Japan's First VR Porn Festival Canceled Prematurely Because of Overcrowding - <AUTHOR> http://vrtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?3334-Japan-s-First-VR-Porn-Festival-Canceled-Prematurely-Because-of-Overcrowding <comment><USER2> This reads like an advertisement. Also, I wonder where this is going. When DVDs first came out with the capability of different camera angle choices, porn quickly picked up on this and made a big deal about it but it went nowhere as far as I can tell.

Porn seems to lead in technology advances in general. Videotape porn was rented in many porn video stores before store rentals became mainstream.</comment>


Show HN: A visual HTML5 animation editor in your browser - <AUTHOR> http://animatron.com <comment><USER2> It's so refreshing to see a service that requires no signup. Normally a signup acts as a barrier to entry for me, especially when it requires a link to a social media identity. I'm going to have a play around now.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, required signup is a pet peeve for most (all?) of us on the Animatron team as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Wow! I don't have any use for this right now, but I'm in awe!

The landing page is beautiful and the video catching, registration is easy and the tutorial is great, color me impressed.

<comment><USER4> Everything he said.

Couple points: I checked it on my mobile earlier, and the landing, although still pretty looking, doesn't scale responsively, having a pretty small HTC, it was kinda tedious to fiddle with scrolling left to right/ and which kinda made me forget about it until I noticed the thread again today. Anyway I understand that this wouldn't have been your focus, but maybe it will give you a small % boost :)

In any case, really well put together product, and although I will likely never have use for it myself I'm impressed

One other thing: The introduction video is really cute, and I love your original style and branding. But it hardly provided much information about your product imho, other than what I've already got from the text on your main page.

But maybe this is just a designer/programmer style discrepancy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks interesting but an authoring tool is not something I want to run "in the cloud" and be dependant on a connection and a service that may or may not be there when I need it.

Wouldn't invest much time in a tool that is not available for download, to be honest.

Nevertheless it looks well done.

<comment><USER6> Slightly off-topic... Sorry.

If you don't mind me asking, what country are you from?

I ask because I find this strange, since here in the San Francisco bay area, I find it difficult to get 'away' from an internet connection. They're everywhere I go, whether I want it or not. I carry an internet connection on my smartphone and can tether to it whenever I need it. The only time I can't get an internet connection is when I'm in the middle of the woods, and that's just because I'm not paying for AT&T.

Having authoring tools "in the cloud" is the premise for many great services such as Google Apps, Microsoft Office apps, Facebook, Wordpress, etc... Being able to do something as cool as HTML5 authoring without having to invest hundreds of dollars in some Adobe product has great value to many... especially students or young poor people that want to learn and don't want to pirate software to do it.

<comment><USER7> And this is why anyone sane who doesn't live there hates your smug filter bubble, and why Android is still a pain to use once you go out of signal range.

<comment><USER8> Eh, I live in independence, Missouri (Pop. 117,000) and I too, "can hardly get away from the internet". It would certainly be available anywhere I wanted to use something like this, e.g. home, coffee shop, library, co-working space, etc... I guess if I was at the park or on a plane, it wouldn't work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was really excited to try it after watching your cartoon demo, but this is all I see when I open the editor in ChromeOS 34:

[http://i.imgur.com/yuJzv6p.png](http://i.imgur.com/yuJzv6p.png)

<comment><USER10> I am sorry about that. this issue happens only in chrome under linux (which is basically ChromeOS). the good news is that it will be fixed really soon!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> that's the kind of user friendly killerapp that made flash so ubiquitous, because everyone and his mom were able to make animations.

While i love canvas, it's downright impossible for non-programmers to do any of the footwork that is needed to create even the most basic animation.

i will certainly keep an eye on this project, great job

<comment><USER10> thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Would love a paid option of like $5-$10/month that gives me the actual source code so I can just take it and run it on my own stuff. Great work though!

<comment><USER10> this feature is coming, you will be able to download everything which is needed to play a clip and host it yourself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's a lot of nice things about this UI, well done! The difference between "animation" and "design" modes isn't quite obvious at first glance. The switch doesn't tell you anything, so you have to experiment to find out what it means.

I'm happy to see that you're using Canvas for the published animation. It's the only way to go for artistic animation where content needs to update at every frame -- CSS just isn't enough for that.

Some three years ago, I made a HTML5 animation tool that outputs to Canvas + video: [http://radiapp.com](http://radiapp.com)

Despite all the hours I put in, I never managed to figure out a way to turn it into a real product. I think you will fare better :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback and the compliments! I played around with Radi a while ago and quite liked it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14>
      Your browser is too old or not yet supported!

And a link to Chrome frame, a retired Google product.

Please use feature detection instead of sniffing the browser agent. My browser (IE11) is perfectly capable and supports HTML5 APIs fine (e.g. Canvas 2D).

<comment><USER15> i suspect they don't use feature detection because the GWT framework makes it a bit more difficult to do feature detection (its not impossible, but it does work against the "default" way of doing things in GWT).

<comment><USER16> The new JsInterop stuff we're adding to GWT 3.0 will make it a lot easier.

<comment><USER10> we are really looking forward to GWT 3.0. thanks for all the work you put into it!

but we are really sad devmode will be gone really soon :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This looks like a really full-featured and powerful animation tool! The tutorial movie was very impressive.

The gallery[0] has some good looking examples, but they all run very slowly (1fps) in both chrome/firefox on my MBP. Not sure why performance is so poor on my machine.

One thing I couldn't figure out from the site is what their revenue model/pricing plan is. I saw that guest accounts are active for 15 days, but what are the limitations after I sign in?

[0] [http://www.animatron.com/explore#staff- picks](http://www.animatron.com/explore#staff-picks)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the compliments! Not sure about what's causing the fps issues, but we're definitely investigating.

At the moment, there aren't any limitations after you sign in - Animatron is free, and the only difference between a registered account and a guest account is that guests can only create one project (which is only saved for 15 days). Pretty soon we'll be rolling out a few different paid-subscription plans that will offer advanced features and functionality, but there will always be the option for a free account.

<comment><USER18> Similar issue on the FPS using Firefox 24. It all loads (once I let JS do its thing) and can be interacted with (made a quick little movie of a box dancing around, but its like watching a slideshow. With a few optimizations to speed up interactivity, this would be really cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'd love to try this out as I've been looking for something like for a long time. But I can't use it because I can't sign up with a password longer than 16 characters. This is a rookie security mistake that I see over and over again and makes me worry. As a rule of thumb, you should NOT limit the length of a password. Salting will take care of the weak password problem and a long password is, well, the securer the better.

Edit: use a secure hash on the password before storing into the database

<comment><USER20> Correct assessment - wrong solution. If you hash your passwords the stored result will always be the same fixed length. Do that (which you should anyhow for security reasons) and you don't need to mess with changing your database.

<comment><USER19> Yep you are right, it's late here on a Friday night and my brain flashed bcrypt and scrypt's differing lengths for a second. Now that I looked back I was like, the hell? LOL oh man thanks for the correction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Really nice work. A flash-like canvas animation is due gain popularity in the near future.

