Bacterial cells are small 'eyeballs', scientists discover - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencealert.com/bacterial-cells-are-actually-the-world-s-smallest-eyeballs-scientists-discover-by-accident <comment><USER2> * Scientists knew bacteria could sense the direction of light.

* Scientists had been looking at bacteria under a microscope for 340 years.

* Just the other day, someone noticed how bacteria focus light.

If you ever think there's nothing interesting left to discover in your field, read this again!

</comment><comment><USER3> Hmm, that diagram is a little misleading. It's not like the bacteria are processing the images in any way, right?! They are merely detecting light and its direction so they can swim that way. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I guess, but I'd by extremely surprised if there was any sort of image recognition at the cellular level.

<comment><USER4> Eyes don't process information, they're a sensor. In an animal its brain, a multi-celled organ, processes the information.

<comment><USER5> Actually they do, and beyond that, the retina contains neurons that do the basic processing before travelling down the optic nerve to the brain. The retina is also basically brain tissue and is part of the central nervous system.

<comment><USER6> Indeed, among other things, they detect edges, movement, and preprocess color from RGB to something conceptually closer to YUV (with color encoded along two contrast axes: red-green and blue-yellow).

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If we can figure out some way to capture and transmit what these (and possibly other bacterial species see), we could have trillions of little cameras everywhere, possibly changing everything from medicine (deliver medical payload based of off visual information or image tumor directly without surgery) to biology (pseudo xenobiology studying the underwater volcanic mats of bacteria and algae) to even intelligence gathering (need to spy? Grow some bacteria in an air vent or other convenient area).

I hope that someone is starting to try and capture images from those mini eyeballs, they then become our mini bio-cameras.

</comment><comment><USER8> Seems similar to this [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150701133348.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150701133348.htm)

</comment><comment><USER9> The diagram showing the DSLR with the image the right way up as opposed to the eyes, is misleading as the camera is also captured upside down and then flipped in software.

</comment><comment> norea-armozel I thought it was already established that the genes for photosensitivity led to the formation of eyes in all animals. And that the proposed benefit in the early Earth's oceans was to keep bacteria from frying themselves if they got too close to the surface (due to there being no ozone layer way back then). So, I'm not sure if this is all earth shattering knowledge at this point, but it's still a fun read.

</comment><comment><USER10> "But it's a vital trick for the bacteria. Without sensing light and moving toward it, the organisms wouldn't be able to photosynthesise, which has been crucial to their survival since time immemorial."

Can this be applied somehow to treat bacterial infections?

</comment><comment><USER11> A mass of a million bacterial eyeballs probably resolves images pretty well. Maybe better than us.

<comment><USER12> If you subscribe to the belief that we're basically a bacterial mat of about 37 trillion [1] cells, each extremely large and complex on its own - it's not too large a jump to interpret the eye as being a 1 billion cell "bacterial sub-mat" that does primitive image capture to support the overall bacterial mat.

[1] [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there- are-372-trill...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there- are-372-trillion-cells-in-your-body-4941473/)

<comment><USER13> That would make us hiveminds.

<comment><USER14> You think you decide to be hungry? In a very real way, we are.

<comment><USER15> This freaks me out! Whoever me is? :-o

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Billions of billions bacterials are watching ours every move. This have a movie potentials</comment>


Hero Worship in IT - Good or Bad? - <AUTHOR> http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2007/12/the_guy.php

<comment><USER2> Well, it's true that sometimes projects fail because people uncritically follow the advice of respected authorities.

On the other hand, sometimes projects fail because nobody respects authority. Every single decision, from the compiler to the database vendor to the lunch menu, is challenged by the free-thinkers on the team and then debated to death. Eighteen months go by, and the software doesn't ship.

Sometimes projects fail because everyone loses the plot. Determined to avoid being trapped by the constraints of a standard methodology, but unable to find the time or the talent to develop, document, and teach a methodology of their own, the leaders fall back on the classic IT solution: handwaving. There are no established authorities or written specs, and processes like QA or release engineering evolve from week to week and are passed on by word of mouth. Eventually, the one person who knew how everything worked accepts another job, everything falls apart, and the software doesn't ship.

Sometimes projects fail because the people on the team are demoralized. Without a successful company to model themselves on, they fear that they've gone down a dead end. Without a community or a written argument to back them up, they are hesitant about proposing their new ideas, all of which sound stupid. ( _"Yes, we should write tests for code that hasn't been written yet."_ _"Yes, we should ship version 0.5 even without those 'critical' features, to start getting feedback."_ ) The employees sit around in their cubes, playing Tetris and looking forward to happy hour, and the software doesn't ship.

And, of course, sometimes projects fail because the team was badly put together in the first place. Anxious to avoid hiring "hero worshipers" who "do not think for themselves", the boss doesn't ask the interviewees what they think of Paul Graham, or the Joel test, or XP, or Martin Fowler, or Bruce Tate, or DHH, or Seth Godin. Five weeks later, the "team" consists of a Java developer who secretly prefers Rails, admires 37signals, and wants to work as the back-end guy at a YC-style startup; an Oracle-certified .NET developer who wants to be a VP at a $100-million IT consulting firm; a designer who knows a little PHP and wants to work part-time; and a marketing person who used to work for Procter and Gamble. These folks can't agree on anything, and the software doesn't ship.

So, on balance, I think that so-called "hero worship" is pretty useful, and the IT industry needs more and better heroes. (Though I prefer the term "leaders".)

<comment><USER3> I didn't realize you worked at the same place I did. Are you the guy in the blue shirt I said hi to in the break room?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Those essays (especially the ones written after Viaweb and before YC) can be inspiring if you're stuck in a cube at Big Company, Inc. and neither your managers nor your fellow programmers are interested in doing anything else with their lives.

That doesn't mean _everything_ Graham writes about is as compelling (the essay on philosophy is an example), though, and you're right to point out that it can go too far.

<comment><USER5> I've always had an entreprenurial / always-doing-something spirit, but I do owe my decision to get the hell out of a cube to Paul Graham's essays.

He's not a hero to me and I don't worship him but I still am quite glad he's around.

<comment><USER6> I've been lucky enough to get to know Paul a little. He invited me to take part in the first MIT Spam Conference in 2003 and I've seen him on and off since then. I don't think hero worship is appropriate, but I think Paul should be celebrated for a few things: sunny personality, good writing, openness, curiosity. There are a lot of people in the computer industry with difficult personalities, who can't communicate in writing, who are fixated on a particular technology. Paul isn't like that. Those things make him worth looking up to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Crux:

> They want a hero -- somebody more than a mentor.

This is the problem. Grow up and understand that nobody -- not Paul Graham, not DHH, not your guru-like boss that rebuilt an AIX filesystem with 'ed' -- nobody is perfect. And realize that no one can make your decisions but you.

Then there is no problem. Decide -- don't follow -- and you're fine. Slavishly hanging on every word of another, imperfect human being will always get you in trouble, and it's no quality that any would-be leader should embody.

If you want to follow someone else, go back to your cubicle!

</comment><comment><USER8> In certain societies and cultures, it's common to have a "master", "guru", or mentor to help out a young apprentice. It's actually an expected way of life. We don't seem to have that in the US, or at least, it's not taught as a necessity growing up. Paul, among others, fill this void to young, energetic, tech inclined students. You can call it hero worship, or simply some form of mentorship/apprenticeship. If anything, the celebrity around PG signals a deep desire for good, honest mentors.

<comment><USER9> _ > If anything, the celebrity around PG signals a deep desire for good, honest mentors._

I agree with the second part of this point; in regard to the particular subject, hopefulness that said subject will finance one's startup is an integral part of it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This heretic has besmirched our beloved PG - seize him! Silence the blasphemer at once!

<comment><USER11> Chief Acolyte henning, please permit me to fetch the sacred tongue-tongs!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hate to take some of the depth out of his well written article but it could be that people of varying experience and confidence find it easy and reassuring to lean on a well known mentor or hero as a way to prevent absolute failure in the eyes of others and maybe themselves.

<comment><USER13> Not sure why you've been downmodded, but I think you point's a pretty good one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> PG handles it well at least. I've met a lot of people who don't.

</comment><comment><USER3> Albert Einstein didn't understand the concept of hero worship until be befriended Charlie Chaplin. When they were together at the premiere of City Lights, a crowd rushed their car to get a better look.

A confused Einstein asked, "What does it all mean?"

Chaplin replied, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

</comment><comment><USER15> "...defend vigorously any sort of perceived attack against him."

On that note, I will fight you.

edit: I will find you old man!

