A Bemidji professor is on a quest to keep the Ojibwe language alive - <AUTHOR> https://www.startribune.com/a-bemidji-professor-is-on-quest-to-keep-the-ojibwe-language-alive/569281272/ <comment><USER2> 1) I was unable to get past the popups to read the article until I tried opening the link in a "private" window. If you are having trouble, that might work for you as well. Alternatively: [https://archive.is/DUdqz](https://archive.is/DUdqz).

2) Growing up in Northern Wisconsin, the only public radio station we reliably received was from the Ojibwe reservation ([https://www.wojb.org](https://www.wojb.org)) and featured a segment called "Ojibwe word of the day". I thought I'd remembered the word for "moon", but checking the wonderful online Ojibwe dictionary at UMN ([https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu](https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu)), I think I must be mistaken --- or maybe there are multiple words for moon.

3) Anton Treuer (the subject of the article) teaches at Bemidji State, while his brother David teaches at USC. David's 2013 book "Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life" is an accessible and I think accurate introduction to the complexity of life on modern reservations ([https://www.amazon.com/Rez-Life-Indians-Journey- Reservation/...](https://www.amazon.com/Rez-Life-Indians-Journey- Reservation/dp/0802120822j)).

<comment><USER3> Crazy, WOJB was also one of my home radio stations (although being close to Ashland we got others as well). My dad DJd occasionally on WOJB when I was really little.

<comment><USER4> My stepmom was a program director too! I still tune in sometimes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The part of Northern Ontario where I grew up is part of the Ojibwe nation.

The most impressive thing about the nation to me is how inhospitable the region is. The winter where I'm from typically lasts about 8 months, it snowed a few days ago. The area wasn't really permanently inhabited by white people until well after industrialization.

I couldn't imagine living there without shipping or heating infrastructure.

It's unfortunate that we've lost so much of the history and traditions that enabled the Ojibwe to thrive there. Public school definitely didn't help, we learned absolutely nothing about their culture despite maybe a quarter of my class being native kids.

<comment><USER6> > Public school definitely didn't help, we learned absolutely nothing about > their culture despite maybe a quarter of my class being native kids.

The one thing that always grated me when learning history in school is how utterly Eurocentric it was. Early anthropology was focused on explaining how "we" (principally Victorian Britain) became so great, and looked at the world through a lens of a checklist of how evolved they were--and people who couldn't smelt bronze were not seen as far advanced, since that's one of the first items in the list. While this view has been thoroughly discredited within the field of anthropology itself, it still lives on in popular writings and (sadly) our history textbooks.

Which is a shame, because the more you study pre-Columbian Americas, the more amazing you find it is. There's plenty to challenge your preconceived notions of history.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is there any evidence of this common claim that obscure languages "may contain some of the most critical solutions to the problems we face as humans"? What kind of problems is he talking about there? Has it ever happened before?

So what that a monkey is a "lice hunter"? In English, an anteater is an anteater and a wood splitter is a wood splitter. It's not a very special way of naming things. Maybe this language has no value to anyone except its own users, but they already speak it, so no effort is needed.

These activists always have a dark intention in their ideas that they want some poor indigenous people to be burdened with the work of learning and using a dying language. If young Ojibwe people are choosing not to use it, then maybe it's because they don't want or need it. I also didn't learn much Morse code as a kid despite older people wanting me to. Turns out it's no longer as useful as it was back in their day.

"Language, Treuer says, defines nations, connects generations and allows a culture to express its perspective on the world." Yes, and English does that job much better because you can actually communicate with the world and multiple generations. Different cultures do alter it with local slang or styles of speech and it's still intelligible while also defining their identity.

<comment><USER8> >Yes, and English does that job much better because you can actually communicate with the world and multiple generations.

That's a misunderstanding of Treuer's point. English is able to define _English_ nations and express the _English_ cultural perspective. He's not arguing that language, generally, is a tool for communication - he's saying that specific languages each yield their own specific identities.

To address the point more generally - languages do, for most speakers, have an influence on thought. People acknowledge that effect to varying degrees, from "you can't think what you can't express" to "language is intertwined with culture and culture differentiates thought" (i.e. not quite Sapir-Worf).

As an anecdotal argument - monolingual speakers often expect translation to be one-to-one, bar idioms. The fact is languages differ in nuance for different kinds of terms, to the point where a mapping might be one-to-many, many-to- one, or completely absent - and those nuances can and do reflect different cultural attitudes. For example, there is no English equivalent to wel[1], the Dutch word for reinforcing a positive sentiment.

[1]: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wel#Dutch](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wel#Dutch)

<comment><USER9> This is a sidetrack, but is "wel" like "do", as per the examples on Wiktionary? Or simply like the English word "well"?

<comment><USER8> "wel" is basically nothing like the English "well", except in archaic speech. It is _similar_ to "do", but you can't use "do" to positively affirm nearly as much as you could use "wel". There is simply no way to directly translate it, and it has no equivalent in English - though you can describe it, as the positive "not".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm struck by how many of them have seemingly ethnic-Japanese facial features.

<comment><USER11> Bering Strait

<comment><USER10> I figured. I just find it super cool to see contemporary signs of something so far back in history.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Learning English or Chinese or C# would vastly improve people lives. Learning Ojibwe is less useful than learning klingon...</comment>


RISC OS is being relicensed under the Apache license - <AUTHOR> https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2018/10/22/risc-os-is-open-for-business <comment><USER2> When I first came across RISC OS years ago, I couldn't help but be amazed that the entire OS ran in only 4MB - and often burned to ROM[0]. Just the write- protection alone made this impressive to me - especially as something useful to the general population.

A short while later, I came across an effort to run a riscOS-based computer (circa 2001), basically on batteries[1]. It seemed to solidy the ' _light on resources_ ' aspect of the entire riscOS stack.

RISC OS usage[2] seems to indicate it's a little tricky (non-intuitive) for first-time users[2]. Hopefully if someone picks up development on this, improving the interface a bit (ie, 3-button mouse reliance, etc), plus adding wifi are things that are tackled first.

Honestly... would hate to see feature-bloat creep in too much. I played around with KolibriOS[3] the other day and there's certainly a benefit to small and fast!

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

[1] [http://www.explan.co.uk/hardware/solo.shtml](http://www.explan.co.uk/hardware/solo.shtml)

[2] [https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-raspberry-pi-retro-pc- ris...](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-raspberry-pi-retro-pc-risc-os/)

[3] [https://www.kolibrios.org/en/](https://www.kolibrios.org/en/)

<comment><USER3> RISC OS was the majority OS in British schools for part of the 1990s. It's not difficult to use, though it does have some different paradigms. Or rather, it went 100% for some UI decisions which other OSs only have as secondary features.

Middle click opens a menu (like a right click menu on Windows). Usually this is the main menu, the context will change depending where you click -- to get a save option, you need to click on an open document.

Everything is accessed through the file browsing windows. Opening document and applications, and saving documents (dragging them into an open window). Drag and drop is very common.

I think that's all :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice.

So RISC OS is now open source. EmuTOS is an open sourced Atari ST TOS. Hell, Apple is open sourcing LisaOS.

Why isn't AmigaOS open source yet?

<comment><USER5> I get the feeling the AmigaOS people still think they can sell it or they have a bunch of code that they know will be problematic to open source.

<comment><USER6> Either that, or they don't have some of the code anymore. It's changed hands a few times so it's possible that some of it is only available as binary files packed into the ROMs and other places.

<comment><USER7> Hyperion released a new version of AmigaOS just a couple of weeks ago [http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php/where-to- buy/dir...](http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php/where-to-buy/direct- downloads/188-amigaos-314)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "the mission to reinvigorate the RISC OS market"

They're nearly 20 years too late for that. The only compelling reason to use RISC OS over anything else these days is nostalgia. Still, it might be an interesting project to hack on.

