Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display - <AUTHOR> https://public-sans.digital.gov/ <comment><USER2> This is so interesting. These modern sites clash really hard with my mental visual of "Government technology." And it led me to this, which is maybe even more interesting: [https://federalist.18f.gov/](https://federalist.18f.gov/)

<comment><USER3> Yup. I run Federalist at 18F and absolutely love the work, the challenge and colleagues.

We do everything in the open, so feel free to follow our work here: [https://github.com/18F/federalist](https://github.com/18F/federalist)

We also implement the USWDS, which you can follow here: [https://github.com/18F/federalist-uswds- jekyll](https://github.com/18F/federalist-uswds-jekyll)

Let me know if you have any questions!

<comment><USER4> >> Let me know if you have any questions!

If this is meant for web sites, I have a question and I ask this on HN a lot. Why does the government need to provide ANY fonts? I have a real problem with websites pushing their own fonts on users. I don't think it's their place. Users should select their preferred font in their own browser. Why would a US government site feel the need to use particular fonts?

If this is for publishing in .pdf format I can understand. If it's for web, I just don't get it.

<comment><USER5> Because ~no users curate their fonts, and making your site look better for the ~all users who don't curate their own fonts is the better more pragmatic choice by such a large margin that it isn't really worth much thought.

Does this negatively affect your experience? Can't you override fonts if you want to?

Edit: note, I'm not the person the question was directed at, and have no connection to the federalist project at all.

<comment><USER6> Every time I've visited a site where I thought, oh that's a terrible font, it's been basically one of these reasons:

      * Improper selection of default font for constrained display eg tabular
      * Or the more popular "Let's create a font because we can.  It's branding."

There are of course other considerations involved like the increasing diversity of rendering devices, but that doesn't make the fact that any web site font issue is nearly always the fault of the web site operator.

I can't recall any instance of "oh, that website with a great custom font is so appealing I'm going regularly and voraciously consume its content". The opposite of that is true though.

<comment><USER7> I know there have been a couple of occurrences where I dropped into the web dev tools to see which font a site was using because they used beautifully, fitting fonts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Before I submit a bug report-- is there a good reason that the zero isn't dotted in this font?

For example, executive order numbers have both "O" and "0" appearing in them. But I'm sure there are stronger examples in various gov't depts. where those characters can occur in sequence and create errors. Not to mention any code snippets that already appear in government web sites.

I suppose the extra ink could be a concern, but we should be moving away from paper printouts anyway. And as we do that, extinguishing a small dot in this great nation's zeros would be an important symbolic first step in combating climate change.

<comment><USER9> Usually these are available as "alternates", can be enabled in system text dialog on MacOS, also through css. (Not on desktop right now so can't check).

<comment><USER8> It appears CSS only has an alternate for slashed zero.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The github page has more info [https://github.com/uswds/public- sans/blob/master/README.md#d...](https://github.com/uswds/public- sans/blob/master/README.md#design-principles)

</comment><comment><USER11> Why does the "j" have a larger dot than the "i"? Is there any reason for this? It just looks like an error to me.

<comment><USER11> Filed, and got a response right away!

[https://github.com/uswds/uswds/issues/3024](https://github.com/uswds/uswds/issues/3024)

<comment><USER12> This is amazing. What is this - a startup?!

<comment><USER13> U.S. gov't! [https://designsystem.digital.gov/](https://designsystem.digital.gov/)

article: [https://digital.gov/2019/04/08/introducing- uswds-2/](https://digital.gov/2019/04/08/introducing-uswds-2/)

<comment><USER14> so a start up, on series Z and going... :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What is the advantage of this over Open Sans? Is it less encumbered legally? Or are there other advantages? Or is it simply another alternative, which is also great.

<comment><USER16> Yes, Open Sans is under the Apache License while Public Sans should be under Public Domain (although this is a bit unclear and is being debated in the github issues).

<comment><USER17> While that's a great reason in the US, internationally unless it's under the CC0 or similar the Apache License is actually preferable to Public Domain (assigning things to public domain is not trivial or even possible everywhere)

<comment><USER18> Can someone release their work in the public domain, and also license it under the Apache License?

<comment><USER17> Sure. In any country without a concept of releasing something into public domain the fact that you did so would be irrelevant and the Apache License would apply, in any country where you successfully released it into public domain that already gives all the rights granted by the Apache License. The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those countries.

Though if you try such legal tricks you may as well use the CC0 [1], it's designed to emulate public domain as closely as possible in a way that's valid everywhere.

1: [https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public- domain/cc...](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/)

<comment><USER19> > The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those > countries.

How does this work? Can you 'dual license' with public domain?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The older I get, the more skeptical I become. Kudos to the author for releasing their project, it looks like a lot of effort went into it, so I hate to sound overly negative, but I just can't help wonder if there is a practical reason for the US government to develop its own font?

Is Sans Serif Fonts the department where the US government can really make a difference, or is this just a designer who happened to get a job with the US government and designed a font because they always wanted to and now they got the opportunity?

<comment><USER21> Why bother having an architect of the Capitol, then? Why bother building government buildings out of stone when wood is cheaper? Appearances matter: would you want to do your taxes with Comic Sans?

<comment><USER20> The choice was never between Comic Sans or New Government Font.

There are a plethora of established sans serif typefaces available under various licenses, as seen on this page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sans_serif_typefaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sans_serif_typefaces)

These have existed well before someone said "let's create Public Sans!". It would be nice to know what the reasoning was. The Github page only goes into the details of how Public Sans is different from Libre Franklin.

<comment><USER22> Many (most?) of those typefaces are commercially licensed, and can't serve as a universal "default" for typography across all the USG's web properties. Additionally: almost none of them are in OS/browser font stacks, so using them would incur logistical problems in addition to licensing.

<comment><USER8> I don't understand your second point. Public Sans isn't in OS/browser font stacks, either. What makes its inclusion more likely than, say, a 15 year-old open source font like DejaVu Sans?

<comment><USER22> I took the parent comment to be saying, "look, there are all these preexisting sans typefaces, why not just take one of the ones on this list". The answer: because they'd have to arrange to pay, and to source them from the commercial services that make them available.

I agree that there are other typefaces they could use! I was mostly commenting on how a list of faces that includes Avenir, Univers, and FF Meta was probably not the best summary of the available options.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I've been wondering why all these new fonts tend to have a strong focus on sans serif font (Fira has no serif variant, Source Serif Pro came later than the other Source fonts). Aren't there a lot of situations (namely, lengthy legal documents) where you'd prefer a serif font before you want a sans serif?

<comment><USER24> Primarily because they focus on interfaces, not publishing. Serif is traditionally used for legibility of long text. Sans always wins for actual interface design (at least those with some manner of complexity) because it's much less visually distracting when used in a variety of weights and sizes. Interfaces tend to have much more mixed usage so we usually go with sans.

Generally just using the system font is fine for most UI interfaces and the only good reasons to change it are:

1\. You have a specific branding style you need to achieve (this is becoming rare) 2\. Your interface has pixel perfect user created content where the difference in font to font usage between OSes / Browsers would cause actual breaks in layouts from user to user.

I run into the later often, and so we end up picking a neutral style font like this because it's the closest thing to a generic "system font" like Roboto or San Francisco that has a friendlier license.

Personally I prefer Inter UI [https://rsms.me/inter/](https://rsms.me/inter/)

<comment><USER25> Thanks for the link! I've been looking for a free-as-in-beer, good-looking font family with tabular numbers and had pretty much given up on hope. Inter UI is fantastic!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Good choice to base this on Franklin Gothic. Given that IRS tax forms already use it, it's effectively been part of the US government's "brand identity" for a long time.

</comment><comment><USER27> AUR package for easy install on Arch: [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf- public-sans/](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf-public-sans/)

</comment><comment><USER28> The question neither this page nor the GitHub answers is... why? I understand a lot of corporations did their own fonts to escape font licensing. Is there fonts the government is currently licensing and trying to get out from under? Where will I see this font? Is there a reason other open source fonts weren't already adequate?

<comment><USER29> A typeface is a key part of an organization's visual identity.

A typeface expresses many things, you can imagine it as different sliders along, say, 100 different dimensions, similar to songs expressing combinations of feelings.

An off-the-shelf typeface will express things that are close to exactly what you're looking for, but almost never exactly 100%. Commissioning a font gives you _exactly_ the visual identity you're looking for, zero compromises.

Additionally, distinctiveness/uniqueness has its own value too -- corporations commission typefaces so no other brand will share the same identity. For a large nation-state, that carries the same value.

(Although, unlike a company like Microsoft or IBM, I'm not sure if the US Government can prevent any private company from using it?)

