Steve Jobs has died - <AUTHOR> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/statement-by-apples-board-of-directors-2011-10-05 <comment><USER2> From his 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

<comment><USER3> He's right-- if you're about to die, there are no limitations. You can, for example, cook meth with one of your former students.

The problem is when you're not about to die. Then embarrassment and failure are real issues. You _do_ have something to lose-- your life! Your friends, your house, your possessions, your family, so many things to lose.

If you're going to lose it all anyway, taking risks is not a big deal. If you're 20 something and have your whole life ahead of you, taking risks is a _really big deal_.

Rest in peace jobs, you will be missed.

<comment><USER4> If you haven't achieved anything, you haven't got anything to be proud of in the first place. You can't go backwards from step 1. I don't care when I lose at street fighter, or if my player rating sucks compared to my friends' - I'm not good at street fighter yet.

And believe me, if you think it's difficult to take risks now, at ~25, without children to feed and send to school, without a girlfriend who requires upkeep or friends with high-paying jobs who want to eat at Michelin restaurants... you're never going to get off the boat.

Every journey begins with one step.

<comment><USER5> A girlfriend who requires upkeep? Is this 100 years ago?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

<comment><USER7> That pretty much sums it up for me. Can't describe in words and I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is the first "celebrity" death in recent history that's really upset me :/

I feel like he really truly had a rare combination of drive, personality, and talent that is extremely rare, dare I say one of a kind? Our field owes him a great debt for pushing us forward, even when we didn't want to.

RIP Steve.

<comment><USER9> This is the second time a death of somebody I haven't met have upset me. The first time it was Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains. I guess both Steve Jobs and Layne Staley have created beautiful work that inspired me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

\- Steve Jobs

</comment><comment><USER11> He held out for one final launch. When I think about that, I cry. His passion kept him going, passion for work, passion for life, passion to make a difference.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, that's sort of what came to my mind. The 'S' in the iPhone 4S for me at least will mean Steve - buying one although I don't have any iDevice around.

Rest in peace and here is to hoping that cancer researchers around the world get all the inspiration they need - keep looking, don't settle.

<comment><USER13> As far as I'm concerned, you just renamed it.

I'll be buying an iPhone 4 Steve this friday.

You've made me tear up again, too. I thought I was well prepared for this day... I knew it was going to happen, realized we were getting close, but I wasn't ready. I'm sure he wasn't either. I'm sure he wasn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What a strange thing. I'm actually going to miss him a little as if I had known him.

Its not going to be quite the same now that I know "the Steve" is not in his Cupertino lair working his magic.

</comment><comment><USER15> Looks legitimate: <http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/>

Goodbye, sir. Thank you for changing my life.

</comment><comment><USER16> Wow. He held on just long enough to make sure an Apple product announcement went on successfully without him.

</comment><comment><USER17> Rest in peace, Steve.

While everything you built wasn't necessarily for me, god damn if it wasn't brilliant. Everybody in the community really seemed to speak highly of you, I wish I would have had the chance to experience this in person.

The world will always, always love you, and love the impact that you made on it. Thank you for that.

</comment><comment><USER18> One thing that he really forced down all our throats was the importance of taste. He knew what he wanted, and he made us all see how great it was.

Here's a clip from back in 1996, before his return to Apple, where he talks briefly about Microsoft, and in it you can really see his continuing obsession with making insanely great things: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upzKj-1HaKw>

<comment><USER18> "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste; they have absolutely no taste. And what that means is - I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way - in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products .. And so I guess I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success; I have no problem with their success, they've earned their success, in the most part; I have a problem with the fact they make really third rate products."

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Almost wierd that I feel sick to my stomach.

RIP Steve. We'll certainly miss the most important innovator of our times.

</comment><comment><USER20> I actually cried when I read this.

RIP Steve!

<comment><USER21> Me too, didn't expect it to get to me like that, a complete stranger, and all.... but none the less, a visionary and remarkable person who's left a huge mark on the world in which I work and live.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not entirely unexpected but still sad. The end of an era. He will be missed by many.

<comment><USER23> Indeed, Jobs will certainly be remembered. His initial founding of Apple might be dismissed as being in the right place at the right time, although it's harder to attribute the Mac to that. But in coming back to Apple when it was doing so poorly, and leading it back to enormous success -- that should secure his reputation for vision and leadership.

It is sad. But his memory will endure.

<comment><USER24> Don't forget Pixar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> WoW! Just wow.

Here is to a life of unrelenting pursuit of perfection.

</comment><comment><USER26> <http://www.apple.com/> apple.com is dedicated to him.

</comment><comment><USER27> For real? Sadly, knew he was sick, but wasn't expecting this.

The world has lost a unique and brilliant technology / business / design leader, the likes of which are few and far between.

</comment><comment><USER28> I grew up with the machines he and his team at Apple designed and built.

I was four when I got my first mac, and some of my earliest memories are those of customizing my system with the Font/DA Mover app on System 6. My earliest ideas about the role of machines in our lives were shaped by things like HyperCard and MacPaint. My dad still tells the story of the time that 14-year- old me skipped basketball practice one afternoon to install System 7 from the six floppies it came on. Apple hardware and software has directly shaped who I am today, as cliche as it may sound.

I recall seeing exactly one empty seat in the town hall during the 4S reveal, in the front row, labelled "Reserved" in their iconic Myriad typeface. I wonder if that's who it was for.

A friend just suggested that perhaps he died a short time ago, and they waited until after the launch to announce it. It's not a stretch, considering that he devoted his life's work to the betterment of Apple's shareholders.

Regardless, I'll miss him. He was as much an influence on my life and development, both aesthetically and technologically, as any family member.

</comment><comment><USER29> This is a link to the "Think Different" commercial from Apple. I must admit that after watching it just now I teared up a bit.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE>

What a life.

</comment><comment><USER30> Steve Jobs has inspired us all, through his business philosophy, through pushing the mobile landscape to where it is today, for changing the music industry as we know it, for his snappy turtle-necks, for the opportunities he has given his employees and developers on iOS.

The world lost one of the greatest business man of all time.

RIP

</comment><comment><USER31> The homepage of Apple right now is such an appropriate tribute. Stark. Clean. Compassionate. Human.

</comment><comment><USER32> Many people will have more days, but few will have more impact. Rest in Peace.

</comment><comment><USER33> "In Memory of Steve Jobs" video. Made it in iMovie for the HN crowd. <http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=3081923>

</comment><comment><USER34> Watching "Pirates of Silicon Valley" impacted me as much as listening to and learning about the Beatles as a child. Steve Jobs you're forever my hero.

</comment><comment><USER35> A true visionary, maverick and someone who had healthy disregards for rules and status quo. RIP Steve. You'll be sorely missed.

</comment><comment><USER36> It's almost impossible for me to imagine the tech world without Jobs... the world has lost a visionary man today.

</comment><comment><USER37> Is the present perfect tense here more correct, or should it be the past tense, "Steve Jobs died?"

<comment><USER38> Factually it's [someone] (has) died, of course. In reportage, the present tense is typically used for headlines no matter if present or past. I.e. "The Fed increases the overnight interbank rate by 25 basis points." "[Politician] wins senate race", etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Steve Jobs is a visionary not because he saw the future, he is a visionary because he created it.

</comment><comment><USER40> I can't wait to see what he invents at his new place.

<comment><USER41> Despite getting voted down, I believe you meant "He will reform tech in heaven like he reformed it on earth." The downvoters might have thought you meant he left for a different company, and that you were being cynical.