Your fill-bucket tool is a little freezy, as I'm sure you are aware. I made an HTML5 static image editor [http://yangcanvas.com/paint](http://yangcanvas.com/paint) and I found a good fill-bucket tool hard to implement too. Your tools does fill ranges perfectly, which is really nice. Good luck making that work more efficiently without sacrificing precision as I did.

<comment><USER22> The original Java code for bucket fill is very fast, sub-second fills in most cases however after converting the code to JavaScript the performance gets worse in some specific cases (Bezier offsetting/flattening combined with Boolean operations for non-closed or transparent shapes). There are some advanced math and algorithmic tricks used in the Lasso tool to speed up exactly the same class of problematic cases in JavaScript. Bucket fill is however more complex which doesn't allow straightforward reuse of these algorithms; additional algorithms are currently being developed to deal with it.

Good luck with your nice paint app! ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> The tool looks great and everything was really well done, but who is the customer for this?

It seemed like it was for non-designers but when I open the editor I get a blank canvas and I have absolutely no idea where to start to make a professional looking animation. Seems like I would still need to hire a visual designer/graphic artist who would most likely use the tools they are already familiar with.

<comment><USER10> yeah, you are right. we will be adding lots of stuff to make it much easier for non-designer, libraries of ready to use artwork, characters, clips, sounds, effects etc.

<comment><USER24> IMO, this is key — although I'm biased, because I'm asking you to cater to me. However, I think I'm not alone: someone a little tech-savvy, but neither a true developer or designer. I think there are lots of people like me who have been forced to wear many hats at work and dabble in many technologies without a ton of expertise, so the ability to quickly meet a small need (in this case, an HTML5 animation) without tons of training or money is enormously valuable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> So, this is Hype in the browser: [http://tumult.com/hype/](http://tumult.com/hype/)

<comment><USER10> hype is cool (I have bought the very first version), but html5 tech is different. hype exports to css/dom, animatron to canvas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Just had a short look at the video right now, going to check more, but looks good. Is there a way to embed the video in a blog post? Would like to blog about it and embed the video. When I right-clicked on the video, it had an option to copy video URL, which I did, but that results only in the link to the video, not the embed code.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, thanks! Here's the embed code:

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81736441" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

<comment><USER26> Thanks for the fast response. Will write the post and update the comment here with the link to it.

BTW, typo in your embed code: missing an "http:" in the value of the src attribute. Works after I add that, not without it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Strange about the embed code - that's how Vimeo provides it, so it's weird that it didn't work for you, but great that you managed to make it work in the end! Looking forward to reading the post :)

<comment><USER26> No problem :) Anyway, here's the post:

[http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2014/03/the-html5lib-python- librar...](http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2014/03/the-html5lib-python-library- and.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, thanks so much for writing about us :)

<comment><USER26> If not confidential, a blog post about the tech used would be interesting.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's already in the works, actually! We'll post it here on HN pretty soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I really like the interface and the timeline. I also like the learning tooltips. I think that we can learn a lot from your UI design.

BTW I wonder if it is worthwhile to try and hook up an interconnect between this and our 3D modeler/animator/renderer: [http://clara.io](http://clara.io)

<comment><USER28> Just want to say, from the front page your site looks pretty cool, but I didn't actually get to try the tool because your tool, unlike animatron would require typing _before_ getting to play around with it. If animatron had required an account first there's a 0% chance I would have spent the 25 minutes I did playing around with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is very impressive. As someone who has no idea what I'm doing, I was able to make an animation of a circle moving and growing from left to right in 30 seconds without reading the manual or tutorials. This is how user interfaces should be built!

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome, that's exactly what we'd hope to hear :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Nice, yeah let's make a Flash IDE in a browser, which will compile results into a real .swf, which will then play in an HTML5-based Flash player on any device. Maybe support of a few things like rtmfp protocol will be tricky, but who cares.

<comment><USER10> that would be too funny :)

but people do all kinds of crazy stuff these days, like running linux in a browser under x86 emulator written in js.

so animatron tech is very very conservative from that perspective :)

<comment><USER30> I am serious about this. A lot of good stuff is written for Actionscript, all sorts of libraries etc., years worth of good work of many good people. It's just not fair to trash all that effort just because Apple has a tooth on Adobe.

Even without rtmfp, or even without rtmp, that will be very valuable.

<comment><USER10> oh, well, I thought it was an irony :)

anyway for now our plans in terms of flash do not go beyond exporting to swf.

<comment><USER30> Why don't add actionscript, at least with limitations?

<comment><USER10> supporting actionscript by itself without implementing the whole flash model does not make much sense. most of the existing actionscript code use it one way or another.

and implementing flash model is a very serious undertaking.

<comment><USER30> Someone has to do it, anyways, and you guys are closer to there than anyone else out here. Flash is great but it is stuck between egos of business guys.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Great - all the tools that come close to this have been flash and don't run easily on phones and tablets. I noticed it crashed mobile safari for me. Do you have plans to make this workable for non-desktop users?

<comment><USER10> yes, mobile has top priority! most of the simple staff works, but some animations don't. we are working really hard to fix all the issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I just have to say I tried this out for about 20 minutes (not an artsy guy really) and found it amazing. Very intuitive, clean, fast, and seems entirely free. Highly recommend.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I've been looking for something like this. Powtoons is ok but sucks for someone who wants a little more out of their animation tool. Can't wait to try it out!

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, let us know what you think!

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I see a lot of 2D/3D/CAD editors on the web - but one simple thing puzzles my mind - how multiple monitors are supported?

Or docking (windows in windows, with maximizing)?

<comment><USER10> we do not support multiple monitors, but animatron supports collaborative editing which means you can open the same project in several browser windows on 2-3 monitors and edit them at the same time, i.e. have different parts of the project open etc.

and of course you can send a link to your friend and you can both edit the same project and see each other changes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Reminds me of the early days of Flash 4. Very nice indeed. But flash animations made the web horrible, I don't suspect HTML5 animations will fare any better.

<comment><USER35> I'm reading from my mobile so I didn't check the tool yet, but I was surprised that nobody was thinking about this. I must agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I personally in love with older version of Flash. This reminds me that and I'm gonna use this a lot. Thank you guys.

<comment><USER10> thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> great find for me! i am in design/dev for the learning and development industry, so naturally many teams have strong backgrounds in Flash, and lately Adobe Edge Animate and Tumult Hype (even Google has thrown something into the ring). Literally the only thing I did to determine whether I would investigate Animatron further was opening it up and dropping some audio into the project, and seeing whether the waveform shows up on the timeline layer. This is a MUST regarding WYSIWYG sync of animation to audio... its what Flash IDE had that Edge and Hype still do not! The next thing is determining the workflow for integrating with eLearning standards such as SCORM and TinCanAPI / Experience API... naturally this is the type of product I would also pay premium to integrate further into my team and client's workflow for Instructional Design, etc...

