Basic colour theory for programmers - <AUTHOR> http://polymathprogrammer.com/2008/08/04/basic-colour-theory-for-programmers/ <comment><USER2> I took a very heavy emphasis on color math while at school, figured I'd dump a few more useful resources on the pile:

* John the May guy - [http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/](http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/) \- Breaks down advanced color math/science concepts in very plain English. Complete with helpful charts and graphs. He's very approachable if you have questions. If you are in the print/GC industry, you'll probably run into him at trade shows.

* Bruce Lindbloom - [http://www.brucelindbloom.com/](http://www.brucelindbloom.com/) \- Look past the tacky website and into the "Math" and "Calc" sub-sections. Tons of great theory, formulas, and calculators. Make sure you doublecheck the formulas against other sources, I did run into a small discrepancy or two (that I can't recall). I've also been able to get responses from him through email, which is nice.

* EasyRGB - [http://www.easyrgb.com/index.php?X=MATH](http://www.easyrgb.com/index.php?X=MATH) \- More transform/delta E functions. Some of these are kind of crude, so I tend to look at Bruce Lindbloom or CIE directly when possible, but EasyRGB can sometimes fill in some gaps.

* python-colormath - [http://python-colormath.readthedocs.org/](http://python-colormath.readthedocs.org/) \- And of course, I can't resist shamelessly plugging my Python color math module.

Color math is funky stuff, and at times very hard to get help with. There aren't many easily-reached people out there that have a deep understanding of it. But if you keep hammering your head against it, you'll learn through osmosis over time.

If this is something that interests you enough, RIT and I think Cal Poly both have color science degrees and certificates. Imaging companies eat these graduates up in a hurry.

<comment><USER2> Apologies, the first link should be titled "John the Math guy". Looks like I missed my window to edit that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is an old article, and so wrong and vague in so many aspects of digital colors. It contains not much more than simple device-dependent RGB/HSV colors.

To use colors correctly (not many programmers can do this, in fact Chrome/Firefox/Safari don't show the same color for same RGB value on my machine), programmer needs to consider color profiles, gamma correction, white point etc. The sad truth is that RGB is mostly misunderstood from intuition, and most graphic libraries don't deal with device-dependencies at all. Luckily, most engineers don't have to deal with colors outside sRGB.

The absolute best place to read about digital colors (or image processing in general) is efg's references: [http://www.efg2.com/Lab/Library/Color/Science.htm](http://www.efg2.com/Lab/Library/Color/Science.htm). It contains overwhelmingly large amount of info, but they are good info and quite essential for professional work.

<comment><USER4> I wish I could really upvote this as a disclaimer. I once worked in a color science lab of a printing company, and it took a long time for me to really get a grip on the topic, because it is a deep topic. It's a bit disheartening to see something passed on as truth that's got so many inaccuracies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some other points programmers should be familiar with (not an expert here, everyone feel free to correct me)

1\. In typical situations, 256 shades of brightness of a single color hue are the most we can distinguish and will form a smooth gradient without banding. If you're dealing with Green and related colors in the RGB spectrum (i.e. yellows and blue-greens, and near-white colors) it can go a bit higher, to 512 shades- This is why many compression algorithms compress reds and blues more than greens, because it's less noticeable.

2\. Many artists will use opposite colors on the color wheel to darken colors- So to make a darker yellow, they'll mix in purple paint (or use purple dithering, depending on the medium.) How this relates to color theory from a psychological standpoint is unclear, but using this approach in UI design (for instance, adding purple detail to the shadow of a yellow object in an icon) often gives clean, elegant results.

3\. Sometimes, when designing something, you say to yourself, "I want a red here that is just as bright as the blue over there". However, the psychological basis as to when colors of different hues appear to have the same brightness is a very complex problem- You can't just add R+G+B intensities and think that will tell you that two different colors have the same brightness, perceptually. Your best bet is to just "eyeball" colors in this case, unless you have the time to go down some very deep rabbit holes.

4\. If you are designing for paper printing, expect all colors in an RGB image to look much, much darker and less vibrant than on a monitor. Going from RGB->CMYK and getting perfect results is another really hard problem out of reach for most programmers (I actually think there's low hanging fruit for people to write libraries that help optimize this conversion- Everything I've personally seen that is designed for a layman, such as Photoshop's conversion process, seems to be sub-par at helping laymen do this well.)

5\. There are exotic color spaces like the TSL color space that most programmers are completely unfamiliar with and are designed for better modelling of human perception of color. We programmers should probably be using these color spaces a lot more.

6\. A good rule for UI design is to only use two colors at most (besides gray tones) on the screen at a single time and maybe one extra color in a very limited way. If you don't do this, you'll end with an "angry fruit salad" interface ([http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angry%20fruit...](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angry%20fruit%20salad)) Microsoft Metro and some of the new "flat UI" stuff is a major deviation from this rule, for better or worse.

7\. When in doubt, leave the background of a website white. You should have a very, very good reason before using a black or dark green/blue/brown background on a website. (or so most UI designers will tell you, though of course you're free to ignore their advice.)

<comment><USER6> The original article didn't teach me anything new (perhaps because I've paid attention to color in the past... it's a minor interest of mine). But YOUR points here taught me several new things. Thanks!

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I think the article went in the wrong direction. It's easy to understand the basic mathematics of color. Understanding how to use color and how to avoid common pitfalls is a lot more valuable to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> About colour temperature:

Subjectively (or maybe culturally?), red tones are warm and blue tones are cool.

There's another definition of "colour temperature" (derived from a physical property, rated in Kelvin), in which blue-ish tones are _warmer_ than red, white being the hottest. This is based on the light emission of very hot bodies (you can tell the temperature by the color it glows).

This second definition of "colour temperature" might be counter-intuitive but is used to rate light sources and in photography, so you have to know the context the term is used.

<comment><USER9> Blue is hotter than white by the kelvin scale.

The hue attributed to black body radiation at a certain temperature represents the average color of the whole gamut of emitted frequency/intensities, which follows a curve with a peak that changes with the temperature (which is then perceived by the eye); this curve is a direct result of Planck's law.

At temperatures < 3000K, this is reddish At temperatures between 3000-6000K, it becomes orange and then yellow At temperatures around 6500K, it is white (this is close to sunlight, so the eye is tuned to this distribution and sees it as even) At above 6500, it becomes increasingly blue.

<comment><USER8> That's right, thanks for the correction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Adding one important fact - computing color distance between two colors in order to identify similar colors doesn't work well in any color model (often matching colors with reduced vibrance). What you need to do is to define overlapping color regions (e.g. this is yellowish, that is greenish etc.) and treat this information as more important than the computed distance for similarity matching.

<comment><USER4> That's not quite true. That's what the Lab color space is intended to allow.

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

<comment><USER10> Yes, that's an attempt to solve this problem however if you try to use it for color matching you'd find problematic areas there as well, hence you still need to use color regions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Something some might not know of is the great colour scheme designers available on the Web, I quite like colour scheme designer 3 [0] - hit triad, click around and then click the colour list tab for complementary colours for all three.

[0] [http://colorschemedesigner.com/csd-3.5/](http://colorschemedesigner.com/csd-3.5/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Neat!

On a related note, I recently helped write a "Color Theory Basics" guide for Thinkful (my current employer). Some of you might enjoy this: [http://www.thinkful.com/learn/color-theory- basics/](http://www.thinkful.com/learn/color-theory-basics/)

This guide is more applicable towards branding and marketing.

</comment><comment><USER13> > This is the traditional "adding" of colours together to produce new colours. > (Said of RGB.)

But it's only "traditional" in computer graphics. Paint is subtractive, and so is printing. If your color background is one of these more traditional fields, then additive is most definitely _not_ traditional.

<comment><USER14> > But it's only "traditional" in computer graphics.

And lighting.</comment></comment>


The life of American workers in 1915 - <AUTHOR> http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2016/article/the-life-of-american-workers-in-1915.htm <comment><USER2> "Workers in 1915 were sometimes required to work too much and other times too little; factory-worker hours could be shortened from one day to the next, leaving workers with a severely reduced paycheck. "

The life of your service workforce today with fluctuating, uncertain hours. I don't completely agree with the economics behind fight for $15, but I salute them that they found balls to organize and demand better working conditions and wages.

<comment><USER3> Now that we have the Internet it will be much harder to stamp out and erase from history this nascent resurgence of labor politics.

<comment><USER4> yet, seemingly easier to convince the working class that labor politics are bad for them

<comment><USER4> I lament that this seems true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well this was near the Yellow Journalism era, so it's fun to read some of the papers from the time to see what life was like. Really we should find Hearst's "New York Journal" or Pulitzer's "New York World", but they do not seem to be on line.

But you can find some: Here is Pulitzer's the "The Evening World" [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/issues/191...](http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/issues/1915/)

And a bit from Hearst's "New York Evening Journal" [https://archive.org/stream/newyorkeveningjo1219hear#page/n0/...](https://archive.org/stream/newyorkeveningjo1219hear#page/n0/mode/2up)

</comment><comment><USER6> Not to mention that federal taxes to run the federal government during this period were largely dependent on alcohol sales. Prohibition only got passed when an income tax passed. Suddenly the interests of the federal government was in line with workers.

