Facebook Deals Is Live - <AUTHOR> http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150159110592131

<comment><USER2> Am I the only one who doesn't get this whole deal phenomenon? Maybe it's because I am in a small town or something, but I do not get it at all.

<comment><USER3> I think it may well be, or just that you're a systems person that has other things to do when your bored than to buy things (or perhaps have less time or inclination to try to find a deal on something you don't have an opportunity to get, at least at that price) .... but you make me think of an important aspect of this, is that I believe this sort of group buying (albeit independently organized) I remember hearing about as a prominent, and even mostly _rural_ phenomenon in China. Can anyone speak to this or compare and contrast?

<comment><USER2> Hmm, possibly. These deal sites (Groupon especially) have always been pitched to me as a way to find out about deals at places you don't go often. For me, I know all of the small shops (that's all our town really has, our ban on drive- thrus really stops the chains from coming in) and I know which ones I like. I visit often enough, so when they are having sales or events, I know they are going down because the cashier told me last week, or I saw it on a sign as I biked to work. Do you have any links explaining the "group buying" in china you are talking about?

<comment><USER3> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuangou> seems to be it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This may be killer, as the general dynamic of Facebook enthusiasts are perhaps the exact demographic for such a service.

</comment><comment><USER4> Should folks at groupon/livingsocial be worried?

</comment><comment><USER5> Yay for more spa and salon ad's shoved down my throat.</comment>


Things in your DevOps workflow that kill your developer productivity - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/kvgruenberg/7-things-in-your-devops-workflow-that-kill-your-developer-productivity-4oa1 <comment><USER2> Nice read! A few more:

\- poor setup/strategy for database migrations

\- inability to rollback deployments

\- insufficient metrics to know whether deploys are bad

In general I feel like a lot of small companies over complicate this stuff early on. Not everyone has an army of people to maintain internal tooling for all this stuff. Keep it simple.</comment>


Don't put your career in stealth mode - <AUTHOR> http://zohrob.com/posts/stealth-mode-careers.html <comment><USER2> This advice is right on the money. I've spent decades developing at a number of startups (including playing the founder at some), but I have preferred to keep a low profile. As a result I believe it has limited my opportunities.

That changed for me six months ago. I started a blog and have been speaking at conferences. All of the sudden I'm a hot commodity. Its a tough time to be introverted with your career.

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad to hear it rings true for you as well. I'm not speaking at conferences yet, but my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There's a period of time which is beneficial. It's not about being secretive, it's about putting your head down and getting things done without interruption.

Five years is (in virtually any case) way longer than that should be. But three months? Great! Even a year, if you're really on to something. But after that you need viable interaction with your customers/users/prospects

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree that time for heads-down coding is very important. My point was more about one's overall career -- that not contributing publicly to the industry can be detrimental.

Even if it takes a long time for your stealthy startup to launch, it can be beneficial to write about your experiences and/or open-source a cool project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm the same way but I prefer to be humble until I actually accomplished something worthwhile.

<comment><USER5> I agree and do not keep a blog, haven't updated my facebook in years, and do not use twitter in this way.

It is an issue of humble-ness for me as well. I'd rather be queried for data then have the thought/feeling I am forcing it on someone who doesn't want it.

I think this, and other things read here on HN have got me to accept the fact I need to follow suite.

Am I correct in saying that another potential benefit of this is that keeping the status of a project public makes it more difficult for the creator to ignore/procrastinate/quit the project?

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with both of you; it feels fundamentally egocentric to broadcast one's thoughts on the web. But it's been an interesting exercise for me on many levels.

The feedback you get from friends and strangers can be valuable - like this discussion. And clear writing == clear thinking. I find that in the process of writing I edit and re-edit my thoughts and sometimes change my mind. That's helpful in and of itself.

As for public-ness making it difficult to quit -- many people (PG included) have written about this [1]. My goal in making my work public is not to benefit from this social pressure, though that would be a nice side-effect.

I want to document my hard work, and ensure that the good parts of what I work on don't die.

[1] <http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html></comment></comment></comment>


Programmers think differently than non-programmers - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesmattheij.com/Programmers+think+differently+than+non-programmers+ <comment><USER2> He's absolutely correct on this issue. People in the programming professions surprisingly often go overboard with the whole coder myth -- it's a fairly interesting form of self-aggrandizement.

1) 80% of all programmers are Java people hacking away in auto-completing IDEs, constrained by rigid corporate guidelines. I doubt that their thinking has a fundamentally unique dimension when compared to other lower-tier knowledge workers.

2) Plenty of professions (engineers, lawyers, academics in various fields, law enforcement agents, and so on) require analytic skills, symbolic thought etc.

Sure, programmers at the top of their game have abilities that separate them from regular people. But that's a trivial truth that applies to 99% of all fields of human endeavor.

<comment> DanI-S Of course, anyone who uses an auto-completing IDE must be an intellectually stunted amateur.

<comment><USER2> Childish. Also, proving my point that not all programmers are logicians.

<comment><USER3> He's joking, and hence the upvotes...

<comment><USER4> HN does better without such jokes. Obvious jokes are noise.

<comment><AUTHOR> The fact that it needs to be pointed out somewhat belies that it is an obvious joke.

<comment><USER4> Well, that's because it might just be sarcastic criticism. As a joke, it is obvious. That does not mean that it is obvious that this was a joke. Which is exactly why we should do without them. It removes exactly the pointless discussion it has led to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't think it's useful to conflate "programmers and non-programmers think differently" with "non-programmers are _unable_ to think like programmers".

I'd say there are people better-disposed to learning to be a programmer[1] but practice also plays a big part. The end-result is that for a given individual, actually occurring situation, it is a reasonable generalization to say that the programmer and non- do think differently about it at this moment in time.

[1] That is to say, a special type of problem-solver. The individual skills or dispositions aren't unique to programmers but the combination thereof probably is.

<comment><USER6> It'd be interesting to compare actual neural activity of people in different professions who have been doing what they've been doing for a couple decades. I think that once a person approaches problems a certain way for an extremely long time, that becomes their default -- it'd be interesting to compare a theoretical physicist, a musician, a programmer, a writer, and a doctor (or something along those lines) when they solve different simple problems.

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://www.musicianbrain.com/papers/Schlaug_NYAS_2001.pdf>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> An important point appearing elsewhere in the comments: who is a programmer anyway? If you can write Hello World in C, are you a programmer? If you can't write your own compiler are you a non-programmer? This is an unanswerable question.

Maybe we could focus on kinds of thinking that help you program well. There is nothing you can't learn eventually. However, we might find some common ground by looking at how good programmers have trained their minds.

We can list some desirable skills for a programmer that reach across languages and tools. There is an old saw by Joel on Software that some people just can't understand pointers and recursion. Or on the next level, that some people can't understand multithreaded/parallel programming. I think I'd say that an instinct for simplicity or mathematical beauty and symmetry also plays a role in making good designs. In other words, making not just consistent mental models that you can simulate in your head (as another comment says), but making beautiful ones.

I was sitting with my manager yesterday. He was giving me requirements for a system I'll have to build over the next two weeks. Along the way we came across a problem where we need to take a bunch of multidimensional values and combine them together.

Instead of leaving it to me, he wanted to design it on the spot. He thought of this like voting where each value makes some contribution, but then the requirements dictated that we needed to add things like "some values have more votes than others", and "some votes have veto power".

As he was describing this pseudo-consensus algorithm with weights and vetos, I was surprised he didn't know how ugly this design sounded. It is hard to set up the contribution of each value, hard to predict the behavior, and hard to make intuitive.

It's not that this is a bad, uncreative idea. Voting is an interesting analogy for the problem, and intuition is a good way to take a stab at a problem. It's that when he started working it out he didn't see the multiplying problems, or the counterexamples that would cause trouble for his system. And I do think this is something that good programmers and system designers do well, even without much conscious thinking. They find the attack surface, figure out where their abstraction leaks, jump immediately to edge cases.

I'm going to have to pull him back early next week. :oD

You don't have to say that the programmer has a magic switch in their brain that enabled them to be a genius while everyone else is left out. Anyone Can Cook!

edit: wwhere => where

</comment><comment><USER8> Well, if you buy Meyer's Briggs types, programmers do think differently than others, because programmers are not uniformly distributed among the different types.

HN survey: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=943722> And there have been better, more "scientific" studies about this that does find that there is a correlation between career and personality. I agree that the story telling is a bit us vs. them, but it doesn't mean there isn't a difference.

<comment><USER9> Two things:

1\. Jung (whose typology the MBTI was based upon) was very clear that his methods went into the areas that research couldn't go (often referred to as "depth" psychology). Thus, research based on the MBTI and other tests based on Jung's typology is a bit difficult to agree with. Bear in mind that I'm saying this as someone who finds Jungian typology very useful.

2\. The point of Jungian typology can be summed up with the old cliche "You're a beautiful and unique snowflake, just like everyone else." Thus, although you do more than likely see certain types attracted to programming, those types are far from being exclusively programmers as there are many fields that attract them (including other engineering and scientific fields). Conversely, these types aren't the only programmers out there. I've met plenty of good programmers who were of types that weren't traditionally associated with programming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is obvious.