</comment><comment><USER16> OMFG heroes can be imperfect! Alert the media!</comment>


Reddit's new live-reporting feature - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2014/02/25/reddit-embraces-its-role-as-a-journalistic-entity-with-new-live-reporting-feature/

<comment><USER2> I remember when something like this was being done during the manhunt for the boston bombers. It was pretty exciting the rate at which updates were coming. THere were people in the stream who lived there live updating things. It is amazing how fast information travels these days. In a matter of seconds hundreds of people knew exactly what was going on. This is a rather exciting development as far as documenting world events goes.</comment>


HackerNode is free for a limited time only - <AUTHOR> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernode/id473882597?2012-09-14

<comment> m-i Interesting app. It's not faster than the web version but the refresh is nice. The only thing missing is login and comment support.</comment>


Bring Togas Back, Pants Are Obsolete - <AUTHOR> I've decided pants suck for modern life. Pants have actually been around at least since the Greco-Roman times; however, they were associated with equestrian warriors and slaves, and thus never caught on as a mainstream fashion. Pants came into widespread use during the industrial revolution because they were convenient for rushing around the factory floor and less likely to get caught in machinery.<p>However, as one bulks up around the middle as they mature, pants have difficulty staying up and fitting right. Tightening one's belt to compensate is not comfortable. Suspenders may solve some of that, but it seems the Greeks and Romans were on to something. Being the slaves did most the work, they probably got chubby around the middle also, and found togas and tunics more comfortable. Machines are the modern slaves. <comment><USER2> Concerning togas, Wikipedia says: "it was hard to put on, uncomfortable and challenging to wear correctly, and never truly popular. When circumstances allowed, those otherwise entitled or obliged to wear it opted for more comfortable, casual garments. It gradually fell out of use, firstly among citizens of the lower class, then those of the middle class. Eventually, it was worn only by the highest classes for ceremonial occasions, and by the 5th century AD, it had been replaced as official costume by the more practical pallium and paenula."

And "It was considered formal wear, and was generally reserved for citizens."

One story suggests that even patricians, no longer in office, did not wear togas all the time:

"Various anecdotes in Livy's history of Rome reflect the toga's symbolic value. In one, the patrician hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, retired from public life and clad (presumably) in tunic or loincloth, is ploughing his field when emissaries of the Senate arrive, and ask him to put on his toga. His wife fetches it and he puts it on. Then he is told that he has been appointed dictator. He promptly heads for Rome.[34] Donning the toga transforms Cincinnatus from rustic, sweaty ploughman – though a gentleman nevertheless, of impeccable stock and reputation – into Rome's leading politician, eager to serve his country; a top-quality Roman."

By comparison, the entry for "tunic" says: "The name derives from the Latin tunica, the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome, which in turn was based on earlier Greek garments that covered people around their waist." The Greek garment was called a chiton.

You may also be interested in a sarong, or related clothing like a dhoti, lungi, mundu, or lava-lava. Some of the pictures from those pages shows men who are chubby around the middle.

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent alternatives to pants that I hope the fashion trends experiment with. Long shirts with dark sweats or "leggings" of some kind is something to try. If shirts are long enough, then what holds the sweats/leggings up doesn't matter as much, giving more choice. (Most men don't want to expose their hairy legs except on the hottest of days.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > However, as one bulks up around the middle as they mature, pants have > difficulty staying up and fitting right. Tightening one's belt to compensate > is not comfortable. Suspenders may solve some of that

The trick is to pull the pants up high enough that the belly itself holds them up. I do this with my pajamas but I'm unfortunately not old enough to pull of this look in public. The stereo type of old man having there pants pulled up to their armpits has a practical origin.

<comment><AUTHOR> Re: "The stereo type of old man having there pants pulled up to their armpits has a practical origin."

That's one of the signs pants have outlived their usefulness. When you are young your hips are wider than your middle, making it easy for pants to stay up. But when your middle gets larger than your waist, the physics of pants don't work, and you have to either resort to torturous belts, or pull them up so high that you have camel-toe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One could always go with the classic poncho or the thing Homer wears on the Simpson's when he was 300lbs. Or you could go for the Hugh Hefner look and just rock a bath robe. Or there's what my 400lb buddy likes to do when he has company, just sit naked under a blanket in the living room.......

There's plenty of options, you just gotta be imaginative.

<comment><USER2> In [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King- Size_Homer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King-Size_Homer) Homer wears a muumuu.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> But how doth one hide their junk?

<comment><AUTHOR> Underwear (or undergarments) and togas are not mutually exclusive. Besides, we can consider "toga-like" rather than exact replicas.</comment></comment>


JavaScript Tooling: The Evolution and Future of JavaScript & Front-End Build Tools - <AUTHOR> https://blog.qmo.io/javascript-tooling-the-evolution-and-future-of-js-front-end-build-tools/ <comment><USER2> TypeScript won the language game already on the browser. Is the only language on the browser that matters any more. For those of you who disagree, trust me, it won't be long before you change your mind. Aside from backing that up with fact, i'll mention what's relevant here: It's bundling compiler. It has the ability to compile all your code in to a single file bundle OR compile separately as ES5/ES6 modules. Since I don't bundle 3rd party stuff, TypeScript compiler is the only bundler I need. See meta64 on GitHub if you're interested in my hyjinks.</comment>


Mastering Programming - <AUTHOR> https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/mastering-programming/1184427814923414 <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11858667](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11858667).</comment>


My entire entrepreneurship story in 10 minutes - <AUTHOR> http://justinkan.com/my-interview-with-interloper-films

<comment><USER2> Though I've only talked to Justin a few times, he is one of my favorite people to get advice from. Between his five startups and entire adult life spent building them, he has not only seen most problems founders face, he has actually experienced them multiple times. This means not only do you get excellent advice, but also that he has a lot of compassion and empathy for founders because he knows exactly what it feels like to go through them.

Here is a follow up email I sent to Justin after discussing a problem we were struggling with at the time (his advice was great as always, even better was how optimistic we felt after speaking with him - that IMO comes from him being in the same place as you in the past and being able to relate to what you might be going through).

 _Justin I know you're a busy guy and have no time for fluff emails, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and tell you how awesome your advice was and how great we feel after office hours with you today. As you know, startups run on morale and I wanted to thank you for topping off our tank._

</comment><comment><USER3> I have a lot of respect for this guy. Just talk to him for a bit and you sorta get this feeling that he'll succeed no matter what he chooses to do in the future. Keep it up buddy!

<comment><USER4> What qualities does he have that make you think this? Could you please give some examples?

<comment><USER5> Confidence being the one I've noticed throughout following his career.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I loved this video. It seems like you guys have a really kick ass culture.

<comment><USER7> Thanks, we try! Generally my philosophy is that it is important to make a place that people love to work, and in exchange people who work there take responsibility for getting things done in their domain. Pretty simple.

Also you should check out Airbnb and ZeroCater for companies that have great cultures. When you walk in those places you can tell that people love being there.

<comment><USER8> Dude, how did you build up your programming skills enough to launch an app at 20-22 yrs old? It says on wikipedia you graduated with a degree in Physics and Philosophy. I'm guessing hacking was a hobby built up from your early teens?

<comment><USER7> I had some limited programming exposure as a teen (and at Yale), but really I owe most of my programming knowledge to Emmett. Throughout the entire period of time we were working on Kiko, and then the first couple years of Justin.tv, he mentored me on programming concepts, debugged my crappy code, etc.

It really isn't that hard to pick up enough programming to build a simple CRUD app if you are dedicated enough. One great resource (although time-intensive) is Dev Bootcamp, a program based in SF that will teach you how to program in 10 weeks. I can't speak highly enough about Dev Bootcamp -- my youngest brother went through the last class with barely any programming knowledge coming in and at the end of it landed a full time programming job at a consultancy.

Alternatively, the classic method always works: just start trying to build something and google until you figure out how to do it.

<comment><USER9> _Alternatively, the classic method always works: just start trying to build something and google until you figure out how to do it._

Exactly how I learned as a 10-13 year old: I wasn't writing very much code from scratch, but rather gluing together large swaths of copy/pasted example code from the internet. It was messy and nasty, but by bending other peoples' code to do what I needed I slowly came to understand it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I didn't know they sold Kiko on Ebay. That is crazy, I didn't realize people were in the market for that type of item on there.

<comment><USER11> Here is the Tucows winner. [http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&...](http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=powerjoe1998&ftab=AllFeedback&iid=120024164593)

I guess eBay was the few option available back then (fees must hurt!).

<comment><USER12> I believe pg mentioned somewhere that they didn't actually make anything out of the whole ordeal after paying back their investors; fees were probably the least of their concerns ;). Still, an interesting use case of eBay.

<comment><USER7> Actually we did make something like 40k a piece after taxes. So it wasn't bad (we were 22 at the time, seemed like a lot then!).

<comment><USER13> how is it not a lot at any age?