<comment><USER7> _tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, until it was surpassed by income taxes._

source:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_history_of_the_United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_history_of_the_United_States#Income_for_federal_government)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Absent: "union"

<comment><USER9> Yeah it's a shame that our government still doesn't acknowledge its role in killings of labor organizers and union members.

Source: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_Unite...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes)

<comment><USER10> The feds even ordered troops to open fire and aircraft to drop bombs against coal miners in West Virginia, to protect the companies' interests: [http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html](http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interesting to think that most job fields that exist today existed then. One notable exception being computer programmers, probably the number one occupation of HNers. Wonder what new job field will exist in 2115.

<comment><USER12> There's been a tremendous change in the number of _recognised_ employment cateogories over the past 150 years or so. The high-water point for distinct employments came around 1920 in the US, at least according to Census classifications.

What you'll see is a shift from farm and ag, and transport categories to first manufacturing and _especially_ railroad categories, then management and various professional classifications.

By 1920 _most_ major modern technologies existed, the major exceptions being television (and all its associated work), computers, nuclear energy, and some specific classifications of chemical work.

Many of today's jobs might best be considered "complexity management": managing people or things, inspecting or certifying them, training and teaching, sales and marketing (especially), government.

See: [https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupat...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupation_classifications_growth_and_change_over/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Fascinating reading. There were nor programmers, neither bots at that time. Conveyor belt existed though ang Mr. Ford was making his black magic from condensed sweat of American workers.

<comment><USER14> By 1915, multiple waves of automation had already put millions of people out of work in industries as diverse as textiles to bookkeeping. But some other jobs radically expanded and new jobs were invented.

The pace of advancement was, from our perspective, staggering. A few decades before and after would radically transform daily life, not just bring a few new toys.

<comment><USER15> In this day of internet and seemingly constant change, I think it's hard to recognize that change is less drastic now than it was 100 years ago.

100 years ago, a 50 year old would have been born as the first transatlantic cable was laid, and seen the general introduction of the telephone, phonograph, movie projection, airplanes, filing systems (including punched card machines for data), radio, electric lights (which made nightlife possible), the first plastics, ironclad warships, the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals, the first affordable car in the Model T, the explosion of newspapers made possible by Linotype, etc.

<comment><USER16> >In this day of internet and seemingly constant change, I think it's hard to recognize that change is less drastic now than it was 100 years ago.

Much of today's change is cosmetic, or a matter of added convenience. Flight, electronics, vaccines, antibiotics... those kind of changes affect how you really live.

People in the early 20th century imagined we'd have rocket ships, ray guns, 600 year lifespans, and robot servants by now because they were projecting forward based on the speed of change in their own time. Near as I can figure the pace of technological development really slowed down in the 1970s and has continued slowing.

Whether this is because something fundamental has created stagnation or, as Tyler Cowen proposed, we've eaten all the low hanging fruit, I couldn't say.

<comment><USER12> A slight quibble: not all the change is simply cosmetic. The _ways in which we interact_ with things can change _quite_ markedly. If you're deep in the guts of technology, _any_ technology, this is quite apparent. I've heard the comment made by programmers, Web designers, auto mechanics, doctors, carpenters, and more.

But the _impacts_ of those changes ... not so much. The whole concept of impact measurement is its own ball of waxworms, but there are some areas we can look at. Medicine, for example, improved life expectancy twice as much from 1900-1950 as from 1950 to today. The low-hanging fruit _really_ mattered. Air travel today is _slower_ than in 1970s, when ground and airport delays are considered. A multi-millionfold increase in compute power has extended long- range weather prediction from five days to ... seven. (Though the minute-by- minute near-term forecasts can be uncannily accurate.)

In researching material (something I do a lot of these days), there are the benefits of online access, but I'm ultimately blocked by the rate at which I myself can read _and understand_ new information.

(And not get distracted replying to comments on HN.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "Over the next two decades, however, streetcar lines either were bought up and then closed down by automobile companies or simply went bankrupt."

Ah, America.

<comment><USER18> Remember that in 1915 there were only 100 million people in the US. There are a little over 300 million now. Picture how big the US is, almost 4,000,000 square miles. A country like England has 50 million people in just 50,000 sq miles.

Sure, there were a few rail lines running across the country, but building the nations highway system, plus the luxury of the general population to own cars really allowed people to travel the country for business and pleasure. Without the automobile the country wouldn't have been as well connected and arguably wouldn't have became what it did.

<comment><USER19> Alaska and DC have similar population sizes even though Alasca has 10,000 times the land area. Hell more people live in DC than Wyoming. However, Alaska's area is irrelevant when talking about DC.

Nobody wants to build street lights or a subway station in the middle of an Iowa corn field, but reasonable infrastructure where people actually live is important.

PS: America seems to have forgotten that infrastructure drives economic development. From dirt roads to high speed internet society's live and die based on past investments not what happens to rich or powerful people.

<comment><USER16> >Nobody wants to build street lights or a subway station in the middle of an Iowa corn field, but reasonable infrastructure where people actually live is important.

Should people who live in that corn field pay for a rail system in DC?

>PS: America seems to have forgotten that infrastructure drives economic development. From dirt roads to high speed internet society's live and die based on past investments not what happens to rich or powerful people.

Infrastructure that make sense enables economic development. But not all infrastructure makes economic sense. Sure, you can stimulate economic growth in a place by pouring a bunch of money into it. But how much growth did you suppress in other places by taking money out?

<comment><USER19> People in city's subsidize corn fields not the other way around. If you look at net tax flows rural areas get a ridiculously huge subsidy's. Things like the ever popular completely unneeded military bases. Or SS disability checks because someone has no job skills and can find a friendly doctor.

Or how about: _Between 1995 and 2011, the federal government paid $172.3 billion in commodity subsidies, $46.6 billion in crop insurance subsidies, $37 billion in conservation subsidies and $21.4 billion in disaster subsidies._

Compare with the much hated bank/auto bailout which cost a net $21bn.

Really, rural areas should love for city's to become more efficient so they can leach even more money from them.

<comment><USER16> In my perfect world it wouldn't matter to the Iowans whether or not the cities grew because they wouldn't get any subsidies for their crops, which you really can't justify except by saying farm states have out-sized power in our political process.

By the same token, regional and city-wide projects should built by the people who are going to benefit. There's no reason I should have had to pay for Boston's Big Dig, for example.

<comment><USER19> There are shared costs such as the US military making nationwide economic gains useful to everyone. Put another way Iowa would need to pay significantly more in defense if it was not part of a larger and more prosperous country.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Does anybody know a company use Lisp other than Clojure in production - <AUTHOR> I really like Lisp. However the more I used Clojure the more I just don't like the JVM personally.
I looked into other world and discover Common Lisp, which I'm learning from Land of Lisp book.
Does anybody know some company is using common lisp in production now? <comment><USER2> Cleartrip, an Indian startup (must have grown by now - this is from some years ago) used/uses Common Lisp. I know via a friend who worked there and wrote a lot of the CL code for their site.

I've read that ITA Software (which Google bought some time ago), also used some Lisp, maybe Common Lisp.

Plus if you go on to sites like Franz.com (makers of Allegro CL) and LispWorks, you will probably find lists of clients of theirs.

<comment><USER3> Cleartrip was indeed written in Common Lisp but moved to Java some years ago.

<comment><USER2> Interesting. I had read that Paul Graham's startup Viaweb, which was originally written mainly in Lisp (with some C and maybe some Perl) was rewritten in some other language some time after Yahoo! acquired them. And it looks like something similar happened with Reddit:

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yes, I know of plenty that use common lisp and some that use racket and scheme.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd venture less into Common Lisp territory and more into Racket, myself...

</comment><comment><USER6> Not sure what kinda Lisp it is but HN runs on Lisp

<comment><USER7> HN is written in Arc.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_\(programming_language\))

There's an old (~5yo) source code dump on github if you're interested.

[https://github.com/wting/hackernews](https://github.com/wting/hackernews)</comment></comment>


Will Square Pay to Try Square Cash? - <AUTHOR> https://square.com/cash/Zx4oTY

<comment><USER2> Uh, is this anything other than an attempt to get referral $$ for yourself?

<comment><USER3> In my experience Square doesn't give referral $$.</comment></comment>


NASA's Freakishly Accurate Look at the 2017 Coast-to-Coast Solar Eclipse - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJgXaqW3md8 <comment><USER2> While I'm not sure how much of this might ever be perceived by an average observer, it's worth noting that this is quite likely the most accurate depiction of the path and timings of a solar eclipse ever. Just the sheer amount of data that would have had to be processed to take into account a peak on the moon affecting the light coming through by a couple of seconds and then combining that with the topography of the area of the earth it would be hitting on to understand what area it would actually be covering is a little overwhelming to even think of.</comment>


First stable version of Libmill – Go-style concurrency in C - <AUTHOR> https://gist.githubusercontent.com/sustrik/944295a5a8c4037e0c1a/raw/42df7251afa2b963fffe78de1f069a3938a0751c/gistfile1.txt <comment><USER2> Worth mentioning that this is by Martin Sustrik of ZeroMQ fame.</comment>


City at the End of Days - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mapmeld/city-at-the-end-of-days-be621f006680 <comment><USER2>
      First design requirement: two meters above sea level.

