System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/10/10/system76-will-begin-shipping-2-linux-laptops-with-coreboot-based-open-source-firmware/ <comment><USER2> I am Jeremy Soller, Principal Engineer at System76.

Let me know if you have any questions. The source for this can be found here:

[https://github.com/system76/firmware- open](https://github.com/system76/firmware-open)

There are instructions there for building and testing the firmware in QEMU, you do not need to have our hardware to try it out.

<comment><USER3> Why no AMD CPUs? I just don't buy anything Intel and I'm for some time looking at System76, but each time I go build a setup I remember why I gave up the last time around.

Also, with the price difference between the two it would be a more interesting hardware using this difference to acquire more RAM.

<comment><USER4> Can't speak for System76, but I got the AMD Thinkpad (A485), and I'm honestly disappointed as hell and now I understand why you don't see the Ryzens on laptops too much.

The power management is an absolute joke (the thing has two batteries and barely lasts 2 hours total), suspend works maybe 20% of the time, and the OS actually _freezes_ on it every now and then leaving no trace in syslog. I'd much rather get an Intel now if I had a choice.

<comment><USER5> What Ryzen are you specifically referring to?

Afaik newer generations have Intel beat on performance/watt, particularly in HT heavy applications and at least on desktop.

<comment><USER6> Being able to put out more FLOPs at max pinned wattage, doesn't imply that you'll take in fewer watts at idle. Power consumption isn't linear.

<comment><USER5> I'm not talking about "more FLOPs at max pinned wattage", that would be Intel. I'm talking about efficiency as in performance delivered per watt used and on that metric Ryzen has Intel beat on desktop.

So it stands to reason those new Ryzen chips would also perform very well in laptops.

[0] [https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-9_3900x-vs- in...](https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-9_3900x-vs-intel- core_i7-9900k,6225.html)

<comment><USER6> No, you're misreading what I said. My point was that the metric AMD has Intel beat in is "performance per watt _under load_ ". With Ryzen, each watt you spend will get you _more_ FLOPs than the same marginal watt will get you on an Intel chip. It's like Ryzen is a car with more torque, that can turn each cc of gasoline burned into more force, and so get you further down the road. But that doesn't mean that Ryzen _idles as low_ as an Intel chip; i.e. that the Ryzen car would end up burning less gasoline over an hour of city driving.

Ryzen can be more power-efficient in e.g. a server (constant near-100% load profile) while also being _less_ power-efficient in a laptop (constant near- idle load profile.) People who talk about the Ryzen power efficiency numbers are only talking about how it performs in the server-like test context (or, often, a gaming context, where the measurement they're using is just "what sort of PSU do you need to power this thing at max load.") As is evidenced by sibling posts in this thread, Ryzen _doesn't_ fare so well in the laptop-like test context in practice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Recently there was a discussion about Huawei MateBook X Pro, which also seems to be a great Linux notebook:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21170765](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21170765)

In that discussion, several other good Linux notebooks were also discussed, including System 76. But it was reported there that the quality is quite bad:

> but the quality is reportedly bad (flaky hardware, too-fast power drain, > reflash bios to toggle discrete graphics (!), slow support) > [https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/review-system76-oryx- > pr...](https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/review-system76-oryx-pro)

> Mine is in the System 76 repair shop right now for the third time. Extremely > unsatisfied with Oryx Pro materials and build quality. Oh it's back for the > third time because when they replaced the top case last time, they installed > a defective touch pad. Never again.

I wonder if that has been improved, as I'm really interested in a high quality Linux notebook.

<comment><USER8> It's worth noting that stories like this are the extreme minority of cases. We have a great many customers and the overwhelming majority of computers we sell live out their entire (long) lives without any sort of incident, major or minor. However, when someone buys a computer and everything works as expected, that's not really all that notable because there's nothing interesting about that, and so you don't really here a ton of "works as expected" stories to counteract the negative ones.

I can't really find more than maybe 10-20 unique public cases of a System76 computer having serious problems. I don't want to toot our horns too much here, but that's just not very many people compared to our entire userbase. We're a company with the resources to develop open source firmware; it takes a lot more support from your customers than could be afforded by 10-20 (or 100, 1000, etc.) people to do that.

If you look hard enough, it's not hard to find examples of any computer manufacturer having issues with occasional units. That's just the nature of manufactured products (especially high-tech electronics). No company has a 0% failure rate, and any that claims to is lying. However, you can be reasonably certain that any company that's been around for a decade and a half (or longer) has a lot fewer failures than successes

<comment><USER9> Yes every manufactured product will have its percentage of issues. I think it is how you handle the failures and the customers that will be important moving forward.

I can not speak to the original quote but my experience as not been amazing. My 4k Oryx Pro has rebooted randomly since the second month I have owned it. I sent it back 3 times already, ran tests per support and even reinstalled PopOs many times. It still has randomly rebooted. My last interaction with support was just past the year mark of when I bought it and I was asked to pay to replace the last item (the battery, just about everything else was replaced).

I love using PopOs. I love the 4k screen I have and the Oryx. I dont love writing this or the response I sent to support about the request for paying for it. It gives me pause when recommending System76 to a coworker/friend and I will be looking around when when the time comes to get a new laptop. Support was helpful when I had a linux issue early on but the rest of year long interaction was about the reboots.

<comment><USER8> I'm deeply sorry we couldn't get that issue resolved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> These computers runs blobs in the firmware and are not fully open source. I understand that modern users want modern performance, and that there is only a niche market for a librebooted computer (mostly due to performance), and as a company, it's systems76's responsibility to meet the market. But solutions exist, and if you are trying to market an open source computer, then give me an open source computer. What I hate most is how the top comment is from Jeremy Soller, but they are literally using this forum as a marketing platform, only responding to the queries that potray their initiative as good, and ignoring the literal highest comment directly under their post. This is so disingenuous, give me true libre laptop. (C-f tpearson-raptor on this post, they even offers a real solution from raptor to try and make this real). I'm grossed out.

<comment><USER11> > that there is only a niche market for a librebooted computer (mostly due to > performance), and as a company, it's systems76's responsibility to meet the > market

They have no responsibility of the sort.

<comment><USER10> I just meant in terms of aligning with their profit motive; i guess the correct word is incentive, rather than responsibility. I see your point

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I love what System76 is doing, but I have to say that the name Pop OS is just horrible. It just screams "toy" and sounds like a name that would come out of some fly by night junkware vendor. The exclamation mark makes it even worse. It's almost as bad as ending a name with "-ster."

Naming is hard, but almost anything would be better. If in doubt I'd go with something bland like "System76 Linux."

I bring this up because for the past 20 years closed silos and locked down platforms have won almost entirely on the basis of UI/UX and _polish_. System76's hardware looks good at first glance, but everything else matters too. An OS name that says "this is a toy and will be useless for real work" is a real problem for wider adoption. Even worse the name tends to transfer via mental association onto the hardware, conveying the idea that this laptop will fall apart.

<comment><USER13> Agree. Also their webpage for Pop!_OS[1] should show front-and-center what the GUI/Desktop looks like, not the logo of the OS name. They should take note of elementary's landing page.[2]

\- [1] [https://system76.com/pop](https://system76.com/pop)

\- [2] [https://elementary.io](https://elementary.io)

<comment><USER12> The Pop page on system76.com is just bizarre. It leads with things that are really niche interests and you have to scroll way down to get to what the desktop looks like.

My 30 second impression is "this is for children who want to program toy robot kits."

I am posting this criticism in the hopes that it's constructive, since I do like what system76 is doing. I use a Mac right now but I'd consider their laptops as one of the first possibilities if I ever abandoned the Mac platform.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I tried to get through this article, but the popups and advertising widgets made the page unreadable. A more accessible article can be found here:

[https://liliputing.com/2019/10/system76-launches-two- linux-w...](https://liliputing.com/2019/10/system76-launches-two-linux-with- comet-lake-chips-and-coreboot.html)

</comment><comment> awinter-py BYO software is my #3 consumer electronics question (after form factor & 'does it work at all')

and drivers are an important frontier of this. _SO TIRED_ of downloading blobs to have wifi on linux. AFAIK there isn't even a usb wifi dongle that has an open source wifi driver, much less a commercial wifi chipset.

even companies that are in theory dedicated to quality are teetering on the edge of using software to enable planned obsolescence -- and also releasing unpleasant product changes in line with security updates.

coreboot particularly interesting because of the TOTP work people have been doing on the TPM for tamper detection.

<comment><USER15> Most Wi-Fi blobs are not blob drivers, they're firmware that runs _on_ the Wi- Fi card.

For Intel Wi-Fi, FreeBSD includes the firmware out-of-the-box, many Linux distros do the same I'm sure.

<comment> awinter-py wait what's the difference? driver runs in kernel, firmware runs in card?

<comment><USER16> I think it is, or includes, the baseband firmware for the actual wifi radio. I believe, but I'm not 100% sure, that the FCC has specific restrictions on how baseband radio firmware gets distributed.

<comment><USER17> You, and everyone else for that matter, can go and buy a software defined radio (SDR) and play with a radio to your hearts liking. If there is a restriction on redistribution of open down to the radio firmware WiFi devices, then it's dumb. If there is none, please don't spread incorrect speculation that there is.

<comment><USER18> > You, and everyone else for that matter, can go and buy a software defined > radio (SDR) and play with a radio to your hearts liking.

You almost certainly cant transmit legally, though (unless you have a amateur radio license, which lets you do all sorts of stuff with useful amounts of power).

<comment> tpearson-raptor That depends heavily on where you're transmitting (i.e what frequency and bandwidth you use) along with the power you're transmitting at.

