Malls, the Future of Housing? - <AUTHOR> http://www.housingwire.com/2008/12/29/malls-the-future-of-housing/

<comment><USER2> I live in a condo tower in Vancouver, BC. I live above a supermarket, Starbucks, dry cleaner, hair stylist, and Domino's pizza. It actually works out quite well. Because of the supermarket, I only have to buy food for one meal at a time. <http://www.metropolitantowers.com>

It's called New Urbanism and it was implemented here in Vancouver by the former head of Urban planning, Larry Beasley. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Beasley> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism>

<comment><USER3> I lived in that exact building for a couple years. The major downside of it and similar developments is that it's extraordinarily noisy from all the street traffic. Made me hate buses with a severe passion.

This is the major downside to mixing a lot of cars with apartment buildings. Many cities do this way better than Vancouver which is terribly overrated as a city to live in. For instance in Beijing the city blocks are very large with residential (schools, etc) on the inside and the major streets on the outside with little through traffic. As a result it's quiet at your apartment through the day in a city of 15M.

<comment><USER2> There are a few ways to manage this.

The first way is to have larger sidewalks. This puts traffic further away from the buildings and there is less echo reverberating up sides of buildings. The sidewalks are larger in Gastown and deeper in Yaletown. Granville Street is being repaved to have larger sidewalks, too.

The second way to do this is to make the first floor retail. Then make floors 2 through 10 be commercial office space. People don't have to sleep in this space so sound doesn't matter as much.

I live on the 17th floor and I don't really notice traffic noise. I do get noise from Granville Street on Friday and Saturday from the Christian Audigier crowd. If I go to bed early on the weekend, I just sleep with ear plugs in. Inconvenient, but not that huge of a deal.

I used to live in the West End across from a senior's home. I swear an ambulance used to rip up the street at least once a week with it's siren blaring to pick up a senior. Ear plugs don't help in that case.

The third way to reduce noise is to have better windows. The building does have almost floor to ceiling windows and they are not the most sound proof. The City of Vancouver needs to improve the building code with respect to windows. It would save a lot more energy, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Like ohmigod, I was on the phone with Becky, Tiffany, and Amber the other day? (My daddy has conference call. It's totally wicked.) And I was telling them, like, you know how the mall has like, all these stores like Bloomie's and The Gap and Hot Topic all under one roof? Well I thought, wouldn't it be cool if one day we could just like, live at the mall? Like wake up, grab breakfast at Cinnabons, and then shop all day? That would be awesome, don't you think?

Oh, who am I kidding? Mall housing -- gag me with a spoon.

<comment><USER5> Two new malls went up in recent years in my city with housing built right in. <http://www.hillcountrygalleria.com> has <http://www.alexangalleria.com> and then <http://www.thedomainaustin.com>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I actually live in the Belmar development in Colorado that is mentioned in the article. For the most part, we've been quite happy with it. With a Whole Foods, restaurants, bars, public library, and many stores only a 5-minute walk away, we can go days without needing to use the car.

You're definitely making a trade-off though, paying substantially more per square foot than you would for older, traditional housing stock in the same area, and foregoing space and a yard. I get the feeling most people in this area will still choose the horrors of a 45-minute commute so that they can live in a cookie-cutter home with a postage-stamp yard, as opposed to a relatively small condominium.

The article doesn't hit this point very hard, but I also think it's important to get public transportation into the equation with these developments. Mass transit options are limited in this area, and I hate that I pretty much have to use my car to travel to downtown Denver or Boulder.

</comment><comment><USER7> I personally think that new uses for old spaces is quite cool.

If you agree, you might enjoy the book "How Buildings Learn".

[http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens- Theyre/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens- Theyre/dp/0140139966)

HOWEVER.

The cost of demolition and new construction is much lower than renovation, especially when the systems requirements (showers, plumbing, etc.) are so different.

I feel quite confident stating that - aside from a stunt or two here and there - we will never see malls turned into housing in any sort of massive way.

<comment><USER8> Right you are about the renovation. Fifteen or twenty years ago HP bought the failed Mayfair mall for a song, intending to get cheap office space. The cost turned out to be huge because it turned it wasn't a single building. Each store was a separate building with a common exterior wall. Among the problems were uneven floors, so that a bunch of little shops couldn't be combined into an office space. IIRC the remodeling cost over $25m.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Since one of the current topics being discussed is the vanishing shopping mall (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=540166>), I've been wondering why there isn't more of an overall interest (and I don't mean on HN, I mean in general) in apartments and condos mixed in with shopping centers, like malls. Well, a quick search found this article.

<comment><USER9> Good find. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Interesting article, but not very internationally-informed. Mixed-use residential/retail mall complexes may be novel to the US, but they've been common in Singapore (& I would guess elsewhere) for some time. I lived in one a few years ago. Strikes me that it'll only ever be a niche market, except where land space is a high premium.

</comment><comment><USER11> wow. this is brilliant. on the order of... nyc birlliant. i live in manhattan and the entire island is like one big mixed use residential/commercial/recreational mall.

hybrid is almost always the best way to go.

</comment><comment><USER12> I live about 1/2 hour away from this:

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

I've often wondered if such a structure could be turned into housing. Although the article wasn't explicit in making this point, it implied that housing in/by malls has been purpose-built thus far. 2M sq. ft. is enough for 1000 very nice condos. How could enough natural light would be let into these spaces? And, how would renovation costs compare to just building from scratch after a demolition. What's striking to me is that it's like building lofts in old warehouse buildings except that these "warehouses" are only 30-something rather than 100+ years old.

</comment><comment><USER13> Accommodation combined with an upmarket/trendy strip mall is very common in Brisbane, Australia now. Personally, I don't understand the appeal, but I am a bit of a sook when it comes to noisy neighbours.

Basically it appears to work well in gentrifying inner-city areas with plenty of public transport and activities nearby.

</comment><comment><USER14> This reminds me of a TEDTalk from a recent BestOf TEDTalks post.

The tragedy of suburbia - James Howard Kunstler

[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dis...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html)

</comment><comment><USER15> ... and so the wheel turns - isn't this what used to be called a village? I'm all for not having people commuting between single-purpose locations.</comment>


Italy's Oldest Musical Instrument Hints at Sounds of Prehistoric Rome - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/arts/music/italy-prehistoric-musical-instrument.html <comment><USER2> The revival of ancient music, very hard to do since written records are so scarce, has made some progress lately. Some Oxford scholars were able to credibly recreate some ancient greek music [1]. There has been some interest in recent years over recreations of the Carnyx, the ancient Celtic war trumpet [2].

[1]. [https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/scientists-have- reco...](https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/scientists-have- reconstructed-ancient-greek-music-and-you-can-listen-to-it/)

[2]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azo7mSt8o9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azo7mSt8o9M)

<comment><USER3> huh, "video unavailable in your country". We have Celtic burial mounds in the area, for Teutates' sake!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting article. I'd like to hear more about this but other than his Synaulia[0] project, I can't seem to find anything about his music...

[0][https://www.soundcenter.it/synaulia.htm](https://www.soundcenter.it/synaulia.htm)

</comment><comment><USER5> It looks like an old differential gear housing.

<comment><USER6> Heh, I guess it's an eye of the beholder thing. Not long ago I bought a banjo, and since banjo things have been on my mind, as soon as I saw the picture, I thought, that is a spiked lute.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> NYTimes = paywalled

<comment><USER8> document.getElementsByClassName("css-mcm29f")[0].style.overflow="scroll"</comment></comment>


The U.S. government is set to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/03/the-u-s-government-is-set-to-borrow-nearly-1-trillion-this-year/ <comment><USER2> This article takes up Democratic party talking points by framing the government's massive borrowing jump from $519 to $955 billion as caused by the tax cuts. Yet the "blunt" CBO report the WaPo cites actually says just $136 billion in revenue loss is from the tax cut. So there's $300 billion in new borrowing that's simply from runaway spending. So for the entire $955 billion projected deficit next year, just 14% will be from the recent changes in tax law.

<comment><USER3> The 519 is a typo or something. The deficit last year was 666B:

[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-ends- fiscal-2017-with-6...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-ends- fiscal-2017-with-666-billion-budget-deficit-2017-10-20)

So 955B is an increase of ~290B.. so roughly half of the increase is from the tax cut.

<comment><USER2> No, we're already in fiscal 2018 as the baseline, the trillion dollar projection is for 2019.

<comment><USER3> The article says 955B for this year 2018. 666B was for 2017.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The title is not very useful; this quote gives some context: "It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year."

</comment><comment><USER5> If the interest rate on this borrowed money is lower than inflation it makes perfect sense to borrow money as the money that will be used to pay the loan off in the future will be worth less and less.

</comment><comment> crooked-v The Republican motto: "fiscal conservatism, except when it's us in charge".

<comment><USER6> Obama added $9.3 trillion to the debt, more than any other president. That's an average of about 1.2 trillion a year.

On January 20, 2009, when he was sworn in, the debt was $10.626 trillion. On January 20, 2017, when he left, it was $19.947 trillion.

<comment><USER7> It's quite convenient to present those numbers without context.

In the context of prior performance and international circumstances, Obama brought the deficit down from the end of the Bush era as a recession began to recover, but the first few years required clear action. Trump, meanwhile, is going to drastically increase the deficit during an economic boom.

It should be obvious that Obama's deficits were strategically necessarily while Trump's coming deficit makes no financial sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's 2018. Framing this as political (i.e., party v party) is naive. Both parties continue to bloat the budget. Different spin and rhetoric. Same ends.

In either case:

"We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined."