<comment><USER14> Compared to, say, SocialCam selling for $60M.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I was working on an Ajax (remember that word?) calendar app called Caladabra around the same time Justin was building Kiko. I also gave up after Google Calendar was released. Wish I had the foresight to put it on eBay! Anyway, congrats to Justin on all his ventures. Seems like a very down to earth guy.

</comment><comment><USER16> Being cool was Justin's answer for starting up. While it may be honest, he could have added other thoughtful answers. More details on his first YC interview would also be interesting, instead of saying that he didn't say much at the interview.

<comment><USER7> If I was going to answer more thoroughly, here are my answers on why to start something:

1) you can work on what you like, and in a way that you like 2) it's higher beta, meaning the top outcomes are higher than working for others. 3) it is a chance to immediately start working on a high impact idea that could change society. There are other ways to work on high impact ideas, but often times you need to put in a lot of time paying dues to get to the point you can work on them. 4) if you are successful, it can be a source of mainstream fame (think Richard Branson) -- if you care about this at all.

Here's a summary I wrote of my YC interview that I did with Emmett back in 2005: <http://areallybadidea.com/34320844>

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> i always wondered why justin.tv was called justin.tv. i love seeing founders explain their ordeal in this manner, i'd like to see more of these.

</comment><comment><USER18> What's most inspiring about this dude and his team is the seemingly endless drive to just create more stuff.

</comment><comment><USER19> Good luck with EXEC, Justin! It was a pleasure working with the entire justin.tv team in 2008.

</comment><comment><USER20> Does anyone know of anymore services like Exec and taskrabbit?

<comment><USER21> I feel like <http://postmates.com/> is sorta in the same category.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> More camera angles!</comment>


How Much Money Do You Make Programming? - <AUTHOR> http://devcodehack.com/how-much-money-do-you-make-programming/

<comment><USER2> Many people who program professionally are not called programmers, either by the people in charge of titles at their organization or by government statisticians.

For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics thinks that "software developers" (which it has a fairly rigorous definition for) have a median salary nationwide of about $90k, which is rather north of self-reports on glassdoor. (And, incidentally, below prevailing salary offers for fresh graduates at AmaGooFaceSoft in 2013. That's news-you-can-use for some of you.)

However, if you take any of the _numerous_ career paths which can _quite easily_ result in you making doctor/lawyer/banker money, it is highly unlikely your business cards will still say Programmer on them, even if programming is a large portion of your day-to-day activities and value proposition. Take a quick gander at the HN leaderboard, for example: many of the people on it are well-compensated and program professionally, but comparatively few are of them (us?) are titled as programmers.

Relatedly, calling yourself a programmer is not necessarily a successful tactic if you want to make $PICK_A_SUCCESS_METRIC via doing programming. [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a- pro...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Well those numbers sound wildly low.

<comment><AUTHOR> are you disappointed or are you making wildly more?

<comment><USER4> the GP is Eliezer Yudkowsky [http://yudkowsky.net/](http://yudkowsky.net/), he works at a nonprofit. Also author of the excellent "Harry Potter and the methods of rationality". So your remark makes no sense.

Also those Salary figures are low. The lowest I've seen for a junior engineer who can't negotiate in NYC or SF is 70-90k.

Its very very normal for a smart junior engineer with track record to get 110k even at relatively small orgs, I've seen this or higher in NYC or SF. (notice the emphasis on really smart)

really really good (and senior) engineers at organizations that have money / are somewhat large, are known to easily hit salaries of 300k-400k. I've heard of higher, but I'm just naming the range i've heard from people directly.

<comment><USER5> > really really good (and senior) engineers at organizations that have money / > are somewhat large, are known to easily hit salaries of 300k-400k.

That's really high. I work in NYC and know of a small set who're hitting 175k-180k max (not me, I make less!), and those people are a rare bunch. I realize there are people who may be getting up to 300k, but that's probably the top 0.5%-1% percentile.

I've heard these urban legends of 200k+ in SF and NYC - are there people here on HN who make that much, even in SF or NYC?

110k-150k seems to be a realistic range for a pretty good software engineer in NYC.

<comment><USER4> I agree, 110-150k is the normal good range. The folks I know who are above that range are some of the best engineers I have the pleasure of knowing on the planet.

When I say really really good, think "epic, world class level threat" amazing. :)

<comment><USER5> Agreed. :) But IMHO, that puts them in the top 0.1% of engineers, and isn't reflective of the "middle class" or vast majority of programmers, even in SF or NYC. ;)

<comment><USER4> Come to the NYC Haskell meetup sometime! There's really really good interesting (yet accessible) tech talks and really nice smart folks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A few thoughts:

First, sources. Please.

Second, salaries are all over the map. Worse, the under-performers and insecure are always included in salary reports which makes it hard to know where you might stand against competent, self-assured peers.

Third, we need to stop worshiping $100k as any sort of meaningful milestone. Skilled tradesfolk can make that and more. "Six-figures" has had the same cultural cache my whole life. Meanwhile inflation (even w/ low rates) marches on, compounding. What was $100k in 1995 would have to be $150k today. Or 1985 to today, which would be over $210k. [1]

[1] [http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm](http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)

</comment><comment><USER7> I was under the impression that Fortran Devs get paid pretty well, because its not the cool thing to do there isn't a lot of them.

Also the languages changing fast thing isn't really correct, Java, C++, C#, Javascript, PHP have been around a long time and still going strong, you could do your entire career in one of these.

<comment><USER8> Framing a career in software development around programming languages is like framing a career in mechanical engineering around CAD tools. It's a key component for sure but by the end of your career which particular tools you used fades into a footnote.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you're in the Philippines, try about USD$7,500 per year. Lowest in the world according to this info graphic [http://www.staff.com/blog/web-developer- salaries-infographic...](http://www.staff.com/blog/web-developer-salaries- infographic/)

<comment><USER3> Are they competent? For that price I'll take 4.</comment></comment>


UberEATS - <AUTHOR> http://ubereats.com/ <comment><USER2> I'm surprised to see this landing page was built with Squarespace. I would have figured a tech company as large as Uber would have an easy way to throw together an email collection page without using a 3rd party.

It shows how good these kinds of tools are getting that even for an Uber the best way to build an MVP website is to use a tool like Squarespace vs. spin it up using their existing expertise (and, excitingly, the same tool is equally available to everyone).

<comment><USER3> I've heard it directly from the people that work at these large companies. The reality is Squarespace (and other platforms like it) offer a user experience that's perfect for the non-technical people who actually manage these websites, and the entire infrastructure is effectively outsourced for $20/mo, which is insane.

<comment><USER4> Exactly. Large tech companies hire people to build products, not spin up landing pages. If it's possible to outsource so marketing and launch teams can work independently, it's a good move.

<comment><USER5> On the other hand, small companies waste $$$ hiring people to spin up landing pages and build small widgets that could have been bought off the shelf (email forms, payment forms, payment integration are all plugins).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So it's interesting. These appear to be pre-made items (limited selection each day). As far as I can tell, it's only $3 per delivery, no matter how many items you order. And the listed prices look competitive, though I couldn't find a restaurant that had any of the Uber items on the actual menu. I'm assuming they are custom specials.

I've used and liked Favor, but once you add in a tip, and pay their percentage, it can get expensive quick ($5 per, plus 5% plus 20% or so for tip). So that can be $7.50 in delivery charges for a $10 sandwich. The upside is that anything can be ordered custom.

Does anyone know the logistics? For example, are the drivers stocked with inventory in their cars to avoid returning often to the restaurant? Do food delivery drivers ever also pick up passengers?

<comment><USER7> Ike's Menage-a-trois is $12.21 on menu, which is actually $1.21 more than Uber (although comes with chips, so that evens out).

As far as logistics, I would bet dollars to dimes there are drivers with a large stock of all/many of the items; having them return to a restaurant ad hoc for each order would make this financially unworkable. Sprig, Bento, and Rocketspoon all work this way -- drivers are simply given a next destination to go to and dish out in-car inventory.

<comment><USER8> It's a good interview question. Here's how I would answer it:

At scale there would be drivers dedicated to filling up at only one restaurant, and then delivering to multiple customers before refilling. The more popular restaurants would have a multiple drivers, leaving every N orders. Less popular restaurants would be grouped geographically to "share" one driver who would alternate food-pickup between the two restaurants on schedule.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm redirected to the UberEATS Chicago page, which has been around for some time. Did UberEATS launch in new locations today?

<comment><USER10> Not sure if these are new cities, but these are listed on the page:

Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Barcelona

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> A bad day for Postmates, Munchery or Doordash. Uber really has a huge infrastructure and they could easily undercut them, push them out of the market, and then raise prices a-la Amazon Books.

<comment><USER12> Postmates seems to feature bicycles in a weirdly prominent way, as if that is the best way to deliver a meal. But then they offer delivery from places that are so far away that cycling would be impractical from a delivery standpoint. Anyway, this space seems to still be up for grabs, but then I don't live in a place like NYC where Seamless owns it.