First, as a ham radio operator, no, you can't just go and start blasting away from an SDR even in the ham bands. You have to follow strict rules, including a non-commercial content rule and you must not use encryption. The ham bands are for people to experiment with new radio technologies and more importantly communicate with one another using those technologies on a hobbyist level -- encryption and commercial use does not help those goals.

That being said, there are chunks of radio spectrum that are effectively "public domain" where you can transmit within certain ERP (effective radiated power) limits without the ham band restrictions on content, protocol, etc. Traditional WiFi lives in one -- the block set aside for microwave cooking devices, and therefore with a near-unusable noise floor for anything but short range communication like household WiFi.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I spent a lot of time deliberating on what to replace my 13" MBP with. The idea of more open hardware is attractive, but both system76 and purism fell short (mainly battery life)

I ended up going with a Lenovo x1 carbón extreme and threw ArchLinux on it. The trackpad is worse, and battery life isn't quite as good (I feel like I can optimize this, but haven't had the chance yet), but it's such a capable machine. I feel quite happy with it.

<comment><USER20> > battery life isn't quite as good

powertop --auto-tune is a good first start in my experience.

<comment><USER21> yeah and tlp - although my guess is i think the nvidia graphics are hurting you here

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It took some work, but I convinced my employer to spring for a Darter Pro. I'm pretty happy with it. My previous laptop was a 2016 Dell XPS 13. I've found the larger screen on my Darter to be a lot easier to work on. Though, I do spend most of my time docked with multiple monitors.

My only real complaint is that when the fan ramps up, it is really loud. Loud enough to distract from meetings.... I haven't dug into the different tools for fan control much yet, but if anyone from System76 sees this, it'd be awesome if you implemented a nice ui for that.

</comment><comment><USER23> Sweet. I hope they're working on POWER9 and RISC-V offerings, too. The x86/amd64 monoculture needs to go.

<comment><USER24> It's not a laptop, but the Talos II workstation runs on POWER9 and has open firmware.

[https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/](https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/)

<comment><USER25> It uses OpenBMC firmware, now under The Linux Foundation.

EDK2 is also open source, a UEFI implementation. Looks like Coreboot has been around about as long as EFI, and supports most of the same architectures.

So is the Coreboot advantage argument mainly that it's simpler than UEFI?

<comment><USER15> That last sentence is a bit nonsensical. Apples and oranges. Coreboot is not a standardized interface for OS boot loaders, Coreboot is only low-level early initialization code. Coreboot loads a _payload_ … like EDK2.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I would love to buy an open, linux-based laptop to replace my aging 11" MBA but these are _huge laptops_ \- the smallest has a 14" screen.

Should I be looking at the Pinebook 11" ?

<comment><USER27> There's the pinebook pro going out now. It's not going to blow you away with its speed, but it's much better than the OG pinebook

<comment><USER28> Pinebook pro is 14" following the apple model of "more power must have a bigger screen".

But it's a pretty low end system intended for experimentation. The store page warns you not to buy it if you are picky about hardware quality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I wish their shipping costs to Germany wouldn't be that expensive. Hardware + tax + shipping costs is just way too expensive. I wanted to buy an Oryx Pro recently, but had to go for another model (non System76) because of this.

</comment><comment><USER30> Worst company to buy a Linux laptop from. I attempted to purchase a laptop from them in the past and got hit with crazy duties even though the wording on the site made it appear that there were none.

Simply better to buy a certified Dell laptop such as: Latitude 7490 or Latitude 7480

<comment><USER31> What country did you order to?

<comment><USER30> Canada. I'm aware there's duties but when I had ordered their website made it seen like they handled these.

I refused to pay the extra like $150 for the laptop and sent it back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Is the value in the custom distro that's well tested with the shipped hardware, do we think? i.e. If I want a laptop to put <something else> on, might I as well have a ThinkPad/Dell XPS/Purism Librem?

I just don't particularly like the _look_ of the chassis, and I'm sure there's nowhere I can see them in person to check. It's a shame that Macbooks essentially don't work with Linux any more: [https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux](https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux) (yes there are workarounds and maybe it doesn't all matter - but needing a WiFi dongle is a bit of show stopper).

</comment><comment><USER33> I love this concept and I love that it is proliferating. Purism offers what I'd consider to be more attractive hardware, but that's very subjective. As of Kubuntu 19.10, I actually consider Linux to be the best operating system for a laptop.I look forward for 20.04 and a few years of near total disregard for updates.

I want to be an AMD fanboy! I want (at least) 16 cores, 32 threads, a fully open source graphics stack, Wayland, flicker free boot, and open source firmware as described here. As it is, I just had to go with Intel/NVidia because it's more seamless. Even though I'm not really using the NVidia GPU, I do have it available if I want to work with Tensorflow etc. Ultimately, for me it is a question of stability but I hope that these systems can really close the gap.

I want something like this System76 machine with very good support for encrypted ZFS right out of the box. I don't know if that would entail LUKS or ZFS encryption, but I want it to work. I want a USB key that actually serves as a key and allows me to boot or otherwise unlock the system. Again, I'd prefer this to be a fully open source AMD/ATI system based on Kubuntu. With ZFS, bpftrace, and Docker... this is what Solaris wanted to be when it grew up.

I'm not sure how big the market for this would be, but I'd pay good American money if anyone catered to it. Right now I'm using a Dell G3 Intel/Nvidia laptop which, in fairness, is obscenely fast.

<comment><USER28> If you aren't using a GPU regularly, Why not use a cloud gpu? Cloud CPU is cheap as free if it's just occasional playing around, vs $100 to $1000 and all the manufacturing pollution to be stuck with a GPU you don't use

<comment><USER33> I _wanted_ to use the NVidia GPU in this laptop, it just doesn't work as well as the Intel GPU (I hate screen tearing). I think this will be great as a development environment once I get around to making Docker work with the NVidia drivers (allegedly it should). I'm not sure if you can do the same thing with AMD gear but the ability to create a Tensorflow NN and distribute it as a hardware accelerated Docker image is pretty cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Looks fantastic ! Overall a better deal than thinkpad, but would like to have the option for a second battery instead of second disk and a joyclit too if that's possible

</comment><comment><USER35> This has been a blooming marvellous, if depressing read.

I long for the future of open RISC-V/OpenPOWER/Arm/MIPS coherent platforms.

Thanks for your efforts and best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER36> Are there any good laptops other thinkpads for this os?

<comment><USER37> Dell XPS (9560 in my case).

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Hi

I would REALLY like to see a modern coreboot laptop with a 3k (or 4k) "retina"-type display. System76, if you can make this happen, you have a sale!

</comment><comment><USER39> Dang it, I just missed this. We picked up a meerkat a month back and it has performed superbly.

</comment><comment><USER40> I wonder if that's working for them as a core selling point. Does having an open firmware really steer people into buying one of these laptops?

I'm curious to hear from an actual buyer on why they purchased that laptop when there are so many linux friendly options available.

For web dev I've been running ubuntu on a virtualbox on my macbook pro for years. It's pretty much just as fast as my fully specced out desktop.

Consider the fact that hardware wise they seem to be seriously lacking. All of their laptops have a 1920x1080 display. My 6 year old macbook has a 2880x1800 display. 6 years old!

There are a ton of linux friendly options on the market now with 4k displays and even OLED displays.

<comment><USER41> I got a Gazelle a few days ago, mainly because I didn't want to have to troubleshoot anything when I get it. I wanted a plug and play linux experience, and this is it.

<comment><USER40> That's a fair point. I tried running Ubuntu & Arch on my macbook and was horrified to find that you have to set up and the fan regulation yourself or else the thing will just cook itself.

Not to mention the fun you'll have setting up the wifi and the especially good luck getting multi-touch support work just right.

<comment><USER41> I installed Arch on a Macbook and couldn't get Ethernet working, but I managed to get wifi up. I do not miss it</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The fallen Aussie tycoon who aced poker giants for FBI, to beat life behind bars - <AUTHOR> http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/fallen-aussie-tycoon-aces-poker-giants-for-fbi-to-beat-life-behind-bars-20110418-1dkkr.html

<comment><USER2> Some info on this guy to make the story clearer. He started an 'e-wallet' company specifically to cater to US poker players, who needed to use this style of online processor to get around having their transactions marked as being for gambling.

Intabill became popular quickly because of its low transaction fees. Tzvetkoff instantly became one of Australia's richest young men - purchasing a $25M home etc. etc. You may wonder how he became so rich so quickly from a company in a competitive industry - and it was because he was skimming money from the business and was not honoring withdrawls.

Full Tilt and Pokerstars finally stopped accepting Intabill and Tzvetkoff made off with the remainder of the deposits - which the poker companies had to cover players for.

When he visited the USA last year for a gambling conference in Vegas, Full Tilt and Pokerstars, ironically, tipped off his presence in the country to the FBI, who arrested him. He was surprisingly granted bail, and we now know why - he turned states witness in the case against the poker companies.

To the DOJ the online poker companies were bigger fish to catch rather than the guy who stole hundreds of millions of dollars.

And now:

> [accepting payments for poker] which has been illegal in the US since 2006

UIGEA was a rider on the Safe Ports Act of 2006[1], which means that it was never debated directly and was never voted on or approved directly. It did no come into effect until years after passing (the DOJ keeps quoting that the sites have been breaking the law since 2006, somehow not knowing that the law wasn't enforced until much later). The poker players association along with representatives who were working to overturn UIGEA, such as Barney Frank, worked tirelessly to continuously postpone enforcement of the act.

Frank was close to getting a bill passed last December that would have excluded online poker from UIGEA, Washington DC made it legal last week and a number of other states such as Nevada were about to do the same.

With it looking like online poker was about to be exclusively excluded from UIGEA, the DOJ knew that they had to act on their case now.