<comment><AUTHOR> That's great to hear! If you have any questions while you're investigating how to integrate Animatron into your existing workflow, get in touch with us at feedback at animatron.com - maybe we'll be able to help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'll have to add a shameless plug to the visual HTML5 editor in the browser that I've built. Also created with GWT, and using GreenSock JS for animations.

Available at [http://tweenui.com/animator/](http://tweenui.com/animator/)

What do you think? How does it stack up?

<comment><USER10> tweenui is very slick, I was playing with it some time ago, very well done! I like how you did ad campaigns, variations that kind of stuff. we don't have it at the moment, but do have much more advanced drawing/animation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Wow! This really takes me back to my Flash Animation days. Very cool and slick. I like it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> How much of that demo video was made with the product? 100% would really impress me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Initially it wasn't made in Animatron, but we're actually in the middle of publishing a video tutorial series about how to do it in the tool: [http://tmblr.co/ZGr3es19AumCF](http://tmblr.co/ZGr3es19AumCF)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> I love how they compare their potential users to easily-distracted cavemen.

</comment><comment><USER42> Awesome app - love your videos. UI design is great, and love your ease of signing up via social media. Would be really cool if you could sync this with Google Fonts!

<comment><USER10> support for downloadable fonts and google fonts in particular is in the works!

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> That's really impressing, very easy and intuitive to use!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much - we've spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the tool as intuitive as possible, happy to hear that we've succeeded.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Logo looks a btit like Duke: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wave.svg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wave.svg)

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha, yeah, some mild resemblance :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Looks like HN killed your API:

> [http://api.animatron.com/anonymous](http://api.animatron.com/anonymous) > net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

<comment><USER10> probably some temporary glitch. seems to be working fine now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Was the opening animation made in the tool?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not initially, but one of our video tutorial series is actually all about how to create that animation in the tool: [http://tmblr.co/ZGr3es19AumCF](http://tmblr.co/ZGr3es19AumCF)

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Was it very painful to develop this great GUI or is GWT/HTML5 at a point where it's OK?

<comment><USER10> GWT actually is great, especially if your app is big and there are more than one dev on a team

<comment><USER47> I know, I'm more concerned about the HTML side.

<comment><USER10> currently the only html/css left in the app is in the inspector and some dialogs. everything else is drawn on canvas using our own canvas-based ui controls

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I really like that it's using GWT too! You don't often see much GWT apps these days.

<comment><USER10> yeah, we had internal debates whether to use gwt or just js, gwt side won and we (most of us!) do not regret it :)

<comment><USER16> This is a really stellar app and the compiled JS is quite small. You guys should present at the next GWT conference or I/O.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, thanks for the awesome compliment!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Do you have to host in the cloud or can you down load this.

Is there a limit to how long the animations can be

<comment><USER10> everything is in the cloud. currently there is no limit on the duration

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> This is amazing! Does it have facilities for frame-by-frame animation and onion-skinning?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet, but coming soon ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Why are passwords limited to 16 characters? That's unnerving.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hm, we never thought about it! There's no limit in the database, just client- side restrictions on the input fields ... we'll have to consider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Where's the Gallery? Can't find it.

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://animatron.com/explore#staff-picks](http://animatron.com/explore#staff- picks)

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> What video formats can I export to?

<comment><AUTHOR> webm and mp4, at the moment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> the discussion on layers and masking reminds me of Gimp, did you take any inspiration from it?

<comment><USER10> definitely not layers and masking, may be something else

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> nice, yet too slow for production use right now in my opinion. But it has a great potential.

<comment><USER10> hey, thanks! we have some performance issues in firefox and safari, but there should not be any problems in chrome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> I'm impressed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Que arrecho!.

</comment><comment><USER57> slick

</comment><comment><USER58> I still use the tiny lightning fast Macromedia Flash 4 to make simple animations, when its just simple animations, without all the script power, features and Photoshop integration you get with the Adobe 2 Gb in disk elephant. I used to run this Flash 4 in a Pentium 133hz with only 16 MB RAM and it wasn't that slow. I was waiting, wondering why didn't someone bring something like that for HTML5 yet, and Finally it is here! Thank you .

<comment><AUTHOR> You're welcome ;) thank you for the kind words!</comment></comment>


Cloud Computing Patterns - <AUTHOR> http://www.cloudcomputingpatterns.org/ <comment><USER2> Since it's down, I copied the structure to [http://slexy.org/view/s21qaUuBBg](http://slexy.org/view/s21qaUuBBg)

I think they've got a great list of concepts, but I don't believe the hierarchy is particularly useful.

Can't reach or speak for the content, since the site is down, heh.

</comment><comment><USER3> 6 mentions of 'cloud' in the intro. 13 from the back cover. This sounds like a buzzword extravaganza rather than anything particularly useful. Has anyone read this that can comment? Is it just re-branded knowledge about distributed systems?

<comment><USER4> Cloud isn't any more a buzzword than Internet is a buzzword or network or cumputer were buzzwords before that. From what I can see it looks pretty decent, just costs and arm and a leg like most books from Springer. If anything it will likely be quite dry and academic with lots of references.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Would be interesting if it would take less than 40s to load a page.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that HN traffic killed it. Kind of ironic, considering the subject of the site.

<comment><USER6> ...or not. It's actually a good example that you can't "cloud" yourself into high availability.</comment></comment></comment>


Stick - A "better" Markdown - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.com/MRcbWejV

<comment><USER2> I don't think it can be fairly described as a better Markdown. One of the design requirements for Markdown was that it wouldn't look out of place as a plain text e-mail or usenet posting. This would stick out like a sore thumb.

That's not to say Stick is necessarily worse than Markdown for all purposes. But it is worse than Markdown by this criterion.</comment>


Maybe the Cookies API should not exist - <AUTHOR> http://tech.noredink.com/post/147676730053/maybe-the-cookies-api-should-not-exist <comment><USER2> Hey when i say Web tech makes no sense for me coming from embedded, i mean it...

Another point that show how contrived loops you have to do to go around stateless server apps...</comment>


Cost vs Performance Analysis of the current Mac lineup - <AUTHOR> http://developingperspective.tumblr.com/post/8093168321/mac-value-analysis

<comment><USER2> Great article</comment>


Ask HN: Which VM is the easiest to target(for a compiler)? - <AUTHOR> I am working only a high level dynamically typed language, I learnt how to make it work as an interpreted language(most of it is written in java and the heavy lifting is done by ANTLR parser generator)<p>I have been wondering which VM would be the most easy to target?(I am very new to writing compilers) JVM, LLVM or even some web assembly interpreter (The language being similar to PHP/Perl) <comment><USER2> In the past I would have said Parrot, but it appears to be defunct.

It _may_ be that some of the VMs that Raku (fka Perl 6) has generated might be useful. I believe, at least as of a few years ago, they still mostly working on NQP as the intermediate language, where NQP is a low language "like" Perl (NQP is an acronym for Not Quite Perl) which is used to implement the higher level language features, allowing for fairly easy porting to other VMs as long as NQP is supported (for example, Raku was ported to Java by implementing an NQP interpreter, which allowed the majority of the vastly more complex Raku language to just work).