The first thing that comes to mind when I see that number is "laughably insufficient". The IPCC is already saying 0.8-1.2m of sealevel rise by 2100, and 4-6m in the centuries after that. They're building a doomed city.</comment>


The promise and fear of an assembly line for knowledge work - <AUTHOR> http://behind-the-enemy-lines.blogspot.com/2011/03/promise-and-fear-of-assembly-line-for.html

<comment><USER2> Why do we bother using "assembly line" metaphors, or trying to make "knowledge work" into a trade, or even unskilled labor, when we have the warm reassurance of Goedel's Incompleteness Theorems ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_t...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems)) and the answer to Hilbert's 10th problem ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matiyasevich%27s_theorem#Matiya...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matiyasevich%27s_theorem#Matiyasevich.27s_theorem))?

I mean, really, truth is not an industrial product.

<comment><AUTHOR> But intellectual labor can become an industrial product.

Not all products of intellectual effort are theorems and mathematical proofs.

And please read this before citing Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem: [http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/godels- theorem.htm...](http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/godels-theorem.html)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Using MacBook as Bluetooth Headset - <AUTHOR> I want to create a virtual Bluetooth headset on Mac.
Smartphone will connect to this blueooth headset.
Then I want to use Bluetooth headsets input and output as virtual sound input / output device to modify the sound in real-time using Audacity realtime plugins and other softwares.
Is this possible? If any such software exists please let me know.
I realize this is easier to do with microphone/headphone jack but new MacBook don't have these jacks but they've Bluetooth <comment><USER2> Connect the iPhone to your mac with the lightning to usb-c charging cable and enable it in the Audio Devices app on your Mac. You can then use the iPhone as you mentioned by selecting it as an input from the Mac's Sound app.

I know OP mentioned Bluetooth, but as a work-around to not having audio cables. Hopefully this would fit the bill instead.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, but does it work on android?

<comment><USER2> Should do, but if not by default and you're running Android 10 then you would use adb and sndcpy.

<comment><AUTHOR> But it only supports sending audio from phone to pc, not reverse.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Super-Efficient Email Process - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/05/a-super-efficient-email-proces.html <comment><USER2> I have a super efficient email process;

1) use gmail 2) any email which is important I click on and read 3) everything else remains unread

Most of the time I can get everything I need from an email from what is shown in gmail's inbox view. I currently have 8,212 unread messages in my inbox. I like seeing that number get bigger and bigger, as it is a kind of score board of how much time I've saved by not using a process similar to the one described in this submission.

Why spend time manually archiving when I'm just going to search to find anything from the past anyway....

<comment><USER3> Hi, it's called filters that take 2 seconds to setup.

<comment><USER2> But then I have to click into separate folders to view the same emails which I currently take in on a single page?

<comment><USER3> I'm going to take a wild guess that a large bulk of those 8K+ emails needs to be sent straight to the trash.

<comment><USER2> Possibly 25% of them. But why? Its more time efficient to just leave them there. You seem to be missing my point :)

<comment><USER3> I just hate having unecessary cruft personally. I need to organize everything

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> 1\. Disable notifications and process emails in bursts.

2\. Re-enable notifications as necessary. For me only emails from my boss fall in this category.

Most advice focuses on the first rule, but the system does not really work without the second rule. The second rule provides peace of mind, because you will not miss important things by not looking into your email client. This in turn enables you to make larger pauses between bursts.

A corollary rule: Train your "non-necessary" contacts to use the phone for time-critical messages.

</comment><comment><USER5> Who would have thought 15-20 years ago that e-mail would turn out to be a hindrance to productivity, not a booster. Perhaps it's that e-mail is too easy to send so people do it even when it wouldn't be necessary or there would be a smarter way to communicate. So many people end up with thousands of e-mails a day, only a few of which are important.

It's hard to assess the overall effects of e-mail vs. productivity, though.

</comment><comment><USER6> Administering administration much?</comment>


Tell HN: Ubuntu users need faster Chrome updates - <AUTHOR>

So I'm using the Chromium browser package on Ubuntu.
And today there was a routine update; its pretty nice and confidence building that you get a constant stream of package updates on Ubuntu...
I glanced at the package list; chromium browser was it.  And so I glanced at the the details.  Top of the fixes list was revoking the diginator certificates!  And a long list of classic buffer and use-after-free and cross-domain issues.
All presumably pushed out to Windows and Mac users weeks and weeks ago. <comment><USER2> I use Google's repository/Chrome and have no problems.

        $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
        deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
        $ dpkg --get-selections |grep chrome
        google-chrome-unstable                          install

</comment><comment><USER3> Your title is a tiny bit misleading.

Google provides up-to-date repositories for a variety of Linux distributions if you are using Google Chrome: [http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev- channel#TOC-Lin...](http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel#TOC- Linux)

Your issue, however, is with the open source Chromium package provided by Ubuntu. This package is in the "universe" repository, which is "not officially supported".

<comment><AUTHOR> I was rather hoping that any profile given to this entry will get the attention of coders at ubuntu and google who browse HN and they will be motivated to fix this.

The idea that end-users of Ubuntu have to install special repos with labels like 'unstable' in order to be safe when Windows and Mac users get stable yet safe releases weeks ahead means normal, usual, average Ubuntu users are less safe than other platforms. Ick.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure you're following his point. Chrom _ium_ for Ubuntu isn't really a Ubuntu/Canonical or Google project.

If you want Google's Chrome, you can have it. You don't need to use an 'unstable', beta or dev repo to get it (though you have that choice if you want more up-to-date features). And (I assume) it gets updated in sync with Windows and Mac.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use Debian and I welcome that.

the slower I get those fixes means the longer they were reviewed by the fine package maintainers. Not to mention that when a privacy invading feature is included, the fine maintainers set it to sane defaults, not big brother defaults like the google-chrome.

I'm using debian stable on the computer with my personal data for a reason.

...It always scare me that people have google and _gasp_ skype repositories on their boxes.

<comment><AUTHOR> You mean you _want_ to have a browser with a long laundry list of known and possibly exploitable defects? Ick.

<comment><USER5> And also the other way around.

don't want new features that introduce a long list of known and possibly exploitable defects every 2 hours, as it is with google-chrome.

i rather have them 2 weeks later or so.</comment></comment></comment>


Brain shifts from glucose to lactate fuel source during exercise. - <AUTHOR> http://www.physorg.com/news141997396.html

<comment><USER2> I had that thought as well. I do know that some of the people in the medical field whom I have talked to say that exercise tends to shift the brain in to more predominant Alpha wave patterns which correlates to creative thought. That explains why stepping away from the computer and taking a walk can be very helpful for solving problems.

<comment><USER3> Maybe, but check this out too: <http://www.physorg.com/news142012820.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's especially interesting in that when muscles work really hard they make lactic acid - which is then used by the brain when _it_ is working hard.

<comment><USER5> No, I think the paper just says that the brain can get by with lactic acid, not that it works better with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if that is related to the beneficial effects of exercise on mood.

<comment><USER7> I think "runner's high" is endorphins, but I'm wondering how the lactate interacts with the endorphins as well.

incidentally, what exactly is lactate? ...milk bits?

<comment><USER8> I'm going to guess this: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid></comment></comment></comment>


Technology That Prods You to Take Action, Not Just Collect Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/technology/technology-that-prods-you-to-take-action-not-just-collect-data.html

<comment><USER2> A new tech frontier: treating people like cattle.</comment>


The Groupon Bubble is Going Burst Tech - <AUTHOR> http://www.markevanstech.com/2011/02/09/the-groupon-bubble-is-going-to-burst/ <comment><USER2> I'm really sick of this Chicken-Little-the-sky-is-falling-I-want-to-have- published-the-"it-was-a-Bubble"-5-years-before-the-next-bubble type articles.

Mashable reported that Groupon had $800M in revenue last year when Google offered $6B for them. [1] Taking $1B in funding makes a bit more sense when you consider it's only 1 year's worth of revenue for them.

LinkedIn is profitable before their IPO [2]

Yelp made an estimated $50M last year, and if they play their daily deals program right, they have a chance to make a crap load more money. I'm wagering they are going to be quite profitable before they IPO. [3]

Facebook make $1.8B in advertising revenue alone this year. I'd be hard pressed to believe they aren't profitable. And, since they have heaps of personal data on 1/12th of the world's population, does anyone doubt that Facebook's first 1,000 employees are going to be able to take up sewing blankets made of $100 dollar bills after their IPO? [4]

Now, when growth oriented technology companies have significant revenue streams and/or are profitable, how exactly is it that we're in a bubble?