Most players have known for some time that there was a Grand Jury investigating the poker sites. It is known that a former member of Team Full Tilt, Clonie Gowen, testified against the company to the grand jury as part of a legal dispute she had with Full Tilt over compensation.

The poker sites relied on legal opinion which advised them that online poker is not considered 'online gambling'. Full Tilt went to the extreme of bringing in five separate firms to each give an opinion - and each found in favor of online poker not being online gambling. UIGEA makes specific mention of online gambling, but not poker specifically. The US Supreme Court and various higher courts have previously found that poker is a game of skill, as part of legal efforts by various states to legalize card rooms (see case law from the American Bar association[2])

The banks wouldn't take that risk though. They effectively shut out online poker transactions by not approving the poker sites as merchants. This didn't happen overnight - for eg. Citibank were one of the last to shut out online poker as late as a year ago.

Because there was effective collusion between the banks to lock online poker out of the market under vague threats from the DOJ - the poker sites had to work around it themselves by improvising and masking the transaction purposes by setting up their own banks and merchant accounts.

You have to ask yourself if this is fair - there are millions of online poker players in the USA, tens of thousands of whom play poker as a full time profession and make a living from it. The banks, with no direct law barring them from accepting the transactions, were persuaded by various lobby groups and the DOJ to lock the poker sites out of the market.

Some believe that what the banks did may have broken various WTO and free trade laws, not to mention the Sherman Act.

It is now apparent that in an effort to get around being blocked by the banks some of the sites and operators may have overstepped other laws such as money laundering, with new PATRIOT Act provisions - where you break the law even if you are the head of the company that is masking transactions in some way even if you were not directly involved or didn't know about it.

Online poker was weeks away from being legitimized in the USA. Pokerstars had weeks ago signed a new partnership agreement with the Wynn casino group. Full Tilt had struck similar partnerships. The Democrats were working to explicitly allow online poker transactions so that UIGEA would not have to be tested with online poker. Various states were working to legalize transactions for online poker. There is a strong chance that within a year or so online poker will be a legitimate, no-question-marks, fully transparent, billion-dollar online business.

When the DOJ dropped their case on Friday, Wynn announced that they had cancelled their partnership with Pokerstars and other companies/groups did the same with Full Tile and UB. All the effort from the players lobby, the companies themselves, the reps, etc. was blown up. Forget innocent until proven guilty, we are months away from any trial, only 3 of the 12 defendants are even in custody, yet domains have been seized and businesses destroyed by an 11-point case filing, of which only 2 or 3 points may ever get to trial

If the site owners are found guilty, they could be facing decades in jail. Penalties for money laundering that were increased as a way to lock up leaders of drug cartels and terrorist groups are being applied to people who built successful legitimate companies and had to work around all US banks being sacred of the vagueness of a law that was never directly enacted.

So even if online poker is found not to apply as 'online gambling' it will be too late for these entrepreneurs, who had to find their own way to work in the vacuum of nobody really knowing what was legal or not. The DOJ had a hell of a way of telling them that they didn't think it was.

A lot of people here on HN are entrepreneurs, so I hope you would support online poker entrepreneurs by lobbying your local reps, etc. Imagine if the industry you were in was being manipulated and artificially barred from trading by a small minority of those in positions of power. An industry which in this case is one of the largest and most popular passtimes in the USA. to me this is all sheer madness

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAFE_Port_Act>

[2] [http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/committees/CL430000pub/ne...](http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/committees/CL430000pub/newsletter/200905/humphrey.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is why I keep coming to HN - you've taken a considerable amount of time to further explain some of the details of an article that already explains a lot, with references, and in doing so have added massive value to my reading and understanding the news of the day.

Unfortunately, I can't see how many points you've received to recognise that contribution, so I'm writing this in case you haven't been fully recongised by other users voting with their mouse. Thanks nikcub.

<comment><USER3> Let's please not start contentless replies like this on every single good post just because points aren't visible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is anyone else not very outraged that these poker sites have been shut down (or at least domains seized)? They were indeed knowingly selling their services to US customers despite that being illegal.

They could have used GEO IP blocking to stop people from countries were online gambling is illegal from using the site, but they didn't -- instead they chose to create an elaborate scheme with shell companies used to hide transactions from prying eyes (which all came undo when Tzvetkoff talked).

Whether or not you agree with online gambling being illegal in the US is not the point. I don't think there should be speed limits, but there are, and so I have to deal with the consequences of ignoring those laws.

Why the outrage?

<comment><USER5> If a law is so silly that it makes criminals out of millions of regular people, you expect it to be changed, not enforced. Several European countries where online poker became popular are legalizing it.

<comment><USER4> It looks like Congress did look at changing the law in 2010, not sure what happened to this, NY Times article:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/politics/29gamble.html>

Banning online gambling doesn't really make sense if you still permit gambling at a state level, so I think this law is probably going to be toast in the long run.

<comment><USER6> Banning online gambling is essentially protectionism of the state-level gambling industries. A number of countries and WTO denounced the US a number of years ago for this policy, but the US just ignores WTO when it's convenient and uses it as a hammer against other countries when it _is_ convenient.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Java Posse: Rest in Peace Carl Quinn. Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/javaposse/status/1245583036588019715 <comment><AUTHOR> Carl Quinn passed away this week from complications to covid-19.

He was a co-host of the popular Java Posse podcast and left his mark across the industry, having worked at Borland, Sun Microsystems, Google, Netflix, Riot Games, and, mostly lately, the self-driving auto startup Zoox. He was a frequent speaker at technical conferences, an excellent engineer, architect, mentor, and for many, a friend. He will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER2> He had global impact on the software dev community with his insight and knowledge. He will be deeply missed all around the world. Rest in peace from Oslo, Norway.

<comment><USER3> He really had a terrific impact. I knew him a little bit personally and he didn't carry himself like it, but his career was amazing.

Another beautiful tribute to Carl: [https://jfrog.com/blog/in-memory-of-a- superfrog-carl-quinn-j...](https://jfrog.com/blog/in-memory-of-a-superfrog- carl-quinn-jfrog/)</comment></comment>


RogerOS: Moz's Next-Generation Application Platform - <AUTHOR> https://moz.com/devblog/introducing-rogeros-part-1/ <comment><AUTHOR> This is part one which covers the overview.

Part two [0] goes into a deeper explanation and exacting detail over the implementation.

[0] [https://moz.com/devblog/introducing-rogeros- part-2/](https://moz.com/devblog/introducing-rogeros-part-2/)</comment>


Show HN: A Simple Alternative to Google Alerts - <AUTHOR> http://www.pmalerts.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey hey - this is my latest project. Basically a social listening tool that gives you hourly/daily/weekly updates about the things that matter most to you.

If you input a query, it'll listen for it on popular social media sites / hackernews / stackoverflow and give you a heads-up. I built it because I found Google Alerts to be unreliable. Hope it helps you!</comment>


Betting the Company on Windows 8 - <AUTHOR> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/betting-the-company-on-windows-8.html

<comment><USER2> Microsoft is not composed of morons, their engineering is world-class, and they're not out to ruin their business or their product line. And the problem isn't Windows 8.

I'm guessing:

The Windows 8 Desktop side will be top-notch, comforting, and work as before and as expected.

The Windows 8 Metro side will be top-notch, internally-coherent, well- received, and offer a reduced complexity set for novice users and those seeking clarity and easier consumption.

The core OS will be top-notch, work on a grand range of hardware, and work as before and as expected.

It's not the problem with any of these pieces, it's how they're put together.

The first hour of Windows 8 is maddening, regardless of your technical skill level, comfort with Windows idioms, or level of resistance to change.

Two thirds of system configuration has been gutted and stranded in Metro mode. Login (if set up) is baffling and new. The computer violently flips between Metro and Desktop for reasons you're never quite sure of. It's constantly trying to drag you to this new place with completely different rules, appearance, and behavior. UI is hidden and transient.

There's no _guide_. You're just dumped there, and all efforts to work your computer like you did before are stymied. Yes, eventually YOU figure it out, but someone who's spent 20 years baking in the same ultra-reduced set of magic rituals to get the e-mail out is going to feel stupid. And they're not going to blame themselves - the era when you had no choice but to blame yourself is long over.

The Microsoft TABLET will be fine. The Microsoft SERVER will be fine. The Microsoft POWER USER base will be fine. The Microsoft GAMER population will be fine. The Microsoft DEVELOPERS will be fine.

It's the people who are only on the platform by virtue of "that's where facebook and my email is" who are going to run away screaming "Vista 2". That's the chip they're gambling with here, and I think they're going to lose it.

<comment><USER3> One advantage for Microsoft is that the Linux desktop environments currently also mess around with their UIs. Maybe in the long run it may turn out well but currently Gnome Shell and Unity make life hard for people who just want to use Facebook.

<comment><USER4> How does Unity make your life hard? I'm on osx myself but I love the unity interface and everyone that I've seen using it seems to easily find their way.

<comment><USER3> Change in general is bad for non-power users short term. Especially now that the interfaces grew less similar to the old windows paradigm it will get harder to steal the theoretical people escaping the Metro UI.

I have personally not formed any opinion if Unity and Gnome Shell are good or not. I have used them too little to say, I primarily use XFCE myself which was very easy to get started with.

<comment><USER5> Even (or especially) power users can resent gratuitous and/or negative change.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "I'd argue that the last truly revolutionary version of Windows was Windows 95. In the subsequent 17 years, we've seen a stream of mostly minor and often inconsequential design changes in Windows"

I know Jeff is looking at this more on the design side than the technical, but I'd argue that Windows XP was a much bigger deal than Windows 95, being the first consumer release based on the NT kernel and thus the first "home" version of Windows with reasonable memory protection between processes. How quickly we forget how terrible Windows was in the bad old days of daily BSODs.

