Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes - <AUTHOR> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/nexus-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes.html <comment><USER3> And someone finally implements the killer-feature for the "Family Tablet": Multi-Account Support:

> But what makes Nexus 10 unique is that it's the first truly shareable > tablet. With Android 4.2, you can add multiple users and switch between them > instantly right from the lockscreen. We believe that everyone should have > quick and easy access to their own stuff -- email, apps, bookmarks, and > more. That way, everyone can have their own home screens, their own music, > and even their own high scores.

<comment><USER4> Will phones get this? Or other-size tablets?

Does anyone know when the 4.2 update will go out?

<comment><USER5> I, for one, never want to use someone else's poop phone...even a friend's.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Flagship Android device, unlocked, without contract, for $299.

Impressive.

From the marketing video it looks like Android 4.2 gained Swype-like keyboard.

It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10 (i.e. it has status bar on top, navigation buttons are in the middle of the screen). That's weird, and I definitely don't like it, but it might not be that big of a problem.

<comment><USER7> Very impressive pricing!

On the other hand, it doesn't support LTE. When will Google realize that basic things like fast network speed are more important than fancy things like face unlock and NFC.

<comment><USER8> Honestly why do you want LTE?

You are going to burn through your data alotment very, very fast.

<comment><USER9> That's what I thought would happen before I got an LTE phone, but in practice, I'm not burning through it that much faster – I'm mostly just following the same usage patterns I had with 3G, just spending less time waiting.

<comment><USER10> I'm in the same boat. I don't consume media on my phone, like, ever though, except Subsonic and even then I relisten to my favorite music of the month enough that it gets cached quickly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Here's a video by the verge which provides a lot more detail, hands on demonstrations, and interviews with the Android team. [http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570034/inside-android- bu...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570034/inside-android-building-the- nexus-4-nexus-10-android-4-2/in/3335719) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=66-4uMQqerA)

</comment><comment><USER12> Full details are available here: <https://play.google.com/store/devices?feature=microsite>

\----

4": [https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_16g...](https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_16gb)

7": [https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16g...](https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16gb)

10": [https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_10_16...](https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_10_16gb)

<comment><USER13> _"Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet."_

Yeah, but I'd like to window shop and know what the neighbours are paying, perhaps ask someone over there to buy me one.

I really dislike this automatic geolocation enforcement that Google spreads liberally over all its stuff. At least Apple lets you look at, or even get things from, other country stores with minimal fuss.

(I know, proxies, bleargh.)

P.S. <http://www.google.com/nexus/> now has info and pictures viewable anywhere. (Link found in melvinram's comment, thank you.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> It won't be long before the usual suspects start claiming

\- screen resolution isn't important

\- multi-user accounts are overly complex

\- low prices mean the devices are cheap and nasty

<comment><USER15> It sure wasn't long before the Google apologists started clamoring that you don't really need LTE anyway.

<comment><USER16> But I've never thought LTE was necessary, even in the iPhone. Not something I want/need.

<comment><USER17> That's what I've always thought. A tiny 3-4 inch device with a dual core ARMv7 CPU and 8-64 GB of storage. Why does it need faster internet than what I can get at my house through a Broadband router (ADSL2 here)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> No LTE is a deal-breaker for me on the Nexus 4. I would pre-order one right now if it was included. I think I'll wait for the next great Android phone that has LTE. The Nexus S is a pretty good phone, so without an upgrade in internet speed I don't see any reason to upgrade.

As for the Nexus 10, I hope that it gets enough sales to start pushing developers to make tablet apps for Android, and for Google to make the split between phone/tablet sized apps better in the Play Store.

<comment><USER19> > No LTE is a deal-breaker for me on the Nexus 4. I would pre-order one right > now if it was included. I think I'll wait for the next great Android phone > that has LTE.

There's a good explanation of the LTE situation by _The Verge_ [0]. If Google wants to release timely upgrades, they need to break free of carrier control. And since Verizon and Sprint devices require carrier approval, this will never happen. As for AT&T, their LTE coverage is so limited and the frequencies unique, so it doesn't make economic sense.

> The Nexus S is a pretty good phone, so without an upgrade in internet speed > I don't see any reason to upgrade.

With AT&T, there _will_ be an upgrade in speed from the Nexus S to the Nexus 4 (or to the Galaxy Nexus, for that matter). The Nexus S doesn't support HSPA+ (what AT&T is falsely claiming in its TV ads to be 4G - it's actually more like 3.5G), whereas the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 do.

0: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3569688/why- nexus-4-does-...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3569688/why-nexus-4-does- not-have-4g-lte/in/3335719)

<comment><USER20> Definitely not my experience. I'm sitting miles away from Walnut Creek, a town i the East Bay, and I have LTE on AT&T. I certainly have it anywhere closer to civilization, like SF itself or NYC. I wouldn't call AT&T coverage limited at all.

<comment><USER19> Well, your anecdotal data doesn't line up with the facts. There's a _Verge_ article from a month ago[0] that contains LTE coverage information for Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. There's simply no comparison - Verizon is leaps and bounds ahead of AT&T. Just because you have AT&T LTE in your neck of the woods doesn't mean that the vast majority of Americans do.

0: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/21/3367602/iphone-5-lte- marke...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/21/3367602/iphone-5-lte-markets- cities)

<comment><USER21> The valid metric to observe in asserting AT&T's LTE coverage's uselessness is not relative standing. We should measure the _number of people_ who can be reasonably expected to have LTE coverage a reasonable percent of the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is a test period for the post Jobs Apple.

Apple has a loyal mac user base willing to pay an Apple premium. A business that won't just disappear overnight. They had a good head start on iphones. Combined with the obscure phone prices on plans, Apple can easily get their premium here. The tablet market they pretty much had to themselves.

Now Android really is mature. Great devices at great prices that compete with iOS devices on features and not just on price.

Lets see if they can keep up their margins.

<comment><USER23> Android still has a long way to go. I have the Nexus 7 (I should divulge I am an iOS/Cocoa developer) and I kind of like it, but it still has a cheap usability feel to it. The parallax is pretty obvious which translates into issues like laggy typing and occasional awkward pauses. The select/copy/paste is just bizarre. Video playback is crappy.

Android is to Toyota what Apple is to Mercedes. They both essentially do the same thing, will get you to the same places, but it's a different kind of ride. Some people like Toyotas, and that's OK.

I also don't think the kind of people that buy Android devices are the same people that buy iOS devices. Not mention the homogeny of the whole Apple experience and how much smoother that gets with each iteration of OSX and iOS. I can pick up one device where I left off on another one. Because Google doesn't own that kind of end to end experience, it will be hard for them to compete on a whole.

<comment><USER24> The qualitative arguments are valid enough, and I won't try to dispute them except to point out that most of what you argue is lets-just-say-controversial and not uniformly agreed upon.

But the car analogy is just bad. Mercedes sells cars into different markets with _different feature sets_ than Toyota. People don't buy a Camry expecting it to accelerate like a E350. And the "polish" features are things like Leather Seats and climate control, which are objectively measurable.

Compare the Nexus 10, which by basically all objective measures is a better piece of hardware than the retina iPad. All that Apple has on it is brand and opinion.

Even Mercedes can't sell cars on brand and opinion alone.

<comment><USER22> I agree that the analogy is wrong: Apple & Google are competing head-2-head, Toyota & Mercedes generally don't.

But it's interesting to think about why. It's typical that as market categories mature, we get segmentation. Start with the model T, eventually you have luxury SUVs, sportscars, minivans, large sedans, smarcars....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I don't know what's more insane: the N10's 2560 x 1600 screen or how hard is to find a laptop with a measly 1080p screen for twice the price of that tablet.

The N4 is bonkers too. Sure there are other phones with HD screens now, but with a quad Krait? the only other I know is the Mi2, and good luck getting one at launch.

The N7 with cellular is really tempting since with a little hack you could have a tablet+phone hybrid (using a Bt headset). Too bad it still uses the Tegra3, a SoC that couldn't keep up with the _dual_ Krait.

But overall I think Google just brought a gun to knife fight...

</comment><comment><USER26> Hopefully this starts the ball rolling on Android tablet apps. I really love my Nexus 7, but the app selection is definitely inferior to what's available for iOS.

<comment><USER27> What kind of app do you find yourself wishing for? The apps I use the most are the default apps, i.e. Calendar, Mail, Chrome, Reader (google version) and Google+/Facebook/Twitter.

<comment><USER28> I'd be interested to know if there's something like Papers or BibDesk for Android. Something where you can browse ArXiv, save PDFs for later, and then read and optionally mark up what you've saved. Integration with bibtex would be nice as well.

<comment><USER29> If you are looking for a PDF annotator, I really like EZPDF ( [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.re...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.reader&hl=en) )

<comment><USER28> A good PDF reader is the minimal requirement, but the organization is more important than the annotation for me. Possibly something like Zotero online would work, but I'd definitely want to see a review or find a store where I could play with one for a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> The "iPad mini vs. other 7" tablet" battle has been going on for a week, but if nothing else I hope these new Nexus tablets force Apple to move away from $100 jumps for memory and $130 jumps for radio.

The ~$450 I paid for a 32GB iPad mini would net me two base Nexus 7s. Alternatively, for $100 less I can get an equivalent Nexus 7...with cell radio. Those jumps add up!