<comment><USER9> I don't know about that. There's a serious market for a real desktop personal computing operating system right now, one that is simple (note: not _easy_ , _simple_ ), and enables users instead of trying to coddle them. Could RISC OS fill that role? Probably not without a whole lot of changes, starting with a conversion to preemptive multitasking. And worse, if anyone took it up they'd probably make it all POSIX and integrate a package manager and try to turn it into another Linux Distro.

Still, I can hold on to vain hopes.

<comment><USER8> I think simple and useful are competing goals. RISC OS is simple, but there's _a lot_ that it can't do. I expect that simplicity makes porting larger software projects pretty difficult too.

> starting with a conversion to preemptive multitasking

I wonder how difficult that would actually be. I think it could be done without changing the existing WIMP API. The Wimp_Poll loop would still exist as is, just as in other windowing systems; it just wouldn't be the only time it loses control.

And preemption has certainly been done before in Niall Douglas's Tornado project.

<comment><USER9> > I think simple and useful are competing goals.

Counterpoint: the stick, the knife, and the wheel.

<comment><USER8> That doesn't seem like a counterpoint at all. For example, a knife would be more useful if you could also eat soup with it, but it would be less useful.

<comment><USER9> Why would I want to eat soup with a knife? That sounds like it would cause more problems than it solves. A knife you can eat soup with is exactly the kind of over-engineered nonsense feature that modern OSs cram in. But I could carve a spoon with a knife.

Let me give a less analogous example: Windows recently (or will soon, I forget) have a Dark Mode, which will make window colors darker and text colors brighter. This is a feature upgrade, apparently. Yet back in Windows 95 people would have laughed at you for making a big deal out of that, because you could just arbitrarily change all the window and text colors at will. No reghacks, no CSS, just a simple settings widget [0].

Another example is how ludicrous application installation has become. In the DOS and MacOS Classic days you just copied a folder to a disk, any disk, and ran it and it worked. Nowadays there's package managers and SxS and you can't even install applications to different disks. Is the former method more limited? In some ways yes. But it is also much more flexible in others and much simpler, it's easy to reason about and fits perfectly with the file management metaphor that is the core abstraction of desktop OSs.

[0][http://toastytech.com/guis/win95schemes.png](http://toastytech.com/guis/win95schemes.png)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wish that the QNX OS was open source and free as in beer.

How far away is this from being as usable as I hear QNX is?

<comment><USER11> I don't think they have much in common. There's not much out there really similar to QNX. Maybe Minix, since it's a microkernel with good userspace POSIX support. No "real time" support though. There's FreeRTOS, but it's not terribly similar to QNX either.

<comment><USER10> Thanks! My brain seemed to think the R in Reduced Instruction Set was for real time ...whoops!

Neat project regardless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting choice of license. It will be very interesting to see what kind of growth their community experiences as a result.

<comment><USER11> ARM only, single-user, cooperative multitasking, 31 bit max file size and somewhat limited memory protection. I suspect the audience would be limited to niches where all of that isn't an issue.

<comment><USER13> It might appeal to those people who are nostalgic about the sort of elegance and simplicity of the design that went into MS-DOS/Windows 3.1. RISC OS is not quite like that, but it is a fantastic system in its own right, especially since it runs natively and fast on the Raspberry Pi. I hope that this move will create a huge surge in community support of this beautiful OS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wonder what the vision is for what they want it to become?

Cause realistically most of the OS bases are covered now.

</comment><comment><USER15> This should allow "GPLv2 or later" code to be used, right? (Allowing it to be ported to more ARM platforms)

<comment><USER16> I don't believe so. Here's the Apache project's position on the subject:

"Apache 2 software can therefore be included in GPLv3 projects. . . However, GPLv3 software cannot be included in Apache projects. The licenses are incompatible in one direction only"

([https://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL- compatibility.html](https://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html))

(edit: Forgot to mention GPLv2 - that one is even less compatible: "Despite our best efforts, the FSF has never considered the Apache License to be compatible with GPL version 2")

<comment><USER15> Yea, I know it might require the RISC OS kernel to be relicensed.

<comment><USER17> If you are talking about the Linux kernel. Then yes, a kernel relicense is absolutely required.

<comment><USER17> I have received a few downvotes. Please note I was answering the above question that a relicense is absolutely required for compatibility with the Apache v2 license because of the patent provision that is incompatible with the GPL v2. This is the position of the Free Software Foundation. The GPL v3 has a patent provision and explicit compatibility with the Apache v2 license to end any ambiguities.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Fast Meme Transform: Convert Audio into Linux Commands - <AUTHOR> http://blog.robertelder.org/fast-meme-transform/ <comment><USER2> I wanted to know how well this compared to ffmpeg | base64 (or base{emoji}), but actually I can't make anything that sounds as good in as small a filesize.

The FMT version is 2379 bytes of shell.

Opus bottoms-out at 6000bps (even when you ask for something smaller like 4000bps):

        ffmpeg -i tripple.wav -ac 1 -ar 8000 -b:a 4000 -ss 4.9 -t 3 tripple.opus

That makes a 3638 byte file. It sounds a lot better than the FMT version, but it's 1.5x the size and still non-printable.

Speex can apparently go as low as 2000bps:

        ffmpeg -i tripple.wav -ac 1 -ar 8000 -b:a 2000 -ss 4.9 -t 3 tripple.spx

That makes a 1322 byte file, or 1788 after base64, much smaller than FMT, even after you add the necessary base64|ffplay shell wrapping. But it sounds significantly worse than FMT (and ffmpeg had clipped off the last few audio frames).

EDIT: AMR-NB (1999) can drop to 4750bps, and Codec2 (2011) can drop to 450bps, but my copy of ffmpeg doesn't support encoding into either format.

</comment><comment><USER3> > If the thought of running a huge untrusted shell command full of obviously > compressed text scares you (like it should)

If, however, I clone it from GitHub and build it without looking at the source, it's good to go.

</comment><comment><USER4> this is pretty fun. Seems like it's in the same vein as the libraries that let you convert video to ascii to play in terminal. No real-world use but they're a nice display of skill and definitely make you smile.

<comment><USER5> So, you convert the video __and __audio and play them in the terminal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> echo -n is not POSIX. Use printf '%s\n' "$var" instead.

<comment><USER7> bsd is unix

<comment><USER8> gnu is unix

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't have the xxd nor aplay commands on my system, but I do wonder: Is there a reason for the whole rigmarole instead of just using base64?

<comment><USER10> yes, this is significantly denser (shorter total length) than encoding actual audio

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> ffs</comment>


Like video games? You may be playing with government propaganda [audio] - e-sushi http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/04/21/like-video-games-you-may-be-playing-with-government-propaganda/ <comment><AUTHOR> Just a note that this is a podcast and not an article. (So maybe the title should include (audio) or something) Also, from the blurb posted, I'm not sure if the title is accurate because it specifically mentions the game _IS Defense_ and then says it talked to a guy on "how to build a better propaganda game". Then again it is a 24-minute podcast and maybe Reuters just didn't write it well.

</comment><comment><USER2> Every game studio has its own agenda, beyond profit. It doesn't take a genius to realize a million-user game has social influence, and the game studio/company could be paid or coerced to adhere to some agenda. People still think video gaming is some niche nerd hobby, while its actually one of most popular forms of entertainment. Video games has more influence than books, cinema and TV combined - they are concentrated and repeated content following one narrative vs many-narrative media. Some governments, think tanks and interest groups already realized how immersive content works on the brain(as separate constructed reality) and its vast influence on the critical segments of society in their mental development stages. Memory is working with content from the games the same way as if it was equally important to real-life goals and tasks: the virtual worlds and escapism they represent are actually future models of reality for most people, changing their internal mental models of what is socially right/wrong. (not that "violent video games cause violence" \- its "video games treat violence as glamorous and unrealistic, with minimal consequences" changing perspectives and opinion of violence)

</comment><comment><USER3> Most of the military FPS games I've played in the last 10 or so years with a story line have a ton of active military members credited. CoD4:MW [1] credits five active military personnel for advising, offers special thanks to several divisions of the USMC and US Army, and many of the other people given special thanks have be credited on several other military games (and nothing but).