<comment><USER7> > Windows XP was a much bigger deal than Windows 95, being the first consumer > release based on the NT kernel

I hung on to 98 until 2001 for gaming, but at that point most stuff worked perfectly on 2k. While it wasn't intended for "home" users, 2k was the preferred OS among my group of friends until XPsp2 or so.

I really don't get why the NT kernel wasn't introduced to the "home" market until XP.

<comment><USER6> I was a big proponent of Windows 2000 as well. Though not marketed/positioned as such, it was really the start of the merging of the consumer and corporate OSes... based on NT kernel, but had support for DirectX and other APIs Microsoft never bothered to support in older NT releases.

<comment><USER8> I think Windows 2000 Pro was the peak of the windows line.

<comment><USER9> Windows 2003 was also very good for similar reasons, though you did have to do some configuring to make it more of a workstation OS than a server OS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Having played with the Release Preview I have to say that while Metro is _very_ cool, the bipolar experience of constantly switching between Metro and legacy (?) is very _not_ cool. I'm not sure if there was a better way to solve the problem or not (obviously Microsoft prioritizes backwards-compatibility), but right now it kills the experience for me.

If Metro apps take off we'll likely see the need to switch to legacy mode dwindle over time, but with so many of our common day-to-day apps living in legacy mode at launch I'm afraid Metro will just fade away in most users minds ala the OSX Dashboard...

<comment><USER11> Having been using win8 for around a year now (MS employee), I really haven't noticed it getting in the way. I rarely find myself using a mix of both - either I'm in metro mode or I'm in a desktop mode. If I'm on a desktop, the keyboard shortcuts (win + type anything has gotten a lot better since windows 7) work wonders. They've made a lot of speed improvements that have been really nice. If I'm in metro mode (which admittedly I rarely am, it's just not that useful right now on a desktop), I tend to stay within that modality. I think that right now Microsoft is preparing for future hardware with this release. On traditional desktops, this doesn't make sense. But on things like the new surface I can actually see it working well.

<comment><USER12> I have also used products at the companies I've worked for that 1) worked well for me and that 2) nobody else can figure out. Eating your own dog food is a good first start, but never believe it is sufficient to really understand how users will use a product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> _Updated Office 2010 style "ribbon" Explorer UI._

Bleah. Here's a thought: "Newer" and "innovative" do not necessarily equal "better." As far as I'm concerned, the Ribbon UI sucks big hairy ones, and is just one more reason to run screaming away from Windows 8.

Then again, since Windows 8 isn't F/OSS, I have exactly zero interest in running it to begin with, so MS aren't losing a customer here.

<comment><USER14> You use linkedin, twitter, gmail, and quora. Those aren't open source. How do you reconcile that? Sincere question.

<comment><USER13> For one, I don't view services like Quora as being in the same class as "software I run on my own machine" in the first place. It's a subtle distinction, granted. But I've just never viewed those services that way.

Secondly, because there aren't adequate F/OSS replacements available. I can use Fedora Linux with KDE and get an experience that's better than Windows. I don't know of a Quora like service that makes their code available, that gives a better experience than Quora. That said, if such a thing were available, I would prefer it.

<comment><USER15> I don't see it as a subtle distinction. Simple using shouldn't grant rights. If I touch an ATM, or if I borrow someone's computer there's no reason I should be able to demand the source.

<comment><USER16> Free Software is about user rights. If you are fine with having your rights restricted by the software provider, then this kind of freedom is not for you.

But I like my own freedoms and I'll avoid buying software that prevents me from exercising them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _> In the post PC era, Microsoft is betting the company on Windows 8, desperately trying to serve two masters with one operating system._

They could be onto something here, but it will only pan out if Microsoft can execute it properly.

Instead of thinking of it as "serving two masters," think of it as treating all HID paradigms as first class. You have one device that can hold all of your data and can adapt to either a tablet or a workstation input mode.

Basically, it's the OQO with an iPad form factor.

This could be just as "Post PC" as anything else claiming the moniker. Instead of all computing being embodied in a PC, the PC/workstation just becomes one of many input form factors. Whether or not this will fly will depend on how well Microsoft and partners can achieve the same sort of vertical integration that Apple has. (It will also depend on how well Google can develop the same and how well Apple can maintain theirs.)

<comment><USER18> Ha, well then I will predict the future with this quote:

>No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

<comment><USER17> Do you hate your iPad and love your laptop, or vice versa? I don't think it's an apt analogy.

<comment><USER19> YOU are the master of the iPad/laptop, not the other way around.

<comment><USER17> Very good. That's a bigger reason why it's not an apt analogy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> > But I have to say, this choice seems, at least so far, to be a bit saner > approach than the super hard totally incompatible iOS/OSX divide in Apple > land.

Oh, this was a satire piece.

<comment><USER21> I think he must be referring to the change of scrolling direction in 10.7. That stymied me for over ten seconds.

<comment><USER8> I just changed it back in the Preferences. I tried to get used to it but somehow while it makes total sense on-glass it seems absolutely backwards on a touch pad. Maybe just too much muscle memory.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The thing with Windows 8 is that the only devices it seems to make sense on are the Surface laptop things.

The question remains as to whether OEMs will start to make similar devices and try and compete with Microsoft (who will have an inherent advantage). For the corporate desktop , there is still probably a lot of mileage left in Windows 7.

<comment><USER23> I agree to a point. Windows 8 works without touch, but it doesn't have the same wow factor. With that said, I cannot imagine buying a new device without touch.

<comment><USER24> I can't imagine getting real work done on a touch device. Touch device implies it's screen is small enough to hold in one hand. In other words, the screen is too small to spread a few browser windows on. Touch implies discouraging the use of a mouse. Fingers are fuzzy and annoying for precise selection, and onscreen keyboards suck. By the time you've gotten an external keyboard and mouse to work around this, you no longer have a touch device.

I can't imagine buying a touch device for work. I wouldn't object to getting one to watch movies or read books on.

<comment><USER25> There are larger touch devices out there, e.g. Thinkpads. I don't see why a screen has to be small to have touch.

<comment><USER24> You're right. It can be clunky instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I start to see two camps on Windows8. Some who love the surface usage idea, tech people who can easily adapt and the other camp having a real challenge with the new UI. The majority of users are the second part and I think it will be a long hard battle for MS to convince that group. At least they tried something new.

<comment><USER27> As long as I can pull up a command prompt I realy don't care as it's the easiest way to move all files starting in "A" and ending in "Z" (move A*Z ./wibble/wap/woo/.). Show me a GUI that does it easier and then we can talk about progress.

<comment><USER28> Using Total Commander, hit F6 (move), hit tab to move to the "only files of this type" box, type "A*Z", and then hit Enter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Windows 95 was the last time I can recall a major rev of Windows lived up to its pre-release hype. This Windows 8 hype reminds me of the salivating over Longhorn which turned out as Windows Vista, again.

<comment><USER16> Well... The difference between what has been show of Windows 8 and the preview versions you can download and run are small when compared to the Longhorn PDC'03 video and what was actually delivered as Vista.

In fact, the PDC'03 Longhorn is still light-years ahead of Windows 8.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Whenever anyone lists the new copy dialog as one of the top features of Windows 8, it really makes Windows 8 sound bad.

I mean, seriously? The _copy dialog_? The thing whose job it is to say "OK, you've got plenty of time, go take a shower" and "OK, we're almost there!"

I'm sorry, this is not a key piece of infrastructure. If that's one of the most exciting things you can point to on Windows 8, that says to me _there's not much exciting to point to_.

<comment><USER31> Come on, nobody is suggesting the copy dialog is the pinnacle of Windows 8, but it's important because it solves a very common and very visible frustration with previous versions of Windows.

<comment><USER8> Does it? What frustration is that? Copying files takes time, everybody gets that, what's the frustration? The animation isn't cute enough?

<comment><USER31> Users regularly express frustration with the inaccurate way Windows calculates time estimates on file transfers and the fact that you can't add or remove files in the queue without using a third party application like Teracopy.

<comment><USER32> I would imagine I'm about as much of a "power user" as anyone else on here and I couldn't care less about either of the things you just mentioned. Making a big deal out of the file copy dialog on a new OS does seem a bit over the top.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> It's amazing how fast things change these days. Good 7" tablets for $200-$250 really undermine the whole Windows 8 strategy. Carrying around a laptop and a cheap 7" tablet that is actually light enough to hold for long periods of time is going to be a better choice for most people than the 2 pound Surface Pro which may very well end up costing more than two separate devices.

</comment><comment><USER34> The trend of 'surface won't suffice! I need a workstation to get real work done!' reminds me of 'a UI won't suffice! I need a command line to get real work done!'.

<comment><USER35> You say that like it's not true. I've never met a decent developer who runs windows, and the obvious explanation is that its command line is still hopelessly inadequate.

<comment><USER34> No, the obvious explanation is that you haven't met many Windows devs. There are many talented .NET developers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I just don't really get why they can't do what Apple does. There are two metaphors here, one for fingers, one for keyboard and mouse. For systems with a keyboard and mouse, use the metaphor that suits them better. Seems simple.

<comment><USER37> I for one am glad that someone is taking on the space between the Macbook Air and iPad so that I don't need to spend on and lug around two devices.

If you want an iOS clone, there's always Android. Why should Windows too play a me-too copycat and reduce choice to the user? What benefit is there to that?

<comment><USER36> I don't want an iOS clone. I want desktop Windows to continue to exist. As it is, I will be forced to use a touch UI on my desktop, which is less than optimal for keyboard-and-mouse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Microsoft abused me for years. They had a monopoly, I had to use Windows and Office ( I still do at work for many things).