<comment><USER13> From my own usage, Caviar Fastbite, Uber eats and Postmates have significantly reduced the amount of money I spend on seamless.

Seamless' extremely shitty launch of their website redesign (that still doesn't work properly) also didn't help.

Edit: I live and work in NYC

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This was inevitable. I wonder what this means for a company like Instacart? Acquisition? Push them out?

<comment><USER15> Instacart delivers groceries that you buy through the app/web.

This is a service where couriers equipped with the dishes of the day ride around and deliver the pre-packed meals you order.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Favor has been doing pretty well here in Boston, though I believe they use multi-modal transportation (bike, scooter, motorbike, or car).

I wonder whether that's enough to make them operationally superior vs. uberx drivers?

<comment><USER17> I'm in Boston (well, Cambridge to be precise) and am not familiar with Favor. How does it differ from Grubhub, Foodler et al?

<comment><USER16> I don't understand the distinctions perfectly, but as far as I can tell, Favor is a service of people who will walk into a restaurant and order whatever you want.

Grubhub is, I think, more directly connected with the shop. I think they put the onus on the shop to do delivery. Favor is their own delivery service.

It all blends though- I think Caviar is basically Favor, and they're pretty close to TaskRabbit For Food Pickup...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> We've had this in LA for quite some time. It works pretty well. I haven't had any problems with food that seemed too old since they're driving around with it already in the car.

</comment><comment><USER19> Uber Eats is great. You can get delivery food in 5-10 min instead of 30-45 min (at least in LA). Its usually faster than walking down the street to the closest lunch place.

</comment><comment><USER20> How old is this? I've already seen job posting with Uber for people to work with UberEATS, so I figured it was around or privately around maybe?

</comment><comment><USER21> Failing to see at $3 delivery charge how anyone can afford to do these deliveries with wear and tear on a car and so on.

<comment><USER22> It's actually $4 flat fee for delivery, tips included.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Actually makes total since. Really they should do all local deliveries.

</comment><comment><USER24> Shout out to CrunchButton[0] who have been doing curated, location-based food delivery since 2012-ish.

[0]: [https://crunchbutton.com/](https://crunchbutton.com/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Oh good, more cars blocking traffic in SF with their hazards on for justification.

<comment><USER26> If Uber's delivery fleet is taking advantage of cars already on the road serving passengers, then this is a net reduction in traffic: food delivery is already a thing whether or not Uber provides it.

Meanwhile: apparently a lot of these orders are delivered by bike messengers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Please do not use this service. Uber is a very unethical company that does not treat their drivers (the ones doing all of the work) well.

<comment><USER28> I don't see how this is possibly true. Every single time I ride in an Uber or Uber X, I _always_ ask the drivers how they like driving for Uber, and what their experience has been like, and every single one of them has responded positively (out of around 20 times I've asked).

If they don't like how they are treated, they can stop driving for Uber. It's not my moral responsibility to police Uber's business practices for the sake of their drivers.

<comment><USER29> Unless they need money to pay bills and have no other sources of income.

[edit] Also, try asking "how do you like being considered a contractor vs full time with health benefits" \-- I've found that perfectly "happy" drivers will give you an earful about this.

<comment><USER30> maybe instead ask "how do you like being considered a contractor and setting your own hours vs full time with health benefits"?

<comment><USER31> That's a funny question since full time with benefits is clearly not an option in this business model. To ask if they would prefer living rich without working would be equally demagogic.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


PBS Idea Channel – This Episode Was Written by an AI - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p10knivMRg <comment><USER2> His delivery is the most incredible thing about this video. It makes the AI's output seem almost comprehensible.

<comment><USER3> His performance gives the AI generated text a surprising amount meaning. It seems similar to the partial intelligibility that happens when two languages are right at the border between dialects that can understand each other and languages that can no longer understand each other. A good example of that for English is this[1] professor talking about the history of the Scots[2] language _in Scots_. It has the same quality where it sounds like it _should_ be understandable, but isn't.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENbkHS3mnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENbkHS3mnY)

[2] Scots derives from Old English parallel to Modern English (and the Scottish Modern English dialect, which is much closer to Modern English than Scots).</comment></comment>


A Quantum Computer Aces Its Test - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/a-quantum-computer-aces-its-test

<comment><USER2> Here's an earlier submission of effectively the same story, but the details might well be different enough to make it worth reading both, to try to get a more complete picture:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5697619>

Not sure if it gives more details, or if the different perspective will help, but I thought it worth the cross-link.</comment>


Leukemia Has Won - <AUTHOR> https://alex.blog/2019/02/18/leukemia-has-won/ <comment><USER3> As a human it makes me so sad to read this post. I hope the rest of his life is meaningful, comfortable and pain-free.

As a doctor it makes me so mad. We talk about winning and losing against cancer like its some game or some foe personified. Just because there aren't any more chemo therapy options doesn't mean there aren't treatment options. Just because he'll be home and not in the hospital doesn't mean his doctors will stop caring for him. He and they will have different goals. Cure seems like a goal that isn't realistic anymore. But there are goals that are realistic. So I hope his doctors are trying to help him live a meaningful, comfortable and pain-free life, like they would for any other patient. And we need to make sure he doesn't think he lost anything. Its not fair and its incorrect. We need to change our language around cancer.

Read a more articulate explanation of the problem with language around cancer here: [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/21...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2108855)

<comment><USER4> As a medical oncologist[1], your paragraph and that paternalistic and annoying article you cited makes me mad. The outrage with 'our language around cancer' is a recent phenomenon, and I think it is actually not that important and even harmful. What you are proposing is to homogenise how patients cope with cancer, assuming that one way of dealing with it is qualitatively better than another. This 'one way' is a kind of stoic acceptance, an appreciation for the simple things in life, a focus on quality of life and meaningful experiences, good supportive care outcomes, ending finally with a peaceful departure surrounded by loving friends and family.

This sounds great, but it is a grave error to assume that all patients should think this way. First of all, many don't get the chance. Some patients are too alone, too poor or have too much chaos in their lives to be able to get anywhere near the 'one way'. For some patients, their cancer arrives suddenly and kills them before they have time to accept or deal with anything.

But the main point is that you can't a priori decide what is the right way for someone to deal with their illness. For some people, they need to fight it like a battle, before they can ever accept the fact they will lose. For others, they 'fight' because they know it is important to the people they love, even though they know it is probably a lost cause. Who are we to tell them that they aren't thinking about things the right way?

The final thing to say is that a cancer is incurable until it isn't. The worst thing is when a new treatment comes out (like immune checkpoint blockade), and a patient whom you know would have benefited immensely from that treatment dies just before they could have received it. There are patients I see today who decided to fight, sought out any avenue they could and are alive and going on holidays with their kids today because of it. That is a dreadfully uncomfortable notion, and something that a health system can't possibly deal with, but try telling those people that their 'language around cancer' is unhelpful. By the same token of course, there are many who never accept their illness, and waste precious time pursuing expensive, futile therapies.

In medicine, avoid generalisation and homogenisation at ALL cost. As colourful and varied as people are in their healthful lives, they are only more so when ill.

[1] In other words I give drug therapies to people with cancer. About 70% of the people I see have advanced, incurable cancer, with life spans ranging from a few years to a few months.

<comment><USER5> >Who are we to tell them that they aren't thinking about things the right way?

you're an oncologist. Would it be an unreasonable expectation that you have observed/learned a correlation, if any, between patient outcomes and the various ways of thinking the patients practiced, and thus that you may have an idea what is the "right way" and what isn't?

<comment><USER6> This is a familiar and successful way of thinking that we are taught in school and even as scientists. The challenge is that some decisions and domains are simply not amenable to statistics and concepts like correlation break down in the face of infinite payoffs (like patients getting to go to a grandchilds wedding) and infinite penalties (like the death of a child). How does one account for a situation in which 10,000 good decisions are for nothing in the face of one mistake?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> From someone who's been dealing with cancer for the last 6 years, I hate when people compare it to a fight/war/battle with winners and losers. What exactly am I fighting? My cells? How exactly am I going to war? by sitting in a chair eating a sandwich while getting a chemo infusion?

In my mind, this was always just a disease to manage. Being diagnosed at 33 with no family history or no genetic markers the only thing I could point to was some random mutation that reprogrammed my cells. Modern medicine as this point is serving it's purpose -> buying me more time. I personally don't have any illusions of grandeur that I'll be "cured" but I'm thankful the extra time that I've been blessed with and just try to make the most of it everyday. That's all you can really do with or without cancer.

<comment><USER8> What were your symptoms? How were you originally diagnosed?

<comment><USER9> This. What is the "correct" course of action to have it diagnosed early / maximize odds of survival?