<comment><USER31> Just being available in the market at those prices will not force Apple to lower theirs. Only if you vote with your wallet and stop buying Apple products for those prices, they'll start to listen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The screen for 10.1" model is great: 2560x1600 (300ppi) - iPad (3 and 4) are 2048x1536 (264ppi). Which means it has 30% more pixels (409600 vs. 3145728).

<comment><USER32> However, the screen is "PenTile" (<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family>), which means that each pixel is only 2/3 of what we'd usually think of a pixel. And it really does look like crap, even at high densities (such as on the Galaxy Nexus).

If you calculate out the number of subpixels (what actually shows colors on the screen, the important number), the 2048x1536 display on the iPad is still significantly ahead: <https://www.google.com/search?q=2560*1600*2/3+-+2048*1536>

<comment><USER33> Confirmed that PenTile is crap. I came from a OG Droid to Galaxy Nexus and was horrible not impressed by the PenTile screen. It is really noticeable when using low brightness.

<comment><USER34> Not all pentiles are equal. I have no real complaints about the Galaxy S II screen. (OK - a bit more maximum brightness and a slightly more natural default colour calibration...)

<comment><USER35> The Galaxy S II has a proper RGB matrix. Galaxy S and Galaxy S3 are pentile though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> The phone comes with wireless charging built in. Looks like that's a first. Does it come with a charging pad as well?

I think I'd buy a phone just for this feature.

<comment><USER37> I don't know what you mean by "a first", but the HP Touchpad had built-in inductive charging.

<comment><USER38> also the HP/Palm Pre3. Neither Nokia or Google/LG are first with inductive charging.

<comment><USER39> I think even the Pre+ came with inductive charging built-in. Only the original Pre required the purchase of the replacement back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> With regards to tablets, one of the next major battlegrounds is going to be in the enterprise, with Apple, Google, and Microsoft duke-ing it out. From that perspective, Surface makes a whole lot more sense. If they can perfect Surface, they will be in a fierce position to defend their enterprise territory.

With regards to the emerging enterprise tablet market, Google is playing serious catch-up. If Microsoft can come late to the game, but demonstrate the tenacity they have in the past, they might pull another "IE over Netscape" on Apple.

<comment><USER41> I sincerely hope that with regards to tablets, the next major battleground will be the desktop. I _want_ a tablet that acts as a tablet on the go, but plugs into my mouse/keyboard/monitor at home and just replaces my desktop.

Performance is not quite there yet, but it's getting close. OSes are not quite there yet, but progress is being made there, too. I think it is only a matter of time and it might get there faster than we think.

<comment><USER42> > faster than we think

Surface Pro, hopefully.

<comment><USER43> Surface Pro will not compete in the same space. Pricing alone will push it out of that space.

<comment><USER42> OK, but if you're looking for tablets that can be proper desktop replacements (as parent comment says), its not going to be cheap

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Someone forgot to tell their marketing team: <http://www.google.com/nexus/>

Edit: Basically the website still has old info about old devices.

<comment><USER45> Maybe they're evacuated--these devices were supposed to debut at an event in NYC that was cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy.

<comment><USER46> But but... why use reason when you can make a facile, snarky observation instead?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> >Nexus 4 comes with wireless charging capability built right in. Just place your Nexus 4 on a compatible wireless charging mat to charge -- and retire the wire for good.

One's not included in the box though. I wonder how much they plan to charge for that accessory.

</comment><comment><USER48> Now all we need is 3 SIM cards for the same mobile contract, so you can use all three devices without swapping SIM cards all the time and without paying for 3 separate contracts.

<comment><USER49> I've seen "family plans" where minutes and data (!) come from a shared pool like this, although I forget where.

<comment><USER50> AT&T and Verizon both offer shared plans.

<comment><USER51> Except that you still do end up paying a monthly fee for each device you add to the shared pool.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> I'm pretty sure they'd written this beforehand and scheduled it to be posted but forgot all about it when they cancelled their event.

<comment><USER53> Yeah, it's really quite sad to see just a lame blog post and very little press at all around what should be a huge launch.

I suspect part of the reason they launched is that basically all of the information has been out there for a few weeks now anyway, so better to kill off the rumor mill.

<comment><USER54> Their press event was cancelled because of a hurricane. Cut them some slack.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> And soon enters the paradox of choice. Do I bring my smartphone, mini-tablet, tablet and/or my laptop in my bag? Wait, why did I buy all of these again?

<comment><USER56> Smartphone everywhere, mini-tablet if you're carrying a bag, Kindle if you have time to do some reading, laptop if you need to get work done. Larger tablet always stays at home.

That about covers it for me, anyway. The 10" tablet now feels like the least desirable device, unless you have a relatively rare use case like reading a lot of big PDFs.

<comment><USER57> Mini-tablet replaced the kindle for me. I never had the paper book and e-ink reading requirements that many have. e-ink is just too slow for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> I've been very happy with Galaxy Nexus so far. The specs on the Nexus 4 look impressive. Anyone going to upgrade their Galaxy Nexus for the 4?

<comment><USER59> I won't, but I think my girlfriend will upgrade her Nexus S. She's not thrilled by the increasing screen sizes though. And I agree that a smaller option would be nice. I refuse to consider anything other than a Nexus device though so I guess I'm stuck.

<comment><USER60> I have the same issue. I'm on a Nexus S as well and it's starting to show its age with the latest operating system and apps. But the form factor is great, and all these newer flagship phones are huge.

<comment><USER61> I have the Nexus One, and it's _really_ starting to show it's age!

I'll be getting the Nexus 4 once it's out, but like both of you, the screen size is the biggest drawback for me.

I really hope Google realizes that bigger is not always better!

<comment><USER62> I have the Nexus One and i think to buy a Galaxy Nexus..just for the good price!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> In the era of beautiful Surface and iPads why oh why did the Nexus 10 have to be so ugly, when Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 are pretty. The specs on Nexus 10 make me want to buy it, but the shape is just not helping me make that decision.

<comment><USER64> I don't find it that ugly, but I can't help but think they were just trying to differentiate themselves from the iPad.

<comment><USER65> The 10" would be far better with the studded back texture of the 7"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> I just bought the nexus 7, but I might be buying the nexus 10. Finally being able to have different accounts on one tablet is awesome.

<comment><USER4> I'm guessing it'll also be available on the Nexus 7.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> What, no 3 hour long livestreamed press event?

edit: oh, they had one planned in NY, cancelled due to the hurricane

<comment><USER67> I honestly prefer this format. I got all the critical details within 10 minutes, the press will be able to salivate over it for the next week, and I'm still just as hyped about the devices.

<comment><USER42> I think this is the most stuff I've ever seen launched in one blog post.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> Arrrgh! That Nexus 4 looks delicious, absolutely awesome. But why does it have to be such a monster! With their flagship product, can't they shoot for a happy middle ground and not for monster sizes?

<comment><USER54> With their new naming convention, it seems to me that there's a very nice slot for a "Nexus 3". Hopefully such a device wouldn't feature inferior specs like the s3 mini.

<comment><USER68> I don't necessarily want a really small phone. Just a bit smaller, that would be nice.

I really do not want a non-Nexus phone, and it just annoys me a bit when Google is able to pick all the right trade-offs for me, except that one.

<comment><USER42> Stick CyanogenMod on <whatever android phone is the right size>

<comment><USER54> Sure, but are there any "flagship" Android phones with a screen smaller than 4.6 inches? Even with Cyanogen you're still making compromises at the smaller sizes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Thank you Google, for making the Nexus 7 16gb 199$ 1 week after i bought mine .. I love this tablet, but the one thing i really wish is i had the 16gb version, but couldn't afford it at the time.

<comment><USER30> Not sure if you're in the US, but if so you have 15 days to return it:

[http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...](http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2411741#US)

Go get a bigger tablet!

<comment><USER69> Heh, thanks :) But i'm not :/ Anyway, it was already a good deal in the first place, i'm not gonna complain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER70> I have Galaxy Nexus. I was thinking of upgrading to the Nexus 4, for better battery life. But, LTE is missing from the device. On the other hand, the price is great. I wish Google used some muscle to make carriers bend towards Google's needs. I am grandfathered into a Verizon unlimited plan, and would love to stay.

I am excited to see the screen on the Nexus 4.

</comment><comment><USER71> I've been an iOS device guy since the beginning, but these low pricepoints on a flagship Google device make it very, very tempting to at least give Android a try. Well done, Google!

</comment><comment><USER42> By launching three flagship devices with three different manufacturers (LG, Asus and Samsung), do you think they are trying to say something about Android and hardware?

<comment><USER72> That hardware (manufacturing) is a commodity? I think they already know, judging from the inane modified android UIs they put on their handsets.

I think it would be more important to break the "you are just a dumb pipe" news to the mobile carriers. They still have illusions.

<comment><USER42> Our mobile carriers in the UK seem to be getting the message, fortunately.

<comment><USER73> Mind elaborating on that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER74> The Pricing on the Phone for the Given specs is very impressive. Howvwer I would wait for the reviews for the Nexus 4 to come in and wait for a few months. This phone is made by LG and every person I know who has bought any LG telecom product (Phone/Tablet) has had Quality issues with...