<comment><USER30> In this case, the most powerful nation-state on Earth established its exact visual identity by forking a font from an Argentinian dude whose last pic on Instagram is of Ernesto "Che" Guevara x)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I appreciate the tailed 'l'.

<comment><USER32> Did you say the tailed I? ;-)

<comment><USER33> I think he said tailed "|".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Interesting that this web site uses a Let's Encrypt certificate. I suppose it saves the maintainers from being gouged by a beltway bandit charging thousands to monitor and then update an ordinary CA-issued certificate.

<comment><USER35> (I work for 18F but don't officially represent it here.)

The site is hosted via Federalist ([https://federalist.18f.gov/](https://federalist.18f.gov/)) a SaaS which runs on top of sibling Platform as a Service cloud.gov ([https://cloud.gov](https://cloud.gov)), which is based on Cloud Foundry. (Think of cloud.gov as "government-compliant and -operated Heroku" and you're not too far off.)

One of the benefits of using cloud.gov is that it automatically brokers and renews certs from Let's Encrypt... Math is math, and there's no sense spending taxpayer money where we don't have to! Here's the page about it, including a link to the broker source at the bottom: [https://cloud.gov/docs/services/cdn- route/](https://cloud.gov/docs/services/cdn-route/)

Both are operated by 18F ([https://18f.gsa.gov](https://18f.gsa.gov))... We're all feds! If anyone is interested in joining us check out [https://18f.gsa.gov/join/](https://18f.gsa.gov/join/)

<comment><USER36> I'm very curious your thoughts about the NTE clause of employment stating you can only work there a maximum of four years. And you are initially hired for a set two year term.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I think this is really beautiful.

<comment><USER38> > I think this is really beautiful.

Different strokes (literally). I quite dislike it. In my mind this font lacks symmetry and consistency needed to be easily readable. Especially how the curved base appears to drop below the flat base! It hurts my eyes.

<comment><USER39> You mean how e.g. the base of "o" drops below the base of "r"? That's standard optical compensation because if you make them level, the curved base seems to sit higher than the flat base. The amount of compensation needed differs depending on point size.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Interesting take: Does Public Sans' OFL-1.1 license violate the Establishment Clause?

[https://github.com/uswds/public- sans/issues/31](https://github.com/uswds/public-sans/issues/31)

<comment><USER16> It definitely doesn't. His argument kinda relies on the idea that the government interacting with a religious organization in any manner is a violation. This is just not the case

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> What do "strong" and "neutral" mean in this context?

<comment><USER42> Inspired by Helvetica. I'm not being facetious.

For example, this is a "strong" face, but it's not "neutral".

[https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/this-brutalist-inspired- stencil...](https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/this-brutalist-inspired-stencil-font- looks-just-as-good-on-a-wall-as-it-does-a-book-cover/)

Also strong, and not neutral.

[https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/use-this-brick-of-a-typeface- wh...](https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/use-this-brick-of-a-typeface-when-you- need-to-make-a-point/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> You know that something that says it's neutral is always anything but.

Very readable, and it screams "America" which makes sense given who made it.

<comment><USER44> Does it? To my admittedly untutored eye the first impression is Helvetica aka Switzerland, although it's not quite as stripped down: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica)

This, on the other hand, screams America: [https://www.dafont.com/american- captain.font](https://www.dafont.com/american-captain.font)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I can only imagine the hours of meetings and deliberation that went into developing a one-size-fits-all, cross agency font. That meets all sorts of weird political and accessibility guidelines.

Still, it only has to be done once! I'm a huge fan of what the USWDS has done so far. I love the model of an internal tech resource for the government.

</comment><comment><USER46> Check out the Digital Services Act, a current bill going through congress to throw some gas on efforts like this: [https://www.wired.com/story/kamala- harris-digital-services-a...](https://www.wired.com/story/kamala-harris- digital-services-act-2019/)

</comment><comment><USER47> I am really impressed with 18F and how the federal government has really stepped up their game on the digital/open source front.

It does make me wonder though if the usage rights of these projects should be restricted to use by US taxpayers though since that is who is ultimately paying for this work.

<comment><USER48> You could say the same thing about the UK government's equivalent, which I would argue is somewhat of an influence on 18F (though I'm not an insider). They actively open source their work, this being a great example of it: [https://github.com/alphagov](https://github.com/alphagov)

I don't think that 18F and US taxpayers lose out on anything by open sourcing this. It builds a lot of good will and they are probably using systems that have been contributed to by others as well.

<comment><USER49> I like some of the NHS Digital work too. They have some interesting blogs, eg this: [https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/transformation- blog/2019/icons-a...](https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/transformation- blog/2019/icons-avoid-temptation-and-start-with-user-needs)

<comment><USER50> Thanks for sharing, I didn't know about this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Fantastic font. I've long seen Helvetica (literally meaning "Swiss" with one added letter) used in official US forms, communication and the like. If this becomes the "US brand" and replaces Helvetica as a national font, it's a really great choice.

<comment><USER52> Is it just me or is the kerning in "typeface" a bit off? It looks like ty- peface. (Chrome,Mac)

<comment><USER53> Came here to say the same thing. The kerning looks wrong somehow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> Just installed it as my system UI font under Linux (previously I was using B612, and before that CMU Sans). Took me by surprise how readable it is even at small sizes.

I just wish there was a monospaced variant/equivalent so I can run it in my terminal/Emacs windows.

</comment><comment><USER55> Looks decent, but "I" "O" and "0" could be improved.

<comment><USER56> Improved for what use case? This is not a font I'd expect anyone to write code in (to each his own, however.) Context will determine how a particular character is read.

<comment><USER57> Governments frequently publish references in which accurate literal transcription is necessary; law, regulation, and (legal) code references, identifiers, and the like.

1lO05S and other commonly-confused characters are best clearly distinguished.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Is it legal for the federal government to specify a font license other than "This is released into the public domain"? They automatically give up all copyright upon publication, which ought to exhaust any licensing terms.

<comment><USER59> How is the USWDS specifying a font license? It's a derivative work, so the license comes from upstream.

<comment><USER58> If a license is granted to a work and the US government accepts that license and then publishes derivatives of that work, the US government releases its derivatives into the public domain without regard for the original licensing, as they have complied with the terms of the license _to_ them and have no legal right to encumber their fork with _any_ restrictions. Licenses depend on copyright, without which they are unenforceable, and the government is prohibited from copyrighting any work. The license clause should, therefore, be invalid and unenforceable upon any derivatives of this work, regardless of the accidental inclusion of it.

My idea is being hashed out on their GitHub, though sadly I suspect they'll need lawyers to advise them rather than HN commenters such as I: [https://github.com/uswds/public- sans/issues/30](https://github.com/uswds/public-sans/issues/30)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> No FVAR version mentioned on the website? (If there isn't one: it's rather entirely worth converting your different masters into a single FVAR master instead)

</comment><comment><USER61> Arial's always looked fine to me... I don't know why this wheel needs to keep being reinvented.

<comment><USER62> Aesthetics and flaws aside, Arial is a proprietary font.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> Nice lowercase L... first thing I look for in a font!

|Il nonsense is unacceptable, but I have to deal with it all the time.

</comment><comment><USER64> What if the progression ends up being:

1\. Publicly-funded font(s) created

2\. Use on govt websites grows

3\. Publicly-funded CDN used for said govt site assets

4\. Other, non-govt sites use said font(s)

5\. Govt becomes asset host for web basics across thousands of non-govt sites

This may be another step in CDN lifecycle of startup --> megacorp --> commoditization --> govt service.

<comment><USER65> Why would we go beyond step 2? As a taxpayer, I could buy the argument that the govt needs a new font, and that, having made one, it should make said font available for free so taxpayers can get the benefit.

I don't see why my taxes should fund a public CDN, though.

<comment><USER54> It's possible (probable, even) that the government would want to use a CDN for static assets (like fonts) for the same reasons that sufficiently-large private orgs would want to use a CDN for static assets.

In that case, it's also possible (probable, even) that some particularly- lazily-developed smaller sites would simply point to those same CDNs instead of hosting things themselves (much like how quite a few sites point toward CDN-hosted versions of jQuery and FontAwesome and such).

The only remaining step would then be for that taxpayer-funded CDN to cache any and all taxpayer-funded static assets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> It is sad that any nice font looks like crap with Windows font rendering.

<comment><USER67> Windows does not have crap font rendering, Windows has advanced hinting support that varies by typeface and is infinitely customizable. Other operating systems apply a global hinting that typically discards the font designer's own preferences for how the font should look (especially at smaller scales).

