Ask HN: Would you pay $5/month to get your partner in shape? - <AUTHOR>

I would gladly pay $5 a month to be able to hold my significant other more accountable for exercising and staying in shape, and I'm wondering if other people feel the same way. I set up a quick splash page to collect some feedback on the idea here:
http://stay-fit-together.herokuapp.com/
All comments appreciated!! Thank you!! <comment><USER2> _" hold my significant other more accountable for exercising and staying in shape..."_

I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who thinks they have a right to "hold me accountable" for staying in shape. Nor would I want my significant other to keep track of my exercise history or be notified if I fall behind. I'm a responsible adult, not a child. The whole thing sounds rather creepy. What does _your_ significant other think of this idea?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for you feedback! My spouse and I both agreed that we would pay for this kind of service before I put up the page, but I can definitely see your perspective. We both are responsible adults, and we both sometimes lose momentum when it comes to exercise and staying healthy and fit, so it would be nice if we could remind and encourage each other sooner rather than later once that trend starts as opposed to realizing only after a month. That is my train of though. I can see how the phrasing may not have communicated that accurately, or at least skipped the context.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "Staying fit together" should be something ALL partners involved are participating freely in and not forced on by someone else. I'm highly skeptical that thus a foundation would be motivational for the "forced" partner at all. Your presentation focuses more on the spying/pressing aspect than the benefits and how they would be achieved.

But even ignoring the "spy on your significant other"/"force your significant other to do something he/she doesn't commit freely to" part and concentrating on the "stay fit together" idea, I don't see any true differentiators/benefits for the $5 investment: There are already many solutions that allow to share and compare my fitness tracking data with others, often for free. In addition, there are many options to "stay in shape", like going to the gym, power yoga, pilates, running, cycling, swimming and so on. Your preferred method doesn't need to be the one your significant other might be interested in. Any solution to that?

To sum up: From the presentation I really don't see what the true unique benefit is that your solution provides to the users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks mstolpm for your insights!

I actually couldn't find another option that would allow me and my spouse to share and have full access to each other's "fitness analytics". I know MyFitnessPal seems to be popular and there are other apps and stuff, and I'll admit that I didn't actually try every one of them. I understand that for some of these services, sharing full data with another person would probably just be an additional feature, but for my purposes it would be the main source of value. Anyway, if you know of any solutions that do this, I would love to hear, because I would start using it today with my spouse.

As far as doing different kinds of fitness activities, I totally agree and never intended to give the idea that people would have to engage in the same activities. It took my quite a while to figure out what I enjoy and found to be sustainable, and I can definitely appreciate diversity in this area.

I really do appreciate your feedback. Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You definitely need to rethink this idea, because it's insulting at the moment. Don't ever use the below phrase.

 _For people who want to get their significant other in shape_

If you want to focus on this niche, use the name in your link, _stay fit together_. You encourage people in relationships to get healthy together. You do that because they're a team, they're partners. They both decide to take up a challenge to improve their health and overall physical fitness.

For example, you create an app that has a 30 day challenge, where it has a daily workout for him, and a daily workout for her. Mix in couple exercises and stretches too, since they would be a great way to bond. It would help them get in shape, and grow their relationship.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you Throwaway0812!

I'm sorry the way I phrased it offended you, and I really appreciate your willingness to spell out what you think about the idea and even provide some suggestions for improvements! I'll take these to heart. I think your suggestions is a really good one with solid positioning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think this is a great idea and thought of doing this previously in other areas besides fitness. But the obvious challenge to overcome is that you need to find people who are into personal growth, are open-minded about stretching outside of their comfort zone. This can be tough because people will tend to take these types of issues personally. If you can present your message in a way that people can accept, I think it's totally worth doing. Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks macguyver!

I think you bring up a really good point: people do take this type of thing very personally, and react quite negatively if the presentation does not fit their heuristic. I think your insight into presentation is really valuable and I'll definitely give that more focus.

I really appreciate your time and willingness to provide feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> from the first few comments, it appears your idea is triggering people's gag reflex quite strongly.

However, I don't think the idea itself is horrible, maybe just the way you're presenting it. Look at your app name "get fit together". Doesn't sound like a fit-babysitting service, does it?

It does seem a bit shallow to say "for people who want to get their significant other into shape", but the idea of "let's get in shape together" isn't a bad one, and it doesn't even need to be for significant others, it can also be just for friends. Make little competitions, allow people to challenge each other, etc. etc.

Think of how many people run together, do bootcamps together, etc. etc. how about letting them track or challenge (or whatever your app does) together, but it doesn't have to be like a tattle tale.

$5 bucks a month? Probably not. but somebody might.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your insights, pedalpete!

It definitely appears to have rubbed people the wrong way. You're right that the name does not imply the "tag line" I had in there. I guess I went for something that would jar people a bit, but I didn't quite expect this response. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.

Anyway, appreciate your straightforward feedback and ideas. The reason I was thinking of couples instead of just any group of friends is because I think couples are more invested in each other's fitness and possibly more willing to actually pay some money for something that helped them keep themselves and their partners in shape. I was thinking that friends would be more likely only to use it if it were free. The main reason I think that there might be some people in relationships willing to pay is because I would pay that right now for a service that does exactly this.

I think you're right though, that there are tons of groups of friends and acquaintances who work out together, and that could expand the market significantly. Maybe some type of freemium model that appealed to friends but gave people in relationships or power users more for some money would work.

Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Obesity crisis solved. If only we'd all been willing to spend $5* a month sooner.

* divorce lawyer costs not included

<comment><AUTHOR> touché

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> not sure if trolling or just worst idea ever

</comment><comment><USER9> Sad</comment>


Ask HN: Why is there still no Python-based blog engine alternative to WordPress? - <AUTHOR>

Python with its super awesome microframeworks like Flask and Bottle, simple routing, great Jinja2 templating engine, simple to implement DB connection to any kind of existing DB engines and a lot more still has no its own alternative to WordPress with its outdated overbloated spaghetti code.
You may see on ThemeForest how popular WordPress themes are. The money is there.
I swear it would be a really joyful experience to create and maintain themes for a Python-based blog with clean, logic and lightweight code and markup. So why is not the market moving in this direction?<p>May be some of you thought about it like I do?
Please share your thoughts about how you see the possible future of python-based blog engines and its markets. <comment><USER2> The reason is that most web hosting companies do not support python out of the box, but they do support PHP. Users (bloggers) do not care about programming languages, they care that they can install a software with one click. They have that with WordPress, and if you want to beat WP, one of the major problems to solve is trivial install procedure which is a problem if your web hosting company does not support python.

<comment><USER3> Dont you think thats because of the lack of blogging platforms, rather than the lack of hosts? I mean, most shared hosts support one click installs for Wordpress, but there is no alternative currently for a python clone of WP.

I guarantee you if there was a python CMS with any where near the adoption of Wordpress, python hosting would be alot easier to find.

<comment><USER2> How did WordPress achieve that level of adoption? By having web hosters support PHP out of the box and being good enough. If web hosters did not support PHP out of the box, there would be no WP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Most Python CMSs are built on Django. They rely on the Django admin for their admin interface. The Django admin is not as intuitive or easy to use as WordPress's admin, even with the customization that some of these tools make. It is great for its intended purpose, but for running a typical blog it isn't as good.

There are no inherent configurable site settings in Django without getting into the code. You can't set the blog tagline, or change a simple setting like "Users must be registered and logged in to comment" from the admin.

Django's templating system does not lend itself toward drop-in themes like WordPress (this is huge). Since Django, and most Python frameworks, rely on reusable apps it's a lot more difficult to create a theme that you can simply load into a directory and use.

I don't think I have seen a Python CMS/blog engine yet that uses widgets. It's almost trivial for a Django programmer to create a sidebar "widget" that shows the most recent 5 posts, but for a casual blogger this is something they can't do.

A WordPress site owner will almost never have to think about the database powering the site. This is another thing WP actually does a good job with. If I upgrade or add a new app in Python I will probably need to migrate and update the DB schema, which means more technical command line work.

Other reasons people have said. Deployment is non-trivial with Python, not every host supports it, etc.

</comment><comment><USER5> Actually, Mezzanine is a pretty damn good alternative. It can be a little confusing figuring out how the templates work, but once you grasp the general concept, it's a breeze.

Also, flask-flatpages provides a very nice, minimalistic blog setup with text files.

Either way, there are options, but they're not immediately obvious, and they're not written about as much.

<comment><USER6> I'll give another nod to Mezzanine, which is quite simply "really good".

Another great alternative is Hyde, which is admittedly more "Jekyll" than Wordpress (the name is not an accident), but is a drop-dead simple way to build static-paged blogs that scale (as all static pages do.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have always wondered that too, but I think it is because of the different audiences of PHP and Python.

There are Libraries->Frameworks->CMS's->Blog Platforms. Python tends to have strong offerings on the Library and Framework front but no consensus enough to have a popular CMS or Blog Platform. Without popularity, a vibrant ecosystem never really develops. PHP has the tremendously popular WordPress and Drupal, but they were not made using popular frameworks or libraries so their code base appears quite messy and hackish. Also, PHP apps are very easy to get started with; either one-click installs on cPanel or drop this chunk of code in your web root. Configuring a Python web-server is still much harder for a novice.