<comment><USER75> That's the only thing I'm worried about, hopefully the close ties with Google have made sure that the quality and reliability is up to scratch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> Finally, they nailed it! Well done Google. Samsung displays are one of the best there ever is (apart from LG). For $299 I think its a killer deal!

</comment><comment><USER77> Geez, I hate Google localisation. It NEVER works. It is always off.

I'm sitting in Germany, all my Chrome settings are set to English. Go to the main Nexus blogspot website and its in English. Great. (despite being blogspot.de)

Click on Nexus 10. Its in german. Understandable as I'm Germany. But please respect the browser settings.

Go back and click on Nexus 7, and its in English.

Go back and click on Nexus 4, and its in _FRENCH_!! Why?!

Click on the expanded memory option on the French page and it goes to the English version of the Nexus 4 page.

This infuriates me no end. This is the single reason why I will not use Google Play. I know that if I buy a book or a movie, the chances of it being in the language I set for the device will be slim. I have no desire to through money away like that.

<comment><USER78> I'm in France and I'm getting pages in a mix of English, French, and... German! On the same page. (With no way of changing it.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> Have detailed specs of the Nexus 4's components been released yet? One of the most surprising features of the Nexus S was the superb Wolfson DAC audio, which is almost unheard of in a phone. If the Nexus 4's compares I'll preorder today.

</comment><comment><USER80> Ok, um, did anyone else notice that 4.2 is called Jelly Bean, like 4.1 was called Jelly Bean?

Up until now it was Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. Did they run out of tasty treats already?

<comment><USER54> 2.0 & 2.1 were both eclair, and 3.0 & 3.1 were both honeycomb.

The fact that they didn't change the product name indicates that this is a fairly minor update.

<comment><USER81> There was also a 3.2 Honeycomb release.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> I like the wireless charging feature. It's the kind of thing that, viewed pragmatically, isn't really all that important, but it has a slick futuristic ScFi vibe to it that makes me want to have it.

<comment><USER83> It's cool and all but, if it's not included in the box it's not a feature. It's an optional extra.

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> Is there anything country specific on the phone? Seriously thinking about crossing the border to buy one. Would I have problems with the store or anything?

<comment><USER85> The specs say "NETWORK Unlocked GSM/UMTS/HSPA+ GSM/EDGE/GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) 3G (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz) HSPA+ 21". So I'm also assuming this means you can use it worldwide with any SIM, I've used my older LG android all over the world (AT&T or T-Mobile in the US).

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> Can someone please comment on how PDF and ebooks from Manning's programming books render on Nexus 7 vs. mini-IPAD ? That, for me, is the deciding factor.

<comment><USER57> PDFs render pretty well on the Nexus 7 with Adobe's reader app. I'd guess better since there is more resolution?

<comment><USER87> Agreed. I would add that really big (large textbook size) PDFs occasionally hang Adobe Reader. ezPDF tends to handle those better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER88> Those look like some very nice devices at very compelling prices.

I'm still a bit disappointed though. I've been waiting/hoping for a Nexus hybrid (ala the ASUS Transformer). I'm really sold on that form factor and hope they do something with it on a "Nexus" device. The continued lack of this makes me wonder if they just haven't gotten around to it yet or if they are avoiding it due to Chrome OS related strategy tax.

</comment><comment><USER89> I've been a happy iPhone customer since the first model, but I think a good low-price competitor is going to be a real challenge for Apple - an affordable and desirable unlocked phone strikes me as a big breakthrough. Whether Google is going to make a push to spell out the saving to contract-happy U.S. (and risk alienating carriers and competing handset makers) is the real question.

<comment><USER90> Apple's not in any significant danger yet. The margin built into their products is usually high, so should push come to shove, they can always cut that.

Normally demand is high enough that even at the premium price the product is sold out until it's replaced by a more sophisticated model and the "old" product can be manufactured more cheaply.

Other vendors should be thankful that Apple doesn't sell things at cost. This leaves significant opportunities for other vendors to fit in and compete.

<comment><USER91> They are not in danger of outright failure, but they are in danger of significantly reduced earnings and stock price, which is always a big deal for a publicly traded corporation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> Finally Android tablets have caught up to (and even surpassed on some things) the iPad. [Of course iOS vs Android is a big choice.] It's taken just 4 years!

Nexus 10 - clearly better than the iPad on price, display (resolution, size, aspect ratio), sound, Wifi, RAM, GPS. Battery life is unknown though, GPU likely to be worse.

Nexus 7 - beats the iPad Mini on price and resolution, matches on most other things.

</comment><comment><USER93> This is a new phase of the tablet wars. During phase 1, an iPad was not only more polished (both hardware and software) but also much cheaper than the competition. In 2009, no other tablet maker could match iPad on cost for equivalent specs because Apple had completely optimized the supply chain. Non- iPads mostly sucked!

Fast forward 3years, tablets are no longer a novelty and users have figured out that the product is more function based rather than status driven - <USER2> Phones where brand plays a part in the purchase esp because majority of the usage happens in front of other people.

One sign of this change in consumer behavior was signaled by the launch of iPad 4 within 6months of the iPad 3. Felt like Apple saw a glitch in the matrix and had to make sudden changes. Q3 earnings confirmed that iPad sales were down.

What now? Well, the door is wide open. People will pick based on personal preferences as there is no clear "objective best": iPads, Kindles and Nexuses are all interchangeable.

</comment><comment><USER94> Ok so, 4th generation of Nexus phones is called Nexus 4 and the tablets with 7" and 10" screens are called Nexus 7 and Nexus 10? What..? Also, this greets me when going to the product page (not trying to buy the phone, just trying to look at the phone): <http://cl.ly/image/2t2R0L1L0H0F>

<comment><USER95> Maybe they rounded 4.7" down to 4.

<comment><USER96> More like truncated at this point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER97> I wonder why they chose not to add a full-size HDMI port. A lot of people have HDMI cables/TVs at home, but I guess most of them do not have micro-HDMI cables. The device doesn't ship with one, either.

From the viewpoint of the customer, this feels awkward. I guess the business people and engineers see it otherwise...

<comment><USER98> [http://www.amazon.com/Fosmon-HDMI-Micro-Cable- Feet/dp/B003UH...](http://www.amazon.com/Fosmon-HDMI-Micro-Cable- Feet/dp/B003UH0Z9Q) HDMI size problem solved, I don't think that alone would turn away any customers though it would be an annoyance. At least the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 _have_ HDMI output, the lack of that is still my biggest complaint about the Nexus 7 and has so far been the deal-breaker keeping me from getting one. (Lack of SD card support is also annoying, but I can live with USB-expanded storage.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER99> As expected, very little support for other countries (specifically Canada where I am). Movie purchases, and HSPA, but no magazines or TV shows, no google music. Nexus 4 not available in Canada.

[edit]Correction - magazines now available in Canada (Woohoo!) they just didn't say so. Now, can we please have google music?

<comment><USER100> Surprisingly Google Music "match" (similar to itunes and amazon) will first be available in Europe.

<comment><USER101> In (a small subset of) Europe. Smaller, poorer countries like mine get shafted.

<comment><USER100> Some richer countries are also not included (Switzerland).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER102> Nexus 4 looks interesting but a bigger screen would be nice and I could go to the Nexus 7 now that they have one with a phone option and MicroUSB for connectivity! Ah, it has no camera well a 1.2 MP front facing one but that's it. Maybe the Nexus 10, big, would take some getting use to to replace a phone with it and it has an 8MP rear facing camera, but no phone option. :-(

When I can get a 7 with phone and at least 32 Gigs or preferably expandable storage like my Nexus One which I've had 32 Gigs on now for a year or two and an 8MP real rear camera and a front facing camera and MicroUSB then I'll upgrade from Nexus One to Nexus 7 or if the 10 gets a phone I might go to that.

The 10 would be a strong option for me now if it had at least 4 Gigs RAM, 64 Gigs storage or expandable and a phone as well as rear and front facing cameras.

</comment><comment><USER103> Since I see a lot of "Hey, doesn't X do that too?" remarks, I just wanted to say:

Execution counts.

It's not enough to say "Hey, X does that, too." There has to be a qualifier on _how_ well/poorly/etc. it does it. Otherwise, we're meaningless comparing feature checklists, which could be done by a small perl script.

</comment><comment><USER104> Miracast support. I hope more devices (TVs and set-top players) really jump on board with this protocol.

</comment><comment><USER105> Now I have to decide between the Nexus 4 and the Droid Razr Maxx HD :-/

<comment><USER4> I have no idea about the device, but that name is embarrassing.

<comment><USER106> Could be worse. Could be the "Samsung Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch".

Although that said, it seems to be worse in the US. Your carriers take the manufacturer name and replace it with their own (Desire HD -> Inspire 4G) or tack it on at the end (Galaxy S2 -> Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER107> FYI, the Nexus 4 is quad core. However, the Nexus 10 is only dual! I've tried switching to a tablet at the beginning of the year but web browsing performance wasn't good enough for me. Hope the dual core downgrade won't make that much of a difference.

edit: I was under the impression they both were Samsung Exynos arm processors. Turns out the Nexus 4 is using the Snapdragon S4 Pro and the Nexus 10 is using a A15 Samsung Exynos.

<comment><USER108> I was surprised by that too. An A15 ought to be individually faster than the Krait cores in the S4, but not by that much.