Nothing to see here, folks. Go back to building companies that print money.

ref:

[1] <http://mashable.com/2010/12/07/groupon-800-million/>

[2] [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F01%2F29%2FBU581HDJ4N.DTL)

[3] [http://www.businessinsider.com/yelps-first-daily-deal- beats-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/yelps-first-daily-deal-beats- groupon-2010-9)

[4] [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/18/...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/18/businessinsider-facebook-isnt-growing-as- fast-as-google-did-in-its-early-days-2011-1.DTL)

<comment><USER3> Mashable's own article says the $800M is a "run rate" number. It's really Enron-style accounting:

"Run rate is a tricky number, though. It's a projection of what the company would make if you extrapolate from its most recent revenue numbers. Depending on the time frame used, the calculated annual run rate can vary significantly."

If my income keeps growing at this rate, I'll be a trillionaire in no time!

<comment><USER4> Run rate is about quantities, not rates. If you made $10 in Jan, $40 in July, and $160 in the next Jan, then your run rate would be $1920, (12 x $160), not projecting 4x growth per 6 months forward.

<comment><USER3> Using that math, I've already 'earned' many millions in my lifetime, even though I've only been out of college for a couple years.

And that number gets even more exaggerated if I choose to base the calculation off a month where I got a bonus.

My point stands; it's fabricated revenue.

<comment><USER4> It's a well understood and useful concept. Let's say you work at a job making $120K. Then in November, you start a new job paying $180K. Would you think that you make $130K (the amount you actually earned that year) or $180K (the amount you expect to make going forward)? Is the extra $50K fabricated salary?

How else would you communicate fast growth in revenue? Also, since run rate is well understood, people _don't_ use it for exceptional or one-time events like a bonus. For example, Groupon didn't claim to be raising money at $12B/yr since the big raise was a one-time event.

<comment><USER3> It doesn't communicate growth -- there is nothing to compare against. If you were going to do that, you'd simply provide a something like YOY% change in revenue.

A run rate is just inflating/fabricating PAST revenue by speculating on the FUTURE. Refer to my helpful chart:

      |  / <- SHOW THIS NUMBER TO INVESTORS, PRETEND IT WILL GO ON FOREVER
      | /
      |/   <- HIDE THIS NUMBER, TOO LOW
      +---

<comment><USER5> Wow, a handy ASCII chart that disproves the entire concept of investment. Congrats!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm surprised no one commented on the fact that a Groupon is not a tech company.

Sure, they USE technology, but not nearly as much as they use people. They have massive sales and customer facing teams that make all of the deals for the coupons. Its not like a social network of business owners who create and swap coupons or something.

Groupon is in the deal business, the coupon business. Their name and brand isn't riding off any one large technology push. Calling Groupon a tech company is a stretch (even if thats how they began), and saying its going to "burst Tech" is even more knee-jerk.

<comment><USER7> _and saying its going to "burst Tech" is even more knee-jerk._

I think that was a copy paste error. The original title reads "The Groupon Bubble is Going Burst | Mark Evans Tech".

<comment><USER8> Well that changes things. I thought the article would be about how a failed Groupon would trigger a tech bubble implosion.

Copy and paste error or link-bait tactic?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > I'm not convinced Groupon has staying power. Sure, it's uber-popular but how > much longer will consumers be captivated by the flurry of deep-discount > offers hitting their inboxes?

Ah yes, because everyone knows consumers hate saving money, this is why coupons have never taken off in the past. Wait a minute. In 2009 hundreds of billions of _actual_ coupons were used.

Of all the companies people cite for a bubble, you choose _the one making money hand over fist_? Seriously?

I think the most ridiculous statement people say is that Groupon isn't defensible, guys, Groupon has thousands of people calling companies every day - guys in a garage eating pizza can't exactly do this. (also, if you're saving people money, people have a tendency to remember your brand)

<comment><USER10> The problem is that Groupon's customers aren't actually the people buying coupons, it's the businesses selling coupons, and we've heard plenty of horror stories from that side of the coin. Whether that aspect is enough to dig Groupon's grave is an open question, but let's at least make sure we're approaching the question from the appropriate angle.

<comment><USER11> Have there been that many stories? I've heard a couple from small time coffee shops that may not be the best financial planners, but those few sad stories seem to reverberate without a lot of new voices joining the chorus.

<comment><USER12> I'm going out on a limb here, but has anyone else noticed that HN has a tendency to hate on Groupon?

We see dozens of articles like this reach the front page predicting Groupon's doom, always citing the same dissatisfied coffee shop, always attacking imaginary business models. I'd like to see someone refute Groupon's value as an advertising tool, or even compare it to existing alternatives.

On top of that, a class of hacker news user exists who spells "Groupon" groupOn. It seemed liken impossibly childish insult, to mangle something's name, so I assumed it was an accident or maybe that's how Groupon used to be spelled when it was a startup. Well I looked it up, and no.

<comment><USER13> Personally, I tend to hate it because I am convinced that coupons are evil. It is just a way to control people's behaviours and turn them into consumer sheep, which I resent from the bottom of my heart.

I root for startups that empower people and open up new opportunities, not for ones that have found a loophole in the human psyche and exploit it to the maximum.

<comment><USER14> I wouldn't say they're exploiting a loophole in the human psyche, rather a very well known aspect of it.

It's also a brilliant business model for a recession and financial crisis. In most instances it's win-win-win:

\- Groupon makes money

\- people get huge discounts, and save money if it was something they were planing to buy anyway.

\- businesses both make money (assuming they worked out the math of the deal correctly before accepting it) and gain huge exposure.

I suppose the only losers are wherever people would have spent that money had they not bought the groupon, but that's hard to quantify (bought the same thing at a higher price? bought something else? saved it?).

I can't think of many more innovative business models for a distressed economy.

<comment><USER15> The losers are the waiters and employees of the featured businesses. I know plenty of people in the service industry who dread the days their restaurants or shops offer discounts on Groupon. Sure it makes money for the company, but in many cases a Groupon deal kills morale within the business.

That on top of the exploitative nature of many (most?) Groupon users, where they buy a Groupon and never revisit the business after they use their discount.

Groupon is a great business, but some concerns about the quality of the leads arise. We need the Glengarry leads.

<comment><USER16> I dread the day I cannot get into my favourite restaurant because there is a line of Grouponies around the block . . .

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Groupon was silly not to accept Google's $6bn offer. The profit margin that justified that valuation is sure to drop over time, as their business model is easily replicable. Does that mean Groupon or that business model is going to go away? Of course not. It does mean, however, that $6bn was probably the high-water mark for the valuation a company like this can achieve.

The biggest threat is not from the consumer side - who wouldn't love 50-75% off deals? - but from the business side. Rumor has it that business are losing anywhere from 75-90% on these coupons. Businesses will accept a loss leader now and again, but there are two threats here:

1) Competitors will offer businesses better deals by taking less as a middleman fee, hurting Groupon's profit margin

2) There will be few repeat customers on the business side, as Groupon purchasers don't actually return to the businesses based on the initial discounted deal

Both threats are serious.

</comment><comment><USER18> However, this is the basic rationale between "loss leaders" and "sale prices" that have been common in consumer-targeted sales for decades (or longer). I see no reason to expect this will change.

Rather, I see Groupon's primary risk is the simple fact that there will be more and more competition, and this will allow both consumers and retailers more choice, cutting into Groupon's phenomenal margins.

</comment><comment><USER19> Whilst I don't think a profitable business like Groupon will 'burst', I think it will slowly deflate. Why? Does anyone remember the company from over a decade ago, backed by Paul Allen, who were going to revolutionise ecommerce by offering group discounts? It was Mercata and they went under in 2001.

The article at <http://www.seattlepi.com/business/vc122.shtml> sums up why long-term, Groupon will face challenges (and it's also the exact reason why I decline to use Groupons' services):

"Those who wanted a baby jogger or DVD player, for example, sometimes had to wait seven days for Mercata's so-called PowerBuy to kick in. By that time, shoppers had moved on to another store or online shopping site. Instead of creating a faster, cheaper way to buy products, Mercata actually slowed the buying process."

Que Groupon offering group-buying service with no time-limits, only a quantity-limit?

<comment><USER20> Groupon does enable merchants to set quantity limits on deals.

Mercata wasn't a daily deal site, it was a demand aggregation site which has inherent problems as mentioned above and in the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Groupon may be the strongest brand, best venture backing, and most revenue compared to all the clones, but it certainly could become worthless practically overnight. Easily replicable as seen by many others, staying power is questionable as mentioned.

I'd have trouble sleeping at night if I were Andrew Mason. Especially hearing the company that I turned down 6 bil from was joining the market. Post ipo his wealth will pretty much always be tied to groupons success.

<comment><USER22> I agree I wouldn't have turned down the buyout, but from what I understand they're certainly not easily replicable.

Sure, you or I could set up a site that offers all the tech of Groupon pretty quickly. _Then what?_ The strength is in their large and proven sales force and network of contacts. That can and will experience churn and cross- pollination with competitors, but they've got a heck of a head start, huge brand recognition and the resources to try new parallel ventures to hedge against problems with their current offering.

Any of a number of companies could and did duplicate eBay's tech. Outside a few national markets where eBay dropped the ball (Japan, New Zealand), how many succeeded?

<comment><USER23> Ebay is a deceptive example; auctions inherently have powerful network effects. I think Amazon might be a slightly better example: tons of competition but still a lot of money to be made. There can be many winners in this market, and Groupon will probably be the biggest winner.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> weak analysis.