</comment><comment><USER8> There was TextPress, which was renamed to Zine, a project that was started by Armin Ronacher who is also the author of Werkzeug, Flask, Jinja2 and a couple of other projects.

The project ultimately died due to a lack of interest. At the time hosting solutions like Heroku didn't exist so you needed your own root server, blogging platforms were significantly easier to use and required no maintenance. Besides you can just go with a static blog which does the job just as well while being significantly cheaper and safer.

<comment><USER9> That's the main issue I see, lack of interest from everyone involved in blogging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> There are a few good ones ones like Pelican And Tinkerer. [http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-blogging-software- wr...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-blogging-software-written-in- Python/answer/Amit-Chaudhary)

As to the why, having a strong and viable alternative like WP discourages others and Py community does like creating their own software, see the number of alternatives to flask.

</comment><comment><USER9> You sound like you know how to do it and like you want to do it, so do it. Thee simple answer to your question is that nobody who wants it can do it, and nobody who can do it wants it, and apparently the ones who do want it and can do it only ask why no one else did it.</comment>


Paul Allen: "I've Always Hated Microsoft" - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ive-always-hated-microsoft-paul-allen

<comment><USER2> Not that Paul Allen.

<comment><USER3> Yeah it is kind of click-bait when you think it might be the founder of Microsoft saying he always hated it. It appears this is the Paul Allen who wrote the note, though

[https://www.crunchbase.com/person/paul- allen-8](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/paul-allen-8)</comment></comment>


Vim Plugins You Should Know About: Nerd Tree - <AUTHOR> http://www.catonmat.net/blog/vim-plugins-nerdtree-vim/

<comment><USER2> I personnaly use :Explore when I just want to browse, and FuzzyFinder (<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1984>) when I know what I want to open; it allow fuzzy (or not) completion on filenames, buffers, tags, and a whole lot of other things.

<comment><USER3> I use <http://github.com/jamis/fuzzyfinder_textmate> which is an extension to the existing fuzzy finder vim plugin which tries to simulate textmate's fuzzy finder file opener (cmd T if you're on a mac). It's really quite awesome and I use it every single day, all the time, to open every file I work with. The downside is that you have to use an old version of the regular fuzzy finder gem because the guy who maintains that gem changed the api a bunch of times - to save you some trouble I believe the correct version of normal fuzzy finder (<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1984>) you have to use is 2.16.

<comment><USER2> From the github page: "Once in TextMate mode, completion is done against the entire directory tree at once, using partial matches."

Can't you do the same thing with fuzzy finder using __/filenamepart ? And doing this in the regular fuzzy finder in a relatively big directory tree, does take some time unfortunately :/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What, exactly, are the differences between this and the Netrw explorer that came with Vim? If you run

      :Explore <dir>

and press 'i' three times, you'll get a hierarchical explorer similar to this.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have been using Nerd Tree since the beginning and had forgotten about Netrw.

I just asked Nerd Tree's author if there are any differences. Let's see what he says.

Probably Netrw is more powerful (supports ftp, etc.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't get any answer from him at this time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I must add that the related blog posts are quite interessting.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wonder why was I using MiniBufExplorer until now, instead of this.</comment>


I need books that I can't buy, I drink beer that I can't sip - <AUTHOR> http://code.scrapcrap.org/books-beer

<comment><USER2> Safari (safaribooksonline.com) offers a good option for reading widely at relatively low cost. They have all the O'Reilly books, many Addison-Wesley and Microsoft Press books, and recently added some Apress titles. Alas, Safari has almost nothing on Lisp. You can download Practical Common Lisp and On Lisp elsewhere, courtesy of their authors.

<comment><USER3> See if your local library has a subscription to Safari Books Online.

For example, Boston Public Library's hidden gem is that anyone in Massachusetts can sign up for an E-Card for free. From there, you can use their electronic resources, which includes a huge number of databases, as well as Safari Online Computer & Business Books. It's brilliant.

Though admittedly it's a pain in the ass to read on the computer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm. That's a neat idea. Although I have an American Library in my city. It has a one or two unique titles but I couldn't find anything for LISP and neither for Python or Ruby. It did have Code Complete.

<comment><USER4> Try asking one of the workers there for a specific book. I was at my local library today (in Chicago, IL, US) looking for a specific book on design patterns. They didn't have it but were able to order it for me. I should be able to pick it up in a week or so. After I finish with it it'll be available at the library to any future person that wants to read it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> He doesn't need books he can't buy. Information about Computers is ubiquitous online.

> I have a growing interest in the LISP language and the only book I could > find here was LISP

Is he joking? Is Google banned where he lives?

<http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html> [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson- sussma...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman- lectures/) <http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/> <http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> Here are a few questions.

Have you ever read SICP (online)? Have you ever read The Practical Common LISP (online)? Have you ever read any e-book worth 400 pages completely?

I guess not.

<comment><USER6> If someone made a Firefox plugin that converts the volume of text which has a appeared at a users screen for more than 10 seconds to A4 pages, I am sure a typical Internet user reads more than 100 pages daily. For example the Wikipedia article for "Common Lisp" in print view will be printed to 19(!) pages. And it appears so short. You can make notes in notepad (the real thing) if you like to think about the problem outside - notes are great thing by themselves.

You will have to do the exercises eventually and so there is no escape from the screen. I usually read a book about programming by executing the examples and solving the exercises while occasionally looking at the text for some guidance when I am stuck.. has anyone read a programming book which is ~100% executable (no cheating with excessive comments ;-))?

<comment><USER7> Yes, OSS such as LINUX are great textbooks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm not saying you can find almost any programming book on Scribd but someone could have said that and I wouldn't accuse them of lying.

<comment><USER9> s/Scribd/gigapedia/g

<comment><USER10> Can you say more about Gigapedia?

The site seems fishy: there's little info unless you register (which I have not yet), and registration requires a Google account.

<comment><USER11> Even if you don't use Gmail ... Google (apps & hacker resources included) offer so much that it's a shame not to have an account already!

<comment><USER10> Of course I have a Google account; that's not the point.

What is strange is that a site that may, from the context of the thread, be a source of unauthorized ebook copies:

\- hides its 'help'/'about' info from all-but-registered users

\- requires a Google account to register

\- runs Google ads

Wouldn't it be a little odd if the Pirate Bay required a Google account to see its content, and ran Google ads?

<comment><USER12> Even stranger, it seems to have been black-listed from Google's index: <http://www.google.com/search?q=gigapedia>

<comment><USER10> Well, I guess that's one datapoint for the independence of Google's index from its advertising operations.

"Sorry, you're too sketchy to appear in our index. However, we'll still gladly partner with you to make a buck on advertising!"

<comment><USER13> _"Sorry, you're too sketchy to appear in our index. However, we'll still gladly partner with you to make a buck on advertising!"_

LOL! Well said!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> <http://www.ebookee.com/>

</comment><comment><USER15> I found a really good tech bookshop in Delhi - right on Radiv Chowk between radial 2 & 3 on Connaught place. The same books you might find in a european book store but at a fraction of the price.

</comment><comment><USER16> There is the Connaught Palace stretch in Delhi, the whole lane leading up to Churchgate in Mumbai, also friends tell me of similar places in Kolkatta and B'lore, where most of the popular tech books' pirated versions are available pretty cheap. Now, I am not endorsing privacy, but if you are actually so desperate..

Also, indiaplaza.in has some deal with some international book publishers, they take good 30 days to deliver such "international books" but they _can_ be bought in India.

</comment><comment><USER17> Slightly off topic, but you can get the audiobook version of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" for free right now: [http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/17691/Free-Stephen-R-- Coveys...](http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/17691/Free-Stephen-R--Coveys- The-7-Habits-of-Highly-Effective-People-Audiobook)

</comment><comment><USER18> Sounds like a business opportunity.

</comment><comment><USER19> He is posting on his blog and yet doesnt know how to use the internets or even amazon or ebay? Who buys books in a bookstore at full price anymore anyway?

<comment><USER20> Folks living in developing countries where "Free" shipping is not an option still buy in bookstores.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Go to a better school.

<comment><USER22> For how many people on the planet is that not a feasible option?</comment></comment>


Staying Sane in an Insane World - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mfishbein/staying-sane-in-an-insane-world-43b11b934a9a#.rquoiijct <comment><USER2> You managed you be every generic motivational article ever. Mission accomplished I suppose. Maybe it is time for a new focus, this seems to be an afterthought for you, or you need some creative writing classes.</comment>


Microsoft was working on its own MacBook Touch Bar – The Verge - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/4/13518278/microsoft-adaptive-keyboard-concept-macbook-pro-touch-bar <comment><AUTHOR> From the article: _I asked Bathiche why Microsoft never turned this idea into reality. "We did not build computers back then," explained Bathiche, who co- created the Microsoft Surface, in a Twitter reply. "When we did start, we made computers with touch screens."_

There is definitely a difference between the Apple and Microsoft approaches. And while there's been a lot of consternation expressed about Apple's Touch Bar, it's early days still on touch computing. Smartphones are a different experience. And there does seem to be a place for the touch screen with a keyboard. And there might be a place for an keyboard augmented with a touch screen.