Fonts without that manual hinting look like crap on Windows because Windows does not force through its own rendering/hinting/kerning overrides.

And all that is probably besides the point: if you're referring to how the fonts are rendered within a webpage, all the major browsers use their own custom rendering via one (finely tuned) set of parameters and interfaces for macOS/Linux/etc and another (rudimentary) for Windows. And most webfonts do not include any sort of hinting instructions in the payload, so even if the original typeface had manual hinting and would render well on a proper type engine normally, when served over the web even to a browser doing things right it'll still appear horrible.

In case you didn't know, Microsoft is _really_ big on typography, and has commissioned a number of incredibly beautiful typefaces that render perfectly under Windows (and other operating systems).

<comment><USER54> I don't think I've seen a single typeface that actually looks good on Windows 8 or later, though. Even Linux does a better job (with or without subpixel rendering).

Maybe I just haven't viewed enough fonts on recent Windows versions to have encountered the better examples, though; are there any fonts (to your knowledge) that do look especially good on Windows (and/or better than they do on macOS or a FreeType-using Unix-like OS)?

<comment><USER68> [https://abload.de/img/tmpxwk2y.png](https://abload.de/img/tmpxwk2y.png) this is Verdana on Windows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> [https://github.com/google/fonts/issues/1923](https://github.com/google/fonts/issues/1923)

</comment><comment><USER38> I dislike it! Especially how the curved base appears to drop below the flat base!

In my mind this font lacks symmetry and consistency needed to be easily readable. It hurts my eyes.

</comment><comment><USER70> Hinting is all jacked up in Chrome on OSX.

</comment><comment><USER71> Nice font!

</comment><comment><USER72> Sans is overused. Please do not use (or carefully consider before using) sans fonts for long blocks of text you expect people to read.[1]

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soYKFWqVVzg#t=34m53s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soYKFWqVVzg#t=34m53s)

"I disagree, I like sans [for long prose] better" comments miss the point; this is not an anecdata competition, it's about _how many_ people prefer each one (and also it would be worth considering _how strongly_ they hold that preference, since mildly pissing off even a slight majority of your readers/customers is better than _really_ pissing off a smaller percentage). Even if you're skeptical of the studies Mayer looked at, Google (literata) and Amazon (bookerly) seem to be in the serif camp. Do you think Amazon made a mistake, too?

<comment><USER73> That's a pretty disgusting video description...

<comment><USER74> The fact that you're getting downvoted ... god the people in this industry..</comment></comment></comment>


Frictionless, free and private sharing between devices - <AUTHOR> https://copypaste.me <comment><USER2> In "Manually", I can get the URL [https://copypaste.me/connect](https://copypaste.me/connect) and a secret 6 letters code and in "Invite" I get and a long thing that looks like a hash [https://copypaste.me/ws9k5hr481xv0vns6nk6v7dn1pABCXYZ](https://copypaste.me/ws9k5hr481xv0vns6nk6v7dn1pABCXYZ) (I changed the last letters, just in case).

I expected to get the plain URL and the URL with the hash in the same tab.

Also, the countdowns says 4.9 minutes that is fine for me, but it is weird for most people.

And does the QR expire after some time? Why not also 5 minutes and a refresh button?

I think this is good for a snippet of code or something, but I'd be very afraid to use it to send a password.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Thanks for your comments. The QR and manual code refresh automatically every two minutes. I'm however not showing that near the QR because UX wise that didn't make sense, since you only have to scan it so for most users there not really a need to know how long it's still valid. The invite-code (the hash) expires in 5 minutes I'm refreshing it every two minutes. I agree by the way on '4.9' looking a bit weird. Will fix that soon! FYI - For security purpose, I'm considering two devices a 'pair' which only allows two devices to connect to each other. If someone somehow does manage to connect a third device, all screen immediately drop their connection and turn red to notify the user(s) of a possible breach. No data it transferred from that point on. Furthermore, the tokens are there to connect the two devices (usually it's two of your own devices or you device and that of a friend, colleague or relative to know is on the other side). After connection the devices exchange public keys and the data is encrypted and transferred solely between those two devices. QUESTION: I don't fully understand what you mean by 'I expected to get the plain URL and the URL with the hash in the same tab'. Do you mean when clicking on the link '/connect' in the interface it should open in the same tab? (if so: I agree as well, and will correct that. Was a leftover from development)

<comment><USER2> I wanted something like this, (sorry for the horrible redesign) [https://imgur.com/a/uzywliW](https://imgur.com/a/uzywliW)

Where you can get the 6 leter code or the full link in the same tab.

I'd not remove the option to get the link from the invite tab, anyway.

Also, I thin it's not what you expect, but this can be used to share date between two persons. It's not obvious how to get to the /connect page if you get the 6 letters code by phone. Perhaps add some big button for that case? Like the manual tab, but it says "receive"??

PS: To separate paragraph here, remember to use a blank line.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yes, I understand now thanks. Will have to think a bit about a proper UX for such a toggle, but I like the suggestion (also the 'receive' hint).

Question: In your earlier comment you mention that it doesn't feel safe to share things like passwords yet. I'm aiming to make the service as trustworthy as possible. For instance, I offer it from within a foundation (so no profit goals, VC money or anything) and I open sourced the code so people can check for themselves what the code is doing and if I'm keeping my word about statements concerning privacy and zero-knowledge etc. Would you have any suggestions for me that can help to build the trust required for a service like this?

p.s. blank line, got it! I'm clearly a newbie here :p

<comment><USER2> I think you won't be able to convince me to use this for passwords until the site is very big and well known.

I tried it anyway with some dummy words. It is nice the sign to remember to clean the clipboard.

<comment><AUTHOR> I get that. Will work on making it big and well known then :p Till later, cheers!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> CopyPaste.me helps you when you need to send a password, text snippet or file from one phone, laptop or tablet to another device. No more painstakingly typing in your password character by character, sending yourself pieces of text via email or having to look for a USB stick. As long as you have a browser, you are ready to start sharing data between devices.</comment>


Ask HN: What is your experience with 'doing something' daily challenges? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious what are results, your experiences with daily blogging, taking photos, drawing etc. challanges. How long have you tried it, any suprising results, did the end results of this process met your expectations? <comment><USER2> I've been having a good experience with duolingo so far. The lessons are short enough to not impose, and the difficulty curve is very low, so I don't dread getting everything wrong. I've been at it for two months, and have never missed more than one day at a time. I doubt I'll ever achieve fluency with the app alone, but I'd feel comfortable as a tourist.

This is somewhat surprising to me, as I've tried (and failed) to build a daily habit of journaling and mindful meditation, but they never stuck for more than a couple weeks, despite only being 10 minutes a day.

<comment><USER3> I was also thinking of Duolingo as a really successful example of this. My daily commitment is less than 5 minutes, but I often end up doing some extra once I get started.

Language learning is particularly good for the "little bit every day" method, because I find that I can only retain a little bit of new information in a single session (so there's no point in studying for an hour straight), but daily repetition really helps it sink into my long-term memory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I get up every day. I go to work every day. I listen to music that I like every day. I make music. I make things every day. I write code every day. I manage people every day. I care about my family every day.

The hardest thing for me every day is actually caring about anything. Because I don't really care. I pretend to care. But I don't really.

Because I don't want to be here. I'm just stuck.

<comment><USER5> This really resonated. I wish I knew a term for "everything is just fine (objectively great, even), but I couldn't care less."

<comment><USER4> Hi kjax,

Listen, if you want to talk, I'm all ears. You can email me or you can even call me. I don't have answers. I really don't. But I'm more than happy to talk about questions. Or anything, really.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've been writing Morning Pages (3 x A4 pages, hand-written) every day for almost three years. Sometimes I do them in the afternoon or evening, or right before bed.

Sometimes I'll only do one page, sometimes ten... A month or two ago I spent a month writing about 20 pages a day of "morning pages" after a few intense experiences.

After a month or so I didn't need to think about it any more, and now I can't imagine not doing it. Every morning, wake up, make coffee, write, then start the day. I find my life is richer and deeper as a result.

<comment><USER7> I've a question: Do you limit your topics or simply write whatever you are thinking about? Do you set a timer?

<comment><USER6> Good question! Neither. I write whatever is on my mind, it changes day-to-day. It's sometimes logical, rational things, plans for the day or week or a project, and sometimes it's dream recall from the night before, or pennies that have dropped, sometimes it's stream-of-consciousness, nonsense, or just fiction. I'll usually shift between these and page 2-3 tend to be more 'out there' and get to the deeper stuff going on in my life. I don't set a timer, but the process generally takes 25-30 minutes on an average day.