Now , thank god almighty, I have choices. They will have to do a lot better than Windows 8 to rope me back into the corral.

Metro and Windows 8 might be good enough if introduced by any other company. Microsoft is not any other company.

I am not a ludite nor a nutjob. I have real work to do and am forced to use Microsoft products. But I will roast in hell before I give them any benefit of the doubt. Ever.

I hate Microsoft.

<comment><USER39> Why are you here commenting on this then? Just avoid the Microsoft articles and we can avoid your valueless commentary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'm amazed that Windows is sold and tied to one user interface!

Why they don't afford the user choice like Linux I don't know.

Forcing users to make a limited choice of one is going to upset many, change can be bad as well as good.

Come SP1/2 of windows8 they will offer alternative user interfaces - can smell the outcome in the air. Failing that they will have a active market in alternatives that will become more mainstream aware than the alternatives currently.

<comment><USER11> "Why they don't afford the user choice like Linux I don't know."

You can choose to have the standard desktop be the default, is that what you mean?

<comment><USER27> What i mean is you get the windows GUI and are not afforded any alternatives like you are browsers, there are alternatives out there but they are not for the faint hearted and that in itself is the issue. Tech's like us have no issue with them but for joe public then they only see what they are given and when they are not offered an option then they see no choice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> "But don't take my word for it. Download the free Release Preview and try Windows 8 yourself."

Does this sound like marketing to anyone else?

<comment><USER41> To me, it came off along the same vein as Daring Fireball, but in a worse fashion — a little too pro-Windows and the new features.

<comment><USER42> I can certainly see how this is _like_ Daring Fireball: he does neglect to talk about any downsides. But I can't imagine how this is _worse_ , except that it's about Windows rather than OS X.

Personally, I find Daring Fireball significantly more smug and annoying-- unlike this post, Daring Fireball also likes to constantly rag on Android and implicitly assumes almost everything Apple does is perfect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> It feels like they took the widgets that I never quite got into using and shoved them in my face at full screen.

The new meto programs have no depth or maturity. I had the same problem trying to do serious work on android.

It wasn't worth jumping though the extra hoops to get the same stuff done.

That being said... a tablet is the best bathroom computer.

</comment><comment><USER44> Oh look, they've updated the copy dialog again. Tell you what: maybe just make it as fast as it can possibly be, and I'll promise not to ask how long it's taking.

We seem to be heading towards a point where booting Windows is going to take longer than copying a single file.

<comment><USER45> Oh look, copying 200GB of data across the network is slow. I wonder how long it will take.

<comment><USER44> Making every copy operation excruciating just to support the few cases where you might actually benefit from the fullscreen 3D copy visualisation with Dolby Surround Sound isn't a design tradeoff with which I've been particularly satisfied. It'd be fine if you could hold down Shift or something to say "please don't muck about". It's even worse when it's putting stuff in the Recycle Bin, at which point you really, _really_ don't care.

Your mileage is entirely welcome to vary, and perhaps the performance of this new dialog is such that I won't notice it as much as its Vista and Windows 7 counterparts. To be honest I couldn't work out the Windows 8 preview to the point where I could even find a file, let alone copy it somewhere.

<comment><USER45> I'm not clear what your complaint actually is. Are you upset because the dialog exists at all? Would you rather that you get no convenient way to know when the copy is complete? Or are you annoyed by the extra visualizations and such? It seems like you could simply not expand the additional info.

As for the recycle dialog, I'm pretty sure that's gone in Windows 8.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Windows 8 is 2 operating systems for a price of one, that's one of the few positive things about it :)

Metro is nice for tablets but it's clearly inefficient as a desktop OS. Efficiency and features are more important than original and pretty UI.

<comment><USER47> Well, unless you get one of the RT tablets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I'm actually pretty impressed by Windows 8...but do I see myself actually buying an MSFT tablet over the next iPad? At this point...no.

<comment><USER47> How about instead of a new notebook computer? I think that's where this is really going to be a attractive to people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> How often do people use the Task Manager? I keep hearing about how great it is in every Windows 8 review.

<comment><USER50> Every day. Ideally, I should never need to open the task manager, but I do—even on OS X.</comment></comment>


Pi and its part in the most beautiful formula in mathematics (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/pi-and-its-part-in-the-most-beautiful-formula-in-mathematics-56067 <comment><AUTHOR> Excerpt:

"Euler, the master of us all – who named both "pi" and "e" – realised that e^x also had a dandy Taylor series:

[https://images.theconversation.com/files/114601/original/ima...](https://images.theconversation.com/files/114601/original/image-20160310-26256-12t0i5u.jpg)

The exponential function.

Then setting theta (θ) equal to one, gives an efficient formula for e."</comment>


Show HN: Find the best performing Mac/Macbook/iMac for your budget - sahin-boydas https://www.producthunt.com/posts/macbook-prices-by-performance <comment><AUTHOR>
      I was looking for the best mac I could buy with my limited budget. Then I started to make table in Excel.

     I realized Mac mini (Late 2014) has better score(per dollar) then MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2018). So I decided to buy Mac mini.

     I thought I could make this for everyone. To help people to decide which mac that they should buy.

     You should check it out.

</comment><comment> sahin-boydas Direct link: [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/macbook-prices-by- performa...](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/macbook-prices-by-performance)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Great app. It Helps to decide which mac I should buy. Thank you!</comment>


Microsoft previews Project Springfield, a cloud-based bug detector - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.microsoft.com/next/2016/09/26/microsoft-previews-project-springfield-cloud-based-bug-detector/#sm.00001jhlwu88myf9hvdfgf8s2b4ui <comment><USER2> Here's the research paper, Automated Whitebox Fuzz Testing by Patrice Godefroid, Michael Levin, and David Molnar:

"Our approach records an actual run of the program under test on a well-formed input, symbolically evaluates the recorded trace, and gathers constraints on inputs capturing how the program uses these. The collected constraints are then negated one by one and solved with a constraint solver, producing new inputs that exercise different control paths in the program. This process is repeated with the help of a code-coverage maximizing heuristic designed to find defects as fast as possible."

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp- content/uploads/...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp- content/uploads/2016/09/ndss2008.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> I usually scroll down for appealing infographics before I start reading the post. But all we got here is people posing for their new Linkedin profile pic

<comment><USER4> Yeah, this was totally the wrong page to link. This seems more appropriate for HN: [https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/springfield/](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/springfield/)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're 100% right - I didn't know if the actual site was up yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >> With widely used software such as an operating system or productivity suite, deploying those patches can cost as much as $1 million, the researchers say.

That is part of why so many people dislike Microsoft's attitude. Who cares that it costs 1m to deploy a patch. Corporate customers are going to be spending far more than a million installing that patch. Just think about how many customers are out there who have to test and apply this patch. Fixing a vulnerability prior to release is worth _billions of dollars to millions of customers_. That should be the math, not how much MS must spend every other Tuesday.

<comment><USER6> But catching bugs before release solves both problems, no?</comment></comment>


Google Duo rolls out realtime AV1 - <AUTHOR> https://www.blog.google/products/duo/4-new-google-duo-features-help-you-stay-connected/ <comment><USER2> Everyone is commenting on the product but what I want to know is how on earth they are able to encode AV1 in real time. I tried AV1 encoding a few months ago and was getting about 0.3fps encoding 1080p video on an i7 4770k. I'm guessing the default settings on the av1 encoder are more focused on size over speed but still, how could they be getting 30fps video encoded in real time on a phone..

<comment><USER3> What I want to know is how on earth did they make the page 58.7 MB. This can't be.

<comment><USER4> I thought that had to be a typo. Good lord, why are they shipping videos as gifs?

<comment><USER5> If it's stupid but it works, it's still stupid.

<comment><USER6> But it works.

If it's clever and it doesn't work, it's surely clever ... but it doesn't work

<comment><USER7> It has been known and well understood for many years now that you should use video (like mp4 or webm) in place of gifs if you want to save bandwidth.

<comment><USER6> would encoding your AV1 encoding demo with another encode produce the desired effects?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Being stuck at home and working 100% through Teams, I have to say, if Google wants to have a long-term strategy here, being more like teams and less like Apple or Facebook would be better.

Chat + Forums + Fileshare + Video chat + Voice chat + OneDrive integration + Sharepoint integration + Kanban + goodness knows what else

Before the lock-down we all turned our nose up at it as "yet another lame chat app", now it's dominating everything, and it works on MacOS, Windows, iPhone, and Android -- so there's no excuse for anybody to not have it on their phone as well.

There's nothing else that's even close for us and just on my team we have about 60 people on it, and across the company over a thousand. It's almost 100% replaced all the other things that do the things in the list above with the exception of Jira and a few holdouts still using Webex (so there's a dial- in for people outside our org who don't have teams, but we've even been using for meetings across different organizations that have teams and it works perfectly fine).

Duo, Meet, Hangouts all seem really spare and kind of old fashioned now.

<comment><USER9> As someone who does all his work through teams I must say it's only strong point is integration with OneDrive and sharepoint. Other than that the application is a nightmare. On Windows its the slowest thing I'm running at any point, I understand its an electron app but there are no excuses for its performance. On android it keeps missing notifications. After a while the concept of teams in teams is being overlooked in favor of less formal chats which yet don't have all the features of teams. Now teams have channels which make zero sense if everyone from the team can also see them and there is no way to fix that.

Sharing code requires 4 clicks and there is no keyboard equivalent way to get to it.

And the list goes on.

The sad truth is that if teams didn't come for free with office 365 it wouldn't be able to stand on its own.

<comment><USER10> Chat and channels and so forth are a big mess in Teams, but multiple channels in a Team do make sense, as topics.