Whatever the case may be, we lost a true visionary, and the entire world should grieve as a result. RIP Steve

<comment><USER24> I think he was probably downvoted for bringing religion into it. Since this is not the time or place for a very boring religious flamewar let's just leave it at that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> A great man. Rest in peace, my friend.

</comment><comment><USER43> I will never forget this moment.

<comment><USER44> 10/5 NEVER FORGET.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Legend Dies...Legacy Remains!

</comment><comment><USER46> :-(</comment>


Show HN: SwiftData – A SQLite library in Swift - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ryanfowler/SwiftData

<comment><USER2> Have you guys seen YapDatabase [1]? It is an awesome Obj-C key/value/collection store (and more) built on top of SQLite, that I originally started using instead of Core Data for its easy SQLCipher support. It's built by the venerable Robbie Hanson [2] who is well known for his previous work: CocoaAsyncSocket, XMPPFramework, CocoaLumberjack, and CocoaHTTPServer.

If you're tired of Core Data, I highly recommend reading the wiki [3] and giving it a shot!

1\. [https://github.com/yaptv/YapDatabase](https://github.com/yaptv/YapDatabase) 2\. [https://github.com/robbiehanson](https://github.com/robbiehanson) 3\. [https://github.com/yaptv/YapDatabase/wiki](https://github.com/yaptv/YapDatabase/wiki)

<comment><USER3> I have a friend who uses it in production. He swears by and has tried to convert me. I'm still sticking to CoreData with some categories for syntax sugar, but I've been closely monitoring realm.io for the last couple of days...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hello,

Is there already a built-in package manager in Swift? Maybe CocoaPods will have support for Swift but, as a completely new environnement, I'm hoping that Apple will add a dependency manager for Swift.

<comment><AUTHOR> Currently, I'm not aware of one.

However, once Swift comes out of beta (and with some time) I think the best practices to distribute libraries will become evident.

It would be great if Apple released a dependency manager for Swift, though!

<comment><USER5> I think Apple should build the basic hooks so that package manager like CocoaPods is possible but a better solution will emerge if the package system is handled outside of Apple which is likely have a huge legal that prevents healthy ecosystem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice to see some Swift wrappers. I don't like Core Data so this looks like an option when writing iOS apps. For more portable code, here is my C++ wrapper for SQLite: [https://github.com/catnapgames/NLDatabase](https://github.com/catnapgames/NLDatabase)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is super slick. SQLite is so elegant, and this should stop people from reinventing the wheel over and over again.

<comment><USER8> I hope somebody reinvents this library.

I know it's hard to release something to the public, and easy to throw stones. But I'm going to do it anyway. I just don't see the "elegance" in this library and I see several problems with this library that make it unsuitable for production use. Examples:

This library provides access to a singleton database. Did you want to choose the location of your database? Sorry, it's going to be "SwiftData.sqlite" in your app's Documents folder (if sandbox) or the user's "Documents" folder (if not sandboxed). Did you want to use a SQLite3 database as your document storage format, and let the user have multiple documents open simultaneously? Sorry, not with this library.

This library doesn't use prepared statements. When you give it SQL with bind placeholders and substitution values, it creates a new string that embeds the values. Does your SQL statement have a string literal containing a `?`? Sorry, this library will treat it as a bind placeholder anyway. (Example: the ? here is not a placeholder: insert into x values ('?')) Did you want to use less error-prone named placeholders, which SQLite3 supports natively? Sorry, not with this library.

This library loads the entire result set of a query into an array and returns it to you. Did you want to reduce your memory footprint? Sorry, not with this library.

The library source code is full of copy-pasted code that should be unified.

Every enumeration case in the standard library (c.f. Bit, Character, FloatingPointClassification, ImplicitlyUnwrappedOptional, MirrorDisposition, Optional, QuickLookObject, UnicodeDecodingResult) starts with a capital letter. This library's enumeration cases (c.f. DataType, Flags) start with lower case letters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice project! anyone know how this compares to using an Objective-C sqlite wrapper like FMDB from swift?

</comment><comment><USER10> What's the advantage of using something like this over CoreData - which is built in?

<comment><USER11> CoreData actually has the option of using SQLite as the underlying datastore. The other alternative is a proprietary binary store. I think there is also an XML store. CoreData is an abstraction level higher than SQLite. It's similar to an ORM or graph database where it manages the relationships between objects for you. So if you don't need all the features of CoreData, SQLite is lighter and simpler.