LuaJIT is also a popular choice I hear. This would have the benefit of using Lua, which is a widely deployed and well known small language, and LuaJIT is known to be extremely fast.

</comment><comment><USER3> First off I suppose it's easier to pick a dynamically typed target. Is there a particular reason it be a VM rather than just picking a language to generate (e.g. JavaScript, PHP, Perl)? Do you have any requirements for performance or parallelism?

<comment><AUTHOR> No this is mostly for learning.

<comment><USER3> Lua/LuaJIT is worth a look. I've seen it come up a number of times for ease of hosting/interfacing. It's a dynamically typed language but I'm not sure what generating for it might be like.

<comment><USER4> Have a look at Luje: [https://github.com/davidgiven/luje](https://github.com/davidgiven/luje)

<comment><USER3> That's very intriguing:

"Luje is a toy Java virtual machine written in pure Lua. It works by translating Java bytecode into Lua on-the-fly, and then using Mike Pall's LuaJIT to run the result."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you remove the spaces before each sentence, the post will be much easier to read, specially in mobile phones.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, I did not realize</comment></comment>


Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos? - <AUTHOR> https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/new-establishment-list-disruption?mbid=nl_100117_Daily_VFHive&xid=a97d3766-d7d1-4c2c-b2ab-1dc8279a9da2 <comment><USER2> I don't think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry.

When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don't have any jarring sudden impact.

In tech, Amazon has tremendous power to put anyone they want out of business. AWS puts them in the enviable position of understanding all sorts of intimate details of everyone else's business models. Again, they are too smart to do it too quickly.

It pains me that my generation, a generation of people who dream of being makers and business owners, don't see the irony of the convenience of having toilet paper delivered and lower prices at Whole Foods for what they really are - a trick and a trap that strengthens a company that can and will have a real tangible negative impact on everyone's employment and business prospects in the future if hasn't already.

<comment><USER3> For me, Amazon is a long way off from threatening my local supermarket and other local retailers.

Would I buy clothes from Amazon? No, I like to try them on first. Returning stuff by mail is a pain.

Would I buy expensive home furnishings from Amazon? No, I like to see, touch, try these things before I spend a lot of money.

Would I buy perishable groceries from Amazon? No, because deliveries happen when I'm at work and I don't want perishable food sitting in the sun for three hours on my front porch.

Do I buy toilet paper from Amazon? No, because it's easier to pick it up at the store when I'm there for something else anyway, than to get it delivered and then have to deal with disposing of the cardboard box it came in.

And with anything Amazon, I'm worried about counterfeit goods.

So what do I buy from Amazon? Inexpensive, low risk, low margin goods, and the occasional book.

<comment><USER4> "Would I buy expensive home furnishings from Amazon? No, I like to see, touch, try these things before I spend a lot of money."

I imagine AR might convince people otherwise.

<comment><USER5> In fact it does. We've seen 2% purchase lift on home furnishings with our AR.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Your margin is my opportunity" \- with that kind of attitude, Bezos is indeed a tough competitor.

However, what puzzles me the most is the fact that investors are letting Amazon chug along with barely any profits. Can someone please explain to me how Bezos is able to pull off a P/E of 240 for AMZN, when the company has been around for 20+ years and no longer considered a startup (i.e. no more hyper growth phase)? For comparison, other tech titans have P/E numbers as: FB (37), GOOG (36), MSFT (27), AAPL (17). Only NFLX (216) is in the same league as AMZN.

<comment><USER7> My layman understanding is that investors think Amazon still has enormous room to grow because Amazon's current market share of the entire US retail industry (online + offline retail) is about 7%.

The one thing that will make online shopping appealing to far more consumers is same-day and eventually 1-hr deliveries, irrespective of your location in the continental US and the only way to do this _reliably_ is when fulfilment is automated end-to-end.

For fulfilment to be fully automated, self-driving cars and trucks need to be a reality as that is the only way to cap shipping costs in order to guarantee Amazon's promise of low prices.

In order words, investors think Amazon's market share will grow even more as distribution costs start to fall when the shift from human to self-driving trucks becomes economically and technologically feasible.

Self-driving cars are still at least decade out, IMHO. Add another decade for regulations (e.g. which party is directly liable in X types of accidents?) and infrastructure (e.g. cooperative signalling, standardized charging stations etc) to catch up. This is why Jeff Bezos likes to stress that it is still Day 1 at Amazon.

<comment><USER8> I can guarantee you that the Day 1 phrase at Amazon has exactly 0% to do with driverless cars.

And it is foolish to ascribe any singular viewpoint to investors in general. While _some_ investors may hold the views you do, you're likely suffering from a false consensus bias if you think your views are shared by anything more than a single digit percentage of investors in general or even specifically Amazon's investors.

As for the rest of your theory, I also think it is complete rubbish, but feel free to do with your money as you please.

<comment><USER7> Sigh.

You throw around words like foolish, bias, rubbish instead of providing a well reasoned counter argument. So all you have done is dish out a middle brow dismissal, well done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Apple iPhone seems to be doing quite well relative to Amazon's Fire Phone. Also, Azure is doing surprisingly well relative to AWS despite a late start. Wouldn't surprise me if Azure exceeded AWS in the near future.

Amazon's weaknesses are in the first case high-end design And in the second enterprise.

<comment><USER10> > Amazon's weaknesses are in the first case high-end design

Just design generally, including their website ... anecdotally, so many people I know don't really know that Amazon Prime Video exists, or if it does exist how to find it. Likewise for Music.

Apple has this discoverability problem too (Apple Music doesn't have a web UI, it might as well not exist if you can't install iTunes, and then Apple wonders why its social features don't take off).

For its devices, Amazon also seems to share Google's general obliviousness, e.g. they just announced an alarm clock with a camera. Who wants a camera pointed at their bed all night? Their Fire Phone pioneered this over-expensive faux-3D UI, which on paper sounds great, but anybody could have said they weren't going to get the development support they needed to really sell it, and most users aren't going to care. Design is more than just veneer, you've got to make stuff that people want... Amazon's current approach seems to be "well if we just sell it cheap enough, we'll get customers."

<comment><USER3> > so many people I know don't really know that Amazon Prime Video exists, or > if it does exist how to find it. Likewise for Music.

I know these things exist, but I don't use them much even as an Amazon Prime member. Why? Because Prime Video UX is poor compared to Netflix (and Netflix is no great shakes either, but it's better than Amazon), and Music has a pretty poor catalog and again a pretty poor UX.

<comment><USER10> > and Netflix is no great shakes either

And this is mostly because Netflix wants to hide the true extent of their library.

Hulu just had a recent, awful re-design too. They cover in-active thumbnails with gradients, you can barely see anything.