The key is to write without editing and as much as possible, without stopping to think or read.

I learnt about the practice in The Artist's Way about 3 years ago. I think this is the most up-to-date website about it: [http://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning- pages/](http://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/)

<comment><USER7> Thanks! I might have to give this a try. I've been considering writing more, and this seems like it would be fitting for me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I was doing the 750 words writing challenge for several months. ([http://750words.com/](http://750words.com/) for example.) It was pleasant, and I used it as a good time to write explicitly about things I was thinking about. I used it to make a lot of self-evaluations (eg: which purchases have I made recently were worthwhile and which were not? What does that tell me about what I should buy in the future? The answer for me was that upgrades weren't worth it unless there was significant frustration caused by the item it was upgraded. Going from an OK mouse to a nice one doesn't change anything even though it feels like it will. But going from a mouse where the right button doesn't register half the time to an OK mouse is worth it.)

I worry that it might have reinforced some thoughts I was having at the time that were counter-productive, and in the end opening up to a friend was more beneficial than writing about it. YMMV

</comment><comment><USER9> I wrote 1000 words a day for three months and had the rough draft of a novel to show for it. Felt pretty good, it was the combo of "get 1000 on the paper" and "it's ok if it's dog shit" that really helped me get it

</comment><comment><USER10> I decided to blog every day about my open source shell project, and I did it for 10 days straight at first, and was doing it multiple times a week for over a month.

It helped me break up a lot of longer articles I wanted to write into daily "deadlines". In that sense it was a success; it took significant work but I got in the rhythm.

I've only blogged once in the last week, but that's because I mostly wrote about what I wanted to. Now I have to do some more coding in order to have things to write about.

I just checked the logs and people seem to be still reading it despite the fact that I haven't promoted it lately. And I've gotten some e-mails and feedback about it, so I think it went well. Next step is to set up a comments section.

[http://www.oilshell.org/blog/](http://www.oilshell.org/blog/)

</comment><comment><USER11> I have started this yesterday : 30 Day Vanilla JS Coding Challenge [0]. Learning vanilla JS with some pretty cool projects.

I have also had a lot of free time lately so I have tried to build a few small things: simple web applications, IoT, crytpo experiments, hybrid mobile apps...

It is useful to keep busy...

[0] [https://javascript30.com/](https://javascript30.com/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Some years ago I started drawing or painting every day. 15 minutes some days, hours on others. I've always done artwork, but never quite been this prolific. It wasn't really a formal thing to begin with, just something I started doing one day.

And am quite happy with the results.

My art improved and is probably more creative. Not only that, but I started taking more risks and moving out of my comfort zone. Some days, I just don't know what to draw when I'm staring at the paper - like writers block. But I make a few lines anyway and see what I can build from there.

I don't know if I'm surprised at results or not, just pleased.

<comment><USER12> As someone with no artistic talent, I would love to see the improvements. I myself would like to do something similar. Can you upload your before and after arts that you have made?

<comment><USER7> Somewhat - I don't keep dated picture files. And keep in mind, I started oil painting at 8 years old, taken as much instruction as I could, and sold and stuff, so what you and I would see as improvement might differ quite a bit. Plus as a beginner, you wind up with different sorts of improvement goals.

But nevertheless, three links. I've only started with watercolors a few years ago, about the same time I started doing daily art, so some of this is learning to control it properly. The first link was near the beginning, the second quite a bit later, and the third being one of my most recent pictures.

[1][http://disgruntled- peon.deviantart.com/art/Untitled-60354744...](http://disgruntled- peon.deviantart.com/art/Untitled-603547440?q=Disgruntled- Peon%2F58548521&qo=54) [2] [http://disgruntled- peon.deviantart.com/art/Eyes-619929715?q=...](http://disgruntled- peon.deviantart.com/art/Eyes-619929715?q=Disgruntled-Peon%2F58548521&qo=16) [3][http://disgruntled-peon.deviantart.com/art/Fortunate- Sight-6...](http://disgruntled-peon.deviantart.com/art/Fortunate- Sight-632911986?q=Disgruntled-Peon%2F58548521&qo=8)

<comment><USER12> These are good. Nice job Man.

<comment><USER7> Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> From my experience .... for example daily writing improved my thinking and articulating ideas and thoughts.

Also design and making hardware staff with wood and steel improved my imagination and thinking about how things works.

You don't see overnight success...but if you compare your outcome from three of eight years ago you will see amazing difference in quality.

How long it take? It depends on area. Something can be mastered within hours, something within years. Do you know 10,000 hour rule? It is exactly what you are looking for.

So, answer is yes...practice makes perfect.

</comment><comment><USER14> My daily habits are one of the best parts of my life. Without them, I feel like I'm running in sand in life. With them, I feel like I have solid foundation to build on. With a few challenging ones, I feel like I'm building on bedrock.

I've coined the term _sidcha_ for Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity and written about the concept: [http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/self-imposed-daily- cha...](http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/self-imposed-daily-challenging- healthy-activity-sidcha-series)

My main challenging habits are

\- Burpees, daily

\- Blog posts, daily

\- Cold showers, every fourth day

I did my first set of daily burpees December 22, 2011 and haven't missed one since, so I'm about to enter my 6th year of that habit, nearing 80,000 cumulative burpees. I've written about it: [http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/burpees](http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/burpees)

I started posting daily on my blog, [http://joshuaspodek.com](http://joshuaspodek.com), in January 2011 and haven't missed a day since, so I'm about to enter my 7th year of that habit, nearing 2,500 cumulative posts. Here's an archive of all the posts: [http://joshuaspodek.com/archives](http://joshuaspodek.com/archives)

I took my first cold shower in December 2013. I did them daily for a month and every fourth day since, so I just started my 4th year of doing them regularly, nearing 300 of them cumulatively. My posts about it: [http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/cold-showers- rock#30-d...](http://joshuaspodek.com/js_blogseries/cold-showers-rock#30-days- cold-showers-review-lessons-discipline-pleasure)

Less challenging habits include things like brushing and flossing daily, cooking healthy meals daily, and others that aren't as remarkable, though I've done them longer. The last time I went to sleep without brushing my teeth would have been in college, which would be around 1990.

Come to think of it, if you count not eating meat as a habit, I've eaten no meat since 1990.

<comment><USER5> I was interested in reading more about your Burpee habit, but the email signup form was getting a bit obnoxious. When I scrolled down, the sticky header for the subscription box had the "X" offset under the scrollbar, making it tough to hide (Nexus 6P), and successive pages repeated the experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I ran every single day from August 27 - November 27.

First month 3 miles every day, then 5, then 7, then mix 5/7, then 10 everyday for over 10 days.

There are a lot of other "daily rituals" I have added in the past 6-9 months including vitamin supplements daily (fish oil, B (12 or energy complex); C; D). But what triggered the daily running was my discovery of raw, green vegetable juice and followed thereafter by daily eating of daily salad(s). Basically I attributed the ability to do the daily running with the daily juicing. I never felt so good so I just tried short runs everyday to start and kept adding miles, by the time I was doing 10 mile bridge runs back to back to back and not experiencing and aches/pains/soreness even I was curious how far I could take it (maybe train for my first ultra).

The only reason I stopped running daily was because of a stye that got badly infected, and I took about 10 days off. I am back running everyday so wish me luck.

<comment><USER16> If you feel like elaborating on the juice stuff you mentioned I'd like to know more (I'm hopeless with these things, trying to learn).

<comment><USER15> So I have been running and experimenting with different nutrition concepts to fuel, hydrate and recover from runs for 3 years.

Even though I settled on "caveman" for the most effective for me, I always felt I neglected vegetables (always opting for some version of cooked broccoli). Always trying to keep an open mind I watched 2 documentaries on netflix that encouraged me to broaden my horizons with vegetables. The one about juicing I will point to is "Fat, Sick and Dying". I'll admit I am about as skeptical about these things as anyone, and sure enough the documentary is kind of a PR piece, but there is also some good basic concepts and introduction to the possibilities. However, keep in mind there is a difference from drinking juice (what I do) and a juice cleanse (only drinking juice, which is what the documentary is about).

I could go on for hours about this stuff now, but the most important thing to note is I am still experimenting.

Edit:

My current juice routine: morning -water w/table spoon of chia seeds + black coffee + 4 oz almond/coconut milk blend + 4 oz Suja Uber Greens (the commercial coldpressed, raw, green juice I get). Before my run - 4 oz almond/coconut milk blend + 4 oz Suja Uber Greens and then the same again after my run. With that I routine I have eliminated all sports drinks, electrolyte water and pain/soreness from my life. I don't even need to hydrate on 10 mile runs anymore (though for 10+ miles I will drink a coconut water before the run). Obviously I eat and drink a lot more water throughout the day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Im vlogging everyday. Every. Day. Its hard. Not all content is great. But Im learning a lot and making progress. Results so far have been better than I thought. People are starting to engage my content. Ive also motivated others to vlog as well. You should try it.