<comment><USER12> SQLite is the default storage engine for CoreData.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Please highlight your swift code examples:

```swift</comment>


Ask HN: Netbook recommendations? - <AUTHOR>

I'm thinking of getting a Samsung N210 (installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix on it), primarily for its awesome battery life but also because cnet gave it position one in their top ten netbooks. Only downside is, is that it doesn't have SSD. Does anyone have any experience with this netbook, or can recommend a better one? Thanks <comment><USER2> I've got an NB30 running Ubuntu, which I think is a (slightly) ruggidized version of the same laptop.

I'm very pleased with it overall. Battery life seems really good even though I've selected the option to only charge to 80% to prolong battery life. It looks good and feels solid.

I didn't bother with UNR, I just set the top and bottom panels to autohide, and use Vimperator to browse which is very economical with vertical space. At first I used full screen to eke out that last few pixels, but it's generally not worth the bother. I might give UNR another go with Meerkat.

I'm trying to think of bad points. You need to hold down two keys to change the volume (fn-arrow), the screen brightness doesn't auto-adjust to ambient light. The touchpad doesn't have multitouch, but you can fake two finger click and scroll, rather than use side-scroll. I used to hit the backslash button when trying to use the right shift-key, but I got used to it soon enough.

You might want to check out this forum, for Linux on Samsung, that's were I got some extra drivers for the function keys etc.

<http://www.voria.org/forum/>

</comment><comment><USER3> I have an Intel Classmate PC, 3rd generation with convertible touchscreen. It comes with a 16GB SSD (in my configuration) and runs Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04 (the latter with some touchscreen driver trouble I didn't bother to fix, but others report success). Battery life five-ish hours, and pretty rugged. This may be a better choice if: you predict dropping it a lot, or if you're longing for a resistive touchscreen.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> or a Dell Mini 10v?</comment>


Our Responsibility As Developers - <AUTHOR> http://kylerichter.com/our-responsibility-as-developers/ <comment><USER2> Hi Hacker News. I'm one of the developers at QuizUp. We're very proud of the product, but obviously we missed the mark when it comes to privacy and user data. On a cultural level we take these things to heart, and we take them seriously. It's a matter of not having taken the time to review these things carefully enough.

Let me address the things mentioned in the article:

No data is ever sent or received to or from our servers in plain text. Due to a bug in our third-party network library the certificates were not being verified so a self signed certificate could decrypt the data. This issue has been addressed in an update waiting review at Apple. Users' passwords are hashed before we store them in our databases (pbkdf2, salt, multiple iterations).

Our user's address books are not stored on our servers and only used temporarily to help us find your friends. It was a mistake to not hash the contents of the address book before sending to our servers and we are currently changing the client application so it hashes the address book contents before sending to our servers.

Sensitive user data was exposed in certain endpoints (although only accessible for authenticated users). We have already addressed this issue in a server deployment and the hotfix is live now.

We are currently wading through inboxes looking for Kyle's outreach. It looks like it may not have reached the core server developers. Please contact me personally at firstname.lastname@example.com if you have questions.

Finally I want to thank Kyle Richter for working out our security holes, small and large. We're currently reviewing our endpoints and codebase to further harden security and ensure the privacy of our users.

<comment><USER3> You make it sound like there are a couple minor bugs. What about the addresses of the users sent away? "only accessible for authenticated users": which means everyone.

From the home page "Play against friends in real time": this is a false advertising at best. Also, is it written anywhere that people can play against bots?

"We're sorry" would have been a better start

<comment><USER4> Good catch. Sadly the "We are sorry" for being careless reminds me of a "BP - we are sorry" incident.

There is no cost for a faceless company to be 'sorry', and only prmotes the further unethical actions by other companies. I would rather see them pay the fine for privacy breach.

Moreover, this all goes down to the apps requiring ALL permissions to run, why is that acceptable? Why is QuizUp allowed to see user's location in first place?

To me, it feels like making stalker's life easier than ever. Make an app displaying cats, set it require full permissions, put on App Store.

<comment><USER2> Geo coordinates are acquired from user via the iOS location permission. It is persisted in an ElasticSearch index for the "Nearby" leaderboard.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Facebook token isn't an issue, that is how Facebook authorization works.

Recording single player games and then sending them to other users to work as fake real time multiplayer games seems like a very clever move and is probably the reason this game is doing so well. Not that I have heard of it before this post, though. It's a good hack that capitalizes on the way a quiz game works and doesn't have any real differences to true real time multiplayer except for the likely lack of real time messaging. The same could be done for any game in which people compete yet do not directly influence each other.

The benefits are very clear: reduced matchmaking times, eliminates latency issues, eliminates signal loss issues. All of these are major hurdles to multiplayer cellphone gaming, so I don't doubt that this game would be pretty successful because of it.

Sending users data to other users without permission like that feels like it should definitely be a punishable offense, but then the legal system doesn't work on logic so who knows.

<comment><USER6> > Not that I have heard of it before this post, though.

Tetris Friends does this for their multiplayer games[1][2]. When you "play against people", what you're really doing is playing against their replays. It's quite clever, and it had me fooled for a while while I was still in college.

[1]: [http://harddrop.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1434](http://harddrop.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1434) [2]: [http://www.destructoid.com/tetris-friends-has-instant-six- pe...](http://www.destructoid.com/tetris-friends-has-instant-six-person- multiplayer-sort-of-140709.phtml)

<comment><USER7> The interesting consequence of this is that since you can react to the repalys, and the replays can't react to you, players will almost subconsciously play attack and defense in a smart way to win the game. So most players will have a win ratio of over 50% in a multiplayer game. It's a neat trick to keep everyone happy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> An excellent point is raised:

 _What is perhaps the most shocking is QuizUp is backed by several venture capital firms, including some very large and well known ones. The question I have is: did they not do their due diligence when vetting this software or did they not care. I am not sure which one is more alarming to me, and it doesn't really matter either way. Is this a sign of a bubble when a company can raise millions of dollars with so little care put into its technology or development?_

This, sadly, should be of surprise to no-one.

<comment><USER9> Ha, I laughed when I saw that. I've gotten term sheets from VC's without them even using my product. To expect them to do a full security audit is quite adorable.

<comment><USER8> What part of the country are you in? The VCs where I live are, um, a bit hesitant about the _venture_ part of venture capital.

<comment><USER9> SF bay area.

<comment><USER8> Yep, that'd do it.

:(

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Amazing how many developers, even from very prestigious schools, write really horrific code. As a self taught programmer getting into the industry over the past few years, I have been shocked. Oh well, I guess it's "fuck it, ship it".

<comment><USER11> Question: why would school prestige correlate with quality of code?

<comment><USER12> Why shouldn't it? Prestige presumably had to be earned at some point. If prestigious schools are producing sub-par developers at a rate equal to other schools, what is the value of that prestige?

<comment><USER11> Not all prestige is equal, for one thing. Your fine institution might attract world leaders as speakers for its econ, foreign policy, and poly sci departments, but its CS department might be weak. For another thing, the academe and what it teaches is, as a general rule, not really focused on what the business world teaches. So excellence in the academe does not per se translate immediately to excellence in the business world. While an adaptable learner would be excellent potential and long-term capability, I would expect them to have a learning curve for the different pressures and knowledge needed to succeed in business.

<comment><USER13> Presumably someone who graduates from Stanford or MIT in CS will be preferred over someone graduating from Princeton or Yale in CS (Personally Indiana or NEU would be my first choices).

<comment><USER14> Precisely. Princeton is prestigious, but I don't want formal models. I want someone that can at least pass the fizzbuzz test.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Actually, while the initial investigation of Path related to their poor information security and abusive use of user data to drive their viral coefficient, the fine specifically related to violations of COPPA. That law refers to extra privacy protections for children under 13, as well as parental approval. The regulations are onerous to the point that most online social networks filter out users under the age of 13 to avoid running afoul of COPPA. Path didn't filter out these users and we're found to have violated COPPA, resulting in their $800k fine.

Doesn't detract from your excellent piece or put Path in a better light, but that's the context you're referring to there.