Apple TV (which I like as among the best) also has a ridiculously unergonomic remote and very confusing UI (do I want to press "menu" or "home"? And now the TV app is 'home' by default, it's even weirder...somehow, even though I know I think how it works, I always seem to press the wrong one.) And no picture-in- picture either, though their processors are plenty fast enough to support it. But their standard built-in TVML-based interfaces are functional, if a little boring, and the UI is responsive. And hey, at least they aren't showing me ads in the UI or tracking what I watch. But still, lots of little problems.

So much room for improvement here, by everyone.

<comment><USER11> What do you mean by "Netflix wants to hide the true extent of their library"? Why would they intentionally create a worse user experience?

<comment><USER12> Because Netflix, unlike say HBO, bills themselves as a general source of entertainment, a place you can always go when you're bored to find new content. While somewhat true in the beginning Netflix today is increasingly leaning on original content because most other big players realized that they could cut out the middle man and still be profitable. Netflix's library today is basically their original content along with things you could find in the bargain bin at your local Best Buy which is a _much worse_ value proposition than "your one stop shop for movies and TV". So their UI is designed to make their library appear larger than it really is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook have remade the economy in their > image. So what happens if they turn on each other?

um ... aren't they _supposed to_ turn on each other? isn't that, like, capitalism, and competition and stuff?

</comment><comment><USER14> if you're in the retail supply chain, you're at risk of destruction by amazon. lower prices mean more commerce flows through amazon, which strengthens the company. bezos evidently wasn't joking when he claimed, "your margin is my opportunity."

for all the valid concerns about one company consolidating too much power, amazon is also effectively saving consumers hundreds or thousands of dollars per year.

the margins of retail middlemen are being eaten by amazon and essentially pocketed by consumers or invested by amazon to eventually help consumers save or enjoy more.

amazon fearmongering is easy and fashionable, but all policies hurt some and help others. it would be refreshing to read an unbiased analysis of the trade- offs society faces if amazon continues to devour retail.

</comment><comment><USER15> It's not about Amazon, it's about the tendency that most online-based consumer businesses evolve into monopolies. Mostly through network effects paired with smart M&A.

So, the question is not if anyone can beat Bezos but rather beat online monopolies in general.

<comment><USER16> This. The article is just another example of media bias toward overarching narrative.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The answer is Xi Jinping although the article doesn't mention China at all.

<comment><USER18> Craigslist (classifieds). Google (search). eBay (auctions). Apple etc (phones). PayPal etc (payment systems). Spotify/Apple etc (music). All businesses Amazon attempted and mostly failed at.

Bezos - Amazon - has been beaten quite a few times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Amazon came a few years too late and couldn't offer anything that sets them apart from the competition (next day delivery is pretty standard fare for any web retailer here) so yeah they were beaten. Or rather they saw the battlefield and didn't engage.

THAT is what made Amazon big in the US: they were first. Nothing magical about it really. But I think my country was one of the few that already had established players. Oh there's China ofcourse, they are forerunners with ecommerce. The future belongs to Alibaba.

Same with the supermarket delivery stuff, that's already been around for years. Don't understand the fuss.

I have the feeling a lot of retail in the US missed to catch on to the internet. Bezos became a god partially through incompetent competition.

</comment><comment><USER20> Once they said Jeff is the worst CEO alive !!, now things are getting a change !

</comment><comment><USER21> Moral of the story? Become a master of logistics.

</comment><comment><USER22> Like... physically?

</comment><comment><USER23> Likely MZ.

</comment><comment><USER24> The problem with these new giants is that people really want them around. People don't care so much that their neighbors are going out of business; they just want their crap cheap and as soon as possible. The current legislative environment is entirely ill-equipped to deal with these companies, and moreover, no one even knows _how_ to deal with them. What is clear, though, is that the proliferation of supercompanies like Amazon is repugnant to the ideals of the free market and must be stopped.

<comment><USER25> I have a lot of sympathy for this argument, but I don't think it's fleshed out enough. What happens to this argument if you do s/Amazon/Walmart/? I would generally hold Amazon is better than Walmart due to the relative decentralization of Amazon's sources (third parties can easily sell on Amazon, but not at Walmart). Your argument says Walmart is also unstoppable, at least without further tweaks --- and yet, we figured out how to solve the Walmart problem. Walmart is struggling --- a nimbler, more convenient competitor came along, and society also has a greater appreciation for specialty stores now. Will that happen to amazon too?

<comment><USER24> > Your argument says Walmart is also unstoppable, at least without further > tweaks --- and yet, we figured out how to solve the Walmart problem.

You're proposing that the solution to "the Walmart problem" is to create a company even worse than Walmart, a company that drives other, larger companies out of business? Whereas Walmart put out the mom and pops, Amazon is putting out the Bestbuys and shopping malls. There is no difference. But people are celebrating this, and heralding a coming age where no one has to work (caused by Amazon-like processes and robots replacing retail workers and other jobs), without really considering the complete disaster that this would entail. The solution is not even more supercompanies.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: List everything you know that is good/bad for our brains. - <AUTHOR>

I have seen some good ideas on this topic here and there, buried in several HN comment threads. But I thought it'll be better off being a separate topic, aggregating everything good/bad for our precious brains. <comment><USER3> I've read a ton in this area so let me offer some of my findings. If I get time this weekend I'll put together a blog post and link to it from here so I can include references, etc:

Generally thought to be good for the brain:

Fish oil (Omega 3 in general but fish oil is tough to beat)

Exercise (Read the book Spark for more details)

Meditation (While this needs to be studied more some of the studies on long- time meditators look very promising)

Keeping the brain active, especially as we age (learning a language, doing crosswords or other brain puzzles, etc.)

Quality sleep

Some supplements (While I think there may be more definitive studies necessary, certain supplements like blueberry extract, vitamin D and melatonin are showing promising benefits to the brain)

Generally thought to be bad for the brain:

Excessive consumption of alcohol (1-2 drinks/day may be OK but more than that is typically

Excessive consumption of sugar (the book Sugar Blues goes into a lot more detail)

Toxic fats (Trans Fatty Acids, etc.)

Head injuries (concussions, wear helmets, seatbelts, etc.)

Many drugs (while some drugs are neuroprotective, many are neurotoxic, proceed with caution and reference Daniel Amen's work for more details)

Overexposure to certain chemicals (many people who work in factories with constant exposure suffer problems)

Two of my favorite books in this are are Making a Good Brain Great by Daniel Amen and The Ultra Mind Solution by Mark Hyman.

<comment><USER4> Great post, Jon!

Saving Your Brain is a fantastic book by Jeff Victoroff, M.D. He reviewed 14,000 medical research studies to write that book. He's also the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Nolan Bushnell's new company, Anti- AgingGames.com.

I would add to your list above: not smoking; being within 5-10 lbs of your ideal weight; partnering with a doctor who is both proactive and focused on prevention; getting an annual checkup with tests that can spot if you have Vitamin D, E, B12, calcium, or iron deficiency; maintaining regular social contact with your friends; buying cars with a good safety rating (in one study the chance of getting Alzheimers was 4x higher in people who sustain head injuries after the age of 39; doing activities that are new and mentally engaging (helps keep the brain's plasticity). You said this but I wanted to stress that the activity should be new because that's what helps the most.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Be sure to take a look at "Brain Rules" by John Medina.