These games are clearly great recruiting tools for the US military. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually have evidence that the US military was a large influence behind the proliferation of military shooter games from 2004 onward. Perhaps pushing larger publishers to creating "realistic" games by offering them resources in exchange for casting the military in a favorable light. Much like how they influence Hollywood by giving them access to billion dollar war machines for their movies.

[1] Example: [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/call-of- duty-4-modern-...](http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/call-of- duty-4-modern-warfare/credits)

</comment><comment><USER4> Deus Ex is totally a New World Order, Illuminati propaganda game series. /s

</comment><comment><USER5> Note: George Weidman might be better known as SuperBunnyHop.</comment>


Ask HN: Balancing my ego/beliefs against company's - <AUTHOR> I recently started a job as a full stack software developer in the midwest, after years of freelancing and being entrepreneurial.
The company I work for is a small firm. They have the expectations of a traditional company, whereas I am heavily influenced by SV lifestyle and thinking. Ex: everyone shows up at 9, leaves at 5, where I don't really care for timeliness (I don't interface with clients, and don't have colleagues dependent on my presence). My priority is the quality and timeliness of my work.
This has lead to minor frictions where my manager has mentioned that my lateness "sets a bad example" and asked that I show at 9. Fair enough; but as someone who sees themselves as hard working and independent, being told what to do bothers me.
My non-tech friends do not give me much sympathy; they are used to treating work as a necessary evil, and their expectations of their employers are as such.
It is my desire to not become an arrogant, entitled brat. How do I balance my personal beliefs about work with the company's? The work itself is fine, the colleagues are fine, its just these little cultural things. I am lucky enough to be able to walk away if I need to, but I feel that is the ultimate brat move. <comment><USER2> Latitude to set your own terms is earned, not demanded. If you demonstrate overwhelming value to the company they will do anything to keep you, including letting you set your own schedule. This is laid out much better than I just said it in Cal Newport's book: So Good They Can't Ignore You [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455509124/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455509124/)

Until then, "play the game" and over-deliver. Your only other alternative is to return to freelancing if setting your own schedule is that vital a prerequisite.

</comment><comment><USER3> No matter what you do, you will almost certainly seem arrogant or entitled. The only counter-balance to this is to make sure that if you're late to arrive, you are the last one to leave. That shows that you're devoted and willing to work whatever hours necessary.

Since the bad example has already been brought up, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle to redeem yourself. You may want to start negotiating a different shift that still puts in the hours but allows you to come in later and leave later. Another idea is to push remote work and stress that you aren't customer facing and that you'd be more productive working from home anyway.

Companies that are reluctant to take this approach will sometimes allow work from home X days / week so that they can see you're still producing so that's another option you can try if they flat-out turn down fully-remote.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would tread very carefully. As a midwesterner who has also worked in SV, you would likely come off as that arrogant brat. I'd mentally frame it in those cultural terms rather than beliefs: When in Rome do as the Romans do.

<comment><AUTHOR> I feel that this may take its toll on me. Some days I'm sprinting hard and getting a lot of work done, and I'm exhausted by 4-4:30pm. But I can't leave early because its against norms. This builds resentment in me because the work is getting done, but I have to sit around and burn time for superficial appearances.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You found it, right at the end of the post. It is a cultural issue above all else and it is a common difference. It's not a question of good/bad or entitlement. Just decide what type of culture you are OK working for, given the trade-offs. If you don't have to live in a $4000 a month, two bedroom apartment, or a 2 hour commute, or 12% state income tax, maybe it's worth adjusting. Maybe not.</comment>


The General Crisis of the 17th Century - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_Crisis <comment><USER4> Regardless of what you think about whether these crises were connected, they did give rise to a rather important idea. At its heart, the idea is that, "I won't kill you for your beliefs if you aren't going to kill me for mine."

This may seem like common sense today, but historically we only arrived at it after having plenty of opportunity to deal with the aftermath of people being willing to kill each other for having different ideas about whether, for instance, Christianity is what the Catholic Church teaches us that it is.

This tolerance gave rise to such ideas as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on. Which were key ideas from the Age of Enlightenment, which ideals influenced the US Constitution and Western culture to this day.

<comment><USER5> This is actually exactly how I've recently heard the Peace of Westphalia[0] described (which ended the Thirty Years War in Germany): it established the idea that nations are independent "wholes" with their own laws, religion and politics, and that that's okay.

The ideas encoded in the agreement are basically the reason we think of events like the Crimean secession[1] as an unconstitutional Russian annexation regardless of whether it happened by a public vote or not: even if there was a referendum and even if that referendum was formally valid and the outcome was in favour of the secession, the constitution of the Ukraine forbids the secession and therefore renders the referendum invalid by definition.

It's also important to note that these ideas of statehood popped up in the (at the time) Christian world and therefore strongly shaped the face of modern Christianity and the separation of state and church in the West (which even in its worst cases still works better today than it did before the Enlightenment). This didn't happen in the Islamic world, at least not in the same way (though there are examples for church-state separation as in post-WW1 Turkey). I think this provides some insights into why that part of the world's politics is so poorly understood by Westerners (e.g. consider the tribal politics in Afghanistan or the Sunni-Shia conflicts all over the map).

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

[1]: Whether it was an annexation or secession and whether it was formally valid or not is a separate debate. There is a lot of evidence indicating that it was, to say the least, influenced by Russia, which would have made its validity doubtful even if it wasn't unconstitutional.

<comment><USER6> > even if there was a referendum and even if that referendum was formally > valid and the outcome was in favour of the secession, the constitution of > the Ukraine forbids the secession and therefore renders the referendum > invalid by definition.

That's kind of weird. What does it take to peacefully annihilate/void a constitution, then?

I would assume that if every citizen revokes their citizenship to the original country, then the original country ceases to exist, no? (Or rather, retains no more sovereignty than a "country" like Sealand.)

<comment><USER7> Most constitutions can be amended, but unless there are people with guns ready to back them up they are, to quote George Bush, "just a piece of paper".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Parker's book on the topic is a good one-volume cover of the history from a global perspective. The climate data are pretty clear on how weird things were, with no shortage of "most extreme ever" events from China to England:

[http://www.amazon.com/Global-Crisis-Climate-Catastrophe- Seve...](http://www.amazon.com/Global-Crisis-Climate-Catastrophe- Seventeenth/dp/0300208634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434393062&sr=8-1&keywords=global+crisis)

Concepts--all concepts--are made things, and the edges we draw around them are the edges of our attention. People draw those edges in different places, or not at all, depending on their priors. As such, a certain type of person will argue that there wasn't "really" a "general criss" in the 17th century because the panoply of events aren't enough to trigger their edge-detectors, and they feel that their edge-detectors are arbiters of reality. Arguments of this nature are rarely productive. The events happened regardless of what you call them.

That the global climate underwent a statistically significant excursion in the 17th century is hard to argue against. That that excursion was also economically significant is likewise difficult to argue against. Unprecedented multi-year runs of poor harvests aren't really something that can be wished away with ideology. Finally, that the economic excursion helped drive political decision making should be relatively uncontroversial, unless one were to argue that politics happens in an economic vacuum.

Parker does a good job of emphasizing the contingency of outcomes. People made decisions for reasons that seemed good to them--often of the form "God loves my country, so if I do X, Y will necessarily and certainly happen!"\--and results followed for unrelated reasons (often of the form, "Luck.")

