Ask HN: Who's your role model? - <AUTHOR> Who is your role model and why? I'll allow fictional and people no longer alive. <comment><USER3> I dont have one. There are some people who have some good traits and habits that I would like to acquire, but I dont get the role model thing. To me it is about process rather than person. "This guy has a great way of doing X" rather than "I want to be like this specific person".

</comment><comment><USER4> Fabrice Bellard [1,2] should be on this list. Author of QEMU and FFMPEG among other open source projects that have been useful to a lot of people. Also, author of jslinux [3].

[1] [http://bellard.org/](http://bellard.org/)

[2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard)

[3] [http://bellard.org/jslinux/](http://bellard.org/jslinux/)

</comment><comment><USER5> My dad. He came from a small background with lots of brothers and sisters. He got to university and earned a degree in EE (only engineer in his town at that point). Supported his family and did whatever he could for his family. He never showed me any weakness even when his own father died. He has led a very disciplined and amazing life. I just wish I could do/achieve 1/10th of his life.

</comment><comment><USER6> Cosma Shalizi ([http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~cshalizi/](http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~cshalizi/)), ever since I discovered this link some 16 years ago: [http://bactra.org/notebooks/](http://bactra.org/notebooks/)

<comment><USER7> Can't recommend these notebooks enough. They cover an incredible variety of statistics, physics, and other topics. They're lucidly written and well cited. He's definitely an inspiration to keep reading and understanding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> John Carmack. He's consistently at the edge of technology - whether it is game engines or avionics. His insights are excellent and can often be used in other areas of engineering / software development.

<comment><USER9> He's a great speaker too, he'll discuss topics I am not at all familiar with but the context he wraps them in makes them easy to intuit. He also has a very intense passion for his work and his ability to dissect problems into their primitives leads him to really elegant solutions (0x5f3759df! [1]).

If it weren't for John I would have absolutely no interest in VR... but with his involvement it's hard to not be at least a _little_ curious.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root)

<comment><USER9> I didn't say he developed it. He used it 3-4 years before it became widely known and was responsible at least in part for its proliferation.

Finding your way to an elegant solution does not mean you created that solution. In 1999, Google had 8 employees. Not every algorithm was available at his fingertips. He had to care, seek, and find that solution to use it back then, which might not seem like much now. That's a manifestation of his caring about his craft; not inventing an algorithm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've come to realize Jean Luc Picard is. Not exclusively, but when coming to my approach managing people, he simply oozes through. Patrick Stewart more broadly, a greatly insightful person.

But again, not exclusively; I am not a huge Star Trek fan, yet am a huge fan, nor am I into the idea of replicating someone else, as you are you and not them. Perhaps it was formative years, watching the show as a young teenager, that left a seed there.

I find case studies and examples of situations are key. If you've not heard of it, and are managing people, I also hugely recommend a resource in our century: [http://manager-tools.com](http://manager-tools.com) a lot of good applicable examples to a wide range of potential people problems and opportunities there.

<comment><USER11> I assume you are referring to the management book I still own:

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-So-Leadership-Lessons- Generatio...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-So-Leadership-Lessons- Generation-x/dp/0671520989)

<comment><USER10> Thanks, that's amazing. I'd never really shared the above before, and had no idea this book existed. I'm buying it now!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I greatly admire Donald Knuth. He's humble, dedicated to his work in a healthy way, and has fascinating outside interests in organ music, for example.

Most of all, I see in him the playful attitude about computer science that Alan Perlis referred to: "I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing."

</comment><comment><USER13> I'd say my father is my role model, as hokey as that sounds. He's an intelligent man and has spent most of his life driving a truck. But, that's what he wants to be doing. I'd like to ensure that I spend my life doing what I want to do.

</comment><comment><USER14> Rich Hickey. He's brilliant and is arguably the best deeply technical speaker I have ever seen/heard.

<comment><USER15> Came here to say Rich. I attribute a large percentage of my programming skill solely to his talks.

Honorable mentions:

\- Nathan Stott (worked with me early in my career and taught me to love Javascript)

\- Michael Lopp (aka Rands in Repose)

\- Gary Bernhardt

\- José Valim

\- Joe Armstrong

\- Yehuda Katz

\- My dad (who taught me patience and the value of hard work)

\- Harvey Specter

\- Thomas Ptacek (whose consulting wisdom I cannot appreciate enough)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Jesus Christ is the only one that won't disappoint me. All the other great people I'll freely take the good parts and forget their mistakes.

<comment><USER17> true dat - double true

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> There are several people who are very inspiring and important to me.

\- Paul Graham and Eliezer Yudkowsky

The 2 most clever people that I am aware of. I admire the way they write and think, and want to learn to do that as well.

\- Owen Cook(Tyler) from RSD

This is the perfect model of a man that I wish to be. Driven, charismatic, intelligent, just generally awesome. This is how I want to behave and be like.

\- Louis CK, Dan Harmon(creator of the shows Community and Rick and Morty) and Randall Munroe(the author of xkcd)

I have enormous respect and love for comedy, just something about the way comedians think is incredibly attractive to me. It takes a lot to be as brilliantly creative as these guys, and I want to learn to think like that.

Others:

Richard Feynman, Kevin Mitnick, Frank Abagnale, Richard Branson - based on their autobiographies, these guys lived cool lives.

Elon Musk - I don't know what kind of person he is, but based on what he does - he is as cool as it gets.

Fictional:

\- Walter White, Gregory House

Brilliant person willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, not giving up in desperate situations, acting rationally despite the emotions.

\- Barney Stinson

Haha this dude is awesome.

\- Hank Rearden

Basically a definition of a badass person, created to be the role model for people like me.

\- Harry from HPMOR

Not much to explain here, he is also basically a definition of a cool person.

Others: Harvey Specter, Frank Underwood, Ari Gold, Hank Moody. And Tony Stark I guess =)

<comment><USER19> You might be interested in su3su2u1's teardowns of HPMOR [1] or at least his review of the finished story [2]. The main takeaway is that MOR!Harry does not, in fact, employ any "Methods of Rationality", usually leaping to "obvious" conclusions without any experimental evidence whatsoever. The author then opts to make the fictional universe fit these conclusions instead of the other way around. Not only that, but most of the science/rationality references are either wrong, incomplete or not applicable to the situation. So despite having entertained me most of the time, HPMOR is not what I would call a praiseworthy piece of writing.

[1] [http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/tagged/Hariezer- Yudotter/chrono](http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/tagged/Hariezer-Yudotter/chrono) [2] [http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/post/113649628443/hpmor-full- revi...](http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/post/113649628443/hpmor-full-review-draft)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Definitely Elon Musk, he's a real engineer and we both share the same interests, aviation and electric vehicles

<comment><USER9> Elon Musk is a freaking alien.

His list of accomplishments is ridiculous-- Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla and those yet-to-be-realized like hyperloop. He's not a role model he's someone to be downright jealous about! (Sarcasm!)

Seriously though to be involved in that many successful ventures it has to be more than just luck.