I wonder if we've gotten accustomed to the tech we have -- after all, it's pretty exciting -- and think we've seen it all? What was the initial reaction to the mouse?</comment>


Looks by Dr. Dre - <AUTHOR> http://www.subtraction.com/2014/07/09/looks-by-dr-dre/ <comment><USER2> As nerd-ragey as some people are about the Beats deal, they have some amazing fit and finish with regards to manufacturing. See for instance their paint: most painted plastics experience an undesirable amount of "orange peeling" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_peel_(effect)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_peel_\(effect\))).

This is caused in part by not getting the temperature of the paint high enough to form a smooth finish. Metal can withstand significantly higher temperatures than plastic. This is usually why car paints look so much better than Krylon's.

By over-molding their plastic tops around a metal base, Beats was able to increase the tolerable temperature range. Next time you roll into a Best Buy, compare the 'shinyness' and 'smoothness' of the overmolded Beats to any other plastic product made by Samsung, HP, or Sony.

We learnt this through Chinese manufacturing forums where if anything, the idea of 'target demographic' does not apply - Beats simply figured out how to put a nicer finish on their product than the competition using innovative manufacturing techniques and increase margin.

<comment><USER3> That's really interesting, I love learning about these manufacturing hurdles that consumers never hear about.

Consumers don't buy Beats because they're shinier though. They buy them because of the image that comes with them, thanks to a successful marketing and endorsement campaign.

That's why knock-off beats are everywhere in Hong Kong. Manufacturers can add a "b" to any old pair of over-ear headphones and they become much more valuable. Consumers value the "b"

<comment><USER4> _> 'Consumers don't buy Beats because they're shinier though. They buy them because of the image that comes with them, thanks to a successful marketing and endorsement campaign.'_

Sure, but exceptional shine is exactly the sort of hard to replicate detail that maintains the brand value and sense of exclusivity they spent so much to build in the first place.

If I ask one of our high school age interns how to spot bootleg Beats, Jordans, fitted caps or whatever they'll run off a laundry list of incredible detail - shine, screws, stitching or some tiny seam that isn't quite flush.

They obsess over these things and would probably sooner have nothing than run the risk of being found guilty of the poverty / envy that wearing bootlegs would imply to among their peers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The more closely you look at Beats, the more they make sense as a serious asset to a consumer electronics company, and the less plausible the "Apple just needed to get a streaming service off the ground" story is.

Two more angles to consider:

* Owning Beats puts Apple hardware on the heads of a huge fraction of every mobile user, whether they use iOS or not. Having a Beats brand affinity for those users makes it easier to introduce new products to them.

* Owning Beats gives Apple access to Beats sales channels; whatever retail real estate Beats has is now controlled by Apple.

<comment><USER6> My theory on confusion over the Beats purchase is that Apple fanboys have a reluctance to admit that Apple is significantly a fashion company. Not the beacon of technical excellence(asterisk) they set it up to be in their mind.

The reality is that Beats is also primarily a fashion company. Also with a strong brand. Also with a product line that sells at a high markup. They go together like pancakes and maple syrup. If Apple puts Beats headphones in their stores they will sell just as much as they do now. Why wouldn't Apple want a slice of that profit?

And if they make a next generation Beats headphone that can only be used with Apple products? Well, that's even more money.

 _Edit: asterisk_ : which is not to say that Apple lacks technical excellence, but the reason why they are so successful is not their engineering credentials, it's because they are able to marry aesthetics and engineering.

<comment><USER5> To the extent that you can say the exact same thing about Porsche, I agree; just bear in mind that it takes more than a sense of style to execute on "Porsche".

But also look how Apple integrates downmarket. To a first approximation nobody's first car is a Porsche, but the less expensive iPhones are viable first smartphones. There's something powerful about being able, at least in theory, to address the whole market that way. Porsche probably can't change the way everyone engages with cars, but Apple can do that with mobile.

<comment><USER7> I would suggest that it's more that an upmarket of mobile phones doesn't really exist right now. Pretty much everyone has the same thing. Who's the Porsche or the Rolls of mobile? To a first approximation, much of the first world can afford a 5S if they really want one. Vertu? Heh.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, but a Vertu is excessive, just as a Porsche. Normcore is the word. You have to look just better than your peers, not everyone at once. So, even though a lot of people couldn't affort a pricier phone than the 5S, even those who can afford a Vertu stay on the 5S and spend on other accessories.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There's this narrative that Apple's lack of design choice has helped them, by keeping things consistent. White headphones were, for a while, almost exclusively iPod earbuds. If you saw someone rocking a white headphone cable, you knew what was in their pocket. They've branched out a little, with colors for select devices, but for the most part their visual choices are very limited.

Beats seems like they've done an excellent job of offering a wide selection while still keeping brand consistency and recognizability. In this regard, I think the article's speculation makes sense.

<comment><USER10> This is a really interesting point. I admire how Beats have managed to differentiate themselves so effectively.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I find it hard to believe that apple couldn't make additional colors if they wanted. I don't think it's a lack of technological know how. They could pick that up without acquiring a entire additional company.

Limited colors on the iphone or ipod make sense. For the most part, it's an item that stays in your pocket. I'm sure some people care about additional design choices, but most people solve this by buying a case (which they'd do anyway).

Beats, due to the fact that they are headphones, are worn as head gear. Yes, they could have stuck with a few simple colors, but it's easier to justify lots of options when people will actually see your user wearing the product. This gives your user an incentive to want a more unique design and be willing to pay for it.

<comment><USER12> I have to agree somewhat with this comment. In particular, is handling 60 SKU's really a huge problem with technology and management nowadays?

It's a pity there's so much focus on small details like that and the color selection, because that's really not the main point, which the article does touch on - the two companies understand and heavily influence the consumer market and fashion, so the partnership makes sense. It's that simple.

By the way, Apple was the one who made the single-look product cool, with the iPhone. It's so cool that its own colorful 5C isn't selling very well (by its standards, of course) [1]. Restricting its color choices was _not_ only because of the difficulty in doing so, it was a deliberate design choice. [Edit, based on parent comment: And getting people to buy overpriced cases to customize instead? Genius!]

1\. Google "iPhone 5C sales". Observe articles calling it, e.g., "Failure Flop" and "dismal."

<comment><USER13> Handling 60 SKUs of similar products is a big problem. Multi-variant stock control and supply chain management is troublesome at best. If one of your stores runs out of green widgets and another one only has red widgets until Tuesday, how do you reliably sell red and green ones to customers who want one without buying so much stock that you are then at risk of a loss when it is end-of-lined?

Too late, the customer has gone to another widget stockist.

(I did a lot of work in supply chain management a few years back).

<comment><USER14> When you have a 2000% profit margin on the product, you can just trash unused stock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It is so amazing to watch the attention that people give Apple's business decisions. Seriously, how much their actions get read into is unparalleled.

Any other company, we'd just say "yup, they bought a headphone company, and now they'll be selling some more/different headphones" and then we'd move on. But with Apple, it just must, must represent some form of tidal shift.

<comment> k-mcgrady Because unlike most other big tech companies Apple doesn't make big purchases like this. They normally acquire small, unknown companies which are focussed on a specific technology Apple needs (mapping for example).

<comment><USER16> @moskie - it is indeed amazing, and it's part of their engine that makes them truly unique (that it has been this way for so long, and continues to be just as talked about).

@k-mcgrady: true, but if you look at what percentage of their cash they spent on it, it's not as significant as acquisitions from other, similarly sized companies.. but your point remains: it is out of the ordinary for $aapl.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> While I don't disagree with anything in the article, I think it, and most commentators, are thinking too small.

When thinking about wearable computing, one big challenge is to take a small, weird-shaped form factor, like sunglasses or watches, and cram enough computer hardware in there to support all the features that people want.

Why not stick a computer in the headphones? Between the earmuffs and the headband, there's a lot more room to stick a computer into a set of Beats than there is in a wristwatch.

I can imagine being able to listen to the Beats music service using just the Beats headphones, and not even needing to connect them to a computer.

<comment><USER18> A bluetooth connection to the phone would be a much better option in my opinion.

<comment><USER19> Not necessarily BT, but I totally agree with the premise. There's a limit to the number of CPUs, SSDs, and OSs a person wants to carry and manage. By all means, carry displays and HIDs of all sorts and sizes, but please drive them all from my "phone".

I think this concept carries all the way to "laptops" which are nothing more than a few ounces of battery, screen, keyboard, trackpad and a radio. Just a few more generations till Apple can "do it right" and they'll deploy the tech.

I guess the only "problem" is such a laptop wouldn't become obsolete fast enough...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I started travelling a lot and I wanted a bluetooth pair of headphones that had active noise cancelling. Beats was the only option that ticked off all of my needs and didn't blow out the second I tried pumping even minor amounts of bass through them (I'm looking at you, Bose). I was able to even get them in matte black so they are less gaudy.