He also argues that something like 1/3 of the human species died in the crisis, which is fairly astonishing, but given the death tolls for the places where we have data, not entirely unsupportable.

</comment><comment><USER9> There are some interesting comparisons between (what the economist Tyler Cowen refers to as) The Great Stagnation Of 1973-now, and The Really Great Stagnation of 1650-1740. Restraining the comparison to the English speaking nations, we can say:

1.) Both episodes begin with a cultural revolution that has no precedent (the arrival of militant Protestantism versus the arrival of the counter-culture of the 1960s)

2.) Both episodes witness a fundamental reassessment of what property is. (The closing of the commons giving rise to the concept of private property, versus the modern rise of intellectual property).

3.) Both episodes see important intellectual innovation, against a background of economic stagnation (Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton, Boyle, versus the rise of modern genetics --- although, arguably, this is an area where the analogy breaks down, as nothing of the last 50 years seems to match the importance of Newton or Boyle).

4.) Both episodes see a civil rights struggle that fundamentally changes the relationship between the citizen and the state (freedom of religion being the big struggle of the 1600s, freedom from racial discrimination being the struggle of recent times).

The Really Great Stagnation ended with the Industrial Revolution. The current stagnation ends with...

<comment> norea-armozel It probably ends with commercial fusion power or a similar technological gain on power generation. Cheap power makes most of the stuff we use or make much cheaper. Which leads to a major change in the living standard and expectations (imagine access to electricity being seen as a right since power generation would outstrip demand if something like fusion became viable).

<comment><USER10> it correlates with climate change nicely - the 1650 was the time of the Little Ice Age which significantly affected the production of food and everything else. The fusion power (or similar) would allow to mitigate and finally overcome the current climate change catastrophe (the fact that it moves slowly doesn't make it less serious - just like a huge container ship - <USER2> mass/inertia makes for the speed in collision :) which is starting to cause real economic damage (cattle growing in Texas, agriculture in CA for example). And it is just the beginning...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Anybody interested in the subject should read Neal Stephenson's _The Baroque Cycle_. It's an excellent fictionalized account of the time period, focusing on the social and economic transformations (specifically, from a land-based economy and culture to a money-based one), which Stephenson posits is the birth of the modern world.

</comment><comment><USER12> So, where is the test for "Distribution of conflicts does not follow a Poisson distribution?"

Certainly, that is a necessary condition before one can claim that a period is special in some way.

Yes, one can tweak the raw data by adjusting the time period, the estimation of the magnitude and number of conflicts (for example, was the 80-year war a single war? There certainly was a 12-year truce that likely was longer than many periods of formal peace), and by what areas of conflict to include, but that should only make it easier to get a statistically significant result.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is a fascinating period of history. Our modern financial system is born during this period. I'm reading up on Cromwell and the English Civil Wars right now. There is a ton of great Dutch history during this period as well, especially the Dutch East India Company. Thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER14> I guess this is somewhat connected to the concept of the European Civil War:

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

</comment><comment><USER15> Interesting concept, although the single most significant event of that era would have to be the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648.

<comment> rm_-rf_slash And of our era, 9/11, the beginning of the end of the Westphalian state-based order and signaling a new world order of overlapping authorities and loyalties, from multinational corporations to terrorist organizations. "The Modern Mercenary" by Sean McFate is a good book based on this idea.

<comment><USER16> 9/11 isn't even close to the beginning of the end of the Westphalian order. The increasing domination of multinational corporations, labor organizations, political movements, terrorist organizations, etc., was widely observed and pointed to as evidence of the progressive decline of the nation-state order for many decades prior to 9/11.

<comment><USER17> While I don't disagree, it's still true that much (though not all) of trans- national activity still takes place within an overall Westphalian state framework. (And one of the big exceptions--the Middle East--is essentially a result of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire post-WWI.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is there a crises timeline ? of some kind of transition map ? for periodicity ...

</comment><comment><USER19> Maybe it is a little late in the day but I just read that and I don't think I got anything out of it. Some people say it existed and some say it didn't. What's the point?

<comment><USER20> When studying history, there is utility in developing and understanding frameworks for grouping historical events. It's also important to understand that these models are often flawed.

If you are interested in history as a series of facts, then this notion isn't particularly useful. But if you are curious as to how our modern societies came to be, you will endlessly scour history for patterns demonstrating how our era is different and how it is not from other eras, how the eras leading up to it were different and how similar eras may or may not have flourished in bygone ages.

<comment><USER21> > developing and understanding frameworks for grouping historical events

This is called "historiography", and were it more commonly taught in US primary and secondary schools, fewer Americans would think of "history" as being dull -- an endless stream of bare facts lacking context is indeed dull as dishwater; it's in the drawing and analysis of narrative that all the interest lies.

<comment><USER22> I too would like it taught in schools, but I also think its important to have reliable sources for the bare facts. It depresses me when I go to the history section in a bookstore and see how much of it is given over to conflicting viewpoints of the same events, so there's (almost) different versions of history available depending on what you already like to believe - <USER3> history over here, liberal history over there, progressive history in this corner and so on.

<comment><USER16> > I too would like it taught in schools, but I also think its important to > have reliable sources for the bare facts.

No such thing is possible. Facts are inferred unreliably from physical evidence and (at best) primary sources which are written by people who (claim to have) direct experience, but who also write with agendas.

> It depresses me when I go to the history section in a bookstore and see how > much of it is given over to conflicting viewpoints of the same events, so > there's (almost) different versions of history available depending on what > you already like to believe

I don't know how you'd expect it to be otherwise; if you look at first-person accounts of _current_ events, its clear that agendas and biases shape them, and history is largely what is pieced together from those kinds of accounts (often _fragments_ of those kinds of accounts!) plus fragmentary physical evidence. Even if _historians_ didn't have their own biases, there's multiple self-narratives that can be reconstructed to explain the evidence historians work from and no foolproof way to choose the right one from among those.

<comment><USER22> I think you're exaggerating the difficulty. We have more than sufficient documentation of many facts to make definitive statements about them, and where we are not sure abou ttheir provenance we can qualify our statements as being limited to a sinlge source or being controversial. We could, for example, dispute the historical causes of the Battle of Waterloo all day, but there's widespread agreement that it took place 200 years ago next Thursday, who the principles were, how it proceeded, and what the outcome was. Of course there are numerous details about the event that event that remain the subject of historical inquiry; did Wellington meet Blucher at 9pm or 10pm, and where on the battlefield did this meeting take place?

It's certainly true that any historical incident comes with a mass of unanswered questions, sometimes of great import - witness the ongoing controversies over the assassination of Kennedy or the authorship of the September 11 2001 attacks in modern times. But there is little dispute that that assassination and those attacks took place on those dates, what the basic nature of those events were and what major changes ensued in the aftermath. Although we face significant epistemological limitations in studying history, you seem to be arguing an almost solipsistic position, as if the impossibility of knowing everything invalidated the notion of knowing anything.

<comment><USER23> Matters of fact (even if wrong) can be linked together into a web of evidence and assumptions and would serve at least to illustrate what we know and don't know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> 'Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory'</comment>


A point and click engine in PICO-8, inspired by the SCUMM engine - <AUTHOR> http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=29176 <comment><USER2> Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to give feedback on my project (both positive and otherwise). :o)

With regards to the naming; I can see your point about the potential to "mislead" (which I attempted to negate right off the bat with my ReadMe).

However, the reason that I personally (and I understand this IS subjective) felt justified to incorporate the SCUMM name in the title is because I deliberately kept my API as _identical_ as possible to the original SCUMM API (within reason - some functions/properties really needed modernising or weren't applicable).

There is also plans to be even closer to the original SCUMM design by distilling generated output (from a new Editor that I'm currently working on) to something akin, but not quite, OP-codes. If only to allow more game content to reside in the heavily-restricted space available in PICO-8 carts.

