Dopplr is shutting down - <AUTHOR> http://www.dopplr.com/ <comment><USER2> It's "funny" how often there are posts for "_____ is shutting down" for things that are completely new to me. I'll go to the page and (many times) think "I would have used it if I would have known about it!"

If you don't advertise well (and correctly!), you can't expect to survive, no matter how good your idea may be.

<comment><USER3> Same here. Ironically, a new travel planning site announcement just popped up on HN today in case you missed it - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572902](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572902)

CEO touts it as "World's Best Travel Planner", we'll see!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It was because they forgot to put an "e" between the "l" and the "r". For some strange reason, a lot of companies like spellr.com make that exact same mistake, and it always leads to failure.

<comment><USER5> flickr did OK

Unwillingness to shell out for the correct spelling does seem to be a negative indicator, though many companies did that once success looked likely.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, if you're a startup and doing something unproven, you're not going to throw money at domain squatters on day 1.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you're not familiar with Dopplr, this short infomercial has all you need to know:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXNgBs5DPLg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXNgBs5DPLg)

</comment><comment><USER8> I think there's an opportunity for a SaaS that makes it easy for companies to publish a pretty "shutting down" page. This one is very uninspiring.

<comment><USER9> failrock.com is available...

<comment><USER10> so is failr.com :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you still have data in Dopplr that you want out, now's a good time to migrate it to TripIt. Here's a simple script I wrote to do it. [https://github.com/jlev/Dopplr2TripIt](https://github.com/jlev/Dopplr2TripIt)

</comment><comment><USER12> I did not know about the app, the idea is great ,was it a Nokia project? or did they "acquire-hire" it ? (bought it and shut it down ? ).

<comment><USER13> It was a startup and was purchased by Nokia in 2009.

<comment><USER14> Which was about the last time it was under active development. I always liked Dopplr but they just stopped caring post-acquisition.

TripIt is about as close as you can get to a functional Dopplr these days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> as an extensive traveler, i experimented with in some years ago. it never really gave me what i wanted in terms of ease of use, nor did the community reach critical mass to yield good suggestions. gorgeous app, neat in concept, but it didn't really take off.

sorry to see it die.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think today foursquare does serve a lot of the dopplr niche. When i'm traveling and i check in to a new city, i find other folks who are in town. It's not so good for planning, but it works for discovering who's in town.

</comment><comment><USER17> It would be interesting to graph SaaS products being purchased and then being closed down over time. It would be a good barometer of the skill levels of decision makers in acquiring businesses.

</comment><comment><USER18> That's a shame, it looked like a really cool service and I've been wanting to sign up for a while. It seemed to be dormant, left out to rot.

</comment><comment><USER19> I thought it said "droplr is shutting down" and got upset for a minute. No idea what dopplr is but droplr.com is pretty useful.

</comment><comment><USER20> On that note, are there any plans to develop Tripit further? It's also long overdue for an overhaul. Closing soon as well?

</comment><comment><USER21> Chrome throws a SSL certificate warning.

<comment><USER22> As does Firefox.

<comment><USER23> Certificate expired in February.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> NOKIA _shaking fist to the sky_</comment>


Coronavirus: Care home deaths 'far higher' than official figures - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52341403 <comment><USER2> In the U.S., it's pretty broadly assumed that in hot-spots like NYC, the death rate is also being under-counted. Apparently, those who die in their apartments are not added to the official death-toll. Another method for finding these excess deaths is to compare January or February to the rate in the same month of 2019 and then extrapolate the expected death rate for April 2020. This number will obviously be lower than the actual death rate so the difference should be considered COVID-19 related. Note that even this is probably low since other factors like deaths from car accidents (which I would expect to be down this year) aren't considered. Since we're burying many of the dead without testing, I think the best numbers we're going to get will come from statisticians/actuaries.

<comment><USER3> The only country that is counting deads at people's homes and care facilities is Sweden and they have significantly higher fatality numbers than anyone else.

They also just started looking at increase in general deaths to see if any are related to corona. I think there will be a jump in the numbers soon.

(Since this will probably come up: Despite popular belief, Sweden _is_ under partial lockdown)

<comment><USER4> We're counting covid deaths in care facilities (old-folks homes) in Canada. We're finding it (tragically) one of the largest categories.

But I'm sure you'll find it true in any country that those deaths are under reported to some extent due to some lack of testing before the first clinical diagnosis of covid in a facility earlier on in the pandemic.