Obama SOTU 2016

The rest is obvious.

<comment><USER9> I mean, the Republicans have been claiming to be "the party of fiscal responsibility". Lying may be common in politics, but are we really at the point we just give up and stop even commenting on it?

Also, while the Democrats may have still run a deficit, they _were_ reducing it. It's not good, but to claim equivalence seems counter-productive. Claiming they "bloated" the budget when they cut the deficit (roughly) in half (not accounting for inflation) seems to be straight up misleading.

Not to even start with _how_ that money is being spent/where it comes from (or not, as the case may be).

<comment><USER8> Right. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. They BOTH generate misinformation while the masses claw and beg for basic service provided at reasonable value (i.e., the taxes to waste and corruption ratio is reasonable).

Meanwhile, while everyone is sucked in the (Mad Magazine) spy v spy ruse the money bubbles to the top - regardless of which side is promising the otherwise.

Actions speak louder than words. Why anyone listens to, let alone trusts, a politician is beyond me.

<comment><USER9> That sure sounds like a rationalisation to not bother.

Sure, I don't dispute the current system has huge flaws. It is the system we live under, however, and trying to change that system doesn't require not participating in it.

There is an obvious least-bad. It may not be everything I want, but it goes from people I care about suffering seriously to not seeing as much progress as I'd like. I'll take that every time, while also pushing for more serious reform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> With current economic growth and expected growth from the tax cut as well as low rates, it only makes sense to borrow.

Also, 'borrowing' in this sense means selling lots of bonds with a very low face rate. People still gladly buy them...

</comment><comment><USER11> Well if you look at the last 30-40 years. Republicans talk about improving economy, lowering taxes and small government the deficit balloons up. Democrats talk about increasing healthcare, other social services and increasing taxes the deficit comes down and the economy actually improves.

</comment><comment><USER12> State borrowing is fine. It's where it's spent and what they chose to ignore which worries me.

</comment><comment><USER13> Meanwhile, in india: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia- india-42899402](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-42899402)

India's GDP: "The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India was worth 2263.79 billion US dollars in 2016."[0]

America's GDP: "The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States was worth 18624.48 billion US dollars in 2016."[1]

[0]: [https://tradingeconomics.com/india/gdp](https://tradingeconomics.com/india/gdp)

[1]: [https://tradingeconomics.com/united- states/gdp](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp)

Your system is massively inefficient.

<comment><USER14> As percentage of GDP, India is running a deficit more than twice as high as the US (6.6% vs 2.8% over the last ten years).

But those numbers are meaningless for proving or disproving "inefficiency". The US is obviously getting far better infrastructure/education/welfare system/research/military/etc.

<comment><USER13> > The US is obviously getting far better infrastructure/education/welfare > system/research/military/etc.

Is it?

Research is on shaky ground:

[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/data-check-us- governm...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/data-check-us-government- share-basic-research-funding-falls-below-50)

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dr-no- money/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dr-no-money/)

[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trump- bu...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trump-budget-cuts- science/519825/)

[http://theconversation.com/men-get-most-of-the-research- fund...](http://theconversation.com/men-get-most-of-the-research-funding-its- a-serious-problem-for-women-and-science-85469)

[https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges- res...](https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges-research- funding-peer-review-process)

Welfare system is failing:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our-i...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our- infant-mortality-rate-is-a-national-embarrassment/?utm_term=.8136e4325ad9)

[http://time.com/5090112/infant-mortality-rate- usa/](http://time.com/5090112/infant-mortality-rate-usa/)

[https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the- worst-r...](https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate- of-maternal-deaths-in-the-developed-world)

[https://www.propublica.org/article/die-in-childbirth- materna...](https://www.propublica.org/article/die-in-childbirth-maternal- death-rate-health-care-system)

[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/america- home...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/america-homeless- population-2017-official-count-crisis)

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us- canada-42248999](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42248999)

[https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html](https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html)

Education is failing en masse:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/americ...](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/american- schools-vs-the-world-expensive-unequal-bad-at-math/281983/)

[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s- students...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students- internationally-math-science/)

[https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/10/469831485/america...](https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/10/469831485/americas- high-school-graduates-look-like-other-countries-high-school-dropouts)

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertreiss/2015/11/17/how- to-f...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertreiss/2015/11/17/how-to-fix- education-in-america/#98109b5441c8)

Millitary is using shoddy, ancient tools:

[https://newrepublic.com/article/113484/how-pentagon- boondogg...](https://newrepublic.com/article/113484/how-pentagon-boondoggle- putting-soldiers-danger)

[http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-modernizing- its...](http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-modernizing-its-nuclear- arsenal-despite-criticism-over-weapons-a-932188.html)

[http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-military- re...](http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-military-really-bad- shape-19446)

[https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/hasc-ew-expert-bacon- us-...](https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/hasc-ew-expert-bacon-us-not- prepared-for-electronic-warfare-vs-russia-china/)

[https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/armys-basic-illusions- go...](https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/armys-basic-illusions-gone-time- for-futures-command/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Deficits in dollars aren't scary, unless they cause hyperinflation, IMO.</comment>


Announcing the PowerShell Module Browser - <AUTHOR> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/announcing-unified-powershell-experience <comment><USER2> This is great news and fits in nicely with the Visual Studio marketplace and other attempts by Microsoft to enable publishing content focused on admins and developers.

But the overall package management story is still severely lacking. The third party approach to OneGet, now called Package Management is confusing.

Chocolatey is probably the best way to install Windows software but the website contains outdated packages and big scary warnings for what usually consists of an upstream package and installation script.

Coming from the Linux world we've been spoiled for a long time with Yum/Apt etc.</comment>


Multiplayer HTML5 Indie RPG Game - <AUTHOR> http://rpg.mo.ee <comment><USER2> Seems to handle the traffic pretty well. Right now the game is poorly explained so it's hard to tell if it's any fun, but it seems like it could be good.

To the dev: Why 8 canvases? Did you find that you get better performance that way?

Also, putting level 13 enemies right near the starting area seems like a really poor idea. You should add a level indicator.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually I did some testing and 8 canvases seemed to be the fastest for this kind of gameplay. Using some buffering/etc.

Will change the map a bit ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why are you storing user name and password as plain text in browser local storage? Isn't that a security issue if someone else uses that same browser.

<comment><AUTHOR> indeed, thanks for reporting, will fix it in the next version

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> you should probably scale (the canvas function) the game a bit better. Get window.innerHeight and scale the game to fill the full height, rather than sticking to the small window. Or is this because of performance reasons?

<comment><AUTHOR> you can choose the game window size from the settings (top left ico), it is because of the performance reasons

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there a reason for hosting on port 1337? (Aside from the leet-factor)

I'm behind the corporate firewall so port 1337 is naturally blocked.. :(

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Loading might take a bit longer than usual due to high traffic. Be patient. Thank you.

</comment><comment><USER6> A player told ms it's on github, but I can't find it ...?

<comment><AUTHOR> it is not open source, probably only a small part of it will be open source so you can make your custom mods to it

<comment><USER6> Thank you for the clarification. I hoped I could install it to Amazon EC2 like Browserquest: [http://web3dblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/installing- browser...](http://web3dblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/installing-browserquest- on-amazon-ec2/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hehe, port 1337. Nice.

How long did it take you to make this game?

<comment><AUTHOR> all my weekends since july

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> and we are back after ISP maintenance

</comment><comment><USER8> is this permanantly shut down?

</comment><comment><USER9> pretty fun game Similar to Runescape in concept</comment>


Ask HN: Feedback on dropulous.com - <AUTHOR>

Hello HN community!
I created dropulous.com a couple of days ago to scratch my own itch concerning sharing files.
dropulous is a simple sharing service that only needs you to drag and drop files (one or many at the same time) onto the site to upload and share. Seriously, just go to dropulous.com and start drag and dropping!
Before creating dropulous, I used drop.io, which was certainly a fantastic service, but was a little fatigued at the seemingly easy, yet quickly tedious process of "clicking browse, selecting the file, clicking ok, and then clicking upload" that, to be fair, also existed on every other major file sharing website to my knowledge.
While I admit dropulous is not as browser-compatible as the other major file sharing websites, I believe that it is certainly worth it to make life easier for those of us who do have more modern browsers and those who eventually will!
Please try it out and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your feedback.
Here is the link: http://dropulous.com
Thanks, David <comment><USER2> Quick observation:

\- What are the limitations on free account? after adding few files, it turns out to be 50 MB.

\- Maybe some css on links at the top?

\- Landing page to know what the service is about?

\- Don't know why the id in the file box is editable

\- link to create new drops? I went to dropulous.com to get new drops. Would be nice to have a Create New Link

I like the service though. It is pretty simple and straight forward to use.

Edit: formatting

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello Sandip!

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I was thinking about how to best bring attention to the fact that a free user is limited to 50 mb - this will be a bigger priority.

I've realized that a lot of people don't realize what the web application is about, so I've started thinking about the best way to convey that information.

The id in the file box is actually the name of the drop which you can change. It does not change the share link though if you change the name of the drop.

To create a new drop, you simply have to refresh the page - do you think that is not straightforward?

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://dropulous.com></comment>


Vulcan Salute (Handshake Alternative, U+1F596) - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_salute <comment><USER2> If it's suggested as a handshake alternative in the context of human-to-human infections, then probably a namaste[1] is an alternative salutation more widely understood by people around the world.

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

<comment><USER3> Looks like a Christian prayer gesture though!

<comment><USER4> How many Christians pray without interlacing their fingers?

<comment><USER5> I was taught at a Christian school (in England) to pray like this.