They aren't for everyone...but most of us age 70 and under would dig the sound quality on them.

</comment><comment><USER21> This article has a good point, which I never had thought.

Headphones are also a fashion accessory. They are very visible, the most visible piece of technology you are carrying.

Same thing goes with watches. For many people its about brand and fashion, not so much about the features.

Maybe Apple wants to be in the fashion business. If you have watches and headphones, you pretty much cover all the technology people are currently wearing. And it makes very much sense to have both products inside the same company so that you can provide matching pairs.

If the pricing is reasonable, you could even imagine selling multiple sets of products for same customers. This headphone/watch pair for jogging, another one for your business look.

Also the Apple Store chain would fit in the picture quite nicely. One problem could be that Apple is getting lots of people to the stores, but they currently have a limited range of products to sell for them. You don't need that many iPhones or Macs, iPads are a little bit expensive for impulse purchase.

</comment><comment><USER22> In the end, who knows why they bought them. I do wonder if Beats had design and technological patents a company like Apple would rather buy than fight over in court. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple just bought them so they could sell a premium non-earbud headset with zero legal woes or fears of being called a copycat. I mean Beats look like an Apple product from a bizaro world where Steve Jobs wasn't there to say no to everything that wasn't ultra- minimalistic. Everything else, like their design team, streaming customers, and brand is just gravy.

Apple tries hard not to be a victim of the patent war they're always reigniting. I find it hard to believe IP isn't involved in a very, very significant way here.

</comment><comment><USER23> Apple already has this figured out. Perhaps it's too easy to forget the iPod, but the iPod, especially the mini, nano, and shuffle all have color as a key part of the value proposition. Apple finally did that with the iPhone 5c.

The most clever thing Apple did was the 5c colors with the different colored covers. Those haven't really taken off in a huge way, but I think that is in part due to the buying cycle of phones.

Apple gets mass personalization in a big way. You can still get your devices engraved by Apple I believe.

The only company that I've seen take a real swing at something similar is Motorola with Moto X. Too bad Google sold them.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm not clear why Beats are so popular actually. I find socially it sends the wrong message for me, functionally not as great as Bose or BW, and a bit too big + plastic for my taste.

<comment><USER25> Might be wrong for you or I, but it's a social signal for many other people. Similar to how people wear t-shirts around with giant logos on them. It says (partly) "I can afford to pay $60 for this t-shirt." Or "I am like you."

When Ralph Lauren introduced those Polo shirts with the 3-4" polo logo on them rather than the usual 1" logo, I thought it was some kind of experiment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> One thing about Beats is that they really are ridiculously popular. They are consumer electronics items which are also fashion accessories. I don't think there's really any other brand like that in the industry, at least not that I can think of. Even Apple's products while stylish I'd hesitate to call them fashion accessories.

Maybe they were worried primarily that Google would buy Beats and suddenly hold more 'cool' appeal than Apple (particularly with youngsters).

</comment><comment><USER27> I have experience in getting high-end plastic boxes manufactured (some in US, and increasingly in China because of price dynamics). Believe me, it is not a big deal. The variations are all commodity - you may have to get different molds made and finish made, but they will work will all different types of plastics. The plastics are already colored when in the pellet form (i.e., you dont paint on them) so colors variations are trivial to achieve.

<comment><USER28> contact info? we're looking to do packaging for an upcoming product of ours if you'd have any interest in lending some advice. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I think the author is missing something important: There is greater inventory flexibility with headphone internals than iPhone internals.

Many different and very advanced technologies go into an iPhone. Most recently, the new fingerprint scanner was holding back the 5s. Every wrong assumption about color demand meant that an iPhone sale was delayed. (Assuming that it was even the correct storage size.) It's a world apart from speakers.

</comment><comment><USER30> I wonder if it's really about penetration into music videos. I remember iPods being all over music videos for a few years back in the day (made my recently purchased iPod go from geeky to cool overnight!) - but then they disappeared - maybe because of Apple's battles with the music industry. Now it's Beats in every music related video, PA, media asset; something Apple needs to tap back in to, I guess.

</comment><comment><USER31> Not necessarily related to this article, but does anyone know how much money the "Beats Audio" partnerships with things like HP laptops and HTC phones bring in for the Beats brand? Seems like a good hedge in the laptop and smartphone markets where Apple wins regardless of whether consumers buy iPhones or competing devices that are "Powered by Beats" or whatever they call it.

</comment><comment><USER32> Beats has a track record of producing consumer electronics that are accepted as fashionable. The iPhone already blurs the line between tool and accessory and it spends most of its time in a pocket or purse. A smart watch or head mounted display is more visible and needs to overcome a nerdy bias to appeal to the mass market.

</comment><comment><USER33> Maybe Tim Cook can just start buying companies and wait for other people to figure out what to do with them. It's certainly interesting to see how many people think that Apple is infallible. They make mistakes just like any other company.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is an interesting take but I strongly doubt it's what motivated Apple to make the purchase.

</comment><comment><USER35> This article lost me at the part suggesting that Dre Beats are premium headphones. Having listened to a few different sets of these "cool" headphones I can personally think they are overpriced crap, don't think they are worth more than £20-30 tops simply based on audio quality. People are simply buying them as a fashion item!

<comment><USER36> > People are simply buying them as a fashion item!

So... you're saying it's a great match for Apple?

<comment><USER35> As a bit of a Apple fan boy I think it's a terrible match. The quality of all the Apple products I have owned have been brilliant (even if my iPhone screen smashed within a month). I personally hope the acquisition of this brand doesn't result in the gimmicky promotions like on the HP laptop brands etc

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> as a 'backend' dev who is constantly working on their design language education, it's further proof that design is everything.

</comment><comment><USER38> The beats acquisition is just Apple shedding the idea that it's a technology company, and adding more prole-luxury fashion items to its lineup. Apple + Nike merger anyone?

</comment><comment><USER39> Or... maybe the reason behind the acquisition has more to do with Beats' subscription streaming service than hardware.</comment>


Tim Ferriss found Silicon Valley was too 'closed-minded' and moved to Austin - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-tim-ferriss-left-silicon-valley-for-austin-texas-2017-12 <comment><USER3> I moved _from_ Austin to SV, tried to do a start up there and all.

In my experience the average startup scene (angels, VCs, tech talents, etc) are pretty much all bush league when compared to Silicon Valley, despite some of the glaring flaws of SV startup scene. There are exceptions to the rules, but I was mostly unimpressed during my time there.

Austin Ventures was the biggest VC in town back then (probably still is), and I've heard that the unwritten rule for the firm is that they do not invest in first time founders.

That tells you how risk-averse and "open minded" Austin tech scene is.

But with Tim Ferriss's reputation and background, Austin is a great place to be because he gets to be the big fish in the small, growing pond. I'm sure he's doing very well at the local speaker scene.

<comment><USER4> _But with Tim Ferriss 's reputation and background_

You mean his reputation as a bullshit artist? [http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/08/5-time- management-t...](http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/08/5-time-management- tricks-i-learned-from-years-of-hating-tim-ferriss/)

<comment><USER5> Seriously, who cares where he lives? I rarely flag stories but will make an exception for promotional "guru" types like Tim Ferris.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. I'll also point out in his supposed wise and truth-telling reddit post he also includes this point:

> 6) Golden Gate and tech are terrorist targets, and I don't like being close > to the bullseye. This is based on good information from friends who work > full-time in threat assessment.

Real lessons in courage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This debate always reminds me of the quote by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty.

"Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own."

<comment><USER8> This quote seem to talk about a group controlling the judicial process, which is unlike the situation Tim Ferris describe where people are punished in an extrajudicial manner without due process.

<comment><USER7> Interesting take. I interpret "against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties" as saying that the penalties are explicitly extrajudicial (exile or censure of some kind, presumably). I'm totally open to the possibility that I'm wrong though!

<comment><USER8> I think it's quote extraordinary the way opinions are currently imposed at large scale by mob rule, enabled by social media and other technology that made this much more feasible. It's tech that is used to identify, research, shame, coercing corporations into punishing, and as a tool for spreading the word on the action to any other that might hold that opinion.

In the past, as far as I know, the only way to do this was to impose through the judicial process because of limits in organizational capability.

<comment><USER7> I think I follow. My understanding of your point is that in the past due to limited tools for organization and communication, this level of mass public shaming or mob-based response wouldn't have been feasible. Is that a fair characterization?

If so, while it's true that the scale was more limited, there are certainly ample examples of extrajudicial responses for unpopular ideas and actions, from simple social ostracizing, up to getting tarred and feathered (which happened to British loyalists during the American Revolution).

<comment><USER8> Yes, that is my point. Technology acts as a large amplifier to extend reach and increase effectiveness.

Previously you could at best expect to impose on a relatively small geographic area around you, and it was much harder to organize and needed a majority to agree with the action. It seems like the mobs, like before, are comprised of a minority while the quiet majority is trying to avoid the crosshairs.