</comment><comment><USER18> I've been learning french on Duolingo for a about a year now. Usually I take one or two 5 minute lessons per day for a week and then spend a week "strengthening skills" (reviewing old material). It says I am on 54% fluency atm.

A few weeks ago I tried going though a math course in french (Initiation à la théorie des distributions on Coursera) and was surprised that I actually managed to understand it. (although I have to listen to it at 1x speed and with french subtitles so it is much slower than leaning in english)

<comment><USER19> The issue I had with Duolingo is that after a while I had advanced to a point where the bulk of my time was spent reviewing past lessons which didn't leave much time for new lessons (which added to the burden of lessons to review). Perhaps I shouldn't have been worried about it but the gamification is quite effective at making me feel bad for not having all my lessons at 100%.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> For the last two years I have been doing well formed pull-ups almost everyday. I could not do a single pull-up on Dec 31, 2014. Today I can do 5 perfect formed pull-ups.

<comment><USER21> I don't mean to judge, because I don't know anything about your background or situation, but do you mean to say that it has taken 2 years to get to 5 pull- ups, and you've been doing them almost daily?

On the surface (again, without knowing you) that seems like slow progress.

Would you mind elaborating?

The reason I ask is that I too have just reached 5 and would like to hear about your journey.

<comment><USER7> I imagine it'd take me some time to do even one pull-up, as the first months would mostly be me hanging from a bar while I spent some time developing enough muscle to get myself up. Arm, shoulders, core muscles, good joints, and some coordination go into that one exercise.

Pull-ups are one of those 'difficult' exercises, and males have an easier go at it, actually.

Some further reading: [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women- cant-do-p...](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull- ups/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I make it a habit to program everyday. At least one git commit. Jerry Seinfeld was famous for using his Calendaring system of marking an X for everyday he committed to his challenge. "Don't break the chain!"

<comment><USER23> That's actually not true. You can google it for yourself about it but it is a 'myth'

<comment><USER10> How is it a myth? I'm pretty sure I read it in Seinfeld's actual biography.

[https://www.amazon.com/Seinlanguage-Jerry- Seinfeld/dp/055356...](https://www.amazon.com/Seinlanguage-Jerry- Seinfeld/dp/0553569155/ref=la_B000AP7J18_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481394055&sr=1-1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> For the past year, I have done a little bit of arithmetic with my son every day. Mostly from the Kumon series of books.

It's been a great activity to both spend time together and give him a handle on something most kids fear. I don't push him too hard but I am absolutely consistent here. We do a few add/sub/mul questions every day, and even though he gets to pick the number of questions, I pick that they are asked and eventually answered.

I don't want to humblebrag about how he's doing, but this was the best choice I could have made as a parent.

<comment><USER25> My dad used to play a game with me where he'd start listing out a long series of operations ("two.....times three.....plus four......" etc) and I'd try to keep up in my head and then shout out the answer. Try that, it's fun!

<comment><USER24> I like that! I think keeping things in the head is very important and a good way to build on stuff without increasing the scope of needed knowledge.

How did you guys handle parenthesis/precedence? Or more like a calculator I guess...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Had left my job over 4 years back and since then have been doing different things time to time. Freelancing, practicing different hobbies. But during this whole time despite achieving moderate success I lost my daily habits and routine. Realizing what was happening to me I have started to be very conscious of what I plan to do everyday and what I achieve. Something as small as cleaning my house to finishing up a trello task for my projects is absolutely worth it. It has not been very long yet but its motivating enough to take it far.

</comment><comment><USER27> I've meditated for the last 3 months. I've realized I'm much calmer around generally and can concentrate better on just one thing. I have a calendar on an A4 paper printed out and cross out each day when I meditate.

Since a new year is starting and I need a new calendar I've made a page that generates a calendar that you can print out. Maybe it's usefull for somebody [http://printchaincalendar.com/](http://printchaincalendar.com/)

</comment><comment><USER28> Rewarding, can be a little draining, easy to fall of the wagon. I did a processing sketch a day for 30 days. I time boxed it at 20 minutes, which always went over, but that was the target. It was invigorating to have a creative _task_ to do everyday. If I didn't do it in the morning, I'd think about it all day.

</comment><comment><USER29> I've been running 4km+ every day in December; planning to get over 1000km this year. Really looking forward to a day off now though.

All the treadmill sessions merge into one, sometimes I've mixed up the morning with the night before.

I thought it'd be easier - finding the time is the hard part.

</comment><comment><USER30> I've recently started following the routine described in the 'Miracle Morning' book (hate the name) and it's been pretty great.

I was adamant at first but turns out the benefits are there. Never before I've looked forward in waking up at 5am everyday.

<comment><USER28> This should be part of Jack Handy's book club! [http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/category/deepthought...](http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/category/deepthoughts/)

Joking aside, it is excellent to start the day with mindfulness and purpose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> The most positively life changing one for me was the Whole 30: [http://whole30.com/](http://whole30.com/)

<comment><USER32> This sounds pretty good. But I do love my grains and legumes.

<comment><USER33> Some of the restrictions in Whole 30 are silly, but for most programs like this, the main point is that the restrictions force you to change your habits. The details of the allowed and forbidden foods are almost irrelevant as long as the resulting diet is complete and balanced. I bet you could run this program with whole wheat (actually eating the wheat berries, not bread/pasta) and lower-starch legumes (again, eaten whole and not as stuff like refried beans) and get similar benefits.

<comment><USER7> "The main point is that the restrictions force you to change your habits."

And this is really the main key with diets and healthy eating. You gotta change your habits.

But in that respect, you could do similar things without the restrictions: Simply work on changing the habits without eating more. Take a while to focus on cutting out most sweetened beverages: Some time to eat more veggies, more grains, adjust your eating to reflect when you are hungry, and so on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I try these challenges often! As a corporate worker, I can usually fit self- directed routines into my life without much trouble. "Don't break the chain" psychology also works well on me.

When I was a scrawny 25 year old, I started doing a 7-minutes-per-day fitness challenge with help from an app.[0] This was easy enough to do before jumping into the shower in the morning, and the privacy was nice since the amount of push-ups I could do without visibly struggling was truly shameful. After a few months I felt I was able to do these basic bodyweight exercises very easily, and I was ready to join a strength training group at the gym. I finished the 7 months anyway, even though I outpaced it when I started using weights. Nowadays I just hit the gym two or three times a week, and have been doing this for a couple years.

I also use Duolingo[1] and have streaked into the hundreds of days a few times. It's fun and easy to do, but unfortunately requires an Internet connection. No, I didn't become fluent from Duolingo. I also don't think it helped me learn new words. The examples just aren't that memorable! However, it does provide a place to practice and corrects your errors.

I tried another system of language learning[2], also involving daily practice, which has gotten me to the conversational level in the past 8 months. This has exceeded my expectations! I was never conversational even after 3 years of Spanish classes in high school. This takes far less time, and I think my memory for Spanish words is quite good nowadays! Some flash cards I've made to remember idioms have been useful in conversation, and certainly surprised folks I speak to in Spanish!

Many years ago I did a special diet called Bulletproof[3] on a whim after reading about it while surfing HN. I ended up sticking with it for almost a year. It's tough because you basically can't eat any sugar. I got really lean, which was interesting, but not a good look for me. The coffee recipe is excellent. It's a very interesting experience. It's obvious that but by far the most challenging. My body was very different by the end of it; drinking half of a PBR would make me very drunk and very sick.

[0] [http://perigee.se/apps/seven/](http://perigee.se/apps/seven/)

[1] [https://www.duolingo.com/](https://www.duolingo.com/)

[2] [https://fluent-forever.com/](https://fluent-forever.com/)

[3] [https://blog.bulletproof.com/start-the-bulletproof- diet/](https://blog.bulletproof.com/start-the-bulletproof-diet/)</comment>


IBM Quantum Challenge - <AUTHOR> https://quantum-computing.ibm.com/challenges <comment><AUTHOR> s we approach the fourth anniversary of the IBM Quantum Experience, we invite you to celebrate with us by completing a challenge with four exercises. Whether you are already a member of the community, or this challenge is your first quantum experiment, these four exercises will improve your understanding of quantum circuits. We hope you also have fun as you put your skills to test.

The IBM Quantum Challenge begins at 9:00 a.m. US Eastern on May 4, and ends 8:59:59 a.m. US Eastern on May 8.