<comment><USER21> I actually like to think that he is an alien lost on earth trying to build a spaceship to go back home. With Paypal, Tesla and SpaceX, he is just bootstrapping what he needs to build to go back home.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Alan Watts taught me to flow and see,

Elon Musk taught me to grow and be,

Ayn Rand then helped break the self-illusions, (Ironically!)

Will Durant showed the path to break many delusions.

<comment><USER23> Makes me feel like I'm in the Santa Cruz mountains, under some redwoods, listening to a creek gurgle by. Nice imagery, man.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Buckminster Fuller. The epitome of an "outside-the-box" thinker--regardless of how cliché that is nowadays. Reading what he wrote and listening to his talks changed my world-view. He also changed the way I view/approach/solve problems in my day-to-day work.

He's also a quotation goldmine:

"make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."

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

</comment><comment><USER25> Chris Coyier

I enamored the man for his work and his experience with developing truly innovative work while still pursuing an active "side project" go-getter-ness via Codepen. But after seeing his appearance on Envato's "Made By" series, I could not have chosen a better role model. He is exactly what I want to be in the future. Calm and Collected and revered as an expert in my field.

Here is the video for those who are interested:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRmbVOI6oIM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRmbVOI6oIM)

</comment><comment><USER26> Linus Torvalds [0]

Richard Stallman [1]

Linus for Linux; I'd be lost without that kernel.

Richard for GNU; I'd be lost without GNU GCC and Emacs.

Both of them for looking at technology and wanting more, and not being satisfied with the culture that existed at the time.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds)

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman)

</comment><comment><USER27> John Muir, for teaching people how to appreciate and preserve the few precious natural wonders we have left, and how to discover our own spirituality within them.

</comment><comment><USER28> Joel Spolsky and I haven't even read most of his writings. Whatever I have read have appealed to me. Plus he seems like a cool dude.

</comment><comment><USER29> Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is pretty cool. I like his transparency. He writes really useful things. His writing about salary negotiation is probably the single most useful thing I've ever read. Lots of other stuff he's covered I hope will be relevant to me in the coming years (B2B sales).

</comment><comment><USER30> Superhans from Peep Show.

</comment><comment><USER31> I have a huge admiration for people who, with a strong character, pushed the boundaries of their time and invented revolutionary things while no one believed in them and _even when some tried to hamper their research_. This may apply to most inventors and explorers but for me, personally, Galileo Galilei and Alan Turing stand out.

If a "role-model" means what I understand it is (Person who had a role in society that you dream of having), then yes, they are my role-models.

</comment><comment><USER32> Grace Hopper - I love her personality and admire her career.

</comment><comment><USER33> Leonardo da Vinci - An independent self learner who was accomplished in art and engineering. I'd say Renaissance Men in general are pretty high up on my list of admiration. I like the idea of not focusing on one discipline, learning as many ideas and specialties as I can, then combining them in new ways. To always be curious.

</comment><comment><USER34> George Costanza

</comment><comment><USER35> From a software development perspective - Brad Fitzpatrick

From a business perspective - Elon Musk

From a humanities perspective - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER36> I admire so many great people but I never forced my self to be like them , I am going in my own way

</comment><comment><USER11> Napoleon Hill.

If you look past the mantras you'll see a psychology of selling and the need for connections.

Everything you do is selling; the way you look, what you eat, how you communicate and how you work, you are selling yourself to the world hoping to get more back in return.

</comment><comment><USER37> Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers). I watched him on TV occasionally as a child, but it wasn't until I was an adult, and started reading about him and watching interviews with him, that I realized what an amazing person he was in real life.

</comment><comment><USER38> Probably Bill Gates. He was the first person that struck me as wildly successful (this was in the mid 90s). For some reason his success really resonated with me and helped me realize, at an early age, the importance of delayed gratification.

</comment><comment><USER39> I do not know if it counts as a role model, but I choose to let me inspire on a regular basis by:

Seth Godin, Paul Graham, Swiss Miss, James Altuhcer, Rob Walling & Mike Taber / Startup For the Rest of us, Zen Founder

</comment><comment><USER40> My father who works for 18 hours a day and Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam - the Missile Man and Former President of India. I recently met him.

</comment><comment><USER41> for a long time I would say ive had a hard time answering that question, but at the moment I think I would pick Casey Neistat. His motivation and creativity is an inspiration for me. [https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat](https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat)

</comment><comment><USER42> No role model.

I push myself to work as hard as I can and do right by other people. You don't need a role model for that.

</comment><comment><USER43> Rich Hickey teached me how to program. Alan Watts teached me how to live.

</comment><comment><USER44> I tend to use the good parts of whoever happens to be right in front or right next to me to build my role model.

</comment><comment><USER45> Bill, from The Bigdil

</comment><comment><USER46> Richard Branson.

</comment><comment><USER47> Sheldon Cooper

</comment><comment><USER48> Richard Feynman.

I knew him at Caltech. He tutored me in Quantum Mechanics.

A few things I learned from him: you cannot bullshit a good scientist. If you can't explain it to an undergraduate you don't understand it yourself. Experiment rules - if experiment says it's not true then it isn't, despite what theory might say - and he was a theoretician!

Everyone who knew anything about him revered him as a god because he made it plainly apparent he regarded it as more important to teach Physics than to understand it himself. He must have come to that conclusion late in life, as I recently learned that as a young Cornell professor he was quite irresponsible towards his students.

</comment><comment><USER49> Wally.</comment>


How to be a person - Dale Carnegie and The Game - <AUTHOR> http://stuckk.net/post/113903314/how-to-be-a-person-dale-carnegie-and-the-game

<comment><USER2> > Everyone knows that you should "Call attention to people's mistakes > indirectly."

Not everybody knows this. I learned it by reading the book.

<comment><AUTHOR> point taken. it's possible the issue is more nuanced: some of the benefit comes just from forcing people to be conscientious about how they interact w/ people, and some comes from the specific tips he provides.

<comment><USER2> Yes I would agree as most of the advice in the book is more common sense than groundbreaking. When I got to the part about not telling people "You're wrong" and directly criticizing mistakes I didn't need to be convinced. Rather I immediately realized that I do tend to do this often and I should probably make an effort to do it less.

Before reading the book though, I had never once examined that aspect of my personality and how I interact with others.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This reminds me of vegetarians. There's nothing inherently healthier about the vegetarian diet; you could be a vegetarian and live on nothing but pizza and ice cream. Any health benefits there are come from having to stop and think "can I eat this?" all the time. But anyone can do that on any diet, so long as they form the habit.

<comment><USER4> most "vegetarians" are fat, as are most people who eat mostly health food (since it's usually 50% of calories from fat).

The only healthy way to eat is vegan with no more than 10% of calories from fat.

<comment><USER5> _most "vegetarians" are fat, as are most people who eat mostly health food_

As one on a lesser news site might say, pics or it didn't happen.

Or, paraphrased the HN way: Cite sources, please.