</comment><comment><USER16> It is a new kind of approach to software development: SFAQL.

Shoot First, Address Questions Later.

I bet this kind of decisions are a consequence of MBA/Excel mindset. Developing software properly takes time and money and that isn't... lean (lol) and doesn't drive billion dollar valuations.

<comment><USER17> You are aware that a core concern of business programs is risk assessment and mitigation, right? So how does this out-of-hand assumption follow so necessarily?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't have a problem with the bot thing. It's a clever solution to the "there's no one online" problem for new multiplayer games. I have no confirmation, but I assume that games like Fun Run do the same. Having played online RTS games in the 90's, these new iOS lobbies seem to fill up suspiciously quickly.

</comment><comment><USER19> Sounds like they followed the philosophy of "its easier to ask for forgiveness later than ask for permission up front.</comment>


Adding a new Bytecode instruction to the .NET runtime - <AUTHOR> http://mattwarren.org/2017/05/19/Adding-a-new-Bytecode-Instruction-to-the-CLR/ <comment><USER2> Every time I see a post by matthewwarren I know I'm about to learn something seriously fun.

<comment><USER3> This Matt Warren character is pretty hardcore. His passion for .NET is pretty inspirational!

<comment><AUTHOR> Well it's a pretty interesting platform/runtime!

And now that it's open-source it's easy to look under the hood and have a play around

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This resource for Matt's attributions footer is a boon for CLI hackers: [http://www.newardassociates.com/files/SSCLI2.pdf](http://www.newardassociates.com/files/SSCLI2.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah there's lots of good stuff in there.

Even though it's written about the Shared Source code (.Net 2.0), lots of the info in the book still applies

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I noticed you added your instruction by replacing one of the "unused" entries. Would things have been more complicated if there weren't any of those left?

Or is there a strict limit to the number of instructions, with existing "unused" entries for all of the free ones?

<comment><AUTHOR> Someone else asked that questions over on /r/programming, see [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6c3qsh/adding_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6c3qsh/adding_a_new_bytecode_instruction_to_the_clr/dhrrfs1/) for the discussion

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How does one generate those "Assembly listing for method" listings?

<comment><USER7> You can use a tool called ildasm (Intermediate language disassembler) provided by Microsoft [1], or a more polished tool like ILSpy [2].

1: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/f7dy01k1(v=vs.110)....](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/f7dy01k1\(v=vs.110\).aspx)

2: [http://ilspy.net/](http://ilspy.net/)

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the answer. Won't that get me the IL and not the ASM?

<comment><USER8> Correct. To view the JIT-emitted code, you can either use a debugger or set a special environment variable (COMPlus_JitDisasm='NameOfMyMethod') that tells the JIT to emit some logging about the code it generates for that method (it appears this is what the author of the blog post did).

<comment><USER9> Another easier way is just to run it under Visual Studio debugging session, put breakpoint on the code one wants to see and select "Show Disassembly" view.

<comment><USER6> I'm aware of this method but I've found it difficult in practice, you want to be running in Release mode for the JIT optimisatinos. Then due to method inlining your breakpoint might get inlined somewhere that "just my code" thinks is not your code. You rarely want "just my code" off in practice, so it becomes cumbersome to toggle off/on.

<comment><USER9> Yeah I agree it isn't the best way, just one that I find comfortable to use since I am always on Studio.

What about using Windbg with the sos.dll extensions?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Excellent post. The blog [0] is an incredible boon for anyone interested in CLR internals.

I wonder if the author considered writing a book, kind of modern Shared Source CLI Essentials (that I read years ago and hold in high regard)?

[0]: [http://mattwarren.org/](http://mattwarren.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> > I wonder if the author considered writing a book..

Now there's an idea :-)

BTW I've been bugging/asking the author of the SSCLI book if _he_ has any plans to update it, see [http://mattwarren.org/2017/05/19/Adding-a-new- Bytecode-Instr...](http://mattwarren.org/2017/05/19/Adding-a-new-Bytecode- Instruction-to-the-CLR/#comment-3315200281)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > _It contains just a cmp, a jg and a couple of mov instructions_

Using cmov you can improve performance a bit.

</comment><comment><USER12> That tl;dr wasn't very good.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think if you tried to publish an article where you tried to add an opcode to an existing JVM... Oracle would nastygram you even if you never released the source code or even if you didn't do it to a JVM based on theirs.

Something is seriously wrong with some companies.

Edit: To those downvoting, remember, if you disagree, post a reply.

<comment><USER9> Oracle gets a bit around bad reputation on HN circles, but lot of us on the enterprise world actually do like their software.

As for Java, they were already selling Java based products around 2000 and former Sun employees like James Gosling, were not happy with Google actions but Sun had run out of money for any kind of lawsuits.

Also it is easy to write angry posts about Oracle's decisions, but if Google, Red-Hat or IBM actually cared that much about Java's future they would have given work to those driving the future of the language, instead of ignoring them.

<comment><USER14> Java is just... disappointing. I learned Java 5 (1.5) a decade ago in high school, for the AP test, and it's just made very little real progress since, particularly in comparison to the rest of the field.

I look at all of the innovations and convenience features that C#(an unashamed Java clone at the start) has introduced in the meantime, and it makes me wonder what is so broken with Java.

<comment><USER9> I deslike C a lot, however it still is probably the only programming language with more market share than Java.

C design is driven by committee with deep respect for backwards compatibility, despite the inherent security flaws, the language differences between C11 and C89 are superficial.

Likewise, in spite of having Oracle at the helm, Java's design is driven by the JEP working group.

When the majority of the world depends on Java, cannot add language features just because they look cool.

C# moves fast because it mostly only Microsoft calling the shot, even if they are now taking input via Github.

We just saw Java politics recently with IBM and Red-Hat vetting jigsaw because it isn't a copy of OSGi.

<comment><USER15> > C# moves fast because it mostly only Microsoft calling the shot, even if > they are now taking input via Github.

Is Microsoft, RedHat, JetBrains, Unity, Samsung and Google (Also Mono and Xamarin - though they are now part of Microsoft) - as well as the wider community via GitHub etc

[https://dotnetfoundation.org/about/tsg](https://dotnetfoundation.org/about/tsg)

<comment><USER9> .NET Foundation was created when .NET went open source, about two years ago.

Still very new and so far Microsoft has been driving most of it, as one can see from the Github architecture meetings.

It is bit different from JCP which goes all the way back to 1998.

Just having the logos on the .NET Foundation web site doesn't mean those companies are driving language decisions.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Rovio Adding NFC to Angry Birds for Geo Gaming - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2011/06/14/angry-birds-looks-to-conjure-some-location-based-magic-video/

<comment><USER2> What Angry Birds really needs is cloud service to store game state and scores. I have Angry Birds on my Evo, my iPod Touch, and will likely have it on my iPad that I'm getting soon. It would be nice if I didn't have to replay all of the levels on each device.

<comment><USER3> We're working on it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Alright, so who's got the best GPS spoofer for Android?</comment>


Growth hacking and fool's gold - <AUTHOR> http://stupidiswinning.tumblr.com/post/36066841910/growth-hacking-and-fools-gold

<comment><USER2> Posting a blog post to HN or any other site is neither a marketing strategy nor growth hacking.

If you discovered that getting a blog post onto the HN front page leads to xxx new users, maybe that is worth it.

Now work out how you can get enough votes to get that result. Lets say you find that asking a new or existing user to upvote a post on their 5th page view leads to 50% of them upvoting.

Now you can easily work out a ROI on creating a piece of content, you have some code in place to help your audience get the result and it generates xxx new users each time.</comment>


Today Is the Day - <AUTHOR>

Good luck to everybody :)
Update: Sorry if some people think this is off topic, I really never post anything like this (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=german), It is just for wishing good luck. <comment><USER2> The YC program sounds cool and like a lot of fun, but as someone who has never submitted an application, I'm going to welcome a return to more 'normal' hacker news discussions.

<comment><USER3> That would be great. I'm getting tired of posts on "what NO means" and "what to do if you get rejected" and people trying to make themselves look good to YC at the last minute.

<comment><USER4> Though...what happened last time was that a lot of insightful long-term contributors were accepted and then disappeared off the face of the site while they worked on their startup. Meanwhile the folks leftover were all the ones trying to make themselves look good to YC at the last minute.

Eventually it rebalanced out. The short-term folks got bored and left, while a new crop of top posters grew out of the ones who weren't ready for YC as of the summer but were going to become startup junkies anyway.

