Gimp 2.9.4 Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.gimp.org/news/2016/07/13/gimp-2-9-4-released/ <comment><USER3> I've been using Gimp for many years now, and it serves me well. I learnt Photoshop at university, on a Multimedia Tech course. Whilst Photoshop is a fine piece of software, it is overkill for most users. Gimp might be hard to get to grips with for long-time Photoshop users, but it isn't _hard_ , it just takes some muscle-memory adjustment. For users who have never used either, Gimp is a great piece of software to use from the get-go.

I've also used Krita of late, and that too is a very good piece of software worth checking out if you want to do photo-editing and digital painting.

<comment><USER4> here's the problem. Photoshop blows gimp out of the water in every way that is important to designers. GIMP is quite adept at simpler tasks/flows i.e. the stuff most people might want to do to an image, crop, put some text, etc. really no major diff here between it and ps. and this is why i teach it to relatives/friends who want to edit their images on a budget.

But it is very difficult to make professional grade designs/templates/mockups with gimp (i would venture impossible but im sure someone could do it given enough discipline just as someone could build a httpserver in pure x86 if they really wanted to)

source: long time Gimp and Photoshop user, have worked professionally as a UX/UI/Graphic designer and software developer, and have really tried to get on board with gimp bc its open source, saves $50 monthly, and is hackable all unlike ps, it even has a lisp scripting language! I couldnt do it even with that much goodwill so i honestly cant see any less motivated designer using it.

EDIT: of course designers or a ps alternative might not be gimps market at all, and instead just normal end users, in which case gimp should definitely not be criticized. I think people (unjustly perhaps) want gimp to be a ps alternative for designers, its not. plain and simple.

<comment><USER5> Parent commenter mentioned "most users," designers are the power users in this vertical and wouldn't constitute the majority.

<comment><USER6> It's fine for most computer users, but not most Photoshop users.

<comment><USER7> Most designers might be photoshop users, but its not true that most photoshop users are designers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is huge! Gimp is awesome, and the fact that they added support for MyPaint brushes is huge -- it means artists don't have to switch back and forth between the two constantly.

Also, this update puts it in a great stance against Photoshop in general. Now it has a more similar user interface -- something I see people complain about a lot ("Gimp can do everything but I just don't understand the UI like I do with Photoshop"), awesome support for brushes and symmetry (Photoshop was always a bit better with these from what my artist friends told me a few years back), etc.

It is a bit of a shame that the official builds lag behind this update, though. I'm on OS X and I'd love to try this out now, but building from source sounds a bit too tedious for me to play around with it for just ~10 minutes.

<comment><USER9> Does 2,9 (or the forthcoming 2,10) have non-destructive editing yet?

It not, they can make all the other improvements they want, but Gimp will still be lagging a decade behind Photoshop.

<comment><USER10> Out of curiosity, what is non-destructive editing of a digital image? I'm not familiar with the concept. Is it like some sort of infinite undo or what?

<comment><USER9> As the OP, what I meant by "Non Destructive Editing' is the ability to go back and adjust mask/filters etc independently of each other and without permanently altering the original image. Photoshop does this with 'Adjustment Layers' which sit on top of the original image and apply things such as masks, colour adjustments, filters, etc to it.

Over-cooked one of your previous tweaks? Just open the corresponding adjustment layer and change the settings.

Wish you hadn't applied that filter 10 operations ago? Just switch off or delete that adjustment layer

Removed a bit of someone's ear while deleting the background? Just paint it back in on the mask layer

And if you really want to start over again, just delete all the adjustment layers and you're back to square one. The original image is untouched.

Someone disdainfully said I'd picked an "arbitrary feature" to complain about. For a professional designer [which I am] NDE is not just a "nice to have" feature, it's an essential one. Hence why Gimp will never be taken seriously by design professionals —no matter how many pointless icon themes it comes with.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the in-depth response! Yes, it seems like a very useful feature to me. I don't see why GIMP can't have it, eventually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Many comments here mention things like "Gimp should do this!" or "I'm waiting for years for feature X that _< insert popular commercial product from Adobe>_ has had since forever!"

Well, people, this is open source: contrary to commercial products from Adobe, you can do it yourself and get all the features you want! Also, nobody is asking you to use GIMP; you're just welcome to make use of other people's hard work here.

<comment><USER12> Linux Airlines

When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do WHAT with the seat?"

<comment><USER13> Do you truly and honestly sense software quality as a hallmark of Linux? To me, Linux feels like a bucket of papercuts glued together with ... I don't know - something glueish.. I have tried loving Linux for the past 17 years, but I just can't muster the idealism anymore. I have gone back to Windows 7, which is rock stable.

<comment><USER14> > Do you truly and honestly sense software quality as a hallmark of Linux?

Yes, but that reflects my experience. I use emacs, st, zsh, SBCL, Python, Go, Debian: the flakiest software I run is Firefox.

Others have a different experience. They use gedit, gnome-terminal, bash, Ubuntu: the most stable software they run is Firefox.

Windows, OTOH, is so bad that it tries to download OS updates as monolithic, multi-GB blobs instead of small package updates. This can be bad when one has insufficient hard drive space for the monolithic blob but plenty of space to install a few packages and update them.

Windows advertises to one. Debian doesn't. Windows tracks one's input. Debian doesn't. Windows is slow on old hardware. Debian isn't. Windows has a fairly crappy interface. Debian doesn't (whether default, or using one of the available replacement DEs/WMs).

<comment><USER15> > Windows has a fairly crappy interface. Debian doesn't (whether default, or > using one of the available replacement DEs/WMs).

You clearly haven't tried using AfterStep ;)

<comment><USER16> Or FVWM2. or IceWM. or MacOS 9, or Windows XP PlayskoolOS.

But let's keep the comparisons to desktop environments made this decade. Enlightenment 0.17 GNOME3, KDE Plasma 5, etc. if you're using Mint's Debian Edition (and new converts should if they're too scared to try Calculate Linux), you're likely to boot into something relatively pretty the first time.

<comment><USER15> I didn't take "crappy interface" to mean "aesthetically unpleasing" (not to say that such isn't a valid interpretation or belief).

FVWM and IceWM, for example, might be ugly (though only by default -- I've seen pretty configurations of both), but I've always found them quite usable. AfterStep, though... * _shiver_ *.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I have to open a .psd three times a year and do not like to pay for PS for this or even install it, since I use Linux, so it would be great if the .psd handling would be further improved.

I really have no other wishes for Gimp aside from stability and performance:

\- I learned the Gimp hotkeys first

\- I know the menu structure around filters and so on is weird compared to PS, but I know it

\- I like selecting, zooming and scrolling better in Gimp, somehow I have the feeling of more control and find it easier to make something pixel-perfect while getting sent non pixel-perfect .psds

\- I like the old multi-window interface, even though it took me some time in the beginning to grasp it

\- the text tool is fixed now

Maybe the only thing, which sounds interesting to me are the advanced and non- destructive layer options and transformations (or whatever these features are called in PS), but then again: I know my way around Gimp and if the PS layers were fully supported it would already be fine for me.

Edit: Have seen another comment about non-destructive editing and found out, that it is on the roadmap for 3.2 after GTK3 in 3.0. So my hopes are that this way the PS counterparts will be supported, too.

<comment><USER18> As a photographer, Lightroom changed everything for me. The need for Photoshop was suddenly close to nil. Now I try to fire up Affinity Photo whenever I would have fired up PS.

As an open source alternative to LR I can really recommend Darktable. In many ways it is even more powerful than LR, but the usability and raw conversion engine sometimes lacks. Noise reduction and color handling is not quite up to par with LR.

<comment><USER19> Real photographer, old shool photographer, don't edit the picture after, if you need to edit it it's was not a good picture :-)

<comment><USER20> Tell that to Ansel Adams. Or is he not old school enough for you?

<comment><USER21> Yeah, Ansel was actually kind of famous for the way he would produce different versions of famous images over the years.

Then, of course, there were guys like Jerry Uelsmann, doing 'photoshop' effects in a darkroom equipped with 14 enlargers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Adobe's new subscription model for Photoshop, makes it expensive for non- professionals. GIMP looks more attractive now for occasional photo editing.

For Inkscape and GIMP to be a good alternative for Adobe's apps, I think they need to improve on UI a lot. I wonder if there is any umbrella organization which can look after FOSS Design apps like GIMP, Inkscape, Krita etc.

<comment><USER23> Maybe they can start a kickstarter campaign to get funds for it. I'm pretty sure that a better UI would attract a lot of users that now hesitate between using Photoshop or GIMP.

<comment><USER22> For preexisting OSS, I think it is difficult to get a successful Kickstarter campaign because they cannot really sell something for pledges. Have there been any successful Kickstarter FOSS projects ?