<comment><USER10> The earlier the better. Depending on the cancer type early diagnosis of e.g. skin cancer has almost 100% survival( cure) rates. Early diagnosis of lung cancer gives the option of removing the whole section of the lung. Decreases the maximum oxygen supply rate but not enough to affect daily life.

Generally speaking if it's early we can cut it more easily, radiate the specific area instead of many different ones that cause more side effects and we can target it more effectively with drugs before it metastasizes and spirals into too many different types.

Some new immunotherapy and blocker options offer significantly increased survival rates for advanced stages of cancer as well. Nivolumab is an example that offers a 20-30% 5 year survival rate on advanced non small cell lung cancer. This isn't cure but it isn't a slow burn either. The cancer masses seem to just not grow- but not shrink either and the patients just keep chugging along. The interesting part is that the reason why the rate is 20-30% is because that's the percentage of people who respond to it. A combination of nivolumab and another drug that I forget it's name that failed as a solo option seems to increase it's rate to 40%. Keep in mind this is advanced lung cancer, the type that a couple decades ago had a couple months survival rates.

<comment><USER9> So are there some specific symptoms one should look out for? Some comprehensive periodic tests? Maybe combined with some genetic pre-screening?

Given how important it can be to diagnose these things early, I think most people have no idea how they could or should do it - apart from maybe breast and testicular cancer.

If you were to design a policy for someone that wanted to maximize their survival probability with regards to potential cancers while still leading a normal life, and money was no object, what would that policy look like?

<comment><USER10> >So are there some specific symptoms one should look out for?

Not something overly specific. And it also depends on cancer type. Lung cancer is mostly without any symptoms until it's very advanced and you start coughing blood.

>If you were to design a policy for someone that wanted to maximize their survival probability with regards to potential cancers while still leading a normal life, and money was no object, what would that policy look like?

I would say the best bang for your buck would be an annual MRI test. It won't show absolutely everything but it would show most stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Jeeeesus. I'm incapable of understanding the mindset the man is in - <USER2> awareness of impending death. It must take tremendous courage - I think I would have been reduced to a quaking pile of jelly faced with the fact of mortality. What a person, what a reality.

<comment><USER12> > I'm incapable of understanding the mindset the man is in - total awareness > of impending death.

Seriously? _Every_ human being on Earth over a toddler's age is totally aware of impending death. To date nobody has ever lived forever. The only question, for every human being, cancer or no, is how many years you get before you eventually die.

Modern man just makes my head shake in disbelief sometimes...

<comment><USER11> What feelings would you expect, or prefer, me to feel in reaction to your comment?

<comment><USER13> That's a great reply, I think the internet would be a better place if people (myself included) asked themselves this very question before posting a comment online.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> There is something you can do to help people with leukemia: register as a stem cell donor. Germany has a very strong system with 71.000 stem cell or bone marrow donations per year while there are only 11.000 cases of leukemia in Germany - most go to the rest of the world. There are 5.7 million registered donors[1] (total population is around 80 million).

[1] [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKMS](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKMS)

<comment><USER15> This. Registering is very easy, at least in Germany. I did it because I stumbled upon an event that did a mass registration, but you can also request a kit that contains everything you need to register. Just send the cotton swab (?) back, it's easy and no pain involved. Please look up whether there's an organization near you that offers services like this.

<comment><USER16> I registered online with DKMS. They send you the kit, you send back the swab in the pre-stamped envelope, it's really that simple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Godspeed. Thank you for sharing your stories.

For anyone reading here, one way to donate in general is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: [https://www.lls.org/](https://www.lls.org/)

LLS funds blood cancer research, education and patient services. You may know of LLS because of its annual fundraiser event known as "Light the Night" and its fitness initiatives "Team in Training".

<comment><USER18> I'd like to add one other important (free!) way you can help: Sign up to be a marrow donor.

In the US, here: [https://bethematch.org](https://bethematch.org)

Alex mentioned graft-vs-host disease. When you get a marrow transplant, the better the match, the more likely you are to survive. The bigger the database, the better chance of a good match.

Seven years ago I lost a good friend to non-hodgkin's lymphoma. Cancer sucks.

<comment><USER19> Signed up over a decade ago with Australian Red Cross blood service. Haven't heard anything but it's good knowing that if the call ever comes, I personally might save someone's life. (Donating O- helps in a more general way.)

<comment><USER20> Haven't heard anything? You should be getting regular pings as they make sure they can reach you annually or more frequently.

<comment><USER19> I'm an active blood donor so they do know how to reach me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It's 2:40 AM, I open Hacker News because I couldn't sleep and notice this is on top of the page. I have no words.

I didn't really know Alex from his work at Automattic, I knew him as the guy who ran the fan website for "Top Gear". I don't have any numbers how many people he helped to get access to the episodes, but I'm absolutely certain the show would have never gotten as popular without his contribution.

Thanks and sorry.

<comment><USER22> I hadn't looked at Final Gear in years but that really brings back memories. I didn't know who ran it until now. When TG was on the air I would refresh FG until the episode was released.

I'm glad I got to know about one of the people who contributed to making my life a little better, even if it was close to the end of his. Thanks Alex for all of your contributions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> My dad had one month and one day from diagnosis ("surprise, you have stage 4 lung cancer") to death.

Fuck cancer.

Thank you, Alex, for trying to make the world a better place. Open source is a wonderful legacy.

<comment><USER24> That's awful. My condolences :(

<comment><USER23> There's a weird way to look at it...

If he was going to die, he wouldn't have wanted to linger, or suffer, or be a "burden."

Also, he should have died 12 years ago from alcohol and depression, but he found AA and it worked for him.

In those 12 years he got to see me married, and got to enjoy 5 years with my daughter.

Yes I'm incredibly sad that he's gone, but I'm so thankful he got those 12 years... and that he didn't kill anyone in a DUI.

Thank you, AA.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Incredible sad read and I wish you the best of luck if any journey is ahead of you. We will all come pretty soon after you! Wordpress is an awesome tool and project. I don't know you or your work but I'm sure it's just awesome. Thanks for improving the open source world for us with your skills!

Whenever faced with death in my life, I have always found comfort in Richard Dawkins wonderful speech.

I hope you'll do the same.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOXMjCnKwb4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOXMjCnKwb4)

</comment><comment><USER26> This man is living my worst fear. Also 34, watching my 6 year-old play a video game.

Good luck, Alex. All I can say is, I don't know how you stand, but I know a man who can.

<comment><USER27> Children and death, be it yours or theirs, is the worst combination of thoughts possible to occupy your mind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Mortality is one of those things that I grow more accustomed to the older I get. I hate it. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about death or things that cause death. Death is everywhere — the news, social media — two things I try to avoid. However, we cannot avoid death. We are all just living to die.

<comment><USER29> > We are all just living to die.

Pretty sure there's more to it than that, bud. But you know that already of course. Death is a great motivator to live a life with purpose and meaning, for one. Dwelling on mortality can bring a sharp focus to your life. It's a fear that transcends all other fears which may stand in your way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Timely, re plugins:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19199647](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19199647)

[https://www.codeshelter.co/](https://www.codeshelter.co/)

> Code Shelter is a collective of volunteer software developers that aims to > help with maintaining popular open source projects whose authors need a hand > or don't have the time to maintain them any more.

</comment><comment><USER31> So sad. But good to see you'll be home and comfortable with your loved ones than at a bland hospital room. Godspeed.

</comment><comment><USER32> Wow. I read all of his posts marked cancer, and looked at the date stamps...and just kind of lost it at "34".

Fuck cancer.

</comment><comment><USER33> Reading through some of the past posts, he seems to have quite a stoic view of his situation (saying he's 'along for the ride'). Indeed, there's nothing he can do about it, it makes no sense to stress about it. I hope I'm able to feel similarly when it comes time for me.

</comment><comment><USER34> So sad. Reminds of some promising research into fasting that applies specifically to his form of leukemia, ALL. [https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2016/l...](https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2016/leukemia- zhang.html) I'm sure he's had a ton of people suggesting all kinds of things, but I wonder if he has looked into fasting. There's not much downside to trying at this point.

"Strikingly, we found that in models of ALL, a regimen consisting of six cycles of one day of fasting followed by one day of feeding completely inhibited cancer development," he said. At the end of seven weeks, the fasted mice had virtually no detectible cancerous cells compared to an average of nearly 68 percent of cells found to be cancerous in the test areas of the non- fasted mice."

</comment><comment><USER35> Damn. I've been following Alex as a peer in the early WP scene since back in the day. Didn't realize this was him until I saw his about page mention Viper007Bond.

If you're reading this bud I hope you know your work has made a lasting impression on many.