<comment><USER6> Me too. I remember being told by a rather stuffy teacher that if you pointed your fingers to the sky, that the prayer would shoot up to heaven! If you interlaced your fingers it would 'bleughhh not go anywhere!'

<comment><USER7> I was raised Protestant, and there I was taught that the folded hands were to keep you from fidgeting.

I don't get the pointing at the heavens thing, I mean Jesus himself mentioned to basically be humble, not like those guys on the street corners making a bit show of praying.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't live with my girlfriend (she lives 30 miles away, I have my own house with my elderly mum who I look after and she didn't want to be on her own for weeks, and my girlfriend's house is overcrowded as the two older kids are back from Uni, and it's a small 3-bed house so space is at a premium, and there were doubts over if some of the kids had been exposed to Coronavirus), and the last time I saw her was a few weeks ago, after picking up my step-daughter from University and getting her back home.

When I left (we'd still been social distancing even on that day), I did this Vulcan Salute as it reminded me of the end of Wrath of Khan - I was feeling pretty sad as I know I can't be with her for at least a month here in the UK. I'd hoped she would do the same, as it just felt like that moment.

She had NO IDEA what I was referring to, so needless to say it was a bit of a downer at an emotional time!

(Don't get me wrong, I'm not an emotional imbecile, I just picked a bad way to express my feelings at that moment!)

<comment><USER9> A downer with a silver lining, though. xkcd.com/1053 - Netflix party mode, you get to rewatch all the ToS films.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Somewhat on topic but somewhat tangential, has anyone watched the new Picard series? Would love to get some opinions, especially as it compares to other Star Treks!

<comment><USER11> I haven't seen it and don't have any interest in seeing it based on what I've been hearing from friends.

Rich and Mike of Red Letter Media (the "70-minute Phantom Menace review" folks) are big Star Trek fans (in case you've never watched any of their stuff --Mike mentions Star Trek in so many reviews), and they haven't been liking it, to say the least. It's entertaining to watch them torture themselves from watching the show and recounting it.

ep 1: [https://youtu.be/hfQdf93e63I](https://youtu.be/hfQdf93e63I)

ep 2 & 3: [https://youtu.be/GkDmRy6SP28](https://youtu.be/GkDmRy6SP28)

ep 4 & 5: [https://youtu.be/Uv-wmixiiMA](https://youtu.be/Uv-wmixiiMA)

ep 6, 7, 8: [https://youtu.be/GyGGW3tqNPY](https://youtu.be/GyGGW3tqNPY)

<comment><USER12> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reApQlk5JiA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reApQlk5JiA) Mike Stoklasa Really Likes Star Trek

Bonus RLM compilations:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZX2KpCoKFE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZX2KpCoKFE) Jay Bauman the film buff

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rh1k2R2rv8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rh1k2R2rv8) Rich Evans mispronouncing words

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> See also the riskier [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbow_bump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbow_bump)

<comment><USER14> Wow, created in 2008!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This made me think: Given that most of society uses technology, but it's the "nerds" that define much of how it works, how does that affect culture? Some things that may be niche, becomes part of the mainstream as it's the niche group deciding.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wave gesture, already quite common handshake alternative (or offensive gesture depending the country!)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(gesture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_\(gesture\))

<comment><AUTHOR> > ... may be interpreted differently or even be highly offensive in South > Korea, Europe, Nigeria, Greece, Bulgaria, Latin American countries, India, > Japan, and other places.

IMO it is too impersonal (even rude as a forceful "attention here") and even meaningless (where Vulcan has more desirable connotations: space exploration, rationality, prosperity, unity). Though I'm not sure how widespread the cocept is.</comment></comment>


Everything Apple isn't telling you about its new credit card - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-everything-apple-isnt-telling-you-about-its-new-credit-card-2019-03-27 <comment><USER2> What a useless article! It literally has arguments like if you have lower credit score your interest might be higher...and that's something Apple is not telling you. Great.</comment>


Opening My First Ever Donations Season - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dmitryleskov.com/business-of-software/opening-my-first-ever-donations-season/ <comment><AUTHOR> Author here. Kindly (suggest where to) cross-post - I think it's important for the health of our industry that freeware authors and open source enthusiasts keep getting rewarded for their efforts. Thank you.</comment>


46M games sold in Steam Winter Sale and $270M estimated revenue - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/steam-spy/about-steam-winter-sale-76a75abe152a#.uyec4rkm3 <comment><USER2> As one of the developers I can confirm that the Winter Sale brings in the most money. In my case, I got more sales now than at game launch.</comment>


Show HN: LinCV – transform LinkedIn profile to printable CV in 5 seconds - <AUTHOR> https://alternativeto.net/software/lincv/ <comment><USER2> I just tried to use this extension on my LinkedIn profile and the generated CV shows my name and LinkedIn link as someone else entirely... If you'd like to debug, my LinkedIn is [https://linkedin.com/in/pswe](https://linkedin.com/in/pswe).

<comment><AUTHOR> Should be now fixed for Firefox (Chrome version is pending review which can take a long time). Thanks a lot for the report. If you can retest (make sure you have 1.0.3 version so force extension update if it doesn't update automatically), it's highly appreciated.

<comment><USER2> Seems to be working now!

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome! Thanks a lot for the report and for confirming!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It says the CVs are beautiful but I don't see any screenshots of the design?

LinkedIns CV:s are ok:ish in design so if you can make a design that surpass theirs I'll give it a try. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> The best way to see how it looks is to try it. :) Install + View CV shouldn't take more than 30 seconds in total if you are already logged on to LinkedIn.

<comment><USER4> No, most people don't just install stuff that lacks even a basic screenshot. The lack of any visuals asks all of us to give you too much credit for design quality in advance. There are risks to installing chrome extensions, on top of the time required to do so, and most online CV generators are hideous. If you refuse to show what yours looks like visitors have to go with the statistics and say yours is probably ugly too, hence no install. I can't imagine why you wouldn't show one, but it's your call.

<comment><AUTHOR> Since I don't want to use my own data, I would have to invent an imaginary profile and fill in all the data (practically write a full CV with fake data). Haven't found the time to do that yet since I didn't think it so important. Obviously it is.

<comment><USER5> Why would you not want to share your CV?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I highly recommend against downloading chrome extensions from unvetted third parties especially those which interact with LinkedIn. They are a VERY common vector for Malware, either to scrape your own contact details, to scrape your connections, or to do any manner of shady things.

There is a long and deep history of LinkedIn related chrome extensions that I won't get into. Many are a violation of LI's TOS. Most have to do with Lead sourcing for sales organizations. A lot of LI information ends up getting resold on grey market sites. Just don't do it. The convenience isn't worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> The extension does not send your data anywhere. It only requests access to linkedin.com domain and all data stays within your browser. Nothing is sent to websites or outside your browser.

We don't collect any data and fully respect your privacy. The source code of the extension is not minified or obfuscated in any way so you can review it in your browser if you are sceptical.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> LinkedIn itself lets you export your CV as PDF. I never bother with anything else.

<comment><USER8> The LinkedIn export includes stuff you probably don't want to include for someone viewing your CV outside of LinkedIn. There isn't a way to customize it, which is why there are so many tools for doing so.

<comment><USER7> Nobody reads past the first page anyway. I throw it all in. I landed jobs at Google and at several other high-ticket places with a LinkedIn-generated resume, FWIW.

<comment><AUTHOR> There are lots of people in the world who could get high paying jobs without any CV at all. But that doesn't mean that the CV wouldn't matter for the rest of us.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Some features: \- fully customizable layout (XSL template) \- CV data can be exported as XML \- default template features: \- very compact but readable layout (typically max 2 pages) \- include your picture in your CV \- include custom reference contact information \- automatically calculate the length of your experience (overall and per position) \- include skills & endorsements and endorsement counts \- include all licenses & certifications information \- include all volunteer experience information \- include all publications information

<comment><USER5> The image rotation didn't work correctly on mine. Send me a PM with your e-mail if you want me to send you a copy. It left a dotted line around the rotated image.

<comment><AUTHOR> Can't figure out how to send PMs here but you can contact us at nodetics AT removespam gmail deletethis com so we can troubleshoot this.</comment></comment></comment>


A placebo for pain relief – even when you know it's a placebo - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-placebo-for-pain-reliefeven-when-you-know-its-not-real-11579525202 <comment><AUTHOR> [http://archive.is/V82fg](http://archive.is/V82fg)</comment>


Show HN: My first web app - A Better Queue: Netflix + Rotten Tomatoes mashup - <AUTHOR> http://abetterqueue.com

<comment><USER2> I really like it, although I would change the "years between" slider-type control you used to something more standard, and I would add some better styling to the tomato-meter slider... and well to the whole filter settings panel... but other than that, it's pretty Awesome. I could and will definitely use it... I am forever having a hard time finding a good movie to watch on Netflix.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, and thanks for the suggestions! There will be some changes to those sliders in the near future. (JQuery was my first choice for those, but it's now proving to be an aesthetic and responsive issue.) I _might_ redesign it with Twitter bootstrap, which would help with overall UI and design.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey I don't watch a lot of movies, but I love tv shows. Any thoughts on incorporating metacritic as a backup when rotten tomatoes isn't available? That would be amazing. Also preferably use the user score, because critic reviews are pretty bad. Take for example Firefly, there's not even a critic score for it, however there is a very accurate 9.6 user score :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. If I did, it would be a sister site separate from this Rotten Tomatoes based thing. I'm trying to keep it as simple and uncluttered as possible.