Tracking this stuff is really messy, when testing just isn't available universally, and current tests are only a point-in-time confirmation. We won't have much more accurate statistics until there's a test that can tell if you were infected at some point (forget the name for that type of test).

<comment><USER5> > We're finding it (tragically) one of the largest categories

Our prime minister said it accounted for over half of the deaths.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone else feel like this has been a long time coming for seniors' care homes and retirement centres? For years, I have heard many outrageous stories of elderly abuse and neglect at these types of places. I'm sure some of them aren't terrible, but I've always felt they were essentially warehousing elderly people so that their families didn't have to look after them.

All of this is of course because their offspring, the present working-age demographic, are busier than ever at work. It used to be (and perhaps still is in some countries) that people would live in multigenerational homes. Grandparents would participate in the rearing of their grandchildren and in turn receive care and support from their offspring. Houses were never empty during the day, as they so often are in the suburbs we occupy these days. Perhaps it's time we reconsider our ideas around the nuclear family and revisit the traditional way of life.

<comment><USER7> > this is of course because their offspring, the present working-age > demographic, are busier than ever at work.

Even if I was retired, I wouldn't want to spend several hours of my day nursing someone. I'm not good at that, and I don't enjoy it.

> people would live in multigenerational homes

I would much sooner live in a small apartment with my wife than have either of my parents in my house. They aren't my friends, I don't enjoy their company, I would be constantly avoiding topics that my wife and I talk about freely like politics or sexuality.

One of my parents doesn't know that I'm transgender and the other one isn't thrilled about it. I would expect a lot of negativity about that.

> I've always felt they were essentially warehousing elderly people so that > their families didn't have to look after them.

Maybe they're a local maximum.

We've realized that taking care of seniors, especially when they live longer than ever in gradually worsening health, doesn't sound like a good use of our time.

But euthanizing them is obviously off the table. [1] So the nursing home evolved as a way to 'politely' live as though your parents or grandparents have already died.

Nobody really likes it, but the alternatives are worse.

[1] It might have been acceptable in a small farming village in the old days where the alternative was everyone starving.

But it's hard to justify when the only thing I might lose from a multigenerational lifestyle is my own happiness, my free time, my freedom, a lot of money, and my marriage. If I only stand to lose everything _but_ my life, it sounds selfish to say I want them to live somewhere else.

<comment><USER8> Not trying to start a flamewar, but if you werr to ask the other cultures around the world that don't send their elders into the care of strangers...

the decision to stay present in the lives of their parents etc has nothing to do with what they're good at (can be learned), or enjoy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm submitting this because there are people on HN who think we're over- counting deaths to Covid-19.

This article shows that in some countries we're under-counting covid-19 deaths by thousands.

In the UK we have two counts. There's the daily count from PHE. That's the number used for sources like Worldometers. It only counts people who died in hospital who were tested positive for covid-19. [https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/](https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/)

We also have the ONS numbers. These are based on death certification and then coding by statisticians. There's some lag involved. Here's the most recent version, issued on 3rd April. [https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending3april2020)

<comment><USER9> I have never heard anyone claiming that deaths from covid-19 are over-counted.

It is clear that, if anything, they are indeed under-counted.

Edit: this is getting ridiculous being downvoted for reasonable comments. Is this HN? No serious source claims that deaths are over-counted. Ignore fake news from conspirationists. The US seem to be sinking if that what is happening on your side of the pond.

<comment><AUTHOR> In this thread we have at least one person saying deaths are over-counted, and there are plenty of similar comments on HN.

I agree about the down voting.

<comment><USER9> This is noise. Ignore it, don't amplify it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Women who refuse to have children until climate change ends - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/mar/12/birthstrikers-meet-the-women-who-refuse-to-have-children-until-climate-change-ends <comment> grayed-down Well I suppose these goofy women won't be giving birth until the Earth ends. Actually this is probably a wise decision on their part, but not for the reason they believe.

<comment><USER2> I was thinking the same thing...these people are doing the world a favor though...skipping parenthood for a lame career/political cause will likely lead to an unfulfilled and lonely life.

<comment><AUTHOR> Three objectively wrong statements in that comment:

1\. Climate change isn't a "lame career/political cause". It's not like they're putting off children until net neutrality is enshrined in the US constitution. Climate change is an existential threat for large portions of humanity. The scientific consensus on this is virtually unanimous. Until serious, large-scale action against climate change is taken, fearing for the future of any children one may have is perfectly rational, as is opting out of having any.