Here's why Groupon works: data compression. A groupon is a signal compressing all of the economic data in an entire city into a single very best offer, at a rate of one per day. Consumers are overloaded with information and seek simplification, the value derived is a function of the ratio of compression.

Here's how Groupon can fail: they start offering more than one coupon per day. Anything that increases the perceived noise/signal ratio in crowded inboxes.

<comment><USER25> Actually, that is how Groupon succeeds. Well, more deals in an area without an individual subscriber receiving too many deals.

Targeted deals based on real-time inputs (weather, slow day in the business, new story about a competitor, etc).

Add in hyper-local targeting and enough automation and you have the holy grail of local commerce.

<comment><USER24> > _without an individual subscriber receiving too many deals._

Correct. 1 refers to the rate per individual inbox that was entirely essential for their initial growth and traction. Total volume and market segmentation > 1 ... is a no brainer for any business. While they can now afford to alienate and loose businessmen and others with low inbox noise tolerance, limiting the bandwidth they consume in each individual's inbox is still their weakest link and one of the only ways for them to actually loose subscribers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I just thought I'd give groupon a spin to see what the buzz was about. It has a pretty slick landing page that enticed an email address out of me. V-day is coming up and there was an FTD $40 coupon or "Groupon" available for $20 so I thought what the hell, my wife needs some flowers, why not? I click to purchase, it asks me for my basic info, including an email address and CC info. I complete the form and..

 _Sorry, this email is already in use by another account_ (or something like that)

Frickin' form: completely blank. Was I supposed to check my email first and create an account? If so, why did it let me get to the order page. So I check my gmail, even the spam folder, and nothing. Even if I signed up a long time ago, an email would be in my archive.

Should I fill it out again with a different email address? Sure... I got time to write this comment, right?

I guess if I end up using this thing more than once, then that will prove the hole bubble charge false. But so far it's not looking good.

Sorry, had to rant.

Update: blank page with _window.location.href = "/mygroupons";_ after completing the purchase. I sh*t you not. Chrome on Windows, people!

</comment><comment><USER27> "Groupon and other group-buying services let consumers eat their cake and have it too." To me, that doesn't sound like something consumers are going to abandon very quickly. The notion that collective buying will somehow fade in the eyes of users strikes me as pretty odd - it's a flat out better way to buy, and groupon does a great job of getting worthwhile products to consumers at deep discounts.

Of the points you mention, I think Groupon's greatest worry is probably that retailers may not make the margins they'd like when using it. But even that's a difficult complaint to make work - fundamentally retailers compete with one another and Groupon is a great tool to leapfrog your competition, even if just for a temporary period.

<comment><USER28> _To me, that doesn't sound like something consumers are going to abandon very quickly._

No, but it requires retailers to participate. When the prevailing trend seems to be that retailers lose their ass on the deal, and then don't win over enough new long-term customers to justify the cost, the model is going to need some refinement over time.

<comment><USER27> Maybe so. In my comment I noted that retailer issues are a far better criticism of Groupon... The OPs analysis is focused far more on consumer issues, which I think is an inaccurate view of what's going on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The most interesting part is the daily deal (prepaid couponing) as a progression of the CPM>CPC>CPA advertising model.

The opportunity to eliminate marketing/advertising risk as an upfront cost for small businesses is incredibly attractive. Despite the hype, countless copy cats, and bubble comments already, this market is still incredibly young and underdeveloped.

I think the real question is whether this new advertising model is best served by a consumer brand, where Groupon has significant first mover advantage, or an underlying technology solution for every publisher with an audience.

</comment><comment><USER30> My favorite line from the post: "My sense is Groupon's popularity and star power has peaked even though sales may continue to grow for awhile."

If it has peaked, why would it continue to grow? I think that other side of the peak is decline, not growth. The line sounds like someone who wants to make a statement, but wants a soft landing if they're wrong.

I think Groupon will continue not because people don't mind a daily email, but because the businesses that issue the coupons receive value from them. Which would be more customers to make up for the deep discount they gave.

</comment><comment><USER31> I think no one can predict that but the market. No company is going to give you 50% discount if they were selling with good numbers.

I have few domains that I'm planning to transfer to namecheap. Surprisingly, yesterday I found out that they have an around 50% coupon for domain transfer. I quickly went and transfered the domains, I was planning to transfer them two months later.

So it's a deal. The company needs money now. The buyer wants to benefit. Whenever you have these two parties the transaction happen be it groupon or not.

</comment><comment><USER32> "if I were Groupon's founders, I would have taken the $6-billion offer from Google in a heartbeat"

that's probably why you AREN'T a Groupon founder

ps.: more from the same blogger: "why Foursquare is dead because it's not canadian" - [http://www.markevanstech.com/2011/02/14/is-foursquare- intere...](http://www.markevanstech.com/2011/02/14/is-foursquare-interesting- or-doa/)

</comment><comment><USER33> This article seems light on facts but heavy with opinion. "My sense is Groupon's popularity and star power has peaked even though sales may continue to grow for awhile..." That's an interesting theory, is there any evidence to support this?

Further, the headline is misleading, as they're talking only about groupon and nothing about how this might impact the tech economy as a whole.

</comment><comment><USER34> TL;DR The OP is of the opinion that Groupon's (and the group buying sector's) bubble will burst. No facts I think.

Groupon must be super-confident in themselves to turn down $6billion.

I suspect they have some very good metrics that indicate they will continue to grow to a considerable extent to justify that decision. I doubt it was made on gut feeling or whim. Or without facts.

</comment><comment><USER35> Here is a good blog about three different marketing strategies and customer types the groupon model attracts

[http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/groupon_is_google_making_a_6...](http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/groupon_is_google_making_a_6_b.html)

</comment><comment><USER36> I clicked on this wondering what 'Burst Tech' was.

Title should say '... bubble is going [to] burst.'

</comment><comment><USER37> That Groupon is probably a fad? Granted.

That this automatically means there is some kind of "tech bubble"? That any startup related to the consumer space is going to implode and possibly take the whole tech sector with it? Blogga please.</comment>


What to do with the rm -rf hoax question - <AUTHOR> https://meta.serverfault.com/questions/8696/what-to-do-with-the-rm-rf-hoax-question <comment><USER2> I'm surprised that several people think deleting or even suspending the account is too harsh.

I'm not familiar enough with the nuances of StackOverflow - maybe it would delete other helpful questions and comments he's left in the past if they deleted it, but an indefinite suspension seems very necessary.

How is making a fake post solely for the purpose of advertising your company not against the rules? Even if it's not the letter of the law, how can they afford to tolerate that behavior? The quality of StackOverflow would be severely compromised if this becomes a trend. The internet is full of enough content disguised as original content, SO needs to show that they won't let that happen on their turf.</comment>


Ruby's Most Underused Keyword - <AUTHOR> http://www.rubyrailways.com/rubys-most-underused-keyword/ <comment> old-gregg My personal up until recently underused keyword was (surprise!) "rescue".

I'm not sure how this has been escaping me since 07, but I had no idea you can apply it at the end of an expression, i.e. when you're facing nasty functions that insist on trhowing exceptions, instead of

begin

      value = function_that_throws

rescue

      value = "default"

end

you can just write:

value = function_that_throws rescue "default"

<comment><USER3> that's along the lines of using or for nil returns.

value = function_that_nils || "default"

I've found it makes code more succinct.

<comment> old-gregg Careful here: I've seen plenty of "Rubiomatic" bugs that look like this:

value = function_that_nils or "default"

... which results in nil assignment to value. Accidental confusion between || and 'or' is very common in Ruby world IMO, almost like famous == vs = in C.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. I think one is for statements (or) and the other one is for expressions (||), so they have different operational precedence, even though you could use them interchangeably, as long as you knew what got executed first.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> redo, in the Fibonacci example, is still iterative - it's presented as a third way, when it's just a cruftier way of being iterative. If you remove the cruft of the lambda and the redo, you end up with:

      def fib(i)
        n, result = 1, 0
        while i != -1
          i, n, result = i - 1, n + result, n
        end
        result
      end

Cleaner, faster (by 10% on Ruby 1.8) and shorter, but certainly iterative.

(Separate to this, the fib routines shown produce incorrect results - <USER2> example above maintains this, just for comparison with the original code. fib(10) is 55 not 89 - it's one off in its input.)

<comment><USER5> You are absolutely right... if you're an interpreter...

From a user's point of view, the redo says "run this block again"; and since the block == the method it's just another way to run acc(). Of course, it's still _faking_ , but I've never claimed anything else :-)

<comment><USER4> Since we're having the discussion in two places, I'll be quicker here.. ;-)

"run this block again" signifies "loop" to me and "loop" signifies "iteration." If I see a block of code being looped, I don't think (as a coder, not as an interpreter) that it's recursive. Perhaps others would, though. If we got in a time machine back to the 80s, I kinda feel that "redo" would turn into "goto".. :)

(Hey, we should be doing this on RubyFlow as well - you could be earning some serious karma :))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Using redo for tail recursion in Ruby is an interesting idea, similar to Clojure's recur keyword.