<comment><USER109> They are using the exynos 5 because it's the only SOC out right now that can support a screen with that resolution. The A15 cores should run very well, I suspect it'll be faster than the nexus 4 for most tasks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER110> I guess google is going after budget conscious. No LTE is ridiculous and their excuse that they don't want carrier interference is lame. Does Apple have to deal with carriers interfering with deploying LTE? Please, the real reason why they don't support LTE is the Nexus is not a big seller. So it makes little sense to create multiple sku's. Gotta love that Google spin.

<comment><USER42> I'm guessing its more like battery and target-cost limitations

edit: and the carrier thing as discussed in The Verge

<comment><USER10> Anyone who's been paying any attention knows this is no conspiracy, Google is not happy with Verizon AT ALL. Wallet/ISIS is only a small component of that.

Painting this is something else is just inaccurate.

<comment><USER111> You are utterly delusional my friend. This is laziness.

<comment><USER10> Wow thanks for that cool analysis. It's not like their feuds with Verizon and Wallet are well known and documented. Surely you're baseless accusations of... what exactly... are right on.

<comment><USER111> I wasn't accusing anyone of anything. Unless calling you delusional is an accusation.

So let me get this straight. Google's _entire_ reason for not supplying LTE is global availability, and yet, one barely used feature on one carrier is apparently what stopped them from shipping it? Oooookay. Verizon and Wallet have _nothing_ to do this with decision. Zero. Verizon doesn't exist outside the US, just so you know.

For any Android fanboy to not decry the lack of LTE is hypocritical at best. The wholesale cost difference between a HSDPA part and a LTE part is negligible at best. There's zero downside to providing a LTE part because it's also a superset of 3G/HSDPA/etc.

There's maybe a technical reason for not including it, and instead of the BS justification that Google are trying to sell us, I'd love to hear it. It'd be far more believable than the current "you don't really need it" reasoning being thrown about.

So yes, you're delusional. You're attempting to justify why LTE isn't included in a flagship phone in Oct 2012. Good luck with that.

<comment><USER112> Read the article on the Verge. They left out LTE to stay out from under the thumb of Verizon and their track record of delaying updates to the previous Nexus Phone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER113> Do any of these support LTE?

<comment><USER114> Does not appear to have LTE support out of the box. But the chipset DOES have an LTE modem, so there is hope.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Tuesday: I'd say the storm has cost Google a lot of publicity. Guardian Tech is leading with the Apple management reshuffle, way down the page there's a small article saying 'google were going to launch something or other but had to cancel, here are some rumours'.

</comment><comment><USER115> They need to work more on their browser. They are using the same webkit core as iOS, right? Reality is, every time I used the browser on Nexus 7, I want to throw it out of window.

</comment><comment><USER116> Won't anyone think of us folks in India. I really want a tablet and I would get nexus 7 if it were available here at that price. Also google music and play store won't hurt either.

</comment><comment><USER117> Don't give us Sun-style crazy version numbers please Google! 4.2 should have got a new name!

<comment><USER59> I remember reading that they considered a new name, but they didn't feel like the feature updates were strong enough to warrant it. Which is refreshing actually. The post did call it an update to jellybean.

<comment><USER118> Then they should have only bumped minor version.

<comment><USER61> Isn't that exactly what they did?

e.g. X.Y.X where:

X = Major, Y = Minor, X = Bugfix/Patch/...

<comment><USER42> Sometimes a change in Y gets a dessert name, sometimes it doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER117> Steal my idea, Google: hot-swappable batteries please.

</comment><comment><USER119> SDK site still lists Android 4.1 as latest version. :(

<comment><USER120> Give them 2 weeks.

<comment><USER119> I am curious to see if NDK is still standing still or more freedom is given to the native developers.

Or if at least more JIT improvements are available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This stuff is blowing my mind.

On every single spec, Nexus exceeds the iDevice equivalent. The Nexus 4 has two NFC radios, a higher res screen, is thinner and lighter and is _less than half of the price_ of the iPhone 5. (edit: That's unfair, I forget about LTE, though I understand why Google skipped that)

Similar things hold for the Nexus 10.

Am I the only one really surprised?

(This is of course not to mention the numerous new Android 4.2 features that everyone except the Verge has ignored)

<comment><USER111> You're only surprised because you're comparing a spec sheet to another spec sheet. And it's not thinner and lighter. And you don't know if the screen is actually going to _look_ better. And it doesn't have LTE (no matter what the excuse).

Additionally, the Nexus 10 is massive, is ugly as hell, runs Android and thus has like 10 apps designed for a Android tablet.

I own every Nexus device in existence and every iOS device, so that's where I'm coming from. The Nexus 7 was a waste of money.

<comment><USER10> > And it's not thinner and lighter.

The tablet certainly is. You're a troll, what are you stalking me? [edit: it appears I did misspeak, the tablet is lighter and thinner, the phone is not, though practically, they're both basically the same-ish dimensions give-or- take nothing that actually matters)

>runs Android and thus has like 10 apps designed for a Android tablet.

Gimme a break, I'm not wasting my time on you. I don't even believe the last line of that post.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Quite frankly, I haven't seen these mentioned anywhere except in a very long Verge video so I'm making a list of Android 4.2 features:

\- Google Now will now automatically detect packages you are going to receive and will notify you of their progress. You can now dictate calendar events (also, in 4.1 they added the ability to say "navigate home").

\- You can take 360 degree panoramas

\- Quick Settings & Multi-user accounts

\- You can swipe the lock screen to reveal informational widgets. (quickly check your calendar, etc)

\- Swype functionality built into the keyboard. (Even cooler than Swype though because of where it shows the word and the suggestions)

I've also yet to see anyone mention that the Nexus 4 rests in a capacitive, magnetic dock.

</comment><comment><USER121> The idea of owning a tablet by Google creeps me out to no end. I just can't picture myself using this without the lingering feeling of having Big Brother tracking me, watching me, keeping tabs on what sites I visit and what content I post online.

<comment><USER45> Luckily any tablet you choose will have significant tracking capabilities...

<comment><USER122> Apple isn't in the business of exploiting your private data to advertise products/services/content from third parties at you though. The incentives are completely different.

<comment><USER123> Thats why the have built-in facebook and twitter support. They sell you as well dont believe in fairy tales.

And to be honest im fine with google having my data they have a solid record for keeping things in line.

<comment><USER124> Facebook and Twitter support have to be explicitly activated in order to send any data to those parties. In the case of the optional Facebook contact sync feature, it even warns that the data in your contacts list will be sent to Facebook. When submitting a post to either Facebook or Twitter, including the location is optional and off by default.

<comment><USER125> _Making the location visible_ on your post is optional and off by default; sending the location is not, as far as I understand.

<comment><USER124> Location Services doesn't start up until the "Add Location" text is tapped. The best Facebook or Twitter could do would be to geolocate based on the IP address.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why is a used Python book on Amazon cost over $200? - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0972705589/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1314984255&sr=1-8&condition=used

<comment><USER2> _Conjecture Warning_

There was a post about this not so long ago, it's likely that these third party sellers use a pricing algorithm that automatically looks at competitors' prices and then prices items some nominal amount (like .01) more.

Occasionally you get into a situation where ONLY these algorithmic copies are available, and over time they work themselves into a loop of constantly higher prices until either another (properly priced) copy hits the market, or some tripwire is hit in the pricing system.

</comment><comment><USER3> Loved this: "When you buy this book now for $289.14 and sell it back later for a $0.16 Amazon.com Gift Card, it could cost you as little as $288.98."

</comment><comment><USER4> Many Amazon marketplace sellers use software to automatically adjust the prices of books. The results are sometimes strange.

<comment><USER5> I used to write that software.

Low supply, low demand == high prices

<comment><USER3> That's if your software assumes a scarce book is a rare book. In actual bookstores for this type of book, low supply, low demand == SALE 50% OFF!</comment></comment></comment>


Draw an infinite line between different Satellite images - <AUTHOR> https://lines.chromeexperiments.com/ <comment><USER2> Pretty impressive. Any line or arc does well. Some cut backs work, but drawing spirals or M or 3 doesn't match well yet. Drag is pretty... it would make a good screen saver.</comment>


Is the Internet inevitable? - <AUTHOR> http://abandontheweb.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-internet-inevitable.html?utm_medium=referral <comment><USER2> The idea of the internet pervaded well before most people knew about the actual internet. There were BBSs with federated mail networks and big online services like AOL and Compuserve. There was also much talk of a singular "information superhighway".

Had the actual internet not been around, a unified online service would have eventually emerged, likely after much bloody competition and buyouts. It would have been initially tyrannical but eventually tamed by regulation, much like other utilities. It never would have been as cool as the internet.

So, I guess the answer is _no_ , an open, decentralized internet was not inevitable. We got lucky.

<comment><USER3> > I guess the answer is no, an open, decentralized internet was not > inevitable. We got lucky.

We did indeed. The internet only happened because a lot of companies and governments didn't realise its true nature until it was too late.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't think it's inevitable. If it'd been left to telecom companies, the global information network would likely be very different today. I guess it'd be much more expensive, slow, and the billing and routing would be complex (sending packets to another country? that's gonna cost you).

I don't say this much, but I thank the US military.

</comment><comment><USER5> it's interesting thought. perhaps we shouldn't take internet for granted as we do now. imagine internet would be run by telecom companies, they would charge for "overseas connections" and skype would never happen.