<http://brainrules.net/>

The short version:

EXERCISE | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power.

SURVIVAL | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.

WIRING | Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.

ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things.

SHORT-TERM MEMORY | Rule #5: Repeat to remember.

LONG-TERM MEMORY | Rule #6: Remember to repeat.

SLEEP | Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.

STRESS | Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way.

SENSORY INTEGRATION | Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.

VISION | Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.

GENDER | Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.

EXPLORATION | Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.

<comment><USER6> Good stuff! But just for fun: 1\. Sitting on your ass programming for long periods of time develops brain power too. 2\. We've held on tightly to our lizard brains too. 3\. Faulty wiring can be creative if it's faulty in the right way. 4\. We do pay attention to annoying boring things. 5-6. Imagine to remember 7\. Sometimes it takes an all-nighter to get your brain over the hump. 8\. True, although not always a bad way. 9\. Or isolate to concentrate and build myelin. 10\. Only if you're a visual learner. 11\. Viva la difference 12\. We are also inveterate couch potatoes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> And in other (Hacker) News... Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1545774> Ask HN: Suggested Reading List <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1547988> Ask HN: Anyone have OCD? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546203> Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1545325> Ask HN: Your "Keeper" articles. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1540610> Ask HN: anyone ever drop everything and leave software dev behind? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1521190> Ask HN: Loosing Faith - <USER2> startup killer <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1531518> Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1497164> Ask HN: Lack of self-discipline driving me hopeless. Tips? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1486708> Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1419556> Hacker News | Ask HN: List everything you know that is good/bad for our brains. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1583623>

<comment><USER7> there is really no value in putting searchyc.com results here

<comment><USER6> Sorry, those are just ones I had bookmarked as advice. Not a search.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Novelty is good for your brain. But then repitition (a.k.a. "practice") can be too. Caveat: practice makes permanent -- not perfect. Malpractice makes malperfect.

<comment><USER9> On the practice subject - in college I studied in the double bass studio for a few years. He always said that his goal was to teach us how to practice. He told us that we'd probably forget everything that he actually said, but if he taught us how to practice properly we'd be able to learn anything if only we knew the proper way to practice. He'd also make us tell him exactly what we were going to do after each lesson in order to be ready for the next lesson. A lot of what he taught us, i've found, could be applied to other areas of life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Loving friends and family and caring for people is good for your brain.

</comment><comment><USER11> Great video by Google Tech Talks here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyPrL0cmJRs&feature=chann...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyPrL0cmJRs&feature=channel)

Mentat Wiki has a ton of interesting articles/tips: <http://www.ludism.org/mentat>

And the Memoriad Competition Software is awesome and challenging; it's great practice every day: <http://www.memoriad.com/memoriadsoftware.asp>

</comment><comment><USER12> You might be interested in this project a friend of mine is running called Mind Apples: <http://mindapples.org/>

The idea is to look for the mental health equivalent of "an apple a day".

</comment><comment><USER13> _Bad:_

\- reading news, fiction books (99.99% of them are crap);

\- programming in boring languages (Java);

\- chatting drunk in a bar;

\- watching any movies (youtube included), tv;

\- blogging about nonsense (life, politics, etc);

\- listening to a podcast while doing nothing (like sitting on a sofa);

\- participating in any social network (livejournal, facebook);

\- living in the countryside (I don't really know this, but it seems true by my observations on other people).

 _Good:_

\- living in a country where common language isn't your mother tongue;

\- reading very _carefully chosen_ books (non-mother tongue are preferred);

\- regular sex;

\- friends which share your interests;

\- regular jogging (not on a treadmill);

\- walking when you are stuck;

\- programming in functional languages.

<comment><USER14> What's wrong with running on a treadmill? I've found the measurability to be useful.

<comment><USER13> Maybe it's personal, but looking on the screen (while running) with a dumb simulation of the nature makes me feel blue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In Lebanon, they think Cheese slows your brain down, while Zataar speeds it up.

This is Zataar: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za%27atar>

<comment><USER15> [http://www.deandeluca.com/herbs-and-spices/herbs- spices/zaat...](http://www.deandeluca.com/herbs-and-spices/herbs- spices/zaatar.aspx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ear massage.

Wet your hands with cold water and twist and turn your ear with two finger (not too hard, the idea is to generate blood flow so they get warm. You are not trying to hurt yourself). It jolts my attention for about 20-30 minutes.

When I was writing this, I thought to myself if there is any science behind it. Turns out this seems like a fairly well-known thing to some people. I found this out myself. Now I will go read what causes this to happen.

<comment><USER6> Interesting. I do a bastardized form of shiatsu. Pressing on my eyebrows etc with thumb and forefinger in a pattern. That wakes me up.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiatsu>

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I read this article a while back and found it interesting.

22 ways to overclock your brain - [http://ririanproject.com/2006/11/03/22-ways-to-overclok- your...](http://ririanproject.com/2006/11/03/22-ways-to-overclok-your-brain/)

</comment><comment><USER17> _Good for the brain_ 1) List of supplements that are good for the body (click on the right to drill down to "mental health": [http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil- supplem...](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/) 2) Exercise 3) Meditation [http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/05/11/095679761037...](http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/05/11/0956797610371339.abstract) 4) Adequate levels of Vitamin D [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421072159.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421072159.htm)

</comment><comment><USER18> good stuff :

omega 3s

good nutrition - vitamins, protein, fiber

regular exercise

deliberate practice

meditation

regular sleep

</comment><comment><USER19> exercise is good for your brain as already linked on HN [http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/05/exercise-boosts-your- br...](http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/05/exercise-boosts-your- brain-%E2%80%93-here%E2%80%99s-how/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Mercury is really bad for your brain. It inhibits myelin production, which is the mechanism by which people learn and develop skills. Mercury is found in all aquatic animals, which is why I stay away from all of them.

<comment><USER21> But the fatty acids in fish are good for your brain:

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/oct/25/society.science>

<comment><USER22> Agreed - oily fish in moderation is the way I try to go

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This one is less obvious and I read it on a random magazine.

Covering head to toe when you are sleeping is bad for your brain. The reason is that it'll increase CO2 concentration in your breathing air.

</comment><comment><USER23> I can't back this up with research, but from my own experience, concentrated thinking is good for the brain. Activities and environments that promote concentration are good while those that disturb concentration are bad.

Good: writing, quiet, solitary runs and walks, thinking in the shower, schedule with plenty of margin, moving around, standing, working in large blocks of time.

Bad: noise, too much information (TV, radio, clutter), hurry, packed schedule, too much food, too little water, sitting too long.

</comment><comment><USER24> I have a feeling that if you list everything that at least one study or credible report found to be good or bad for our brains, it'd end up looking sort of like the compendium of "things that cause and/or prevent cancer": <http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/>

</comment><comment><USER25> I read a trick that has worked for me but, it might just be placebo effect.

Can't find the word your searching for? Rapidly look with your eyes left and right a few times and it may jolt your memory.