<comment><USER7> but ruby doesn't support tail recursion effectively? or is this something new in 1.9. Stack level is not deep enough in 1.8 :P

<comment><USER5> 1.9 supports it, together with some other optimizations, but everything is turned off in 1.9.1. 1.9.2 will be sweet :-)</comment></comment></comment>


How to Reset Your Sleep Schedule, Seriously - <AUTHOR> http://projectb14ck.org/how-to-reset-your-sleep-schedule-seriously <comment><USER3> One thing which I think would help many programmers reset their sleep schedule is to remove routine use of caffeine.

For me it was only giving up caffeine that made me realise how powerful a stimulant it actually is. If you're in a daily routine in which you're routinely and regularly drinking caffeine throughout the day then it's almost certain that it is impacting your sleep cycle. If you're drinking caffeine in the evening and still sleeping at night you're probably exhausted or at least over tired.

I'd recommend to anyone cutting it out for 2 - 3 weeks just to understand it and allow you to better work out how you want to use that effect. For me that means first thing in the morning and as needed (I have a 15 month old daughter - that can be fairly often) but never in the evening and rarely in the afternoon.

Certainly if you wanted to reboot your sleep schedule I think stopping it would be significant. If nothing else then for a heavy coffee drinker the added tiredness caused by removing the additional stimulation would help you sleep earlier.

More on the impact of caffeine on sleep and sleep in general in Counting Sheep by Paul Martin ([http://www.amazon.com/Counting-Sheep-Science-Pleasures- Dream...](http://www.amazon.com/Counting-Sheep-Science-Pleasures- Dreams/dp/0312327447/ref=tmm_pap_title_0)). It's a bit long and in places but it's worth reading despite that if you're interesting in understanding sleep.

<comment><USER4> "first thing in the morning as needed I have a 15 month old daughter"

I UNDERSTAND

I have a 24 month old daughter and she is attacking me as I typo these wor .';;= =-p3r=0oi, m \weprkg!!!!!!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I conducted an experiment. I slept as much as I wanted and whenever I wanted. Sometimes I slept for 10 minutes and at other time for as much as 14 hours. I just let my body sleep without limitations whenever I felt sleepy - <USER2> exceptions.

After about 3 to 4 days of doing this my sleep schedule settled on its own accord. On most days, I now sleep at around midnight and sometimes perhaps in the afternoon for a bit. Some days I don't sleep at all because I don't feel sleepy but that corrects in a few days to become normal again.

For me this is remarkable, I used to be an extreme example of a night owl.

</comment><comment><USER6> It is certainly true that going camping will reset your sleeping schedule. Last year, my sleep schedule was to start sleeping at 8AM, and wake at 4PM; after a few days of camping, it had shifted all the way to sleeping at 8PM (sunrise).

The only problem with this is that camping isn't something that you can just go out and do, especially if you have any sort of obligation (work, school).

I recently "reset" my sleep schedule from sleeping at 4am to sleeping at 12am. It wasn't really that hard, and I didn't use anything tricky or uncomfortable, like starving myself beforehand. All you really have to do is climb into bed two hours before you went sleeping the previous night, and start reading. I find that reading puts you in a much more relaxed state, and after an hour or so, I don't drift off to sleep so much as it hits me like a train. :) You can knock back your sleep schedule almost an hour a day through this strategy.

The other advantage of this is that you get to do a lot of reading.

<comment><USER3> Wouldn't sleeping with the curtains open achieve much the same thing?

From the article there doesn't seem to be much special about camping other than it removes much of the artificial control we exert over our environment (light, noise and so on). Just willingly stopping those things would be a big step in moving back into a rhythm which was more in step with the natural day / night cycle.

<comment><USER7> I would sleep with my curtains open more often but I generally find the sodium street lights to be an annoyance when my eyes adjust to the almost darkness. At which point they get closed.

I regularly go camping and have to agree with everything the author says. The physical exertion (setting up camp, building a fire, walking around etc) lack of environmental controls and natural light certainly correct any day / night in balance immediately.

Though, since I finished University I have found that just having to get to work for 9am each morning takes care of most problems. Other than the occasional nights bad sleep, usually caused by being fascinated by some programming problem or even a real life issue!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I notice that the author used to be sleeping 6-7 hours (going to bed at 3 or 4 am and waking up at 10), but after camping, is sleeping 9 hours (going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 8).

That seems like a bigger deal than shifting the schedule. I imagine it's much easier to feel rested in the morning if you're getting 2+ hours of sleep more than you used to.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think what helped him reset his sleep schedule is :

\- Exercise

\- The lack of artificial light

You don't have to go camping to have that.

<comment><USER10> You're correct. But it's easier to enforce those things at a campsite than at home.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Try sleeping in a room above an open-air street market. The roosters will raise a ruckus starting at 4am during the summer -- an alarm clock that you _can't turn off_.

<comment><USER12> If you do turn it off, you might end up with a nice pot of soup though ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've camped in my back yard at times for this exact reason. Yes people find that odd, but there's no better alarm clock than the sun baking you in your tent.

When camping in good weather I always feel refreshed upon waking up.

<comment><USER14> If you are camping in your back yard, why not just skip the tent and enjoy sleeping under the stars?

<comment><USER15> I would assume occasionally the weather changes between going to sleep and waking up. Might be able to sleep through rain on the tent (it may even enhance the sleep by being white noise).

<comment><USER16> If you're ever building or reroofing a house, look into a corrugated steel roof. Sure, it has all the visual appeal of corrugated steel, but it's cost- effective and the sound of rain on a steel roof is very beautiful. My parents had their house reroofed with steel a couple years after I left for college and I've always loved the sound of rain on it.

<comment><USER17> Wouldn't it trap heat like crazy in summer?

<comment><USER16> The house isn't in a particularly hot place so I'm not sure, but I suspect there are ways of defeating that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I stopped reading when he says "go camping" and "it's fun" because I frikin hate camping. Does that make me a weirdo?

<comment><USER19> "If you find yourself trapped in the middle of the woods without electricity, running water, or a car you would likely describe that situation as a "nightmare" or "a worse case scenario like after plane crash or something." White people refer to it as "camping." " -- Stuff White People Like

<http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/08/14/128-camping/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> With respect to sunlight hours, wouldn't this technique depend a lot on timing (e.g. winter vs. summer) and latitude? I mean, it wouldn't seem to be of much use in say northern Alaska during the summer where daylight nears 24 hours or in winter where you're in the dark much of the time.

</comment><comment><USER21> No hack will help in the long-term:

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

Look on the positive side: by sleeping from 4-5am to 9-10am, you have both day and night! While "normal" people have only day and evening.

<comment><USER22> That's exactly what I've thought when I read:

 _Thirdly, after you come back from your short camping trip, you'll not easily fall back into your old schedule._

I've reset my schedule a couple of times and I can say that falling back to the old schedule was a piece of cake.

<comment><USER23> Same here. I've found the only way I can stick to a morning schedule for any length of time is if I push my schedule later and later until late is early; my body tries to push my schedule backwards for a couple of weeks before it starts slipping forward again.

I don't recommend my sleep hack for everyone though, it's probably only easy if you have a really easy time staying up 4 hours later than usual but find it almost impossible to get up even one hour earlier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Please, for the sake of non-Americans (non-Californians?) use the following regular expression on your titles.

s/", Seriously"//

<comment><USER25> Indeed it took me a few seconds to understand the meaning (or rather lack thereof) of "seriously" in the title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I actually just did this!

I just got back from a long weekend camping. We hiked 8+ miles Saturday and Sunday, and I was so tired last night I went to bed at 8PM (no joke). Thursday night, I went to bed at 1AM.

More generally, I've found that exercise helps a lot with moving my schedule earlier, just because I'm tired. If you're out camping, you tend to be active all day (there aren't many non-active activities in the woods), which helps a lot.

</comment><comment><USER27> My sleep schedule usually becomes "normal" on vacation. I'm not much of a hiker but being outside 80% of the day seems to do the trick for sure. But I don't go to that from getting up at merely 10AM (which I'd consider normal myself) I just got up at 6PM ;-)

</comment><comment><USER28> Interesting. I recall a good discuss here a little while ago that involved, primarily, a morning walk as being invaluable for shifting from night to day. Similarly, it espoused the importance of sunlight on your body's natural sleep rhythm.

<comment><AUTHOR> I originally didn't think it would make much of a difference. I just figured that sunlight and nature would have very little (if any) effect. However, after actually doing it, and seeing such a huge shift in schedule, I realized the importance of sunlight a LOT more.

I didn't see the article you're referring to (can't seem to find it), but I'll try taking a morning walk as well. Sounds like a peaceful way to start the day.

<comment><USER29> Simply taking a few 10-15 minutes walks during the day -- one in the morning, one after lunch, and maybe even one before bed -- is a good habit to get into if you're indoors and/or in front of a computer all day. Fresh air, sun, and movement are all awesome things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I have a great way of dealing with this that's simple, fun, and requires very little lead time: get drunk.

I head out around 10PM and drink beer or whisky repeatedly until I'm completely intoxicated. By 2AM or so all I want to do is go to sleep.