I think Bountysource is better here but for mega issues like UI redesign or GTK3 port etc a campaign may be the right way to go.

<comment><USER24> [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-2016-lets-m...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-2016-lets- make-text-and-vector-art-awesome)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-free- paint-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-free-paint-app- lets-make-it-faster-than-phot?ref=user_menu)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-open- source...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-open-source- digital-painting-accelerate-deve?ref=user_menu)

Though the reasons it worked for us don't really apply to the Gimp situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Funny how people who prefer Photoshop always have to show up and take a dump on GIMP just because it doesn't meet their expectations. I don't particularly like Photoshop and haven't used it in nearly a decade, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I think it's bad software.(though I'm not a fan of Adobe's practices)

If GIMP is ever going to support the desires of professional designers, it's going to have to be _developed_ by designers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I am willing to bet that the people who actively use and develop GIMP are people with programming experience who are doing some digital imaging on the side that doesn't require things like CMYK or high bit depth. GEGL and GIMP have been in development for a long time now, but have advanced in areas that the user base cares about, but not necessarily in areas that professionals care about. Simple as that.

If you really hate Photoshop, learn Scheme and contribute to GIMP and GEGL.

I do want to comment on the non-destructive editing feature; I feel like that's also a serious designer convenience, but it's never been something that I have personally desired. In fact, I wouldn't really want it, I think. In other software packages that have similar non-destructive capabilities, like Maya, the "history" of an object becomes more and more cumbersome over time. Maybe this doesn't happen in Photoshop, IDK. To be honest, I'm perfectly fine duplicating layers are "backups" before deciding on the right look.

<comment><USER26> I'm certainly not a professional designer but I worked doing quite a bit of graphics work in a previous life and relied heavily on Photoshop to the point that I've, personally, purchased several licenses since version 3.0, though my most recent is CS. I no longer even have it installed anywhere. You're probably right. Most of the developers of GIMP are developers first and probably don't have a perfect understanding or hold the requirements of the design world as highly as a professional designer would, but many of the people who use Photoshop also don't fall within these stringent categories yet most of them will similarly "take a dump on GIMP."

The last several times I've had to do graphics work I've used GIMP and taken the time to learn how to do the (now much more limited) things I needed to do using its workflow. I'm perfectly happy with it and relatively convinced that if I had to be doing serious image editing work, I'd be able to do so in GIMP.

So when people talk about how they prefer Photoshop, I believe there are a few reasons and all of them have little to do with GIMP being inferior as a product and much more to do with pure preference (emacs vs vi, style):

1\. A large number of people are very well trained in every corner of Photoshop's workflow. The frustration factor is _much_ higher for these folks because they're not having to learn something new, they're not expecting it to take a while to do things, they're expecting to be able to be as capable in GIMP as they are in Photoshop having never learned how GIMP works. My first experience with this was moving a selection while I was still making it -- something I do constantly -- hold space in PS and drag. That doesn't work that way in GIMP.

The closest analogue I can think of to learning Photoshop was when I broke down and decided to learn Vim - I remember being overwhelmed at how much information I had to keep in mind just to do basic tasks - <USER2> permutations, keys that didn't seem similar to any other product and the like. Photoshop is _hellishly_ complex[0] in this manner. Being a GUI product for image editing, I think this surprises people when they dive in. Needless complex? Perhaps in some places, but much of the complexity is necessary.

2\. There's seventy tutorials for every kind of manipulation you might want to do in Photoshop. There's sometimes not even one in GIMP. Many people have grown used to finding quick answers for how to do common things in Photoshop due to the wealth of resources available and get frustrated when they can't find the equivalent in GIMP. This adds to the perception that GIMP is inferior - " _Everyone_ uses Photoshop, see all the tutorials?"

Between versions 3 and 4, I had purchased several $100+ books, subscribed to print magazines at $99.00/yr and spent countless hours learning how to be productive in the tool. The variety of tutorials out there serve to make learning the product a little harder since you can follow a handful of steps to get the desired effect without understanding enough about it to produce a similar effect using the tools from the walk-through.

[0] Try explaining how to use the Pen tool to someone who's never encountered it or something similar. You start by describing its purpose, the variety of ways it can be used, showing examples, then explaining how to manipulate each of the points using a variety of CTRL+ALT clicks. Oops, you dragged the point when you meant to change the orientation of the curve. Wrong key.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Nice to know that they're working on better HiDPI support. GTK 3 for some reason has two separate HiDPI settings, but one of them only supports integer scaling factors. Additionally, there is no way to specify different factors for each monitor. If you have two monitors with different densities, a GTK window will always have the wrong scaling on one of them.

Qt 5 gets this right. The only frustrating thing there is how many applications still use Qt 4… (same applies to GTK 2, I guess)

<comment><USER28> Yea I hate that about GTK. IntelliJ just uses the DPI setting you set in xrandr for the display. That way I can run IntelliJ remotely over ssh and it still shows up with the right DPI on both a 4k and non-4k monitor without needing to change the settings.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Looking forward to Gimp 2.9.4 on Windows. I've been using development (2.9.3) versions lately on Win10 and working pretty well. The recent changes will be be quite useful assuming everything works as advertised. UI improvements will be welcome particularly if making Gimp integrate better with Win10 overall.

One of the issues I've had with Gimp on Windows is pen support, though the Wacom pen on the Surface Pro 2 has been iffy anyway. Pen use is worse though with Gimp, Inkscape vs. MS apps, but with some luck the new Gimp version will do better.

</comment><comment><USER30> > _On Linux, GIMP is now capable of using darktable for pre-processing raw > images from DSLRs (Canon CR2, Nikon NEF etc.)._

Since Darktable is also workflow tool, I'm pretty curious about how well these two are integrated. For example, if I prepare a whole batch of photos in DT without exporting them, is GIMP smart enough to import the files with those settings automatically?

</comment><comment><USER31> I really wish I could get into using GIMP but after a lifetime of Photoshop usage I just find the interface and shortcuts really clunky! There used to be Gimpshop to change the keybindings to match photoshop's - is there anything like that anymore?

<comment><USER31> To answer my own question - I found this: [http://www.webupd8.org/2014/02/gimp-get-photoshop-like- keybo...](http://www.webupd8.org/2014/02/gimp-get-photoshop-like- keyboard.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm using Paint.NET on Windows and I really like it - It satisfies all my needs.

When I switched to Mac, I was searching for something similar, but in the end decided to use Gimp. However, the thing is just incredibly slow. I have MBP 13 Retina and it takes 6 seconds to apply simple "bucket fill" on an image 3000x4500. Is this normal?

<comment><USER33> I haven't used any of these heavily, but they come up often. Over the past few years I've heard a lot of good things about Krita[1] as an alternative to Gimp. I've found both Pixelmator[2] and Acorn[3] to have enough of the features to replace Photoshop for basic needs.

[1] [https://krita.org/en/download/krita- desktop/](https://krita.org/en/download/krita-desktop/) [2] [http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/](http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/) [3] [http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/](http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/)

<comment><USER34> Krita is a great program, but it's designed for digital painting rather than image manipulation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Great to see a new release on the 2.9.x branch. I've been using the unofficial McGimp builds[0] for a year or so and I can highly recommend them (if only because there are no official Mac OS X builds from the GIMP team).

[0] [http://www.partha.com/](http://www.partha.com/)

<comment><USER36> For those on Linux there have been xdg-app/flatpak nightlies available for a while: [http://flatpak.org/apps.html](http://flatpak.org/apps.html) including the GTK+3 version.

They're highly usable but of course care must be taken with changes in the native format.

Edit: typos.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I have used Gimp for many years now. I ditched Photoshop a long time ago.

The one feature I am looking forward to for editing in this release is the Select remove holes feature.

Having to expand, contract, and feather selections to remove the small holes caused by a color select with a threshold value was a real pain.

</comment><comment><USER38> Ever since I switched from Photoshop to Gimp, I have desperately waiting for non-destrutive editing aka adjustment-layers / filter-layers. It has been years now...

So I was excited to see a new version. Checked the features and ... nope.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

<comment><USER20> non-destructive editing is officially planned for 3.2 at the moment, so you can take a break from looking at new versions and crossing your fingers.

<comment><USER39> But don't hold your breath either...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Although I'm happy with all the fuzz that this gimp release brings, I feel sad because Krita (another excellent graphics software, also available and better supported in windows than gimp IMO) didn't have this much attention. Still I feel happy that a lot of open source projects are becoming powerful enough to replace its commercial counterparts. I hope that more people start using it and the developers get better funding and can support these software better.

</comment><comment><USER41> Good to see. I am on Linux all the time now. The one pain point I have from moving away from OSX is photo editing. I used the Preview program for really fast photo cropping, color correction, etc. it took me close to zero time to edit a photo.

On Linux, it feels like I am running through mud when I use Gimp. I need to invest the time to simplify my workflow, obviously.