//I promise I'm not trying to make you look silly

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah eye movement apparently has some benefits. [http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=boo...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=boost- your-creativity-with-eye-move-09-11-10)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Smoking is good for staving off Parkinson's Disease:

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310162823.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310162823.htm)

</comment><comment><USER27> Anecdotal evidence makes me believe the absolute best thing for an engineers brain is a full night of sleep every night... that means no alarm clocks.

</comment><comment><USER28> Porn is bad for your brain. <http://www.google.com/search?q=effects+of+porn>

<comment><USER29> Man, for a slight second, you really put the fear of god in me. Thank goodness your link was bogus, I can't live without my pr0n!

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> one of the best sources I have found on the internet for stuff like this is mind hacks; <http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/>

They have some pretty interesting stuff over there. It's too bad that I can't afford to buy the book.

</comment><comment><USER31> Practice is good for your brain.

</comment><comment><USER6> Learning a new language is good for your brain. Either kind of language.

</comment><comment><USER32> Unrestrained thinking is good for the brain.

</comment><comment><USER33> Social News sites have permanently fucked most people's brains up

<comment><USER34> Unless you live with no tv and you check them 10 minutes daily to keep yourself informed of what's happening in your industry (i.e. they're not an addiction).

<comment><USER35> Yes, if you spend no more than 10 minutes with them daily, it stands to reason that you're not addicted or have your addition well under control. Unless you have a TV. ?

<comment><USER34> I don't have a TV.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Japanese Art of Grieving a Miscarriage - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/well/family/the-japanese-art-of-grieving-a-miscarriage.html <comment><USER4> Missing from this article is that while jizo statues are used to commemorate miscarriage, they are far more commonly used to grieve over/religiously absolve oneself of abortion. While I'm happy that the author found some relief in this tradition, it struck me as odd that this was omitted. That miscarriages and abortions were treated with the same ritual always spoke to me as a more sincere expression of the suffering of women, especially given the gender inequity in Japan. The NY Times also themselves wrote about this 20 years ago:

[https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/25/world/in-japan-a- ritual-o...](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/25/world/in-japan-a-ritual-of- mourning-for-abortions.html)

<comment><USER5> I always found gender inequity in Japan quite different from how it was in the West. To me it seems that Japanese women were comparatively highly respected. Their role in society was different from that of the men, and still is, but independently from that the _status_ of women was high since long ago. Just as an example, Japanese wives have traditionally had full financial control over the family budget - men got an allowance from them. I think wives/mothers in traditional households were usually seen as the head of the family behind the scenes, doing most of the important family decisions.

<comment><USER6> In the southern USA, women are "respected" until they violate social norms of getting married and having children. I hear that women in Japan are still expected to (and usually do) quit their jobs when they have a child. You might try talking to some women in these situations to find out if they consider that to be a situation in which they are "highly respected".

You might find [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Shinto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Shinto) to be interesting reading.

<comment><USER5> Note that I never wrote that the situation is maximising happiness as-is and shouldn't be changed. I just wanted to point out that the peculiarities of the traditional female role in Japan differs quite a bit from Western societies, and one should be careful to leave out assumptions that come from mirroring our home culture.

One other example is that in Japan, the arguably most formative work of literature is 'Tale of Genji' (~1000 AD!), written by a woman. This work has a Dante's Inferno like status in Japan, in that it was both formative to both Japanese language and culture. The closest you could compare it to in English is if you combine the impacts of both the King James' bible and Shakespeare's work.

This is just to show what I mean with cultural status of women in Japan - <USER2> basically started since 1000 years ago when the women's way of writing (Hiragana / vocabulary / grammar) has started to become more and more the standard thanks to Lady Murasaki, and funnily enough this is still an ongoing process with Kanji's still being dropped for Hiragana. I think you'd have a hard time finding a historical Western woman with a comparable cultural impact - Queen Elizabeth I is the only one I can think of.

<comment><USER7> Huh. I expressed no opinion that the situation was or wasn't maximizing happiness as-is or should or should not be changed. I was recommending that you talk to modern Japanese women about whether they feel "highly respected".

<comment><USER8> I think you don't understand the situation in Japan because you see it with Western eyes. There are actually a lot of women who enjoy having this kind of role in society (and who have no interest in a career) - just because they were raised in that culture and do not reject it.

Now, it is true that if you are an ambitious woman in Japan, it is going to be difficult to make a career for yourself and you will certainly face discrimination at some workplaces. But that does not mean every woman is like or feels like that.

<comment><USER7> Huh, I didn't express any opinion about the situation in Japan, so are you actually replying to what I said? I definitely didn't say anything about what every woman in Japan thinks or feels. I think HN discussion would be better off if people responded to what was actually said, instead of repeatedly making things up and responding to that. I say "repeatedly" because that already happened in this thread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> FWIW, Jizo (地蔵, "Earth Treasury") is the Japanese version of the Buddhist boddhisattva Kshitigarbha: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshitigarbha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshitigarbha) (A boddhisattva being one who is enlightened, but chooses to hang around the mortal planes to help others instead of flitting off to heaven.)

More traditionally, he's considered the patron saint of children (living ones too) and travelers. The "baby Jizo" thing came about when he morphed from being the _protector_ of unborn and recently died children to actually _representing_ the unborn/dead child, and is as far as I know this is an entirely Japanese adaptation.

Also, Jizo statues are common memorials for children who died young as well. Every now and then, you run into one with a child's sandals, toys, snacks etc beside it, which is pretty heart-breaking because you know that only a few months ago there was a little toddler running around in those tiny pink flipflops that are now bleaching in the sun and rain.

I was once at Hase-dera in Kamakura, which has an exceptionally large collection of baby Jizos. There was an American tour group stomping through and laughing at all these statues decorated with bibs and Hello Kitty figures and even little bottles of sake, because isn't Japan just so wacky and crazy? If they only knew the amount of heartbreak and pain they represent...

</comment><comment><USER10> We do a similar thing with balloons - as I've gone through a miscarriage (with my wife) and a pet dying after twelve years (with the kids too) - <USER3> realizing that both were significant deaths for us that had no traditional outlets for our feelings - a funeral felt strange in those cases - we wrote goodbyes on balloons and let them go.

But there is something fun in a Jizo statue - that it makes an abstract feeling more concrete.

<comment><USER11> >a funeral felt strange in those cases

Huh? Why? Back when I was married, we had a funeral every time one of our pets died. Not some big affair with other people, of course, but just a small little ceremony for ourselves in our home or in the backyard where we buried the box.

Writing goodbyes on balloons and letting them go as you did can also be said to be a form of a funeral.

<comment><USER10> True. Yeah I don't know - our children were very little and I guess I think of a funeral as kind of byzantine thing for a handful of people to do.

We also didn't have a body in either case - maybe an empty box felt strange? I don't know. I am also very into breaking from traditions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Americans would do well to adopt more mourning traditions. I recommend everybody read "On Death and Dying" which I found to be very insightful and quite helpful.

