limits -- on every NAND node shrink from now, the eraseblocks are going to double in size. And they are already really huge in modern devices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hopefully it works better than their legal team. /s</comment>


Maps Design: Apple vs. Google vs. Transit - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@transitapp/transit-maps-apple-vs-google-vs-us-cb3d7cd2c362#.kqivhwrvb <comment><USER2> Damn, I wish that app had an ability to write adapters for other cities.

My city provides route and GPS locations but UI is abyssmal.

<comment><USER3> The problem is always whether there is a gtfs feed available. Once that exists, the city will eventually be added in all the transit apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Maybe the title should say 'Transit Maps Design: Apple vs. Google vs. Transit App' to make it clear who the third one is, and that it's about transit maps.

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting I take the transit often and use Google Maps, I will need to test out Transit to see how it compares. Thank you</comment>


Use the Electoral College the way it was intended - <AUTHOR> https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19?source_location=discover_feed <comment><USER2> > Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.

The Electoral College is in the constitution. The popular vote has never been a method for electing the president by design.

<comment><USER3> I don't particularly feel strong about this petition, but I don't think the argument "because it's the constitution" is a good one. I can imagine the constitution being outdated for certain reasons and I don't think it's a big deal to adapt to the changes.

<comment><USER4> _" I don't particularly feel strong about this petition, but I don't think the argument "because it's the constitution" is a good one."_

I respectfully disagree. I think the fact that it _is_ in the Constitution should give anyone pause about changing it. That's not to say that it should not (or could not) be changed, but this isn't just something that an Executive Order by the current President could change. This is a Congressional responsibility.

This petition is absurd and pointless.

<comment><USER3> You're right, I agree. This petition is pretty absurd, especially because the election is over (it would've had more substance if it was a non-election year). Just wanted to point out that "because it's the constitution" shouldn't be a discussion-stopper.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If people are worried about a Donald Trump presidency because they're afraid he'll break norms, tear down established systems, and use his elected status to remove any independent/non-populist institution, it is not a good idea to start with this.

</comment><comment><USER6> 1\. She won a plurality of the popular vote. Yes, it's winning but it's not even a majority.

2\. You don't get to just toss out rules because you lost. 3 days ago people were shitting on trump for this type of rhetoric.

3\. The fact that the electoral college exists fucks up the popular vote. A republican has no voice in California, and a democrat has none in Texas. Having it be an actual popular vote would change voter behaviour pretty drastically.

4\. The electoral college is not a system which values votes equally. A vote in California is worth less than a vote in wyoming. Some people like that because of the idea of tyranny of the majority. Some people say that's ridiculous and a popular vote is the only good system. Figure it out for yourself, I say that geographic based representation is why we have the senate. Of course I like the democrats and the coastal population centers would be a massive boost.

5\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Intersta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact)

6\. Fight for an amendment. Ranked voting in a popular vote based presidential election? Guess what not you can vote for bernie and johnson first before your vote finally goes to Clinton, instead of being whiny and ruining things for the rest of us.

</comment><comment><USER7> A different system would have leaded to different outcome. You can't expect voters behaving the same when the rules change.

Also, Arrow's theorem is valid for any system

<comment><USER8> Exactly. Texas and California were pretty much in the bag from the get-go; I'm sure if winning the state was irrelevant, more voters may have come out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really can't see this happening. There's no precedent and it would lead to serious civil unrest.

<comment><USER10> Fathers! Keep Donald "Grab 'em by the pussy" Trump away from your daughters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If we want the electors to vote with their conscience, and not blindly accept who won what states (2 candidates coming out of conventions is absolutely NOT what the forefathers intended) then perhaps Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders still have a very good chance? Otherwise it sounds like the petition is calling for keeping and trusting the system as it has always been, except at the very last moment.

</comment><comment><USER8> It's worth noting that for much of the night, per the media, Trump had a 1m+ popular vote advantage. If it had turned the other way (Clinton victory w/ Trump popular vote win) people would be screaming if the Trump camp called for this.

<comment><AUTHOR> It has nothing to do with popular vote. It has to do with qualifications. EC is intended to keep out unqualified candidates -> As Alexander Hamilton writes in "The Federalist Papers," the Constitution is designed to ensure "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."

And if that were to happen (Clinton victory w/ Trump popular vote win), trump would say the election was rigged and fuel fires to an uprising.