<comment><USER5> I've noticed the same thing. There's really just a handful of News.YCers I recognize that have posted consistently since before the last round. Incidentally, its these folks who's opinions I value the most (for the most part).

<comment><USER6> Absolutely - I count you among those folks. Nostrademons too.

<comment><USER7> Oddly enough, I find that I don't pay too much attention to who writes what. The size and color of the usernames, combined with the fact that they're rarely capitalized, means that I usually take note of names only as an afterthought.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have not yet received an email from YC but I did just get an email from Wal Mart to check out there latest 'Rollbacks'. So at least I have something to read for now.</comment>


Building a super-app/platform like Grab, GO-JEK, and WeChat; for Africa - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I would like to ask you for some advice about building a multiservices' super-app/platform like GO-JEK, Grab, and WeChat, for Africa.
Any tips/ ideas?
Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> There's two things to solve really: 1) what cloud/code infrastructure will you need, 2) how will you market it?

Happy to jump on a call and, as a Software Architect, give my tips on (1), if you have a plan for (2) :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

Thanks for your comment..

The plan for (2) is to found a startup or a startup studio that build this solution for the African and MENA markets.

These kind of solutions need business development. So, after building it, I will be in the ground with a friend of mine to business develop it, raise funding, build a team, etc.

My plan is to start in a given country or small region: the Maghreb region for example as I am originally form there. Then after succeeding in that market, we could expand to other parts of Africa..

The advantage here, is that Africa and MENA countries are homogeneous like the South-East Asia.. So, this kind of startup idea could have a huge success across the whole continent and solve real problems; and people are waiting for these kind of solutions..

What do you think?</comment></comment>


Telegram Loses Bid to Block Russia from Encryption Keys - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-20/telegram-loses-bid-to-stop-russia-from-getting-encryption-keys <comment><USER2> Why does Telegram have users' encryption keys? Shouldn't users be the only ones in possession of those keys? That's how Keybase works. Is it not how Telegram works?

If nothing else, this case shows you cannot rely on your platform provider to keep your ID and data anonymous. You have to take precautions yourself, especially if you are a political activist and in an autocratic state.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason why Telegram doesn't have end-to-end encryption enabled for all communication, despite marketing themselves as a privacy and security focused service, is a mystery to everyone</comment></comment>


Stack Overflow is offline for maintenance (UPDATE: It's back) - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/

<comment><USER2> I wonder what the impact on global productivity was.</comment>


Ask HN: Advice for learning Python as your first language? - <AUTHOR>

If you can give one online resource for learning python (as someone's first language) what would it be? <comment><USER2> <http://learnpythonthehardway.org/>

That is the best way to learn Python for a beginner, well at least in IMO

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, "A Byte of Python" is good to start resource!

<http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Python></comment>


Intel's Skull Canyon NUC is official: $650, shipping in May - <AUTHOR> http://anandtech.com/show/10152/intels-skull-canyon-nuc-is-official <comment><USER2> NUC ?! The article and Intel itself mention it a lot without explaining so I guess its a common term.

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

So its a marketing word meaning small and powerful...

<comment><USER3> I thought the Intel NUCs were well known (but I do own one). They make a great (compact PC) media replacement for old mac minis, connected to tvs (ubuntu/plex).</comment></comment>


A Bad UI Pattern - <AUTHOR> http://www.kapilkale.com/blog/the-worst-ui-pattern-in-existence/ <comment><USER2> LinkedIn's shy footer is a drop in the bucket of troubles for their dev staff. Things are so horribly broken. For instance, I have a notification that will never go away: <http://i.imgur.com/cgJbc.png>

Their UI is noisy, broken, difficult to navigate, and seems like it was designed entirely by MBAs who know nothing about their computers, let alone design.

<comment><USER3> They also had a massive javascript variable coercion bug for a while. I got 10 or so connection requests, all with the text "undefined."

They certainly are the market leaders, but engineering skill is not exactly through the roof...

<comment><USER2> Not to mention the whole password leak fiasco, and the issue with their iOS app grabbing secure personal data from the users phone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just wanted to comment that at Vimeo we had this same problem, but approached it in a slightly different way.

When you first scroll down on the logged in homepage (feed) you get to the footer. It is only after you click "Load more videos" that we begin infinite scrolling.

I think this makes it less intrusive since the user is initiating that they want to see more (rather than clicking on a link in the footer for example).

See: <http://cl.ly/image/1d3L3H3c0P2q>

On top of that we use html5 push state to make sure that the current url is updated as you scroll up and down the page with infinite scroll.

I'm not saying this solution is perfect, but it has seemed to work fine for us.

<comment><USER5> There's a trivial technical solution to the auto infinite scroll + page footer problem. Just reveal the footer fixed to the bottom of the viewport when the user scrolls. See Forrst's posts feed: <http://forrst.com/posts>

It's a bit on the noisy side, but resolves usability issues. The other simple solution is Vimeo's approach (only load more content on request, eg a 'more' button), but for most content feeds that's an unnecessary demand for user attention on the UI instead of the content given the other design options available.

Infinite scroll has more usability issues than the hidden footer, many not solved as easily. Quick partial list:

\- the scrollbar loses its utility as a progress bar.

\- return the user to their scroll position if they followed a link from it before hitting the browser Back button

\- finding the appropriate moments to preload additional results so the user isn't waiting for content in a way that doesn't send the scrollbar into unexpected calisthenics

<comment><USER6> Please don't ever do fixed headers or footers. They drive me crazy. It's like being back in the web of the 90's where frames were all the rage.

With the exception of true, complete web "apps", web pages should be _documents_ that I can scroll without hassle and not have content possibly obscured by a bad implementation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is hardly the worst UI pattern in existence, especially when you consider that even a poorly implemented autoscroll is an order of magnitude improvement over the UX experience it replaces.

<comment><USER8> > even a poorly implemented autoscroll is an order of magnitude improvement > over the UX experience it replaces.

I completely disagree. The _best possible_ implementation of infinite scroll is better than pagination, but _most_ infinite scroll implementations are worse to me than pagination.

First of all, the main problem I have with multi-page web sites is not that I have to click a "next" button. That's such a minor inconvenience that it doesn't even register. The main annoyance with arbitrary pagination is that you can't easily search the page. Infinite scroll helps with that, but simply having a single page per chunk of related data (i.e. one page for a blog post) works better.

Secondly, with pagination, or with an ordinary non-infinite single page layout, I can close my browser tab and reopen it, restart my computer, reload the page, whatever, and when I come back, it will be scrolled right there in the same place. I have never seen an infinite scroll implementation that could do that.

Finally, bad implementations of infinite scroll just let the page grow and grow, consuming resources without end. Especially on sites that have a lot of images, this creates a practical limit to how far you can scroll before the site becomes unusable. Even if the site offers an multi-page alternative layout, you then have to find your place again at that time.

<comment><USER9> _Secondly, with pagination, or with an ordinary non-infinite single page layout, I can close my browser tab and reopen it, restart my computer, reload the page, whatever, and when I come back, it will be scrolled right there in the same place. I have never seen an infinite scroll implementation that could do that._

Anyone who's used LocalStorage want to comment on whether it could solve this problem by saving the scroll position? It seems doable.

<comment><USER10> I've used history.replaceState API add a position indicator on long infinite scroll pages into the page hash so you get

      http://somesite/foo#scroll=20121104120000

It has some rough edges, multiple jerky transitions on uncached load, for some reason replaceState is an expensive operation on Chrome, but it was a better experience than the alternative for that page (pagination or forgetful autoscroll)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I dunno, I find the iOS keyboard to be higher in my list of annoyances. While typing, there's only one possible word that can be the autocomplete e term? And I have to look up, stop typing, and hit that tiny "x" if I want to override it? (I've overridden the autocomplete for "it's" and its so many times that it's apparently given up trying to autocorrect for that)

And who thought that shaking the device to Undo a simple typo (which the requires you to stop convulsing so that you can press OK or Cancel) was at all natural? I've yet to meet someone who intuitively figured out that feature. I had my iPad for a year before I realized it was my accidental sudden movement while typing that was triggering the Undo.