I mean isn't it basically a fluke that we all ended up as programmers? I don't I'd think be half as interested in computers as I am if my dad didn't bring us home a computer when I was 3 or 4, or if my grandmother didn't randomly get me a book about "How to make your own website" for my tenth birthday. She didn't get me this because I'd shown a particular interest in computers, it was just one book among a bunch of books "for boys", most of the rest of which were about football. So the relationship between the society in which I grew up and the gender it assigned me at birth also contributed to my becoming a programmer, and definitely in more ways than just being the reason I got that book. I also happened to be lucky enough to participate in a programme for "talented" kids, and one of the courses they offered was in programming (they taught me Java when I was 13), and I was able to use the skills I learnt from that to pick up Javascript and PHP (for my website). Then one of my older cousins introduced me to Linux, and that kind of paved the way for me becomming a "real" programmer, when I started writing little programs to make my life easier in Linux.

And it was basically luck that all of those things happened, and happened at the right times in my life so that they all had the effect that they did. I might have ended up doing something completely different if, for example, my parents weren't able to afford to send me on that course at which I learnt how to program properly. I became a programmer because certain things happened at certain times in my life to make me interested in programming and to give me to means to pursue that interest. Luck was the reason that those things happened to me, not the way I think or because I somehow have a magical programmer brain that made me destined to program. That's obviously absurd. Those things could have happened to anybody. Everybody can be a programmer. We're not better than everybody else.

</comment><comment><USER11> In contrast with the author's point of view, there is research that suggests that the ability to program is dependent on an ability/desire to form consistent mental models. The actual paper is at [1] while Jeff Atwood's write up that's been linked to from HN before is at [2].

      [1] http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
      [2] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programming-sheep-from-non-programming-goats.html

[edit: formatting]

<comment><AUTHOR> I've seen that trotted out before and my offer still stands: bring me the person that I can't teach programming at a level high enough to hold a job down provided they're willing to put the time in and willing to learn.

I pretty much guarantee you that I can do it, I have not found someone that I could not teach how to write code.

Desire is the key here, ability is very much overrated, but hey, it makes 'us' feel special right?

What about lawyers, do they get to feel special? Engineers? Mathematicians? Bookkeepers?

Really, it's just a matter of degree, and just like everybody (except for the rare case of tone deafness) can learn to sing to their ability everybody can program to their ability limited by how much time they put in and how motivated they are.

Nobody here was 'born a programmer' we became programmers by applying ourselves to a series of problems of increasing complexity, if you compare you 'the programmer' with 'you the 4 year old' then for sure there are differences there but they are very much about learning and not about innate ability.

<comment><USER12> My freshman year of college, I was working with a person in the introductory programming course. We worked together for hours at a time. I'm, by nature, a very patient person and was willing to let this person work through the problems and figure them out. However, at the end of the course the person was none the wiser about how to program (even basic things).

This person changed majors to another engineering discipline and is doing great in that field. It still requires the same engineering-esque reasoning skills.

By no means am I the perfect teacher nor does one anecdote make a data set. However, because of that experience, I am very much inclined to believe that there are very smart people that just do not have the inclinations needed to become a programmer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting story, thank you!

Were they interested in the work? Was their ambition to get in to programming (was that the major they wanted to go for)? And if so what was their motivation to do so? I've found that fascination with technology helps a great deal here, if you are not typically intrigued by how stuff works and like to puzzle then programming will probably not be the kind of challenge that you take to.

I remember when I first learned (or tried to learn) to program. For weeks I was just looking at the book without any progress whatsoever, finally it clicked and when it did it was like 'oh, that's how it works'... After that it came easy (most of the time, at least). But if I had quite in those first few weeks I would have literally gotten nothing out of it but a bunch of frustration. So I would presume that it is possible for people to get stuck in that particular phase for a long time.

Maybe it's the programmer equivalent of being 'tone deaf'?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have to agree. I think that it may be more of a "mode" I get into. My wife is able to quickly identify whether I have been coding because I have not entirely switched off that mode, as is evidenced by my unwillingness to let a problem go, my continued debate until all facts are accurate, etc.

Since this behavior is not conducive to maintaining a relationship, we have developed a flag system to let me know when I need to take some time out to talk normal to her.

Oops. There it goes again (flag system). At least I didn't say boolean.

</comment><comment><USER14> I agree with the part about every sufficiently smart person being able to program if they're willing to learn and put the time.

In my experience most people (even students in intro to programming classes) are really unwilling to drop some mental habits and build the other ones that are necessary for programming. Some other people are just profoundly bored by controlling every little thing that happens in a computer, and would just rather have someone else do it for them. Even these people, I've found out, can be turned on to programming if exposed to it in the appropriate setting and with a bit of help to get them unstuck from the hard parts.

<comment><USER15> _I agree with the part about every sufficiently smart person being able to program if they're willing to learn and put the time._

With that, everybody should be willing to agree, as long as you do not give a definition for 'sufficiently smart' and 'programming'.

I know that may sound mean, but without attempting to define these, any counterargument to that claim can be rebutted with either "but he's not sufficiently smart" or "but x is also a form of programming"

<comment><USER14> I agree, and I should have formulated my answer better. What I mean by sufficiently smart is a person that will be recognized as smart enough to be functional in any other field that requires thinking, from the arts to the humanities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Programmer's Aptitude Test (Don't scroll down until you're done.)

      1. You push your cart through the supermarket
         a. In a pre-defined manner
         b. Randomly

      2. When watching football on TV, you focus on
         a. the quarterback
         b. the defensive linemen

      3. You drive to work
         a. the same route every day
         b. with a different route every once in a while

      4. Which card game do you prefer?
         a. bridge
         b. poker

      5. To plan for tomorrow's weather
         a. You check the TV or internet.
         b. You go outside, looking for signals.

      6. Who do you prefer?
         a. Andrew Carnegie
         b. Marie Curie

      7. You prefer
         a. your keyboard
         b. your mouse

      8. Which subject do you prefer?
         a. history
         b. literature

      9. Which would you rather do?
         a. take a walk in the woods
         b. a crossword puzzle

      10. Which is more important to you?
          a. time
          b. space

Answer: If you tried to figure out (game) the test as you took it, you have a programmer's aptitude. If not, you don't, and probably don't even understand this answer.

<comment><USER17> I was starting to lean towards 'A' being the more programmer-ish set of answers, based on the hypothesis that the scoring of the test would be something like the number of 'A's one answered, but some of the questions really confused me until I got to the end....

<comment><USER18> It's also possible to have completely random answers, with a key at the bottom....

<comment><USER17> I considered that possibility, but felt that it was less likely than an all-A or all-B type of scoring system. But you're right, I started questioning that assumption after several questions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think it's a bit of a generalisation, but one often made by others to suggest that programmers think differently.

To a computer user, their approach to solving a problem may be different than a programmer's (want to be able to do this, write program to do it) but the same traits that commonly exist in competent programmers also exist in other professions. Am I a programmer? I program, I write software that I earn money from, but it's not the main part of my profession, so perhaps I'm not qualified to talk about this.

Many lawyers see the world in a different way to the rest of us. Marketers often see the world differently. I can't really speak for them though as I'm definitely not a lawyer or marketer.

What I can tell you about are penetration testers. When you look at a building, you probably look at the shape, admire the architecture, maybe look around to see if it fits in with it's surroundings. A penetration tester (a seasoned one anyway) doesn't do that. They're looking at entrances, exits, security guards, windows. It's automatic. The other stuff comes too, but experienced pentesters who enjoy their job see the world in a completely different way to a lot of people. When you see a shiny new piece of tech, a pentester's already thinking about how to jailbreak it and what they want to do with it afterwards. There's a specific mindset for a good pentester. Not all penetration testers have it, but you can spot the ones that do a mile off.

I dare say that this mindset exists amongst programmers too, particularly those that have done a lot of debugging or TDD. I'm just more familiar with the penetration tester mindset given my experiences.

</comment><comment><USER20> I think programmers think differently in the same way long distance runners run differently or basketball players play basketball differently than non-*ers. Programming exercises a certain subset of human cognition - abstraction, symbolic expression, modeling. I do think programmers are more adept at these faculties, because they use them all the time. How much this bleeds over into "thinking" generally, who knows.

</comment><comment><USER21> A couple days ago, I submitted this article to HN [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19940-chess- grandmaste...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19940-chess-grandmasters- use-twice-the-brain.html) . Basically, it says grandmasters use both hemispheres of their brain while playing chess while novice only use the left side.

I agree with his point that almost anyone could learn to program, but what I don't agree with is that a programmer(expert) and a non-programmer thinks the same.

I think your brain re-wires itself to be more efficient for the task and recruits the right hemisphere of your brain to make intuitive jumps to solve problems. I don't have solid proof, but I think a similar transformation happens in a programmers(expert) brain as what happens in a grandmaster brain.

</comment><comment><USER22> I think this sort of in-group superiority effect is likely to occur for pretty much any male-dominated obsession with a large body of associated arcane knowledge. For example, gamers have in-jokes like "the cake is a lie".

At the same time, I have worked as a programming tutor and there are some people who suck really hard at programming. They're probably just stupid though. For example, I tutored a kid who absolutely couldn't program for beans but did well in a physics class we took together. But I think it's likely that he did well through pattern recognition, aping example problems and so on. In programming, you really have to understand what's going on.

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm not sure how I feel about the "killed or injured" bit under obsession.

Every couple of weeks, I get into the zone while driving my car. For this the situation needs to be just right, i.e. the road can't be empty, but it can't be full of cars either. Basically the ideal situation is that there's just enough cars that you can't stay in the same line while maintaining your preferred speed, but there's enough switching lanes is viable.