Cheers.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A little write up here: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2999889/better- queue-netfli...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2999889/better-queue- netflix-rotten-tomatoes-ratings)

</comment><comment><USER4> Absolutely will be using this. Excellent. Much needed!</comment>


FaxFresh: Easy Online Fax - <AUTHOR> https://www.faxfresh.com/ <comment><USER2> $5 per fax is pretty expensive, and you can't receive faxes through it.

i used to use my all-in-one to fax things over the phone line that i had to get just for my dsl connection. since switching to cable, i use <http://faxage.com/> which gave me a local phone number in my area code and works over e-mail. my monthly bill from them is about $3.75.

any faxes sent to my number get emailed to me, and to fax out, i just email (the number)@faxage.com with an attached pdf and get an email back when the fax has gone through.

i have yet to receive any spam faxes through it and have never had any complaints about quality or problems converting pdfs.

</comment><comment><USER3> At $5 per fax I believe they have priced themselves out.

Not sure what this service buys me, typically the only time i have to send a fax is because I am sending a form that requires a signature and the company prefers to receive a fax. So regardless I have to either scan the document then upload it for faxfresh to send or I can just simply scan+fax in one step. Is this supposed to be for people that do not have a fax machine (or a printer that can print+fax)?

<comment><USER4> Yeah, this is for people without a fax machine--which is pretty much everyone I know. I have to fax so rarely that those subscription accounts don't make sense. I end up walking down to Kinkos, which charges something like a couple bucks a page. So this pricing seems just about right to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I used PamFax [1] yesterday. 12 cents per page, hooks into your existing accounts (I used Google Accounts, but there was Facebook, Skype). No subscription.

Far, far, far better proposition, and likely just as quick as it uses accounts for authentication that you already have. And for 15 pages, it'll cost you $1.80.

[1] <http://www.pamfax.biz/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Also see:

<http://www.freepopfax.com/>

<http://greenfax.com/sendonlyplan.php>

<http://www.hellofax.com/>

<http://www.onesuite.com/>

<http://www.popfax.com/>

<comment><USER7> I used Greenfax until I actually saw the faxes that were coming out the other end. They were unreadable garbage. I switched to <http://faxzero.com/> and have been very happy with the quality of their faxes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A bit pricey at $5/fax. I won't be using it.

<comment><AUTHOR> how much is your time worth?

<comment><USER9> Most people won't valuate their time at $600/hr. (Assuming it takes you 30 seconds to manually send a fax.)

<comment><USER10> Grab coat, get in car, drive to UPS store: 5 minutes. Wait in line: 0-10 minutes. Talk to cashier, send fax: 3 minutes. Pay: 1 minute. Get in car, drive home, remove coat: 5 minutes.

Total: 14-24 minutes.

My time is worth more than an average of ~$17/hour.

<comment><USER9> Since you took the time to figure that out, I'll contribute. I just called a FedEx Kinkos (in Riverside, CA, USA) and they said it's $1.40 for the first page and $0.99 for each additional page, and that's to the same area code.

<comment><USER11> For some more perspective: InterFax's smallest--and highest cost-per-page package--is $0.11/page. So to send 15 pages through InterFax will cost a developer at most $1.65: <http://www.interfax.net/en/prices>

I worked on a project very similar to this (and of course the others linked in this thread) for awhile (because I had a need for just such a service), so: 1) Kudos to you, the developer for actually shipping, which I did not do, and 2) I agree with others that you're pricing himself out of the market.

Personally I think that $0.99-1.99 is the sweet spot, and you should tweak your cost and page counts to match that. I've never had to fax more than ten pages, so if I went to this site with my 3-6 pages I'd scoff--"Five bucks for three pages? Pffff." But that's me--maybe lots of people need to send 10-15 pages. You'd want to do some market research to figure what are the most common page counts.

Off the top of my head, though, I'd charge $0.99 for the first five pages. Disregarding marginal costs, that's 50% profit per transaction (assuming you eat the cost of a cover sheet)--at least! 125% profit for three-page faxes. After that you can tack on your $0.25/page and it's all gravy.

And, of course, this would be an easy thing to A/B test.

 _Edit:_ By the way, if you were willing to buy $500 in InterFax credits up- front (instead of $10 for their smallest package) you could do 10 pages/$0.99 with at least 33% profit. If you went down for the $2k package you're up to 48% profit.

With 15 pages for $5 you're looking at a minimum 184% profit. So I can understand the draw--but I don't think the average customer will.

 _Edit 2:_ Changed numbers to factor in cover sheets, which you'll likely want to eat the cost of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't have a fax machine and think this would be very useful. However, what about the privacy/security issues? On the rare occasions that I need to fax something, that "something" is usually a credit card authorization, driver's license scan, etc. I don't feel comfortable PDFing and emailing such things "into the cloud". Not sure if I'm an outlier.

<comment><USER13> +1, my typical use scenario is faxing medical receipts to the admin of the flexible spending plan. HIPPA violation if the fax were to get leaked, even accidentally.

<comment><USER14> My employer switched health insurance providers three different times over the past three years and NONE of them had the ability to accept pdf's (fax or mail was the only way to submit flex plan expenses).

Like the other posts have mentioned, $.99 for five pages is reasonable (I would use it at that price).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've been using MaxEmail.com for my faxing for nearly a decade. $24.00/year, plus .10 per page sent (I think I'm still paying the old rate of $14.95/year, which makes it an obvious no-brainer, and I'll never cancel the account as long as I'm still needing faxes occasionally and they let me keep that old rate). Free incoming faxes up to 100/month.

I send and receive very few faxes, but I need to be able to do both occasionally, for contracts with old people, in particular, so faxfresh is simply not a realistic option for me, despite the fact that it's probably not much difference in price for the amount of faxes I send.

While I think there are often fortunes to be made in dying industries (capitalizing on the failures of old providers in that space to modernize) I don't think fax is an area with a lot of arbitrage opportunities that haven't already been tapped. And, it's _really_ a dying tech at this point. I'd be surprised if this proves particularly profitable.

</comment><comment><USER16> I only need to fax infrequently, and I have a landline here. So, I plug the Windows (XP) machine into the line and "print to fax" (after a one time minute or two to set up this feature that's built in to the OS/platform).

It receives, too.

I suppose there's probably other software including for other platforms, but I've never bothered to look into it.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is interesting. I'm also working on a faxing app. It's <http://hellofax.com>. What software are you using to send your faxes? Asterisk? Or are you plugged into an API?

Ping me if you'd like to chat.

</comment><comment><USER18> $5 to send a fax seems pretty steep. I would think that after people have gone to the trouble of creating a PDF (by either scanning or converting), they would just email it to the recipient.

<comment><AUTHOR> somethings require faxing or mailing. A lot of government docs and things like that

5$ is expensive but if it saves you the 20mins required to set up an account and then cancel the subscription for other services it's totally worth it

it's worth noting that I am not the creator btw. I just hate existing faxing options

<comment><USER18> _somethings require faxing or mailing. A lot of government docs and things like that_

Good point...faxed or mailed documents are accepted as official notification, whereas email is not. But for something that important, I'd be hesitant to trust someone's MVP. For $5, it would be cheaper to send it Priority Mail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What's a fax? Is it kind of like a pdf?

</comment><comment><USER20> FYI - VBuzzer.com lets you send faxes to free within North America (via their IM software app) - I've been using that for years with great success. You don't even have to have a credit card.

It's Windows Only though :( If gives you a Fax as a virtual print driver, pretty straight forward.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is exactly what happened I clicked this link.

1) clicked link from my RSS reader. 2) Ah great looking page, very simple to the point. 3) Wth.. $5 per page?? 4) closed the chrome tab, to comment on HN and seen that everyone else raised the same point.

</comment><comment><USER22> Cheap. Clean. Simple. Awesome.

Only way it could be improved is to add olark to it :)

<comment><AUTHOR> good call on olark

<comment><USER23> <http://www.olark.com> (for the link) -- appreciate the support :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I have been using Faxaway.com for years, which bills on a per minute basis, not a per page. I believe the rate is $0.11 / minute in the US and $1 per month service fee.

</comment><comment><USER18> Offer HN: send me $5 and email me a PDF up to 15pgs and I will personally fax it for you!

</comment><comment><USER25> $5 per fax is _not_ cheap. The defenders here are using fairly tortured logic.</comment>


Ask HN: Are there any decent crypto mailing lists left? - <AUTHOR>

I can't find any. The ones I know of aren't mailing lists anymore. Any help? Thanks. <comment><USER2> What are you looking for? The cipherpunks movement is kind of dead; it's a bit like being a compressionpunk.

</comment><comment><USER3> firstname.lastname@example.com isn't bad, although not much of the traffic is about crypto.</comment>


Startup will help landlords, employers mine intimate data from your Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/06/09/creepy-startup-will-help-landlords-employers-and-online-dates-strip-mine-intimate-data-from-your-facebook-page/ <comment><USER2> No thanks. I'd rather find another place to live or another job than grant some random app access to my profile.</comment>


How to prevent the App Store from becoming the Crap Store - <AUTHOR> http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/how-to-prevent-the-app-store-from-becoming-the-crap-store/

<comment><USER2> This thought occurred to me as well. I think it's of merit but Apple actually has a really hard problem on their hands, namely that the app store UI is terribly simple and at the moment doesn't appear to have a good way to prioritize suggestions.