Again, thanks for all the valuable feedback (I have NO idea how my post got linked here), but I'm grateful all the same.

All the best,

Paul.

</comment><comment><USER3> Go play Thimbleweed Park (Ron Gilbert's new adventure game) if you liked the classics. It was released a couple of weeks ago.

</comment><comment><USER4> > it is only (heavily) "inspired" by the SCUMM engine, not a true replica - > for that you'll want good ol' SCUMM-VM.

Not cool to use the name.

<comment><USER5> Deleted a comment here about that because I read the github too hastily; you are right, not cool.

I would say it would need to run at least Manic Mansion and Monkey Island to be called a Scumm something.

<comment><USER6> It's not like SCUMM is synonymous with the orginal Scumm instruction set emulator. It's more an umbrella term for "simulating old school adventures" (See here: [http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Engines](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Engines)). I don't see why this shouldn't work the other way around.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am disappointed, there is no key below the door mat ;)

</comment><comment><USER8> pretty amazing work!!!</comment>


Chatroulette Launches Channelroulette and Localroulette - <AUTHOR> http://newteevee.com/2010/07/14/chatroulette-goes-local-gets-personal/

<comment><USER2> I don't think I want to try localroulette here in West Hollywood...</comment>


Cube.js – Open-Source Analytics Framework - <AUTHOR> https://cube.dev/ <comment><USER2> Is this related to Square's Cube? [https://github.com/square/cube](https://github.com/square/cube)

</comment><comment><USER3> Can anyone explain the relationship to StatsBot? Does Cube.js run independently of StatsBot is it just a javascript frontend interface?</comment>


Empty London - <AUTHOR> http://www.roberttimothy.com/empty-london <comment><USER2> The author explains how they took these photos: [http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty- London-...](http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-London- photos-of-British-capital-without-any-people-28-days-later-style- pictures.html)

<comment><USER3> > I didn't want to cheat and use Photoshop

I was actually hoping he did something clever like take multiple shots and stitch them all together.

Ah well, I suppose this is more noble.

<comment><USER4> It's actually much easier than manual stitching.

Take 3+ shots on a tripod then take the median value of each pixel. Anything that is moving (pedestrians, cars) will vanish.

Example: [http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/photoshop_cs3s_automatic_peo...](http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/photoshop_cs3s_automatic_people_remover.html)

<comment><USER5> Now That would be a useful feature on a camera. You could call it the tourist eraser :)

<comment><USER6> Nokia already has it on the lumia: [http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/07/03/nokia-smart- camera...](http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/07/03/nokia-smart-camera- remove-moving-objects-walk-through/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The zombie film _28 Days_ set up a few shots like this in downtown London ... but with a movie budget and some official clearances they were able to get some sunlit shots, which appeared to be taken very early in the morning. It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.

Within the past 10 years, I remember seeing another another film set in NYC which showed a scene in Times Square, completely devoid of people or traffic. It was quite striking. Anyone remember what it was?

EDIT: I see from the other comments it was _Vanilla Sky_

<comment><USER8> "Downtown" London.

Which part would that be?

I don't mean to snark, that's not a meaningful phrase to this englishman with 10 years London living under his belt. I actually struggle with definitions of downtown or uptown, it's not something we would say. How do they apply to (for instance) NYC which I'm a little familiar with?

\--edit-- yes I am drunk and this is a stupid question :)

<comment><USER9> Near Westminster bridge IIRC, but it's been a while since I saw the film. By US standards downtown would be the shopping district from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square, if you were thinking of it in commercial terms, or almost all of zone 1. Of course over here Downtown is wherever the most tall buildings ae, whereas in London most of those seem to be in the City.

<comment><USER10> London is a basically a bunch of villages with dense residential areas filling the gaps between. I've gone whole 6-month periods never going further west in the city than Holborn (Kingsway), and whole years never going south of the river east of Greenwich.

You're suggesting that downtown is Oxford & Regent Streets, i.e. essentially high-street fashion shopping. Thing is, almost every shop on those streets is also in both Westfield malls on either side of the city, and many of the bigger brands are also on dozens of high streets across the city. There's seldom much call for most Londoners to actually go to those streets (IMO).

In a business context, downtown in London is the City, but the tallest buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a privately owned near- island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and barriers that go up on the roads at night.

<comment><USER11> >The tallest buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a privately owned near-island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and barriers that go up on the roads at night.

Not to nitpick but this isn't strictly true. The tallest building is in neither but very close to the City, then the 2nd tallest is in Canary Wharf but the third and fourth are definitely in the City again. You have some in the Wharf and some in the City after that but I am not sure if the difference regarding skyscrapers in the 2 parts is very relevant or explicit anymore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> And the tents were all silent,

the banners alone,

The lances unlifted,

the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib#The_poem)

<comment><USER13> Reminds of the recounting of the fallen angels in Paradise Lost.

Rather than face the awesome wrath of Jesus/God miffed, the to-be-fallen angels into the abyss, drift (well, really, leap in terror, but that doesn't work so well).

<comment><USER14> Not how they told it to themselves at least, IRRC ^^;

Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky

With hideous ruin and combustion down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

[...]

What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; th' unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield.

[...]

Here at least

we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

<comment><USER13> Thanks for the refresher.

If any book will make one a Christian, Paradise Lost is probably it ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> At first I thought he combined several images into one (there was a project a while ago that did that). But after reading that he actually waited for everyone to clear ... that blew my mind. I absolutely can't imagine seeing big ben or piccadilly without a single person in my eyesight.

Absolutely marvellous!

Too bad I'm away for christmas this year, I'd love to stroll trough the empty streets ...

<comment><USER16> I'm pretty sure he's lying. There's no way for most of these places to clear completely. It's like seeing Times Square empty.

I'm 99% sure it's a composite from multiple exposures.

<comment><USER17> > It's like seeing Times Square empty.

It's interesting you mentioned this. The pictures reminded me of Vanilla Sky, which prominently features empty Times Square.

<comment><USER18> Funny you should mention that. Every time I think of Times Square being empty (which can happen at certain angles at certain very early times of day), I think of Roger Ebert's review of Vanilla Sky:

[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla- sky-2001](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001)

> _Note: Early in the film, there 's an astonishing shot of Tom Cruise > absolutely alone in Times Square. You might assume, as I did, that computers > were involved. Cameron Crowe told me the scene is not faked; the film got > city permission to block off Times Square for three hours early on a Sunday > morning. Just outside of camera range there are cops and barricades to hold > back the traffic._

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I am wondering if there is any connection between this project and Tokyo Nobody by Masataka Nakano

[http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka- Nakano/dp/489815...](http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka- Nakano/dp/4898150314)

<comment><USER20> Thanks for that. The London photos made me think of empty mini-mall photos taken in LA by Cathy Opie. Here's an example:

[http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/NewYork/Guggenheim...](http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/NewYork/Guggenheim/Catherine%20Opie/4_Untitled_01_6.5MG.jpg)

They were shot in black and white, and when shown in a gallery context, they are very large (4 feet wide or so).

She used a similar technique -- show up early in the morning (like 4am) and be patient. She had do it late enough to be after the clubgoers, junkies, and criminals were asleep, but before regular people were awake.

You can google "cathy opie mini mall series" \-- she's better known for her earlier, transgressive lesbian/body images.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I had to catch an early flight and found myself walking around Dubrovnik at 4am. Seeing the wide stone streets, polished by the feet of thousands who were now completely absent, was surreal. I highly recommend waking up extra early in a normally busy city and taking a stroll; you end up seeing and appreciating completely new things.

<comment><USER22> One summer, a few years ago, a friend and I flew from New York to Iceland. After a jet lagged snooze, we ventured out into Reykjavik town centre around 10am on Saturday morning -- to find the streets completely deserted.