<comment><USER8> This assumes Clinton would meet the standard while Trump would fail it. Between Whitewatergate, her husband's impeachment hearings, Benghazi, enabling her husband's womanizing, the improprieties with the Clinton Foundation, and more, such a standard may make her ineligible as well. I think being a bad person isn't what the founders had in mind.

I also think they would have been appalled at the idea of someone who's political achievements cannot be disentangled from who they married. After all, the founding fathers weren't exactly fans of royalty.

If we want to apply intent, then the question is who would our next president be, Cruz or Sanders?</comment></comment></comment>


Cutting Ties to Bad Relationships - <AUTHOR> http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2016/11/cutting-ties-to-bad-relationships.html <comment><USER2> Some comments that might help someone, there's more than a few homeless people on HN.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12578680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12578680)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12585096](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12585096)

With particular emphasis on

"If you are cash poor you can investigate the option of buying second hand materials and tools. You can basically build a Tiny House for $0.00 if you really needed to, but there is a catch. It will cost you time and effort to curate the correct supplies. Still, for some people this is the right option to get decent affordable housing. "</comment>


Avast: a Chromium fork with critical security checks removed - <AUTHOR> https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail?id=679 <comment><USER2> You ever noticed that these "secure" forks of browsers put out by antivirus companies are usually security trainwrecks?

cf: "Chromodo" and the vulnerabilities disclosed by this same researcher[0]

[0] [https://code.google.com/p/google-security- research/issues/de...](https://code.google.com/p/google-security- research/issues/detail?id=704)

EDIT: And let's not forget TrendMicro's recent blunder with the enabled-by- default HTTP server for "Password Manager" that is installed as part of their antivirus program.[1]

[1] [https://code.google.com/p/google-security- research/issues/de...](https://code.google.com/p/google-security- research/issues/detail?id=693)

<comment><USER3> Which makes you wonder about the quality of the products they develop 100% in- house.

In the case of the browsers, it "only" the bits they tampered with that's more insecure. For their own stuff, anti-virus, firewall and what not, they've "tampered" with the entire code base.

<comment><USER4> In my experience non-OSS security software is not worth having. There are some exceptions but they are exactly that, exceptions. More often then not by installing this garbage you are putting yourself in a worse position than not having it at all.

<comment><USER5> The (closed-source) security software Microsoft ships with modern Windows is quite good. I don't think OSS/non-OSS is the real dividing line, but rather motivation of the vendor is.

In the case of Microsoft, their motivation is to make Windows work better, in the case of OSS the motivation is often to scratch personal itches, both of these motivations trend towards positive results.

In the case of 3rd party security software vendors, their motivation is usually to upsell you from whatever version you are using to a higher level of "security", so it is in their best interest to go nuts with false positive reports (eg. finding some browser cookies in a scan, posting up such severe looking warnings that you'd think your system is rooted), bog your system down, etc.

<comment><USER6> What gives you the impression that Windows Defender is any good? It hasn't had a consistently decent detection rate since 2012.

(See: [https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/40zh69/ysk_t...](https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/40zh69/ysk_that_microsoft_security_essentialswindows/) [https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/](https://www.av- test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/))

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I advise my techie and non-techie friends alike not to bother with antivirus, but rather to ensure that their files are backed up and their software is up to date.

Those are the most important parts, assuming the user is above the level of downloading and executing malware by themselves.

<comment><USER8> I would recommend using a business-class antivirus rather than the consumer editions. Also, don't use their browser plugins if offered.

At least that protects you from theft. I can keep all my files backed up, but that doesn't protect the data in them from being compromised.

If anything, you need to start recommending encryption to your friends if they aren't going to use an Antivirus.

<comment><USER9> I used to work for an antivirus vendor and I would not recommend this.

The antivirus engine is the same and the only differences are how it's packaged. They're still shoveling obtrusive, crap software onto your system, just being less obvious about it.

The only reason to have Symantec Corporate Edition Antivirus installed on your system is because your company signed a deal to use Cisco VPN & Endpoint Protection and you're literally forced to use it.

What mostly everyone fails to understand is that antivirus software is not effective as a _preventative_ measure. What they are good at is detecting that you're already infected, but they all have terrible rates of false-positives. Nothing out there is much effective at protecting you from 0-day, despite industry claims to the contrary.