Given the metadata that they must have, it would be trivial to switch to gross revenue, or rev * review score, or any number of other things, including time. (Reddit/HN method of scoring articles)

For that matter there's no reason why they can't compare app store purchases you've scored to the scores of other people who've purchased the same application to suggest things. (Amazon "people who purchased..." or Netflix way of doing things)

Hey Apple, give me the ability to affiliate your store. You can have 95% control of the UI (I want a banner at the top) but I get to pick the sequence things are offered for a given search. Give me 5%, I will make you rich. (Netflix challenge way of doing things)

<comment><USER3> At the moment they have a "Customers also bought" section, bottom right in itunes.

And you can become an affiliate for the itunes store: <http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All this would do is force the prices the other way. People would be trying to sell crap for more using WOM or some other way to inflate 'box office revenue' and once they are on the list, instead of lowering the price to stay on it, they'd be increasing it. While that will get rid of crapware for .99, it will drive the prices of the same soft up, ultimately hurting the consumer. Best solution to this is app genius that recommends apps based on what you want to do.

Until that happens, use word of mouth to your advantage. Use Google Mobile App as an example of online campaign. Once techies get your app on their phone, they will be the platform for homing in their less tech friends to your apps.

<comment><USER5> In a way, one issue with the App Store, is that it exists. Since people know it's there, they'll check it out to see what's available. As opposed to probably not looking for apps at all. (or less)

And finding a good way to rank the apps is not easy. By number of downloads doesn't work well, by revenue wouldn't work I think, by rating might work a little bit but then what? So, the App Store is in fact not a great place to find good apps, just the most popular.

So, people go to the App Store but otherwise don't know where to go to find apps or information about apps. But the presence of the store makes the word- of-mouth a little bit more difficult because the store is supposed to be the place, so I suppose in general, people don't look anywhere else. (I know I don't) And people don't feel like sharing their discoveries as much.

Of course, I don't deny the huge benefit of the App Store. I would have never installed that many applications otherwise. But it's "louder" and covers some of the more traditional marketing and word-of-mouth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The author doesn't paint the complete picture.

The iPhone application they wrote, "Classics" was released after "Stanza" (<http://www.lexcycle.com/>). Stanza is free, I believe they plan on charging for their desktop software in the future. The main difference between stanza and classics is that classics has fancier animations.

</comment><comment><USER7> The author misses that the different parties have different goals. TapTapTap wants to maximize app revenue. To do that, you do want to sort by revenue. (Actually, probably something like revenue per last n impressions, so that apps that have a traffic spike won't stay up there when the spike is over.)

But Apple makes most their money off the sale of iPhones. So they want people to be happy when they use the app store, even if it doesn't make them as much money directly. When someone downloads and enjoys a free app, that's meaningless to TapTapTap, but it's great for Apple. You can't exactly measure user enjoyment, but it's not unreasonable to suppose that "number of downloads" is a better proxy for user happiness than "net revenue".

</comment><comment><USER8> Mobile apps do not have to be driven by impulse. I was dating a med student when ePocrates was all the rage for doctors and med students on Palm devices. She had hers on a Sony Clie. ePocrates was great because you had searchable pharmaceutical information that was also updated every time you synced. The fact that it replaced a few big honking volumes was great. There was no App Store back then. My impression was that advertising was largely word of mouth.

I intend to develop applications for specific niches, so I won't be depending on being in the "What's Hot" lists. Instead, I will be providing something that spreads by word of mouth because it has real value. (I'll also be hitting up blogs and other media.)

</comment><comment><USER9> Is that blog using Fertigo Pro for a font? That's incredible.

I don't know much about economics and the App Store, but I'd be inclined to trust this article. TapTapTap makes some excellent apps. Classics is a favorite.

</comment><comment><USER10> There is no busness like the show business.

If you have a hit you make it big, otherwise you get next to nothing.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think Apple wants apps to be $0.99 or free. Otherwise they would have been ranking by revenue from the beginning.

<comment><USER12> Apple wants apps to do everything that can be offloaded to a handheld. This thing is in it's infancy. Apple gets to create this part of the 21st century because no one else is up for it. You think the iPhone is a mature product? Not even close.

<comment><USER13> Apple did not create this part of the 21st century. There have been applications for mobile phones for years now (and before the phones, there was the palm pilot). I am sure there are way more applications available for other mobile platforms than for the iPhone. #nitpicking

<comment><USER12> The critical point is cognitive friction. The UI of the iPhone means that it integrates with your brain much easier then a cell phone. There is a critical point between UI, mind extension, and cognitive friction. The 21st century potentials come from the way the exponentially better UI reduce cognitive friction and let your mind interact with your phone more naturally.

It's like a primitive MMI. A cell phone isn't. That's the difference. This isn't the last cell phone. It's the first MMI that follows you everywhere.

I think your view that apps are what is important is superficial, and what's important is cognitive function. Getting human brains to work better with a phone is what makes apple responsible for this part of the 21st century, not the abilities of the phone per se.

<comment><USER13> I thought the discussion was about the app store. Usability of the iPhone - maybe. Maybe a bigger factor is mobile internet becoming cheaper. I haven't been a user of mobile internet so far, but perhaps those Blackberry guys have been using mobile internet long before the iPhone?

What exactly can be done with the iPhone now that wasn't possible before (possibly with a slightly less pleasing UI)? Maybe it only adds one ingredient: mass audience, which of course accounts for a lot.

<comment><USER12> The app store is a seed. I'm talking about the tree it's going to grow into. That's topical.

I can interact with it and have 100% of my brain available for the kinds of thinking my brain is good at. Because interacting with it does not require much of my brain (that good UI), it solves a bottleneck. If I use my iPhone to manage information, it multiplies the efficiency of my thinking. A cell phone doesn't do that.

There is a tipping point from UI and getting your mind into your phone where you can get more of your mind free to think while you use your device. UI represents the bottleneck between your brain and your device, so breaking that bottleneck is as important a technological revolution as breaking a bottleneck between different parts of your computer.

maybe you didn't do enough acid in college and don't consider every possible description should include an observer, but how your brain interacts with your machine (and environment) is as important a technological factor as anything technological. Apple, and the other people that realize that get to invent the 21st century. There is a reason neuron valley will be the next silicon valley over the next 20 years.

<comment><USER13> Maybe I didn't do enough acid to believe that Apple is the shit. Palm Pilots already were used to organize information, and they were much more open than the iPhone.

It would like to like Apple, but somehow it is all too restricted. Take the deeply flawed app store: since it is not open and not even HTML compatible, it is impossible for other people to step up and improve on it. I hope that is not the 21st century we are heading for.

Maybe the first time with the iPhone feels like a shot of a new, exciting drug. But ultimately using it synchronizes you to Apples way of thinking, and turns you into a drone.

<comment><USER12> You are thinking days and weeks ahead instead of months and decades. I agree the app store as it stands is crap. I think the ship has sailed on the app store being crap. That's a short term, soluble problem. Long term, UI + neurology will determine the 21st century we are headed for.

All the other corporations suck at integrating UI and the brain.

Watching people talk about the technology game as if what's happening right now (i.e. last years decisions) matters on a larger scale is like watching kindergardeners play soccer by mobbing the ball. While you're talking about HTMML in the app store, they're thinking about 2010, 2020.

If the printing press was just invented, you'd be saying monks had been copying books by hand forever, and were more open then the printing press.

<comment><USER13> Just not betting on Apple, that's all. I think/hope the "corporations" only have a couple of years left before open source takes over completely. At the moment they still have some hold on the hardware, but open source hardware will fix that. Apple hurts my brain because I can not amend it to my needs.

<comment><USER12> but open source cannot compete with apple. That is like saying an army with no generals, navy, air force or money will beat an army with a great general with stealth bombers, battleships, and a building filled with hundred dollar bills and gold bars. Just not gonna happen.

<comment><USER13> In my opinion Linux has already beat Microsoft and Apple on the desktop, why should it not be possible with hardware?

Open Source can have generals, too, and if money was the only issue, why didn't Microsoft beat Apple?

<comment><USER12> "Why didn't Microsoft beat Apple?"

Because the CEO of microsoft believes emulating the alpha male of a gorilla exhibit in the zoo is the best way to lead people?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Ship. Meet Sailed. Sailed, Ship.</comment>


WSJ on Y Combinator's Demo Day - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/08/19/low-points-and-screw-ups-y-combinator-graduates-laud-mentors-real-stories/

<comment><USER3> _One thing I noticed throughout the week is you have highs and lows but you come to these dinners and get a big motivation boost._

I hear that.

      Sunday:  Alas. I don't know how I'm going to do that.
      Monday:  Wow! That complex algorithm works perfectly!
      Tuesday:  Oh no!  In certain cases, it runs way too slow!
      Wednesday:  I'll just rewrite 2 sections.  That'll fix it.
      Thursday: No!  It's slower than before!
      Friday:  Here's the original culprit, one line of code!
      Saturday:  Got it done, but wasted 4 days.  Woo hoo!  Sigh.

Good thing I have hn to temper those highs and lows.

</comment><comment><USER4> The growth behind DailyBooth is very impressive (and it's a great concept - <USER2> lot of my Twitter posts have a photos). I'm sad I couldn't make it to Demo Day this year.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like Bump, but I have a feeling FlightCaster is going to be BIG.</comment>


17 of the Oldest Man-Made Structures on Earth Still in Use - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/17-of-the-oldest-man-made-structures-on-earth-still-in-508293601 <comment><USER2> That's really the best picture of the Church of the Nativity they could find?</comment>


The Heretic - the U.S. government banned medical studies of the effects of LSD. - <AUTHOR> http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-heretic

<comment><USER2> Just throwing in some personal anecdote here. (Disclaimer: I've only had four or five experiences with the subject.)