Made sense later on, when we realised that seemingly everyone in town went out after midnight to party through the night.

Boom years when the sun doesn't set...

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> And Paris is pretty empty early in the morning, too. Check out the 1976 Claude Lelouch 8.5-minute vehicle(!), "C'était un Rendezvous" ("It was a date"). Classic!

[http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous- claude-...](http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude- lelouchflv_2064708.htm) or other similar.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm using linux. This site's scroll behaviour is infuriating.

<comment><USER25> Yes. Usability fail. OS X often has no scrollbars. Unity has none? My mouse has no horiz-scoll. Wed designers stop doing this. We aren't all using tablets!

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> What a surprisingly pleasant side-scrolling experience.

</comment><comment><USER27> If you liked this, you should also check out this beautiful timelapse video of Milan (same concept): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU)

</comment><comment><USER28> I've previously done this kind of thing with an ND filter and long exposures to save getting frustrated by occasional passers-by.

Here's a series of photographs of major cities around the world done using this technique by Lucie & Simon:

[http://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic- photographs...](http://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic-photographs- of-major-cities-around-the-world/) [http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world](http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world)

<comment><USER29> Wouldn't it be "easy" to capture a video of a minute or so and then write an algorithm to keep the parts that were unchanged among all frames? I did something like that ten years or so ago, and it worked very well (it took the mode of each pixel among X frames).

<comment><USER30> In many cases that will do, but there will be problem with continuously changing objects, such as ads, escalators and clocks that will be blurred, at least unless a quite sophisticated algorithm is used.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The square mile looks like that on a weekend.

The rest looks like that at 05:30. in summer.

<comment><USER32> Yes I remember having to go into work to reboot our systems once back in the 80's 200/300 yards from oxford street and it was quiet as the grave.

Many cafes, bars and pubs in the city shut down at the weekend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> In Israel, there is one day a year [1] where the streets actually look like this [2].

(Granted, most of the time you will see plenty of people walking around the streets, or children riding bicycles.)

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israel)

[2] - [http://www.demotix.com/photo/862508/tel-aviv-streets- empty-y...](http://www.demotix.com/photo/862508/tel-aviv-streets-empty-yom- kippur)

<comment><USER34> saturdays in Israel are quiet empty as well

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Nice work! And to prove they are not phony, time for a game of 'I Spy'! ISWMLE: a cyclist a trash collector possibly a policeman several lit car tail lights

Advances?

</comment><comment><USER36> I live near quite a few of these. The way to experience this is by being there very early on a Sunday morning or a Bank Holiday. Let me tell you there are few things as eerie as riding a bicycle around Central London and not seeing a single soul. Of course it's not totally deserted, you'll see the odd vehicle especially on the main roads, but there are definitely moments where it feels like being in 28 Days Later.

<comment><USER37> Preparing for a marathon I always did my saturday long run starting very early in them morning (like 5am or 6am, once I even started at 4am because I had a company event I needed to be at early) and it was definitely...awesome. Especially running along the Thames in Central London during sunrise: there were entire 10/15 minutes stretches without people and even cars.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Reminds me of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is running through downtown Manhattan alone --

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ)

I always think it's cool when we're able to capture this sort of rare feat on film, in this case emptying out Times Square for a few brief moments

<comment><USER39> Times Square is in Midtown. Downtown is the Financial District :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Nices photos, horrible website usability.

<comment><USER41> Black page when scripts are disabled. And the photos popping up in random places as you're scrolling? Sigh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Those photos are great! I've been taking some night shots of street art in London, and because of the long exposure the streets often appear to be empty. You can see some of my photos here: [http://advers.com/gallery](http://advers.com/gallery)

</comment><comment><USER43> You don't even have to get up to experience this - just head into the City of London[1] on a weekend, especially a Sunday. Most of the streets are empty.

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

</comment><comment><USER44> Gorgeous, but they look more like early morning shots than abandoned city shots. Give me broad daylight or with all the lights off and it'll really feel atmospheric. The extreme saturation also doesn't contribute to a feeling of desertion.

Also, abandoned London is spotless.

</comment><comment><USER45> This is the London I remember from early morning July 8th, 2005, the morning after the bombings. Was walking around to find a ride to the airport, couple of blocks from the double-decker wreck. Wish not to experience the same again.

</comment><comment><USER46> That's awesome work! Strangely I cannot believe that a place like Piccadilly Circus is ever empty. It feels so unreal. He must have: a) waited a lot to see the streets clear b) been quite lucky the streets eventually cleared.

</comment><comment><USER47> Very interesting (and beautiful I might say, seeing the empty streets awaken some beautiful memories), but that's not how London would look like if everyone left. Not even close. Maybe only for the first couple of days.

</comment><comment><USER48> This is really cool, I've never been to London so I have no reference for how busy the places he photographs typically are. I would love to see a similar project for NYC.

<comment><USER49> Very busy is probably the only way to describe them. I work not far from where some of these photos were taken where its frustratingly busy at times. You would never think this was possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I also enjoyed this collection of "empty" photos of all 270 tube stations:

[http://instagram.com/tube270](http://instagram.com/tube270)

</comment><comment><USER51> _28 Weeks Later_ also takes place in an abandoned London.

</comment><comment><USER52> Nice photos but it also highlights how claustrophobic London is. I live here and don't like how you can never be really alone outside of your own home.

</comment><comment><USER53> A similar experiment was done in Paris a few weeks ago: [http://vimeo.com/74857458](http://vimeo.com/74857458)

</comment><comment><USER54> For Americans who want to replicate this, Thanksgiving day around 2 - 3pm is also similarly eerily quiet and a great chance to get a shot like this.

<comment><USER55> Thanksgiving morning would be better. There is usually a ton of people out in the afternoon picking up last minute things at grocery and liquor stores.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Anyone else notice that the second-to-last photo has 4 or 5 people in the scene, as well as a moving car? Otherwise, well done!

</comment><comment><USER57> I recommend a photo album "Tokyo Nobody" \- similar concept.

</comment><comment><USER58> The people who left forgot to turn off the lights.

</comment><comment><USER59> Wow those photos stunning...and thought provoking.

</comment><comment><USER60> beautiful</comment>


Ask HN: What are the best Bay Area programming meetups? - <AUTHOR> Specifically for someone looking to learn. I'm in Oakland and pretty open as far as languages go.<p>What meetups do you guys go to? <comment><USER2> The east bay python meetup is pretty relaxed, and has grown quite a bit in the last year.

It's at Lost and Found on Telegraph on the 1st Tuesday of every month.

[http://meetu.ps/e/.chxnhlyvpbcb/9Plqj/a](http://meetu.ps/e/.chxnhlyvpbcb/9Plqj/a)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, I'll check that out thanks. I've gone to the weekly Js meeting at L & F.</comment></comment>


The Mathematics of Charles Sanders Peirce (2001) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~kauffman/CHK.pdf <comment><USER2> In a comments subthread that was flag-killed, gballan made the following interesting link:

 _" Peirce's diagramatic logic is the forerunner to Sowa's conceptual graphs [0]. Worth a look._

_[0][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_graph](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_graph) _

</comment><comment><USER3> Peirce also remarked in a letter how electrical relay circuits correspond one- for-one with boolean logic formulas. He seems to have been the first to notice this, almost 50 years before anyone else.

His writings are very tedious to me, though, and I hope this article I just glanced through makes him more palatable.

</comment><comment><USER4> similar: Lou Kauffman's "Box Arithmetic"

[http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~kauffman/Arithmetic.htm](http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~kauffman/Arithmetic.htm)

</comment><comment><USER5> I couldn't get through all of the paper. It seemed to be simply a new, not especially useful, notation for certain boolean operators.