<comment><USER6> I couldn't find any studies but did find this interesting article titled "Roman gladiators were fat vegetarians" <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_> 1081439.htm

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't see how the book is "mostly unoriginal" or "the way it helps isn't what you'd expect." I REALLY don't see how this correlates to "The Game" at all, other than they are both self-help books of some kind. Everything you said about The Game could just as easily apply to any other book written about personal interaction.

I'm not trying to be harsh, but if there are connections between these things, I want to see them truly explored with claims that are substantiated (or at least explained).

<comment><USER8> A number of psychological studies have shown that _any_ kind of change in behavior/attention direction - e.g. self-helpy type things - will promote change for the better... for a little while.

The self-attention that all those processes require, the mindfulness, is key. Most of them can work because all of them require attention.

It just doesn't last without dedication is all.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> i agree w/ gaius that this principle extends to other aspects of living. i'm not sure many of the lifehacks are as universally effective/valuable as they are claimed... i think a lot of the benefit gained from reading productivity porn like lifehacker comes from being forced to actually evaluate how you spend your time and energy...</comment>


Ask HN: Plain, unstyled html to clean, well design page - <AUTHOR> I remember watching video or some tutorial how to change plain, unstyled html page into nice looking, readable design (with information about fonts, colors, spaces). I have problems with finding it now, anyone can help ? <comment><USER2> Is it this one? [http://jgthms.com/web-design- in-4-minutes](http://jgthms.com/web-design-in-4-minutes)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, that's the one. Thank you.

<comment><USER3> Some of the complaints when this was shared on HN were pretty reasonable, I thought (especially the ones about contrast): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12166687](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12166687)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a supplement to the video, there's also a great web site with lots of examples which do exactly what you are talking about. The site is [http://www.csszengarden.com/](http://www.csszengarden.com/) and its purpose is to show off the beautiful things you can do with just CSS.

From the site..."A demonstration of what can be accomplished through CSS-based design. Select any style sheet from the list to load it into this page."

My personal favorite is [http://www.csszengarden.com/219/](http://www.csszengarden.com/219/). It's busy, but I love the effects and it is visually stunning.

</comment><comment> amiga-workbench Relevant: [http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/)</comment>


Home Office Projects Series: Air conditioner setup - <AUTHOR> https://www.techprowd.com/home-office-projects-series-air-conditioner-setup/ <comment><USER2> Having individual heating and cooling units ( _per unit gas heaters!_ ) is stupendously inefficient.

I travel in Asia fairly regularly so this isn't new to me, but even after all of these years I can't believe I continue to see shiny, brand new "high end" condo buildings in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, etc., with individual AC units hanging out the window.

Contrast this with a condo in Minneapolis that I own wherein heat and AC are central in the building and individual units can set their temperature to whatever they like - all run with tremendously higher efficiency.

It was explained to me once that there are Asian (specifically, Chinese) attitudes towards thrift that make it inconceivable/impossible to pay for AC that someone else might be using (or misusing). I don't know how true that is.

What I do know is, my building in MPLS looks very nice without several hundred crappy boxes hanging out the windows.

<comment><USER3> When I moved to UK I was shocked that each house amd apartment (!) has a separate gas boiler, a device that need maintenance, takes up space, makes noise and regularly kills people with carbon monoxide. I then met a person who lost a loved one to that thing!

In Russia and Czech Republic we have district heating, you just get billed for the amount of hot water consumed. Some of that heat comes from industrial sources or nuclear power-plants.

Even where it's coming from a giant gas boiler, they can be efficient combined heat and power units. Ofcourse, some of that infrastructure is old, but a rich western country should be able to do even better.

We'd only have a boiler in rural areas, to have them in apartments is just madness.

<comment><USER4> Yeah but there is no such infrastructure in most of the UK, so it would be a big and expensive undertaking to build it.

Individual gas/electric boilers are a pretty good solution. Maintenance isn't that hard, though legally you need a Gas Safe certified technician to do everything, and they're smug, expensive, slow, and not all that smart tbh. But because there's no competition you have to put up with that :D

That was the most frustrating thing for me - I could do everything myself, but wasn't allowed to.

<comment><USER3> For apartment blocks it's particularly silly because you can install a single device in the basement at the time of construction. Some newer blocks have it.

UK housing stock is in desperate need of upgrades, most houses are literally bleeding money through the walls because of poor insulation, and because heatpumps are much more efficient that boilers.

Consider that they are more economical when supplying several houses, pay for themselves over time and that interest rates are zero. It becomes obvious that we need a large-scale program of energy efficiency upgrades, it would create jobs during a recession and help address climate change.

<comment><USER5> My new build flat in London has district heating like you describe. It's a complete nightmare and I wish I could get rid of it.

Firstly, it's incredibly expensive. There's no regulation on the price you can charge for heat, and there's no competition for supply like gas and electric. So the apartment freehold owners charge eye watering fees for it. I could save probably 50-75% a month even paying for the cost on a new boiler, plus a service package.

Secondly, there are a lot of outages. Much more than I've ever experienced with standard boilers.

The outages are quite literally out of your control, unlike a gas/electric boiler where you can get someone to fix it out of hours. One particularly bad outage was nearly 48 hours in winter over a weekend, caused by incompetent building management and a seeming inability to get highly specialised parts from Germany to the UK to fix it on a weekend.

I've obviously had normal boilers break down but usually they can be fixed in a couple of hours, at least temporarily enough to get a proper fix sorted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Someone said Japan used to be in the title - and now that it isn't - I think it should go back. HN is mostly a US based website (with an emphasis on Silicon Valley). This methodology is wildly uncommon in the US. There's very little likelihood this kind of thing would happen in well over 90%+ of the USA.

First off - if you're renting - you're not putting holes in the walls that go to the exterior and there certainly aren't any already existing. I've never seen or heard of that in the USA - particularly for apartments. Secondly - you're not hanging air conditioning units off the exterior walls of the apartment (rental or owned - you don't own/rent the exterior and ain't no residential building consenting to that shit). If you had a balcony, that's where it'd go, at best. Thirdly - where's your power coming from!? Most of these units are 220V and usually there is only one or two 220V power outlets in American homes these days and they're always dedicated to the washer+dryer. Maybe you have a third for an electric oven/stove. (Or an electric water heater) You'd have to run new power lines and that involves tearing up the walls. You could try to find 110V mini-split AC units but they're pretty uncommon in the USA (and much less powerful). As well, not having that AC on a dedicated breaker means you'll be giving up all other outlets on that breaker whenever the AC is on, which could be a lot of essential outlets in esoteric places.

Great insight for someone who lives in Japan and someone who wants to see what it looks like to install AC in Japan. Put it back in the title!

<comment><USER7> > Most of these units are 220V and usually there is only one or two 220V power > outlets in American homes these days and they're always dedicated to the > washer+dryer.

Meh. Only relevant if you need to pull more than 15A or so. There are plenty of portable air conditioners for sale in the US and most are happy with 110V and less than 15A.

> HN is mostly a US based website

This sounds like gatekeeping. There are lots of readers from all around the world.

> Secondly - you're not hanging air conditioning units off the exterior walls > of the apartment

In the US. This is not particular to Japan. In fact, I'd argue that this is the most common air-conditioner setup worldwide, with building in many countries providing supports for either split systems or, more commonly, 'window' units.