</comment><comment><USER42> They still have that terrible multi-window mode set as default, or they finally changed it to usable single-window?

<comment><USER43> Thankfully, multi-window mode still exists (dito for Inkscape). I have no idea why one could find single-window more usable? The only reason I can imagine would be using Gimp on a single small display (e.g. subnotebook class).

<comment><USER44> I do subjectively find single-window apps more usable, and think they are objectively more approachable. Talk from yesterday on a thread about the Skype UI: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12086898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12086898)

<comment><USER45> Completely different usecase. In GIMP you often need to have several images open. Side by side. With separate windows you can position them in any way you want. With a single window you need to have them opened in separate tabs and switch back and forth? Pointless.

What's "objectively more approachable" for one application, makes zero sense for another.

<comment><USER44> For your use case, I have no doubt :) . For my casual editing needs, though, I'm happy with a simple(r) single-window mode. Nowhere to get lost, everything in one place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> from gimp i would really love to see a great in-app-tutorial to get new users up to speed. it would make it much more competitive with its illustrious closed source rival if people knew how to do things.

</comment><comment><USER47> Note this is a developer edition.

I just went to the download page to find out this is not a stable version.

But, as the page says: _" GIMP 2.9.4 is quite reliable for production work, but there are still loose ends to tie"_

</comment><comment><USER48> Great news, I've been using GIMP/Inkscape for a long time. Could someone list open source, (and especially Linux) alternatives and how they compare to GIMP, Inkscape as of 2016 July?

<comment><USER49> I suppose Krita[0] might be one of the most interesting alternatives. But Krita is more optimised for drawing with a tablet than anything else. Someone who uses Krita a lot has pointed out to me that Krita isn't as good at text handling as GIMP is, for instance.

[0] [https://krita.org/en/](https://krita.org/en/)

<comment><USER50> > Krita isn't as good at text handling as GIMP is

It must be very, very bad at text handling then.

<comment><USER40> I believe text handling is one target of this years kickstarter campaign

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> > A build for Mac OS X is not available at this time.

</comment><comment><USER52> I really love the part "Statistics on Our Awesome Contributors" in this article, I wish to see that more on oper source releases.

</comment><comment><USER53> I think such a big revamp of the app would have been an ideal moment to finally change the name to something less disabled hostile.

<comment><USER54> I see you're getting downvoted, but I agree with you. The name does hold it back IMO. When I read the name the first thought is gimp in the BDSM sense. Does have an effect on how much I promote it.

<comment><USER55> For the 87% of the world population that is not native English speaking, Gimp just means nothing, except a fine image manipulation program...

(and we had to Google for BDSM. It does not seem to be a BSD Unix variant... and now that I think about it: it might be the reason why FreeBSD is not so popular!)

Not only I'm pretty sure that there is an Indic / Chinese language spoken by hundreds of milions people, where Inkscape is a bad word...

Also -- even if in my eyes it's a bit childish from the Gimp team to stick to what seems to be perceived as a bad name -- i perceive as even more childish that people keep on complaining that an acronym means something "bad" in their language.

Next time you come to the south of Switzerland, I'll invite you for a joyful train ride from Locarno to Domodossola: [http://www.centovalli.ch/?lang=EN](http://www.centovalli.ch/?lang=EN)

<comment><USER54> > "i perceive as even more childish that people keep on complaining that an > acronym means something "bad" in their language"

I don't usually complain about it, I'm just being honest about it having an effect on how much I promote it. In other words, I talk about it less because of its name. I also doubt I'm the only one. You can paint this as irrational if you want, but if the idea is to promote a free alternative to Photoshop (which makes Gimp a very useful project for the open-source community) it seems a little off to reduce its popularity over something as simple to change as the name.

<comment><USER56> > but if the idea is to promote a free alternative to Photoshop

For the GIMP team it isn't.

<comment><USER55> On top of the commitment to free software, the Gimp website says:

"Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and 3rd party plugins."

Their goal seems to be a good tool, not an alternative to any other software.

And it works well for me! Thanks Gimp.

<comment><USER56> > Their goal seems to be a good tool, not an alternative to any other > software.

Precisely :)

<comment><USER54> Yes, of course it stands up on its own merits, but in practice what makes it useful to the broader open-source movement is as a tool that fills the same gap that Photoshop does.

It's just like LibreOffice/OpenOffice, of course these tools stand on their own merits too, but again the reason they're important to the open source movement, i.e. what makes them useful in promoting open-source, is that they fill the same gap in the market as Microsoft Office.

Speaking generally, the approach to pushing open-source in practical way is to build open-source tools that cover the key functionality that commercial software offers (as well as functionality that commercial software doesn't yet offer) in order to provide people with less of a reason not to switch.

In other words, Gimp is an "alternative to Photoshop" when framing it as part of the open-source movement (which is what I had implied with my earlier comment). This is not the only framing that can be applied.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> This is great news. I have used GIMP on and off for more than 10 years now. The new UI changes seem to be exciting. As the other comment noted it seems that official build for OS X is not out yet. Last time I had checked GIMP on OS X, there were lots of UX issues. Hopefully this new release has improved the things.

On a slightly unrelated note, as a front-end developer only 2 things have stopped me from using Linux full time.

1\. Lack of Photoshop on Linux

I know Adobe tried a few years ago and didn't have enough sales for the Linux version to justify the development and maintenance costs.

I have used GIMP 2.8 on Linux. The filters and effects and the UX in general didn't justify using it as the only tool in production. Also it seems that GIMP development has happened at a very slow pace for past 5-6 years. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't seem to remember a new exiting feature to it for a long time.

There are a few other Mac only low end alternatives like, Acorn, PixelImator and Affinity Photo. Last time I tried Acron. Wasn't impressed. Planning to give Affinity Photo a shot this year. Sketch seems to be picking up as the UX tool of choice but it is also Mac only. I think most of the product makers in this category seem to think, if you are a professional you can get yourself a Mac. However, Apple likes to charge a lot of premium for its products, which puts its products out of range for lots of junior developers and smaller companies in developing economies like India.

2\. Lack of MS office on Linux (This is not really that critical these days, just a good to have.)

This not really needed for development. But lots of non-technical people use MS Office for documents and specifications. So as a professional it's just easier to get a MS license. And now on subscription model it's quite affordable.

I still wish google will release Google Docs as a fully offline product. Something like Google Docs packed as Electron based app will make it more usable for people in India, where always on connectivity is still an issue in major parts of the Country.

I haven't used Windows as my main machine for 8 years now. I use a Mac mainly because it gives a stable Unix-like OS with good enough UX. Have waited for Desktop Linux to happen for 16 years now. It has been in "quite close but not there yet" status for past 4-5 years now. But don't know how long this phase is going to last for Linux Desktop.

<comment><USER58> What do you need from an office suite that LibreOffice doesn't give you? Not being snarky, genuine question.

<comment><USER59> LibreOffice is still poor at interoperability with MS Office – if everyone you're working with is using MS Office and you have to edit their documents without breaking formatting, or want to use their templates, your only safe bet is using MS Office. Ideally in the same version and on the same OS, there's also breakage when moving files between the OSX and Windows builds of the same MS Office version.

Then there's macros. Yeah, yeah, people shouldn't use them, but they do, and when LibreOffice crashes on particularly weird ones while MSO Just Works™… well. (Yesterday I came across a particularly fun example: 100kb data wrapped into _30 megabytes_ worth of macros that all did exactly nothing, but were part of the client's default template, and so in every file they send out. LibreOffice hangs when trying to parse them, even when disabled, Excel works.)

Edit: Why the downvotes? I answered the question. Disagreeing with facts doesn't make them disappear.

<comment><USER60> Excel spreadheet file format (as well as other Office file formats) is horrible, especially slightly older ones. I wouldn't expect the LibreOffice ever to really master those. One blog post to about the file formats: [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/02/19.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/02/19.html)

<comment><USER59> I don't care whether it's Microsoft's or LibreOffice's fault. It doesn't change the fact that I'm forced to use Microsoft Office.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> I looking into getting around basic photography editing. Is Gimp good enough or should I spring on Pixelmator/Affinity Photo(can't afford Adobe CC)?

</comment><comment><USER62> Oh man it's already been 16 years since Grokking the GIMP[0]

[0] [http://gimp- savvy.com/BOOK/index.html?Grokking_the_GIMP.html](http://gimp- savvy.com/BOOK/index.html?Grokking_the_GIMP.html)

</comment><comment><USER63> Does Gimp has support for display with high pixel density?

</comment><comment><USER64> Wow, they now have a new GTK+ builtin theme! This will sure crush Photoshop.

</comment><comment><USER65> Besides non-destructive editing, decent CMYK support is still missing. But as others have said, they do seem to move in that direction. Maybe Gimp 3 will be usable for real work.