</comment><comment><USER6> If inevitable is understood as a natural next step of the telephone system (before that railways) and the innovation of computers and if internet is understood as some sort of protocol for communication between machines, then yes I would say it's inevitable.

The specific form (HTTP, TCP/IP etc.) isn't and can only be defined in retrospect.

</comment><comment><USER7> I believe machines communicating over automated switched networks is inevitable. The democratic nature of that network will probably always be in question however.

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe all mobile networks use different standards, but you can still make http requests from your phones. I think common standards would definitely have emerged - in free countries, anyway.</comment>


Ask HN: I don't like technical interview, how do I go about getting a new job? - <AUTHOR> Background: I graduated two years ago, and has been working at a startup since then. Due to personal circumstances, I have been looking for a new job in the last month. I got two phone interview with Google and Snapchat thanks to internal referrals, and my conclusion was simply that I can't think for my life during the phone interview -- I don't know if I will do better with on site interview.
The excuses (reasons) can be numerous: living in REPL and Emacs make me looks like an idiot on normal text editor, personal issue is causing my confidence to be all-time-low right now. Anyway, assuming that I'm half competent, I'd like to preserve my sanity and do away with the (technical) interview altogether.
I'm not at the point where I can just be hired based on credentials/past work yet. Likewise, my network is no where near enough to make a hire recommendation that can just skip interview -- I hope that it will be the case a few years from now, but not right now. That said, is it realistic, and how can I find a job without technical interview (ie whiteboard/ google Docs coding)?
My current job title is "Lead Software Engineer" (I was first engineering hire), although I don't manage anyone directly and is still individual contributor. I'm just looking for another SE job, obviously. Probably not junior level, but I don't really know how "senior" normal senior job is. <comment><USER2> Take technical interviewing head on. You can't have fear and worries run your life.

Unless you have a strong network, (or a personal brand) and people who have worked with your prior recommending you, it's unlikely that you will be able to escape some sort of technical screen early in your career. Especially if you are in the valley (are you?)

Some other ways to mitigate the screen that you could try, are:

1\. Giving talks on a certain topic you are passionate about and can do well. 2\. Writing and maintaining a blog on those same topics.

Even then, it's unlikely that you will be able to totally bypass a technical screen for a developer role at a company worth working for (simply because they are getting a lot of applications and hence they just need a decent way of filtering candidates).

In the long run, it's better to take technical interviewing by the horns. Learn it, practice is, focus on it, and get it over with. There are books, there are websites, there are friends, and then there are classroom courses (Disclaimer: I run InterviewKickstart.com, which is a classroom course).

</comment><comment><USER3> Most companies fail to compensate for confidence bias at the interview stage, which is what I'm guessing has bitten you here. It's not a problem which is going to go away soon, sadly.

The way I see it you've got two options:

Firstly you could try to work around the problem: Find companies with enlightened hiring practices. Find second-rate companies who aren't so fussy. Start your own thing. Or get your Github/OSS profile up to the point where work comes to you.

Secondly you could address the problem, which (assuming I've understood correctly) is confidence under pressure. You could talk to a professional therapist or coach. You could try rejection therapy. You could book yourself some technical speaking engagements. Maybe taking up an adrenaline sport might help?

Just some thoughts. I'm not a professional therapist/coach. I don't know you, etc. etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you.

It isn't strictly confidence under pressure, I'm just having a general existential confidence issue right now. And unfortunately I don't see it changing in the short term. Partly also the reason why I don't want to continue doing more interviews.

<comment><USER3> Not sure what your physical exercise options are like but I believe there's evidence to suggest that things like sport can improve confidence. If it's an option you should seriously consider it.

Otherwise (and I have no idea what's available) you might get some benefit from talking to the medical profession. I don't usually like pharmaceutical solutions, but this sounds like it's badly affecting your quility of life.

You need to address this otherwise you're increasing your exposure to depression, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > I don't really know how "senior" normal senior job is.

At startups, "senior" can mean you've worked at one other company before. At big companies, "senior" means you have 20 years of experience in the real world. At medium companies, "senior" can be anywhere in-between.

> hired based on credentials/past work yet.

Most cargo cult hiring practices these days only focus on one 20 minute coding session to evaluate you. Few companies consider any past accomplishments in immediate hiring decisions. It's kinda sad.

> living in REPL and Emacs

That's the killer right there. _Most_ people code by "write code, see if it works, write more code." But during an interview, they want you to write a complete working theoretic algorithm with no "it works" feedback. So, you're constantly under pressure of a persistent, and growing, doubt about "does this thing even work? I can't run it in this shared document!"

Coding interviews are a _teaching position_ not a coding evaluation. It really doesn't make sense to evaluate a programmer on how well they operate while being immediately judged based on what they type. I'm paid for _results_, not my flailing process that kinda makes everybody look incompetent anyway.

There's no solution for you besides interview at 10+ places. Employers think they are special (above you) and they think interview candidates are disposable. Employers aren't there to treat you with respect or kindness as a candidate, they are there to see if you are one of the 0.0001% top people in the world, even though after you get hired, you'll probably be doing the same CRUD work and email writing as someone who doesn't even know what a for loop does.

</comment><comment><USER5> Keep interviewing until you find good companies without crap interviews.

</comment><comment><USER6> Here's a soft-skills interview question to think about: "If you wanted something that required a skill you don't have, how would you go about obtaining that skill?" \-- "Can you give an example of a time in your life you set a big goal and achieved it? How did you approach it?"

You probably can't fix technical interviewing, but you can practice it and get better at it. And, if you are a good programmer, the part you are missing is small comparatively.

</comment><comment><USER7> > my network is no where near enough to make a hire recommendation

The obstacle is the way. Start carving out time for strategic networking. Go to meet-ups, conferences, workshops. Make a point to chat with 2-3 people at each event. Suprisingly, these can lead to serendipitous introductions.</comment>


Filebrowser: Web File Manager that can be used as middleware or standalone app - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/filebrowser/filebrowser <comment><USER2> Where can I find a live demo?</comment>


Google.com source code (not simple anymore) - <AUTHOR>

view-source:https://www.google.com/
Maybe it's just me, but realized google.com source code (HTML) used to be very simple but it looks very different now.
Try navigating HTML elements using dev tools. <comment><USER2> And here I thought this was a post about the google.com source code being leaked. :-)

I'd imagine that the rendered HTML is probably produced by a legacy system that stitches together a lot of different templates, some maybe even unintentionally.

</comment><comment><USER3> No surprise, they have to compress like mad and avoid superfluous http requests. That sort of optimisation will never look fancy

</comment><comment><USER4> I wonder why there are multiple style elements, in div#footcnt there are 2 right next to each other, they could have saved a whole "</style>


Are Your "Invite A Friend" Emails Ending Up In The Junk Folder? - <AUTHOR> http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/07/are-your-invite.html

<comment><USER2> "Except I really do want to invite my friend to this new photo sharing service I like."

That doesn't mean I want the invitation; it still sounds like spam to me.

<comment><USER3> Even if my friends wanted to invite me to something, I would rather it come from them saying "hey check out this site" via some IM network, rather then an form email from the website. I get too much spam as it is, I don't want advertisements to go use your product (which is spam to me)

Bottom line: If you site is useful enough, you don't need to spam people via email to get them to join.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Relaunching – Noageismintech.com - <AUTHOR> Last year a huge buzz was created when we first launched the website https://noageismintech.com here on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20252097) but it was taken off due to lack of web traffic. I'm now relaunching this week as a newsletter first<p>If you want to diversify your team and hire "older" in tech, leave your opportunity below and it will be included in the first newsletter <comment><USER2> Is there really a big problem hiring old people for tech jobs? Why?</comment>


NSA Ghidra - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra <comment><USER2> For those wondering what Ghidra is: it's a software reverse engineering (SRE) suite of tools developed by NSA's Research Directorate in support of the Cybersecurity mission.

Ghidra website: [https://www.ghidra-sre.org/](https://www.ghidra-sre.org/)</comment>


The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the "worst" video game - <AUTHOR> https://thehustle.co/worst-video-game-in-history-et/ <comment><USER2> I played ET as a kid when it came out and then many years later. It was a massive disappointment when it came out - it made no sense, and of course it had those infamous pits. When playing it as an adult, I realized it wasn't the adventure game it looked like (and arguably ought to have been) but rather a fun little puzzle game. An interesting novelty, and flaw for a mass market mainstream game, was that the printed manual was an integral part of the game. Without the manual to look up the cryptic glyphs that would appear on screen, the game truly made no sense.

So most of the ET demographic (young kids) played it without really playing it... wandering around what seemed like an adventure world (a la 2600 Superman or Raiders), not even noticing the glyphs, and certainly not working out the glyph puzzles using the book.

ET really wasn't that bad of a game once you RTFMed. Definitely not the worst. The 2600 had so many awful games that were worse.

<comment><USER3> I guess I had a lot of time to waste as a kid, because I bought it used and figured the gameplay without help. For an Atari 2600 game it was more involved than average, but the game itself gave you clues like the cryptic glyphs.