On those days I might get 'in the zone' and have intensely heightened situational awareness. I 'feel' the cars around me and can easily navigate the road like I was flowing through a river (aside: 'flow' is a synonym for 'zone').

Situational awareness is also a key trait in becoming proficient in an FPS. In fact, almost anytime a video gamer goes on a kill streak it's because they were able to tap into heightened situational awareness (e.g. you 'feel' your enemies, know where they're going to come from, so you take them out before they take you out). The only difference is that since it's front of a computer screen it's easy to be misled that you are ignoring everything.

You are just ignoring everything irrelevant.

</comment><comment><USER24> I feel pretty confident that learning to program rewires the brain in some ways. I think if you take a random set of 18-year-olds with at least some math aptitude and give them some analytical tasks, then give some of them a year or so of good programming instruction and practice, you will see different areas light up on MRI on the same tasks.

If he is saying programmers are born no different from other math/science/engineering types then I mostly agree. Of course if you compare those to the general population there are a lot of poet types who can't really learn math or symbolic systems so programmers are born somewhat different from the population as a whole.

<comment><AUTHOR> I would put poets amongst the manipulators of symbols par excellence. They manipulate the language we humans use, programmers manipulate symbols defined to interact with a machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> When considering programmer to be "anyone who writes some code", I agree.

But when considering programmer to be someone who is comfortable:

\- operating on multiple planes of abstraction

\- using recursion/pointers

\- 'seeing' the concepts embodied under computer languages

\- 'seeing' the code flow

Then, yes, the programmer does think differently. Because it's his job to think this way to communicate correctly to the computer. Not that it's unattainable by someone outside of the field, but by the act of becoming competent, it changes the one coming in.

<comment><AUTHOR> Only the first one is a skill that 'non programmers' would readily exhibit, the rest of them are things that you learn as you go while you learn to program.

Outside of math I think you'll have a hard time explaining what recursion is to someone that does not already know how to code at a basic level (a subroutine that calls itself! wow!), seeing the concepts 'under' computer languages may be something you could discuss with linguists and/or mathematicians again but not with others and 'seeing the code flow' you might be able to talk over with a laywer or someone in to electronics (who can 'see' the currents flow when looking at a schematic).

<comment><USER25> I'm not saying _anything_ about innate ability. Just as a lawyer gains 'legal lenses' as they work through law school, so do programmers gain 'software lenses'.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This may just be my circle of reach, but I am yet to discover a programmer with decent vision or initiative. Most have really poor business ideas and tend to focus too heavily on the technical problems and pitfalls of an idea rather than thinking of how to solve them and extrapolate the idea further. Programmers are horrible people to attempt to brainstorm with (even when you yourself have a passable grasp on coding).

</comment><comment><USER27> I think the ability to abstract problems is fundamental for any good programmer. However I don't think this is a unique requirement for programmers - physicists, chemists and mathematicians alike need high skills in abstraction. In all of those sciences you need to break down an arbitrarily complex problem down into simpler ones and this requires a way of thinking that might be quite different from other people.</comment>


Kottke.org redesigns using private beta of Hoefler & Frere-Jones webfont service - <AUTHOR> http://kottke.org/12/03/kottkeorg-redesign-2012-version

<comment><USER2> Good to see Kottke still churning out top posts after so many years.

But... a little disappointed that an announced redesign like this does not include support for responsive/liquid/mobile-first viewport width.

>> I made the reading column wider (640px) ...

Hard-coded pixel widths are not friendly to the proliferation of mobile devices and screen sizes these days.

<comment><USER3> It's not too bad on an iPhone viewpoint wise, but the fancy font rendering seems to be rendering blank spaces before it downloads the font or whatever it is doing, which is a bit odd.

<comment><USER4> That's not fancy, that's standard Safari behavior. Safari waits until the font is downloaded until it displays text. Some other browsers display text immediately and switch the font later. There are good arguments for both approaches.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Has anyone on HN used the H&F-J webfont service? There are probably NDAs involved with the private beta, but I'd love to hear more about it, in terms of performance, rendering, available fonts, etc.

</comment><comment><USER6> How can I sign up for their beta, or when is it expected to launch?

It's so weird to see this when I was just thinking to roll my own webfont of Whitney and test it out. I've done this before for another HF&J font before and it was not fun (besides probably violating some TOS). You have to hack the font file to get fontsquirrel to spit it out, and even then some letters rendered improperly on Windows. I'd be happy to just pay for the service..

</comment><comment><USER3> Rather poor performance on going to the front page, <http://kottke.org/> The initial viewport comes up fast, but it takes over 10 seconds to finish loading and be able to scroll. Wonder what is causing that?

Maybe hanging while it is filling in the Facebook and Twitter buttons on each post?

<comment><USER7> Jason embeds content from all over the place. If you load the page while running Chrome's developer tools open to the network tab, you can see the wild variety of hosts being touched. Many of these will involve separate DNS lookups and TCP/IP connection overhead. I've always viewed it as a consequence of his format, and well worth the wait.

<comment><USER3> He doesn't mirror the images? That seems... risky.

<comment><USER7> He doesn't need to. The content he embeds is designed to be embedded.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Really looking forward to being able to use Archer and Ideal Sans on the web. My work is about to become a whole lot prettier.

</comment><comment><USER9> Love Kottke. Glad he kept the original look with updated fonts.</comment>


California Man Pleads Guilty in Deadly Wichita Swatting Case - <AUTHOR> https://www.justice.gov/usao-ks/pr/california-man-pleads-guilty-deadly-wichita-swatting-case <comment><USER2> > A man who came outside to face police, however, had done nothing wrong and > did not know about the swatting call. As he stepped onto the porch, police > told him to put up his hands. When he unexpectedly dropped his hands, he was > shot and killed.

The number of times I've read an account of this kind of scenario playing out in the past few years is absolutely mind-boggling and depressing. The fact that in the US you can so easily be shot to bits by police just by accidentally making a small incorrect movement is just insane to me. I understand that police face real threats and need to take precautions to protect their own lives, but _surely_ there must a better system to accomplish this other than requiring someone to immediately perform a sequence of body movements without making a single mistake or else you kill them.

<comment><USER3> Non-deadly force has been completely ignored. Why not just incapacitate the suspect?

<comment><USER4> With the way incentives are set up right now, there's no reason to. For all practical purposes, police are completely immune to any consequences of unjustified killings– DA's never ever prosecute cops and internal affairs departments are do-nothing bodies designed only to make it look like there's some accountability– so there's no reason to not always use the maximum amount of force "just in case".

<comment><USER5> Or, if you do get fired, you just move to the police department in the town next door, or from city to county, or county to state. It's the standard practice for communities with no incentive to prosecute (like the Vatican shuffling around rapist priests and bishops instead of bringing them to judgment).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The man who pled guilty was calling in a swatting or a bomb threat every two to three days for the three months before he was caught. It took someone dying to actually get a serious investigation.

\- Initial charges (including twitter logs, 911 call transcript) [https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/05/24/barrissindictment.pdf](https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/05/24/barrissindictment.pdf)

\- 46 additional charges for bomb threats and other swattings. [https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5019352/Barriss-I...](https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5019352/Barriss- Information-10-24-18.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER7> What happened to the policeman who did the actual killing?

<comment><USER8> Looks like "nothing" \- the DA declined to charge him and whilst there was an internal investigation, that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere either.

<comment><USER7> The contrast between the fate of the swatter and the killer is quite... striking. Makes it look as if police has no agency not to kill.

<comment><USER9> "When crime is acceptable, make no mistake.. the criminals will be the ones wearing the uniforms and badges of honor."

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What about this: A device that uses a camera and laser galvo to temporarily blind people by scanning a laser in their face. If someone is blind then they can't aim a gun. This could be useful for both police wanting protection from citizens and visa versa.

</comment><comment><USER11> One of these days, there's going to be a swatting case that's deadly for the police.

<comment><USER12> Not swatting, but no-knock raids have gone badly for the police before[0].

[0] [https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/courtroom-files/texas-man- fou...](https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/courtroom-files/texas-man-found-not- guilty-for-shooting-three-cops-during-noknock-raid-ehraX84ZEUi9Q0___1p4XA/)

<comment><USER13> And there, as here, the police refused to accept any responsibility for their actions.</comment></comment></comment>


Scaling Data Science at Airbnb - <AUTHOR> http://nerds.airbnb.com/scaling-data-science/

<comment><USER2> I like AirBNB, but this article doesn't seem to espouse much besides "AirBNB has grown like crazy and that makes things tricky" and "We don't treat numbers like medieval doctors treated the humours".

Data-driven decision making is a generally dope thing, but the number one pitfall of using data as your number one periscope is that for anything more complicated than Yes/No questions, you can pretty much skew things however you want. [^1]

Along those lines -- the article talks about the importance of _customer- driven decisions_ , which is something I 100% agree with, but doesn't really expand on it. It ends with the thesis " _Data is the (aggregated) voice of our customers_ ", but what steps do the folks at AirBnB take to make sure that this data is more than pale proxies for voice?

[^1] I'm probably the umpteenth person to invoke this in the past 24 hours, but _lies, damned lies, and statistics_ , you know?