The concept of universal boolean operators, in the sense of _functional completeness_ (see [1]) isn't that deep. A binary boolean operator (function) has four possible combinations of inputs: TT, TF, FT, and FF. For example, the _and_ operation is defined by (T and T) == T, (T and F) == F, (F and T) == F, and (F and F) = F. The familiar _truth table_ [2] is a clearer way to write this out:

        A | B | A and B
        </comment><comment></comment><comment>===
        T   T      T
        T   F      F
        F   T      F
        F   F      F

Other boolean operators can be defined by truth tables too. How many unique boolean operators are there? Since there are four possible binary outputs there are 16 possible boolean operators. They are mostly very familiar, but mathematicians use various notations for them.

Again, truth tables make them obvious:

        A B | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>====
        T T   T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T  F  F  F  F  F  F  F  F
        T F   T  T  T  T  F  F  F  F  T  T  T  T  F  F  F  F
        F T   T  T  F  F  T  T  F  F  T  T  F  F  T  T  F  F
        F F   T  F  T  F  T  F  T  F  T  F  T  F  T  F  T  F

the 16 possible operators are thus:

1: _true_ , sometimes indicated by the "top" character in math, it looks like a capital T

2: _or_

3: _if_ , (A if B) means B implies A, written <==

4: _A_ , just the value of the first argument

5: _onlyif_ , (A onlyif B) is sometimes written ==>

6: _B_ , the value of the second argument

7: _iff_ , same as ==

8: _and_

9: _nand_ , not and

10: _xor_

11: _!B_ , the negation of second argument

12: _notonlyif_ , i.e. not(A ==> B)

13: _!A_ , the negation of the first argument

14: _notif_ , i.e. not(A <== B)

15: _nor_ , not or

16: _false_ , sometimes written in math with the bottom symbol which looks like an upside down capital T

We don't normally use all of these operators in predicate logic or programming or digital circuits because a few familiar ones will do. In fact, if we allow ourselves the negation operator (i.e. not or ! in some programming languages) then all binary boolean operations can be obtain from only _and_ and _not_ or from _or_ and _not_. For example the operator numbered 5 above is the implication operator (A ==> B), but this is simply (not A or B).

The sign of illation in the original article is simply operation 5 above, A ==> B.

Interestingly, two of the binary boolean operators are universal or functionally complete by themselves, _nand_ and _nor_. Any stateless boolean circuit can be constructed out of only nand gates or only nor gates. A programming language could get by with only one boolean operator, the binary nand (or the binary nor). For example ((not A) and B) could be rewritten using only nand:

        ((not A) and B) == (A nand A) and B
                        == not ( (A nand A) nand B )
                        == ((A nand A) nand B) nand ((A nand A) nand B)

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

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

<comment><USER6> This isn't a "new notation" \-- Pierce lived in the 19th century and his notation predates the current. Also, the fact that "nor" is functionally complete was actually discovered by Pierce in 1880. Pierce is more famous for his non-mathematical philosophy of "pragmatism", but he actually contributed quite a bit to logic.

<comment><USER7> Pardon the nerdigression, this feels much like Emacs VS Windows ergonomics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not sure why this is trending on HN (and without any comments or discussion). TBH, its reads like a Sokal Hoax and seems like gibberish to me.

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

<comment><USER9> This is not like the Sokal hoax at all. Sure the writer has a few English departmentish affectations, but the article is basically just explaining Peirce's logic. And Peirce is one of roughly two people in history to figure out quantification.</comment></comment>


Bought and Unread Books - <AUTHOR> http://lolindrath.com/2014/01/06/bought-and-unread-books/ <comment><USER3> _" Many years ago," Gaspar said, taking out a copy of Moravia's The Adolescents and thumbing it as he spoke, "I had a library of books, oh, thousands of books -- never could bear to toss one out, not even the bad ones -- and when folks would come to the house to visit they'd look around at all the nooks and crannies stuffed with books; and if they were the sort of folks who don't snuggle with books, they'd always ask the same dumb question." He waited a moment for a response and when none was forthcoming (the sound of china cups on sink tile), he said, "Guess what the question was."_

 _From the kitchen, without much interest: "No idea."_

 _" They'd always ask it with the kind of voice people use in the presence of large sculptures in museums. They'd ask me, 'Have you read all these books?'" He waited again, but Billy Kinetta was not playing the game. "Well, young fella, after a while the same dumb question gets asked a million times, you get sorta snappish about it. And it came to annoy me more than a little bit. Till I finally figured out the right answer._

 _" And you know what that answer was? Go ahead, take a guess." Billy appeared in the kitchenette doorway._

 _" I suppose you told them you'd read a lot of them but not all of them."_

 _Gaspar waved the guess away with a flapping hand. "Now what good would that have done? They wouldn't know they'd asked a dumb question, but I didn't want to insult them, either. So when they'd ask if I'd read all those books, I'd say, 'Hell, no. Who wants a library full of books you've already read?'"_

[http://harlanellison.com/iwrite/paladin.htm](http://harlanellison.com/iwrite/paladin.htm)

<comment><USER4> See also Umberto Eco's Anti-Library, c/o Taleb:

"The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and non dull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with 'Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?' and the others - <USER2> very small minority - who get the point that a private library is not an ego- boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary."

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I upped my amount of reading taking the opposite approach to the author: buying more books that I don't read.

The mechanics work something like this:

\- its easier to read a book you're motivated to read

\- you're not sure what you will be motivated to read until after you've finished your current book(s)

\- so, buy books you might be interested in advance, they'll be there and ready when the motivation hits

I buy books in theme areas: pragmatism, biographies of creative people, mythology, etc. That makes a smooth transition from one book to the next easy. You tend to read your current book with an eye to what's coming up on your shelf this way.

Also consider that you don't always want to read dense books. So having more books on hand helps you regain motivation in the down times by having easier stuff on hand. Jonathan franzen had a really nice essay on this about how pulp mystery novels kept him sane.

It helps that I have a used bookstore nearby where I can buy books for a dollar or so. But, anyway, there's so much cheap stuff on amazon that anyone can apply this approach without breaking the bank.

Hope this helps other folks read more. Reading has helped my coding and business more than any other habit.

<comment><USER6> Can you give some examples by what you mean by pragmatism as a theme please

<comment><USER5> Anything by William James. A Rorty and Dewey book are on my shelf. A few authors mentioned by James that I liked: JS Mill, is one. Interestingly, Jack London treats themes in pragmatism (in the Sea Wolf, for example)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have maybe 5 to 6 thousand books. Of course it's quite impossible to read them all. But it's fun sometimes to just poke through them, and there's never a shortage of "what do I take on the next airplane ride".

I have maybe half of them scanned in. It's marvelous that I can carry this library with me on a trip, as it's about 75G.

<comment><USER8> Can you explain your scanning process? Are book scanners affordable?

<comment><USER7> I use a fujitsu fi-5120c hopper fed scanner. It's a destructive scanner, i.e. you have to slice the spine off. 400 dpi gives a satisfying result.

<comment><USER8> Thanks!

(About $1,200 for anyone else curious.)

<comment><USER7> There are many hopper-fed scanners on Amazon, from about $700 up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I used to have a stack of unread books. I still do, but now everything is on the Kindle.

In fact, the Kindle has the best solution for this ever - every time I come across a book I want to read, I simply go to Amazon and click "Send Sample to Kindle". Then, I have a sample of the book on my Kindle.

Whenever I decide I need to read a new book, I open the Kindle and choose from the hundreds of samples that are there. If I like it, I also buy it.

This way, I don't have to pay so much money on books that I'll never read, but I still have them available for whenever I do get need to read a new book. Best of both worlds.

<comment><USER10> Kindle is good but I prefer a solution I've been working on for a while. I use an app called QuickReader (speed reading app) to read all books my books at about 500 words per minute. The app takes ePub format. You can very easily send it to the app with Calibre (and also convert PDF to ePub).