Unfortunately that quiet majority voted Trump when no one was looking. In the same way as belittling your partner rarely leads to anything good, doing the same at scale in a democracy does the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Living in Austin, TX I don't think we're any better than SF: Sure things are still cheaper here and we got live music venues (that are dying out) but from a tech perspective we're lagging behind. Additionally, the transport infrastructure here is poor, the gentrification is out of control and what once was a warm and welcoming community for creatives is turning more and more into a pay-for-access sh^tshow

<comment><USER10> > the gentrification is out of control

I'm a native Texan[0] and I have to say, I wonder where all of the angst about gentrifying Texas has come from over the last twenty years. _Everyone_ has been gentrifying Texas for as long as I've been alive[1]. I watched my hometown go from a sleepy Dallas bedroom suburb 30 minutes from anything to six-figures of population and now a proper business headquarters in its own right. It even has its own live music venue and three (THREE!) actual rail public transportation stations. I never thought I'd see the day.

Nobody seemed to much care when it was Californians[2] selling off their million-dollar beach houses and buying four-acre ranchettes in the Dallas, Houston, and Austin suburbs. But now that Californians[2] are selling off their two-million-dollar inland houses and buying townhouses _in_ the city, people cry foul.

What do people expect to happen when a lot of folks show up and want to live in an area? Folks have _always_ gone where the jobs are and now some of those jobs pay a shitload of money and are actually located inside the urban area. I mean, I guess we could keep doing the other thing we've been doing in abundance, which is making one solid Metroplex from the Red River to Hillsboro, but that seems a little wasteful these days, especially since the reservoirs don't look like they can keep up...

0 - I write this only as "where I come from," not as any particular authority on anything besides my own vision.

1 - A lot longer than the average tech worker these days, for sure.

2 - Not a dog on Californians, just they're the most common folks to pack up and move east, particularly since moving west gets a little damp.

<comment><USER9> I should have said "Gentrification + Poor choice of how you're tearing down neighborhoods to create super-cool multiplex buildings" It's not much the fact that gentrification happens, but how it is been happening. Usually - find an old building that's been abandoned or a depot. or some poor folk's homes - <USER2> it for little, nuke it down and rebuild something that doesn't blend in and is usually so tall that hides the sun, but that you can slot up and resell for a big margin.

<comment><USER10> But that's the thing and was kind of my point, too. People have been building where other people didn't like it for a really long time but now it's in the city so all of the city slickers[0] are more vocal about it. Those four-acre ranchettes I mentioned? Those were built on native prairie that had been farmed or ranched by the same family since Texas was its own Republic. Then some developer comes in, clear cuts all of the trees, and plops down a bunch of "garish monstrosities" (to quote the Dallas Morning Snooze[1]) and, poof, the town of Prosper is now a city.

Another story: anybody remember what used to be under what is now Jerryworld out in Arlington next to the Ballpark[2]? I do, a bunch of houses that people had owned since the the 40s, all bulldozed so somebody could build a new stadium and eminent domained out of existence by the city. Think that stops anybody, new arrival _or_ long-time resident, from going there for a football game or a concert? Nope.

I dunno what my overall point is except that things change, people do things that other people don't like, and life moves on. That's the way it has been since before I was on this planet and will be that way after I'm gone unless the heat wave of doom kills us all. Just, now, it's happening more in those areas that used to be "crime-ridden inner cities," which is probably more good than bad given we're covering the rest of the state with pavement at our own peril.

0 - Great movie.

1 - Not to be outdone by the Fort Worth Startlegram's breathless editorials about how development in Far North Fort Worth is going to ruin everything.

2 - Lest my Rangers get off the hook, they've also begged for taxpayer money to build their shiny new stadium and Arlington used eminent domain to boot one landowner (versus 150 for Jerryworld) off before the stadium could be built.

<comment><USER9> I don't disagree but there needs to be a balance at some point - if there hasn't been one before where the four-acre ranches used to sit why can't there be one now? Surely someone should be able to notice that adding more condominiums downtown and near-downtown isn't going to help the city's traffic and congestion go away? Things do change, but they must change for the better - not for the worse...and not only for locals - people who are moving in will notice it and that will de-value Austin's USPs ( incl. the cool city vibe)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> He is on point. The common way to approach any questioning of the common way of thinking is to always deny, never admit to anything and make counter accusations.

The questions are never answered, and the counter accusations are aggressive charicatures that most often has little relation to what was claimed.

I personally find this more scary than McCarthyism because while it used the judicial process, the current attitude is to rule by mob with no process and without hearing both sides.

Our democracy is fragile and rely on us respecting the rule of law . These people have the power to ruin people's lives and use it. They should be ashamed for risking our democracy in this way for short term gain, in the naive belief that democracy is the default state of a society.

</comment><comment><USER11> I suspect Ferris's move is secretly more to do with house prices and cost of living. Unless you are actively working in the valley there's no reason to be there because you can cut your living expenses significantly if your work is location independent anyway. I suspect Tim is on the proud side of admitting this.

<comment><USER12> In the Reddit thread, he very, very begrudgingly mentioned lower income tax rates in TX, and several Redditors surmised that this was more important than anything else.

<comment><USER13> The income tax rate in TX is 0%, which is very low indeed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> crooked-v > I'm as socially liberal as you get, and I find it nauseating how many topics > or dissenting opinions are simply out-of-bounds in Silicon Valley.

Saying this in such a generic form, without actually mentioning what any of the topics or dissenting opinions are, raises a red flag for me.

<comment><USER8> What benefit do you think it would have to bring up what he dissents on if he is correct? Assuming he is correct that would risk proving his point in a way that distracts from the debate he is trying to start.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Many of the comments here seem to miss the context of Ferriss's quote, possibly it wasn't clear in the business insider article.

Ferriss indicated he doesn't want to be involved particularly in startups anymore, negating that advantage of living in SV, he was NOT claiming that Austin is a good or better place for startups.

As for close-minded, I believe he is saying something very similar to what Sam Altman wrote in a recent essay; just so everyone knows what to disagree/agree with.

I, a New Yorker, have zero opinion on either place.

</comment><comment><USER15> Good way to get additional PR for one's products/services. Jump aboard the train already moving. So freaking obvious. What a thought leader.

<comment><USER8> We need every single leader that agrees to stand up for our democracy and inclusiveness in Silicon Valley. Currently the opposite side is way louder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Austin sucks. Don't move here.

<comment><USER17> Why?

<comment><USER18> It's gone downhill since they built the 360 Parkway bridge. /s (it's something different for everybody). I think when I left they started building a Walmart on 2244 at the end near Bee Cave and there was one subdivision between Austin and Bee Cave besides the Barton Creek intersection, and I assume by now the entire road is lined with either subdivisions or businesses now.</comment></comment></comment>


Kolmogorov Complexity – A Primer (2012) - <AUTHOR> https://jeremykun.com/2012/04/21/kolmogorov-complexity-a-primer/ <comment><USER2> An extremely detailed treatment is presented in "An introduction to Kolmogorov complexity and its applications": [http://www-2.dc.uba.ar/materias/azar/bibliografia/LiVitanyi1...](http://www-2.dc.uba.ar/materias/azar/bibliografia/LiVitanyi1997AnIntroductiontoKolmogorov.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> There are a lot of good recent books on this topic (I don't know if this area is undergoing a revival) :

1\. N. K. Vereschagin, V. Uspensky, Alexander Shen : Kolmogorov Complexity (English draft in preparation: [http://www.lirmm.fr/~ashen/kolmbook- eng.pdf](http://www.lirmm.fr/~ashen/kolmbook-eng.pdf))

2\. Downey, Hirschfeldt: Algorithmic Randomness and Complexity ([http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387955674](http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387955674))

3\. Andre Nies: Computability and Randomness ([https://global.oup.com/academic/product/computability-and- ra...](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/computability-and- randomness-9780199230761?cc=in&lang=en&))

in addition to the now classic book by Li and Vitanyi that others have mentioned.

</comment><comment><USER4> When two strings have the same Kolmogorov Complexity, one of them might take significantly longer to "decompress". Shouldn't we then say that this string has higher information content?

It feels to me like Kolmogorov Complexity (while very elegant) might just be a crude approximation to a measure that also takes into account the time it takes to print the string.

<comment><USER2> See "Logical Depth" as defined by Charles Bennett: [http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/files/us- bennetc/UTMX.p...](http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/files/us- bennetc/UTMX.pdf) as well as Chapter 7, "Resource-Bounded Complexity", from "An introduction to Kolmogorov complexity and its applications".

<comment><USER4> I'll take a look. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Kolmogorov Complexity is also presented in Chapter 7 of the classic textbook "Elements of Information Theory": [http://poincare.matf.bg.ac.rs/nastavno/viktor/Kolmogorov_Com...](http://poincare.matf.bg.ac.rs/nastavno/viktor/Kolmogorov_Complexity.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER2> An overview with additional references from Marcus Hutter: [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Algorithmic_complexity](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Algorithmic_complexity)

</comment><comment><USER5> I've used it (by using Normalized Compression Distance) in my Master degree.

It was very interesting to find out how efficient it was in authorship attribution, even having 100 possible authors.

</comment><comment><USER6> Linux dev/random entropy quality check is (was, I have not checked it recently) based on Kolmogorov complexity.