2\. Not having biological children is not the same as skipping parenthood. Adoption exists.

3\. Couples that don't have children out of choice are just as happy and fulfilled as those who have them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not an academic but have started reading some climate related papers, and from the little I've read, the future seems to be inevitably grim.

Especially the trends in recent methane readings up north and those indicating fresh water aquifiers running dry world-wide.

Its made me reconsider whether I want children too.

<comment> grayed-down C'mon. What if your future children want to live?

<comment><USER3> I just tried asking them, but got a ArgumentNullException...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the proper framework for considering morality of those choices should take into account the history of childbirth and child rearing.

Right now we are mostly insulated from concerns of childhood mortality; there is an extensive network of medical care and parental aides that made the subject all but disappear [1]. In the present day a child dying is a freak accident, something that happened years ago to a friend-of-a-friend-of-a- friend. Even concerns of major birth defects aren't all that common.

However we the humans have biologically evolved, and our civilizations have culturally evolved, in environment where childhood mortality was high, and parents had only limited means of providing safety. Granted, the family planning back then was also of lower availability and reliability back then [3], to some extent muddying the waters here.

At any rate, I believe our moral choices should be informed by our (humanity's) origins, and the way we have successfully overcame various problems in the past. That includes considerations of bringing children to the world when we know they could end up experiencing hardships and misfortunes, or even that _they could possibly die one day_.

\--

[1] aside of miscarriage, which is a prevalent problem, but due to various factors it _appears_ somewhat less impactful.

[2] herbal and mechanical anticonception was a thing for millenia now [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is silly. They should have >20 children each until climate change ends. It's the equivalent of suicide to get your way. Rather pointless.

</comment><comment><USER6> The world is guaranteed to be terrible if educated, moral people slowly die off.

<comment><AUTHOR> People who choose not to have their own children can still adopt and raise educated, moral people.</comment></comment>


A crossroads in life... - <AUTHOR>

I am at a crossroads in life and need some advice... Let me start off by saying I am a designer, not a developer. I bootstrapped a company (got incorporated as an S corp) and I am the sole founder who was responsible for the front-end and hired a developer to the back-end and a DBA to maintain the servers. The company has a solid business model and solves a problem within a niche community. The developer worked remotely and got the v1 alpha 80% done when he was having problems with certain tasks so he found another developer in the UK to help out. The 1st developer then started having personal issues and and bailed on the project. The 2nd developer stepped up and finished the v1 alpha (we cut corners to get something launched). We quietly launched to prove the concept and to work on content then work on the business side. We have about 700 users from just word of mouth to help test and get feedback. The new developer wanted to re-do the entire system in a new framework and make it more efficient the the original developer had it and I agreed. Along the way, we made it better and added new features. The new developer was about 90% done, but unfortunately has had major health issues and cannot continue. So, I am stuck with a 90% v2 system and cannot afford to hire another developer right now. I am 36, no family to tend to and very passionate about making the company a success. I live in central Florida so the tech scene is lacking. Nothing is keeping me here and I am trying to decide if I should pack up and make the move the move to Silicon Valley where I have a better chance at finding a co-founder/developer/chief technical officer and give the company a real chance. If I stay put, it could take too long to find the right person and my dreams could vanish. If I move, I would be moving across the country where I don't know anyone but it would not take long for me network. I would like to hear what others think... <comment><USER2> Depends on your wallet size: Silicon Valley is not cheap. If your product does not involve rocket science and your that close to having a viable product you should be able to find a developer either close by or "anywhere in the world" that can help. I'm just a few hours north of you. I'm not a dev for hire but have plenty of sympathy for your situation and tons of experience bootstrapping. Finding a co-founder is not something you do by moving cross country and randomly bumping into people.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comment..

"Finding a co-founder is not something you do by moving cross country and randomly bumping into people."

True - but it would get me near like-minded people where there are a lot of meetups for entrepreneurs and more resources.

<comment><USER3> There are lots of meetups for entrepreneurs in other places as well though. SV is going to have a more elite set of folks than other places. "More elite" means "I want/deserve a bigger piece of your company". You have 90% - in your estimation - completed already. I doubt you'll find a developer in SV who will commit to working with you for less than 20% of your company given the circumstances (that's just my guess though - could be way less depending on other factors not shared with us). Do you really want to give up a big chunk of your company to "only" finish that 10%?