I also bought used the SwordQuest games, and with no comics or Internet, those really left me stumped.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Similar from 2016: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11148093](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11148093)

Fixing it (2015): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9668734](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9668734)

Fixing it (2014): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6994180](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6994180)

Cartridges were found in landfill (2014): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7652473](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7652473)

Long Harper's article about the landfill dig: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17870402](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17870402)

A different worst game (2013): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6023484](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6023484)

</comment><comment><USER5> The Icarus effect here is both sad and eye-opening:

 _After Atari crumbled, his outsized role in the video game crisis earned him a scarlet letter in the industry. He found work as a real estate broker and spent nearly 2 decades soul searching before discovering his true passion: psychotherapy._

A man of that talent should never have had to work as a real estate broker. It's almost as if the business put him in a position he couldn't handle, and then shunned him when he couldn't handle it.

<comment><USER6> How important is to learn to say "no".

<comment><USER7> "Okay, we'll get Billy the intern to code it. By the way, clean out your desk."

<comment><USER8> I don't think the interns would be able to code an Atari game by themselves at the time

Still, sometimes getting the pink slip is better than getting a black mark on your cv

<comment><USER9> Back then the video game companies didn't think developers were important. Hence games from this era didn't include them in the credits ("for what? should the blinds and the printer get credit too? FURNITURE!"). If he said no, he would have been given the slip without second thought.

<comment><USER10> He was paid >1M/yr(>2M in modern dollars); I doubt he ranked quite so low as people are saying. Interchangeable widgets don't pull down that salary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Howard Scott Warshaw did a postmortem talk @ GDC for Yars' Revenge, in it he speaks briefly about E.T. as well. I found it interesting, worth a listen.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqH4k_OEqhY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqH4k_OEqhY)

<comment><USER12> Postmortem? He's very much alive

<comment><USER13> Postmortem refers to the subject not the person. It's a term Beverly commonly used in tech circles: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation)

<comment><USER14> _Postmortem refers to the subject not the person. It's a term Beverly commonly used in tech circles:[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation) _

Ok, I give up -- who is Beverly? I checked the page you linked to, and there was no mention of her.

<comment><USER15> Possibly auto-corrected "very"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Atari: Game Over made for a really interesting watch in explaining what the game was meant to be, and how it works

There's also this treatise on why people thought it was broken, and how to fix it: [http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/](http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/)

<comment><USER17> It seems like there are substantial issues!

* The code handling whether things overlap, like your character and a hole in the ground, and the graphics don't tell the same story so you get hurt in frustrating ways.

* You can't leave certain areas in certain directions that aren't clear to players.

* The documentation on game scoring is very wrong.

* Elliot,a major character, can die for a reason that makes no visual sense

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> E.T. might be considered the worst, but Pac-Man for the 2600 was surely the most disappointing. The plumber wrench Pac-Man had to be one of the worst adaptations ever. The 8-bit Atari computer version was such a amazing leap.

<comment><USER14> What was disappointing about it? I owned an Atari 2600 and played Pac-Man many times. But I've never played it on another game console or in an arcade, so I'm not sure what I was missing.

<comment><USER19> Pretty much everything: the flickering and the altered map with misaligned dots is the most obvious change, but it's missing all the different value bonus items, the iconic sounds, and lots of tiny graphical touches like ghost eyes facing the direction they move in, or up and down sprites for the pac. In short, it's severly cut down on all features, and poorly coded to boot (mrs. pac-man shows you can do better than this).

<comment><USER14> I guess I was very forgiving back then... I loved Pacmac on my 2600. Or maybe it's because it was my first game purchase after "Combat!" (which came with the 2600)

<comment><USER19> I mean, I'm in the same boat as you. 2600 pacman is the only one I knew for a long while and I still kinda prefer the meaty beep sounds over the original sound effects. But for people who knew arcade pacman beforehand, the perception was obviously rather different.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Immortalized in the animated docu-drama Code Monkeys.

[https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1070119/](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1070119/)

</comment><comment><USER21> Here's someone cutting the game open and editing the assembly, to improve it by various means: [http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/](http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/)

</comment><comment><USER22> Wikipedia has a really good history on the video game crash of 1983. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983)

<comment><USER23> The revenue curve beautifully resembles the hype cycle.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Slightly OT, but one of the best ways to master graphics programming is to write at least a few "worse" video games yourself :-)

<comment><USER25> Graphics programming on the 2600 is super weird, I'm not sure the skills learning it are even transferable, but it's really fun to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> $39.95 (1982) = $106.48 (2019)

That was an expensive game.

<comment><USER26> I think many people don't realize how expensive games and consoles were 20-40 years ago. I remember paying $70 for a few different SNES games back in the 90's ($110 now based on a quick inflation check). Are there any computer or console games now that cost anywhere close to $100?

<comment><USER27> It's not unusual for a new game to have dlc available at launch which is the say the game is split into pieces and monetized that way. A new game will have different editions ranging from 60 to 80 bucks and 2-4 dlc at launch and later for 10 - 20 bucks each.

I guess the maximum spend you could end up with is $100 to $160 depending on quantity of dlc and original purchase price.

Call of duty ghosts has a pack with the game all the dlc for $100 now.

[https://store.steampowered.com/app/255163/Call_of_Duty_Ghost...](https://store.steampowered.com/app/255163/Call_of_Duty_Ghosts__Digital_Hardened_Edition/)

<comment><USER23> How many people was involved in the creation of CoD, vs ET? I think the production costs are very different.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Wikipedia's biggest scandal: Industrial-scale blackmail - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/03/wikipedia_industrial_scale_smears_and_blackmail

<comment><USER2> I usually can't stand the tone of wikipedia entries or the 'exquisite corps' style of writing that is wordy and difficult to comprehend at times. I'm glad to hear of Google's new seo that will bring more used and trusted content to the fore than the obligatory wikipedia at the top.

I used to give them money (just a little) but I ceased when I felt that they might as well have ads and the content would, to me, be no different.

I still use wikipedia but mainly for information concerning pop culture which it's very good at.

<comment><USER2> _corpse_ \- sorry.</comment></comment>


AggData: Datasets created from scraping the web - <AUTHOR> http://aggdata.com/ <comment><USER2> Before the App Store hit and iPhone web applications were all the rage, I started working on a restaurant locator. Oddity Software was a company I came across that provides datasets like the ones from AggData, though I'm not sure if it's from scraping the web. I figured I'd give it a mention in case people came here searching for additional resources. They definitely have more in the way of free lists (<http://www.odditysoftware.com/free_lists.html>), though I can't personally vouch for accuracy or timely updates as I haven't used them.

Listable (<http://www.listable.org>) is another list type service, though it's lists are much less complex and are user created.

I'll be adding AggData to my bookmarks, though. I could see myself using at least one of their "FreeData" lists in the future and possible some of their paid ones.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, this discussion is way deeper than we have ever gotten into at AggData. In fact, "frig", I think we may need to hire you. :) We have been very particular in the type of data we collect for some of these very reasons, and we feel that the location data was enough in the public domain to protect us from infringement allegations. We don't currently have much in place to pursue those trying to resell our data, and it hasn't really been a problem yet. I think, like mentioned, it doesn't make much economical sense.

A couple of other quick responses: yes, we know our search is kind of lacking now, and we're working to fix it. Also, we have major plans of offering bulk data and specific regional data; we're currently just working on expanding our library, though.

Thank you, everyone, for your insight! -Chris Hathaway, AggData LLC

(and seriously, frig, send us a message on our contact page, I have more questions for you)

</comment><comment><USER4> Hey, AggData guys, why not change business model and sell your data in bulks? Wouldn't be nice to use it that way?

from aggdata.dealership_locations import cadillac

print "Cadillac Dealers in NY:"

for loc in cadillac:

        if loc.city == 'New York':

            print loc.address, loc.phonenumber

</comment><comment><USER5> Their "FreeData" sets could use some attention.

I realize it is _free_ , but if you are going to have it as an example of what you do, have it correct and up to date.

The headers for the congress data are completely off, and is not current.. Franken, Kennedy.. etc..

</comment><comment><USER6> If you are interested in data, here are some sites to get them from

<http://theinfo.org/get/data>

<http://infochimps.org>

[http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.js...](http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=243)

<http://ckan.net>

EDIT: Comprehensive list here [http://www.datawrangling.com/some-datasets- available-on-the-...](http://www.datawrangling.com/some-datasets-available-on- the-web)

</comment><comment><USER7> I have looked into making a business like this before, there are quite a few of them and I do like scraping.

But don't you have to break a lot of 'terms of use' agreements to scrape this data? Could you get in legal trouble for that?

<comment><USER8> Maybe, but there's a decent legal argument that it's not copyrightable data (facts of where stuff is for example), and that it's publicly posted ("find a store near you" links).

I suppose it gets more and more fuzzy if you move into non-fact data, and you open yourself up more to lawsuits.

<comment><USER9> By the same legal argument, couldn't anyone buy one of AggData's datasets and then publish it for free on the internet?

<comment><USER10> Yes + no.

NO: The kicker is that if you did that they'd sue you for breach of contract.

YES: once you passed it off to third parties (in violation of contract) it's not clear how strong of a remedy AggData actually has.

Some of the notions + folk wisdom about copyrightability of facts is based on assumptions that increasingly don't hold.

EG: you can't really copyright the factual contents of the phonebook; if I want to compete with the existing phonebook publisher by retyping the phone book they don't have a copyright claim against me (provided I only transcribe the facts, and organize the information in an obvious or mechanical fashion, like alphabetical ordering).