I've always wanted to test if dropping acid affects my problem-solving abilities in any way but I still haven't done so. As soon as the effect begins, I stop being fascinated by computers at all. Living things and music are so much more interesting to watch and interact with.

Perhaps this doesn't hold true for abstract or deep problems. I remember feeling aversion to Django, jQuery and the ugly (as in 'practical') mix of technologies that the modern web stack is.

I think this has to do with a more sensitive perception of beauty and 'purity'. Perhaps thinking of solving more abstract problems using higher- order techniques in LISP, Clojure or Haskell would've been a more pleasurable and rewarding experience. I'm normally turned on by sexy UI and not so much by algorithms, but at least I learned firsthand you don't want to work on your webapp under acid, it's just not fun.

I also had a somewhat negative experience with using GUI. It was very painful to use YouTube because it is packed with things you don't want to see. Normally, your eye ignores anything but what you focus on, but LSD seems to remove this filter so you actually have to experience _everything_ : ads, unpleasant people in related videos. Google Suggest is especially maddening because it gives you ten things you don't want, and you can't just ignore it.

I also recall it being very difficult to make money transactions (i.e. buy some tea at the shop). Money and numbers seem very arbitrary and it's hard to focus on them.

<comment><USER2> I wanted to add that I don't think LSD makes you a "broader guy". For me, it did not change how I think in normal life. But it is nevertheless very interesting to realize that the "normal" way of perceiving reality is just one of the possible "implementations". That your organs and your brains can interpret the same sensory input in a wildly different way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Eh.

It deserves more study -- the idea of using much more reasonable doses as a form of anti-depressant is interesting.

However, it's probably not magic, just in the same way MJ oil is probably not a cure for cancer. They, of course, don't list the many other discoveries made by scientists _not_ on LSD. The "studies" really aren't terribly disciplined... I grant you because of its illegal status, but...

Given my personal experience with LSD devotees, I'm extremely skeptical of the benefits. The general trend is more towards extreme narcissism than enlightenment, and I would advise people to stay away from the stuff.

<comment><USER4> How do you recognize whether someone is Enlightened or not ?

<comment><USER5> What does this question even mean?

<comment><USER4> What do you mean what does it mean?

My question is connected to his statement that he knows the following and is intended to verify if he really knows or is also making the mistake he is pointing out.

"The general trend is more towards extreme narcissism than enlightenment"

<comment><USER3> This was my opinion only, based on my experiences and experiences of people I know. You can tell this by the way I use "enlightenment" in a very loose way when it is obviously impossible (as far as I know) to measure (I don't believe the state even exists, other than as a form of self deception or mental illness, to put a not so fine point on it).

Also by the fact that I am a random blowhard on the internet. :-)

You may disagree about my recommendation to stay away. Fine. However, do not pull this rhetorical trick on me. That is, require me to have a set of numbers to even state my opinion on a matter that, frankly, has no numbers, and could be argued either way by those so invested. Say what you mean... would you rather I use "seems to me to be" rather than "is"?

You see, as you may have noticed, there isn't a whole lot of information on the benefits of LSD. Just a lot of anecdotes and poorly designed research experiments. There are very well documented cases of the dangers. Whether that's due to bad genetics, bad dosing or impure samples, I don't know, but again, I think it's rather a dumb thing to risk your brain for.

<comment><USER4> I have no interest in arguing for psychedelics here - my interest in asking the question is exactly as stated - about truth and Enlightenment. So many people claim Enlightenment in the world today but in history only a very small handful actually have the evidence of the ability (and knowledge), theretofore unknown but necessary information, wisdom (vision), and life that come along with it. Since Enlightenment is an extremely essential thing for mankind I'm always careful to confirm what is true and false in people's words when they speak about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting. I just finished reading a book mentioned in the article, "What The Dormouse Said", which traces the interaction of the 60s counterculture and the formation of Silicon Valley computer culture.

Based on the book, LSD was used by a lot more of the early computer pioneers than you might imagine. Everyone knows Steve Jobs talked glowingly about his LSD experience, but there were many others as well.

The book is worth a read, it's an unusual perspective on both hippie culture and computer culture.

</comment><comment><USER7> >"Schedule 1" drugs, which included LSD and psilocybin, have a "significant potential for abuse," they said, and "no recognized medicinal value."

As opposed to schedule 2 drugs like meth, coke and heroin. Jesus the hypocrisy is suffocating me. Good article!

<comment><USER8> I love the circular justification here.

They are schedule 1 because they have no recognized medicinal value, and no, you can't research any medicinal value because they are schedule 1!

Like most drug-related laws in western countries (that I know of), it comes down to a moral stance. We have decided these things are bad, regardless of any of your irritating 'facts' or 'evidence'. If you question us or stand against us you are soft on crime and are not thinking of the children.

<comment><USER9> There is no circular reasoning as your entire premise is flawed. Schedule 1 substances are defined as having no currently accepted medical use, but this does not preclude the ability to test for medical use going forward.

<comment><USER8> Except in practice it usually does mean exactly that, as explained in the article.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> That didn't stop them from funding extensive research into non-medical uses for LSD.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra>

<comment><USER11> The dates in the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, and the dates of when California and then the US banned the use of LSD in the article align to the fact that MKUltra was cut down in 1967.

It did stop "them".

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Thanks for the reference. Would not have expected to see an article like this make the front page of HN.

I know its changed the way i perceive the world. Could possibly be the reason I find it easier to see problems from different angles and in a different light.

<comment><USER13> Why would you attribute this to LSD in particular? Were you bad at solving problems beforehand?

<comment><USER12> I wasn't necessarily bad at solving problems before. I think it just opened my mind to more avenues of attacking problems.

After hallucinating to a point where your thoughts influence your vision, you have a different relationship with perception. It's not something easily explained to people that have not gone through a similar same experience.

When on any sort of hallucinogen I never though I could solve math problems or computer problems. Quite the opposite really, I was almost useless at the computer and getting simple things like running winamp's screensaver seemed like a chore. The mind is easily distracted and literally thinks at speeds that is above average. I remember playing Dead or Alive and being able to literally see the game moving in slow motion and completely kicking the computers ass. Under normal circumstances I was never as good.

The whole idea being, experiencing a different reality opens the mind to a whole different set of possibilities. Things like what is a memory? Is there really a difference in experiencing something in a dream vs real life? You are what you sense which is all in your head. This is often why it is seen as a spiritual journey.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> While people clearly love LSD and the effects it has on them, I am highly dubious of some of the claims in this article. For example, "Francis Crick confessed that he was tripping the first time he envisioned the double helix" and similar claims are peppered by pro-LSD folks all the time, yet evidence is scant. In this case, the double helix was discovered around 1951, yet LSD was very new at the time, and distribution wasn't common until the late 50's. There is no question that Crick tried LSD, yet I think so often there is a confounding between trying a drug and the drug having a mitigating effect on a part of an important person's life.

<comment><USER15> Why speculate when you can just look it up in Google with 'francis crick lsd'? The first hit gives us a biographer's quote [http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6835/was- francis...](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6835/was-francis- crick-high-on-lsd-when-he-discovered-dna-structrure)

> I am frequently asked for my opinion on the speculation that Francis Crick > was on LSD when he discovered the double helix; or that he was involved with > a man named Dick Kemp in the manufacture of LSD. These assertions were > reported second hand in an article in the Mail on Sunday by Alun Rees > following Crick's death and they have since gained a certain amount of > traction on the internet. Both stories are wrong. The true story, which I > was told directly by Crick's widow and by the man who (as his widow > confirms) first supplied the Cricks with LSD, is much less sensational. > Crick was given (not sold) LSD on several occasions from 1967 onwards by > Henry Todd, who met the Cricks through his girlfriend. Todd did know Kemp, > with whom he was eventually prosecuted, but the Cricks did not. As for the > implausible idea that the then impoverished and conventional Crick would > have had access to LSD when it was newly invented in the early 1950s, there > is simply no evidence for it at all. Those who wish to argue that LSD helped > Crick make discoveries should note that all his major breakthroughs in > molecular biology were made before 1967.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/science/11book.html?_r=1> confirms that the biography did cover his LSD & marijuana use.

Another link leads to this quote

> "He listened with rapt, amused attention to what I told him about the role > of LSD in his Nobel Prize-winning discovery. He gave no intimation of > surprise. When I had finished, he said: 'Print a word of it and I'll sue.'"

which a google leads to <http://www.hallucinogens.com/lsd/francis-crick.html> and we get some context:

> The arrest and conviction of Solomon, Kemp and a string of co-conspirators > dominated the headlines for months. I was covering the case as a reporter at > the time and it was then that I met Kemp's close friend, Garrod Harker, > whose home had been raided by police but who had not been arrest ed. Harker > told me that Kemp and his girlfriend Christine Bott by then in jail were > hippie idealists who were completely uninterested in the money they were > making....'Dick Kemp told me he met Francis Crick at Cambridge. Crick had > told him that some Cambridge academics used LSD in tiny amounts as a > thinking tool, to liberate them from preconceptions and let their genius > wander freely to new ideas. Crick told him he had perceived the double-helix > shape while on LSD. 'It was clear that Dick Kemp was highly impressed and > probably bowled over by what Crick had told him. He told me that if a man > like Crick, who had gone to the heart of human existence, had used LSD, then > it was worth using. Crick was certainly Dick Kemp's inspiration.' Shortly > afterwards I visited Crick at his home, Golden Helix, in Cambridge. He > listened with rapt, amused attention to what I told him about the role of > LSD in his Nobel Prize-winning discovery. He gave no intimation of surprise. > When I had finished, he said: 'Print a word of it and I'll sue.'