</comment><comment><USER66> Remove Holes from selections

I dont know about other but this is going to be a big leap forward for sure

</comment><comment><USER67> I really wish there was an open alternative to Photoshop. Unfortunately, Gimp isn't.

I fell like printing will be irrelevant/obsolete before Gimp offers proper CMYK support

<comment><USER68> Ctrl-F'd the thread to find this.

Gimp, no matter its merits, will never be taken seriously as a Photoshop alternative by designers until it has rock-solid CMYK support. Even though most designers I know, myself included, are desperate to get out from Adobe's grip.

As an aside, I recently led the switch in our studio from Photoshop to Sketch: the designers were literally bouncing in their chairs for joy as they realised how much better it was.

<comment><USER24> But sketch also doesn't support CMYK, does it? Otherwise people wouldn't need tricks like [https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/creating-resume-in- ske...](https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/creating-resume-in- sketch-d6a77c013fa3#.2ereobpb6)</comment></comment></comment>


The great GC vs reference counting debate « LShift Ltd. - <AUTHOR> http://www.lshift.net/blog/2013/09/19/the-great-gc-vs-reference-counting-debate <comment><USER2> The unsafe language argument of the first paragraph doesn't hold. You can design you API such that handles are copied by value, and opaquely contain pointer. Usually the handle IS the pointer, but it doesn't have to be this way. When you do this, you are able to perform exactly the same kinds of memory operations that a virtual machine would perform.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting. Assuming the author is correct, do most browsers think they will be able to get away with their memory management 'hybrid' implementations in the future?</comment>


Airbnb acquires team of Bitcoin and blockchain experts - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/657246/airbnb-just-acquired-a-team-of-bitcoin-and-blockchain-experts/ <comment><USER2> Basically, Airbnb is going to take advantage of the lessons learned from Arcade City[0] during their downtime, and try to stay relevant.

Ethereum is enabling the killing of Giant-Killers. This is a move by Uber to try and create a response to that. We wish them luck, but this is like watching Microsoft scramble to beat Google, or Google scramble to fight Facebook. they're steering a giant boat toward a new direction, as the small and agile eat their lunch.

it's an exciting time to be programming contracts in Ethereum.

0\. [http://arcade.city](http://arcade.city)</comment>


Simplifying Board Games - <AUTHOR> https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplifying-board-games <comment><USER3> I have enjoyed tabletop games less and less as the number of 'things' has increased. There are way too many games that require 15 different piles of things, which is not just physically annoying in terms of setting up and playing, but also such a cognitive overhead in the game.

Somehow even quite deep games like Magic: the Gathering or D&D (or indeed chess) manage their complexity more elegantly, by having fewer concepts iterated many times (although in the case of D&D this is managed by the DM who certainly has a terribly complex job).

For example, Mage Knight in some sense tries to create a simplified version of parts of D&D, but it does it with so many moving parts that I freak out at the thought of event getting it out of the box. Whereas I can play actual D&D with one dice and some words.

<comment><USER4> The focus of the article is primarily around how to simplify existing games and gradually build them back up. Unfortunately many games, like you say, have a very large number of parts, but it's not straightforward to modify gameplay to not require them while still having an interesting and balanced game.

I really wish more board-games had a "low-parts mode" or a "trial" mode where you could experience the gestalt of the game without having to cram all the minutiae. Basically: do what this guy did for his daughter but put it in the rule book.

<comment><USER5> I collaborated with the designer of the notoriously complex, 23 pound box game Gloomhaven to do exactly this for the upcoming small-box, mass-market oriented Jaws of the Lion. We built a 5 scenario on-ramp tutorial I called Fischer- Price mode.

We included new, simpler, components in the game that are exclusively for this tutorial, have players add mechanics and components and systems one or two at a time. During playtesting we went from about 2+ hours to read and semi- understand the rules enough to play, to playing in about 10-15 minutes.

It can be done, but it can add significant cost (materials, development time) to the game.

<comment><USER6> Hey this looks cool, glad you mentioned it. Will probably grab it in August when it comes out!

<comment><USER5> I don't get any royalties, but you should! I got one of the early production copies and I'm two scenarios from finishing the campaign with my wife. It's lots of fun.

<comment><USER7> So it's fine for 2 players?

<comment><USER5> Yup! If you're playing with two, I might avoid the Voidwarden. My favorite class, and it's playable with 2 players, but definitely harder with only one ally. All other combinations work very well together at 2 player though

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A related concern that this brings to mind is the act of teaching complex rulesets to players who are playing for the first time.

It's not unusual for only one person in a group to have taken the time to learn the rules, by reading the rulebook, or more often these days, by watching a video. Then, that person is informally responsible for communicating the rules to the other players, tutorial-style.

For games beyond a certain level of complexity, I have sometimes found this process to be absurd. For example, it might be obvious that the rules are not being followed correctly or consistently. Or more frequently, players are playing their first playthrough haphazardly, with no real understanding of the games mechanics. And no one wants to be a rules lawyer.

These things are normal and the games are meant to be fun, above all else, but at the same time, playing a game incorrectly or with partial knowledge is unfun to me, especially since it's not unusual to only play a game once these days.

I think the suggestion for gamemakers to include graduated tutorial materials, written or video, allowing players to trivially pick up the basics and begin playing immediately is very useful, and will encourage players to come back to the same games more than once.

<comment><USER9> As a technical writer, I often find board game rules suffer from poor writing. They often present information backwards: they start by telling you every thing about every piece and situation before you really understand the basics of play. This makes it difficult to piece together how to play the game.

I'd much rather see board game instructions written as starting out with a VERY short summary of the game and its objectives (e.g. for Dominion: "in this game, you build a deck of cards that you use to purchase victory points. At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points wins."). Then you can follow that up with set up instructions, a simple explanation of a basic turn, followed by more detailed descriptions of gameplay and ending conditions, and finally close with detailed reference material.

<comment><USER10> A lot of board instructions also suffer from poor translations. It's a fun meta game my friends and I play where were try to figure out if it's a German creator based on the instructions.

For example "When it is the players turn, the player must immediately draw a card and place it into their hand."

compared to "The player starts their turn by drawing a card."

<comment><USER11> >A lot of board instructions also suffer from poor translations.

People who haven't tried board game design before underestimate how difficult it is to write the rules they think they're writing - very slight wording differences have MAJOR gameplay implications and will decide games.

Here's just one example of two widely different table interactions which result based on the example you've provided.

>Scenario: Immediacy Matters

>Context: I have just become one point away from victory. I have a card that I can flip over on any player's turn to score 1 point, but my friend is wrapping up their turn, and I'm next. My friend says: "Okay I'm done with my turn", and I now remember I have my hidden flippable one point card, because he said the word "turn".

There are two VERY DIFFERENT endings to this scenario depending on which of the two above rules you've written down.

In the verbiage,

>"The player starts their turn by drawing a card.",

If the game doesn't have any other explicit rules about how a player ENDS their turn, there's an ambiguity in the word "by" \- it's not clear whether the action of drawing STARTS my turn, or describes WHAT happens DURING my turn (which ALSO ambiguously may or may not take precedence over my ability to flip that card before I draw a card).

This difference seems small, but it will decide the game, because if the act of drawing STARTS the turn, then by not drawing, my opponent's turn is still going - so I win the game by flipping on their not-finished-until-I-draw turn.

This will become a heated table argument if players are invested in winning, because it becomes a question of designer intent, which will probably dissatisfy everyone because suddenly the game's turned into "guess what the designer meant" and "let's debate the definition of words the author didn't even know were important."

In the former verbiage,

>"When it is the players turn, the player must immediately draw a card "

There's still ambiguity (When did my opponents turn end?), but less:

If everyone agrees my opponent's turn ended when he said it did, and it's my turn, because the rules say IMMEDIATELY draw, IMMEDIATELY implies it's pretty explicitly disallowed for me to do something else before fulfilling the thing I need to immediately do, like flip a card on the table. If the card I draw when doing this subtracts points when drawn, I will not win the game when I flip my card.

Disgustingly verbose rules like the above are the scar tissue from play sessions where these heated arguments took place and the developer decided that being overly wordy is worth avoiding race conditions and being unambiguous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I really like OP's approach here but still, find that some kids' specific games are quite good on their own. In particular, Ticket to Ride: First Journey is a great adaptation to the full game.

Another one that nobody believes me about (because it sounds like such a preposterous cash grab) is Super Mario Brothers Monopoly. But the changed some of the fundamentally boring aspects of the game to make it really quick to play and introduced the concept of "hero" characters with unique abilities to it.

<comment><USER13> I also like this approach. And I've found the opposite way around also works pretty well: kids (say age 4-6+) are perfectly capable of playing the full adult versions of games.