<comment><USER3> We marry quantitative data from our data teams with a gamut of user research from our marketing and customer experience teams. We use our qualitative data to check what our quantitative data is telling us, and vis versa. There's generally enough eyes on our statistics to keep them from turning into damn lies ;).

Edit: my views not the company's, bla bla etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are so many market buzz words in this article.

I'm comparing this to [https://medium.com/@samson_hu/building-analytics- at-500px-92...](https://medium.com/@samson_hu/building-analytics- at-500px-92e9a7005c83)

That was a much better article. Look at me I can throw buzz words! Democracy for data!

The article for 500px is much more juicy and have great details on what they do.

Perhaps I'm mistaking these data science vocabs for buzz words.

</comment><comment><USER5> Surely one black developer or data scientist good enough to join your team exists out there, AirBnB. Go find them!

<comment><USER6> Why?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I couldn't stand the waffling after the first 3 paragraphs, so I have to ask to anyone who suffered thought this: does it say anything about how they use data to make things better for _users_ , rather than for 'growth hacking' (ugh I loathe that phrase) or increasing click rates?

</comment><comment><USER8> Airbnb is a great example of how date science, metrics, users feedback and growth hacking have been totally integrated to the marketing development of the service. Their amazing growth proved how important it is to focus on people more than numbers.

</comment><comment><USER9> Can you write another blog about data science?</comment>


Failover Architectures: The Infrastructural Excess of the Data Centre Industry - <AUTHOR> https://failedarchitecture.com/failover-architectures-the-infrastructural-excess-of-the-data-centre-industry/ <comment><USER2> There may be an interesting debate to be had about the role of the Jevons Paradox in cloud computing but this article just hints at it. Poetic FUD is still FUD.

</comment><comment><USER3> This article is content-free blather with a show-off vocabulary. I am dumber for having read even half of it.</comment>


Hulu is now the only place to watch 'Bob's Burgers' - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/11/hulu-exclusive-bobs-burgers/ <comment><USER2> ...in the US.

Definitely not in the UK, as I've just watched an episode on Comedy Central.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does Fox know this?</comment>


Free Unlimited Photo Storage with Amazon Prime Membership - <AUTHOR> https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/primephotos/ref=pmv_mpph <comment><USER2> This is a referral link, no news here.

</comment><comment><USER3> you can also sign up to unlimited photos and 5GB for $11.99 a year</comment>


Ask HN: Real time one way replication on Linux? - <AUTHOR> Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a solution to synchronize in real time the content of a server on a local machine, but once the content has been fetched once, I would like to be able to remove, rename or move it without it to be downloaded again. Have you heard of a solution for this ? <comment><USER2> [http://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync](http://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync)</comment>


WebGL Water Demo - <AUTHOR> http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/ <comment><USER2> One case it doesn't handle at all is abrupt movement underwater (vertically or horizontally), which has significant displacement effects (which you see in faultslip-caused tsunami).

</comment><comment><USER3> It is kind of sad that when I used to play games, we didn't have anithing like this! Modern graphics is impressive.</comment>


AWS Activate - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/activate/

<comment><USER2> So it's just the free usage tier with a forum tacked on, or if already have funding you get free credits.

<comment><USER3> And some support.. but yeah, it seems so.

The startups who'll get the most benefit here are the ones already getting the most help from accelerators or funds. Just a clever and low risk marketing experiment from AWS, IMHO.

<comment><AUTHOR> \+ some technical training through labs and web-based mechanisms

\+ access to new startup forum at AWS

<comment><USER3> Training on using _their platform_ for _their_ commercial benefit. That should be the default anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe this was pre-seeded by my thoughts of Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack but did anyone else see the penis at the beginning of the video?

<comment><USER5> > Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack

That's a silly (and predictable) criticism. Of course this is Amazon getting their product into the hands of potential large, future customer. Business Development 101.

What isn't clear is why that should be considered a bad thing? Startups have little money and little time. If this allows them to get a product out faster and for less money than otherwise, why not? Every little helps. As others have pointed out, they're not locking you in any more than any other external provider would.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This looks like Amazon's answer to BizSpark[0] which includes three years of free software, etc. including $60K worth of Azure services for two years[1].

[0] [http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/](http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/)

[1] [http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx](http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER7> SoftLayer has been doing something like this for a while now, $1k/month of free hosting:

[http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst](http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst)

</comment><comment><USER8> I suppose this is in response to Google pushing it's developer platform. Are they going to match Google's free tier and tendency to drop credits on developers at the drop of a hat?

<comment><USER9> The AWS free tier is pretty generous, and I was randomly gifted a $100 credit a few months back because _I_ accidentally bought a reserved instance in EC2-Classic rather than EC2-VPC and had to file a ticket on it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My experience is that the free tier is pretty useless any way. If you want to just test something, then one micro instance is fine. But if you actually want to run a basic web app? One micro instance does not work.

The weird thing is that all the other services have decent, useful free tiers that give you enough resources for your beta phase at least. Why is EC2 so low? Maybe make it 750 hours total for any set of instances?

<comment><USER11> You can certainly run a basic app on a micro instance, unless it has to run in a JVM, maybe.

<comment><USER10> Not at reasonable performance or in high availability mode. Like I said it is fine for testing and that is about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The self-starter package is pretty much useless as it is the same as what they have already. The portfolio package seems excellent. I understand they want the cream of the crop, but I wish there was an option to submit your startup for a case-by-case review. We are burning about $1k/mo on AWS and it would be great if we could get some of this funding. It would go a real long way.

<comment><USER13> Seems like a case for an "accelerator" that only exists insofar as it vouches for otherwise-self-sufficient startups and has access to the portfolio package. Kind of like how CDBaby works/worked as a label on iTMS. (Or kind of like libraries getting subscriptions to scientific journals for the benefits of their patrons.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> They are like Heroin Dealers, first injection is free ;) just try it.

<comment><USER15> It's not like you can't port it over to your own infrastructure if AWS starts getting too costly.

<comment><USER16> Porting to your infrastructure is not a simple task if you're using AWS services beyond EC2 (DynamoDB, SQS, etc.).

And I don't mean this as a criticism of AWS. We're happy users and have no plans to move off. Just don't underestimate the cost of moving.

<comment><USER15> It _is_ expensive, but it's also possible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What I can't understand is if the plan is free for one year only like the free tier or if there is another limit.

Anyone knows?

<comment><USER18> I read it as it would last beyond one year, unlike the normal free tier, but I'd like some clarification as well.

Edit: Re-reading it (particularly the "AWS Promotional Credit" section at the bottom) leads me to believe that the free tier is exactly the same as the regular free tier and it expires 12 months from sign-up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The DNS service (Route 53 - [https://aws.amazon.com/route53/](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/)) seems to be missing from the free tier ... other than that, it looks like everything you need.

<comment><AUTHOR> Remember that these core services are free for only 12 months. After that, it's pay as you go at the usual rates. On the plus side, some of the other services -- DynamoDB, Simple Workflow, Simple Queue Service, Simple Notification Service, Amazon Elastic Transcoder, and CloudWatch -- are still eligible for the free tier after the first year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The self-starter package looks just like the free trail package.

</comment><comment><USER21> How is the free tier service if i want to host a single launch page for my startup which will take email IDs in a form and send email via the PEAR library ?

</comment><comment><USER22> Thanks? I guess...

<comment><USER22> Is anyone down voting me who doesn't work for Amazon? I really don't see how this offer is anything to get excited about. What am I missing?

<comment><USER23> It's a huge company acknowledging start ups and offering them some free services. The free tier is pretty awesome as it is, and they "only" offered a couple more free services on top of that. I don't know, I'm using AWS and I'm not like shitting-my-pants excited but I think it's cool. I'm definitely not going to be a snob about it even if I wasn't using them though.

/doesn't work for amazon, but also didn't/can't downvote you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Looks like the page is down, isn't?

Not good for the business be off-line in the announcement day, IMHO.

<comment><USER2> Works fine here and worked before.</comment></comment>


One device to drive them all (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.lse.epita.fr/articles/81-bmii-odtdta.html <comment><USER2> SEC_ERROR_EXPIRED_CERTIFICATE</comment>


Students Paying More and Getting Less, Study Says - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/us/16college.html

<comment><USER2> I was reminded of this old essay: <http://philip.greenspun.com/school/tuition- free-mit.html>

I think education is one of the two biggest bubbles in the economy right now. It has become a bigger and bigger part of the economy, and more and more bureaucratic, and it is not clear that society is getting more bang for the buck than we did 60 years ago.</comment>


Nintendo: Apple's Latest Prey - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904888304576473493285312436.html <comment><USER2> I am neither the best analyst nor do I have any information. But I am going to comment on this mainly because, having owned almost everything they released and because I have a lot of great memories from its games, I am really emotional about Nintendo.

They have been in the industry for almost 40 years: started distributing Magnavox in 1974, made huge success with Donkey Kong arcade in 1981 and released their first consoles in the beginning of the same decade (Game Watch and Famicom-NES).

No company has made it that far, no company has been so innovative and no company has had the lows of Ninty (Sony is probably having a bad era with PS3 but that's their first bad release -handhelds excluded- and Microsoft has been doing fantastic with all XBoxes). Furthermore, no company managed to even come close to Nintendo in the handhelds.

As much as I love Apple (and can even consider myself kind of a fanboy) I just can't stand it when they try to involve it everywhere and explain everything as a result of its success.