<comment><USER8> These minisplit units are typically, at least 9k to 12k BTUs, and if it a multi-zone unit it can be 24k or more.

I have yet to see a portable AC in the US that is more than 12k btus and as quiet as a mini-split.

Mini-splits are more popular now in the US, but, for whatever reason, the US is really into ducted systems.

I never understood why putting an air duct in a hot attic and an air handler in a hot garage made any sense.

You do have me curious on traffic stats for HN by country, though.

<comment><USER9> A lot of central AC installations in the USA were added to the house some time after it was built, and the heating ducts were already there, so now they are used as the AC ducts too.

<comment><USER8> Do you have any more info about this?

I am curious about the history of residential HVAC in the US.

<comment><USER9> I only really know about it in the area where I live. AC was not generally included in new construction in the San Francisco Bay Area until the 1980s or 1990s. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of apartments in the area still didn't have AC, based on the amount of window AC units I see.

However, most homes built in this area were built central ducted heating systems since the 1950s-1960s, when there was a massive building boom. Most older homes have had central heating added as a retrofit decades ago -- even old Victorian homes. So when people upgrade to AC today, it's very common to just use the same ducts.

It's not easy to find a house with a ductless mini split AC system around here. Most homes have a single-zone central system that cools the entire house.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I like that the schematics are included on the air conditioner. I have a few older appliances like this that have it, and it has helped me a few times replacing/diagnosing parts.

I laughed a bit where he explains about "Humidity" and the temperature. I know Americans are fat and lazy and love our AC's, but if you spend any time on the east coast, it's a giant swamp. Life is pretty insufferable without an AC when you are sitting inside all day working - and newer buildings are not designed with passive cooling in mind. I'd like to thank my forerunners for sucking it up but I basically keep my 3 window unit AC's on from June-Sept in Philadelphia.

<comment><USER11> In Louisiana and Arkansas (probably several other states), the temperature can get over 100 Farenheit with super high humidity. This leads to "swamp @$$" without copious amounts of AC. Being comfortable requires AC in the home, car, and at work.

In highschool gym class we would just sit in the shade under the bleachers during the summer (too hot to do anything) and be dripping sweat everywhere back in class. It was miserable.

It's just so miserable during the summer. The downside is that I'm only used to temperatures between 69 and 74 Farenheit, so I would be miserable in some place like Germany where they just live with the heat for a few weeks each year. I rented a house in Portland once without AC and it was during a heat wave. I'd douse myself in cold water, sit under the fan, and get very little sleep.

A hurricane just hit Louisiana and the grid damage has been extensive (worst on record) so no power or AC. My mother's house is 85 degrees inside at night so she's sleeping in her office which is in a nearby town with power. I haven't seen the numbers yet, but typically a lot of elderly people die in these conditions without AC.

The hurricane hit last Thursday I think and these are the current outages still in effect. Normally we would have power again in a couple of days in most non rural areas. The fact that it's been a full week and could be out for two more weeks is just unheard of.

[https://poweroutage.us/area/state/louisiana](https://poweroutage.us/area/state/louisiana)

<comment><USER12> We love to romanticize the past, when people supposedly did fine without energy-wasting gadgets.

The oft-forgotten truth is that people in the past just died more. And still do, in many parts of the world that are surprisingly close to us.

<comment><USER13> And are/were substantially less productive.

When Singapore developed, the first thing the PM did was install A/C in all government buildings.

[https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8278085/singapore-lee-kuan- yew...](https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8278085/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-air- conditioning)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I also live in Japan, and recently bought 3 new air conditioners, but my instinct was the opposite: forego anything "smart".

For tech like that I want it to be as dumb as possible so that there are less things that can go wrong with it. As a bonus the dumb ones are much cheaper as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Those 2 AC's there almost the cheapest models you can buy for 6 tatami size and iirc they were 39k/ea. I needed to buy those modules extra to make it "smart"

<comment><USER14> Nice, your now smartened ones are actually cheaper than our dumb ones then. I was looking at CS-220DFR, also for 6 tatami, for which the best price on Kakaku is 49k (tax inclusive).

But in the end we got three Daikin ones from our moving company, because their prices were similar (actually almost felt like we get the moving service as a bonus), and it seems very convenient to have one company do everything.

Curious to see if they try to sneak in some extra fees at the last moment, because as it is I wonder if they're actually making a profit with us.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exacatly my 30k install cost for 2 ACs were high already after all works they like so it will be 15k extra I am like WHUT but oh well it's japan next time going to rent tools for 5k and materials for like 10k max.

My unit CS-229CFR with tax I think was 42k or similar and model to make it smart was +5k so it was still cheaper than cheapest smart model

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this really specific to Japanese air conditioners? Or is this really about mini-split ac that are manufactured around the world under many companies.

I don't see whats specifically Japanese outside of the person using Panasonic and is in Japan.

The person could be in the USA with Mrcool mini split, it would be a similar article.

Edit: title has been changed to remove mention of Japan, so my nitpick may no longer valid:)

<comment><USER16> I've never seen an apartment building in the US with special pipes for running the refrigerant lines. It's just not feasible to install a mini split in the US if you're renting, but it appears Japan is totally set up for it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Impossible to live without AC in Japan. Also almost every move company can remove/install AC's pretty easily so it's kinda convient.

Also if all rooms already have installed AC's then apartment rent price is much higher than similar without it so it's 50/50 what you want.

<comment><USER17> > Impossible to live without AC in Japan

Come on. People lived there for thousands of years before AC.

<comment><USER18> Not in highrises. Not in megacities.

<comment><USER19> Even in rural area, temperatures in this August is sometime 36-40C (or even high) so cooler is mandatory.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> What I'd like to know is how they safely pipe gas to all apartments given the occurrence of earthquakes. Does the main valve auto shut off in the event of tremors above M3 of something?

<comment><AUTHOR> There is heavy measures regarding that topic. One is Gas Meter turns off all the gas when earthquake happens. Second I think all pipes are flexible so it wouldn't break from earthquakes

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I did a much easier solution for my airconditioner (also in Tokyo so everything OP said applies): I bought a broadlink rm mini3 (IR emitter) for <$30 and hooked it up to homebridge using homebridge-broadlink-rm [0]. Then went ahead and recorded all signals my aircon remote could send and put it in an excel sheet for safe-keeping. Next, plugged the IR codes into the homebridge plugin, put the small device in line-of-sight with the aircon and tadaaa, my old ghetto aircon is now smart.

For getting the temperature of the room, I use other devices (a netatmo weather station) and used their API to pull the current degrees into a textfile on the server that is getting fed into the airconditioner plugin.

Bonuspoint: I use the same IR emitter to control my TV. I just have to make sure it's in a place that is in line-of-sight with both my TV and aircon, but given how small apartments here are - that was not a problem. The plugin has a functionality to frequently ping an IP for checking if something is turned on, so I use that to determine whether my TV is on/off.