<comment><USER14> I've found the challenge isn't so much for them to understand the rules as much is it's holding their attention with something not as instantly gratifying as the other entertainment they are used to in apps and video streaming.

<comment><USER13> Ah, my siblings and I were only allowed an hour of screen time a week when we younger. So that wasn't really an issue. I think an hour a week is a bit extreme, but I definitely intend to put strong limits on my children, especially when they're young.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> These days there are so many board games out there that if you are looking for a "simplified ______", another game probably already exists and fills that niche reasonably well.

Shout out here to Heroscape, which is my favorite game and is basically a simplified version of a miniature war game. It is an interesting case study for this article too because Heroscape comes with two rulebooks, one for a basic game and another for the advanced game. (Although even the "advanced" game is much simplier than most minature games). Heroscape also introduced complexity over time with its many expansions (primarily new miniatures which each of special powers).

The game was discontinued back in 2010, but still has a community of fans going strong at [https://www.heroscapers.com](https://www.heroscapers.com). The forums are great.

</comment><comment><USER16> One of the first comments mentioned "super mario brothers monopoly" being a well designed game for kids.

I'd like to add that the Star Wars monopoly is also very well designed and has a lot of new features that solve the biggest problems of the game taking too long, of those ahead almost always staying ahead and for the game being boring when itnisnt your turn.

Games finish in under an hour. They have cards that opponents can play during your turn to block or change your moves. Best of all, it's only possibly for you (as a single player) to win if your side (datk or light) has the most point, making it an interesting semi-team game.

It's a great game and I've played it with many professional game designers who also really like it.

<comment><USER17> Which version are you referring to? I found several versions on Amazon which appear to have different gameplay.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A few of the games mentioned don't really need simplification. I've been playing Carcassonne with my daughter since she was 3 years old. She can't do the scoring but she understands all the rules and how to earn points. The only thing we simplified originally was just not using Farmers.

We recently got a game called Outfoxed! which says it's for 5+, she picked it up after the first round. The hardest concept for her was moving diagonally and that you aren't allowed to in the game. It's a great game for learning to read names since all of the Foxes have unique and not trivial names to pronounce.

<comment><USER19> Yes my youngest loves carcassone, we played. He's 5 now and we also play ttr (first journey and London), catan junior, and he is a big fan of Station Master, which is an odd little game we picked up pre kids. We went through a phase with outfoxed And guess who, but he preferred the rest now.

<comment><USER20> If the kids like Catan derivatives, you might also want to try Bohnanza.

The recommended age on the box is a hilarious 13+. But I've played it with bright 5 year olds.

See [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to do something like that for DnD. Come up with a system that doesn't have countless intricate rules and tedious arithmetics, but instead focuses on the social/creative aspects of the game, encourages creativity, improvisation, and storytelling. Keeping the rules fun, simple, accessible, yet flexible and powerful. Something you can play with your kids, or introduce to non-gamer friends to have a fun evening or two (but also is capable of supporting longer campaigns if you get into it). You can learn everything you need to play the game by reading a couple of pages, or teach it in 10-15 minutes.

The project is still in the very early stages, basically a draft, but I'd love to know what you think:

[https://playmirage.io/](https://playmirage.io/)

(For people who have some good ideas about the rules, or want to contribute ideas for spells, magic items, and adventures - project is open source and available on github: [https://github.com/raymestalez/mirage](https://github.com/raymestalez/mirage))

<comment> blaser-waffle > For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to do something like that for > DnD. Come up with a system that doesn't have countless intricate rules and > tedious arithmetics, but instead focuses on the social/creative aspects of > the game, encourages creativity, improvisation, and storytelling.

No shortage of rules-lite RPGs out there, with varying degrees of similarity to D&D. FATE and FUDGE are the two that come to mind, but there are lots of others.

There Is No Spoon, a simple RPG that was big on RPG.net a while back is another good example.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not a board game, but Shadowrun definitely has a complexity problem. It's set in a cyberpunk future where magic has also reawakened, bringing in Tolkien- esque creatures as well. You can be a hacker, mage, cyber warrior, or just a smooth talker. However, each of those archetypes has different rules, and are essentially their own game. And for the GM, you have to know all of the rules relevant to not only the people playing with you, but any enemies they might run into.

The setting is amazing, but it's dying for a rewrite (and I don't mean Shadowrun Anarchy). There's been some attempts to make a Powered by the Apocalypse version, but none have gained a large amount of traction.

<comment><USER20> Throwing one million D6 also gets old after a while.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I have been playing Hero Kids[0] with my 4yo son since he was 3.5 and we have a blast every session. the best part of it, is how flexible are the rules and you can relax them as much as you want for smaller kids. I can def see how the approach in the article could make complex games more accesible to kids. As soon as my son is a bit bigger I'll try this for sure.

[0]: [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605)

</comment><comment><USER24> I've found that many games translate easily to 5 year olds by tweaking the rules. Removing hidden information and playing cooperatively works best.

<comment><USER18> Competition was the I think the biggest barrier for my youngest, she hates losing. Old Maid flips the equation a little because there's only 1 loser and many winners. Carcassonne can be played without keeping track of points, just rules for how you lay tiles. We recently got a game called Outfoxed! where you collectively hunt down a thief, it's great for kids because it exercises memory and deductive reasoning to eliminate suspects, and you have to strategize as a team.

<comment><USER24> We played pengaloo a lot. Its a matching game. We just work together to find the matching eggs. The kids enjoy the thrill of checking the eggs as well as the cute characters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Annoyed by the money and harshness of interactions in a game like monopoly with 5-8 year olds we created "Friendopoly". When you land on someones property you are invited to camp on their lawn or sleep in their house or hotel. The railroads are all connected, there are no chance or community chest cards, and it's just a fun time going around the board that is more communal.

<comment><USER20> Monopoly is an awful game. I'm glad you don't play that.

But also have a look at the modern 'German' style boardgames. They are much better than the bad old American classics like Monopoly.

'Ticket to Ride' and Carcassonne are a good gateway games for example.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is how I introduced board gaming with my children. There are kids versions of some of the more popular games like Settlers and Carcasonne which can be fun as well. We also play _No Thank You, Evil!_ which is a lot of fun as my kids have wild imaginations and really enjoy playing pretend.

Especially in this pandemic moment it has been a very useful technique to have around.

Of course even in role playing one doesn't require a boxed game to play. A few dice and some cards often suffice. Simplifying Microlite20 [0] and throw in a kid-friendly setting with some problem solving is a great way to pass the time and see how your kids think!

[0] [https://microlite20.org](https://microlite20.org)

</comment><comment><USER27> I like it, and having played board games with my (now adolescent) daughter for years, it all rings true to my experience.

One thing I would like to point out is that a lot of software (including applications, languages, frameworks, etc) would benefit from a similar approach. When the tutorial starts out with "install these five things and then set up this environment and take on board these thirty pieces of jargon and now we can do something", it is hindering its own growth. Usually, it was nothing like that when it started, and just added things to make it "easier" (for people who already knew the basics), without realizing that they were cutting off their flow of new users.

</comment><comment><USER28> I have been trying to get my 4 year old into board games. I grew up on snakes and ladder, ludo and later monopoly. That hasn't piqued my little ones interest at all.

Here is what worked .. my first castle panic .. this was super simple and got her engaged. There was another simple game called kraken attack that had cool looking pieces and got her engaged. Finally, we play a randomish game with the agricola board and kingdomino. Moral of the story is relax, bend the rules, teach simple things like turn taking, post-game clean up, and have fun!

<comment><USER29> Thanks for the suggestion on My First Castle Panic! Just grabbed it - <USER2> great!

And I couldn't agree more on the "relax, bend the rules" side of things. It's all about fun.

<comment><USER28> Good luck. Two other suggestions for that age group that we found worked: Animal upon Animal (kinda expensive for the simple pieces you get but it felt so much fun, the wife joined in me and the daughter play!) and S.O.S Dino (gorgeous pieces and educational concept; my kid lost interest for some reason I could not understand; game was super interesting and simple)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Don't forget the classic abstracts, too! Chess, go, etc. You may have a prodigy and never know it otherwise!

<comment><USER31> Lily got very into chess when she was ~5y, and kept trying to get her 3y sister Anna to play with her. Anna didn't like Chess and wrote about it: [https://www.annakaufmanwise.com/chess](https://www.annakaufmanwise.com/chess)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I really like this, I feel too many games have pieces "for the sake of it".

For fun I've been trying to develop AIs which can play games, mainly so I can then try finding the "minimal viable rules", the simplest version of a game which is still in some sense "interesting".

<comment><USER31> I wrote some about trying to find the simplest interesting game a few years ago: [https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplest-interesting- game](https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplest-interesting-game)

</comment></comment><comment> a-saleh I do simmilar things :-)

I.e. have been playing Carcasone when my was 4y, we just didn't play with the 'farmer' or we played KingDomino, and she just didn't have to adhere to the rule that your kingdom needs to fit 5x5 grid.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm using same trick with my 5 years son. In past I've tried kids editions (like ticket to ride first jorney). But they become boring too fast. Plus kid like to play "real" game, not game for small kids.