<comment><USER8> We usually start a channel for each program, and each project gets a channel as needed. It works really well as an organizational scheme.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm confused- as far as I'm aware, there are three different video calling products at Google - Hangouts, Meet, and now Duo? What are the similarities/differences between them?

<comment><USER12> Hangouts == WhatsApp. It's the older chat + video system. It's being split into Meet and Chat.

Meet == Zoom. It's video conferences for businesses.

Duo == FaceTime. It's video calling, with integrations into the Phone app on Android.

<comment><USER13> It's fun because Duo implies "Deux", or "2". And it takes up to 12 people ;D

<comment><USER14> Duodecimal == 12

<comment><USER13> Nice one!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Google seems to be still flogging the dead as a doornail horse that is Duo. I don't see this going anywhere.

Basically compared to Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp, Facebook, Signal, Telegram, etc. Duo is an also-ran that most users of the before mentioned competitors have probably never even heard off. I understand they managed to get some traction in some secondary markets that are mostly not the EU or North America. I actually have conversations with people on all of these, except Duo. I've never had a single person reach out to me with the request to do anything whatsoever on Duo. Not a thing. I've never seen it in the wild. I don't know a single person using it.

I just came out of a meets/hangouts meeting. I'm sure the rebranding is very significant to Google internally while they deal with Conway's law and internal teams continuing to try to "own" this space. But from the outside it looks like more of the confused strategy around Google Voice/Hangouts/Docs/Buzz/Wave/etc. where there's always an orphaned thingy that is actually useful that vaguely enables people to actually talk and chat to each other.

Meanwhile, between Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google seems to be lacking a good strategy for competing effectively with those. I find it very telling that startups that are Google customers still opt to use things like Slack and Zoom. There's something missing there; a vacuum that Google has been dancing around for years without actually managing to compete. Literally every team I've been on in the last five years had Google docs + gmail as well as Slack.

<comment><USER16> You'd think they'd force every android phone to have it, and then bake it into the dialer. It's doing the whatsapp thing of using your phone number as your account, because people realised most people can't sign into accounts to save their life.

Android dialer should have Start Voice Call, Start Video Call, and Start Group Call, where only the first one uses ye olde voice network

<comment><USER17> Pixel phones at least do have it. I use it sometimes with my girlfriend because the video quality is higher and because it runs on my laptop, so I can use a bigger screen when at home. But WhatsApp also offers video chat and she defaults to using that because our conversations (when apart) start with text chat, and WhatsApp works fine too.

Basically, Duo suffers from being only video chat. I don't know why Google can't make a WhatsApp competitor that's good. I think the problem is it's never had a CEO that really cared about this product category so it flails around, dominated by professional product managers who don't have any burning innovative idea (unlike when WhatsApp was new and the big idea was to use phone numbers instead of user names).

<comment><USER18> Here in the UK you can use Messages[0](the default SMS app) for chat. It supports RCS. You can send pictures, emojis or even use for group chat.

[0] [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging)

Current availability: Chat features in your Messages app are available in France, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US, and across multiple operators globally. We are working on bringing chat features broadly to more regions, operators and other messaging apps (e.g. Samsung Messages).

<comment><USER19> And Duo is integrated with Messages. You can launch a Duo video call within a Messages conversation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This might be a great product, but I'm so burnt by various Google's connectivity and social media products that I won't invest 1 minute of my time on it. Because I know it'll be matter of days before google cancels it

<comment><USER21> I spent one minute getting my grandparents to install it. One more minute getting my parents to install it. Now we video call. The end.

Unlike chat apps, there's not that many people I want to video call.

<comment><USER22> I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor Meet, even if it uses the same Google login.

At some point clear marketing becomes a user facing feature.

<comment><USER23> > I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor > Meet, even if it uses the same Google login.

Why would she care? It's a separate app. Just fire it up and start a videocall with someone. With Duo I can call friends on Apple devices, and the quality of the call is excellent. I use it to call my mom (in another city) any time I want to talk to her. She's a technophobe, but even she can answer the call and start chatting with me.

<comment><USER24> Yeah why would anyone be confused at which Google chat app of the 7+ they've launched you are talking about.

<comment><USER23> How many of them have been named "Duo" ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Tried all. Only Meet and Duo are really good and even with video when you connect to somebody in a jungle, 50% around the globe far, on a 3G and 100kbps max and super flacky internet connection. All other failed under this circumstances (the predecessor hangouts is also okayish).

Don't know what Google does differently but boy this thing still works with really shitty slow internet. Glad to see AV1 usage here now. HD video chat with an analogue modem connection ;)

</comment><comment><USER26> AV1 and the whole open media format alliance is pretty great. It's hard to fathom that it's only been a couple of years since all the good codecs were locked down and patented.

<comment><USER27> Also, don't forget what happened with H.265 where things were pretty far along with the MPEG LA patent pool and then the second HEVC Advance pool materialized demanding additional payments. Given how cut-throat the space is I am still afraid of that happening once it'd be hard to back away from AV1 — there's at least one company trying that now: [https://www.cnet.com/news/patent-group-wants-a-new-toll- on-t...](https://www.cnet.com/news/patent-group-wants-a-new-toll-on-the- streaming-video-road/)

<comment><USER28> There's not much we can do, collectively, except to use the best available probably-unencumbered option, and then wait for the courts to throw the patents away.

Google starting to use AV1 in their products in earnest should either trigger the patent suits from the aforementioned "at least one company", or serve as an additional argument in favor of any company that starts using it now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have been using Duo almost everyday for the past 2 years, the video/audio quality of the call has always been incredible given me and my partner's lacklustre internet connections and it does seem like Google is actively developing it. Having used alternatives like Hangout and WhatsApp, they really don't come close so I am surprised with the low adoption rate, at least within my circle of friends and family. I don't think Google will kill it given how actively they are working on it but I wouldn't be surprised too if they do, I'll probably have a hard time finding a replacement as good.

</comment><comment><USER30> So, this is probably a sign that the new Pixel Smartphone will have an AV1 hardware de/encoder.

In Software, with 720p video (or more), the battery of the phone would be empty in no time.

<comment><USER31> I'm not even sure it's at all possible to encode AV1 in realtime without hardware acceleration. Decoding, on the other hand, isn't all that computationally intensive.

<comment><USER32> > _I 'm not even sure it's at all possible to encode AV1 in realtime without > hardware acceleration_

On large PCs it's been possible for a while, through SVT-AV1. On phones I think less so right now, if you're talking about using AV1 to get noticeably better rates than VP9.

That said, it's possible that they have a reduced set of tools/passess that can run in realtime on a phone, and it looks like the rate is extremely low, which also improves encoding complexity. Even software VP9 encoding has been rare on phones though up to this point, so I'm not sure exactly what is meant by this change.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is just one pass in video telephony because you can't wait for the call to be over to start a second pass before you send the video.

<comment><USER32> I did not mean passes in the sense of two-pass rate control.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> It's crazy to me that the largest players in tech (Google, Apple, Facebook etc) are all struggling to support more than 8-12 people in a group call while Zoom can do 1000+ without breaking a sweat (100 just on the free plan).

<comment><USER34> What does a 1000 zoom conference even look like?

<comment><USER33> Probably variations of "please mute yourself" repeated for an hour.

<comment><USER35> Moderators can mute everyone

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> They really should have had the Duo logo on the left side of the side-by-side comparison gif; it gives off a really poor first impression on the right.

<comment><USER37> Yeah, that seems like an unfortunate oversight. Since they are both Duo, it shouldn't say Duo on only one side.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I bet that it's only for very low bandwidth usage. In that case it would _probably_ only have to encode a 640x360 frame (or even lower) at 15fps. It could also take shortcuts to reduce the encoding complexity (like block size and motion estimation). Still an important step forward.

</comment><comment><USER39> >Duo makes it easy to send personalized video and voice messages when you can't call.

I've never understood why Facetime doesn't allow this.

<comment><USER40> I think you can send voice messages and/or make a video straight from FaceTime UI and send it immediatelly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> AFAIK there aren't any current mobile devices that have native AV1 playback so this is all in-software for now?

Though if the goal is to allow for extremely low bitrate use it might not chew up too much of the processor and battery.

<comment><USER42> I think MediaTek has put an encoder into their newer chips. Qualcomm still hasn't though.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I wonder if what the hardware limitations are. Given the current state of AV1 encoders, I imagine there has to be hardware encoding to make this feasible.

<comment><USER43> If I had to guess, the AV1 encoding is being done server-side. AFAIK no phone has a hardware AV1 encoder (or decoder for that matter). The bitrate is low enough that a software decoder is likely fast enough.

<comment><USER44> They specifically state that Duo is end-to-end encrypted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> It's hilarious watching Google trying to be a consumer-focus company. What features do they lead with:

1) end to end encrypted, and

2) we're constantly making optimizations

3) uses AI to reduce audio interruptions,

4) and Excitingly! Coming Soon! we're rolling out a new video codec

5) that works with very low bandwidth connections

I dunno I use FaceTime, it "just works"

<comment><USER44> FaceTime is a great product, one of the best in terms of audio/video quality, but it does not work on the majority of devices.

<comment><USER46> Am I the only one who has latency issues with Facetime? It makes conversations flow less naturally.

Google's latency isn't stellar either, mind you. For all their issues, I think the best mainstream solution for latency right now is Zoom...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> I would love to use this....If I had any guarantee Google is going to support this in the long run....

Google doesn't seem to realize it's not easy getting your friends who aren't techheads to move from one platform to another, so in order to switch I have to know this isn't going to die soon. Untill then I'll stick with hangouts/skype. Why couldn't they just keep the hangouts branding? I have no idea, its kind stupid.

(Also yes, I know hangouts is going to die. But it hasn't yet and that's what all my friends already know about.)