<comment><USER31> Alcohol may make you sleepy. But it doesn't make for better sleep. See e.g. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_use_and_sleep>

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> The hardest part of resetting my sleep schedule is actually _sticking_ to it ... I almost always end up staying up later and later and before I know it it's a total mess again.

</comment><comment><USER33> What if I want to reset my schedule to something unnatural?

<comment><USER16> Stay indoors. Seal out all natural light. Replace all your lights with theraputic Seasonal Affective Disorder lamps to simulate the natural light spectrum of the sun. Work out an automated schedule of turning the lights on and off--or varying their brightness, if you find ones with dimmers--to trick your body into thinking it's daytime when you want it to be daytime, and nighttime when you want it to be nighttime. This might actually work, but I've never tried it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> That doesn't really work in winter though.

Or it might just be me who object to sleeping outside in subzero weather.

<comment><USER34> I find camping in subzero temperatures a lot more pleasant than camping in cold & wet temperatures - it's fairly easy to stay dry and staying warm really isn't a problem if you have the right equipment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> This works even better if you don't build a campfire.</comment>


Access to starup school videos and slides - <AUTHOR>

is there a way i can get access startup school presentation videos and slides? <comment><USER2> The videos you can access from StartupSchool TV channel on justin.tv

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks Ken. Any idea about slide deck.

Wanted to put them in this new format www.9slides.com/demo , will help everyone around.</comment></comment>


Tumblr To Launch Ads Starting May 2 - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/tumblr-to-launch-ads-on-site-starting-may-2.ars

<comment><AUTHOR> I think this is the problem with the current startup paradigm.

Give cool stuff away for free + ? = $$$

That isn't really a plan for a business. Most startups end up filling in that question mark with advertising. What's wrong with just selling your product?</comment>


Jimmy John's Data Security Incident - <AUTHOR> https://www.jimmyjohns.com/datasecurityincident/index.html

<comment><USER2> Good on Jimmy Johns for stating the stores and dates that were affected.</comment>


Berkeley-led research breaks barrier in transistor size creating gate only 1nm - <AUTHOR> http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2016/10/06/smallest-transistor-1-nm-gate/ <comment><USER2> That's pretty amazing as a technical achievement, but I have to wonder how this could scale up.</comment>


jEdit 5.6.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.jedit.org/ <comment><USER2> this reminds of the good old Nedit.</comment>


On Modern Propaganda - <AUTHOR> http://250bpm.com/blog:108 <comment><AUTHOR> I submit this in response to the persistent meme that "Russian ads didn't decide the election." I agree that even if they did use ads, that is far from the whole story. I want to bring to light some of the arguments for how social media more broadly can be used as a weapon of propaganda by polarizing everyone who participates, making them more vocal, and viralizing the propagandistic memes that move through society through the vectors of friends and family members, not of insignificant ads per se (though these certainly reinforce the feeling that "others believe what I do so there must be some truth!").</comment>


What would you look like in anime? - <AUTHOR> https://selfie2anime.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Medium article [https://medium.com/syncedreview/unsupervised-image-to- image-...](https://medium.com/syncedreview/unsupervised-image-to-image- translation-turns-selfies-into-anime-characters-c90293e0f296)

Arxiv: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.10830.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.10830.pdf)

GitHub: [https://github.com/taki0112/UGATIT](https://github.com/taki0112/UGATIT)

h/t to Reddit, thought HN would be interested.</comment>


Show HN: Use your Mac Keyboard to type on your phone, tablet, TV over Bluetooth - <AUTHOR> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/keypad-bluetooth-keyboard/id1491684442?mt=12 <comment><AUTHOR> KeyPad is a Virtual Bluetooth Keyboard. Its an app that the Phone, tablet or TV sees as a Bluetooth Keyboard. Anything that you type on the Mac/macbook will go to the connected device. I have added Volume Control, and Media playback keys too. Tested with iPhone, Android, iPad, Tablets, Windows Desktop, Rasberry Pi and many TVs. Should work with most devices that support a bluetooth keyboard.</comment>


Home Data Center from Craigslist Parts - <AUTHOR> https://charlescary.com/home-data-center/ <comment><USER2> That's not a data center. It's a guy with 4 used servers in his basement in a rack that isn't set up for any kind of air flow.</comment>


"Mad Money" Jim Cramer's stock picks "underperform the market by most measures" - <AUTHOR> http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123397107399659271.html

<comment><USER2> But the market tanked!

Looking backward, who would have wanted to be "in the market" over the last 10 years? Most who were are now busted - down to half or less of their initial outlay.

As long as we continue getting hit by these "Black Swans", listening to Jim Cramer is the least of our problems and certainly more entertaining than hearing our new President predict "Catastrophe!".</comment>


Long working hours, stroke and coronary heart disease - <AUTHOR> http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=7864f766b10b8edd18f19aa56&id=ae7176cdaa#WorkingHours <comment><AUTHOR> Submitting this because:

> Working 49–54 hours a week was associated with a 27% higher risk of stroke > than working 35–40 hours a week, with the risk 33% higher in people who > worked 55 hours or more a week.

54 hours would be seen incorrectly by many on HN as a normal, even short, week.

About 1 in 18 US deaths is from stroke.</comment>


Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL now generally available - <AUTHOR> https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2018/04/Cloud-SQL-for-PostgreSQL-now-generally-available-and-ready-for-your-production-workloads.html <comment><USER2> Started down the path of using this when it was in beta, but had to abort when we saw there was no option to connect to it from Python App Engine Standard.

Now that it's GA...it looks like that hasn't changed. Is the classic, Python, App Engine standard becoming a second class citizen? Or was there some reason why this wasn't considered GA worthy for Postgres?

Trying to understand if going forward Google is trying to push everyone to the flexible environment or not - as I would have really expected connectivity between these two products.

<comment><USER3> [I am a Googler and my team works on part of this]

You can connect to postgres from app engine standard... as long as its Java. See this doc [https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/java/cloud-...](https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/java/cloud- sql/using-cloud-sql-postgres)

And no, appengine standard is not a second class citizen. Hand-wave-ily, the connectivity path that flex uses works for postgres with minimal changes, but unfortunately some additional work is required to get appengine standard for other languages working for postgres. :(

<comment><USER4> Thanks. Could you please explain in a little bit more detail how it works for Java GAE Standard and not Python?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is point in time recovery available now in GA? I had checked it a couple of weeks ago for the beta service and it was not available. I think for a managed DB hosting point in time recovery is a critical feature.

<comment><USER6> [I'm the Cloud SQL TL] No, it isn't. We agree with you that it's an important feature for managed databases, and we're working to get it right. We decoupled it from this launch to get PostgreSQL to GA faster.

<comment><USER7> Unrelated to pg but could you badger the spanner team to make a mini spanner product :)

Related to postgres. We have many many concurrent connections but a load satisfied by an n1-standard-4 atm do you recommend a connection pooler or something to help us get down to the 100 to 200 connections we need to be at to use cloudsql?

<comment><USER8> Connection pooling is recommended for any non-trivial PG deployment. I can recommend pgbouncer, worked flawlessly for us.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does anyone have insight or experience using this in production? We're currently running PostgreSQL 10 w/ pg_partman on our own hardware but looking at a several options for cloud migration. Unfortunately, Citus Cloud on GCP doesn't appear to be an option (yet?)

\- Google Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)

\- Citus Cloud (AWS Only)

\- Citus (managed ourselves) on GCP

<comment><USER10> We did, but now use [https://aiven.io](https://aiven.io)

Highly recommended if you want a fast and featured managed db service.

<comment><USER11> what's the benefit of using them vs. AWS or GCP directly?

<comment><USER10> Latest software (using v10.3), better performance (nvme SSDs), better backups (point in time, instant cloning), better features (more extensions, cross- region replication even across different clouds), better flexibility (migrate master across different clouds), better monitoring (logs and datadog metrics export), and more focused support with a smaller team.

<comment><USER12> AWS and GCP both have nvme SSDs for instance types intended for big-ol DBs

[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ssd- inst...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ssd-instance- store.html)

<comment><USER10> Yes, I know. This thread is about managed database services, specifically about Aiven vs cloud-direct. Aiven still runs VMs on AWS or GCP but offers nvme disks while neither RDS nor CloudSQL have that available.

<comment><USER12> Ah I see, i3 isn't in the RDS pool yet. I imagine it will be eventually?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> We actually just migrated off yesterday... we went with an independent vendor like Aiven instead of the clouds because they move too slowly and don't have enough features.

<comment><USER13> Like aiven or aiven? :) I'm not aware of too much competition in this space. We're happy with aiven so far, but they're quite unknown / under the radar it seems...

<comment><USER10> They're the best we've found as well, but there are lots of managed database providers of all kinds. [https://www.compose.com](https://www.compose.com) is another big one.

<comment><USER13> We're using compose for redis, but we might switch it to aiven as well, despite aiven having some missing functionality...

For Gcloud and especially in Europe, I think these two are the only options that I'm aware of (at least for PG and redis)

<comment><USER10> If you want managed Redis, there's nothing better than RedisLabs

<comment><USER13> Yeah, I was practically begging them to offer service on GCloud in europe ... :) but they don't cover it...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How do you deal with custom extensions (for example plv8)?