</comment><comment><USER36> Cancer is life, not death on the micro level. Okay, maybe a shortsighted and cellfish (my play of words) struggle for life, but aren't we as a civilization doing the same thing right now? Anyway, if we keep vilifying cancer without understanding it, we'll end up "losing". I'm saddened to hear that a good developer and an open-source contributor has been struck with this fate. As a civilization with bold claims to fame, we should really focus on these mass killers rather than building bigger bombs and walls. I mean, come on, we can't even treat the flu and thousands die every year!

</comment><comment> gurpreet- Immensely saddening. I just read through some of his cancer tagged posts on his blog and it seemed like he was finally reclaiming his life back. So sad to read that it came back.

Hope that you find peace, my friend.

</comment><comment><USER37> It's too early to bury Alex. Donor immune system may still rise up and kill leukemia cells while leaving some liver tissue for it to regenerate. Not so much of a chance but still...

</comment><comment><USER20> Highly recommend Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich. One alternative sequence is you can start at part II, read to the end, then read part I. Edit: My guess is part I is there to show the reader what his/her own reaction to death is, before he begins his lesson. [http://www.lonestar.edu/departments/english/Tolstoy_Ivan.pdf](http://www.lonestar.edu/departments/english/Tolstoy_Ivan.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER38> Very sad to hear. You are a strong fellow for putting things out there in such a public way, I am sure you have helped many deal with their own struggles.

</comment><comment><USER39> Thanks Alex for living a good life, and sharing your work. Thank you also for the reminder to live every day like it is your last.

</comment><comment><USER40> [https://www.facebook.com/groups/416702921703509/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/416702921703509/)

Cannabis oil may help you. This group has loads of info. Just search / post for leukemia. Lots to read.

</comment><comment><USER41> to friends and family of loved ones in similar situations -- dont hesitate to say anything you need to say to them. dont live with regrets. and to friends and family of their caregivers, dont underestimate how hard this is for them too. they will need your care just as much.

</comment><comment><USER42> Thanks for the top notch torrents and the plugins that make my life easier. I've never known who you were, Alex, but it turns out you've been a part of my life for years.

</comment><comment><USER43> working on a project in this space now. Definitely hits home - trying to solve problems in this space is important when you read things like this. At times it can be a very demotivating space to tackle because trying to do anything new in this domain is a real slog and for good reason. There are some smart founders and VCs out there, it would be great if more of them decided to spend their time working on more healthcare issues.

</comment><comment><USER44> Reading posts like this one makes you feel bad about your tiny little problems and how grateful you are with your life in front of death.

</comment><comment><USER45> Could one not irradiate the whole body and replace the destroyed marrow with some from a compatible donor in order to fight this?

</comment><comment><USER46> All I can say is that the disease hasn't won. It may have gone beyond the treatment window, but it has not won.

</comment><comment><USER47> Godspeed, Alex.

</comment><comment><USER48> This put a lot in perspective when my grandmother passed from breast cancer: [https://xkcd.com/931/](https://xkcd.com/931/)

</comment><comment><USER49> Sorry to hear this, I never know what to say in these situations but I wish you and your family the best.

</comment><comment><USER50> I paused and thought about what it must have been like to write that post.

</comment><comment><USER51> I hope if I'm ever in their shoes I'm as dignified and grateful.

</comment><comment><USER52> Dying is very real and very scary notion.

</comment><comment><USER53> Very sad

</comment><comment> grayed-down Damn

</comment><comment><USER54> this is so sad

</comment><comment><USER55> Is there a chance of a liver transplant?

<comment><USER56> The fact that he mentions GvHD would indicate that not to be an option, unfortunately. IANAD.

<comment><USER57> 100% not the same as Alex's sad situation, but for kidneys a dual stem-cell- transplant and kidney-transplant has been done[1]. It was NOT done due to cancer (but due to kidney scarcity) and was NOT done for the liver. I don't think it could ever even be done for the liver because stem-cell-transplant cannot (to the best of my knowledge) be done from a cadaver-donor. Maybe some medical center would be willing to try a living-donor for SCT and partial- liver...but I'm not sure it would get past the ethics committee.

[1] [https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00319657](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00319657)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Hope a miracle happens to you, Alex

<comment><USER59> Miracles do not happen. What he needs is a donor and a crowdfunding campaign.

<comment><USER60> Miracles are just statically unlikely occurrences according to the viewer.

By stating they don't happen, you are alluding to an absolute truth, which can not be proven.

<comment><USER59> I have a different definition of miracle than yours.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> It will be interesting to see if this guy gets a black bar on HN. Seems to be reserved only for old-and-dead.

</comment><comment><USER62> Clickbait title.

<comment><USER63> You're gonna call clickbait on an ad-free personal blog from a guy announcing that he's _dying?_ Seriously?

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> There's a cure for everything, including eventually old age; whether you find it or not is another story.

<comment><USER65> There's no cure for death after the fact. No cure for the loss of information from a damaged brain, unless somehow a backup was made.

</comment></comment><comment><USER66> Well the body will eventually "loose the battle" for us all. But Consciousness... since quantum information isn't lost, consciousness might be another story and not get lost with the body.

<comment><USER67> Well, I'm sure that will help the guy with cancer. C'mon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> It seems fasting can potentially help starving cancer. [https://gero.usc.edu/cll/](https://gero.usc.edu/cll/) It can help liver problems too, so maybe worth a shot as a last-resort attempt to stay alive.

<comment><USER67> For fucks sake man. You and the others leaving comments on his site about green tea, olive oil, diets, fasting, "ayurveda", and god(s) that will save us if we really believe... wtf.

This is a guy that has a death sentence over his head. He's being doing treatment for years, his body is weak, probably has or will have pain regularly. Is this the moment to do fasting or drink freaking green tea?

It's cancer guys, not a simple cold.

<comment><USER63> The link goes to a medical research project that suggests existing drugs are more effective when combined with a few days of partial fasting. It needs more research, but I don't think it's fair to lump it in with fad diets and green tea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Whenever I'm studying a given topic, I like to buy maybe 6 or 7 books on it to skim-read from someplace where that's afforable like HPB or Thriftbooks. Gives you a good overview of field and also each of the books fills in the holes of the other books.

Recently did this on the topic of "cancer". All recent books published in the last 15 years by Big 5 Publishers.

Every single book had intense criticism for the NIH. It seems they do a lot of good, but their singular focus on only funding "hypothesis based research" has driven and then kept extremely promising ideas on the sidelines for 25 years.

Very sad to read at times, and made me really appreciate how scientific progress comes in amazing bursts that are short lived but that everyone depends on for decades to come.

EDIT: Kind of astonished by the downvotes. This book goes into more detail: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374135606/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374135606/)

Also something else I forgot to add is how the death rate from cancer really hasn't budged in 20 years by being generously massaged via something known as "average death rate". Adjustments are made to have the US population conform to a model, against which the amount of deaths per year are calculated. While intended to smooth variance YoY, this model helps to a great extent the system currently operating.

<comment><USER70> What is the alternative? Wild guess based research? Faith based research? I'm having a hard time envisioning how you'd design an experiment, and extract knowledge, without a hypothesis.

<comment><USER71> " _Hypothesis-driven research is based on scientific theories, while exploration is based on a search for discovery backed by few theories or none at all._ "

" _With hypothesis testing, researchers present what the study hopes to accomplish, how it will be done and possible outcomes. [..] Meanwhile, exploratory research examines unknown areas with no or little-known theories to back them -- perceived as a riskier bet._ "

\- [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130927105138.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130927105138.htm)

> I'm having a hard time envisioning how you'd design an experiment, and > extract knowledge, without a hypothesis

" _Often, a proposal to gain observational experience is dismissed as being a "fishing expedition"…but how can one devise a workable hypothesis to test without first acquiring basic knowledge of the system, and how better to obtain such basic knowledge than to observe the system without any preconceived notions?_" \- [https://www.edge.org/response- detail/11702](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11702)</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Our little bootstrapped startup is powering CNN's ticker for NYE - <AUTHOR> Our little startup you've never heard of, called Vidpresso, is powering CNN's New Year's Eve social media ticker! It's a huge accomplishment for us. We're originally Utah based (our other employees are in NM and Karachi though)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bc3GdRrCUAAqLaN.jpg:large
I'm posting this more out of sheer excitement than anything. I wanted to share that any startup anywhere can have exciting wins like this... regardless of whether you're in SV, went to MIT, or whatever. Just make something people want, and it'll work out.
In 2014, start the thing you've been putting off. Maybe you'll have a fun new years like us next year! :)
As a company, our goal is pretty ambitious: We want to change the way video is produced, so we're starting with the big guys and working our way down to the little guys.
We're not hiring (yet) but if things like this appeal to you, we should definitely be friends. We have a writeup of our dreams here:
http://www.vidpresso.com/blog/secret-vidpresso-master-plan <comment><USER2> How did you get CNN to know you exist much less use you? Did you have to tell them about your technology stack or do any kind of stability testing? Congratulations!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's actually pretty funny. You know those contests that kind of seem pointless and cost like $200 to enter? When we first launched, we entered one of those contests. We didn't win, but someone who produced Anderson Cooper's ill-fated daytime talk show was a judge, and passed us along to his team. After Anderson's daytime show was cancelled, CNN wanted an extremely simple system to show tweets on-air for a show they were launching.