</comment><comment><USER48> The blog writes that ,,Duo already uses AI to reduce audio interruptions'', but WavenetEQ was a Pixel 4 only feature as far as I know. Is it rolled out to everybody as well?

<comment><USER18> [https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/04/improving-audio-quality- in...](https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/04/improving-audio-quality-in-duo- with.html)

"WaveNetEQ is already available in all Duo calls on Pixel 4 phones and is now being rolled out to additional models."

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> And group calling is still only available for iOS and Android, not through the web app. Odd choice.

</comment><comment><USER50> I thought this was product was dead.

<comment><USER51> Maybe you're thinking of Allo which was released at the same time. Pretty sure Duo is fairly widely used.

<comment><USER52> Is it?

I can reach more non-technical people on Signal than on Duo.

<comment><USER53> Reverse for me. Small sample size though.

<comment><USER54> Google will kill the name and incorporate it into Meet once they add multiuser support....

<comment><USER53> They've been in the process of shutting down Hangouts for about half a decade now. I'll keep using it until it doesn't work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> Most of the comments are focusing on Duo, but the real takeaway for me is that the demo claims to achieve the better image with AV1 _in only 30Kbps !_ That's less bandwidth than the final dial up modems had.

</comment><comment><USER56> We use Duo to let our kids talk to my father, who is out in the woods with an iPhone but no broadband. It works pretty well compared to FaceTime. One day the kids may get to visit him again!

</comment><comment><USER57> Seems neat, would love to try it out but unfortunately I can't think of any friend that uses Duo. Maybe if Duo had a web interface it would be useful? My friends and I have tried Jitsi over the past few weeks but it has been buggy as hell and we gave up. Zoom seems scummy, so we're back on Google Hangouts for awhile but that is not great for other reasons.

<comment><USER58> Google Duo does have a web interface

<comment><USER59> duo.google.com :)

<comment><USER57> Oh my...when did this happen? I had no idea!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> Solving the wrong problems. Duo's problems aren't encryption, they're poor ergonomics like bad Assistant support, bad support for people without phone numbers, and the fact that they lost all the headway they'd made with Hangouts by throwing out their userbase with a new product.

</comment><comment><USER61> Would Meet get this rolled out next?

I've noticed video quality on it seems to be really poor recently and even just freezes for people who aren't the current speaker.

I don't have the same issue with Slack, Teams isn't great but isn't as bad as Meet.

</comment><comment><USER62> How does the Duo call quality (image quality, reliability, lag etc) compare to Zoom? (I know they aim at personal vs business respectively but for a small team I'll choose the tool with best quality).

<comment><USER18> I think they are on pair, both are excellent.

But Duo for more than 2 people is currently Phone only. Also, you can't schedule a call, which could be annoying for meetings. For personal calls I prefer Duo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> great to see the technology updates, and in this new world of way more video calls definitely more ppl will be using it just as an option on their phone (don't need to get into the marketing problems) -- what holds me back from using it is the requirement to use my phone number as the login. To me the phone number has hardly anything to do with the device and I'd rather just keep using my google account like all other apps.....

</comment><comment><USER64> Anyone use Duo?

I don't have any contacts with it, I guess no one has faith it'll stick around like all other Google chat apps.

</comment><comment><USER65> Dang, any reason why this title is allowed when the post's title is different and its content barely mentions anything about AV1.

Edit: I think it is a perfectly valid Question. I dont see why the Downvote. Not to mention it is against the guidelines.

</comment><comment><USER66> Is this in any way related to WebRTC, or just Duo-specific?

</comment><comment><USER67> Does anyone really buy that E2E encrypted stuff coming from big software companies? I don't see any reason why someone would believe that without seeing the source-code and letting people host their own servers.

<comment><USER68> What reason does Google, apple, or Facebook have to lie?

What is the threat model that starts with "we claim to e2e encrypt traffic but don't so that..."?

Storing all the video isn't feasible, not is analyzing it in real time, so the only sensible threat model is targeted attacks, but the companies have no reason to do that. Governments do, but this makes the companies resistant to governments.

<comment><USER69> > Storing all the video isn't feasible, not is analyzing it in real time, so > the only sensible threat model is targeted attacks, but the companies have > no reason to do that. Governments do, but this makes the companies resistant > to governments.

Analyzing the audio stream of a video call is possible in real time, in fact Google meet already does it to offer closed captioning in real time (the only good feature meet has compared to other alternatives)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER70> Two years from now: Google is shutting down Duo...

</comment><comment><USER71> If it's E2E encrypted, what's the business model?

Is it the call metadata (who/where/when) that valuable?

Or is it just at loss to prevent future competition?

<comment><USER72> Platform lock in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> Let me know when I can start video calls from the browser. Until then I am sticking with hangouts.

<comment><USER74> Now: [https://duo.google.com/](https://duo.google.com/)

<comment><USER75> except web only supports two callers. Not group chat

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER76> can they fix it so kids Family link account work without a dam phone number ffs Google Family link is a joke sometimes

</comment><comment><USER77> Android needs a video calling app built into the OS. I'm tired of calling family and friends on Zoom.

<comment><USER78> If they built it in, it wouldn't update as fast. They can't mandate it because of the EU antitrust ruling.

<comment><USER79> Microsoft got around that by asking European consumers which browsers they wanted: [https://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/01/europe.microsoft.web...](https://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/01/europe.microsoft.web.browser/index.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Just buy Zoom dude.

<comment><USER81> The only company worse on privacy than Google.</comment></comment>


Plasma compression fusion device ignites curiosity over nuclear fusion - <AUTHOR> https://m.techxplore.com/news/2019-10-patent-plasma-compression-fusion-device.html <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=rolph](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=rolph)

pinch was discussed as well.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21286679](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21286679)</comment>


Facebook fires trending team, and algorithm without humans goes crazy - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/29/facebook-fires-trending-topics-team-algorithm <comment><USER2> I find it hard to believe that fb released this without first testing it in the background for at least a week. That being said, what caused the algorithm to start producing bad results so shortly after it was released. Was it just bad luck or was someone playing the system?

<comment><USER3> > Under Facebook's old guidelines, news curators stuck to a list of trusted > media sources. Neither of these sources were on that list.

And if they are replacing humans with algorithms, why ditch the existing list of trusted media sources? They are orthogonal changes. The trusted sources list would have kept the algorithms on a tighter leash.

<comment><USER2> Great point. Something definitely seems odd about this mistake.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe firing the team just revealed a bad algorithm, and now they should fix the algorithm.</comment>


Google and Nasa back new school for futurists - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b162dfc-f168-11dd-8790-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 <comment><USER2> Also reported here, where you can read the article without a login.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463600></comment>


Ignoring the Wisdom of Crowds - <AUTHOR> http://blog.asmartbear.com/ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.html <comment><USER3> I stopped taking this seriously when they compared the accuracy of the "ask the audience" and "phone a friend" bits on Who Wants to be a Millionaire without considering that everyone used the ask the audience lifeline on an early question and saved the phone a friend for later questions.

Without controlling for when they are used the comparison of accuracy is literally meaningless.

The same stats show that, rightly or wrongly, the contestants didn't have as much faith in the audience for later stage, much harder questions.

I guess I should give the benefit of the doubt and assume the writer didn't notice this and the error is accidental but that's only slightly better than just ignoring it because you wanted a sexy anecdote to support your point.

<comment><USER4> You right that the two lifelines are used at differing stages in the game. I wonder though, what the accuracy rates look like after controlling for what stage of the game you are in. Maybe people SHOULD save their ask the audience for later in the game.

<comment> T-hawk Another variable is the subject matter of the question. Anecdotally, it feels that the audience almost invariably nails the answer by a wide margin on pop culture questions. On questions of a scientific or technical nature, the audience opinion is much less clear and more often actually wrong. Phone those questions to a domain knowledge expert.

About the worst thing you can do, but contestants love doing this, is to burn the valuable audience lifeline early on a question when you already have a good sense of the answer but just want to "make sure". What a waste! Save that for a question when you have no clue, which WILL happen before you reach the million level.

<comment><USER5> Something else they often do is say something like "I'm thinking it's B, but I'm not sure so I'll ask the audience". Well guess what the audience guesses after hearing that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> His further reading list includes Surowiecki's _The Wisdom of Crowds_ , but his post doesn't look like he read it himself. Surowiecki has a long list of requirements for the "wisdom of crowds" to actually be helpful, for one example the individual judgments need to be independent, that the post ignores. Without the restrictions you get different failure modes, like bubbles, runs, and traffic jams.

<comment><USER7> The essay was intended to be a light-hearted and readable intro to the concept, not an exhaustive definition that takes an entire book!

<comment><USER6> Almost everyone has at least heard the phrase "the wisdom of crowds" by now. The most important part of the idea, and the one most people are not familiar with, are the (fairly severe) limits on its usefulness. I wrote a review of the book for Amazon, and one thing I pointed out is that it was a much better balanced treatment of the subject than I had expected from all the hype about the idea that I had previously read. The hype is already all over the place, and has been for years, there is no need to add to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> As programmers we should be well aware that our customers' "needs" are bounded by what they a) know and b) believe is possible. Guiding them to technological enlightenment can and does provide rewards (financial and otherwise).

<comment><USER9> Are you essentially saying that if you listen to your customers you'll build a faster horse, instead of a car?

<comment><USER8> No ... I'm saying that sometimes we are evangelists and can make them realize they want a flying car.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> He isn't being very fair: where the goal at first was to be as right as possible, it later became "to piss off as few of the 300 guests as possible". I'm not sure what exact procedure he had in mind for businesses, but in a situation where "votes eliminate the interesting edges, leaving only the boring residue that no one hated enough to vote off the island" applies, you're just not talking about the wisdom of crowds anymore, this wasn't possible in his earlier examples either. An important factor to the wisdom of crowds, and a key difference between his earlier examples and his later examples, is that people vote independently, without even talking about what they're going to vote.