</comment><comment><USER34> Slightly off-topic but Love your blog. The pages for your kids, did you build a simple CMS for them to create pages? Or taught them to write static HTML pages? I'm thinking of doing the latter myself.

</comment><comment><USER35> after all this years - poker and neapolitan[0] cards apart - the most fun and interesting "board" game I played is still Bang![1]

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_playing_cards#Napoleta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_playing_cards#Napoletane) [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_(card_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_\(card_game\))

</comment><comment><USER36> I bought board game simulator recently to play with my friends. Many of the most popular games were just too intimidating to play, this would have really helped us haha

</comment><comment><USER37> I have found a number of age appropriate games at a local toy store.

The owner is very good at curating them. Sloth in a Hurry is for ages 5+, my daughter loves to play it with us.

</comment><comment><USER38> There are also games with simple mechanics. I think Century : Spice Road and the various Forbidden Island / Desert games are good examples.</comment>


How do I get a Facebook app developed? - <AUTHOR>

I haven't the chops (nor the time!) to get a Facebook app developed.  I am technical and can guide and manage a project.  How can a find a solid developer who can build a Facebook app for me?<p>I'm based out of the SF Bay Area. <comment><USER2> Elance, Odesk, $$$

</comment><comment><USER3> google, there are a number of facebook app development mills.</comment>


What RSS feeds are available on stackexchange? - <AUTHOR> http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/151519/what-other-hidden-or-inobvious-rss-feeds-are-available-on-stackexchange-and-stac

<comment><AUTHOR> Context: I've known of RSS and Atom for over a decade, but come to find its utility relatively recently. With a few specific tools, I'm finding it amazingly useful, particularly as I've found that my limited use of several social sites was largely as glorified RSS readers -- a job they were not, in fact, particularly good at, due to the poor content discrimination they offered. Better to go straight to the source.

In particular:

⚫ SlickRSS is an in-browser RSS/Atom reader for Chrome. If you prefer _not_ having your list in the Cloud, it's a good way to manage and access feeds: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/slick- rss/ealjoljn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/slick- rss/ealjoljnibpdkocmldliaoojpgdkcdob)

⚫ newsbeuter is a console-mode interactive RSS/Atom reader. This is actually my preferred tool for general use as its keyboard navigation makes cutting through feeds lightning fast: [http://newsbeuter.org/](http://newsbeuter.org/)

⚫ rsstail and multitail are two utilities by Folkert van Heusden which allow you to tail one or more RSS/Atom feeds (or other processes and/or files in the case of multitail) from the commandline. It's effectively a stream in your shell.

So with multitail and rsstail, you can easily create an impromptu and transitory feed monitor of something of interest -- say, the StackExchange question you just asked, even if you're not logged in to SE to monitor it (you can similarly monitor reddit users, subreddits, or posts, and numerous other sites, though major "social" sites seem to be sadly lacking in RSS export support).

A further extension is to use multitail to watch _all_ of your newsbeuter (or other) feeds. I detail more on this here:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1udv6i/further_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1udv6i/further_adventures_in_rss_chrome_reader_extension/)</comment>


Show HN: TypeScript Implementation of Sequential Random Sampling - <AUTHOR> https://www.npmjs.com/package/vitter-sample <comment><AUTHOR> Inspired by the discussion on [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20960832](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20960832), and the author of that article's complaint that there wasn't any source code online, I went ahead and ported the algorithm to TypeScript/JavaScript. As it happens, Vitter's sequential random sampling actually solves a rather annoying problem I had at work recently, so this was a practical as well as theoretical / for-fun exercise.

Numerical code like this is also a prime candidate for implementation via WebAssembly, but while I've been able to produce a working transformed version of the code which acts like a restartable co-routine (i.e., manually, without relying on language-supported generators), getting the compiled WASM to actually run correctly in a JS environment has not worked out so far. I expect that will be version 2.0.0.</comment>


Ask HN: What do I do with a weekend in SF? - <AUTHOR>

I just graduated with a degree in Augmented Reality from a school far too far away from the valley. If I have one weekend in paradise, how should I go about meeting fellow hackers? Where should I go? What would you do?<p>Looking to talk to people about a brain-game startup, complain about Zynga and get a feel for the place in general. Greener than green over here.<p>(first post) <comment><USER2> Pack warm. I'm from Ohio, where it's been in the 80s or 90s pretty much all summer. Having the idea in my head that CA is a warm place, I packed all shorts and short-sleeved shirts. San Francisco is _cold_! I ended up buying a thermal long-sleeved shirt and hoody when some friends and I decided to go to Ocean Beach.

Speaking of friends, I came to SF alone. I stayed at the Green Tortoise Hostel because at $30 per night, it was super affordable. I've met people here from all over the world. Last night at Ocean Beach, I was hanging out with a girl from England, 3 Irish, a Scottish guy, and an Italian girl. I highly recommend the hostel experience. If you're only here for a weekend, really try to minimize your computer/gadget usage and actually get to know people and the city.

As for some cool things I did yesterday -- I got a clam chowder bread bowl from Boudin's bakery and ate it while on a pier. I stopped at San Francisco Norman's and had some halo halo (it was ok), and while I was eating that I listened to a couple ladies playing some live acoustic guitar and singing. Nearby were a young guy and girl doing free abstract chalk portraits... they drew me, and then I joined them in drawing someone else _. I then walked through Ghiradelli Square, where I stopped to sketch Alcatraz, and I proceeded up to Fort Mason, stopping along the way to sketch the Golden Gate bridge from afar as the top disappeared into fog. I slowly went through the Fort Mason Community Garden, which was quite beautiful. On the way back to the hostel I stopped at Naia for some delicious gelato. Then we rode the N to Ocean City and had a fire on the beach.

I had four nights here, and it has gone way too quickly. I'd plan on staying here as long as you realistically can (advice that applies to any trip, really).

_ I'm far from an artist. I mentioned to the chalkers that they looked like they were having fun, and she said they were and that I should join them. It was great! As for the sketching, I didn't bring a camera, so I used a pen and memo pad to make the best sketch I could.

</comment><comment><USER3> Aside from meeting hackers, simply walking around the city will be interesting if you've never been there before. Just don't go too far from where you're staying unless you plan it in advance. Areas in San Francisco go from nice to seedy _very_ quickly. Granted, it isn't like going into South Central LA, but it's still bad.

</comment><comment><USER4> <https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge>

</comment><comment><USER5> If you have time, try to visit the Exploratorium. It's inspiring. Maybe have your meeting there.

<comment><USER6> Ah, you beat me to it.

Some additional info: <http://www.exploratorium.edu/>

It's so mighty, it has a .edu instead of .org Make sure to get a reservation for the kinesthetic dome. Totally worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Off topic, but what school already offers degrees in Augmented Reality?

<comment><USER3> I'm curious as well because I just realized that Augmented Reality isn't a startup of some kind.

<comment><USER8> With a simple google search, it looks like he basically crafted his own major at Dartmouth called "Designing Reality."

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. The major was originally "Digital Humanities" and focused on new media theory and game design. As it became apparent that AR was the central focus, they had me change it from "Reality Design" to "Designing Reality" and now Finally, "Augmented Reality (AR)"

So I guess I'll have parenthesis on my diploma.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> <http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/>

If it's going on at the time: <http://superhappydevhouse.org/>

</comment><comment><USER10> Have breakfast in the Inner Sunset at Park Chow (<http://www.yelp.com/biz/park-chow-san-francisco>), then walk across the street to Golden Gate Park and go up to the observation tower at the De Young Museum (it's free, and the view is nice).

Once you are finished there, hop on the muni light rail (N-Judah line) at 9th & Irving (it's the intersection up the street from Park Chow. Take that to Powell Street, and then walk around Union Square for awhile. Once you get bored with that, go back to Powell St. station and hop on BART. Go to 24th & Mission station, and make a U-turn into El Farolito (<http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-farolito-san-francisco-2>), which has the best burritos ever. Believe me, I've had a lot of burritos in my life. Make sure to have the salsa verde. It has small chunks of avocado and is the most amazing salsa ever. Seriously.

Next, walk up a block or two to Valencia street and check out the shops. If you start to get tired, grab a cup of coffee at Ritual Roasters ([http://www.yelp.com/biz/ritual-coffee-roasters-san- francisco...](http://www.yelp.com/biz/ritual-coffee-roasters-san- francisco#query:ritual%20roaster)) or Four Barrel ([http://www.yelp.com/biz/four-barrel-coffee-san- francisco#que...](http://www.yelp.com/biz/four-barrel-coffee-san- francisco#query:ritual%20roaster)).