[0]: [https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-broadlink- rm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-broadlink-rm)

<comment><USER22> You may not even need direct line of sight, as long as the TV can see what your remote is shining on. I know my remotes work from behind obstacles if I just aim them up at the ceiling.

There are also inexpensive IR repeaters, intended to let you have your AV equipment stuffed in a closet and still be able to use all the remotes.

<comment><USER21> Oh nice! I know virtually nothing about IR so this is good information, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Should've bought Daikin A/C's - their network bridges speak HTTP with a simple REST service. Highly recommend, it was very easy to integrate them into my home automation setup.

<comment><USER24> A lot of consumer-grade ACs use IR-based remotes which can easily be connected into whatever automation solution you have with something like a Broadlink bridge.

<comment><USER23> You can't query those for the current room temp, current settings etc. So then if you mix the OEM app & your home automation app, things get messed up. IR bridges are a hack in home automation, when buying new stuff avoid them.

<comment> squeaky-clean Just my personal opinion, but the thermometer on an A/C unit is kind of worthless unless you sit within a foot of the unit. I prefer being able to read a sensor on the opposite side of the room, or even several sensors throughout the house, rather than one on the A/C unit. I don't use any OEM app at all, just my own. The OEM ones never do exactly what I want, so I have to hack something additional onto their features anyways. Home automation systems are really personal anyways though. I'm sure anyone here who's implemented their own has their own unique opinions about what's best ;)

<comment><USER19> Now premium A/C unit in Japan like from Mitsubishi Electric features high precision temp sensor to detect room temperature. Even middle model has good sensor rather than simple temp sensor.

[https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/home/kirigamine/product...](https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/home/kirigamine/product/z/feature/convenient.html) [https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/home/kirigamine/product...](https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/home/kirigamine/product/z/img/feature/convenient/img_05.png)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Where are the refrigerant lines, how did they run them from compressor to evaporator?, I thought the biggest issue with AC self install is filling the refrigerant and sealing those lines.

<comment><USER26> > Where are the refrigerant lines, how did they run them from compressor to > evaporator?

Look at this image from the blog post showing the post install view:

[https://www.techprowd.com/content/images/2020/09/image-24.pn...](https://www.techprowd.com/content/images/2020/09/image-24.png)

Notice on the left edge there is a large white "pipe" running from the evaporator unit down to a hole in the wall (the hole was already present and visible in other photos). The refrigerant lines are running inside that white cover and through that hole to the outside unit.

> I thought the biggest issue with AC self install is filling the refrigerant > and sealing those lines.

As for the refrigerant fill, yes, that is the part of the work that most DIY folks will not have the equipment to perform. The evaporator and compressor units for most of these mini-split units come prefilled with refrigerant plus enough extra for X length of tubing (I forget the length X at this time). The install basically involves installing the lines, evacuating them (refrigeration grade vacuum pump needed here) and then opening the shutoff valves in the two units to release the already present refrigerant.

Since most DIY's will not have a refrigeration grade vacuum pump, and are unlikely to be able to justify the several hundred dollars for one for a one- off install, this is the point where the DIY'er would need to call a professional for the final completion of the install.

<comment><USER13> > refrigeration grade vacuum pump needed here

My understanding is that some of the DIY units had a built-in vacuum pump for this step.

Edit: never mind, I think I'm making stuff up in my head. But I could see it being a feature in the future.

What makes a vacuum unit "refrigeration grade"? Other than recovering what you're vacuuming if you're doing maintenance instead of a first install?

<comment><USER26> Generally what makes it 'refrigeration grade' is the level of vacuum down to which it can pull.

Here are some examples of refrigeration vacuum pumps:

[https://www.grainger.com/search/hvac-and- refrigeration/air-c...](https://www.grainger.com/search/hvac-and- refrigeration/air-conditioners-accessories/air-conditioning-chemicals-tools- and-accessories/air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-tools/refrigerant- evacuation-pumps?ts_optout=true)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I just did a DIY install of a mini split AC, including running electrical and the refrigerant lines, having never done so before. There was a whole "hidden side of the iceberg" to learn besides just the controller parts of how it works. The unit cost was ~600 while the install would have been ~1500, so I was betting that if I mess up catastrophically I could replace the whole thing once or even twice.

<comment><USER28> Did you have to get your work inspected? Where I live in the United States, the electrical lines would have to be inspected for compliance with building code, and I am not sure about the HVAC lines.

<comment><USER27> Electrical needs a permit, but AC is not a necessity apparently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I wish those holes for refrigerant lines in apartments were standard in the US. My apartment in the bay area has no AC and furthermore doesn't allow window units, so I'm stuck with inefficient portable units. I'd love to be able to just put some mini-splits in (and I'd probably still come out ahead over renting a place that comes with central AC).

</comment><comment><USER30> Just by luck before the pandemic hit I installed ground heat exchange with cooling for my house. This is so efficient the cooling is _free_. How do you ask is that even thermodynamically possible? Well all the heat from the cooling is used to heat the hole, which you get back in cheaper heating of the house from the same hole in winter. It's amazing!

</comment><comment><USER31> I find it odd that for heat he only mentions units external from the a/c. The 'cu-229cf' unit he bought seems to be capable of heatpump mode[0]. Nonetheless, I really hate mini-splits. They always have really thin intake air filters that really don't filter anything. Thus the insides of the indoor unit are always caked in layers of dust and mold.

[0]: [https://panasonic.jp/aircon/housing/products/19f.html](https://panasonic.jp/aircon/housing/products/19f.html)</comment>


Are You an Amazon or an Apple Family? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/10Webb.html <comment><USER2> Why can't we be _neither_?</comment>


Facebook is Dying - <AUTHOR> http://www.baekdal.com/opinion/facebook-is-dying-social-is-not/

<comment><USER3> As a consultant to the dot-com industry around the turn of the century, I traveled a lot. I took a lot of long cab rides from airports to downtowns. I talked to lots of cabbies. At some point, I knew the end was near. I knew the end was near when cabbies started asking me if it was a good idea to invest in some particular technology stock or another. Why are cabbies investing in Juniper Networks?

Recently, I started another side business. One of my cousins who knows almost nothing about technology came to me and said, "Let me tell you something. I know how you can get your business started and I want to tell you about it."

At this point, I was already skeptical, but she continued... "There's this thing on the internet called Facebook and millions of people use it and you can make millions of dollars there..."

Oh no, I thought.

But I knew the end was near for facebook. I've known for quite some time. Years in fact. I can't explain to them why I don't join facebook anymore than I could explain to those cabbies why they shouldn't put their money in to Juniper Networks or pets.com. Decisions like that can't be rationalized to those who see a bright future in their bets.

But history tells us a lot and history moves very fast on the internet. Facebook is not sticky. Share prices are not sticky. Users can leave and investors can sell -- and they do. And they will.

Facebook will fall far and it could, and I suspect _is_ falling fast.

<comment><USER4> My technically inept family members have been using Google for years. But I don't see their shares tumbling.

<comment><USER5> I'm sorry, I don't see your point. Could you elaborate?