Nintendo is Nintendo's prey, they dug the hole that they fell into. The 3DS is not selling bad because people are buying Angry Birds instead of Super Mario. It's not selling well because, well, what is there to sell? It's unbelievable that Nintendo released a handheld with such a weak launch-titles line. Tell me one game that will make you want to buy 3DS. You don't buy a console and then wait for games to come out. You want the games there. Unless it's something really major, like the Wii, when you can see its potential and you can do with games like Wii Sports for a while.

But the 3DS is a handheld, I am not going to buy it just to spend 10 minutes on a Piccadilly line ride playing mini games and waiting for a few major games to come out, when they come, with the quality they come out, etc.. I can compare that to playing Doodle Jump and Doodle Jump wins easily. What I can't compare to Doodle Jump is a Zelda/Mario/AAA game on my 3DS.

It's not about Apple vs Nintendo, nobody will buy an iPhone to play video games. And it's not about whether Nintendo can do well as a iOS/Android/WebOS games developer. Of course they can and I hope they do if they get in such a bad position. What it really is about is whether Nintendo can help handheld gaming keep its value.

Also, it's not hard to see that they are going to fall into another hole if they don't do MAJOR things with the WiiU. So I am kind of glad that the 3DS release wasn't successful, I can hope they are getting a few messages..

</comment><comment><USER3> Nintendo's in an _awfully_ tough spot here. Their success in expanding the market to non-gamers (the "blue ocean strategy") puts them in exactly the wrong place for 2011 where it appears likely that most dedicated gaming systems are going to be owned by the hardcore going forward. Many of their newly-won customers from the last few years now have all the games they could want on systems they already own and those games have average price tags of maybe 20% of what they are on traditional platforms. And they're better connected for social, too.

So Nintendo doesn't have room to make particularly enticing hardware - it'd have to be super-cheap to tear people away from platforms they already own for other reasons but it'd probably have to be super-expensive to be different enough to be exciting.

And, even worse for them, the bottom has completely dropped out of software pricing. It's tough to pay $40 for a 3DS game that I'm likely to play less than something for $2.99 on the App Store. I'd buy Mario and Zelda for it, but that's probably it.

With the very Nintendo "make something cheap but that's so different and so cool that everybody with an iPad would still want it" option off the table, what can they do? Can they survive just selling <$10 games on somebody else's hardware? Maybe a partnership? An Android partnership doesn't seem likely to deliver Nintendo quality in the short term at least and Apple is quite unlikely to partner with them. No other mobile platform seems worth their time.

I do wonder if there's a team working on Zelda for iOS... And another team preparing a massive reorganization. Seems like a terrible option but I don't see what else is going to be available to them. Hope they can find a good way out of it because they're one of the most innovative companies in the world.

<comment><USER4> I agree with the general gist of your post, but I actually think there is still a large market for casual gaming hardware in the living room.

Consider that the Microsoft Kinect broke the record for consumer electronic devices for selling the most units in 60 days. Yes, it even outsold the iPad.

[http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/03/kinec...](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/03/kinect_breaks_sales_record.html)

<comment><USER5> Are casual gamers the ones who buy devices in the first 60 days after launch, though? Most "casual" gamers probably still aren't really sure exactly what a Kinect is or what it does. (I know I'm not...)

<comment><USER6> Casual gamers are driven by trends and early adopters. A lot of these people know what Kinect is because their "nerd friend Alphonso" won't stop talking about how cool it is. Don't knock the early adopter crowd just because they are small; while they may be that, their extended social circle is generally large enough to sway even the mainstream numbers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My Kids have DS's. But for Christmas, I bought each of them and my wife an iPod touch.

The concept was simple, I spend about $70 more per device, but instead of buying $500 worth of games over the next 2 years, I will probably spend $50. Why buy $35 DS games when the kids are happy with free and $2 iOS games?

Also, Nintendo should have been smarter than to bet on 3D. The theaters can do it to up-charge us for a minimally better experience, but most people could care less if 3D just went away. The fact that Nintendo bought into "3D is the future" feels very 1985 to me.

The DS and DSi are so good, and the kids love them so much, my personal opinion is simply to move in the direction handhelds have been moving already - better graphics and faster processors. The next step is to lower the prices of their games, but I don't see that happening.

<comment><USER8> Re: 3D, it's way beyond Nintendo...

It does seem many seemingly sane companies are going off the deep end here. What's with 3D? No one I know cares for or buys this crap (at least knowingly, one happened to buy a 3D-capable HDTV, but he's never attested to using it for that purpose)

<comment><USER5> Y'know what it reminds me of? The "Virtual Reality" craze of the early 90s. Everybody went on about how awesome it was that in a few years time, once the graphics hardware caught up, we'd all be putting on virtual reality helmets, not just for games, but for _everything_. "Man", people said after playing Dactyl Nightmare for the first time, "when the graphics get better, and we figure out how to make small, light screens, this is going to be awesome!"

What happened? Well, the graphics caught up, and we figured out how to make small, light screens, but we also figured out that wearing a virtual reality helmet is annoying, gives you a headache, and really doesn't give you any more feeling of immersion than just watching a big flat screen.

<comment><USER7> Exactly, which is why I made the 1985 remark. It feels like the helmets all over again. Why not have Max Headroom do an ad for the 3DS and we're all good.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Was anyone ever excited about the 3DS, or its pricetag? Think that is more to blame than Apple.

<comment><USER10> Most my favorite games over the last 3-4 years have been on the DS so I might have been if it hadn't been for the fact that I've been enjoying games on my iPhone and iPad almost as much.

If Square/Enix released more games for those platforms I'd be excited and would stop even considering getting a 3DS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you were a parent, which would you rather buy?

1\. iPod Touch, $229. Most games are $1, but some go up to $5.

2\. 3DS, $249. Many games are $40. Even old games are $20.

Even with a price drop, I'm not sure the economics work out for Nintendo.

<comment><USER5> By the time my kids are old enough to be trusted with portable electronic devices, they'll be old enough to have their own allowances and make their own damn decision about what do buy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Apple has huge stashes of cash. I keep wondering when they'll do something, like purchasing Nintendo. So far, all of their purchases have seemed pretty minor.

I think most iOS games are low quality. Even when they are extremely polished, they lack depth. Having brand new mario and zelda games on the platforms would reverse this.

Beyond that, from the little bit that I know about Nintendo's next console platform, it sounds basically exactly like Apple TV plus an iPad.

Beyond that, Apple also has a really strong platform for distributing software over the air to non-desktop/laptop devices. I think Apple is in a better position for next-gen gaming. I don't know if the next Nintendo console is going to have games that are distributed via physical media, but if they do, I wont be buying one. At this point, having to go out and buy a game, and getting up to switch games, are big negatives.

I'm not sure if nintendo has enough experience to do this right. It looks like 3ds games are still sent via physical media, not over the net. Besides that, using the Wii for watching Netflix nightly leaves me with the distinct impression that the Wii was designed with internet usage almost as an afterthought, certainly not as a core function of the device. Which is fine, but even basic functionality improvements haven't happened. Every time you switch networks on the wii, it asks you to perform a system update, which takes 5+ minutes to _check_ to see if your system needs updated. Which seems insane to me for something that amounts to sending a hash of app_ids -> versions.

Additionally, Apple tries to remain very family-friendly, which is a market that Nintendo dominates in the traditional gaming market.

It certainly seems like a smart move.

<comment><USER12> I'd guess in about 18 months when Wii U flops in holiday 2012 there is going to be a huge bidding war between Microsoft and Apple for Nintendo exclusivity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For all that has been said about gaming on the iPod/Android, the state of the art in games there is still pretty low-rent, low-budget.

I mean, what's the big hit? Angry Birds, which looks like it was written by one guy in two weeks. Sure, people enjoy playing it, but it strikes me that the market for big fancy games is still not served on these devices.

There's a market in between "casual" and "hardcore". I don't want a game I have to practice for five hundred hours before I stop being a "n00b"... but on the other hand I do want a game that can really hold my attention on a twelve- hour plane ride. Something with a real story, and an adventure, that progresses as I play through it, and where my reward for playing more is something other than "now do the same thing with a more complicated series of boxes".

</comment><comment><USER13> As a Nintendo customer, their software lineup has become very uncompelling. To the point where my Wii & DS haven't been turned on in over a year+ and there's no reason to buy the 3DS (even with price drop). N64 ports and other remakes aren't appealing.

Nintendo has been complacent riding the gravy train of casual gaming (Wii Sports type minigames, fitness, etc) for great financial success that doesn't constitute epic AAA gaming (core franchises like Zelda, Metroid, etc).

They aren't competing well VS direct competition (Sony, MS). With iOS & Android platforms to contend with, it isn't going to get any easier for Nintendo.

To compete against free & .99 cent app store games, Nintendo needs compelling, epic AAA games at the $30+ price point that they charge for. Not 3rd party shovelware.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think Nintendo's valuables are not in hardware (anyone can build a hand-held console these days) but in the huge library of very famous games.

If 3DS has lost the game, nothing stops Nintendo from re-releasing some of popular old games for iPhone (perhaps developing a descent emulator for iOS) and keep writing more excellent games in future.

Example: iD made another stash of green from Apple's app store when Carmack released Wolfenstein 3D for iPhone.

<comment><USER15> If they do ports, then Nintendo stops being a hardware company.