I had the book Future Perfect in hardcover sitting on my shelf for 3 months. I loaded it in QR and because the app tells you how long it will take at your WPM pace to finish that chapter and the book, I know I will finish this chapter in 6:53 and the book in 1:50:49. It makes books much less intimidating and I usually do 15-30 minute sessions. You don't get bored or distracted because the words are being pushed in front of you. It's amazing. I've never read more books in a shorter time with this system.

I think I will write a full post on my system. Also protip: Get the audio if available and listen to that when you can't read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't buy as many books as I am gifted books. My in-progress pile is daunting and the count of unread books in the house dwarfs that.

Sadly, I don't think I've completed a book this year, only started more. When do people find the time? I drive, so the daily commute is out unless I turn to audiobooks. I have a young child, so the mornings and any time before 7pm are gone. Cooking and cleaning chew up a bit more time in the evening and I'm increasingly keen to get to sleep earlier than past years because the cat will wake me at 4-5am and then my son from about 6am. Not to mention social engagements and then weekends given to gardening, fixes around the house, etc. I don't really watch much TV, so there's little time to regain there.

I am interested in all the books in-progress and don't want to abandon any, so Fogus' tips don't help. I know someone who gets through audiobooks faster by playing at 1.5 speed, so maybe that would help...

Reading of people who get through a book every day or even a book a week absolutely amazes me.

<comment><USER11> I am in much the same predicament as you. The only time I get to read my books is during holidays, and as such much of my holidays turns into reading holidays (even when not at home). Though with kids even that can get difficult.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Ah, yes... my pile of bought and unread books. Still much less scary than my reading list, which threatens to collapse into a black hole if I continue adding to it.

That being said, and more related to the source post, it looks doable. SICP really isn't all that scary. I finally read it last year, and both enjoyed it massively and got through it relatively quickly. Expecting yourself to do _all_ of the exercises would change this perspective, of course. Then it would be fairly scary, I guess.

I got a chuckle seeing volumes from The Art of Computer Programming in a pile before I realized they were in his pile to "skim through so I know what is in them so I can use them more effectively." Reading through those in detail in a year would be surprising, not to mention the other books in the post.

Good luck! Hope I see your follow up post at years end with how many you actually read. Let me add a vote for "Ruby Under a Microscope," I read it shortly after it came out and enjoyed it very much.

</comment><comment><USER13> I try to do the opposite. I ignore the books I have when selecting the next book to read, and try to determine what's most important. Then, if I already have it, I'll read it, and if not, I'll get it.

It takes a relatively long time to read a book, so it's worth it to me to get the one I want to read most, and pay for it if I have to.

<comment> alok-g Totally. The cost of the book is often so much less than the cost of the time spent reading it (am assuming a developed country's perspective here). So one should optimize for the time rather than the cost of ownership of the book.

I have a huge library of books (and I have read many of them), and still find pressing topics I need to know which are not covered by any of the books I have (and neither seemingly by the Internet at least till I discover some relevant keywords).

An additional thing is that I have read through the introductions of a lot more books, and that by itself gives a first understanding of the subject.

<comment><USER14> There is the old quote about

"We can buy books but we can't buy the time to read them."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm not sure why you should buy so many books, given that you know you are not finishing them. I can understand novels, and story books and stuff like that. But its not wise to buy technical books when things change so rapidly in our area of work.

I currently have to two books to finish. One is Ulysses. Reading that book is really more like a project. Tried chewing through the first chapter, everything went over my head. Its nearly unreadable. I guess I need a guide book along with it.

<comment><USER16> I disagree on your technical books point. Things may change, but most of the technical books I buy (I can't really speak for anyone else), and those in the post, are, for the most part, going to be relevant for years to come. Most of the books are fairly old, and based on the titles they're generic knowledge, even if they implement something using a specific language that may die, the ideas and concepts they contain are still usable.

Even the "Work Shelf", which contains the most specific books, probably won't go out of date.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> My pile of unread books is kinda terrifying.

On the upside, I do manage to get through all of the books related to my field, so the stack mostly contains the remaining works of Kierkegaard that I've missed, the complete works of William Blake, Russian literature (translated), mathematics texts, and small stack of untranslated Japanese novels.

Some of this I'm saving for my "cargo freighter around the world" trip.

<comment><USER18> > Some of this I'm saving for my "cargo freighter around the world" trip.

Do they still have tramp steamers?

<comment><USER17> Not that I've seen anyone offering service on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I have Programming Pearls and it's one of the books that made me realise I know nothing.

I pick it up every now and then to see if I can get further than before.

<comment><USER18> It's a great book to pick up "every now and then". Most of the chapters can be read as independent essays, and even the ones that continue ideas from before stand on their own pretty well. It's also a good book to bring along on a flight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I used to have a to-read pile.

Then I had a to-read shelf.

and then... and then...

Ended up with about two and a half 6 foot bookshelves full of stuff I hadn't read. Which is currently sitting in storage.

For the last few years I've had the rule that I don't buy a book until the point that I'm going to start reading it. Which the world of digital books has obviously made a lot easier.

Made my life simpler - I'd recommend it ;-)

</comment><comment><USER21> Very nice set of technical books. I own at least 60% (some are about 20 years old).

My 2014 goal is 10K pages read not including technical or maths. This year I will keep accurate records and keep a burn down chart to make sure I reach my goal. Last year I had quickly fallen behind and keep poor records (a read stack pushed around by a young child.)

</comment><comment><USER18> > If I don't find Black Swan interesting I should probably just donate it > instead of suffering through it, for example.

I'm not only willing, I'm eager to give up on a book I don't either enjoy or find interesting. But I know a surprising number of people who force themselves to finish any book that they start.

<comment><USER22> Skipping few pages always helps. Sometimes some concepts are hard to chew through. Black Swan in my opinion is a great book!

<comment><USER18> I didn't say that I stop if I find a book difficult. I stop if I decide that I don't like the book. But you're right, some times skipping some pages can get you going again with a dry spot in a novel.

(And I wasn't commenting on Black Swan, just on the concept of not finishing a book. I'm unfamiliar with Black Swan.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The size of my unread book pile is only dwarfed by the recognition of the missed opportunity for knowledge.

I won't call it a resolution, but I will read through as many as I can this year (there are a _lot_ )

</comment><comment><USER24> At present i have almost 25 books in my kindle collection called 'To Read". Impulse Book buying is so easy with Kindle i buy every time some book is mentioned in a blog post or an article.

</comment><comment><USER25> If I were to sit down and listen to all the books I have not yet listened to on Audible 8 hours a day it would almost be Valentine's day. I hear you.

</comment><comment><USER26> The good news is that SICP is an illuminating experience, the bad news are it took me 1 year to go through it, doing all the exercises along the way.

<comment><USER27> If you just 'read' SICP, you are wasting your time. You read it in the best possible way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Putting math and perl into the same category is an interesting choice...

<comment><USER29> Must be the funny symbols.</comment></comment>


Robert Shiller on stock market bubble - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-shiller-stock-market-bubble-2015-5 <comment><AUTHOR> "But I'm not sure that the current situation is a classic bubble because I'm not certain that most people have extravagant expectations."

So if there aren't extravagant expectations shouldn't/wouldn't the increase in asset values be attributed to expansion of the money supply (Quantitative Easing 1, 2, 3, ...) and inflation?</comment>


Ask HN: Features you would like to be added to your fav programming language? - crypto-jeronimo <comment><AUTHOR> I like to see simplified loops in Java. For example, traverse two collections/arrays of the same size simultaneously.

for (var f : fathers, var m : mothers) {

      families.add(new Family(f, m));

    }

<comment> crypto-jeronimo Isn't there a Java equivalent to Python's `zip`?</comment></comment>