For dinner, go to Monk's Kettle (<http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-monks-kettle- san-francisco>) for amazing pairings of beer + delicious food.

Also, if you know someone with a car, check out Baker Beach ([http://www.yelp.com/biz/baker-beach-san- francisco#query:bake...](http://www.yelp.com/biz/baker-beach-san- francisco#query:bakers%20beach)) for the beautiful beach and the incredible view of the Golden Gate (though beware that it is informally a nude beach).

</comment><comment><USER11> I spend most of my time in the mission, so:

go to philz coffee at 24th and folsom

check out the kilowatt bar on 16th street (just east of valencia)

check out the noisebridge hackerspace (its somewhere between 18th and 21st on mission, i can't remember)

if you're around on sunday night, check out the dark room on mission st. for some hilarious overdubs for "bad movie night"

also, let me know when you're in the area and we can grab a brew (dave [at] thathigh [dot] com)

<comment><USER12> Philz coffee is amazing. While randomly exploring that area of 24th St. one day I walked in there thinking it was just another coffee house....I was delighted to be treated to the best coffee I have ever had.

<comment><USER13> FYI, there is a Phillz in Palo Alto, too. I go often.

<comment><USER11> and san jose

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would say have your contacts meet you in Haight-Ashbury, Northbeach or Golden Gate Park. You shouldn't miss out on the actual city while you're here.

</comment><comment><USER15> If you are trying to get a feel for the startup scene here visit some of the hackerspaces/co-working spaces, set up meetings with founders/employees of the companes you want to meet beforehand, visit Stanford and Berkely, and sign up for www.thestartupdigest.com

</comment><comment><USER16> Hit two restraunts in the city:

Taqueria Can Cun at 19th and Mission. You'll be tempted to get something else, but get the veggie burrito--you won't be dissapointed.

Shalimar on Jones between Geary and O'Farrel. Authentic Pakistani food that's awesome.

</comment><comment><USER17> Same thing here :). I finally decided to do a road trip I've been meaning to do for a few years. A friend and I are going to drive to Los Angeles, stop at a bar called Naja's place (which is awesome), then slowly make our way up the coast the next morning.

We plan on camping around the Bay Area for about a week...any thoughts on _must do_ geek things while there (that aren't specific to the startup community)?

<comment><USER18> Stop in San Luis Obispo on your way up the coast ... we'll do lunch.

<comment><USER19> .. if only to drop in on the mindblowing Madonna Inn and wake a wizz in their bizarre urinal (in an ideal world, stay there - best hotel/motel on the planet).

<comment><USER20> What distinguishes it? My best experience by far has been at The Yas in Abu Dhabi. Fascinating architecture and very pleasing service.

<comment><USER19> Not only is SLO an awesome town not far from some great beaches, but The Madonna Inn has 100+ entirely uniquely designed rooms (which sorta calls for visiting a ton of times), some with odd features like waterfalls, turret rooms, and rock walls. The main restaurant is an upmarket steakhouse - I've not had a steak beat any of theirs yet. There's also a cake deli of sorts and my wife testifies that their cake is unbeatable. Oh, and there's an awesome menswear place on the top floor..

Last, the entire place is designed in a totally crazy and idiosyncratic style that I've never seen replicated anywhere else. It's certainly not to everyone's taste, but I'm more blow away by how unique it is every time I go there than my opinion of the decor per se.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Here's an old Reddit post about visiting SF. [http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/b9f4m/my_girlfrie...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/b9f4m/my_girlfriend_and_i_are_visiting_san_fransisco_i/)

</comment><comment><USER22> <http://techshop.ws> \- It's down on the peninsula in Menlo Park. I'm sure if you showed up in the middle of the afternoon, you could persuade someone to give you a tour.

</comment><comment><USER23> Putting an email in your about section would help people who want to contact you. I did part of a PhD at the HITLab at UW and I'm in San Francisco now. Email me if you want to meet up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Done and done, thanks for the heads up. Sometimes I have dreams about HITLab. Glasses and QR codes everywhere. I'll send an email... now that I realize YC profiles exist :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Insider's tip: there's this little-known spot where all the locals hang out called Pier 39. I would spend all my time there if I were you. It's spectacular.

<comment><USER25> It's not really cool to let just anyone know about Pier 39. Some things are just best left for the locals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I recommend hitting the great outdoors. There are woods and mountains in almost every direction. Take advantage of the wonderful summer weather.

<comment><USER27> Wonderful summer weather? Where is it?

<comment><USER26> Everywhere in California except San Francisco proper.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Night life at Cal Academy of Sciences is worth checking out <http://www.calacademy.org/>

</comment><comment><USER29> SF is a unique and amazing town. Keep in mind one thing that's little- understood outside of California: San Francisco is not the same thing as the Bay Area. And when you say "San Francisco" you probably really mean the Bay Area. "The valley", proper, is around San Jose and the lower peninsula, for instance.

You should explore SF first, though. It's more condensed, and easier to understand on a short trip.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah okay, thanks for the clarification.

And thanks everyone for the help, I'm much more optimistic knowing that the community is this this helpful and supportive. Now just to cram it all into 3 days...

<comment><USER10> One more FYI: people from San Francisco rarely, if ever, refer to it as anything else but San Francisco, at least when spoken. E.g. they would not say "SF" out loud, and will never, ever, say "San Fran."

<comment><USER30> You occasionally hear "SF" spoken aloud, especially when the city's name is being used as an adjective, but by far more common is "The City".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The computer history museum is worth visiting. They have an actual implementation of Babbage's Difference Engine No 2. It's a mechanical calculator that calculates up to 7th degree polynomials to 17 (IIRC) degrees of accuracy. Babbage didn't actually get it built during his life, but two have been made. The one in the museum will retire to Nathan Myhrvold's (sp?) living room at the end of this year. They actually run it for a couple calculations each day; I can't recommend seeing it enough.

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

Also, for the record, winter in SF is cold, at least for CA. Plan for lows in the 40s and highs in the high 60s.

Some of the hacker spaces down south, in the valley proper, might be fun too. Dunno. Depends what you want out of the vacation.

Also, I wouldn't go to Ocean beach. Too many junkies and too many needles. Rent a car and drive south along CA 1. It parallels the coast more or less and there are beaches along the road for at least an hour south.</comment>


The rise of emoji - <AUTHOR> https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/hopeful-face-emoji/ <comment><USER2> > In The Emoji Code, Vyvyan Evans takes aim at the Unicode Consortium, > painting it as an institution in the mould of the Académie française, > tyranically subjugating the linguistic will of the people by restricting > their free use of cartoon icons, behind it all compelled by Silicon Valley > corporate greed, since the members of its technical committee include such > blue-chip tech companies as Apple, Google, Facebook and IBM.

This is bullshit. I just finished reading this book and Evans does nothing of the sort.

Evans is a respected linguist who takes his training and applies it to emoji. I also have some training in linguistics and the only thing that really bothered me about the book is that it wasn't academic enough. I thought it was a bit too pop-sci, but this just means it wasn't written with people like me in mind. It was written for a more lay audience and that's OK. Evans does a very good job of explaining complex subjects to people without any prior exposure to academic linguistics. In general, The Emoji Code is a good book. I just would have preferred something a bit deeper.

The real strength in Evans book for me was his discussion of Emoji's metonymic and metaphorical qualities. This helped me place it in a context of what I already knew in cog-ling. But I'm really digressing here. It's a good book for a non-academic audience. And this review is kinda click baity.

</comment><comment><USER3> "What are letters?"

"Kinda like mediaglyphs except they're all black, and they're tiny, they don't move, they're old and boring and really hard to read."

\-- The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)

<comment><USER4> Read that book just as use of emoji stuff started becoming visible in my circles. Made this quote feel like an intensely accurate predictive statement at the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I mean, maybe I'm alone here, but I find it a little upsetting we can't have country-specific variants of Chinese characters because it'd take up too much code space, but we can have a gazillion emoji.

</comment><comment><USER6> > Both Evans and Danesi set out to explain [...] why we can ignore naysayers > who cite them as another example of the erosion of standards.

The use of inline pictographs to enrich the text is not bad by itself and actually well supported by their arguments. We had them in instant messengers and chatting systems for a long time. But it is a completely different matter to put them into the Unicode standard.

The original set of Emoji was highly culture-dependent (for examle there had been only 10 country flags, as those were the most relevant countries to Japaneses---Unicode correctly recognized this problem and yet picked a bad solution!), defined by glyphs and not by its supposed meaning unlike most scripts in Unicode (that's still true today, and we are still suffering from different Emoji glyphs for multiple vendors), and could be very quickly declining in use for whatever reason (like emoticons trending and declining).