User training/habit modification is the only effective measure at preventing infection (besides being behind a default-deny firewall, but that's not something consumers will do). 99.9999% of infections require user interaction (and the ones that don't require it become instant international news). Adblockers get you most of the way there and do a better job at prevention than antivirus software.

Flaws in AV software have been exploited by rootkits before. AV software is just another point of failure.

<comment><USER10> No, they aren't good at finding malware installed. I installed Norton on my mother's friend's computer and it found 4 bits of malware. I later installed Malwarebytes and it picked up something like 45 different malware programs! I was surprised so I verified about 12 of them before I realise they were pretty accurate and let it remove them from her system.

That's a _very_ poor detection rate. I mean, I can confirm that at least 12 nasty malware programs weren't detected by a very widely used AV suite!

<comment><USER9> Many programs, especially "antimalware"-class programs and __especially__ MBAM serve up false positives as valid hits. MBAM serves up common (and innocuous) tracking cookies as malware hits. Nearly everything that MBAM labels as a 'PUP', Potentially Unwanted Program, is bogus. Also, it will serve up data files (metadata, saved data) files from an infection as the infection itself.

Its user interface deliberately does not give its users the proper context to evaluate the severity of a problem. The change came after they made a concerted effort to monetize the app.

MBAM is good at a lot of things (it has traditionally been on top of modern registry hooks and ransomware loaders where other vendors consistently drop the ball) but just because you saw 45 things flagged red doesn't mean you had 45 bits of hostile executable code on your system.

Malware infections aren't a singular entity anymore, they are a stew of items working together to maintain control of your system (exploit, loader, payload [usually a rootkit], defense, c&c). It's often a matter of breaking the chain of processes to 'open up the onion' and regain control of your system.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I know. But I definitely counted at least 12 seperate and rather nasty Browser Object based malware programs. Which is a lot better than Norton and Trend Micro, who didn't pick them up at all!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> [http://www.sevagas.com/IMG/pdf/BypassAVDynamics.pdf](http://www.sevagas.com/IMG/pdf/BypassAVDynamics.pdf)

Anti-Virus is little more than snake oil. If you need to secure a Windows box, get EMET and read [http://decentsecurity.com](http://decentsecurity.com) and you'll eliminate most of your attack surface.

        Everyone can be secure.

        It is with those four words this website is founded. Computer, smartphone,
        and online security does not require a degree or years of experience. All
        it requires is someone show you the way.

        You've been sold a lie. You can't buy computer security. It is something
        obtained through configuration and knowledge. Tragically, these aren't even
        hard to do or obscure to learn. But no one makes money telling you how to
        use what you already have. What you need is someone who doesn't care about
        your money or looking smart by spouting off fancy words of no consequence -
        just that you not be a victim.

        It pains me to see people who distrust and fear their computers, and who
        feel powerless in that fear. Because that's not what I see when I look at
        computers and phones and websites. I see tools I trust with the story of my
        life, and the secrets I leave out when I tell that story to others. Everyone
        should be able to feel like that.

        This site does not sell anything. This site does not take donations. This
        site has no one's name on it.
        This site is to fix what is broken. Which is how we teach security.

If you were wondering because it looked familiar, it's run by the same person behind @SwiftOnSecurity.

<comment><USER12> > You can't buy computer security. It is something obtained through > configuration and knowledge.

Tragically, I believe this is true. But it isn't a great and noble thing that people must gain knowledge to overcome their powerless fear of computer technology, it is a failure of technology creators to provide people with simple tools that they can use without fear.

The problem isn't how we teach security, because hardly anybody should have to learn security in the first place. That the mainstream public is even aware of a concern called "security" having to do with their computing tools is already a failure. I can't think of any other mainstream products that people have to be so careful with, where they are told it is _their_ fault that they just haven't gained the expertise necessary to use it without problems.

<comment><USER11> I (and many others far more impressive than myself) am trying to solve this problem at a fundamental level: Give the developers tools that are secure-by- default (i.e. libsodium not mcrypt) and teach better development habits. Make it easier to do the secure thing than the insecure thing.

It might take years, but I believe these initiatives will trickle up and make the software everyone uses more secure at a base, so it will require less cognitive load from the end users to communicate safely with each other.

That's the idea, anyway. Time will tell if we can succeed.