My point is that other cities have very talented developers and great communities as well and you might be able to get what you need at a cheaper price. Atlanta, for example, is starting to do well - Georgia Tech has a nice culture, for example.</comment></comment>


Using a belt sander to foil biometric fingerprints - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+belt+sander+and+the+battle+for+privacy+a+body+hack

<comment><USER2> A belt sander is a bit harsh. The micro-fine sandpapers used by plastic model hobbyists work much better, and are much less likely to harm your fingers.

I remember reading this trick in the old spy novels, and being a model hobbyist at the time, I had to try it (on one finger, anyway). It worked -- so far as eliminating fingerprints. Of course, back then biometrics was a rather exotic technology, low res, and not in common use.

<comment><USER3> My experience making balsa wood aircraft indicates that the combination of gluing your fingers to a wing with CA, prying them off, then sanding the glue off was a pretty effective way of getting rid of the fingerprints, on one hand at least.

Do it with two hands and it got very hard to pry the first hand off.

</comment></comment><comment> DanI-S People would be better of putting their bountiful tin-foil-hat energies to use campaigning against the governments that introduce these laws. Writing a letter to your MP is far more meaningful than grinding off the ends of your fingers.

<comment><USER4> It's all dependent on your definition of meaningful. If you want to be an activist, writing a letter is an excellent way to go about it. If you want a passport to travel sometime during your lifetime but would prefer to not have to worry too much about privacy concerns, writing a letter isn't going to help you much.

I hardly think it's tin-foil hat territory to look at the state of most Western governments and deduce that they are becoming more fascist and less democratic all the time, completely in the name of preventing terrorism. Sanding your fingertips off and writing a letter to your MP serve two distinctly different prongs of a fight against that fascism.

<comment> DanI-S The 'tin foil hat' madness isn't really in suspecting that there are people out there trying to control your mind. It's in believing that wearing a tin foil hat is going to stop them.

<comment><USER5> A better plan would be: move somewhere so isolated, electronic media can't reach you?

Any plans that _don't_ result in shortened life span?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The title really should read, "Using a belt sander to ensure your biometric prints never match your actual prints".

Jacques is in for a world of hurt when he next travels abroad.

<comment><USER7> _Jacques is in for a world of hurt when he next travels abroad._

To my knowledge, it's ONLY the U.S. that finger-prints foreigners. Jacques is Dutch, and all he has to do to avoid "a world of hurt" is to not come to the U.S.

<comment><USER8> _To my knowledge, it's ONLY the U.S. that finger-prints foreigners_

Japan and the USA, I'm pretty sure.

And this system would only catch nationals of the country in question being fingerprinted upon re-entering that country.

<comment><USER9> Yeah and it doesn't work very well:

[http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/deported-s-...](http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/deported- s-korean-woman-passed-through-japans-biometric-immigration-screening)

This woman snuck back in a few times after being deported by using "special tape." I really wonder how special the tape is. On the other hand:

 _846 foreign nationals were refused entry_

So, I doubt they will ever get rid of the program.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I really wonder how special the tape is.

There's some blister plasters that are very thin and transparent.

Herpes plasters for around the mouth are quite hard to spot (though with a picture as blurry as in this article you would expect them to be): [http://www.primped.com.au/blogs/zoes-blog/if-you-get-cold- so...](http://www.primped.com.au/blogs/zoes-blog/if-you-get-cold-sores-then- you-must-by-law-read-this)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I had a cousin who worked construction (and consequently didn't really have fingerprints).

He also got arrested a lot (like most of my family) and they took to taking palm prints when they booked him.

They would grow back if he went awhile without doing work though; it was definitely a temporary solution.

<comment><USER11> _"they took to taking palm prints"_

Well, you could sand those off, too. And while you're at it: sand your toes. And your heels.

Now what would you do when iris scans become a commonplace biometric? Sand off the back of your eyeballs? ;-)

<comment><USER12> Your iris doesn't leave prints on your gun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I had the opportunity to learn a little bit about fingerprints during a programming gig. The part he's missing here is that what he thinks is a smudge can sometimes still be used as part of a print. Partials aren't just from TV dramas, they get used all of the time in real cases. Also one thing most people don't know about is that prints can be "massaged" by law enforcement in what is essentially a photoshop-like process, so if a human technician can make a fairly good guess about what the print should look like, they still might be able to find a match.