In terms of total annoyance accumulated in day to day use, I'd say the iOS keyboard is by far the dumbest UI pattern

<comment><USER12> Sorry, but this really isn't relevant to the article. "A bad UI pattern" is not an invitation to rant about your unrelated UI pet peeves...

<comment><USER11> Well the OP was titled "The Worst UI Pattern in Existence". I offered a current UI that is worse to show how absurd the OP is. Seems plenty relevant

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I HATE infinite scrolling, especially when some menu items are only available in the footer. Either duplicate the links up top, statically position the footer, or get rid of infinite scrolling entirely. Designers: Never ever put anything mildly useful under infinitely scrolling content.

</comment><comment><USER14> You know, i never actually noticed that issue on Facebook. It has such a clusterfuck of an interface that that is the last thing I pay attention to when i'm on Facebook. But i very much agree with the notion that infinite scrolling is a poorly implemented feature on almost all sites which use it. It's almost like it replaced pagination and forgot about the fact that you can't go to a page anymore.

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't understand why people building these infinite-scroll pages don't just make the footer float at the bottom of the screen. That addresses this problem and lets you keep infinite scrolling.

<comment><USER16> They don't want to lose the vertical space?

<comment><USER15> They already lost it when they put critical UX in a footer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> When I went to Facebook's HQ for a hackathon, they told me the solution they use for this problem is to smash the escape key. It works for Facebook to reach the footer.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is pretty common, but yes, it is annoying. Try going to the "About" page on Quora while logged in without accidentally following random users or topics: <http://www.quora.com/>

A fixed footer could solve this issue.

</comment><comment><USER19> I never understood why there are so many sites using infinite scroll bars. I don't find it useful to navigate. When I want to find something in the feed after a few days, I need to scroll like crazy.

At least, pages offered some time frame where one would now around which page to look. Maybe offering a page system using arrows would allow us to easily move from a page to another, reducing the negative aspects of the page, or giving the choice to the users whether they want infinite scrolling. Nevertheless, it is useful for very dense feed where things go crazy and a thousand pages would be added in a week.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm a big fan of the dropbox.com website. They have a footer full of links on the homepage, which is basically a minimalist site map that helps them avoid having a navigational header on the landing page.

Once you login, though, the footer basically goes away and is replaced with a small left-side, fixed "footer" that really contains non-task related links in a drop-up menu.

This seems like a very clean solution to the problems outlined in the article.

</comment><comment><USER21> I noticed this on LinkedIn's website while I was interviewing with them and looking for the contact link. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to point out such a flaw during the interview, so I never said anything. My internet connection was sufficiently fast that I couldn't ever chase down the footer so I just gave up and emailed my recruiter asking for the information I needed.

</comment><comment><USER22> I most often encounter this when looking for an "advertise" link. If I'm looking for TOS or something I can deal with three scrolls because chances are I'm going to look for it once, but I think facebook having their facebook ads section as a part of this is extremely annoying (if i dont remember the url).

</comment><comment><USER23> How about when the bottom is reached the footer becomes fixed with an X over to the right to close it? That way you never need to chase it and if you want to scroll without it you can just close it. Or rather than requiring a click it can become unfixed after a number of seconds?

</comment><comment><USER24> There is one link in facebook.com footer that I need to access occasionally (developers). But not so regularly as to bookmark it. So when I do need it, I do a middle-click scroll, move the mouse to the bottom of page and try to click on that link. It works after 2-3 clicks.

Yes, abysmal.

</comment><comment><USER25> Tumblr is a good example of a website that has solved this problem. In the Dashboard, they have a footer a lot like the footer #2 in the Facebook example. It also makes use of the jump to top jquery plugin that makes using infinite scroll a breeze.

</comment><comment><USER26> <http://imgur.com/> is guilty of this

</comment><comment><USER27> Is there any site designed from the start to autoscroll that has a footer?

It seems like these sites implemented autoscroll after existing for years and left the footer as a vestigial organ that no longer serves any purpose.

<comment><USER28> The problem is that they do still serve a purpose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Bad work, whoever changed the title of this submission. Don't keep it up.

</comment><comment><USER30> I recently came up with a solution for this problem on my site. When you scroll down a few pages, the footer appears in a fixed position.

See: <http://fandalism.com>

</comment><comment><USER31> you are talking about bad ui pattern?

why no one talks about the new youtube????

</comment><comment><USER32> Infinite scrolling in itself is considered by some to be a terrible UI pattern.

I understand the 'need' due to the tiny screen size of most smartphones but why oh why force it down the throat of desktop users?

With infinite scrolling I'm losing one important ability: I can't just check where the scrollbar is and "come back" later to that place. It's hard to explain but it's something I can do very easily. With infinite scrolling I'm screwed.

Couldn't this be solved by serving, right from the start, a page that has a gigantic height (e.g. 5 000 pixels tall or 10 000 pixels or any unit you find suitable) and then if you scroll down "too fast" you see that the stuff is "loading..." ?

This wouldn't be "infinite" but I sure wouldn't be as confused.

<comment><USER33> Indeed infinite scroll is annoying in the presence of footer, or in the case of huge pics to be downloaded, or when doing scroll bookmarking.

Another bad UI pattern at this blogging site is the lack of a home page link. It pushed me to struggle on my tablet just to see who the guy is.

<comment><USER34> I've seen people talk about infinite scroll usually as an alternative to pagination. Outside of infinite scroll and pagination, are there any better UI patterns for the desktop web?</comment></comment></comment>


Cataclysm – Dark Days Ahead - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA <comment><USER2> Can't recommend this game highly enough. It's still a work-in-progress, but it still has a lot of depth and is great fun to play. Steep learning curve, like most Rogue-likes, but really worth it.

It has a pretty active community on Reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda](https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda)</comment>


Original Hobo Nickel Society - <AUTHOR> http://www.hobonickels.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> Anyone interested in hobo nickels should take a look into the works of Roman Booteen[1], Aleksey Saburov[2] and Paolo Curcio (MrThe)[3]. They each have a unique style and their work is incredible for using hand push gravers.

[1] [https://www.instagram.com/romanbooteen/](https://www.instagram.com/romanbooteen/)

[2] [https://www.saburovart.com/2016](https://www.saburovart.com/2016)

[3] [https://web.archive.org/web/20160323235021/http://www.mrtheh...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160323235021/http://www.mrthehobonickels.com:80/hobo- nickels/2014.html)

</comment><comment><USER2> These are the kind of small pieces of information that I always hope to find on HN. Thanks for posting.</comment>


The Essayification of Everything (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/the-essayification-of-everything/?_r=1 <comment><USER2> Ugh, this is horribly written and even worse when you figure out what she's saying. It's not until the eighth paragraph that we get to find out what the author is actually talking about when she uses the word "essay", and at that point we realize she's talking about philosophical fluff pieces:

 _" When I say "essay," I mean short nonfiction prose with a meditative subject at its center and a tendency away from certitude."_

She follows by prescribing that her definition of the word is the correct one, despite openly admitting that hers is not the common definition of the word:

 _" Much of the writing encountered today that is labeled as "essay" or "essay-like" is anything but."_

And finally, she finishes her definition of "essay" with a profoundly anti- intellectual tirade against attempting to share opinions which are based in facts, evidence, or logic:

 _" These texts include the kind of writing expected on the SAT, in seminar papers, dissertations, professional criticism or other scholarly writing; politically engaged texts or other forms of peremptory writing that insist upon their theses and leave no room for uncertainty; or other short prose forms in which the author's subjectivity is purposely erased or disguised. What these texts often have in common is, first, their self-conscious hiding of the "I" under a shroud of objectivity. One has to pretend that one's opinions or findings have emanated from some office of higher truth where rigor and science are the managers on duty."_

Nobody in their right mind believes a writer of an essay to be objective. But that doesn't mean we should just eschew any attempt to base our written opinions in reality. Speculation is fine for generating ideas, but well- formed, informed opinions are both harder to find and more valuable.

Ironically, nowhere in this tirade does the author use the word "I", or admit that this is just her opinion, or allow for any doubt in the certitude of her assertions. Neither does she provide any evidence to back up her claims. It seems that she thinks that the problem with certitude is not really certitude, but "rigor and science", and she has decided to lead by example in removing these from her writing.