(edited to fix spelling)

<comment><USER13> > more morning traditions

I have enough shit to do in the morning, and I'm not waking up earlier.

But really, why? Why can't America just do things the American way? Why do people reject the idea that Americans are allowed to have their own culture?

<comment><USER14> > Why do people reject the idea that Americans are allowed to have their own > culture? reply

No one said that they are not allowed to have their own culture. Read the post you are replying to again. It is implying that American are _lacking_ in mourning traditions and that some should be adopted. Looking at what other cultures do is a start, but there's nothing to say that these new mourning traditions couldn't be entirely new, and specific to Americans.

<comment><USER13> > No one said that they are not allowed to have their own culture

No, people just constantly assert that other cultures are better and that Americans should adopt their values instead.

<comment><USER14> You're tilting at windmills here. The original post did _not_ say this, yet this is what you are continuing to rant about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> My neighborhood in Japan is surrounded by graveyards, including many, many jizo. At first, I was creeped out by the ever-present reminders of death, but now I feel it is a very healthy society that confronts mortality head-on and makes death part of the visible landscape of daily life.

<comment><USER16> In Samoa and American Samoa, family members are usually buried beside their homes. It's not completely uncommon for homes to later be extended, causing the graves to be inside the houses or in the verandah.

I visited the home of a distant family member (by marriage) once and their grandparents graves were inside what had become the sitting room/lounge.

[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i3DWwUsLFBU/Tq3D2VDcwgI/AAAAAAAAAQ...](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i3DWwUsLFBU/Tq3D2VDcwgI/AAAAAAAAAQc/b7gOsDYOfVM/s1600/Grave1.JPG)

<comment><USER17> In the American South one can also find "familial graveyards" [1] Although it's a dying tradition, as I understand it. [1][https://geanderson.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/now-about- that-c...](https://geanderson.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/now-about-that- cemetery-in-the-backyard%E2%80%A6/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is a great story, and I'm glad that a simple tradition helped comfort a fellow human. But while I do understand that most people likely do not take the religious reasons behind rituals too seriously, I find the following wicked:

> According to Buddhist belief, a baby who is never born can't go to heaven, > having never had the opportunity to accumulate good karma.

I'm no scholar in these matters, but almost every religion has some sort emotional torture built in for parents of miscarried/aborted children :(

<comment><USER19> The Mormons have a clever hack for this - on Fridays they have a group that "baptizes the dead" to make up for it. The true believers around here set great store by it.

<comment><USER20> Catholicism isn't _terrible_ in this regard, either. They actually take a rather agnostic approach, which is refreshing to see.

[http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_d...](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un- baptised-infants_en.html)

Basic summary is that they rely on God to judge, and instead _hope_ that He finds them worthy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The headline has a distasteful fetishizing tone, but the article is a respectful appreciation of a valuable cross-cultural lesson.

</comment><comment><USER22> I've never understood why people grieve after a miscarriage. Similarly, I was surprised to learn that many people find having an abortion to be somewhat traumatic. I've never had children and I hopefully never will.

Anybody else feels similar or wants to explain? Is it cultural, all just pregnancy hormones or something else?

<comment><USER23> An aunt of mine had two (or three?) miscarriages before having her first child. Each time she was absolutely devastated. Honestly I'm pretty surprised that anyone would find that hard to understand. I'm not really big on children (and am childless myself) but trying hard to intentionally get pregnant* , anticipating a child for months, preparing yourself emotionally, and even making space in your home for a child, only to have a miscarriage has got to be one of the most traumatic things I can imagine. Short of losing an already born child or a spouse. In the case of my aunt she went through a really rough time where she blamed herself and later God for her suffering. I don't think that's cultural at all. I think that's just part of being human.

As someone who isn't really interested in having kids it's easy to forget that some people _really_ want them. It is baked into our DNA and has been since before we as a species walked the Earth. If the pregnancy wasn't an accident then it's no wonder people mourn over a miscarriage. As far as they were concerned it was their future child. And I say that as someone who is very much not pro-life.

* Conception is not as easy as abstinence-only education would have you believe. Some perfectly fertile couples try for years before successfully conceiving.

<comment><USER24> > Some perfectly fertile couples try for years before successfully conceiving.

If both partners are young and healthy then they should have a bun in the oven within 4 months, otherwise something is abnormally wrong.

<comment><USER25> As long as we're nit-picking here, 4 months of trying doesn't mean that something is wrong. Most doctors ask couples to try for a year before seeing a specialist (unless the woman is older, then wait 6 months or less).

Take a group of fertile 22 year old women, for example. Each one has about a 25% chance per month of getting pregnant, while trying to conceive. After four months, you can expect that about 30% of the original group still will have not conceived (75% ^ 4). Absolutely nothing wrong with them, it's just a numbers game.

Spreading misinformation like "a bun in the oven within 4 months, otherwise something is abnormally wrong" is awful for couples who are trying to conceive for a few months, and already stressed out enough about it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Davos 2015: Harvard's Joseph Nye on China Relations - <AUTHOR> http://techonomy.com/2015/01/wef-davos-2015-hub-culture-interview-professor-joseph-nye/

<comment> o0-0o I can't believe Mr. Nye believes that China's relations with it's neighbors are improving. Japan defense spending at highest levels since WWII, US shift to Pacific theater, disputes with virtually every neighbor about islands outside of the first ring, and on an on.</comment>


Tumblr lead developer on running a popular blog - <AUTHOR> http://www.marco.org/166210052

<comment><USER2> I was hoping this was going to be a real breakdown and analysis of why things turned around for this blogger. For example, topics he wrote about then which he doesn't anymore or how his user base has changed compared to then.

Unfortunately, it lacks any real content and depth - it may as well have been written for Reader's Digest.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair point - in fact, I suggested on my blog that it may be a bit simplistic (or a confusion of correlation/causation) to simply say "my blog is successful because I stopped trying to make it successful": [http://ashotofjd.com/post/168062040/marco-i-now-have-a- decen...](http://ashotofjd.com/post/168062040/marco-i-now-have-a-decently- successful-blog)

<comment><USER3> The content of your blog post is less than your comment here. Please post your thoughts as comment directly next time. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Let me conclude:

 _At first I tried hard to make my blog well-integrated and popular. I used all the usual SEO techniques and developed a mass of followers. Once I was there, I stopped caring about these things and voila - I am still popular. My position as lead developer of Tumblr might be related._

<comment><USER4> I started reading Marco's posts because he wrote Instapaper, released an iPhone application, and generally produced.

My expectation is that the less time he spent on gimmicky SEO crap, the more time he had to actually make things that someone like me pays attention to.</comment></comment>


RxJava vs. Reactor - <AUTHOR> https://www.nurkiewicz.com/2019/02/rxjava-vs-reactor.html <comment><USER2> I think one of the main advantages of RxJava is that the api is consistent across languages and platforms. Making it possible to switch between Android, Backend, and iOS without having to learn the caveats of a particularly framework. The debug & testing support looks really good so will check reactor out for some future project and see how it is.</comment>