They'd have to fire a /lot/ of people, for starters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Lately when friends ask my advice about which DS, I suggest getting an iPod Touch instead unless they're really dying to have Nintendo property games (Mario). It does more than just games, no cartridges to lose, and the kids will want an iPod soon anyways.

Even the equivalent games are cheaper. LEGO Harry Potter is $4.99 on iOS vs. $14.99-19.99 on the DS. Sims 3 is $6.99 on iOS vs. $27.99 on the DS.

<comment><USER6> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that when most people think of a DS, or any other Nintendo product, the Nintendo properties are the first thing on their minds. If you are getting a DS you probably want to play Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, or Metroid. If those do not interest you, then you are still more likely to be interested in some sort of JRPG or maybe a fighting game.

I am a gamer, and I was not even aware that there was any sort of market for LEGO Harry Potter or Sims 3 on a DS. In this case I think the stats support my view: <http://www.gamestats.com/index/gpm/nintendo-ds.html>

You may note there are only four non-Nintendo properties in the top 20 popular games, and of them only one (GTA) has a native iOS port, while one more (FF6) could technically run on a SNES emulator. I hope no one asking you for game platform advice was hoping to play any of the most popular portable games of the day.</comment></comment>


C# Extension Methods Demystified - <AUTHOR> http://geekswithblogs.net/BlackRabbitCoder/archive/2013/03/08/c.net-little-wonders-extension-methods-demystified.aspx

<comment><USER2> The C# (and presumably VB) compiler just looks for an attribute with the right namespace and name (System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute). If you're using .NET 2.0 you can get extension methods just by declaring you own attribute with that name and using it.

This is also another area where C# took a narrow view of language features and implemented the bare minimum needed to get LINQ working. Why not take a general view of type extensions, and support type extensions as a proper feature versus a hack for LINQ? That is, support all members, including static members, for type extensions.

<comment><USER3> I also prefer F#'s more general approach, which allows all kinds of extension members (static or instance, methods, properties, and events). But members of the C# team have repeatedly explained that they were the "long pole" during the LINQ work, so I think it's perfectly understandable that they took a more limited approach.

<comment><USER2> That explanation works for C# 3, but there have been two major releases since, which added relatively little to the language. They could have rounded out the LINQ-only stuff by now.

<comment><USER4> C# 4.0 brought support for Dynamic, a pretty damn big change. And of course optional and default parameters, another huge boon.

Then C# 5.0 brought Async, a huge feature.

In terms of making the language more powerful I would call those on par with extending out extension methods.

<comment><USER5> And I think most of the compiler team has been busy with roslyn, which sounds like a pretty big rewrite.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I use extension methods in a MonoTouch app for different purposes.

* adding useful hacks to Apple classes:

        UIView FindTitleView (this UINavigationBar bar)
        string GetDeviceName (this UIDevice device)

* keeping formatting consistent across the app:

        string FormatViewCount (this Document doc)
        string FormatCommentDate (this Comment comment)

* sometimes I really want to separate the class and some functions operating on its data, or providing useful helpers _on top of_ this class:

        string SuggestTitle (this Document doc)
        Uri [] GetResources (this Document doc)

Because they live in different namespaces, I only see UIKit and formatting extensions in UI code, data analysis in business layer, and so on.

</comment><comment><USER7> One of my favorite uses of extension methods is to have semi-intelligent type coercers/converters.

For example:

      public static string AsString(this object me, string defaultValue = null)
      public static int AsInt(this object me, int defaultValue = default(int))
      public static float AsFloat(this object me, float defaultValue = default(float))
      public static double AsDouble(this object me, double defaultValue = default(double))
      public static Uri AsUri(this object me, Uri defaultValue = null)
      public static bool AsBool(this object me, bool defaultValue = default(bool))

It's handy because you can do null checking in the extension method. Additionally, you can add some extra logic for converting specific runtime types. For example, calling .AsBool() on a string can check if the contents of the string is "1" or "true".

</comment><comment><USER8> One good use I have found for extension methods in C# is providing object.verb methods for enums.

<comment><USER9> Could you elaborate on that? An example?

<comment><USER10> I'm not OP, but something like:

            public static int ToInt(this BaudRate baudRate)
            {
                switch (baudRate)
                {
                    case BaudRate.BaudUnsupported:
                        return 0;
                    case BaudRate.Baud1200:
                        return 1200;
                    case BaudRate.Baud2400:
                        return 2400;
                    case BaudRate.Baud4800:
                        return 4800;
                    case BaudRate.Baud9600:
                        return 9600;
                    case BaudRate.Baud19200:
                        return 19200;
                    case BaudRate.Baud38400:
                        return 38400;
                    case BaudRate.Baud57600:
                        return 57600;
                    case BaudRate.Baud115200:
                        return 115200;
                    case BaudRate.Baud230400:
                        return 230400;
                    default:
                        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("baudRate");
                }

Not exactly the best example (and not necessarily the best way to do that), but it's a quick one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm sceptic to devs who don't treasure their own string, IEnumerable etc extensions ;)

<comment><USER11> My favourite is probably String.NotNullOrEmpty, I really hate to prepend ! to stuff.

<comment><USER12> But on the other hand: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/734372/string- isnulloremp...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/734372/string- isnullorempty-vs-string-notnullorempty)</comment></comment></comment>


Cloak and dagger – a new kind of attacks for Android - <AUTHOR> http://cloak-and-dagger.org/ <comment><USER2> Note that Android O now clearly shows a warning when an app is rendering an overlay - probably the reason why the issues were marked wontfix.

As usual, getting the fix on the older versions is a whole different story.

The other Google failing here is the whole permission thing - since 6.0 Android apps need to ask for permissions for drawing over other app. However, for some really baffling reason Google still lets us publish APKs that target API below 6.0, which automatically triggers fallback mode which grants permissions at install time. Why I have no idea.

<comment><USER3> Not everyone is using android >6, or am I missing something?

<comment><USER4> Android applications take 2 SDK versions into account: 'target SDK' and 'minimum sdk'. The target value allows you to use APIs up to that version but also uses that version's toolchain, thereby enforcing any behavior changes or new requirements (in a backwards compatible fashion). Minimum SDK is just that: the absolute lowest Android version the app will run on.

A brand new blank slate app will be configured with a target SDK of 25 (latest Nougat) and a minimum SDK of 14 (Ice Cream Sandwich iirc). This means it will run on ancient devices but also be able to use the latest Nougat APIs (when available.) However, because it is targeting 23+ (6.0), it will force you to use runtime permission prompts and stuff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This seems like a refinement of "tap-jacking", which is a pretty well-known UI redressing attack for Android apps, and works in a way that is somewhat similar to "clickjacking" on web pages --- an invisible frame is rendered on top of the application that captures inputs (as opposed to an opaque frame that obscures the legitimate application and tricks you into interacting with it).

The big limitation on these attacks is that you have to install a malicious application _and then_ trick people into getting to a situation where the application can interact with a specific target; that's something that should be straightforward for app stores to screen for.

<comment><USER6> I agree. Once you've got the malicious app, it's already too late. As they point out, Facebook could arguably tap jack all your passwords too. Known issue, so pretending it's a new issue by giving it a new name is silly.

<comment><USER7> I'm less concerned with whether it's original and more with whether it's a serious silent attack on my phone (yes?). And whether Google intends to fix the problem (no?).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> From the section marked "Responsible Disclosure":

> Current — All the attacks discussed by this work are still practical, even > with latest version of Android (Android 7.1.2, with security patches of May > 5th installed).

Honest question - does HN feel this is actually responsible disclosure? A large number of Android devices seem to be vulnerable to the issue, and the whitepaper includes exploit details. Is the intent to force Google to pay attention to the issue?

<comment><USER5> There's no such thing as "responsible disclosure".

The term is, quite literally, an Orwellian scheme to promote vendor interests as if they were naturally shared by those of researchers and users. A more neutral term is "coordinated disclosure". We can discuss how carefully coordinated things are, but there is --- to say the least --- a lot of disagreement about how much responsibility researchers have for coordinating this kind of stuff with vendors who shouldn't be shipping vulnerable code in the first place.

A warning in advance, though: this is a pretty boring discussion to be having on a thread about a new kind of vulnerability. Better that we should be talking about the merits of the paper itself.

<comment><USER9> I don't get this logic that much.

Your neighbor left their door unlocked. You have their phone number. You can call them to tell them first, and make a funny FB post about the event afterwards. Or you could just post about it on FB.

Not to mention that the users of the software are the ones who suffer the most. Seems pretty ethical to at least try to get the issue fixed.

<comment><USER10> A better analogy would be: You discover that all doorlocks of some vendor can easily be opened without the key, including your neighbors. So you tell the vendor. The vendor does nothing about it for 6 months, so you decide to tell everyone who has the lock instead so they can fix/change it.

<comment><USER9> Would that not fall into responsible disclosure? Maybe the definition I have is different

I would think that if you make an honest and serious attempt to coordinate with the vendor, it's responsible.

<comment><USER11> I think his point is rather that "responsible" is a weasel-word.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The impact of this vulnerability would not have been as bad if only android let the user disable background apps easily and reliably.

<comment><USER13> It's so ironic that their argument for preventing user's control of their phones is security.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Android should totally disable draw-on-top while security-sensitive UI elements are visible like password fields and permission dialogs. Seems like an easy fix.