That article is also useful for documenting his post-DNA involvement in psychedelic societies like Soma.

Since LSD was synthesized well before March 1953, was being used in psychiatric applications and research starting 1949, the window was open.

So, Crick has means , opportunity, motive, and was unquestionably using it after 1953; unfortunately, the direct evidence is two questionable persons' testimony.

So the best answer to whether LSD helped discover the double helix is: "maybe".

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> If LSD appears to offer such a huge benefit to scientists, why aren't there intellectual haven countries that allow it (this would give them a huge STEM advantage over others, wouldn't it?)?

And why aren't intellectuals flocking there?

<comment><USER8> 1) Drug enhanced STEM advancement doesn't seem to have caught on that much with far less controversial substances. It's a little taboo.

2) I'm not convinced that psychedelics do offer all these amazing benefits, I think a lot of it is wishful thinking. (Though this is where further research would be helpful).

3) There are all sorts of political reasons why a switch-around on policy isn't going to happen overnight. Large sections the public are still sold on drugs as the scourge of society, and politicians are still making bank on talking that up. There are also a variety of international treaties that make changing these laws more tricky (IIRC).

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is one of the most thought-provoking articles I've read (to the end) in a long time. I've recently been researching Ayahuasca, similarly outlawed despite thousands of years of safe use in indigenous cultures and extremely promising clinical results for treating addiction, depression and antisocial behaviour...

LSD seemed to me a more edgy phenomenon - it's purely chemical - whereas one of the key psychoactive compounds in Ayahuasca, DMT, occurs naturally (nobody knows why) in mammalian bodies.

This struck me as incredibly important: _"Francis Crick confessed that he was tripping the first time he envisioned the double helix."_

Based on my own (so far very limited) experience, I only implore people to go and try these things for themselves, in a safe environment, with all the information prepared for skepticism and intellectual/scientific reasoning and debate... let our culture be based on experience, not received wisdom.

Some of us may some day be the lawmakers and influencers, or may already be so - if we get these experiences now (preferably in countries where risk of persecution is lower) perhaps we can bring such experiences and learnings into the everyday world. If not by decriminalising, then at least by increasing awareness and supporting proper scientific study.

</comment><comment><USER18> And people says they want good for us. :( LSD is best gift from god I've ever got.

<comment><USER19> Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there are important and underestimated negatives for recreational doses as well, see [http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/health/hppd/hppd_faq.sht...](http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/health/hppd/hppd_faq.shtml) or <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6980680>.

I'd love to see more research occur, though.

<comment><USER18> HPPD is not so bad. I had one and know people have one and nothing happens. It's rather not harmful. For me, even flashbacks are not something worth to be afraid of. Anyway there's much more to gain than to lose. Not for everybody, needs much responsibility, but definetely worth to take advantage from.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Another good read on this, if interested, is Jay Stevens' "Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream". Great piece of journalism and a look into all the old studies and politics surrounding LSD.

</comment><comment><USER21> The direct result of this morning's LSD trip: <http://soundcloud.com/nerdfiles/walked-my-dog>

This "voice" is the product of my using guitar for "creativity experiment" to deal with recent losses.

I honestly do not care if it is a shameless plug. This acid test is still going on, and the structures of intentional space which it allows for one to analyze _as presentation_ is breathtaking, illuminating. With the six items, surely, I believe major therapeutic gains can be had, along with contentful output.</comment>


How Effective Leaders Move Beyond Blame - <AUTHOR> http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-effective-leaders-move-beyond-blame/ <comment><USER2> Sometimes it is an individual. The scythe is if it were someone else in the role, would but for the grace of divine insight this other person be likely to make a misstep or have difficulty as well?

An effective organization is, well, organized and therefore is not particularly vulnerable to the personalities and deficiencies of individuals.

Let's put it yet another way. Does your organization rely often on heroic effort to achieve goals? Then it is vulnerable to villainy as well.

<comment><USER3> When we become systematic it ceases to be about people. Blame is symptomatic of an a-systemic approach.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Trace the problem back at least four steps. Where we choose to stop looking for a blame is subjective.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys)

</comment><comment><USER5> Fix the problem, not the blame.</comment>


Spam levels still low a year after Rustock botnet takedown - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/spam-levels-still-low-a-year-after-rustock-botnet-takedown.ars <comment><USER2> "In the first quarter of 2012, an average of 94 billion spam emails were sent per day... There is no sign of a return to pre-Rustock spam levels."

 _Just_ 94 billion per _day_. That's what I call optimism.

<comment> T-Winsnes It's less than 2/3 of what it used to be. I'd say that's a big improvement :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> ...because mining bitcoins is more profitable

</comment><comment><USER4> I definitely noticed. I used to get 70 spam emails a day and after the takedown that number went down to 4 to 7. So I'm very thankful for that.

Further proving that the war on spam is not in vain. I had always assumed it was futile because there's so many spammers, but over time I learned there's actually only a small number of spammers who are responsible for the majority of spam.</comment>


Tacocopter Basics - <AUTHOR> http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2012/09/tacocopter-basics/ <comment><USER2> Long rant incoming...

I'm currently building a quadcopter from parts and I'm writing my own control software.

I wasn't really familiar with RC components before starting this project, but I must say I'm impressed with the performance and reliability you get from very low cost motors, ESCs, propellers, gyroscopes and accelerometers.

However, I think Li-Po batteries are a huge safety issue. There are multiple factors:

* The battery chemistry is very unforgiving. You overcharge, it gets damaged, you over-discharge, it gets damaged. Same for charge and discharge current. The failure mode? Flammable gasses are released and eventually the whole thing sets itself on fire. And that's a fire you can't extinguish using typical means like water or regular fire extinguishers.

* All RC Li-Po batteries use a soft shell. If your model crashes the batteries can and will get crushed, which leads to an internal short-circuit, which eventually starts a fire.

* No RC Li-Po batteries incorporate Smart Battery controllers (like in laptop batteries) which could prevent overcharge/over-discharge and over-current conditions.

There have been plenty of incidents involving Li-Po fires, including whole houses burning down.

And still, the batteries don't change. Li-Po makes perfect sense for RC applications because it has great energy density and allows high discharge current. But to me it looks like some simple safety features could make this technology safe enough that you wouldn't have to treat your batteries like small bombs.

As a side-note, I've initially tried to use laptop Li-Ion batteries for my quadcopter. Each motor + propeller unit requires almost 12A @ 11V when at maximum speed - quite typical power requirements for a medium-sized quadcopter. I couldn't get more than 16A out of an older 6 cell battery (voltage was abruptly dropping if trying to draw more, so I guess this was the limit of the cells). I've then tried a new 9 cell battery (which was too heavy anyway). The controller on this battery considers 20A discharge an over- current condition and shuts off the output. So I'm stuck with Li-Po batteries and hoping that they won't set anything on fire.

I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable with current-technology Li-Po powered vehicles flying around a city without being watched.

<comment><USER3> >No RC Li-Po batteries incorporate Smart Battery controllers

What technical impediment is preventing someone from building said controller?

<comment><USER2> No technical reason really, it's about cost, demand and volume.

Cost is going to be a problem because of the high current involved in normal operation and even more so in case of a short-circuit.

Let's take a popular battery size, let's say 2200mAh 3S 25C. This battery should be able to safely support a discharge current up to 55A. For reference, a 10KW power shower draws less current than this from the mains network. Our smart battery controller needs to be able to measure the discharge current, and needs to be able to switch the output on or off.

You can just buy a hall effect based current sensor and a power transistor that will handle 55A. But these components need to survive in case of a short- circuit for long enough for a micro-controller to read the current at its regular polling rate and then turn off the transistor. Expect the short- circuit current to be a number of times higher than 55A.

So you end up with a parts list that costs you about $10 per unit for small quantities (500). Have I mentioned the price of the battery I was building this for? It's $13.

I've thought about building some for myself, but 1) they really should be mounted inside a hard case together with the battery and 2) I don't have a space where it would be safe to prototype this, assuming that a failure will happen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Okay HN developers -- when you get done reading the linked article and are finished laughing at the thought of a little helicopter delivering a taco or a bottle of beer, start thinking:

* Little helicopters can now lift a substantial weight.

* They aren't very expensive.

* They're easily controlled, more so than a full-sized helicopter (primarily because of computer-aided controls and GPS guidance). So you don't have to be Chuck Yeager to fly one.

* All you need to do is mate the helicopter with a decent camera that can simultaneously beam a picture to the ground for guidance and preview, and take high-resolution pictures on command by way of the radio link.

* Uses: real estate (who desperately need a way to take high-quality pictures of houses from above), surveillance, art, video productions, etc..

This is an opportunity waiting for someone willing to take it on.

<comment><USER5> My big fear: when the payload is hand grenades [1], i.e. a "multicopter bomber".

You can launch the multicopters from places where you're not seen. You can even do this in nighttime and have them land and wait undetected on some rooftop until you want them to continue their mission.

A handfull of such multicopters will make more terror than 9/11 ever could do because 9/11 was (almost) concentrated to a single place. 9/11 had passenger lists so it was easy to find out who took control of the planes. Multicopter bombers have no passenger lists, no sender address. You don't know how many more planes are in the air and when they will strike.

Redundancy and multi-target missions are even cheaper and more efficient with multicopters than in the 9/11 attacks. Multicopters are so cheap that the terrorists can launch a bunch of them and not care if half of them fail to get to their target. Multicopters bombers works for targeting e.g. Disney Parks and other places with a lot of easily frightened people out in the open.

With 9/11 it was easy to get away from the attacks (i.e. just leave that part of Manhatten). Multicopter bombers are like a swarm of supersized wasps. You don't know where to go, you don't know when they'll be back.