<comment><USER7> That seems unlikely because actually computing kolmogorov complexity is impossible, even approximating it is super hard. But you can run random numbers through compression software, and if they compress, something is very wrong.

<comment><USER6> I am not an expert in this. Here is the reference material [https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/487.pdf](https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/487.pdf) and it feels plausible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Ono-Sendai If we're doing Kolmogorov complexity reposts: [http://forwardscattering.org/post/7](http://forwardscattering.org/post/7) [http://forwardscattering.org/post/14](http://forwardscattering.org/post/14)

<comment><USER8> How many times do you want people to tell you that everybody knows that Kolmogorov complexity (KC) is only defined up to a constant?

This does _not_ affect the results that people use KC for, like the incompressibility of most strings.

<comment> Ono-Sendai That's what my second post linked above addresses. I think it _does_ affect the 'incompressibility of most strings' result. I'm fine with not rehashing the argument though, unless you're keen to do so :)

<comment><USER8> What you need to do is produce a programming language L such that the existence of incompressibility of strings becomes false, e.g. contradict Theorem 2.2.1 of Li & Vitanyi.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple tells app devs to use IPv6 as it's 1.4 times faster than IPv4 - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-tells-app-devs-to-use-ipv6-as-its-1-4-times-faster-than-ipv4/#ftag=CAD-03-10abf5f <comment><USER2> Massive-scope metrics like this are one of the positives of highly-managed ecosystems like Apples. But how transferable are the results vs. being idiosyncratic of Apple's implementations of network libraries, drivers?

<comment><USER3> It's the network not iOS. If there was that much fat in the iOS IPv4 stack they would have fixed it by now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can someone clarify? does this mean they will assign an IPv6 addresses to every device, including iPhone?

<comment><USER5> The pie chart shows that 46% of Apple devices currently have an IPv6 address, but among those devices, 43% (20/46) of connections are still using IPv4 due to limitations on the server side.

In theory, Apple could deploy an IPv6-in-IPv4 VPN to give every device an IPv6 address, but that would make IPv6 slower than IPv4, and the telcos probably wouldn't be happy about losing their ability to inspect traffic.</comment></comment>


Watch out FriendFeed - SocialThing! Is Even Easier To Use - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/10/watch-out-friendfeed-socialthing-is-even-easier-to-use/

<comment><USER2> Read TechCrunch from its front page. This story gushes about how easy SocialThing is because "you only have to provide it with your credentials" to other sites. Below it is a story about a gmail scam that says "users should have known better than to type their email credentials into a third party service."

</comment><comment><USER3> I went to Techstars for a Day on the 5th of March and met the founders of SocialThing! there. They are a nice group of people.

</comment><comment><USER2> Keep in mind that 28-11 doesn't fully describe FriendFeed's lead over SocialThing in services supported. Unless SocialThing's LiveJournal support is really RSS support in disguise, FriendFeed supports infinitely more services than SocialThing.

</comment><comment><USER4> How many of these things will be around in 5 years?

My bet is 0.</comment>


Ban boring mike-based Q&A sessions and use index cards instead - <AUTHOR> http://blog.valerieaurora.org/2015/06/23/ban-boring-mike-based-qa-sessions-and-use-index-cards-instead/

<comment><USER2> It seems as though I've seen a variation on this, in which questions are pulled from tweets to a particular hashtag. I'm not sure where or when this was, but it seemed to work pretty well, or at least better than this index card thing would.</comment>


Disconnecting Distraction - <AUTHOR> http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html <comment><AUTHOR> I am unable to focus. How do you disconnect the distraction?</comment>


Ask HN: Help choosing App name: Resume vs CV - <AUTHOR> I needed to do my CV as I'm looking for a new job and so instead of just opening the word processor and writing it like a normal person I started writing an app to do it for me. After getting a bit carried away for a couple of weeks just before Christmas I ended up with something that I realised others here on Hacker News would perhaps find useful. I've now started to add features that I think would specifically appeal to Silicon Valley tech types.
I'm planning to launch a beta pretty soon and am going to provide as many Hacker News readers who show interest with a free account. Watch out for that post here. In the meantime I'm struggling with the name and consequent domain name registration. I really want to use CV, short for Curriculum Vitae for those in the dark, instead of Resume. But I'm not sure whether you guys in the US use CV and Resume interchangeably like we tend to do here in the UK. My tagline will more than likely have the word Resume in it if I do go with CV in the main name. I'm probably making too big a deal of this one word, but I'm concerned about a) recognition of CV by my target market (Silicon Valley tech types like your good selves) b) that Resume has about 10 times the volume of searches in the US vs CV according to SEMRush. So I should probably have resume in the domain name rather than the tagline.
Any input that you US readers have on this CV vs Resume debate would be great. Is CV even recognised in the US as the thing you send along with a job application? <comment><USER2> In your target area, i.e. business, resume (don't forget the acute accent on the last e) is the defacto standard in the US, most people I encountered don't know the term CV.

Think of the situation as similar to "elevator" and "lift". I think most educated people, since they travel around, have contact with foreign people, etc., would know what a "lift" is but when you're going to a build a business, you want to avoid the awkwardness, unless, of course, you deliberately want to elicit the European or foreign feel (this is why some radio commercials for tea use people with British accents).

<comment><USER3> Kind of funny that Americans use a French word and French people use a Latin word :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For academic and PhD people in the US, a CV is a multi-page document that goes into more detail, for instance, listing all of the details of all of your publications. A resume is generally a one page (sometimes two page) summary.

These are a bit flexible, though. I've seen three or four page resumes, and two page CVs.

From my perspective, having professional looking templates, each with a different look and feel, would be a major plus.

</comment><comment><USER5> It doesn't matter.

The bonus you get on google for a keyword matching the domain is only on an exact match. So cv.com will get a bonus, but mycv.com won't. Also because "mycv" is treated as a single word it won't even get a normal match for the term "cv", my-cv.com would get the match as Google treat the hypen as a a space, but in general you should avoid hyphenated domain names.

<comment><USER6> Can you provide some rational or data points on why hyphens are not a good thing, particularly given your example of google parsing the words accurately? I hear this often but always without explanation.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was wondering about this too after reading:

[http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/17702/17-Mutable- Sugges...](http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/17702/17-Mutable-Suggestions- For-Naming-A-Startup.aspx)

Great advice in this article on the whole I think, but I did wonder about the rational for removing hyphens. Could it just be they are out of fashion? I remember when they used to be much more popular way back when.

Also thanks for all the comments so far guys!

<comment><USER5> It's because users are used to multi-words companies being a single word in a domain (i.e no hyphen). So when people type your domain a non-insignificant percentage of users are going to type it without the hyphen.

If you buy both domains (with and without the hyphen) and 301 redirect the hyphenless domain to the hyphen'd one you'd get over the worst of the issues, but there's still the potential for confusion and different people spelling it in different ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> When I launched trackmycv.com I had this exact problem, no one from the US seemed to know what a CV was, I had to buy whoreadsmyresume.com in the end. Almost everywhere apart from the US uses CV, not resumé, but CV doesn't seem to be used at all in the US.

<comment><USER8> Wondering if the possible reading of that as whore-ads-my-resume.com hurts you... I'm thinking it at least raises spam flags.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> One data point: I've always thought of CV as more common in academia/research type fields and as some of my foreign colleague's name for a resume.

<comment><USER10> This. I always liked the term "CV" (I was just trying to be different - lame I know), but I realized in North America - I'm Canadian - "resume" is the defacto standard. A position in academia will mention CV, or rather, "CV/Resume". In my experiences, I've noticed there _are_ some distinct differences between a CV and a Resume. The most obvious difference being the focus on papers, publications and research in a CV that's not usually found in a resume.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> In Turkey, CV is used interchangeably with the turkish "özgeçmiş" Resumé is almost never used.

By the way, does anybody remember the CodersCV.com? It was a great site for displaying the CV but it no longer works. For a sample shot of that site, see <http://img365.yukle.tc/images/2880Coders_CV_-_Resume.png>

</comment><comment><USER12> Tangential feature suggestion, which you might already have: LinkedIn integration. If you could pull my work history from my LinkedIn profile, that would save me huge amounts of time.

Looking forward to your ShowHN :-)

</comment><comment><USER13> This may be an obvious statement, but why not try both? I assume you can get domains for both and test it out.

I work in finance and I've seen CV and resume used interchangeably. But more resume than CV.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually no the domain I wanted when using resume is not available and this has lead to my dilemma.

I like iwwr's suggestions of letting the my early adopters choose choose. I've got a bunch of other possibles and so I'll give some thought as to how best to approach this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Just out of interest, all the people typing resume instead of resumé, is that because they can't type the accent, or is it actually pronounced resume?

<comment><USER15> It's because they can't type the accent.

<comment><USER16> On a Mac, you do "Alt+e e" to get the acute accent for "Résumé". To get a grave accent, use "Alt+~ e". "Alt+i e" gives you the circumflex on the e: "ê". Hope that helps anyone looking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Have you heard of jobrary.com? You might want to check it out.

</comment><comment><USER18> Resume for the US.

CV for the rest of the world.