Anyway, our peg is simplicity. If you read that whole blog post it'll make more sense, but yeah.

<comment><USER3> So you're telling me it's all in who you know?!

<comment><USER4> I think the real lesson is that it is all in how much you put yourself out there!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Congrats Randall! If you can answer, I'd love to hear a bit more about the unknown-guy-vs-major-broadcaster relationship :) Did you have any issues as such a small company dealing with a big giant like CNN?

<comment><AUTHOR> So just like any company, the bigger your price, the more people who have to sign off. So given that we're really really inexpensive compared to most other companies, it's actually really easy for us to get spun up inside most broadcast companies.

CNN was a total non-issue. We showed them a demo at a conference, and then it was just a matter of getting the actual "button pressers" ready to use it on TV. Really simple.

Typically, we can just work with an individual production team, show our vision (the vision helps a lot. People love that we're not just hackers, we're broadcasters too) and get on the air really quickly.

CBS, for instance, had a production team for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And the day before, they called us so they could use our system to get Instagram photos on the air. Normal broadcast procurement processes are like 6 weeks minimum.

Most local broadcasters are in "station groups", and sometimes when we get presented to the higher ups, it's a less-than-pleasant sales cycle because they do things the old way. (a billion meetings, back and forth on contracts, etc.) For the most part though, we're able to avoid that headache.

Does that answer your q? I think you were one of the first people I showed the prototype to at startup school a few years ago, so it's fun to talk about how far it's come since then! :)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the detail! One of the folks I'm working with is having trouble banging their head against a big co, but it's good to hear you didn't have such issues. Hadn't thought about it in terms of price, beyond individual budget expense caps...

Awesome to see how far it's come, yeah!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a fellow entrepreneur also running a bootstrapped startup, I have a question regarding the setup of your employees. Do you have offices in NM and Karachi, or do you have employees in these cities who work from home?

What channels and methods did you use to find them?

<comment><AUTHOR> Just employees from home. NM dude worked on a previous project with me... Karachi guy emailed us when we launched in TechCrunch a long time ago... and then just kept in contact. Turns out he used to live a few blocks from me in NYC. Pretty crazy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> What sort of options do you have for curation, filtering? How do you find the wheat from the chafe?

<comment><AUTHOR> Our peg is simplicity. So really, people can search by keyword, filter out unwanted keywords, ban users, filter RTs, etc.

We don't do any big grouping or the sort yet... we just rely on producers to find the posts they're looking for.

<comment><USER8> What is a "peg"?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha. It's a news term. It means like "why should I care about you".

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_graph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_graph) \- the same thing in print. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice work! Cheers from another Utah startup :)

<comment><USER10> Can you say "cheers" in Utah? You must be referring to non-alcoholic Red Punch, and not what "cheers" really implies! :) Congrats Russell.

<comment><USER9> We're obviously talking about Martinelli's Sparkling Cider

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That's a serious move against someone like Mass Relevance. Super congrats, Randall! Would love to talk sometime :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know who you are, so shoot me an email. :) My contact info is in my HN profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hey Randall! I've heard of Vidpresso! Congrats on the hustle. Team Wediges is super excited for you.

</comment><comment><USER13> hey Randall! our vision is also to change how video is produced! :p glad to see a fellow mario award winner doing well. we're about to announce a big ass customer as well. let's catch up. we're moving to LA...being in video and all.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah dude. I'll ping you when I'm back in my "natural habitat" next week.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Very nice Randall, congrats!

</comment><comment><USER15> Impressive tech. Congrats on landing CNN, and thanks for the motivation.

</comment><comment><USER16> You have a team member in Karachi? That made me super happy !

Congratulations !

</comment><comment><USER17> I had this same idea a few years ago after fighting with vizRT about something or other. Chyron was just as bad. Good job for doing it!

<comment><USER18> Heh, interesting. I did some work for those guys when I lived in Innsbruck. Interesting example of how an IT company can be pretty much anywhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Congrats! How did you get CNN to work with you?

</comment><comment><USER20> Awesome Randall, keep killing it in 2014!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx dude! Someday we'll work together, I swear! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hi Randall,

If you need any help in Europe then please let me know. I've got a great deal of experience in this area.

Bob

</comment><comment><USER22> How long did it take to develop it? And how long did you work on that startup?

Best wishes for the New Year!

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been working on it since October 2011. I went full time on it in 2013.

<comment><USER22> Thanks for the quick reply =)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Excellent Randall - congrats!

</comment><comment><USER24> Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER25> Congrats Randall. Very cool. Here's to a great 2014.

</comment><comment><USER26> That is awesome! Sounds like a great start to 2014!

</comment><comment><USER27> Awesome! Great work!

</comment><comment><USER28> how much preceding knowledge did you have of hardware? How did you manage to find a supplier that will make you the hardware that runs your software?</comment>


Pg_query: Parse PostgreSQL Queries in Ruby - <AUTHOR> https://pganalyze.com/blog/parse-postgresql-queries-in-ruby <comment><USER2> This article is from 2014, though the gem does still appear to be actively developed:

[https://github.com/lfittl/pg_query](https://github.com/lfittl/pg_query)</comment>


Andreessen: VR will be "1,000" times bigger than AR - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/05/marc-andreessen-audio-will-be-titanically-important-and-vr-will-be-1000-times-bigger-than-ar/ <comment><USER2> I think this impression has a lot to do with current implementations of VR and AR. Most people who've tried VR probably agree that it's already a unique experience. Even without state of the art hardware, it _feels_ different than anything you've ever experienced before.

AR devices aren't quite there yet. I've tried Magic Leap, HoloLens, etc. VR and AR both use clunky headsets, but while VR immerses you, allowing you to almost forget the headset is there, AR merely augments your normal senses (obviously). This means that the presence of the headset and screen is much more constantly noticeable, and it really detracts from the experience. I think if someone comes up with an AR device that isn't as intrusive it will be a game changer.

</comment><comment><USER3> _[...] 1 percent of people on Earth live in a place where they wake up every morning and think, Wow, there are so many interesting things to see. So for everyone who doesn't already live on a college campus or in Silicon Valley or in a major other city, the new environments we're going to be able to create in VR will inherently be much more interesting_

I never thought of VR as people pretending to live others' normal lives. Like in video games, we don't actually want to be real life soldiers. We just want to do something different and entertaining or challenging. This is perhaps even more true for the 1% who could/have already done everything there is to do in the physical world.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Riiight. Because the market for immersive escapism (video games, Hollywood, etc) is so much bigger than the market for dealing with mundane reality (smartphones). Good luck with that prognosis.

Andreessen's point about audio being "titanically" important is well taken, however. It is indeed an under utilized information channel with all the focus going to optical displays.

<comment><USER2> > Because the market for immersive escapism (video games, Hollywood, etc) is > so much bigger than the market for dealing with mundane reality > (smartphones)

I wasn't sure what the actual comparison looked like so I found some numbers to confirm. Just a quick search so sources aren't great.

Video game industry at $137.9b, expected to hit $180.1b next year [1]

Movie industry valued at $80.98b in 2016 [2], consistent $12b annual box office [3]

Smartphone sales at $458b in 2017 [4]

Although with declines in smartphone sales this year and high quality games ramping up, I wouldn't be surprised to see the gap close in the next few years, assuming smartphones continue the trend of not making innovations worth upgrading for every year or two.

[1] [https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/30/newzoo-global-games- expec...](https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/30/newzoo-global-games-expected-to- hit-180-1-billion-in-revenues-2021/)

[2] [https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry- analysis/movies-e...](https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry- analysis/movies-entertainment-market)

[3] [https://www.the-numbers.com/market/](https://www.the-numbers.com/market/)

[4] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-13/how- globa...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-13/how-global- smartphone-sales-growth-ground-to-a-halt-quicktake)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for doing the research. Even with smartphone sales peaking, and assuming massive growth in games industry which I'm not totally convinced about, the market for reality is still significantly bigger than the market for escapism. Always has been and hopefully always will be. Otherwise we end up like those poor saps in the Matrix, living in a simulation while feeding the corporate overlords with our mental and physical energy. Oh wait...</comment></comment></comment>


Google has issued a statement about its months-long mystery barge project - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/06/google-says-its-using-mystery-barges-as-interactive-space-where-people-can-learn-about-its-technology/

<comment><USER2> So, it a place to learn?

Floating schools?