In recognition of everyone's participation, we are awarding digital badges and providing additional sponsorship to the Python Software Foundation.</comment>


Jor1k – OpenRISC 1000 Platform Emulator in JS, Launches Linux with X or Wayland - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/s-macke/jor1k

<comment> s-macke And again. We had the news about the same emulator one month ago, but without X and Wayland. But of course I like it :) Believe me or not. The hard part was not to write the emulator. The CPU needs less than 1000 lines of code. No, the hard part was to compile all those programs with the toolchain which is still in early development. Just to mention one example, shared Libraries are supported since one year.

The other part is the optimization of the emulator. The rules of normal programming don't apply here. In fact the difficult question is how to keep the javascript engine thinking that all variables are integers and not doubles.

</comment><comment><USER2> Works especially well in asm.js under Firefox. I can't quite get keyboard input to work well under X, but this is really impressive.

</comment><comment><USER3> RISC architecture is going to change everything.

<comment><USER4> RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) is not a new idea at all, and it _already has_ changed everything. CISC has been dying for decades now, because it's hard to optimize very complex architectures.

<comment><USER5> It's a quote from the movie Hackers. If you haven't seen it yet, do it! Just don't hope for realism ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is very impressive. The code is very readable, even the asm.js based code (which is probably written by hand). You can find the CPU code in js/worker/cpu.

On Chrome I get about 30 MIPS while running scummvm. On Firefox I get about 6 MIPS on the standard core and about 40 MIPS on the asm.js core.

I must say that I am impressed by Chrome performance on the standard core. However, sometime Chrome drops to about 6 MIPS for no discernible reason.

For people like me, who didn't know what OpenRISC is: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRISC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRISC)

<comment> s-macke Yes, the asm.js code is written by hand. Took around one day. What happened with Firefox I don't know. Firefox 22 was fast (above 30 MIPS) and then it dropped. No chance to find the problem. Chrome sometimes thinks that integers are no longer appropriate for some values and deoptimizes the code. But it seems that the asm.js core is stable and fast for Chrome as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pretty impressive. Time to start porting debian into webbrowser :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> Great for doing somthing a have wanted to do some time now

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/sda

<comment><USER9> What's stopping you from firing up a VM and installing ubuntu?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It works!</comment>


Tasmanian devils 'adapting to coexist with cancer' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47659640 <comment><USER2> Can someone please explain why this is happening only now and why the species isn't already extinct? From the way this article is written, it seems the main culprit is the animals biting each other. However, they must have done this for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. So why are they suddenly getting face cancer? And why is the species threatened by this problem only now? What information are we missing here?

<comment><USER3> Just speculating here, but there might not be anything temporally "special" about the spread of infection right now. We might find that every N years a new disease emerges, spreads, and then is adapted to - and we're just lucky enough to be around to observe this current wave

<comment><USER4> Further to this, isn't this the basis for evolution?

Some selective pressure emerges that didn't previously exist, whether that be a predator; change in nutrient availability; disease; climate; etc.

It's possible the loss of habitat in Tasmania has either _slowed_ spread of the DFTD, because the Devils are more widely dispersed, or _hastened_ the spread because there are fewer Devils reproducing to potentially adapt to it.

I find it interesting to ponder how it has come about that the Earth isn't just covered in, say, that pathogenic fungus¹ reported on recently, but rather something like 8.7 million species².

1\. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19515362](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19515362)

2\. [https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110823/full/news.2011.498.h...](https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110823/full/news.2011.498.html)

<comment><USER5> _> I find it interesting to ponder how it has come about that the Earth isn't just covered in, say, that pathogenic fungus¹ reported on recently, but rather something like 8.7 million species²._

Existing inside an organism with a functioning immune system long enough to cause death requires completely different adaptations than existing outside of one. By their very nature, most pathogens spend too much energy on biochemistry that does diddly squat (without an immune system to fight) to help them compete against the innumerable species of garden variety bacteria floating around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To give a different perspective, this is how genetic disorders in humans develop. Sickle cell is protective against malaria. Cystic fibrosis is protective against one or two infections that swept through Europe repeatedly, which is why it is a predominantly Caucasian condition and is much less common in other ethnicities.

This article is kind of celebrating the birth of a new genetic disorder as a form of survival.

I actually find that aspect of it moderately disturbing.

<comment><USER7> The interesting thing about sickle cell anaemia is that you get it if both copies of the gene are abnormal, you get the disease, but if just one of them is abnormal you don't get the disease but still get the resistance to malaria.

<comment><USER6> Cystic fibrosis (CF) is also homozygous recessive.

Presumably, both disorders developed for the same reason: One copy of the gene is protective, but not crippling. Two copies are crippling.

So those with one copy had higher survival rates when epidemics of certain diseases hit. This meant that more of their children survived, even though some of their children were born with terrible impairment and worse survival rates.

People with CF tend to not reproduce. In fact, 97 percent of males with CF lack a vas deferens, making them effectively sterile. It's mostly the carriers who create new people with CF. Some of them had no idea they were carriers until they had a child with CF.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease)

> In 2007, it was predicted that populations could become locally extinct > within 10–15 years of DFTD occurring, and predicted that the disease would > spread across the entire range of the Tasmanian devils causing the devils to > become extinct within 25–35 years.

Oh man :(

Is this kind of stuff "normal" (historically), or is it likely to be another result of our general poisoning of everything? There is this,

> In 2004, Kathryn Medlock found three oddly shaped devil skulls in European > museums and found a description of a devil in London Zoo dying, which showed > a similarity to DFTD

but that's a.) not much and b.) the source for that is dead or had the URL changed, and I can't find it: [https://www.google.com/search?q=abc+%22Devil+Disease%22+medl...](https://www.google.com/search?q=abc+%22Devil+Disease%22+medlock+2004)

<comment><USER9> Might not be the fault of humans in this case. The Wikipedia article [0] gives some interesting context, and suggests that the cancer is spread through allograft (i.e. a form of direct transfer of the cancer from one individual to another). It also reports that "The devils have, in a way, fought back the extinction by developing the gene that is immune to face tumors" \- a positive development in the long run.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease#Hi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease#History)

<comment><USER8> I did read that. Right after the bit I quoted:

> Calicivirus, 1080 poison, agricultural chemicals, and habitat fragmentation > combined with a retrovirus were other proposed causes. Environmental toxins > had also been suspected.

But the source for that is also kinda useless... someone with the last name Owen wrote a book in 2005, great. I'm used to footnotes containing quotes from the material they reference, and even when it links to a source, since link rot is out of their scope, that doesn't really help.

> suggests that the cancer is spreads though allograft (i.e. a form of direct > transfer of the cancer from one individual to another)

Yes, but why is that a recent disease? 1996 is _super_ recent.

> It also reports that "The devils have, in a way, fought back the extinction > by developing the gene that is immune to face tumors" \- a positive > development in the long run.

The long run is the last 100k years, IMO. When I think about cancer historically, I am interested in that timeframe, not starting with 1996.

 _I wrote this reply 21 minutes after your comment, but apparently I was throttled so I had to keep the tab open to post it much later. I 'm done here, good luck and bye everybody._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> is it possible to learn the secrets of such abilities?

<comment><USER11> Probably yes, but it will probably not help too much with human cancers.

In humans, each cancer is unique and the cancerous cells are just mutated versions of the cells of the person, so they are very related. A difficult task of the inmune system is to distinguish the normal cells, from the cancerous cells. Another problem is that the mutations in each person are different, son what is useful to cure one person may not work to cure another person.

In the Tasmanian devil case, all of them have exact same cancer. [Actually, there are two transmisible types. Most of them have one transmissible type, a few have the other transmissible type, and I guess that a small minority has it's own non transmissible variant, like in humans. To simplify the discussion, let's ignore all but the first type, and assume that all of them have the exact same cancer.] This cancer is transmissible, the cell are mutated versions of the cells of a Tasmanian devil that died many years ago. A bunch of cells go from the cancer in one devil to another devil, and start to grow. This is very difficult because the cells of the cancer are very different from the cell of the new devil, so they should be an easy identificable target for the inmune system. For this reason, transmisible cancer are very rare in mammals, there are only 3 or 4 known cases.

I'm not sure what is happening here, but a usual trick to distinguish the cells is that each cell produce some molecules that are a mix of some kind of sugar and some king of protein. There are many sugars to select and many protein parts to select, so there is a lot of possible variation. Each person produces only some of them, not every variant, so the inmune system can learn which of this are the normal one, and if it finds a cell with another combination will attract it.