<comment><USER15> It already does for permission dialogs. The problem is all the legacy applications which do not require the explicit permission check dialog on runtime. (Targets older API than 24)

Then there is this accessibility thing which can actually click on the permission dialog and does not require one itself. (Only a check in settings, which is not protected against overlays.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> As cynical and unoriginal as I may sound, I could only expect such an exploit for android, and not iOS.</comment>


One Bit Ferrite Core Memory - <AUTHOR> https://sites.google.com/site/wayneholder/one-bit-ferrite-core-memory <comment><USER2> This is pretty cool by itself of course. But I'm wondering, is there any reason at all to use core memory today? I know EMP/disaster resistance has been said in the past, but a small modern durable chip encased in a bunch of protection should work better right?

<comment><USER3> The only competitor core has for eternally non-volatile low tech near radiation proof infinitely rewritable electrical data storage is latching relays and each bit of latching relay is huge in comparison to core. Also latching relays unlike core has moving parts that will eventually wear out. A million cycles sounds like a long time for a latching relay to live, but as a register or memory for a computer at 0.1 Hz thats only two months or so. So if you want to use latching relays you're limited to applications where the system will never perform more than a couple hundred thousand bit flips.

The marketplace for eternally non-volatile low tech near radiation proof no moving parts infinitely rewritable data storage is roughly nil, unfortunately. Maybe a space probe to the worst parts of Jupiter or as part of a nuclear missile warhead.

"In the old days" they had to make the ferrite cores, then characterize them, then wrap them into memory units by hand, but I would imagine given enough money one could find a way to 3-d print cores around taut stainless steel wires then fire the core ceramic, automating the process. Given a very large budget of course.

Its probably cheaper in practice to ship very large amounts of flash wrapped in lead shielding.

<comment><USER4> >The only competitor core has for eternally non-volatile low tech near radiation proof infinitely rewritable electrical data storage is latching relays

except for tape

>The marketplace for eternally non-volatile low tech near radiation proof no moving parts infinitely rewritable data storage is roughly nil

incidentally google is the biggest buyer of tape in the world

>I would imagine given enough money one could find a way to 3-d print cores around taut stainless steel wires then fire the core ceramic, automating the process.

you are describing tape and it's predecessor wire recording. Rather than coat a wire in magnetic material they just used steel wire. They only use ceramic to make core because it's easier to fire it in an annulus than to punch out laminations that small

<comment><USER3> You bring up a fair point but tapes not really infinitely rewritable. You can take something like a 60's PDP-8 and write a byte of data to the same core address 333 thousand times per second for at least half a century and it'll be fine. In my head that's a 14 or 15 digit number of writes which no tape or even flash memory can withstand.

In theory much like a hard drive head floats on an air bearing over the platter it should be possible given enough development time and money to make a tape head that floats and never quite touches tape. I worked at a place in the 90s that had IBM floating tape transport where compressed air maintained some loops bouncing in channels to make sure the tape was never snapped taut and therefore stretched but I'm taking about actually floating a non-contract head which AFAIK has never commercially shipped for tape (although it would be cool to be proven wrong).

I was going to bring up how tape can throw oxide after a couple decades in storage but I suppose core could have dissimilar metal corrosion over the course of a century or maybe temperature cycles would stress and crack individual cores after a couple centuries unless kept at a constant temp. Also in theory non-archival core could exist just like non-archival tape definitely exists. So fair enough on that account.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I really like these kinds of practical demonstrations of how technology worked. Its such a shame that an up-to-date version could need scanning microscopes to see visually

</comment><comment><USER6> I know that this is entirely off-topic but I wish Google made their services a lot more visible than they are. For example I completely forgot about sites.google.com until I saw this link and the service has been there since ~2009.

<comment><USER7> [https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/](https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've never seen "live" core memory. Anyone know how it stands up to physical shock? For example, if someone accidentally bumped the rack, could it cause some of the bits to flip?

<comment><USER9> I used core memory in machines during the 1970s (primarily Data General Novas). There was no problem with physical shock, but we did get errors during strong thunderstorms.

Back then, when I was in highschool, I was told that the density of core memory was limited by the dexterity of the Filipina workers who threaded the wires through the tiny magnetic donuts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I used to be an electronic technician (305x4) in the Air Force and spent 3 years on one of the old 490L Overseas AutoVon phone switches right before the DOD phased them out in 1987. This telephone system originally had a ferrite core memory and it was NOT non-volatile. Every few milliseconds the system had to run through each bit reading them and then re-setting them, as the magnetic field collapsed over time. The system used 50 volts.

</comment><comment><USER11> Obligatory quote from "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal":

 _Your typical Real Programmer knew the entire bootstrap loader by memory in hex, and toggled it in whenever it got destroyed by his program. (Back then, memory was memory -- it didn 't go away when the power went off. Today, memory either forgets things when you don't want it to, or remembers things long after they're better forgotten.)_

[http://web.mit.edu/humor/Computers/real.programmers](http://web.mit.edu/humor/Computers/real.programmers)

</comment><comment><USER12> Brilliant work!</comment>


Hack your life for fun & profit with Mitch Altman (creator of the TV-B-Gone) - <AUTHOR> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4600578110948529551&hl=en <comment><USER3> Interesting history of TV-B-Gone; all the way from inspiration to recommendations of good Chinese contract manufacturers.

Also a good caution about not warning your credit card processor if you are going to be exceeding your stated velocities. When he first set-up TV-Be-Gone website he thought he was wildly overestimating his first years sales when he told them $100k/year. Three weeks later he had orders for almost $300k - <USER2> problem to have, right? Well the credit card processor was worried he wouldn't be able to fulfill all those orders so they told him they were holding back the money until he did. The trouble is he needed that money to pay for the shipment of new stock, almost causing the exact problem they were worried about - He was bailed out by a loan from family.

TV-B-Gone now employees 11 people!

<comment><USER4> This is actually a lot more common than you would think. I knew a oil prospector that 'struck it rich' but had his line of credit called on him by the Bank of Montreal because they didn't think he could handle setting up that many oil rigs at once. Nearly drove the guy out of business. He ended up suing them (he was successful in an out of court settlement and ONLY because BMO called it within 30 days instead of the 60 days specified in his contract) and to this day refuses to sign any agreement with any financial institution without his lawyer rewriting everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Anyone else think his "presentation" enunciation is strikingly similar to that of pg?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, absolutely, and I thought the same thing when listening to Bruce Sterling's SXSW talk. I don't know the technical name for it - it's the professorial thing where the speaker lowers the tone of the voice at the end of the sentence (like the opposite of what you do when asking a question).</comment></comment>


In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/27/us-apple-asia-idUSBRE90Q0IV20130127

<comment><USER2> Some ideas I got from this article:

"I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial drones carrying iPhones."

"Nobody wants an iPhone any more, because _everyone_ has an iPhone."

Too many anecdotes, not enough data.

<comment><USER3> > "I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial > drones carrying iPhones."

If they really wanted to be different, they should buy a Windows Phone...

Its hard to say where the truth is. There should be some fatigue over iPhone, but the Android alternatives aren't "good", who wants a second rate phone even if everyone else has the first rate one? Will people start wearing offbrand northpeak jackets because northface jackets are too popular?

<comment><USER4> The problem with that is the windows brand is not exactly associated with status. I'm pretty sure these people that buy "androids to differentiate themselves" are buying "sexy" brands - eg moto Razr or the galaxy III. (I know a couple of people that did and said just that)

<comment><USER3> Well, in my defense I was being a bit sarcastic; maybe ellipses aren't obvious enough? But if Nokia can break through with a phone, we might see some adoption as these were the same people buying up the older higher end feature phones.

Most of my Chinese friends that have bought Android phones have done so solely for price reasons. All the fashionistas I know still use iPhones, I haven't seen one with an Android yet, and this is in Beijing.

<comment><USER5> Here in Vietnam I see a ton of younger women using the Note 2. I've asked them about it and they said the iPhone is boring and they love the larger screen, which isn't a problem for them because it lives in their purse.

<comment><USER3> I've heard the same thing happening in Korea also, but it definitely hasn't happened here. Maybe we are just behind the trend.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have yet to see or hear of anybody with an iPhone in the Seoul area. I know they are out there, but an incredible minority. The lack of NFC and a local market version that supports the ubiquitous over the air digital TV (which is so common even in-car GPSs let people watch TV while they're stuck in traffic) [1] makes them more or less a non-starter. [2]

But I'm not sure how much of a signal Asia's fashion trends are towards western markets, I mean the Turbo Engine, X68000, MSX and VCDs and MiniDiscs (among others) were all very popular in various parts of Asia, but DOA pretty much everywhere else.

1 - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting>

2 - this is more or less the solution [http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/koreas- iphones-become-more-powerf...](http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/koreas-iphones- become-more-powerful-with-mobile-tv-tuner-62114394.htm)

</comment><comment><USER5> I think this article highlights a legitimate weakness in Apple's one size fits all product line. Smart phones are as much luxury fashion accessory as communication tool now. Like other luxury fashion items people believe they're making some kind of statement about themselves by choosing one product over another. And there's not really that much you can say about yourself by choosing the same single iPhone model that Apple sells to everybody else.

I really think this year is going to be pivotal for Apple. They can recover their momentum if they broaden their product line and demonstrate some vision in UI. If they continue to stubbornly cling to the tactics that brought them their recent successes they're going to continue to slide. They are, to some extent, a victim of their own success. Android 2.x was so rough that Google didn't stand to lose much in a bold redesign and they leapfrogged iOS with ICS. Apple has a huge userbase used to iOS as it looks and works today and they risk alienating them if they make the changes they need to make to stay relevant for another product generation.