<comment><USER4> I think it's a false dichotomy to compare the tech bubble with facebook. The former was an economic phenomenon that was dependent on the continued supply of new money from increasingly clueless investors (essentially a pyramid scheme, like all bubbles). The latter is a business with a ton of users and a disturbing amount of information on those users. They have several options for further monetization that don't necessitate unsustainable growth.

I do hope facebook fails because of its stance on privacy, among other issues. But I don't think its situation is at all comparable to that of the tech bubble.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We're all dying, but that doesn't mean we'll be dying tomorrow.

Titles like that should come with a qualifying end-date.

Otherwise it's just about some undefined point in the future.

If facebook is dying I'd like to see some proof. I'm very much of the opinion that facebook is transient, but I'd be very careful to stick an end-date on it smaller than at least 5 years in to the future, and a lot can happen in 5 years.

In my own circle of friends facebook is definitely past its prime, indicating that there is a lifecycle to a facebook account, if that is a universal truth then we should see a downturn in facebook traffic in the next 12 months or so.

<comment><USER3> It's much easier to predict what will happen than it is to predict when.

For example, I can make the following predictions:

      Facebook will collapse
      India and China will erupt into violent war
      We will experience a water crisis
      Oil will run out  (that one is actually easier, about 3 decades)
      Iran will be invaded

These are all fairly obvious predictions. Sometimes math can be used to zero in on dates, but for most of us around here, we simply do not have enough information to calculate exact dates. We can only speculate.

The article is analyzing the future of facebook, saying today, that it will not be around at some point, which is contrary to many current opinions.

But I say the media will start to discuss an inflection point in Facebook before the end of the summer. They'll talk about how its oldest users are leaving, but its still getting new members. It will talk about a decline in the length of the average lifetime of a facebook account. It will say fewer people are logging in as much. Fewer new apps are being developed. Again, all by the end of the summer.

By the end of this year, we'll start to see lots of "will xyz.com replace facebook?" Apple could launch a social network. Bloggers/journalists will ask, "When will apple create a social network?" They'll start to point out growth in other social networks, they'll talk about where the facebookers are going. All this by the end of 2010.

By the end of 2011, facebook will be passe among the internet elite. The oprahs of the real world will start saying you can interact with them somewhere other than facebook. Commercials on TV will mention some other network instead of mentioning their facebook page like they do now.

By the end of 2012, the blogosphere will be talking about what mark did wrong, why people thought it was different, why it was the same, lessons the new start up social networks can learn from his mistakes.

By the end of 2013, facebook will be a distant memory...

<comment><USER6> Care to put some details on the India-China war prediction?

<comment><USER5> I'm not so sure about that one either (though I can see why the GP might think there would be, given the fact that they are in relative proximity and both in ascendancy), but those alone are not reason enough.

I'd hate to lay odds on a Pakistan - Indian nuclear exchange though, or the next time a nuclear weapon is used against a city, too many unstable characters are already in possession of nukes or will probably get them within the next 30 years or so.

Seoul? Islamabad? Teheran? Bombay? Cairo?

The mind reels when you think about the consequences of a nuclear exchange in those regions.

I've always been very much shocked at the ease with which the US decided to try its nuclear weapons on populated areas, the 'we saved lives, the war ended sooner' argument doesn't hold water in the context in which it is usually given.

But in the longer term, it may have helped to stave off use by a whole raft of nations after world war II, given that the horrors of the aftermath were known before more powerful devices were built.

History is fickle that way, we only get to see one of all the possible future threads.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd like to bet against the notion that Facebook is dying. I suggest this metric: on May 7, 2015, Facebook will still be one of the top five websites in the USA, measured by Alexa traffic ranking (<http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/Facebook.com>), and it will still be the most popular social networking website in the USA, again measured by Alexa traffic rankings.

USD$200, winnings go to the winner's favorite charity? Feel free to suggest different terms, metrics, betting amounts, or to make it a personal bet, not a charitable bet.

<comment><USER3> I'll take the top 5 metric charity bet. I bet that by May 7, 2015, Facebook will _not_ be in the top 5 sites as ranked by Alexa.

I think it's an easy metric free of dispute. In 5 years, we may argue, "What is a social network?"

But I highly doubt facebook will be in the top 5.

I choose my high school as the recipient of your money when I win. :) I'll be back here in 5 years to see who the winner is. Adding an item to my calendar now. Will respond to this post with the identity of the recipient institution.

<comment><USER8> What if Alexa is no longer around?

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I thought about that, or what if HN isn't around. There is <http://www.longbets.org> This is the perfect bet for there.

If alexa isn't around, we can substitute the most popular website ranking website.

<comment><USER9> LongBets.org is awesome! Thanks for sharing it.

This wager is tailor made for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> One data point: management at my large government enterprise are suddenly getting all jiggy with social networking and want to do an internal Facebook (for no discernable business reason).

That's a sure sign that something has passed it's prime.

<comment><USER11> IBM is actually trying to build a business around that through Lotus Connections and related products. <http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections/> And, by the way, I'm not criticizing IBM for that. It's a useful product and can add a lot of value for large enterprises.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is a definition of "dying" that appears to reduce to "becoming less and less likeable to the author of the article".

</comment><comment><USER13> I check my facebook account quite often but don't actually use it for anything. Only about 5% of my friends frequently update their status. It is strange how the habit has remained with me despite the content being no longer relevant to my life.

Reminds me of what Nietzsche said about religion. God is dead (even though churches are not).

Does anyone have statistics on the ratio of "facebook site hits"-to-"actual usage"?

</comment><comment><USER14> _It got so complex that people had no other choice than to look at simpler solutions_

The big difference is these extended features, inconsistencies, and functionality overlaps don't really effect the core usability of Facebook for the masses. Most people look for the text box, write something, and click Share or they use the 4 icons under the same text box for video, photos, events, links. That's it. Very simple.

<comment><USER15> Simple, it is not. I've used it for months, still don't have any idea what the tabs are for, not sure who can see what I post, not sure where my "wall" is. Not because I'm an idiot, but I have an arrogant disregard for confusing interfaces and refuse to spend even a few minutes decoding their arcane controls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ok, so now I need a social network obeying the following constraints:

\- I control my data. My data are where I decide they should be, on my server or web-hosted somewhere. So it is decentralised and everyone has it's node.

\- It's based on a standard API, not a product. It defines identities (openid url?), associated publishing of data (defined by its url), relation between data (like a comment on a photo. So some JSON here), and mainly access rights on this data by other identities.

\- friends I accept are based on some sort of authorized_keys mecanism, with more detailed access rights.

\- I can define some data-stores elswhere, like my photos being on Flickr... Of course I loose some control, but I can revert this.

\- there is a canonical open source implementation I can install at home.

\- I can easily move my account or some of my data seamlessly, have my url point to it. It should be easier than moving a blog if you own your domain!

So it's just the web, openid, and some standards, or am I missing something. Is someone making this ?

edit: I precised some ideas.

<comment><USER17> You are basically talking about the World Wide Web itself.