This is one of the reason why organ transplant is so hard. The inmune system of the host detect that the cells in the new organ have a different variants, and start to attack the organ. This is also the reason why transmisible cancer are so rare. Even if a part of the cancer goes to another person, the inmune system of the new host will detect the unknown molecules and attack them.

Somehow, in the Tasmanian devil case the transmissible cancer can avoid this check and continue growing in the new host.

My guess of the "cure" is that some of the offspring of the Tasmanian devil mutated and get a new molecule that is not in the cells of the cancer that are like the cells of the very ancient Tasmanian devil. Or perhaps the mutation was to not build one of the molecules, or build a different variant. So the inmune system of the new mutated Tasmanian devil can learn that the old protein is not normal, and attack the cells without/with it. I'm not sure what happened here.

Once the mutant Tasmanian devil with the weird molecule survives, it increase the probability of having offspring, that may inherid the mutation, and increase the probability or survival, that increase the number of offspring, ... And sooner or later you get a world full of Teenage Mutant Tasmanian Devils :).

And, as this cancer is transmissible and all have the same kind of cells, the mutation will make the mutated offspring inmune too. [There are actually two transmissible cancers in the Tasmanian devil, so to survive they probably will have to be double mutated, perhaps they can inherit one mutation from the father and other from the mother, or a mutated one can get a new mutation.]

The cancer may also mutate to be more difficult to be detected producing the new version of the molecules, and then the devils will have to wait until one of them get a lucky mutation, and so on ...

The problem to copy this to humans is that each humans gets it own version of cancer, with cells that have the same molecules than the person. So you must:

a) Modify the cancer cells (and not the normal ones) to make them produce a weird molecule so the inmune system identify and attack them. But this is very difficult.

b) Modify the normal cells (and not the cancer ones) to make them produce a weird molecule, and retrain the inmune system to make it attack the cells with the old version of the molecule. I think this is even more difficult, or to be more precise totally impossible.</comment></comment>


The Folly of Hiring Winners and Firing Losers - <AUTHOR> https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3099723 <comment><USER2> Interesting abstract. Am I missing something or is this just an Elsevier paywall? Is there a way to read the paper?

<comment><USER3> The authors have what looks like the full paper under their own letterhead on their website: [https://www.researchaffiliates.com/documents/630%20The%20Fol...](https://www.researchaffiliates.com/documents/630%20The%20Folly%20of%20Hiring%20Winners%20and%20Firing%20Losers.pdf)

Didn't have any problem with sci-hub here, either.</comment></comment>


Herd Immunity Threshold for Covid is likely much lower than initially estimated - <AUTHOR> https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/22/science.abc6810.full <comment><USER2> I predict that the number of early adopters of a newly released covid vaccine is likely going to be very low (i.e. compared to take-up rate for an annual flu vaccine) due to perceived risk of rushing the trials and production. So I suppose the lower threshold is a good thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> This speaks somewhat to what I've posted about before, saying most lockdowns in the the USA were too strict and too early; before there was any community spread. The result of this shortsightedness is that we've exhausted our lockdown patience without any curve flattening. Now we are all unprotected by any community immunity and opening up. We dug our grave when we instituted lockdowns before there was any need (in most places).</comment>


I did something awful tonight - <AUTHOR> http://ideamonk.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-did-something-awful-tonight.html

<comment><AUTHOR> head directly to <http://ideamonk.googlepages.com/somethingawefull.html>

to experience something awful. Let me know which way are the particles rotating - Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise</comment>


Show HN: How's your favorite language doing in the job market? - lexi-mono http://langstats.azurewebsites.net/ <comment><AUTHOR> This isn't useful with such a small sample (821 jobs) without knowing where the sample comes from. Is it just jobs in SF? Is it small companies only, or does it include large ones? Is it only web companies?

If, for example, this were representing 100% of job postings, I doubt Python would be so much higher than C# or Java, and I'd be surprised to see Ruby so high either. But if this skewed toward startup jobs, then the numbers make much more sense.

<comment> lexi-mono Should have mentioned: data is based on the 'Who is hiring' thread of the previous month. In the future I'm planning to add more data for previous months/years as well and maybe get jobs from other sources too.</comment></comment>


Portable Offline Open Street Map - <AUTHOR> http://news.spatialdev.com/portable-open-street-map/ <comment><USER3> Let me explain which is the innovation of it:

There are offline OpenStreetMap clients, but there aren't ways to update said map offilne, or to create "mini-OSM" that later can sync with the main one.

For instance, if you're doing a survey in Amazon with a local community, you would need to make a survey, go back somewhere with internet, sync the data with OSM, download the new file and go back to the local community.

The innovation those guys are making is to create a mini-OSM, so the village could have its own mini-OSM, and later that mini-OSM could be synced to the main one.

They are not the only ones trying to do that, an NGO called Digital Democracy is also trying ([https://digital-democracy.org](https://digital- democracy.org))

<comment><USER4> Hmm, I wonder what happens when you take a team which is heavily editing in a village, and then multiple team members each have their individual mini-OSM of the same village to sync back? Don't you end up needing to be able to express edits as an OSM equivalent of patches for each edit?

<comment><USER5> Osm changes are already expressed as atomic changes to each version of an object. Reasonably resolving a conflict where two different edits increment the same version of the same object is a difficult problem (the typical way it is currently done is reject the later edit and force manual review/fixup of the conflict).

If someone adds a road and joins it to an existing road at existing point A, while someone else adds a duplicate of the same physical road and joins it at existing point B, it's going to take a rather aggressive heuristic to automatically discard one of them.

<comment><USER6> Your comment reminded me of managing merge conflicts in git (or any distributed source control system)

With conflicts, best way to resolve is a human manually deciding how to merge (which part of commit A & which part(s) of commit B to include) :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wonder if smartphone capacities grew we would one day hit a point where most meaningful data is already preloaded on every device: A full copy of Wikidata, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, dictionaries.

The trend goes the complete opposite direction: the devices get faster but we only use it to draw the data from our servers faster. We push all our data into the cloud, although our devices share a private network most of the time.

<comment><USER8> By the current state of the mobile world, you'd have a special Apple vetted copy of Wikipedia with no mention of their competitors, adult themes or anything that could remotely be percieved as offensive to anyone ;)

<comment><USER9> Except guns. Guns would be included. Because everyone follows American culture.

<comment><USER10> Because only guns kill:

[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/teacher-who- allegedl...](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/teacher-who-allegedly- made-up-7013166)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The other night I was thinking about the potential for "mapocalypse" \-- navigation in a future where paper maps are rare because of services like Google maps and where the network is unavailable indefinitely. Even dedicated navigation devices are forgoing stored maps for connected services.

Over the long term, widespread access to offline maps feels like a critical plan B. I also suspect that we're just at the beginning of a map industry not in the mature commodity phase.

YMMV.

<comment><USER12> I suspect they're never going to go completely away. I still like to keep a set in my car in case my phone is dead and can't charge it from the car for whatever reason. I believe the Navy is adding celestial navigation back into their curriculum in case their electronic systems are compromised. There's still a lot of use cases where the low-tech solution is a good backup.

<comment><USER13> You mean like using a wrist watch stars to manually re-enter a space capsule?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper#.22Spam_in_a_can...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper#.22Spam_in_a_can.22)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It sounds interesting. But it will be interesting to see how they approach "syncing" the two 'datasets' (they're own, locally modified data, and the main OSM dataset). The current approach with the main OSM editors is to make the mapper manually figure it out.

</comment><comment><USER14> one thing which would really be great is an OSM client for Kindle/ebook readers with an offline data store. With an optimised interface and map styling it could come in handy in many cases (hiking, bike tours - <USER2> where weight, power and portability are a concern).

Obviously an editor like spatialdev are developing would need more advanced features thus they are targeting android.

<comment><USER9> You can make a regular book-of-maps for the kindle easily enough. I did it here [http://www.kindle-maps.com/](http://www.kindle-maps.com/)

<comment><USER15> it would be great if you would share how you did that, because there may be other cities and countries than NYC and the UK... ;)

so far i've only used google maps PDFs but that sucks. i've also had good experiences with offline Garmin maps based on OSM data, but that requires a GPS with much lower battery life than a ebook reader... a bunch of providers here: [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Downloa...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download)

i used this in the past with good success: [http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/](http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/)

although this seems like the newest best thing: [http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/](http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't understand what this is and where the "Portable Offline Open Street Map" part is described.

There are already tons of applications for offline OSM usage. There are even (sadly) many different vector formats and files available for download. It would be nice to focus improvement of those instead of developing yet another competing standard. I want to be able to use multiple apps with the same data, not having to provide each app with its own format (looking at you, OSMAnd, Oruxmaps, maps.me...).