I started off with heroku and they don't support the same subset:

[https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/extensions](https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/extensions)

[https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres- extens...](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres-extensions- postgis-full-text-search)

<comment><USER15> They don't have a great story around extensions - the ones they do have are unsupported/buggy. For example, PostGIS is missing "ST_FromGeoJSON" because it was compiled with the wrong flag - and has been this way for over a year despite hundreds of user complaints.

<comment><USER16> This is what I expect from Google. They are not customer-centric and no-one is really prioritising or cares about customer feedback.

<comment><USER17> You clearly have never talked to GCP support. They're in a different league from AWS support.

<comment><USER10> They're all the same quality. Sometimes great, sometimes terrible, but will get the job done as long as you put in the effort. Also bigger customers will obviously get more.

GCP does win on pricing now with role-based support that is a flat rate per user: [https://cloud.google.com/support/role- based/](https://cloud.google.com/support/role-based/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Will we be able to use the Citus extension? Been itching to get Citus running on GCP.

<comment><USER19> Does any major cloud provider support it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm looking around for more details on these "regional" disks that replicate between two zones at the block level. Is that just a fancy term for os level mirrored disks using the cloud persistent disks?

<comment><USER21> There's a previous blog post[1] about HA replication. It uses block-level replication managed by PD infrastructure.

[1] [https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/11/Cloud-SQL- for-P...](https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/11/Cloud-SQL-for- PostgreSQL-adds-high-availability-and-replication.html)

<comment><USER22> Block device based replication for Postgres seems a bit unconventional given that Postgres has native synchronous replication support with WAL streaming.

Intuition tells me that you might get better performance if you let the DB itself do the replication but I can't really justify that without real review of what happens.

The postgres docs ([https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/different- replicat...](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/different-replication- solutions.html)) say that the WAL solution has no "Master server overhead" in contrast to the File System Replication solution, but it's not explained and I'm not sure what is meant by that.

I guess with a block device based solution, recovery takes longer, because failover entails you have to actually mount the block device (as no 2 machines can mount it rw at the same time), and then start the DB (or in a more basic implementation, just boot the entire second machine as part of failover), while with WAL streaming both postgres instances would already be running? Wo failover would be faster with WAL streaming?

I would be great if somebody from GCP could elaborate what the tradeoffs here are, how long failover takes, and whether we can expect similar performance and behaviour as with WAL shipping.

<comment><USER23> Amazon's Aurora Postgres database does a similar thing: your master in one zone replicates to a disk that is in all the other zones. Unlike normal Postgres RDS instance it also auto-scales storage to what you use.

Amazon claims better scaling then ordinary Postgres for this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Great news! This has been a long time coming (over a year since the beta started), looking forward to migrating my MySQL instances over.

</comment><comment><USER25> Great to see all three major cloud providers offering this now. Should be good for pricing!

</comment><comment><USER26> Has anyone used the beta and got any feeling for how maintenance downtime impacts things? A bit nervous about how you can only set a "maintenance window" and not be able to plan ahead for disruption; as far as I can tell, they won't even tell you ahead of time. The HA seems really solid (zero-lag "regional disks"), but it's still a bit disconcerting.

<comment><USER27> The updates take the entire instance down for 2-5 minutes each month. While you can't avoid them, they can be scheduled for particularly low traffic times. If you're trying to avoid downtime, its a giant PIA. Even with HA enabled, you still lose master, slave and read replicas. Not entirely sure what they define HA as, but a mandatory monthly downtime doesn't usually fit into mine.

[Update] That said, from what I understand, they have a road map to maintaining read replicas and queued writes. Not sure what the date on it is though.

<comment><USER6> [I'm the Cloud SQL TL] I can't comment on timelines, but we're aware that customers are interested in more features around maintenance window scheduling, deferral, and notification, as well as shorter downtime for updates and smarter scheduling within a group of replicas.

<comment><USER28> Can you confirm that it's impossible to avoid downtime, even with HA, because of forced updates?

Surely that's what HA is? no downtime as you update each node one at a time?

If it's impossible then it's a dealbreaker.

<comment><USER6> [I'm the Cloud SQL TL] Confirmed. We know it's a problem that we need to fix. HA reduces downtime in unexpected failure cases (live migration for your primary only helps in planned shutdown cases, not if the physical machine fails), but doesn't currently help with maintenance-related downtime.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Postgres wire-compatible Spanner when? :P

<comment><USER30> Wondering what kind of use case you would have for this compatibility?

<comment><USER29> I know that it's definitely not going to be 100% the same (especially since Spanner doesn't even support SQL DML right now), but I think a drop-in replacement into a managed autoscaling database is a really nice alternative to manual sharding.

Right now basically the options are Aurora, Citus, and running CockroachDB yourself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Last time I was at Google for a workshop (If you have the chance to visit Google, do it. The food alone is worth it), they didn't seem to push CloudSQL a lot, because they wanted to guide people more in the spanner direction. Without a solid RDS counterpart however, I don't think bigger companies will consider moving from AWS. Happy to see they changed their mind and continue to expand their SQL services. The competition by Google put a lot of pressure on AWS who seemed to be gotten a bit lazy. Google was ahead of the game with their global load balancers and network speed and quality. Now AWS countered with their 5th series C5/M5, which solve the bandwidth problem of the smaller C and M instances

</comment><comment><USER8> Finally! Nice to see more PG support. Any news about PostgreSQL 10 support?

<comment><USER32> I asked that yesterday in a meeting with my gcloud rep, they said all work has gone into getting to GA, and once that is done, look for them to start doing things like updating, more new features, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Since there seems to be some Googler who work on Cloud SQL here, I wonder is there any chance Cloud SQL will be available in asia-southeast1 soon? It's the only region (I believe) where Cloud SQL isn't available at all, and one of the main reasons we can't fully migrated from AWS to GCP just yet.

<comment><USER3> [I am a Cloud SQL-er, and worked on region expansion... among other things]

Cloud SQL has only been available in regions with at least three zones (since we believe that is the minimum to make sure we can maintain HA in the event of a single zone failure). asia-southeast1 currently only has two zones, when a third zone is launched, Cloud SQL will become available in that region.

<comment><USER33> Thank you. That makes sense and totally understandable. Looking forward to when there's third zone in asia-southeast1. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I tried using this, but couldn't get the root certs to work. So I went to AWS RDS instead. A pity, it's much cheaper ( especially in beta pricing )

<comment><USER3> [Cloud SQL person, SSL+connections is my jam]

When you say you couldn't get the root certs to work... what do you mean?

Cloud SQL automatically generates server certificates, and we offer UI+API for creating additional client certificates. The two should not share a root CA.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Do these use the standard persistent disks (capped at 240mb/s)?

<comment><USER3> [I am a Cloud SQL-er]

Yes, you can use both standard and SSD persistent disks. If you create a larger instance with more vCPUs and a big enough disk, you can achieve greater than 240mb/s, see the docs:

[https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/performance#ssd-...](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/performance#ssd- pd-performance)

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> How expensive is this compared to, for example AWS RDS?

<comment><USER37> The cost is virtually the same.

A db.t2.small instance should compare to a db-pg-g1-small instance. Pricing is around 90$ on AWS vs 93$ on GCP.

I'm an AWS consultant so I could have messed up on the GCP instance type.</comment></comment>


The joke may be on Zuckerberg - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/opinion/rushkoff-facebook-app/ <comment><USER2> "Unlike computer chips, human beings can only process one thing at a time."

Many computer chips can also only process one thing at a time; they just do so fast enough that it is nearly imperceptible to the human operator.

I feel like this particular remark takes away from the author's "authority" to talk about technology as a media theorist, as it illustrates a superficial-at- best understanding of technology.</comment>


Show HN: Windsor – See All Your Users' Events - <AUTHOR> https://windsor.io?ref=hackernews <comment><AUTHOR> Windsor is your event feed for every user on your platform.

Simply connect the services you use and experience the ease of diagnosing issues during support or development.

I'd love to hear any feedback on the playground - firstname.lastname@example.com. Reach out if you'd like a demo or help setting up Windsor :)</comment>


Get Your First 20 Customers: $2k ARR for 'deep learning interviews/walkthroughs' - <AUTHOR> https://www.demandrush.com/problems/industry-ml-tutorials <comment><USER2> That's a very clever way of phrasing it, using arr instead of mrr.

Sorry to say, but I think your project is dead. You completely failed to capitalise on the 1k upvotes on your Show hn post.

As a developer, the opacity of the process and the people behind the (ridiculous) low ball offers is a buzz kill. How do I know people will actually pay up?

If my guesstimate is correct, you gained in the low hundreds in mailing list subscribers which is low for such a successful post. Reason? The opacity.

Now I think we can expect the daily spamming of your posts on hn. Sorry to say, none of them will be successful.

Sorry to be brutal, it's what I feel and hopefully it helps you.</comment>


Fixing FreeBSD Networking on Digital Ocean - <AUTHOR> https://wycd.net/posts/2017-05-19-fixing-freebsd-networking-on-digital-ocean.html <comment><USER2> Good work! It kinda looks like DO hand-built some config for their droplets and made it easy to break, hopefully they'll fix that.</comment>