<comment><USER16> All parts exist on the web (OpenID, OAuth, JSON, RSS, microformats, etc...), but not in a usable form as easy to use as Facebook.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The only part of Facebook that is useful to me now is as a directory. I think the time is ripe for a start-up to challenge them in that field.

<comment><USER19> Yep, that's the _only_ way I've been using it during the past year. As an address book.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Like Microsoft is dying?

<comment><USER21> A bit, yeah. Granted, given their size and cash in the bank they'll hobble along for quite a while longer - decades perhaps - but their days as a fast- growing industry leader are almost done (if not so already).

One of their two cash cows is doing well, the other (larger one) is losing market share rapidly to a competing desktop OS, as well as having its profitability absolutely shredded by low-cost computing (read: netbooks).

Their cash cow is almost milked out, and their desperate forays into other fields have been met with little success. The Xbox division is the only bright spot in a long, long, list of failures (even that has profitability issues, but at least the product is winning) - Zune? WinMo (though we will see how the new version does)... Seen any Surfaces around lately?

Their domination of the internet browser has not been so for years now, and keeps slipping ever further. For now, their customer base seems to be heavily reliant on the stickiness of existing institutional installations - <USER2> historically does not bode well for the company, when a large portion of your income is from customers who are legacy-locked into your product. It seems peachy until a more agile startup comes and eats your lunch.

<comment><USER15> Ok, not to digress too much, but Microsoft is not an industry "leader" and perhaps never has been. A leader has to know where they're going. Microsoft expands "vegetatively", trying everything and putting money behind what wins. DOS sold well for 10 years; Microsoft pushed DOS. And NT, and CE, and Windows Mobile. They "lead" until margins; then they abandon and rush off to whatever is winning this quarter. This is nothing like leadership; its what a follower does, except in this case Microsoft is following their own shadow. It leaves us all spinning from technology to technology trying to guess if this next great thing is going to last.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> You go and tell that to all the people I know in real life that use facebook - the mothers in the school playground for example.

Facebook is so big most of its users don't care about any of that stuff. For them it has one simple function - its a good way to interact with friends and family.

These are people who probably couldn't program the VCR to record a program in advance, who shrugged their shoulders when our (uk) government left all their children's records on a train, whose technical knowledge is minimal.

Facebook is doing just fine - just techies who worry about the details who are going off it. For the mainstream it works just fine.

(and as an aside - one of the weirdest things ever is hearing people who would have thought that me and my mates playing D&D when we were younger was geeky and strange - talking about things like farmville in just the same way)

</comment><comment><USER23> Wow. This is the 5th post of the demise or disgust of Facebook -- today. Are we just hating on them, or are these posts signaling a drastic change in our posture towards them? I don't know, but I suspect FB will have to respond to these cries, or risk their hacker users.

<comment><USER3> You gotta understand, for hackers, most things are binary: black or white. Either facebook is great, or they are evil and the switch just got flipped.

Hackers are trend setters on the web. Watch them.

<comment><USER23> Quite true. I guess it was a rhetorical question. It seems the switch is either flipped, or very, very close to being flipped.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Well, something can only grow exponentially for so long.... It's growth might be dying. It might be reaching its teenage years. Unfortunately it's only a matter of time before its a big company that can't keep its startup mentality.

</comment><comment><USER25> What a crock of shit. Pardon my french.

If you're going to close your account, the world doesn't need to hear about it. Those of you jumping on the bandwagon to close your accounts probably can't come up with a real reason why you joined the service in the first place. So stop your whining.

2 bloggers ranting about their demise doesn't count for the rest of the population.

Facebook is here to stay. you know why? because it's the only app that you, your mother and your grandmother (mine anyway) are on and navigating with ease.

<comment><USER5> They seem to be somewhat desperate though, judging by the sign-off screen:

[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_happens_when_you_d...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_happens_when_you_deactivate_your_facebook_acc.php)

<comment><USER25> Thats not desperate, that's a great retention technique! Every startup can learn from this. If you don't have a practice to retain your users, you don't care about the success of your business.

<comment><USER26> That's a retention technique in the same way that, "Don't break up with me! I Love You!" is a relationship reparation technique.

<comment><USER27> Not that I'd actually recommend doing it, but I'd bet that technique does work some small percentage of the time. What does Facebook have to lose by seeming desperate at that stage? I think it's smart.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I agree with much of the criticism of Facebook in this article, and that it's certainly not going to be the last word in social networking.

</comment><comment><USER29> "Your engineers are running the aslum."

This is always the cliché, but I'm sure it's much more likely that some product manager in charge of "community pages" has their own idea of how things should work and insists that the devs make it work and the devs are just doing what they can to please the different bosses.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm generally pretty understanding about typos and occasional grammatical errors in articles, but this entire post is pretty ridiculous. I'll take that back if this person is a non-native English speaker, but if not, I really find it difficult to take anything he says seriously.

<comment><USER31> Thomas Baekdal is danish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Okay, so I meet someone and decide that we ought to keep in touch. We swap phone numbers, and I say, "add me on Facebook when you get home."

They say, "nah, I don't use Facebook anymore. Do you have a _______ account?"

Someone should really fill in that blank.

</comment><comment><USER33> Why does everyone seem to hate facebook here? I'm trying to think of the last _positive_ story I've seen about them.

<comment><USER34> Geeks hate Facebook in large part because we tend to pay more attention to things like privacy and control over personal data than the typical user.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Facebook launched in 04 and grew quickly. Then as now, people were saying it was dead, that Twitter would overtake it, that they would run out of money, that they would be the next Friendster, MySpace, AOL. It hasn't happened. They're closing in on 500 million (yes half a _billion_ people use it!), and still there are nonbelievers.

My not so witty prediction is Facebook will IPO and probably fetch a 200 billion valuation in 2 years and yet still the naysayers will persist, like flies in China. Some things never change.

<comment><USER36> I totally agree.

Let's face it, we all hate facebook, but there are no good alternatives yet. Orkut and networks like friendstar are hopeless still, and whilst I'd love to remove myself from facebook, the reality is that most invitations people receive to do things are by facebook these days.

I can hardly wait for better alternatives though.

<comment><USER37> I guess I use it differently, because for my uses, Facebook and Twitter are almost equal contenders currently. Nobody in my social group ever uses Facebook invites, so the main thing is the status updates and replies. Facebook has somewhat of an advantage over Twitter on that still due to: 1. more generous length limits; and 2. a series of replies to a status going into a thread instead of the main flat status-update namespace; and 3. "likes" are a useful way of acknowledging a status without actually replying. Twitter's main advantage is that it feels less spammy and has nice 3rd-party clients; I'm always playing whack-a-mole with hiding Zynga games and Quizzes from my FB feed.

<comment><USER36> Not a fan of Twitter at all honestly.. But thats just me..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Hey, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. =)

Where is myspace,com today?</comment>


The Terrible Teens - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/the-terrible-teens <comment><USER3> We know that, in general, older frontal lobes are better developed. But if you take that where this author wants it to go - that we should remove most choices from teens' lives until their brains are fully developed - <USER2> their brains ever develop?