If you were instead to compete with an existing phone book company by literally _xeroxing_ their product they could probably take you to trial (on a theory that the underlying _facts_ aren't under copyright but the specific page layouts and so on are; there's also the issue of the ads you'd be xeroxing but let's not muddle things overmuch).

If this has already happened and been litigated I've never heard of it.

What something like AggData is doing shows some of the conceptual limits of the existing framework:

\- existing physical instantiations of abstract "databases" (collections of fact)

\-- (1) couldn't be economically "xeroxed" (EG: if you do it cheaply it is visibly inferior-looking; if you do a very high fidelity reproduction it's about as costly as just re-doing it from scratch)

\-- (2) had enough "wiggle room" in how they might be represented in a human- friendly medium such that:

\--- (A) on the one hand there's the possibility of a viable copyright claim against a "xeroxer" (under the theory that the page layout is under copyright even if the facts themselves are not)

\--- (B) on the other hand _allowing_ for the possibility of "retypers" to actually take advantage of the not-copyrighted status of the underlying facts and actually produce a different product (b/c it is _possible_ to reproduce the same facts with a format sufficiently-different from the source you drew them from)

\- but as the "database" becomes increasingly digital

\-- (1) "xeroxing" is very economical (far more so than "retyping")

\-- (2) there's increasingly less meaningful "wiggle room" as to how the facts might be represented in a "database"; changes-of-format dont' do much, but once the data is shorn of its human-friendly formatting all the useful ways of storing it are essentially isomorphic, meaning (2.B) above is increasingly unlikely (it may no longer be possible to "clone" the abstract data without being too close to the exact format of the source for legal protection).

If someone's actually seen these issues played out or "settled" I'd love to learn more about it.

<comment><USER8> To summarize for my own learning, you can't copyright facts themselves, but you can copyright the representation of facts (page layout, etc).

The question then is if a CSV file counts as "page layout". How customized does something have to be, before it is a creative work? I doubt CSV goes far enough. I wonder if the ordering and presence of columns in the CSV is enough?

I believe I heard a story about a dictionary suing based on the page numbers being copyrightable, but I can't verify that via google. If that is in fact true, then perhaps a CSV is a creative work protected under copyright.

Boy is copyright broken when faced with computers....

<comment><USER10> Yeah basically accurate so far as I know (disclaimer: for awhile I worked @ a publisher of reference works; we had rules-of-thumb explanations for what we could get away with but I'm not an expert).

The real story behind the story you might've heard would've been more like a page-layout type defense with the fact that the contents of each page (by #) were identical between two competing works; throw in the usual misreporting and there you go.

If you track it down please do share.

The CSV thing is really where it gets tricky: generally "trivial" obfuscations or rearrangements to get around existing laws don't fare well in court (and sadly even "trivial" isn't really well-defined), so if a CSV "counts" then rearranging the columns (or randomly sorting the rows, etc.) won't help you. But it's not obvious that a CSV doesn't count either.

Basically the model is supposed to be:

\- you see a printed pages containing representations of facts

\- you "learn" the facts (eg: "copied" them to your brain)

\- you produce printed pages containing representations of facts

...and of course there may be _incidental_ and/or _unavoidable_ resemblances between the two representations but insofar as what you "copied" was just the facts you had fair game.

It's sort-of tacitly assumed that if you did make an exact copy it'd be pretty obvious and that if you went through the above process what you did would look _different enough_ to be pretty obvious also (unless you deliberately cloned something the hard way, which is stupid enough to be rare).

With straight-digital "database" dumps (like the CSV) you have a situation in which if you went through the full process you'd create something that's pretty much indistinguishable from what you'd get if you just hit ctrl-d; this pretty much breaks the rules of thumb / intuition behind the rules around "facts".

<comment><USER8> I think I found it, it was a law book.

[http://lists.essential.org/1995/info-policy- notes/msg00019.h...](http://lists.essential.org/1995/info-policy- notes/msg00019.html)

<comment><USER10> YUP, and it's not quite why I guessed but the situation is pretty similar: non-copyrightable content (legal opinions), successful use of copyright claims over the arrangement.

Incidentally a good historical anecdote; in addition to many aspects in-and- around copyright I tend to think the thinking around public records laws is _woefully_ antiquated (to our general detriment).

Thanks for finding that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Only "Locations" kinds of data? And the search is awful- it couldn't find anything for McDonalds for example (<http://aggdata.com/search/node/McDonalds>)

I was hoping to use it as a possible alternative to <http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/> for ML data sets but now I am kind of disappointed.

<comment><USER12> I just used the search to find 'mcdonald' and it came right up with the McDonalds data.

<comment><USER5> He forget the '

searching for mcdonald's works fine as well.</comment></comment></comment>


Coin Flip Brain Teaser - <AUTHOR> This is a brain teaser we've been batting around the office this morning.  Figured I'd see if HN could come up with a more definitive answer.
I have a coin with a 51% probability of landing on heads, and 49% probability of landing on tails. I call heads 100% of the time. My opponent calls tails 100% of the time. If the coin lands on heads, I get $1, and my opponent loses $1. If the coin lands on tails, my opponent gets $1, and I lose $1.
How many coin flips do I need to do in order to earn $10 with a 99% certainty? <comment><USER2> The number of dollars you win out of N flips is 2W - N, where W ~ B(N,0.51). So, your question is:

What is the minimum value of N such that P(2W - N >= 10) >= 0.99, i.e. P(W >= 5 + N/2) >= 0.99.

So calculate Sum from {n = 5 + N/2} to {n = N} of P(W = n) for some different values of N, and see what you get!

[P(W = n) = (N choose n) 0.51^n 0.49^(N-n)]

<comment><USER3> Solving this numerically, I get 14414.

I used the following line of Mathematica code:

For[n=14400, Sum[PDF[BinomialDistribution[n,.51],k],{k,n/2+5,n}] < .99, n++, Null]; Print[n]

(I played around with it a little to guess the initial value of 14400, just so it wouldn't take forever to run....)

<comment><USER4> I did it in C, my code was a bit longer. (And it has the advantage that you do not need an initial estimate for the problem to be solved in a very short time.)

        #include <math.h>
        #include <stdio.h>

        double p(int throws, double pwin, int req_wins)
        {
            int win, i;
            double log_dp = log(pwin) * throws;
            double log_loss_win = log((1 - pwin) / pwin);
            double ret = 0;
            for (win = throws, i = 0; win >= req_wins; win -= 2, ++i) {
                ret += exp(log_dp);
                log_dp += log_loss_win + log((throws - i) / (i + 1.0));
            }
            return ret;
        }

        int main()
        {
            double pwin = 0.51;
            int req_wins = 10;
            double conf = 0.99;
            int min, max = 1;
            while (p(max, pwin, req_wins) < conf)
                max *= 2;
            min = max / 2;
            while (min < max) {
                int mid = (min + max) / 2;
                if (p(mid, pwin, req_wins) < conf)
                    min = mid + 1;
                else
                    max = mid;
            }
            printf("For %d throws, P(win $10 or more) = %f\n"
                   "For %d throws, P(win $10 or more) = %f\n",
                   min - 1, p(min - 1, pwin, req_wins),
                   min, p(min, pwin, req_wins));
        }

The output from this program:

        For 14413 throws, P(win $10 or more) = 0.989777
        For 14414 throws, P(win $10 or more) = 0.990004

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Everybody's assuming that you have to fix the number of coin flips in advance. (This includes my calculation below, which is basically tome's result using a normal approximation to the binomial.) But that was never explicitly stated. You could imagine that you wait until you've got $10 and then walk away; the time until this happens would be shorter. I'd approximate the amount of money you have as a Brownian motion with drift and use that to compute. But I can't do the actual computation right now (I don't have that stuff memorized and don't have the right books where I am).

<comment><USER6> I decided to try to figure it out from this angle. What we have is a random walk where, with probability 0.51 we go forward, and with probability 0.49 we go backward. If we ever reach 10, we quit. I wrote a program to compute the cumulative probability that we stop at 10 over time.

      #include <stdio.h>
      #include <math.h>

      #define GOAL 10
      #define MAXN 20000

      double p = 0.51;
      double pr[2][MAXN + 1 + GOAL];

      #define PR_(t, x) (pr[(t) % 2][MAXN + (x)])

      int main()
      {
        int n, i;
        double totalp = 0;

        PR_(0, 0) = 1;
        for (n = 1; n <= MAXN; n++) {
            PR_(n, -n) = PR_(n-1, -n+1) * (1 - p);
            for (i = -n+1; i < GOAL; i++)
                PR_(n, i) = PR_(n-1, i-1) * p + PR_(n-1, i+1) * (1 - p);
            totalp += PR_(n-1, GOAL-1) * p;
            printf("n=%d p=%g\n", n, totalp);
            if (totalp >= 0.99)
                break;
        }

        return 0;
      }

The results:

      n=5488 p=0.989997
      n=5489 p=0.989997
      n=5490 p=0.990005

You get to quit much sooner if you can walk away as soon as you have $10!