As much as I criticize some of their decisions I hope they do show some new life because iOS is currently the only mobile platform that enables the kind of real-time multimedia apps I want to write.

<comment><USER7> > _iOS is currently the only mobile platform that enables the kind of real- > time multimedia apps I want to write_

Why aren't such apps (not sure exactly what you mean) "enabled" in Android etc?

<comment><USER5> The main issue is unacceptably high audio latency and the complete lack of any kind of MIDI stack.

There's some hope that the audio issue at least might be fixed in 4.2 but even if it is it will be a while before developers can comfortably require that API level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't understand why these articles all ignore the one main Android strength which is that it is a much less restrictive OS than the other mature mobile OSs.

Apple, in particular, imposes a 30% cut in profits on everything that is run on their devices and decide what users are allowed to run or not!

Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.

The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.

I don't understand why this isn't ever mentioned in the media.

<comment><USER9> > Apple, in particular, imposes a 30% cut in profits on everything that is run > on their devices and decide what users are allowed to run or not!

Not to get too snarky here, but piracy is so rampant on Android that it's practically unprofitable to target as a platform unless you already have a well-known product or get extremely lucky. Granted, one could argue that those things are required to see a profit on iOS as well, but at least you have a reasonable enough guarantee that the vast majority of people using your app have paid you for it.

> Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a > huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.

In what way is Apple's 30% profit cut having a huge impact on users and what is your source? I don't see how such a developer issue has any relevance to the general public. If you're referring to the control over what users install, I think you're greatly overestimating the technical prowess of the general public and their desire to install custom software on their cell phones. These are things only techies care about, and they are outnumbered by the people who just make phone calls and post to Facebook.

> The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to > an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant > about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.

With all due respect, one person random about freedoms on their smartphone is hardly "the masses".

<comment><USER10> Pirating iPhone apps in SE Asia is rampant as well, at least in Thailand. Most people don't pay for apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So there's a stupendous expansion in sales of mid-range and low-range Samsung/Android devices, an Android-first carrier affiliate says Apple is stupid, people with Android phones want Android apps, and marketing dilettantes are tired of seeing the rabble using -their- status phone.

Doomed, Apple doomed. Sell sell sell. Steve Jobs dead. Flop doom flop sell doom.

</comment><comment><USER12> One thing I think is interesting from purely a perspective of watching the the competition between iOS and Android and their respective strategies.

In my mind the elephant in the room (or the emperor's lack of clothes) is the screen size of the iPhone. Clearly there is demand for and utility in larger screens. Yet Apple has argued that the smaller screen is a feature not a bug. They changed the size in a way that didn't obsolete existing apps (which was sensible).

But they have also made a big deal about the hi res retina screens.

I've wondered if the simplest way for them to up the size of the screen is to go with lower resolution, keeping the same number of larger pixels. This could maintain backwards compatibility on apps. Since the resolution is already so high, it seems to me this would be a fine solution (would love to hear some engineers perspective on this).

But this would force them to back track on two claims of technical superiority: smaller screen and higher resolution.

After using devices with larger screens, the iPhone screen feels tiny, harder to read on, and harder to do things on the web with. (I agree that it's fine for making calls and texting.)

It feels like a situation that could turn quickly against the iPhone and all of a sudden nobody wants a phone phone whose form factor was determined by the state of the art five years ago.

Again, I'm just observing it as a fascinating case of strategy and tactics among two giants engaged in fierce competition.

</comment><comment><USER13> "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." – Yogi Berra

<comment><USER7> I don't think that (awesome) quote is really relevant.

The point is not that the iphone isn't popular, it's that with popularity come changes in the way it's perceived, and that will affect its future momentum in some places.

When the iphone came out, it was very much an exclusive fashion item; when everybody has them, it's not exclusive. Whether it's still viewed as a "luxury" good is probably more complex—some brands have been surprisingly successful at retaining their luxury image despite widespread adoption—but given carriers offering completely subsidized iphones, it may be an uphill battle.

Not everybody cares about such perceptions, but there are definitely cultures where many people do.

None of this seems surprising, or particularly controversial to me...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> As someone who lives in Singapore, I have a completely different take on this. I don't see what's happening as iPhone fatigue. I know plenty of people who still have and love their iPhones. Instead I see this as Asian vendors (Samsung, in particular, of course), doing a better job of understanding the Asian consumer and figuring out how to make phones they want more.

In my opinion, the original Galaxy Note illustrates this perfectly. When it launched in the US last year, I remember the parade of terrible reviews (it's too big, too awkward to use, you'll look stupid talking on the phone, who wants a stylus, etc.) and the piles of mockery from Apple fans. But from my vantage point I knew they were missing something. The Note had launched a few months earlier in Singapore and I had seen Singaporean consumers "get it" almost instantly. In retrospect, it's clear Samsung had seen something about Asian consumers that made the Note worth trying - and they were right.

</comment><comment><USER15> 1.Hong Kong never was, and never will be the trend setter. Dont know who make this BS up but he properly dont have a clue about the Region. And neither Singapore will.

2\. The Point about Chinese Writing and Video are mostly true. As a Phone, and purely as a phone it is rather hard to argue about the quality iPhone offers. Indeed Single Handed operation is important if not the most important factor. However these days they aren't using it as a phone anymore. Phone has neglect into a relatively 2nd class function. The region ( I mention the region as CJK, and some other countries close by; ) uses Whatsapp, ( or other type of IM that most of US and EU users never heard of ) more to communicate then calling. While it is extremely popular to use iMessage in US and EU. This isn't the case there. Writing, ( Specific to Chinese, since Japaness and Korean has a comparatively simpler and default input method ) is harder on a iPhone with a smaller screen. Since IM is used more often then Calls this create another barrier for users compared to a larger screen, and much better selection of input method on Android devices.

The Video Part as well. Compared to US and EU users. CJK regions are very used to Subtitle. ( Yes even the video is in their own languages. And of coz all the Hollowood movies will have subtitle as well ) Now imagining watching Video on iPhone compared to a Wider devices with Subtitle. The Subitle would have taken significant amount of space.

3\. It is hard to explain the Korea Pop to everyone. KARA, Super Junior or Girls Generation. If you dont know them dont worry. You properly know Psy from Gangnam Style. The pop culture, mixing in the 10 times more advertising budget from Samsung compared to Apple. It is not hard to understand why these are more popular region where K-POPs are hot.

But knowing Apple. Chances of Releasing a bigger iPhone is slim or next to zero. I was hoping they release a 3.8" and 4.34" with iPhone 5. But Since they took the 4" size that is likely to be the case in the foreseeable future. And even if they did release a bigger screen size version. It properly wont be called an iPhone then.

</comment><comment><USER16> Except in Bangkok, where I live, the iPhone is still by every indicator the most wanted phone. You see iPhones more often, the iPhone 5 is the most predominantly advertised device by carries themselves, and the iPhone 4 is cheap enough that plenty of people I know have said they considered a cheap Android but decided to go for an iPhone 4 instead.

If Apple has any problem, it's that the iPhone 4 is good enough for many people.

</comment><comment><USER9> Is this like Wired's infamous "Japan Hates The iPhone" story from three years ago? Both stories are based entirely on anecdotes and marketshare percentages, which are percentages of a total--it doesn't mean sales are going down.

Overall, a very weak article lacking convincing evidence of any sort of trend.</comment>


Reasons Marijuana Legalization Seems to Be Failing - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeadams/2019/11/05/reasons-marijuana-legalization-seems-to-be-failing/#1a0dc53b7eba <comment><USER2> B.S and poorly researched. It's like Jeff Sessions wrote it.

>Well, just take a look to the north in Canada, where marijuana has been legal nationwide for the past year. It's >black market pot trade is still way stronger than the legal sector.

>As a matter of fact, a recent report from the Associated Press indicates that nearly 43 percent of the country's pot >consumers continue to buy weed from illegal sources. And doing away with the black market is the entire reason that >Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set out to legalize weed in the first place.

>Yep, that's right, another massive fail.

Did they take into account massive shortages? The poor roll out of dispensaries, what was it, 25 store fronts for the whole province of Ontario (15 million people +). Folks would order and wait 4 weeks to get it. Poor quality, high taxes, dry and stale product if any was even available. 3 times the price for product that was shit.

California's problem is the bureaucracy which is feeding the black market. Licensing, taxes, etc. Dispensaries can't even make any money because of the cost of doing business.

Nothing like Guberment creating the problems and then trying to convince everyone that it just isn't working. What a crock of shit.</comment>


Do WordPress End Users Really Need Page Builders? - <AUTHOR> https://ahmadawais.com/do-wordpress-end-users-really-need-page-builders/

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you ever seen a common WordPress end user taking part in conversations over stack exchange where developers ask development related questions? Or have you ever seen a layman who cannot design, who doesn't know a thing about aesthetics, sharing shots at Dribbble? I am pretty sure your answer is NO! Read on!

</comment><comment><USER2> You need to stop thinking in terms of pages and think in terms of content.</comment>


"Nudges": Short, simple, animated Creative Thinking Techniques - <AUTHOR> http://creativitips.com/ <comment><USER2> If you like this, try out the original Oblique Stratagies: <http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx for the tip kes!</comment></comment>