<comment><USER17> I'd say it is to have a server with an offline fork, which a) provides you access to OSM without internet (which is the "boring" part) and b) allows you to make changes when you get new data.

When you return to somewhere with better internet, you then can sync the changes to upstream OSM.

And all that prepackaged so it is easy to prepare and deploy to a laptop, a small portable server, ...

<comment><USER18> a) is "boring", but last I looked was still far from a simple installation (tar.gz, apt-get, docker or otherwise).

On mobile now, so I can't test but if this is a simple way to start a local read only server, it is already a significant improvement.

<comment><USER19> Simpler - [https://github.com/AmericanRedCross/posm- build](https://github.com/AmericanRedCross/posm-build) seems to be based on Ubuntu 14.04 with some extra packages. There's also a Kickstart script.

<comment><USER18> Thanks -- that's from the original article, whose contribution describing an easy way to set up a local OSM server is what I was applauding.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Conde Nast Looking to Sell Reddit for $200 Million? - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/conde-nast-wants-to-sell-reddit-for-200-million-2011-3

<comment><USER2> Yay? A $200 million dollar company with what, 3...4 employees? I need to start smoking what some of these people are on.</comment>


Uber Is Tracking Drivers' Phones to Watch for Speeding - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/4387031/uber-driver-app-tracking/ <comment><USER2> omg... tracking to watch for speeding? then isn't it possible to know where I'm too?</comment>


How can you get benefits from e-learning? - <AUTHOR> https://antmedia.io/what-is-e-learning-12-advantages-of-e-learning/ <comment><AUTHOR> Great source for e-learning</comment>


New York Times 50 Most Challenging Words - <AUTHOR> http://www.currentlyobsessed.com/2010/06/15/new-york-times-50-most-challenging-words-defined-and-used/ <comment><USER2> About a month ago, there was a post on HN of "unusual and amusing English words" (<http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm>), which drew the astute comment from pg that the "best sort of obscure words are ones that are obscure because they're old or highly specialized, not because someone made them up and they never really became part of the spoken language" (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1355056>).

Though educated people will tend to know a good number of the words on the list posted here, I _like_ this list because it generally sets forth old English standbys that tend to mark the vocabulary of the speaker as being above the average or the mundane while not being pretentious or artificially fanciful.

There are many similar words: gossamer, latitudinarian, exegete, perforce, resplendent, and on and on.

The key to such words, and to their strength, lies in the fact that they are not used day-by-day by most people, that they often have classical hooks, and that their use in modern forms of expression adds variety and interest precisely because they come at the reader from an unusual angle (basically, pg's point as made above). One can differ about this or that word, of course, but the broader point is that lists of this type are helpful and fun to review.

<comment><USER3> > or highly specialized

This is what makes me love a word. When I can find a word that just perfectly and succinctly expresses what I'm trying to communicate, I love it. I don't use large or obscure words to show off; I use them because I enjoy having exactly the right word to say what I mean.

<comment><USER4> Thus your working vocabulary lacks orthogonality, but compensates with brevity.

<comment><USER5> I know you were making a joke (I think? I laughed, at least), but I wouldn't say that he's compensating with brevity; rather, he has depth and not (much) breadth.

<comment><USER4> That man can use few words but they are good words and so we can know what they all mean. If we have to use words that are not as good we have to say them more, but we do not need to know as many words.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am not a native speaker, but I thought some definitions were questionable.

\- internecine has a strong connotation of "amongst themselves", which is borne out by the example but not in the definition; \- the definition of Kristallnacht is useless if you don't know what it's referring to, and you will likely know the term if you _do_ know what it is referring to. A link to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht> or "the prelude to the holocaust" would be better; \- similarly, I think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism#Theology> (which highlights the split in a powerful-but-not-omnipotent good force and an also powerful evil force) should be linked.

I stopped trying to verify things at this point; no doubt a native speaker can improve on this list.

<comment><USER7> I am a native speaker, and wanted to write the same thing about 'internecine'. Indeed, wordnet says:

        adj 1: (of conflict) within a group or organization
          "an internecine feud among proxy holders"

Manichean, as I understand it, refers more to a very strong binary view of things as either good or bad. For instance, from The Economist:

"President George Bush's Manichean worldview—"you are either with us or against us"—is now echoed in Bangkok ..."

They did the same thing with 'sclerotic', too by describing it in terms of the body, but not underlining how often it's used for things like organizations.

<comment><USER8> It's interesting; for internecine that's what I had always used as the definition as well. However, the OED only lists two definitions:

1\. orig. Deadly, destructive, characterized by great slaughter. internecine war, war for the sake of slaughter, war of extermination, war to the death.

2\. esp. (In modern use.) Mutually destructive, aiming at the slaughter or destruction of each other.

And a non-obvious etymology:

[ad. L. internecn-us murderous, destructive, f. internecium slaughter, destruction, f. internecre: see next. App. first used as a rendering of L. internecnum bellum, in Butler's Hudibras (to which also is due the unetymological pronunciation, instead of interncine). On this authority entered by Johnson in his Dictionary, with an incorrect explanation, due to association with words like interchange, intercommunion, etc. in which inter- has the force of 'mutual', 'each other'. From J. the word has come into later dictionaries and 19th c. use, generally in the Johnsonian sense.]

(And 'baldenfreud' is a bit out of place on a list like this; a neologism if I've ever heard one.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Including a neologism coined by one of their columnists as #6 is beneath the dignity of the rest of the list. It hasn't made it to Google "define". The top hits when Googleing it all refer to Maureen Dowd "inventing" it, so you can't really say it has caught on.

I imagine from the context it was used it should not have really stumped that many readers, who would have been familiar with "schadenfreude", and so have gotten the joke.

<comment><USER10> As the Times said, "As you no doubt realized, the entry with the highest rate of look-ups per use isn't really a word at all. Baldenfreude is a nonce word -- a one-time coinage, in this case Maureen Dowd's fanciful twist on schadenfreude.", so your ire seems a little misdirected.

<comment><USER9> Busted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fun list of words, but a few seem out of place. Namely: austerity, hubris, overhaul, ubiquitous, and hegemony, all of which seem fairly common. That being said, there are tons of words on this list that I'm unfamiliar with, and I look forward to digging into it more when I have time.

<comment><USER12> I think the reason they listed Overhaul is they were going with the second definition:

"to come from behind and pass them"

I have never seen the word used this way...

<comment><USER13> I haven't seen it used like that either. I can't imagine an instance where it would be better than "overtake".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> _2\. Profligacy: recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant, profligate behavior; Anderson's profligacy cost him his job and its better you tighten up your belt before you go the same way.

5\. Profligate: using money, resources, etc., in a way that wastes them; The firm's profligate spending only hastened its downfall._

List fail.

<comment><USER15> I thought that was an attempt at being funny, in a "See: recursion" kind of way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I agree with tmountain, I recognized a lot of the words from Freshman vocabulary in high school ... 19 years ago.

</comment><comment><USER17> As a native French speaker, I'm quite amused that several of these words are either French or have a basis in French. Seems that English has appropriated many words from other languages.

<comment><USER18> Some of them ('Crèches,' for example) are from French, but perhaps you're thinking of others (e.g. 'nascent') that come to both English and French from Latin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I never knew the modern definition of sanguine. How funny, it kind of did an about-face!

Reminds me of 'cleave apart' and 'cleave together'

<comment><USER20> What non-modern definition are you thinking of?

Online dictionaries suggest that the meaning of "cheerful" or "optimistic" goes straight back to the theory of humors. E.g., from Dictionary.com:

 _3\. (in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc._

Merriam-Webster.com has something similar. Dead tree dictionaries in my house, ditto.

(Are you maybe thinking of the quasi-sound-alike 'sang-froid' => "calmness, composure; coolness of mind"?)

<comment><USER19> 2 a : consisting of or relating to blood b : bloodthirsty, sanguinary

It's true cheerful isn't exactly a direct opposite, but 2b sure isn't positive.

<comment><USER20> I was completely unaware of 2b. Thanks. (It sounds vaguely Shakespearean in that sense.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> What's amusing is not only knowing the words, but being able to make a good guess about their most frequent contexts. I bet "Comity" is almost always used in a story about the U.S. Senate, for example.

</comment><comment><USER22> A better title for this would be "50 somewhat uncommon, but not particularly challenging words some of our readers had to look up using our online word definition utility."

<comment><USER23> Sure, but then it wouldn't have fit into the character limit of the title field on the HN submit page, which I'm sure was a key factor for the NY Times / Currently Obsessed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Note that egregious has negative connotations.</comment>