<comment><USER13> Wouldn't you be better off solving it by sandboxing? Basically don't allow programs to do bad things in the first place rather than try and get all programmers to be perfect. Basically the web (and/or some phone OSes).

<comment><USER11> Sandboxing is good for stopping memory corruption and privilege escalation bugs. It's not very useful for problems affecting cryptography implementation flaws, logic errors, out-of-date software, etc.

Those problems are better solved by giving developers better tools and frameworks that solve these problems for them, that are simple to use and don't introduce massive security foot-cannons.

(This comment is a minor spoiler to my current project, I suppose.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Why does anyone use any third-party anti-virus programs these days? Why not just use the Microsoft ones that are free?

<comment><USER15> _> Why not just use the Microsoft ones that are free? reply_

For one thing, last time I checked benchmarks they showed that Microsoft's anti-virus not only has worse detection results but also worse performance than some of the free alternatives.

<comment><USER16> I am very interested in seeing these benchmarks, as my anecdotal experience is the complete opposite.

<comment><USER17> On my two machines (with SSDs) I regularly find that copying lots of small files is severely slowed down by Windows Defender. It utilizes one core to the max and when disabling it, the copy operation gets a lot faster.

I don't know about other antivirus software though.

<comment><USER18> I can mirror this experience too. Properly working Intel SSD fwiw. Mine impacts not only file copys but also all small file I/O like listing directories (explorer would hang for 1 second entering a new directory) and the like.

<comment><USER19> I've had a couple users complain that my program started running really slowly while they were using Microsoft Security Essentials. It turns out that if a file contains a "suspicious" pattern of bytes (which in these two cases were two different user-drawn bitmaps), SE will do some time consuming heuristics every time you open the file. So opening, reading, closing a file 10 times in a row is really bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Tavis is beast when comes to finding these exploits. Its always fun reading his write ups.

<comment><USER21> I get more excitement from seeing his avatar in my Twitter timeline than any other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Aren't these sorts of zero days worth a LOT of money? He didn't go all the way to RCE, but he probably could have gotten there. It makes you wonder how many people are out there with Tavis' skills who just farm these things and sell them to the highest bidder instead of making us safer.

<comment><USER11> Fortunately there aren't many with Tavis's skills, but you don't need to be that legendary to find these sort of vulnerabilities.

Assuming you can identify (skill) and safely sell (anonymity expertise and market savvy) a zero day, the demand for them is quite limited. (The only reason the price is so high is that the supply is just even lower.)

Additionally, if you have the market savvy to extract the maximum value for a 0day, you will quickly realize the feast-or-famine nature of unsavory income isn't great for a stable home life. You might eventually want a day job, and you can't exactly say "Oh, I helped that virus penetrate your network three years ago that you just detected last month."

So most people with Tavis's skill levels typically aren't in a hurry to go rogue.

And the ones that do are more interested in compromising bitcoin exchanges and drug marketplaces on Tor Hidden Services than they are in spreading malware to end users. (That's the advertising industry's shtick.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> My machine is running CUPS on 127.0.0.1:631 (the local HTTP interface). Does this mean any web site can print with my printer?

<comment><USER24> Potentially depending on how it is secured (if it is), but it warrants further investigation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Interesting posts from Avast explaining how they supply data to their marketing analytics product from their AntiVirus products:

[https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=171725.0](https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=171725.0) [https://blog.avast.com/2015/05/29/avast-data-drives-new- anal...](https://blog.avast.com/2015/05/29/avast-data-drives-new-analytics- engine/)

</comment><comment><USER26> Aw, I got all excited that someone had actually made a Chromium fork with basic things, like JS's script security context completely ripped out. No HTTPs validity checking, etc.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you decide which side projects to pursue? - <AUTHOR> I have a lot of side projects that I want to do but not enough time to do them all. I am also constantly side tracked while pursuing one of my side projects because of "better" ideas. How do you decide which ideas to pursue and how do you stay focused on it? <comment><USER2> One way would be to consider what you're most interested in * how much time it will take, and try to optimize both.

I like to work on two side projects at once (split by morning/evening): a long-term project (e.g. paid product/SaaS/book/etc) where it's hard to see progress everyday, and a short-term project (e.g. blog post/infographic/etc) where progress is easier to make. The reason is: I find that being able to see daily progress is important to keep you going with side projects in general.</comment>