Let users chose the name.

And post a link to show your work :)

<comment><USER19> From my experience in university, a resume is a shorter summation of a person whereas a CV is more detailed.

That was my understanding anyway.</comment></comment>


Why Is the Dollar Sign a Letter S? - <AUTHOR> http://observationdeck.io9.com/why-is-the-dollar-sign-a-letter-s-1683940575 <comment><USER2> It is really annoying to hear so many opinions here choosing to believe an alternate version simply because it sounds better to them rather than because of any actual evidence. (Are we still in Hacker News or is it a Sunday thing?) It feels like I'm reading opinions by creationists.

Even the us government agrees that the $ symbol is a peso sign. [1]

Here is the relevant piece:

>>What is the origin of the $ sign? The origin of the "$" sign has been variously accounted for, however, the most widely accepted explanation is that the symbol is the result of evolution, independently in different places, of the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, is that the "S" gradually came to be written over the "P," developing a close equivalent of the "$" mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.<<

[1] [http://www.moneyfactory.gov/faqlibrary.html](http://www.moneyfactory.gov/faqlibrary.html)

<comment><USER3> > It feels like I'm reading opinions by creationists.

> the most widely accepted explanation is that the symbol is the result of > evolution

Well, maybe you are...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What I'd like to know more is why it goes before the quantity and not after.

Nobody writes "it weighs lb. 10" or "it's m 20 long". Or even "I had %20 of it".

Subconsciously I always read "$10" as "dollar ten". It drives me a little crazy.

<comment><USER5> Especially since in American you'd write 10c, and not c10.

There's a stack exchange comment saying it's harder to forge $20 to $320 than it is to forge 20$ to 320$.

[http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11326/what-is- the...](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11326/what-is-the- difference-between-20-and-20)

[http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/34013/why-is- the-...](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/34013/why-is-the-unit-of- measure-placed-before-the-value-for-currencies-are-there-oth)

I'd like to know why we do it too. I mean, I know "just because" but I'd like to know how it started.

<comment><USER6> From a quick google image search, it appears that at least some EU checks also follow the format of putting the currency symbol before the numerical amount. It makes sense on the face of things that $200.00 is harder to alter than 200.00$ .

<comment><USER7> _that $200.00 is harder to alter_

Luckily, though, it is common to use commas to separate groups of three digits: $200,000.00 But this means a change of a factor 1000 which might be less useful than the original 20$ -> 320$ example.

<comment><USER8> That depends on locale other countrys do not use commas as separators in the same way

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How interesting. 'Paisa' used in India as currency also sounds like peso, however, seems to have different origin:

"""The word paisa is from Hindi & Urdu paisā, a quarter-anna coin, ultimately from Sanskrit term padāṁśa meaning 'quarter part', from pada "foot or quarter" and aṁśa "part".""" \- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa)

<comment><USER10> It's also how we denote the people of a certain region in Colombia. I don't think it's related though. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa_Region](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisa_Region)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign)

<comment><USER12> Then wikipedia article is better.

Personally, I find the US answer more plausible. because of the existence of the two bar version. It's much more likely for people to simplify the two bar version by dropping a bar than to pointlessly complicate the symbol by adding an extra bar for no reason, so I suspect the two bar version was the original.

<comment><USER13> In the comments section of the article, someone claimed that in their Spanish- speaking country $ was used to refer to pesos, but with two bars it meant USD. So maybe the two bars in the USD was introduced to separate it from the peso when they were both common currencies.

<comment><USER12> That makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> There are some alternative theories on this, too. The one I learned was the sign being derived from the Pillars of Hercules (two vertical bars) with a banner (the "S") wrapped around it, reading "[non] plus ultra", as adopted by Charles V for the Spanish coat of arms and later stamped on the reverse of Spanish dollar coins.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Columnas_Plus_Ultra.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Columnas_Plus_Ultra.png)

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

[Edit:] There's actually a bit of irony in this, considering the Pillars of Hercules were marking the end of the world (as lined out by the banner "non plus ultra") and the minted silver coming from the New World beyond ...

<comment><USER15> From the article's comment section:

It is not the case, I'm sorry to say, although that is certainly a commonly- repeated story. (There's a similar urban legend in Brazil involving the Pillars of Heracles and the meandering route used by Tariq ibn Ziyad.) But the textual evidence (years and years of preserved handwritten merchant communications from multiple nations and colonies on both sides of the Atlantic showing a clear progression from PS to a $) is very much in favor of the superimposed PS.

<comment><USER14> Personally, I would think there's some kind of inheritance from the older Lira (later pound) sign "£". Remarkably, this one is also coming in two variants, both with a single and a (probably older) double stroke. (Unicode U+00A3 and U+00A4 respectively.) A letter with a horizontal or vertical stroke became somewhat of a universal signature of a currency symbol (think of cents, Yen, &c).

The stroke-signature actually goes back in history as far as to the antique Roman symbols for As and Denarius. (A nice overview of currency symbols may be found at [http://www.signographie.de/cms/upload/pdf/SIGNA_GewWaehrZch_...](http://www.signographie.de/cms/upload/pdf/SIGNA_GewWaehrZch_1.2.pdf) [German].)

[Edit:] Also, consider the former predominance of the version featuring two distinctive vertical strokes, as lined out in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9018366](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9018366) . A "P" with a doubled vertical stroke would just make a (mirrored) paragraph sign. But I confess not to know, what the original version would have been (single or double stroke).

[Edit:] Another hint on "$" not being derived from the letter "S" might be the significant smaller vertical extent of the "S"-like part than the ones of capital letters, both raised from the baseline and smaller than the X-height.

<comment><USER16> Nope, you are wrong. Is a peso sign. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign)

<comment><USER17> Specifically, the US dollar exists only since 1785 and the sign $ was already used before for Peso according to Prof. Cajori who examined the West Indian manuscripts dated 1760 to 1778 [http://books.google.at/books?id=4ykDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontc...](http://books.google.at/books?id=4ykDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)

<comment><USER18> Here is a $ sign from pre 1700 Spanish coin [http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/shipwreck-pirate- coins.h...](http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/shipwreck-pirate-coins.html) ( #CS20730 ). There are more of these that pre date that, so this article is fairly opinionated.

<comment><USER17> And here's the sample of what Prof Cajori presented, a letter from 1778 (that is 7 years before the US dollar was introduced by The Grand Committee of the Continental Congress: [http://www.usmint.gov/education/historianscorner/?action=tim...](http://www.usmint.gov/education/historianscorner/?action=timeline)).

[http://s23.postimg.org/p1tie5297/peso_as_dollar.png](http://s23.postimg.org/p1tie5297/peso_as_dollar.png)

Thanks to nemo: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9019062](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9019062)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hrm. At one point on the internets, I read that it was just the letters 'U' and 'S' (for United States) overlaid on top of each other. And over time, we lost the round pipe at the bottom, and one of the lines.

It seemed like a plausible story, and because I wasn't doing hardcore research, I didn't look into it further. Now, I always wonder if some fun fact I have in my head is actually true or not.

Reminds me of that quote about Abe Lincoln and the internet.

<comment><USER20> This is what I believed as well, and the theory is actually included on the Wikipedia page, but only for the double-stroke dollar sign[1].

I read Atlas Shrugged as a teenager and that's where I got it from.

[1] = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#From_.22U.S..22](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign#From_.22U.S..22)

<comment><USER21> This theory is a "fact" in the fictional world of Atlas Shrugged, but the author (Rand) ackowledged that in the real world, it is not known to be true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> @ has a well known meaning in Spanish, it is the symbol of "arroba" which is an old unit of weight, like a pound, ounce, etc. I still remember hearing on the local markets sellers pricing their goods for its arroba weight. In fact, when we read an email out load we do not say someone at somwhere dot com, we say someone arroba somewhere dot com.

<comment><USER23> It was commonly used in English in commercial correspondence, such as invoices, to separate a quantity from the unit price. I don't remember the exact notation, but it was something like 20#@$10 for "20 pounds at 10 dollars per pound." or "20@$10" for "20 items at 10 dollars each".

Anybody who can dig up an English-language B2B invoice from the 1950s or earlier?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The evolution of the £ (pound) symbol has a similar, fascinating history behind it too. It was recently discussed on a 99% Invisible podcast [1].

[1] [http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/octothorpe/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/octothorpe/)

<comment><USER25> Whenever I think about it, I find it quite fascinating that a pound literally used to be a pound of silver. Another aspect is the age of the Lsd system, and how long it was held onto.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I've heard this etymology before, but the article would be a lot more convincing if it showed an actual in-the-wild example of the "intermediate form" of the symbol, with the P and S exactly superimposed on each other...

<comment><USER27> Florian Cajori's A History of Mathematical Notations goes into the history and notes examples of old written manuscripts showing the intermediate form in use, with one example where both were used interchangeably in a letter. He examined the question in depth, showed that the earliest uses in the US had a single stroke, with the double stroke only coming later, and dealt with the other theories showing as conclusively as possible that it's a peso sign composed of a superimposed P/S. It's an old book, and not on a web site, but you could probably find a copy at a library.