For demonstrational purposes, I will now take his holiday meal situation and apply actual wisdom of crowds to them. This isn't a very usual situation, but this is about properly applying the wisdom of crowds.

Instead of people stating what they dislike, people may nominate a meal, and afterwards, everyone votes for the meal they want to go with. Like in the Wants to be a Millionaire examples, people cannot talk in this process - <USER2> cannot state what they dislike. Instead, the fact that some people can't take spicy food will show in the results, but beside that, every individual will pick a meal that isn't boring, and the end result will be just that. "Allergic to garlic" and "doesn't eat anything green" are rather specific complaints and were not taken into account, so let's count those 3 people as unsatisfied, but the success here is that most people will in fact be satisfied with the meal.

<comment><USER7> You can't use your technique for meals because everyone will suggest a different meal, and then you have no basis for a decision. That technique works when you're voting on one variable which has one CORRECT value which you're trying to seek. Creative work is not that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The other problem with focus groups - they aren't independent. There will always be one person who sounds convincing, and the rest will be biased to whatever that person thinks.

The advantage of focus groups is, you can identify themes which resonate. For example, the group might say "integrated" sounds good. That doesn't mean you want an integrated product, it just means that you need a sticker which says "integrated", and some justification (We integrate with Facebook, via our "Like" buttons!)

<comment><USER4> >The other problem with focus groups - they aren't independent. There will always be one person who sounds convincing, and the rest will be biased to whatever that person thinks.

Experienced group moderators are aware of this take steps to mitigate and reflect in their notes.

There are other forms of market research beyond focus groups. Aggregated quantitative and qualitative one-on-ones also fit the OP's bill of "crowd wisdom"

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This essey is weak, I mean author is comparing apples to oranges. First problem with jellies is Fermi problem, it is approximation. If you have more people giving they answers mean of approximation will be closer to actual value. But second part is about concrete thing it is not estimating or guessing. First part is totally irrelevant. Second part could be used alone. But you just know that you can't please everyone so it is common sense I think. Like going for trip with people who are working in different jobs on different schedules, somebody will have to be left out.</comment>


A man who drives around collecting leftovers from tech companies - <AUTHOR> https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/11/leftover-food-tech-lunches-google-juul-linkdin-food-runners-pantry-waste/ <comment><USER2> The "Too Good To Go" app became quite popular in Germany now. Restaurants, hotels and alike offer leftovers for a dime. You buy a voucher and collect a meal usually just after closing time.

Besides, we use "to container sth." for grabbing good food from the supermarket's trash. Is that something common in the US?

The Food Runners do a great job :-)</comment>


Ask HN: What sites do you use to become a good engineering manager? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> [http://randsinrepose.com](http://randsinrepose.com) #ftw

<comment><USER2> Or, more precisely, [http://randsinrepose.com/archives/category/management](http://randsinrepose.com/archives/category/management)</comment></comment>


Thelaptoplist.com – Laptop Finder Quiz, Reviews and Compare Laptop - <AUTHOR> https://www.thelaptoplist.com/laptop-finder/ <comment><USER2> Couple thoughts: needs a "don't care" option for some of the sections, like screen size. Also, it might be useful to include used laptops.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the suggestion about the "Don't care" option. I had the initial plan for used laptops or laptop market place, but I am single developers working on this at night or weekend. I guess it will take a few time as I have other features in the pipeline.

Thanks for your encourage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can you make "Budget" multi-select checkboxes instead of radio buttons?

</comment><comment><USER4> Amazon needs to die not affiliated. Would be great to see something like this based on data from OEMs other than Dell Acer HP and Lenovo.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yap, I won't be dependent on Amazon. This feature is on the way. I hope in couple of weeks I can deploy these multiple vendor options.

Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How can it claim to choose a laptop "For Programming" and not even offer an option for ram size?

<comment><AUTHOR> That is coming in the "Advanced Search" feature which is under development. But good to see that you mentioned it. You made me more confident about the feature. Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> There should be an option for weight.

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't think about weight, but let's see in the future. Thanks.</comment></comment>


Quantum physics made relatively simple: Three lectures by Hans Bethe - <AUTHOR> http://bethe.cornell.edu/ <comment><USER2> Before you invest three hours to watch these lectures you should know that the title is terribly misleading. These lectures are not about QM at all, they are about the history of QM, albeit told by someone who was actually part of it. But the coolness of hearing the history of QM firsthand is undermined by the fact that Bethe is clearly well past his prime, and he's not particularly good at telling stories.

If you want a video that is true to this title I'd recommend this:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rqd8Oa-sA4>

EDIT: And if you want to _really_ understand QM, there's this:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc>

:-)

<comment> eric-hu Thank you for sharing these links. I've bookmarked the second one and watched through the first.

My first thought is the first link has left me with more questions than answers, but I suppose that might just be the nature of QM.

<comment><USER3> I think the first link is more a pop science show than real depth...this is a much better series from feynmen(unfortunately its really long):

1 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLQ2atfqk2c>

2 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMSgE62S6oo>

3 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNNXD7fuE5E>

4 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UigjOJm6F9o>

<comment><USER2> Wow, what a find! These are well worth sitting through, but if you don't want to invest four hours, the content of these videos is in Feynman's book "QED". But if you're ever going to spend four hours watching QM lectures, make it these.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not quantum physics, but if you want to read a real classic, there's also Weyl's _Space-Time-Matter_ , which is mind-blowing in its lucidity and ambition (unifying GR and electromagnetism): <http://archive.org/details/spacetimematter00weyluoft>.

Well, while I started, why not add a list of freely available physics books online from PSE: [http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/6157/list-of- free...](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/6157/list-of-freely- available-physics-books/7382#7382).

It's amazing that you can pretty much get up to PhD level education using these books (you should buy Landau's books, though, unfortunately those are not free).

</comment><comment><USER5> If you're interested in watching Physics lectures online, don't miss Susskind's excellent series of lectures from Stanford.

<http://www.lecture-notes.co.uk/susskind/>

<comment><USER6> Yes the Quantum Entanglements series is what I watched.

It's actually built for a non-student audience (interested professionals etc) so I think you can follow it fairly well even if your background isn't in math/physics (it's not easy though)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you really want to have a good (but easy) introduction to quantum mechanics (and quantum information) I recommend [http://www.amazon.com/Six-Quantum- Pieces-Course-Physics/dp/9...](http://www.amazon.com/Six-Quantum-Pieces- Course-Physics/dp/9814327549) \- it requires nothing more than some linear algebra.

(As a side note, I'm trying to make a computer game of quantum mechanics, to make people learn by playing.)

</comment><comment><USER8> Don't forget to check out his other lecture series "General Relativity Made Quantumly Simple".

</comment><comment><USER9> Quantum tic-tac-toe is an engaging way to get a feel for superpositions and cyclic entanglements. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tic-tac-toe>

</comment><comment><USER10> apple quicktime....

<comment><USER11> Direct links:

<http://bethe.cornell.edu/media/intro_large.mov>

<http://bethe.cornell.edu/media/lecture_1_large.mov>

<http://bethe.cornell.edu/media/lecture_2_large.mov>

<http://bethe.cornell.edu/media/lecture_3_large.mov>

<http://bethe.cornell.edu/media/outro_large.mov>

<comment><USER12> Thanks, saved me a lot of time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> thanks.</comment>


The simplest Flash player imaginable (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://flashasm.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/the-simplest-flash-player-imaginable/ <comment><USER2> It appears to just be a blog, is there a software link to go with it?

</comment><comment><USER3> I would have liked to see a normal render of the swf for reference</comment>


Ask HN: What are some current crypto-currencies? - <AUTHOR>

What other crypto-currencies are there besides Bitcoin? Similarly, what are some of the well-established websites on which users can buy/sell the currency? <comment><USER2> Alternatives to Bitcoin:

LiteCoin - <http://www.litecoin.org>

NameCoin - <http://www.namecoin.info>

Freicoin - <http://www.freicoin.org>

IXcoin - <http://www.ixcoing.org>

BBQCoin - <http://www.bbqcoin.org>

PPCoin - <http://www.ppcoin.com>

SolidCoin - <http://www.solidcoin.info>

I0Coins - <http://www.i0coins.com>

NovaCoin

ByteCoin - <http://www.bytecoin.in>

GiestGeld - <http://www.geistgeld.org>

Tenebrix - <https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix>

TerraCoin - <http://www.terracoin.org>

Fairbrix - <https://github.com/coblee/Fairbrix>

DevCoin

Coiledcoin

Rucoin - <https://www.rucoin.org/>

TimeKoin

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I'd say LiteCoin and NameCoin are probably the biggest alternatives in size etc to Bitcoin.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the list. I've installed the LiteCoin client on my macbook but I'm having some connection issues. Troubleshooting now.</comment></comment>


Spamming Back - <AUTHOR> http://paulasmuth.com/blog/spamming_back/

<comment><USER2> >When viewed from the GMail web interface they look totally legitimate, you can only discover the real sender by looking at the mail headers (and it's not even easy to show them in GMail anymore).

I had never tried to view headers in the Gmail web interface before, and it took me literally 5 seconds to figure out how to do it (down arrow next to the reply button, click "Show original"). Sure, it's not the most obvious feature on the screen, but that seems reasonable given that most people have no idea how to interpret that information anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> So the spammers can just delete all of the "crap" by deleting posts made by the same IP address right?

<comment><USER4> >The obvious move was to just fill up their database with crap data, so I hacked together this little bash script and _handed it out to a few friends_..

Sounds like it will be more than one IP address, but you're right it's probably not many.</comment></comment>