So Emoji is quite unsuitable for encoding without a compelling reason. Here the compelling reason turned out to be the interoperability with Japanese carriers [1], and that's why Emoji is an inevitable but ugly addition to the Unicode standard. I feel it is correct to claim both that (the contemporary usage of) Emoji is a great cultural trend and that (the Unicode addition of) Emoji is absurd.

[1] The original proposal [http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09025r2-emoji.pdf](http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09025r2-emoji.pdf) is very clear in this regard.

<comment><USER7> > Unicode correctly recognized this problem and yet picked a bad solution

What do you dislike about their solution?

> Emoji is an inevitable but ugly addition of the Unicode standard

In fairness, Unicode has long had emoticons. Emoji merely expanded its repertoire.

<comment><USER6> > What do you dislike about their solution?

Regional indicators (two of them compose to a flag Emoji) can make many Unicode operations inefficient. For example in the grapheme cluster segmentation it should pair two regional indicators [1], so with a very long run of regional indicators it is impossible to partially apply the segmentation (which is often the case). There really should have been two pairs of regional indicators, the first used for the first letter and the second used for the second letter---just like surrogate pairs.

[1] [http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/tr29-31.html#GB12](http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/tr29-31.html#GB12)

> In fairness, Unicode has long had emoticons. Emoji merely expanded its > repertoire.

Well, Unicode also has dingbats for the compatibility. I don't blame the Unicode consortium for the decision. I do blame those nasty Japanese carriers for permanently harming the Unicode standard though :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There are way too many emoji, but Unicode can handle them. We need to keep them out of things that have to be typed correctly - domain names, URLs, usernames, passwords, and variable names. Other than that, they're harmless, except that everything now has to handle the astral planes. Most of the emoji are 3-byte Unicode characters.

How are IOS 11 animated emoji encoded for transmission?

<comment><USER9> Huh. What do you mean by "3-byte Unicode characters"?

<comment><USER10> An example is UTF-8, where code points are encoded in 1 to 4 8-bit bytes. You can read more about UTF-8 here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Description](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Description)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Reading this article I got reminded of Google's hairy heart emoji... [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/yellow- heart/](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/yellow-heart/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Archived copy, which can be read without JS enabled:

[https://archive.is/tID3G](https://archive.is/tID3G)</comment>


EBay Inc. To Ask All eBay Users To Change Passwords - <AUTHOR> https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/PayPal-Forward/eBay-Inc-To-Ask-All-eBay-Users-To-Change-Passwords/ba-p/815276

<comment><USER2> Since I never knew that "www.paypal-community.com" existed, I checked the basics:

      $ nslookup www.paypal-community.com
      Server:         22.214.171.124
      Address:        126.96.36.199#53

      Non-authoritative answer:
      www.paypal-community.com        canonical name = ppl.lithium.com.
      Name:   ppl.lithium.com
      Address: 220.127.116.11

      $ whois paypal-community.com
      Registrant Name: Host Master
      Registrant Organization: PayPal Inc.
      Registrant Street: 2211 North First Street
      Registrant City: San Jose
      Registrant State/Province: CA
      Registrant Postal Code: 95131
      Registrant Country: US
      Registrant Phone: +1.4083767400
      Registrant Phone Ext:
      Registrant Fax:
      Registrant Fax Ext:
      Registrant Email: email@example.com

      $ whois 126.96.36.199
      NetRange:       18.104.22.168 - 220.127.116.11
      CIDR:           220.127.116.11/22
      OriginAS:
      NetName:        LITHIUM-NET1
      NetHandle:      NET-208-74-204-0-1
      Parent:         NET-208-0-0-0-0
      NetType:        Direct Assignment
      RegDate:        2007-02-09
      Updated:        2012-02-24
      Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-208-74-204-0-1
      OrgName:        Lithium Technologies, Inc.
      OrgId:          LITHI
      Address:        225 Bush Street
      Address:        15th floor
      City:           San Francisco
      StateProv:      CA
      PostalCode:     94104
      Country:        US
      RegDate:        2007-01-04
      Updated:        2014-02-25
      Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/LITHI
      ...

And of course: [http://www.networking4all.com/en/support/tools/site+check/re...](http://www.networking4all.com/en/support/tools/site+check/report/?fqdn=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paypal- community.com&protocol=https)

Many pages on paypal-community.com have a "Powered By Lithium" banner, so they seem to be the folks who wrote the "community forum" software.

[http://www.lithium.com/](http://www.lithium.com/)

And they're mentioned in the paypal privacy policy:

[https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy- full](https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full)

<comment><USER3> You can put anything you like in the WHOIS database.

<comment><USER2> Of course it's easy to forge whois data, but that's why you also check the IP address, ASN, SSL Cert, ...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I got e-mail from eBay yesterday (Tuesday), saying that there had been suspicious activity on my account, and that the account was locked, until I changed the password. I haven't bought anything on eBay in a few years. The message said that any charges that my account had incurred had been reversed.

It's probably a sign of the times that I was _sure_ that this was a phishing message. I checked it a whole bunch of ways before deciding that yes, I should change my eBay password. Even so, rather than click on a link in the e-mail message, I went to ebay.com in my browser, and went through the procedure to change my password.

I checked the activity log for my account, and it didn't show anything. So I'm still not sure if this means my account was broken into or used.

If everyone is indeed being asked to change their passwords, then the message I received was a bad way to say it.

</comment><comment><USER5> For those having trouble navigating Ebay's dashboards to find out how to change the password, here's a link to the page that describes how to do that:

[http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/change- password.html](http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/change-password.html)

And the direct link:

[https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ChangePasswordAndCr...](https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ChangePasswordAndCreateHint)

<comment><USER6> What is the point of ebay redirecting HTTPS versions of their site to an HTTP version? They have an EV cert and everything for the login page. Is it spite?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> At the time of posting this to HN the body of the post said simply "Placeholder text."

<comment><USER7> Still says it. It's on the article index as well:

[https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/PayPal- Forward/bg-p/PPFW...](https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/PayPal- Forward/bg-p/PPFWD)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Have changed my eBay password right away just in case this is something major.

However, the paypal password change screen is not responding and returning a blank screen. Terrible!

<comment><USER8> Me too. I've noticed that finding the "change password" option on eBay is always really hard.

On PayPal, it's got really annoying Javascripts that stop you copying and pasting passwords. I use a password manager, so all my passwords are random and unique.

<comment><USER9> I edited the 'value' attribute of the input elements and pasted my password there. Maximum of 20 chars also :\

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In case they fix it before the rest of HN wakes up[0].

[0] [http://i.imgur.com/O5jLGsm.png](http://i.imgur.com/O5jLGsm.png)

<comment><USER11> Full site archive: [http://archive.today/ZXNa8](http://archive.today/ZXNa8)

<comment><USER10> You definitely one-upped me here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Now confirmed by a press release:

[http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140521005813/en/eBay...](http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140521005813/en/eBay- To%C2%A0Ask-eBay-Users-Change-Passwords)

</comment><comment> jmac-sjc So, will the Board of Directors hold anyone accountable to ?millions? of records being stolen (they have 128 million possible)? For now no CC info was believed lost, but they likely don't have any way to know unless they see fraudulent usage...

</comment><comment><USER12> I just made a PayPal account just the other day.

Now I'm really glad that I used `makepasswd --chars 20`, even though I had to paste the password into the input element's value with Inspect Element.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you make people change their password there is some chance people just won't do it and won't ever use eBay again... Bye!

<comment><USER14> The cost of fraudulent activity is probably much higher than the missed revenue from those people.

<comment><USER13> I dunno.

My wife quit using eBay when her Paypal account got locked out and she'd have to send a fax to unlock it.

I quit using eBay because the auctions stopped and it wasn't possible to get good deals anymore. The AMZN marketplace works better for most of what I buy and if I want something funky there is always etsy.

This is just one more step in eBay's slow decline.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There is no information here at all. Flagged.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's just silly. The headline, the subject matter and the fact that it's on a company domain all add up to plenty of information. The fact that it appears to have been prematurely posted adds more interest.

<comment><USER3> It's speculation with no information at all. This isn't HN Rumors, and that link doesn't even go to a tweet - it goes to a page full of no information.

<comment><AUTHOR> Again, it is a very clear message that impacts millions of people and is hosted on a page belonging to the company. There may not be as much information as you'd like, but there's nothing speculative about it.

<comment><USER3> It's an unclear message that impacts nobody until it is confirmed. Don't fearmonger.

Edit: they've removed your temporary page now: "The message you are trying to access is not available."

<comment><USER15> They've posted it to their corporate site:

[http://www.ebayinc.com/in_the_news/story/ebay-inc-ask- ebay-u...](http://www.ebayinc.com/in_the_news/story/ebay-inc-ask-ebay-users- change-passwords)

<comment><USER3> Yeah, and now it becomes news.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>