<comment><USER17> Here's the link to the book you refer to (two volumes in one, the second volume starts at p. 469). I can't see where it writes about the dollar sign, can you help me?

[http://monoskop.org/images/2/21/Cajori_Florian_A_History_of_...](http://monoskop.org/images/2/21/Cajori_Florian_A_History_of_Mathematical_Notations_2_Vols.pdf)

Edit: thanks Nemo!

<comment><USER27> It starts on p. 15 of volume II, around 2/3s of the way into the pdf.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Until keyboards were everywhere (which was a while ago, yes), I wasn't used to seeing the $ with a single vertical line in a money context. Myth or not, it made the interlocking U S very believable. It just makes me wonder which came first, and how the double line came about, if it wasn't there originally.

</comment><comment><USER29> NB: In all Spanish-speaking countries that I know of, you can call the currency "peso" even if that's not its official name. In Costa Rica, for example, they will often say "cien pesos" rather than "cien colones" if they're in an informal situation or mood.

</comment><comment><USER30> "Alternatively, the $ symbol derives from the scroll on the pillar, on the reverse of the "pillar dollar" variety of pieces of eight [Spanish Dollars]."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#mediaviewer/File...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#mediaviewer/File:Philip_V_Coin.jpg)

Which you can clearly see here:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#mediaviewer/File...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#mediaviewer/File:Philip_V_Coin.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER31> The S and the pillars story seems simpler, and also accounts for the $ with two vertical bars.

Here in Argentina, we still call money: "silver", as in "Do you have silver to pay for that?"

It was called "peso"(weight) because you used to WEIGH your money instead of "counting" it.

It is funny that we still call it "silver" and "weight" nowadays when fiat- money is everywhere.

<comment><USER32> Even thought wikipedia clearly calls the spanish dollar a 'piece of eight', it's pretty clear that peso means 'weight' and the dollar has about 8x the weight in silver of a spanish real. It's probably better to call it a 'weight of eight'. [http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinText/Sp- milled.2.html](http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinText/Sp-milled.2.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> That's interesting. Where I live (India), we didn't have a currency symbol until recently. Our currency is the Indian Rupee and we used to prefix "Rs." and "Re." to the value.

The govt. invited people from around the country to send in their designs and we finally chose one (20B9 on unicode). But it took us 2 years to start using the symbol on currency notes.

</comment><comment><USER18> Here is a $ sign from pre 1700 Spanish coin [http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/shipwreck-pirate- coins.h...](http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/shipwreck-pirate-coins.html) ( #CS20730 ). There are more of these that pre date that, so this article is fairly opinionated.

<comment><USER2> Although it looks like the Peso sign I'm not sure it really is. Why would you put the Peso sign in a coin. It probably is something else and du to wear and tear now it looks like a Peso sign. Look at this other coin for example:

[http://www.ancientresource.com/images/pirate-shipwreck- treas...](http://www.ancientresource.com/images/pirate-shipwreck- treasure/spanish-copper-coins/spanish-copper-cs2074.jpg)

ps: The link to the image you are talking about is:

[http://www.ancientresource.com/images/pirate-shipwreck- treas...](http://www.ancientresource.com/images/pirate-shipwreck- treasure/spanish-copper-coins/spanish-copper-cs2067.jpg)

And its correct id is:#CS2073

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Fun trivia: When Americans went to East Asia with their funny money, the Asians quickly replaced the $ sign with a similar-looking local character: 弗.

Nowadays in Japan and Korea, you often see headlines like "1兆弗" (1 trillion U.S. dollars).

But 弗 originally means "not". So American money is not real money ;)

<comment><USER35> I've never seen 弗 in use in Chinese newspapers to refer to dollars. Any sources on this? Baidu-ing "兆弗" is only turning up results for a Shanghai company called "兆弗"

<comment><USER34> Sorry, here's an errata: The letter 弗 is commonly used in Korea and Japan. In China, the U.S. dollar is usually written as 美元 ("American yuan", but since both the dollar and the yuan derive from the thaler as the article says, it can mean "American thaler" as well).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> And I remember than 'ampersand' is 'and per se and' from the alphabet song, where the 'and' sign used to be included at the end. Its been corrupted to the 'ampersand'. Any idea if there's any history behind that?

</comment><comment><USER37> It's fascinating to understand that originally there was no "official" US currency, only that the Spanish dollar was circulating as a sort of international currency. The US dollar was then defined a unit of weight of either gold or silver and not some floating, independent notion of value. Anyone could bring a quantity of gold or silver into the mint and have it turned into a dollar coin. Of course, that original notion has been inflated away and the dollar has lost some 99% of its value.

One of my favorite sites for seeing the effect of debasement is [http://www.coinflation.com/](http://www.coinflation.com/).

<comment><USER38> I've read this post over several times and for the life of me it seems that you believe the existence of a fiat currency is... a bad thing?

<comment><USER37> Yes, I've become fairly certain that fiat currency is indeed a bad thing.

<comment><USER39> Whereas I've become fairly certain that fiat currency is the only viable option.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Tyrol never was German (except when anexed by the Nazis, that is...). At most, it was part of the Ostrogothic kingdom (up to 550 or so); After, it was its own county, ruled by counts apointed by the Holy Roman Emperor, and then (1369, with the death of the last countess, Magarete Maultasch) it became part of the Kingdom of Austria that was being built by the house Habsburg. So by the time the silver mentioned in the article was found, Tyrol was firmly in Habsburg hands, and ever since has been part of Austria (particularly, the region with the silver).

Disclaimer: I am Tyrolean... :)

</comment><comment><USER41> > And because the US dollar was named after the Spanish peso de ocho "dollar" > coin

I am still not sure where the word "dollar" comes from though. If we are using the sign for pesos, who not use the word "pesos" instead of "dollar"?

<comment><USER42> Dollar comes from daler/taler:

[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dollar](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dollar)

No idea why the pesos sign became the dollar sign, but I'd image it may have something to do with the Spaniards being around long before the English in the Americas.

<comment><USER2> >>No idea why the pesos sign became the dollar sign, but I'd image it may have something to do with the Spaniards being around long before the English in the Americas

That is the whole point of this article . It tells you where the sign came from.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Turns out that the Dollar (0.88 Euro), derived from the Dutch word Daalder, today has the exact same value as this Daalder (2.50 guilders) before it became the Euro (2.20371 guilders), after calculating the inflation rate.

</comment><comment><USER44> There are many different explanations floating around. The one I like the most is that it is actually US and that U is placed on top of the S. That's why there are often two vertical lines.

<comment><USER16> Isn't it better to prefer the one with the most evidence supporting it?

<comment><USER45> That sounds far too reasonable.

My preferred explanation is that the dollar sign looks like that because the dollar sign creating pixies created it that way.

(all hail the dollar sign creating pixies)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> The history of human communication is wonderfully absurd. So much cryptic conflation (vocal or scriptural).

</comment><comment><USER47> Ugh, pop-journalism. Did anyone even wonder where the word Joachimthal came from that gave the dollar it's name? From my rudimentary German, I would guess [Saint] Joachim valley, in other words the location of the silver mine.

</comment><comment><USER48> Isn't it "Dollar" because of the dutch "Daalder"?

</comment><comment><USER49> i thought $ was a snake on a stick.

<comment><USER49> "Another theory is that the dollar sign may have also originated from Hermes, the Greek god of bankers, thieves, messengers, and tricksters. One of his symbols was the caduceus, a staff from which ribbons or snakes dangled in a sinuous curve." Thanks for the downvotes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> It may have evolved from the Kadusis symbol which is also used on medical stuff sometimes.

</comment><comment><USER51> That's just the nice version that goes around. It actually represents devices like manacles. Used for counting slaves.

Our civilization is still based on a type of wage-based slavery.

The euro symbol is another example.</comment>


Yes, that's indeed how it is.  - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/esnme/ultrajson/issues/83#issuecomment-17756447

<comment><USER2> While the maintainer does not seem very comprehensive, posting this bug report here is passive aggressive behavior at its best. What do you expect of the discussion here that could not be more productive there?

<comment><USER3> I upvoted it because the discussion here might make other maintainers of software aware of how their attitudes are seen by others.

But on this one, is it documented? There are lots of valid reasons to make a tradeoff like this. If you've made it, and put up big warnings about it, then failure to respond to those bug reports is quite reasonable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It looks like it's a datatype limit, as other python json libraries have a similar issue:

[http://deron.meranda.us/python/comparing_json_modules/number...](http://deron.meranda.us/python/comparing_json_modules/numbers)

It's probably not a trivial fix/addition and might end up costing the library some of it's speed.</comment>


Swift is an Uber competitor built by ex-Uber drivers - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailydot.com/debug/swift-uber-lyft-driver-app/ <comment><AUTHOR> _" Abdoul Diallo has been driving with Uber for three years, and he's been protesting the company for most of that time.... We do all the work, we cover all the expenses...Why not build our own? ... Diallo, who had a master's degree in computer science, and some of his partners with experience in design and programming ..."_

Ha, don't piss-off your ^highly educated^ workforce. Anyone use their service?</comment>