<comment><USER3> I think the point is that the essay as a form is supposed to be speculative, it's supposed to be an attempt, a wager. Your last paragraph suggests that you don't allow the possibility that this piece is intended to be reflexive. In other words, it's an essay, so of course it's speculative. As a fan of the form, it shouldn't surprise us that she feels and writes this way.

She seems to have experience of a very real problem, which, as a postgrad student in art, I'm also familiar with. In domains where feeling and intuition are appropriate, there are people pushing academic, rational agendas which kill the subject matter dead. If you haven't experienced this problem I respectfully suggest that you may not be in the target audience of this article.

<comment><USER2> > Your last paragraph suggests that you don't allow the possibility that this > piece is intended to be reflexive.

If that's the intent, then maybe she shouldn't write it in _exactly the absolutely certain voice that she 's criticizing_, except without the only part of that voice, the rationality, that makes that voice sometimes worthwhile.

> In domains where feeling and intuition are appropriate, there are people > pushing academic, rational agendas which kill the subject matter dead. If > you haven't experienced this problem I respectfully suggest that you may not > be in the target audience of this article.

I've experienced a problem which I think you may be talking about:

A lot of times people reject ideas or decisions that are based in intuition or feeling. They do so because they believe that intuition and feeling aren't rational.

The problem is, _that 's not rational_. Intuition and feeling are based in rationality, especially in domains where it's more important that a decision be quick than accurate, or when extended application of logic or search for evidence isn't likely to yield useful results.

The flipside of that is what I think you're doing now: claiming that rationality kills domains where feeling and intuition are appropriate. Nothing is farther from the truth: killing a domain based in intuition and feeling by applying logic or evidence inappropriately _is an irrational behavior_. Julia Galef calls this "Straw Vulcanism"[1] and I recommend her talk; she does a better job of explaining it than I can.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLgNZ9aTEwc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLgNZ9aTEwc)

<comment><USER3> Well, it is the "Opinionator" column, and she states the thesis she is proposing very clearly using "I believe" language in the third paragraph.

You seem to claim that only rationality can make assertions worthwhile, but that's not universally accepted. See William James' notion of the Will to Believe. He argued that sometimes you must accept an unproven fact in order to take advantage of its implications.

If you are expecting every sentence in the Opinionator piece to contain a "this is just my opinion, but", caveat, I'm not sure what viable model of writing you have in mind. There are rhetorical allowances that must be made, and it feels pedantic to complain about the author's tone of certainty. She's trying to lead a charge, inspire courage, etc.

To address some of your later points: We know that humans have many cognitive biases, so intuition is not necessarily a rational thing.

I should have put "rationality" in quotes in my comment -- I have no beef with rationality per se. However, in art, propositional knowledge is thin on the ground, and attempts to place the study or practice of art on a rational basis are necessarily reductive (because propositional approaches are just not adequate or available).

One of my colleagues is a devotee of a quantum quackery approach to psychotherapy. I'm happy to accept that it's "rational" for them to follow this idea if it leads to good results in their artistic career. If they don't believe it themselves there are issues of sincerity when they participate. If they do believe it, they aren't being rational.

I'm usually the guy who gets shouted down when I try to claim that aesthetic pleasure should be included in the category of rational "functions" of objects, so I think we essentially agree on the power and legitimacy of a rational approach to all aspects of experience.

Quantum quackery and Skepticon talks are, it seems to me, totally incompatible and it's futile for any of us to reconcile those two audiences, for the time being. Ok?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe everything is an essay, because that is the only form of writing most people have ever been taught to write? The SAT/college application five paragraph essay style gets beaten to death for at least two years of high school English class in the USA.

<comment><USER5> We could write everything

as a list of nice haikus

if that's what we want.

<comment><USER6> There was a young man from France

who kept his essaies in his pants.

But that's not what we want

when we want a good rant,

So I'm left with this pseudo-limrick.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I had to chuckle at " _Phillip Lopate's reflections on the relationship between essay and doubt_ ". I have a copy of _The Art of the Personal Essay_ edited by Lopate on my shelf from roughly 1989 or so.

There's nothing "lately" about it.

</comment><comment><USER7> The original was better: [http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html)

<comment><USER8> As someone who graduated with a Major in English before going into a 20-year career in programming, thank you for posting this link. This article sums up everything I eventually came to hate about my college education: the heavy focus on analyzing long-dead writers, the silly idea of having to take a position _before_ you start writing, and his quip about the last paragraph being the first paragraph re-worded well enough so that no one notices is absolutely spot on. When I tried to get a job as a writer after graduating, one editor looked at my resume and said, "BA in English? I'm sorry, but you just spent the last four years learning how _not_ to write."

I think he's right on target about what essay-writing really is: an exploration of complex and beautiful ideas. For the last 10 years I've been blogging purely as an exercise in researching and learning about complex topics. An essay doesn't need to argue anything, but can simply appreciate a subject and express its ideas from a new perspective and in novel ways in hopes of others appreciating the subject as well.</comment></comment>


Viking berserkers may have used henbane to induce trance-like state - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/viking-berserkers-may-have-used-henbane-to-induce-trance-like-state/ <comment><USER2> sounds like a realistic hypothesis; in VERY controlled amounts, the delirium that results from consuming tropane alkaloids could definitely be a lot like a single-minded state that one might associate with berserkergang. the only problem I would have with that is the fact that deliriants seem to have a propensity for reducing muscle tone (at least high dose diphenhydramine does and i assume that may go for the tropanes as well). but the detachment from reality and the rage that a berserk state would imply certainly rings true for what one might go through in delirium, especially if the intent going in is to cause damage</comment>


How I Learned to Appreciate Job Hoppers - <AUTHOR> http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2014/05/30/hop2/

<comment><USER2> There's a middle-ground between job-hopping and unswerving company loyalty: being strategic about your career. Stay in the same place as long as you continue to have opportunities to learn & grow, supportive management, and mission-alignment with the organization. Leave when your career goals no longer align with the needs of the organization. That way you give potential employers the signal that you're interested in new challenges, added responsibility, and delivering value to the organization, but you also show that you're proactive and won't put up with bullshit.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great article. I've struggled with this for my entire career. I get bored after finishing a major project and am left with miscellaneous tasks. But I've found consulting gigs to be elusive and companies seem reluctant to hire contractors. Even startups. So I risk being labeled a job hopper...

<comment><AUTHOR> Consulting gigs, particularly good ones, seem easier to get for people who have built a network. People want to hire a consultant who is a proven entity, often referred by a first or secondhand contact. Referrals are really key unless you are interested in the lowest hanging fruit of gigs.</comment></comment>


Counterpoint: 200,000 apps is what they want - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2962-counterpoint-200000-apps-is-what-they-want <comment><USER2> As I'm sure Jason knows -- the iOS app store actually has over 400,000 apps. But at 200,000 was it a poor shell of its current self?

The problem with Mac vs PC in the old days was threefold:

1) Device drivers

2) Enterprise LOB apps (think VB)

3) Games.

These three concerns actually probably played a much larger role than app availability in the mid-90s. Apple stagnating the late 90s made it a no brainer. But now with OS X (1) has been knocked off the table. Notice no one talks about the much larger PC app ecosystem. Because it really doesn't matter once you get beyond a reasonable number of apps on the platform.

For this reason, I have no problem recommending a phone based on how well it nails the basics. My MIL has no clue what Color is, nor will she likely ever miss it.

<comment><USER3> What is a MIL?

<comment><USER4> Mother-in-Law

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Surely, it's a case of each person only having 10 or so apps that matter to them, but it's kinda a different 10 for everyone.

Like the old, 80% of users only use 20% of the features. But it's a different 20%.

<comment><USER6> This. I'd like to give you 100 upvotes if I could. Add to this, even the same user doesn't want use the same 20% of the all the time. Tastes change, preferences change, new apps come out.

What @dhh's argument reduces to, is that the long tail doesn't matter. But only, it really does. But as you say, the long tail is what makes it a great UX for users.