1: Homemade "grenades": <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Copeland>

<comment><USER6> When you say "my big fear", I can't help but read "m irrational fear".

Do you _really_ fear "multicopter bombers" with a fleet "like a swarm of supersized wasps"?

To me, that's in the same class as people wo are afraid of flying, yet happily drive their car to the airport.

Realistically, terrorists don't skill up with brand new technologies to try carrying hand grenades around, they use cars/trucks/airplanes. If _I_ had a budget set to get explosives in amongst people, I'd be buying or renting cars/pickups/small trucks which can carry thousands of pounds of explosives around a city relatively inconspicuously. I wouldn't be training up teams of rc-pilots/hobby-UVA-geeks to be able to deliver a pound or three of explosive at a time.

<comment><USER5> What's the easiest and cheapest:

a) _buying a few hand grenades and premade multicopters?_ Hobbyists in Germany have already multicopters which are GPS pre-programmed so you don't need any pilots to control them during the mission.

b) _creating thousands of pounds of explosives?_ Try read the detailed diary from the 2011 Norwegian terrorist to see how much time and trouble it took produce his bomb: way more time and effort than most would think.

The next 10 years will make multicopters much more accessible to non-geeks, but "thousands of pounds of explosives" won't be any easier than today. New tech gets old very quickly.

<comment><USER7> Why do you need multicopters? Terrorists already can (and some have) plant small timed bombs in crowded areas. I don't really see much difference other than that they can target more secure areas. This would be useful if they wanted to attack military targets, but since their usual goal is civilian casualties, they can by definition already get to places civilians congregate.

<comment><USER8> When planting a bomb you have to visit the scene of the crime and risk being seen.

With multicopters there's virtually no risk of getting caught.

<comment><USER9> A multicopter is going to be a lot more conspicuous than a person with a briefcase. I don't buy it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Fun stuff. How about a RC plane dropping off quadcopters loaded with the payload for the last mile? (the copters can meet the plane on the way back or fly home alone. You get the range + efficiency of the plane with the agility of the copter.

<comment><USER11> This can probably be solved easily, but my first thought is under-tested quadcopters being dropped from planes like spinning taco bombs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'd really like to see a "you can fly anything commercially that weighs less than 5 pounds and has a terminal velocity below 30mph in freefall" rule. Bigger loads and speeds would be subject to some regulation and licensing.

This would cause a Cambrian explosion in development. It would be wild.

<comment><USER13> Imagine one of these payloads landing on someone's head. Wolfram Alpha offers up "2.4x impulse force acting on a baseball being hit by a bat" as a comparison when you plug in "5 lbs * 30 mph".

I like the idea, but there probably needs to be more development in safety systems before anyone could reasonably consider allowing that.

<comment><USER14> > Imagine one of these payloads landing on someone's head. Wolfram Alpha > offers up "2.4x impulse force acting on a baseball being hit by a bat" as a > comparison when you plug in "5 lbs * 30 mph".

I'm not sure what value this comparison has. Impulse force doesn't tell you much of anything about how much damage would be done to a persons head.

<comment><USER15> You are working with the wrong concept, m * v is momentum, not impulse. Impulse would be equivalent to the change in momentum over time [1]. Actually 5 lbs falling at 30 mph would probably crush a human skull or at least crack it open. It is easy to see why from the equations:

F * delta t = m * delta V, therefore F = m * delta V / delta t

This means that the force generated in the impact is inversely proportional to the time of the impact. Since the skull is pretty hard, we can say that the impact time will be very short, probably in the order of 1e-2 seconds. Such a sudden change in velocity, from 30mph to 0mph in 1e-2 seconds, generates a big force, and therefore a big impulse.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_%28physics%29>

<comment><USER14> Indeed, however to say anything about damage you need to know the area where the force is applied and more about the materials. If the bottom of the copter is padded the duration of the impact coud be much longer and spread over a larger area.

Also, F = m * delta V / delta t is only valid if force is constant in this context. I would expect acceleration to vary during the course of the impact so this relation would likely not hold [EDIT] in terms of determining damage I mean.

<comment><USER15> Yes, in this case the equation refers to the average force over an interval of time: if at time instant A we had a speed v1 and at a later instant B we have some speed v2 then a force with a magnitude of _at least_ m * (v2 - v1) / (tB - tA) must have acted, therefore the analysis should hold.

As you point out the area is very important in the analysis, since Pressure = F / A. For large areas the force "spreads out" and the damage is less.

The fatality of the accident can vary due to many circumstances however I think we can safely assume that for the purposes of our initial analysis, 5 lbs traveling at 30mph and crashing into my head is not something I am looking forward to ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'd prefer something like this:

[http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/01/urban-mole-robot-could- de...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/01/urban-mole-robot-could-deliver-your- mail-via-insane-network-of-u/)

\- no noise \- no accidents involving people \- less energy needed \- much simpler / robust construction

</comment><comment><USER17> Is this for real or is it the most cleverly disguised viral advertising campaign for Doritos? I don't see any mention of any other taco brand plus the use of a Doritos branded image...

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. I just find Doritos Locos inherently amazing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I hope you are right. If so my domains will become more valuable...

\- pizzacopter.com \- burgercopter.com \- foodcopter.com

</comment><comment><USER19> I really like the idea of multirotors taking off, literally, to be part of a delivery team.

Incidentally, I'd really like to be able to use those rotors to recycle things - literally to shred, perhaps, my plastic trash - such that the remaining processed materials can be used in .. say .. a 3d printer.

Also, lets get the 3d printer and quadrocopters pretty much working smoothly together so that one provides resources to the other. Oh, no wait, lets just make the 3d printer print quadrocopters, and the quadro's feed the 3dprinters .. and .. well now lets just make a flying recycling 3d printer robot, and be done with it.

On Mars. Because if we do it here, the damn thing _will_ take over our planet.

</comment><comment><USER20> That could be useful for delivering mail in skyscrapers. But The biggest challenge to solve would be finding the way to prevent interceptions/stealing.

<comment><USER21> If the cost of copter + payload is low enough, there is little incentive to steal. It should be similar to shopping cart theft or most probably less. The system can be built to go up, travel horizontally above the reach of most people, and then drop down at destination.

You could buy a perch like they show here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7X0_6o9J10&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7X0_6o9J10&feature=player_detailpage#t=68s) \- the perch has a GUID, knows its GPS location, and carries insurance. When you order from any vendor, you just give them your perch ID along with your credit card. If the order is lost before it reaches your perch, it's the vendor's problem. Once the copter touches down on your perch (and informs the vendor of the safe delivery), you press 'Go Home' to launch it back. If it doesn't reach the vendor, your perch insurance takes over. Too many lost copters in your neighborhood and vendors will be able to deny service based on risk.

I think if the copters are no louder than a car pulling up the driveway, this can work very well.

<comment><USER20> I actually thought about stealing the delivered goods not the copter itself :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Things that fly are really, really dangerous, and the benefits really need to be worth the risks. I don't think a Taco is worth the risk that one of these things goes out of control over the freeway and causes a 100-car pileup. The idea of cheap and plentiful multi copters would make this sort of event inevitable.

Of course there may be a much simpler problem: hungry seagulls.

<comment><USER23> If it goes out of control over the freeway, it won't cause a 100-car pileup.

The first car to hit it will probably notice the crunching noise. A quadcopter with a 2lb payload weighs about 5lbs total.

The owner is going to be in more danger when he comes to pick up the pieces than any of the cars.

<comment><USER22> The article suggests a "modest" speed of 40mph for the quadrocopter, which seems pretty fast to me. Let's call it 30mph. Our car on the freeway is doing say 60mph. Presuming they're travelling in opposite directions, that's 5lbs travelling at 100mph.

So what you're saying is that if I fire a MacBook Pro at car at 100mph then nothing will happen. Unlikely...

And one of these smacking a pedestrian in the head at 40mph isn't going to be much better.

<comment><USER24> Depending on the design of the frame. Some are made of plastic and break apart really easy on impact. None of them, even the the aluminum frames, are even close to as dense as a MacBook.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> When the drones come to US cities, and it seems they will within a decade, I'll be moving to a smaller town, however small or remote it takes to escape the noise. I'll accept that I'm an old fogey who can't handle "progress".

</comment><comment><USER26> One nitpick - Bernoulli's principle is NOT why airplanes fly... it's angle of attack. Spirited debate at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_(force)>

</comment><comment><USER27> Called it: [http://nerdr.com/3-ridiculously-slow-systems-for-startup- dis...](http://nerdr.com/3-ridiculously-slow-systems-for-startup-disruption- idea-dump-monday/) (Amazon delivery copters)

</comment><comment><USER28> How about ornithopters? Naively I'd guess they'd come in between planes and quadcopters in both efficiency and agility. Since seagulls can land without a runway, a tacothopter ought to be able to, too.

</comment><comment><USER29> Why not use zeppelins? Could they be energy efficient? Just not sure how to deal with wind. But it has been done, so I guess it is possible.

<comment><USER30> I don't think they're very fast. On HN we've kicked around the idea of attaching a balloon to a quadcopter or similar to extend its range.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Fun read. Though we should first perfect the dark art of pizza deliveries before attempting to fly a taco over our heads.

</comment><comment><USER32> How about one that works like the osprey?

<comment><USER33> The Osprey is _incredibly_ complicated to design and operate. The only reason the Marine Corps even bothers with it anymore is because it makes the impossible possible in terms of long range vertical insertion. The cost- benefit just isn't there for tacos.</comment></comment>