I'm a bit confused here.</comment>


They have created a new authentication method. Forget the traditional passwords - <AUTHOR> http://appthenty.com <comment><USER2> If you want information on this, don't start at their site. Start at their YouTube video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMfK4rNGd70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMfK4rNGd70)

The site just embeds that video plus a form to enter your email address to register to "help us to make it happen" (presumably that means to get notified when their crowdfunding campaign gets started), but they embed the video in an obnoxious way. They do not enable the normal YouTube video controls.

This is a problem because the video just shows people using traditional systems and their new system, with text overlays making their pitch. There is no one speaking.

If you happen to spend too long looking at what they are showing you and so fail to complete some of the text before the scene changes there is no apparent way to go back, other than refreshing the page to start the video over from the beginning.

Also, since no one is speaking the only thing sound is used for is music. Without the normal controls, you cannot use the normal YouTube video mute function to turn this off. To mute you have to use your browser's "mute this tab" function, if available, or your system's mute function.

With the normal controls missing there is also no apparent way to see how long the video is (2:22 BTW). That's going to lose them a lot of views, I predict, from people who get there via Reddit or HN or other social media links.

</comment><comment><USER3> TL;DW: You can tap in your password, in morse perhaps? I watched only last few seconds of the boring video in Youtube.

\- I am pretty sure that experienced morse operator can very easily learn your taps just by watching and listening.</comment>


Apple as Captain Queeg - <AUTHOR> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/07/24/steveJobsAsCaptainQueeg.html <comment><USER2> These articles are getting old and tired. Comparing Apple to a terrible ship's captain who is senile and over the hill is a bit ridiculous, don't you think?

I get it, there's a lot of anti-Apple hate on the interwebs, but why in the hell should I waste more than 30 seconds of my life skimming this tripe?

<comment><AUTHOR> Why do you waste more than 30 seconds whining about it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think Apple is actually behaving completely reasonably about the antenna issue. I wouldn't have thought so until I realized that during the last few weeks, while I've had my iPhone 4, half a dozen strangers have approached me in public to ask me about my iPhone. Every single one of them had the same concern, which is if I had antenna issues and/or dropped calls. I never had a single person walk up to me and ask about any of the previous iPhones I owned, but now people regularly ask me about the single issue of the antenna. I am surprised to say it, but the antenna publicity put a big dent in the iPhone 4's reputation and Apple is definitely going to have to do some work, like posting lots of videos showing that other phone have similar problems, if they are going to minimize the bad reputation iPhone 4 got with some people.

</comment><comment><USER4> That was a long story just to say that Apple is being petty with the Droid X video.

<comment><USER5> Not to mention "Rambling" and "not written very well," and "based on a fairly ridiculous analogy given Apple's history over the last 5 years."

If anything, the analogy should be reversed. Phones have had these problems with attenuation for years. Somehow it's Apple's epic problem now. Meanwhile everyone else has the problem but swears they are immune with "special dual- antenna designs," a claim that one short skeptical video debunks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems much more likely that Dave is Captain Queeg.Early success, muckraking ever after, yep. sounds like Dave Winer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very funny! :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I could leave the rest of the article, but I think the key point is that this story was largely on its way out at this point. The fact that Apple drug it back up yet again seems to suggest that their PR department just doesn't know how to handle bad PR.

</comment><comment><USER8> Sure we have free cases. But what we don't have is Steve Jobs begging us to take them.

Not to mention Apple dragging the upstarts... you know, the other multi- billion dollar companies, into the mud.</comment>


Notation as a Tool of Thought - <AUTHOR> http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/tot1.htm <comment><USER2> The Whitehead quote at the start (from An Introduction to Mathematics, 1911) is a great one, and relevant to programming as well as pure math. But a lot of good came after the one sentence the author quotes:

"By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and, in effect, increases the mental power of the race. Before the introduction of the Arabic notation, multiplication was difficult, and the division even of integers called into play the highest mathematical faculties. Probably nothing in the modern world would have more astonished a Greek mathematician than to learn that ... a large proportion of the population of Western Europe could perform the operation of division for the largest numbers. This fact would have seemed to him a sheer impossibility ... Our modern power of easy reckoning with decimal fractions is the almost miraculous result of the gradual discovery of a perfect notation. [...] By the aid of symbolism, we can make transitions in reasoning almost mechanically, by the eye, which otherwise would call into play the higher faculties of the brain. [...] It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle -- they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments."

</comment><comment><USER3> As a research mathematician, I often get annoyed by poor choice of notation, but I (personally) don't ever have plans with ambiguity or lack of precision. Indeed, my favorite authors often use notation that is slightly ambiguous, but is clear in context.

My issues are with math papers that introduce unilluminating notation, too much notation (henceforth write L for log(x)), or (above all) do not go to enough effort to keep their arguments simple.

I speak only for myself, and some of my colleagues would surely disagree with me, but basing mathematical notation off a programming language takes a step in the opposite direction from what I can process most fluently.

</comment><comment><USER4> I like the idea that notation is a tool of thought, but I think that J (and APL) are actually rather crappy notations.

I FAR prefer matlab for matrix work, as it is closer to actual math than any other language I know. For logic ish programming, Prolog or AMPL or SQL (I like SQL, even though people hate on it all the time).

But, in my humble, J and APL are interesting historically, but rather crappy in comparison to more recent languages

<comment><USER5> I was surprised to learn, given the inelegance of much of Matlab, that it was explicitly influenced by APL. See the blue callout box at

[http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/news_notes/clev...](http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/news_notes/clevescorner/jan06.pdf)

which shows part of a 1983 plan for Matlab:

"Combining the technology of 1) mice and windows, 2) matrix and APL environments, and 3) direct manipulation, will do for engineers what Lotus 1-2-3 has done for the business world."

Ulf Grenander, the Brown University mathematician who invented statistical pattern theory, once used APL, but moved to Matlab for his expository book on pattern theory:

[http://books.google.com/books?id=lxBDcFvFFvsC&pg=PA146&#...
I agree that the vectorized operations in Matlab are good at lifting computational ideas out of the fog of nested for loops. It is more compact to represent some matrix algebra in Matlab notation than in ordinary matrix notation, as anyone who has read Golub and van Loan knows.
It's weird to proclaim, but this concise notation can be as freeing for certain problems as Prolog's declarative transformations, and functional composition in Lisp.

<comment><USER4> I think "the inelegance of Matlab" is MUCH overstated. It has some weirdnesses, some of which are fixed in Octave (it's gnu cousin). But some apparent bad choices (anything to do with cell arrays, especially) are really quite powerful when you get to know them.

(If you ask me, R/SPLUS is the inelegant language, especially when doing serious matrix -- yuck! But it's trendy....)

Matlab is a lot like SQL -- people love to hate on it because it isn't perfect and they know it really well (because it is ubiquitous and pragmatic).

<comment><USER5> It has improved a lot. In the late 1990s it was decidedly behind the scripting languages of the time, and that's partly what I was referring to.

And, the weird lack-of-speed issues. It used to be that you could implement a matrix multiply, in an m-file, that would be faster than the builtin *. I benchmarked this myself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Original PDF here: <http://elliscave.com/APL_J/tool.pdf>

<comment><USER6> Thank you! I think here might be the appropriate place to comment on the irony of a web page espousing good notation having its own notation mangled by a bad PDF->HTML translation.

<comment><USER7> At the bottom of the page, there are the following instructions: The text requires the APL385 Unicode font, which can be downloaded from <https://sites.google.com/site/baavector/fonts> .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Read the award winning Babel-17 by Delany for a bit of science fiction that explores this idea that language and particularly the notation of the language affects one's perception of the world.

<comment><USER9> For another sci-fi novel dealing with language, I'd recommend China Mieville's Embassytown.

<comment><USER10> Also, the Nebula-winning "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang.

Available on Archive.org:[http://web.archive.org/web/20081015201424/http://heptapod.or...](http://web.archive.org/web/20081015201424/http://heptapod.org/storylife.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> From the article:

\- Ease of expressing constructs arising in problems.

\- Suggestivity.

\- Ability to subordinate detail.

\- Economy

\- Amenability to formal proofs.

I think it would be very useful to improve notation for programming languages as well (we could borrow a lot from mathematics).

With all the advances in display technology and unicode everywhere, you'd say there is no longer a need to limit ourselves to flat 7-bit ASCII in a simple grid. Still, we do. Is it really the best way, as it seems lacking on all the above points, or simply a matter of habit?

</comment><comment><USER6> I seem to remember someone (Knuth, possibly) saying something to the effect of "Good notation is determined as much by what it leaves out as what it accentuates." I interpret this as meaning that leaving out accidental complexity is at least as important as including all the essential elements of the problem. A good example, then, would be modern notation for the integral of a function.

</comment><comment><USER12> [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/sicm- html/boo...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/sicm-html/book- Z-H-3.html#%_toc_start)

gerald sussman's course on physics in scheme notation</comment>