<comment><USER7> The following lisp simulation gets numbers on about the same order of magnitude:

        (defun flip () (if (< (random 100) 49) nil t))

        (defun game (n d)
          (declare (optimize speed))
          (if (>= d 10) n
            (if (flip)
              (game (incf n) (incf d))
              (game (incf n) (decf d)))))

        (print (nth 1000 (sort (loop for i from 1 to 100000
                        collect (game 0 0)) #'> )))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is all scribbled in a notebook, so there's a good chance that it's wrong, but bear with me on the arithmetic.

As a first guess, let's agree that in expectation you earn $0.51 each time you flip the coin, so it should take you about 20 tries to reach $10. Let's do something better, though.

EDIT: The previous paragraph is totally wrong. Thanks, tome :)

Let's build a confidence interval with alpha = 0.01 so that (1 - alpha) = 0.99. First, we'll need some trials. For that, I wrote a program that flipped a weighted coin and played the game until it reached $10 using the rules that you described. I recorded the number of coin flips required in each of 15 trials:

298, 84, 268, 2712, 110, 66, 42, 128, 84, 48, 280, 80, 64, 42, 234

We'll need the sample mean, X_bar = 302.

Now, we'll compute the Z-score so that we can build an interval in which the true mean (mu) lies with 99% probability:

P(-z <= Z <= z) = 0.99

We know that Z = (302 - mu) / (sigma / sqrt(n)), where sigma (the standard deviation) = 650 and sqrt(n) = 4. I'm rounding. Therefore, Z = (302 - mu) / 168.

Now, let's look at the cumulative distribution function Phi(z) and note that if Phi(z) = 1 - (alpha / 2) = 0.995, then Phi(z) ~= 0.997, the approximate cutoff for the 3rd standard deviation. Thus, z ~= 3.

Thus, we have that P(-3 <= (X_bar - mu) / (sigma / sqrt(n)) <= 3) = 0.99, so P(X_bar - 504 <= mu <= X_bar + 504) = 0.99. Therefore, I am 99% confident that the true mean, mu, lies on [X_bar - 504, X_bar + 504] = [302 - 504, 302 + 504].

That's a really wide range, and seemingly completely unhelpful for the purposes of betting. More sample trials would teach us more and lead us to a smaller interval since we expect that within some large number of trials we will converge on mu.

<comment><USER2> Your expected earning on each flip is $0.02 not $0.51!

<comment><USER8> You're exactly right. Whoops!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> With GNU R:

      require(graphics)
      netgain <- function(x) { 2*qbinom(.01,x,.51)-x }
      plot(1:25000,netgain(1:25000))
      plot(10000:15000,netgain(10000:15000))

The first plot is interesting because it shows you are not expected to win anything with 99% certainty until around 13000 tosses.

</comment><comment><USER6> Let X be a random variable indicating the number of heads that have come up. After n flips, E[x] = pn, where p = 0.51 in our case. When X >= n/2 + 5, we're up 10 dollars.

In other words, we want to find n such that

Pr[X < n/2 + 5] < .01

If we express that in terms of the mean, we can apply a Chernoff bound:

Pr[X <= E[X] - a] <= Exp[-2a^2/n], for 0 < a < E[X]

If E[x] = pn, then a = pn - (n/2 + 5), which for p = 0.51 is a = .01n - 5.

So, solving Exp[-2a^2/n] = .01 (with help from Wolfram alpha) gives a quadratic equation with two solutions:

n = 348.257 and n = 651.743

The first is too small, a would be negative (n needs to be at least 500). The second is good enough.

652 does the trick.

<comment><USER5> I like the idea of using a Chernoff bound, but 652 is way too low to be the answer!

But I get, as solutions for exp(-2(.01n-5)^2 / n) = .01, n = 10.4 and n = 24015.

<comment><USER6> Oh you're right, that's the solution. Silly me, the moment I go to a computer to solve the final equation I get it wrong!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can we set up the problem this way:

sum_{i=0}^k [(10+k) choose (10+i)] (.51)^(10+i) >= .99

find the minimum value of k that satisfies the inequality.

</comment><comment><USER10> Is it that you earn ten dollars before your opponent, or just that you earn ten dollars?

<comment><AUTHOR> That you earn $10 with 99% certainty.

<comment><USER10> Doing the 99% certainty part I'm pretty sure requires that you calculate a confidence interval <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_interval> although that article hasn't helped me remember how to do that

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> statistically, after 100 flips, you'd be up 2 dollars. so it would take 500 flips.

</comment><comment><USER11> statistically, after 100 flips, you'd be up $2. so it would take 500 flips.

</comment><comment><USER12> No idea how to solve this. You want to solve for p = .01.

</comment><comment><USER13> 70

exp: after 7 flips 99% probability of earning $1 (1-(0,49^7))

times 10</comment>


OpenMobster, Enterprise MBaaS Platform released: Where do we go from here? - <AUTHOR> http://openmobster.blogspot.com/2013/12/openmobster-enterprise-mbaas-platform.html

<comment><AUTHOR> OpenMobster, Open Source MBaaS Platform version 2.4-M3 is now released. This blog entry discusses our MBaaS strategy going forward such as focus on Enterprise, Offline Workflow, Windows 8 Support, and dropping HTML5. We look forward to your feedback</comment>


Don't be evil? Google funding a slew of right-wing groups  - <AUTHOR> http://billmoyers.com/2013/12/04/dont-be-evil-google-funding-a-slew-of-right-wing-groups/ <comment><USER2> Really? It's evil to fund "right wing groups"? Grow up. People you disagree with != evil.

<comment><USER3> Yes. Most of the time, or every-time when it comes to the evil Koch brothers. Think closing down health care clinics providing services for women, just as a start.

There are many other "grassroots" activities they've invented and which are known and documented. Scared to think what we don't yet know.

They're evil. They are the right in the US these days.

<comment><USER2> This reply very well sums up the pure insanity of our political system today and seems to prove through example my original comment.

<comment><USER3> No doubt it is insane, more than someone on the right would ever be honest enough to admit. Repealing "Obamacare", defunding "Obamaacare", government shutdown, anti abortion legislation and shutting down of women's access to healthcare services in many states.... for anyone, weather american or not, manipulating people to choose what's bad for them is pure evil.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> But funding the left isn't evil?

<comment><USER5> Correct. And I should add that what is considered the "left" in the US is what most of the rest of the world considers slightly right of center. The US right, virulently opposed to environmental regulation, basic human rights (e.g. universal health care, a woman's right to control her body), and favoring low taxes for the rich etc is "evil".

<comment><USER4> Funding the left is every bit as evil as funding the right. Someone once observed that the left wants to control your wallet, and the right your bedroom.

The behaviour of the 'right' in using lethal force to prevent people obtaining abortions is every bit as immoral as the 'left' using lethal force to ensure that people pay for other people's healthcare.

The only _moral_ alternative is to eliminate coercion from all dealings between people, and the only framework I've seen that might have a hope in hell of doing so is anarcho-capitalism.

<comment><USER5> "... the 'left' using lethal force to ensure that people pay for other people's healthcare."

WTF?

Here's a message from the civilized world where publicly funded healthcare is an utterly mundane fact of life, on a par with publicly funded policing: Take two Valium America and calm yourself down.

<comment><USER4> Lee,

It's interesting that you assume I'm American on the basis of my description of what "public funding" really is, at heart. Newsflash: I'm actually Australian, born in the UK and raised in New Zealand.

You're not exactly addressing the point I raised, though. "Public funding" relies upon coercion. That many people consider such coercion an "utterly mundane fact of life" is irrelevant to the underlying immorality of it: forcing some people to pay for goods and services to be given to others.

I'm not suggesting that people who are through no fault of their own incapable of providing for themselves be left to die or suffer. I'm suggesting that the ends don't justify the means when it comes to the initiation of force.

 _Edited_ : here's an open letter, originally written to Rand, that illustrates the coercive nature of Government, and explains a rational, coercion-free alternative: [http://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/roy-a-childs- jr/objectivi...](http://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/roy-a-childs- jr/objectivism-and-the-state-an-open-letter-to-ayn-rand/)

 _Edited_ : linking to LewRockwell.com does _not_ constitute a blanket endorsement of their content on my part :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The market selects for amorality; the structure of corporate governance (especially with publicly traded companies) ensures that everything hinting otherwise is really just particularly effective PR.</comment>


"We Gained Hope" The Story of Lilly Grossmans Genome - <AUTHOR> http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/11/we-gained-hope-the-story-of-lilly-grossmans-genome/

<comment><AUTHOR> Another account : [http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/09/genome- genetics-D...](http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/09/genome-genetics-DNA- topol-sequence/)</comment>


It is difficult to see how WeWork will ever be profitable - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/can-wework-be-profitable-ipo-financials-2019-8 <comment><USER2> I worked at a few WeWorks and many of their floors had rooms that were vacated and empty. When we left We Work they offered us big discounts so that we would not leave them. If a recession hits I think they will lose a great deal of customers.</comment>


Ask HN: Timer as a service - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone know if there exists anything that would work as timer as a service?
For example, every monday, I need an http request to hit my server.  At that time, then some business logic would kick off.
I currently do it with polling, but I think it would make more sense as a push request.  And I think it would be even better if an external server issued the request at a given interval.
I have been googling around, but haven't found any services like that.  Does anyone know of anything out there? <comment><USER2> Just spin up a flask instance on a server to handle the logic. No vendor lock- in, and it shouldn't take more than an hour.</comment>