<comment><USER5> Absolutely. And when you start talking about games especially, the long tail matters even more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I tend to be on the "MORE APPS" side of this discussion.

I like apps and in particular I like games. I spend a decent amount of time on the train every day standing up so reading would be unpleasant for me. I listen to music or play a simple game while I ride to pass the time. The people who produce those games provide me a real service.

</comment><comment><USER8> But Nokia have an app store, and there are plenty of apps on it. I bought apps from the Nokia store and some of them I use everyday. s2putty, the app I used the most, is free (and a million times better than anything you can kludge on iOS).

Apps are _better_ on Symbian than they are on iOS they're just not as shiny.

<comment><USER9> I disagree.

A certain category of Symbian apps may be better than their iOS equivalents, but some other categories such as games are way better on Apple devices, and this situation is not going to change tomorrow. The fact that game studios are right now hiring iOS (and Android) developers is a sign. Even here in Japan, I've been seeing more and more job offers for iOS developers, while I can't recall any Symbian offer.

There are also the social apps that tend (at least from a personal point of view) to be much more usable on iOS than on Symbian. Take the Facebook app as an example.

Maybe s2putty is better than Prompt for iOS, but is it really _a million times_ better ? You may not be the target for those 400'000 apps, but saying Symbian apps are better is not right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have this weird vision that apps (and apps stores) are just a temporary solution for current lack of fast wireless connectivity and not so strong CPUs in mobile phones. I believe that in 3 years from now, apps will be so passée...

<comment><USER11> But what's the alternative you're thinking about? Is it web? Honest question because you can be thinking about so many other things...

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I may be an exception to the rule (though hopefully less exceptional on HN) but there are many reasons why I'm still probbly going to buy the N9, dispite Nokia abandoning the platform. Here's why:

Nokia is marketing Qt as the N9's development platform. They're also porting Qt to their S40 platform which is powering "the next billion". Apps written for these devices should (hopefully) also run on the N9.

The N9 is based on Maemo, which already has a few thousand open source apps for it. These apps will need porting but as Maemo 5 and 6 are quite similar this shouldn't be too difficult. This includes Python, PHP, Ruby, Emacs, vi and loads of other cool stuff (for people like me, at least).

There is an Android port (called NITDroid) for the Maemo 5-based N900. This doesn't currently let you make / receive phone calls but it can do everything an Android tablet can do and thousands of Android apps can be installed on it. I would be suprised if someone hadn't got NITDroid working on the N9 within a couple of months of launch.

Being Linux, Maemo runs many standard Linux programs if they are recompiled. I have The Gimp and Netbeans on my N900, for example. I can also chroot into a standard ARM Debian install and run Apache & MySQL. People will probably have Ubuntu running on the N9 soon.

As for games, Maemo shares quite a lot of its architecture with WebOS and many WebOS games run on the N900.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think the main problem with the original argument is that apps aren't just "things you might use every day or never".

For the app consuming community most of the apps we get are cheap/free impulse buys that are never meant to be anything more than tiny bits of consumption, no different from that book, magazine or toy which people bought to amuse themselves during the boring parts of life. Life goes on without them but it sucks a little less with them.

</comment><comment><USER14> Most people don't even know what OS their phone is running. They don't want 200000 apps - they want large screens with cute, tiny rectangles on it.</comment>


Ask HN: What are your non-tech hobbies? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I'd like to push back a bit on the 'hobby' terminology. It seems to rest, or at least lends fuel to, an assumption that work is of primary value. That may be true for some, and probably more in a field like tech than many, but it's not universal, and certainly not structural.

In my case many of the things I do (reading, sailing, running, political activism, meditating, etc etc) are each far more important to me than work, which is just a (somewhat reluctantly engaged in) physical necessity. It handles the bottom level of Maslow's hierarchy. The upper levels are more than hobbys!

I realise you probably just grabbed word out of the lexicon without necessarily meaning as much by it as I'm making out. Still, I dislike the word.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've started bouldering which is rock climbing with crash mats instead of a rope. I do it indoors. I like getting an upper body workout without lifting weights.

</comment><comment><USER4> Used to mountain bike a lot. Got into CrossFit and lifting. Need to get some more focus back on lifting again. Got into home DIY/repair, but have backed off with my new place. Getting into oarchery, handgun/shotgun/rifle target shooting, kayaking, and ATVs now. Looking at learning more about fishing. Enjoy boardgames though no one near me plays. And trying to get my kids into any of the above. Time is hard to find between work and chores for any/all of that, but I try to squeeze in some of it weekly. You asked non-tech, but I also enjoy some Zelda Breath of the Wild from time to time; not much other time available for video games. And my wife and I enjoy a couple TV series and I enjoy audio books. Not sure what defines leisure activity vs hobby, but I think they would be similar.

<comment><USER5> Where do you live?

<comment><USER4> Recently moved to western Montana.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I just finished a short story ~30 pages that I wrote as a gift for a friend.

I also work out about 5 days a week after some time off for an injury. I'm starting to see some of the results from that so I am getting more and more motivated to do that. My goals there are weight loss and strength building. I've lost 25 lbs and hope to lose another 10-20 to reach a point where I feel good about how I look.

Similarly, but not exactly the same, I go walking a fair bit.

I also have kids and all of the associated activities that come from parenting.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm not sure it counts as non-tech, but I like reading design patterns for drama, also known as tropes. And then I try to reassemble them in different ways, like a puzzle.

</comment><comment><USER8> Kite building and flying. It involves a bit of engineering and a nice reason to get away from the computer screen. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19980440](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19980440)

</comment><comment><USER9> Art. It gets as technical as you want it to though, so avoid attempting any realism otherwise you'll be going down similar rabbit holes as you do in tech.

</comment><comment><USER10> Anything that involves getting away from the computer. :)

I have been trying to build a model truck (The plastic kind that you build and paint.) for a good 3 years with no luck.

</comment><comment><USER11> I play piano! Started when I was 21, now 29. I can play most intermediate Chopin waltzes and some Mozart (again, easy - medium level).

</comment><comment><USER12> I grow tropical fruit, all stolen by squirrels except for the dragon fruit. I make and homeschool kids, a dozen so far.

<comment><USER2> > all stolen by squirrels except for the dragon fruit

It's flying foxes & possums in my neck of the woods ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Workout, gardening, being _away_ from the computer

</comment><comment><USER14> I can draw</comment>


Australia passes bill to force tech firms to hand over encrypted data - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-security-data/australia-passes-bill-to-force-tech-firms-to-hand-over-encrypted-data-idUSKBN1O42SR <comment><USER2> Why hasn't Apples blocked access from Australia yet? I thought they cared about privacy. Or even better, just Australian politicians.</comment>


Is An International Cyber Regulatory Agency Needed? - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardstiennon/2012/08/22/is-an-international-cyber-regulatory-agency-needed/ <comment><USER2> I think so. But isn't this a touchy issue? I mean doesn't the US own the internet? So why would they relinquish regulation?</comment>


VTech: We Are Not Liable If We Fail to Protect Your Data, EFF: Oh Yes You Are - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/03/vtech-we-are-not-liable-if-we-fail-protect-your-data-eff-oh-yes-you-are <comment><USER2> Interesting case. Kind of rooting against the EFF on this one cause it's victim-blaming, even if they were useless at security. Dropbox and Slack have also been useless at security at different moments in their existence. Transmission was useless at security until last week, Linux Mint was recently called out for insecure practices too.

        We know that there's no such thing as "perfect"
        security, but when you are caught with bad practices
        in a banner year for data breaches, you should be
        dedicated to securing your users' information</comment>


A Quantum Algorithm for Solving the Navier-Stokes Equations - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41534-020-00291-0 <comment><USER2> As a non mathematician my critique of QC as often described remains the same:

1) the _examples_ almost always consist of using QC to drive to a known endpoint, so selection of the 'correct' result under the implicit uncertainty of the solution space is moot

2) the methods typically represent selection of a minima or maxima in a range of solutions. This is not true for quantum cryptography, which obviously only has one correct outcome.

Navier-Stokes is fluid dynamics? It's necessarily in the space of approximate answers (a solution space) - how do we know it's found more than a local optimised minima or maxima without a priori knowing the answer?</comment>