That is, do we think brain development is a function of time, or a function of experience?

If it's simply a function of time, then perhaps keeping those under 25 in a padded cell will make the world a better place. But I have a suspicion it's not - that teens who are parented according to this advice will have _worse_ judgement down the road than those who are allowed to make mistakes.

Incidentally, I'd argue that the dangers of teens and alcohol are ~90% related to driving. The rhetoric around suburbia at its inception was "a safe place to raise your kids" but it is in fact car-dependent culture that makes alcohol so dangerous for teens. City kids can stumble home on public transit; teenagers in "Real America" have a choice between driving drunk or not coming home that night. The more your parents favor the padded cell approach, the more you fear not coming home, the more likely you are to drive drunk.

Perverse incentives and the law of unintended consequences are as alive in parenting as they are in policymaking.

</comment><comment><USER4> >Sixteen-year-olds are dangerous drivers. Their rate of fatal crashes per mile is three times as high as the rate for drivers age twenty and over, and nearly twice as high as the rate for drivers eighteen and nineteen.

The article suggests not letting teenagers drive. If this were to be done, would accidents as a whole be reduced, or would the accidents just move up an age cohort? If it's inexperienced drivers in general that are dangerous, then not letting teenagers drive won't help.

>He found that teens took more risks when their friends were around

Steinberg attributes this to peer pressure and teenagers calling each other chicken. Yet I wonder if this isn't just a special case of the bystander effect. When there are many teenagers together, everyone expects somebody else will be the voice of reason and caution. If none of my friends complain when I steer my car with my feet, it can't be that dangerous. Surely someone would stop me if it was actually a stupid idea...

If that were true, supervising teenagers all the time might actually make them more reckless, not less.

I think it's very risky to just take your prejudices at face value and looking for scientific evidence afterwards.

</comment><comment><USER5> Their paywall is sooooo close to getting me. I enjoy their articles and blow through my allotment rather quickly. I would like to see a micropayment service that works on a per article basis.

<comment><USER6> How about opening an incognito window? (No charge.)

<comment><USER7> I think his point is that he values to articles and so he wishes he could pay for them as he consumes them.

I kind of wish they let you pay for them after reading. Almost like tipping.</comment></comment></comment>


Branch's Deep Links Let You Preview Apps in Your Browser - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/12/branchs-deep-links-let-you-preview-apps-in-your-browser/

<comment><USER2> Hey guys - one of the creators of this here. I wrote a blog post summarizing the thing in case you prefer a less TechCrunch-ey version: [https://blog.branch.io/branch-deepviews-the-missing-link- in-...](https://blog.branch.io/branch-deepviews-the-missing-link-in-app- discovery)

<comment><USER3> Nice write up! Makes the feature much easier to understand and it's good that you've provided feedback from those who use it already in production.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This feature is the foundation of so much potential that I am giddy!

Being able to expand content offerings in such a distributed but definable way is going to turbo charge our efforts this year at YETi CGI.

Already today we started work testing deepviews to share opps from #points, our new ambient gamification platform. They will allow us to be so much more effective in onboarding users to immersive activity.

Thank You Branch :)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is a fantastic new update to what is already a powerful tool for mobile- focused products. We've had to maintain a separate web infrastructure to allow users to preview and interact with content which this eliminates. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this asap.

Disclosure: I'm an investor and was an early adopter of Branch.

</comment><comment><USER6> Can we take users on desktop browsers to the iTunes Store page instead of texting a download link?

<comment><USER7> TL;DR you can, but you lose the ability to pass data through install.

Absolutely. The unfortunately side effect is when these users open your app, you won't know where they came from. Using text-me-the-app allows us to link a desktop link click to the same user downloading on mobile and opening the app. You lose the ability to pass data through install, and you lose install attribution. It's a tradeoff--for you, personalizing onboarding, rewarding users or having install attribution may be less important than taking them straight to the App Store.

You can either point desktop users to the App Store on an app-wide basis ([https://dashboard.branch.io/#/settings/link](https://dashboard.branch.io/#/settings/link)) or on a per-link basis using the reserved key $desktop_url (as Abbey pointed out). Let me know if this is unclear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks cool, but wondering how much control we get over the UI of the preview page?

<comment><USER7> We are going to automate the uploading of templates within the coming weeks-- the goal is to have a library of open-source templates that anyone can use, or contribute to. When you create or edit an existing template, you'll have the option to make it public or private. Even cooler than that is that we'll allow you to customize the templates to make use of whatever custom tags that you choose to attach to the links.

If you want to use a custom template now, drop a note to firstname.lastname@example.com and we'll get it uploaded for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Game changer. Super excited for this!

</comment><comment><USER10> This is very cool, great work!

</comment><comment><USER11> awesome! very useful:)</comment>


Python Scope and the LEGB Rule: Resolving Names in Your Code - <AUTHOR> https://realpython.com/python-scope-legb-rule/ <comment><USER2> There is one more scope in Python - stack scope.

It's possible to peer up the call stack to get information from your callers, rather than static scope.

There's also the oddity that is super():

        class Base:
          def foo(self):
             print("foo")
          def bar(self):
             print("bar")
          def baz(self):
              print("baz")

        class Derived(Base):
          def foo(self):
            print("Derived1");
            foo_super = super
            foo_super().foo()

          def bar(self):
            bar_super = super
            def bar_func():
                print("Derived2");
                bar_super().bar()
            bar_func()

          def baz(self):
              print("Derived3")
              baz_super().baz()

        baz_super = super

        >>> x = Derived()
        >>> x.foo()
        Derived1
        foo
        >>> x.bar()
        Derived2
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
          File "<stdin>", line 12, in bar
          File "<stdin>", line 11, in bar_func
        RuntimeError: super(): no arguments
        >>> x.baz()
        Derived3
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
          File "<stdin>", line 16, in baz
        RuntimeError: super(): __class__ cell not found</comment>


US ranchers want to use the federal government to fight high-tech meat companies - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1249622/the-us-beef-industry-is-divided-over-whether-to-call-clean-meat-meat/ <comment><USER2> Shockingly another industry that pushes against regulation immediately tries to regulate any competitors. I wish regulatory agencies would start using these demands for regulation as evidence that the relevant industries do value, and want regulation.

</comment><comment><USER3> I say let the market decide. Ranchers should compete on price, or quality or some other attribute. If they get the feds to regulate, then the market is distorted.

Of course, unless either the ranchers or this high-tech "Animal 47" industry provides us with tainted meat, or tainted "meat". Then we should regulate the hell out of them. There's a bunch of really good reasons for the existence of the Food and Drug Administration.

</comment><comment><USER4> Another day, another example of regulatory capture.</comment>


How  Facebook's New Design Tricks You  - <AUTHOR> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/26/5-design-tricks-facebook_n_1831384.html

<comment><USER2> WTF? The HuffPo thing is just a link to the TC article.

Previously posted: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4434580></comment>


Would You Pay for Online Applications?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/01/30/would-you-pay-for-online-applications/ <comment><USER3> Custom - <USER2>

Stock - No</comment>