</comment><comment><USER14> I've heard of people doing this before, removing their fingerprints with a sander..

But I believe the fingerprints will grow back after a while. Couldn't you get into more trouble if they grow back and you are carrying around a passport with no fingerprints in it? Or do you plan to keep sanding them off for the rest of your life? (or the life of the passport)

<comment><USER15> They do grow back. Just destroy the chip, then there is no way to read them out again.

<comment><USER14> Now you have two problems..

<comment><USER16> Why? Does a chip that cannot be read render your passport invalid?

<comment><USER17> Only if there's evidence that you destroyed the chip on purpose.

<comment><USER11> A strong EMP might destroy it without visual clue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Fingerprints will grow back unless you get down to dermal layers of skin and that _will_ hurt quite a bit. Permanently removing your prints is a more involved process than this, but it's certainly a cute idea.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's a really funny, whimsical thing to do, but how will this help you to increase your privacy? Next time you enter the US your finger prints won't match the data on your passport, right?

<comment> DanI-S They'll also be a perfect match to the last nutjob who filed off his own fingerprints before mailing letterbombs to the IRS.

It probably only increases your chance of being detained, probed and investigated. Unless you file off your face, they can still tell who you are.

Rather than adapting your body to quietly live within the 'instruments of control', why not actively campaign against them?

<comment><USER12> Why not do both?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> If you're feeling brave, microwave your passport for good measure.

<comment><USER20> According to most official documents, any passport which has a faulty rfid will be assumed tampered with, and will become invalid. So unless you want to be refused entry and forced to replace your passport, this is unadvisable.

<comment><USER21> You could cause even more of a hassle then by building an RFID zapper (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID_Zapper>). A powerful one that fits inside a suitcase could be set off in an airport concourse, frying a large number of people's chips without them ever knowing (or any damage to the passport itself occurring).

Do it on a busy travel day and suddenly the authorities have to deal with a ton of broken passports. Either they arrest everyone, or they let everyone through.

Of course, you probably couldn't get a suitcase-sized RFID zapper through security, but you could show up, set it off a few times, and then leave without arousing TOO much suspicion.

<comment><USER22> So, you're essentially promoting terrorism… neat.

<comment><USER21> From the point of view of the TSA, maybe. In reality, it's just talking and sharing information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What would be more interesting, would be if he found a way to grow _different_ fingerprints.

<comment><USER12> Gummy Bears: <http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0205.html#5>

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I feel like this is a little mis-titled. I expected a method to do something to a biometric scanner, or to temporarily alter your fingerprints, not to remove them entirely! Interesting read I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing.

<comment><USER25> A method to do something to a biometric scanner, using a belt sander?

Somehow I don't think that would really be relevant for the "they're checking my fingerprints at the passport office" situation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The interesting thing is that fingers with the prints removed actually always do have damages that make them unique. In fact, it is usually easier to identify a print from your fingers now, than before. So good luck with that.

</comment><comment><USER27> "It is estimated that 1 in 50 people do not have prints or prints clear enough to be registered by the fingerprint readers currently in use."

Can you provide a source? I'd be interested in seeing data to back this up.

<comment><USER28> Dig a 1m deep, 5m long trench in your garden with pickaxe and spade. I guarantee you that you won't have the slightest trace of a fingerprint on both hands for quite a while.

Given the number of people working regularly with such tools, that's quite a sizeable number of smooth hands :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Isn't that a very temporary solution. How long until everything is based on genes, face recognition and so on? For all I know those governments taking my fingerprints might use them to extract my DNA, too.

</comment><comment><USER30> _It is estimated that 1 in 50 people do not have prints or prints clear enough to be registered by the fingerprint readers currently in use._

Really!?

<comment><USER31> I don't know just how accurate the 1 in 50 number is but it is pretty close to my observations. I worked on a fingerprint recognition system several years ago and collected many thousands of live fingerprints and processed hundreds of thousands of other records (scans of inked prints for example). Recognizing a good quality print is almost trivially easy. Most of the work is pulling good information out of low quality images.

Fingerprints are a reliable source of information in most cases for most people but are a far cry perfect form of identification most people think.

<comment><USER14> So tell us.. Wouldn't being "that guy with no fingerprints" be a more clear identifier, and draw more attention to yourself, than just having the same boring blurry imperfect fingerprints that the rest of us have?

If the goal is to increase your privacy, walking around with sanded off fingerprints sounds about as contrary to that goal as walking around with one of those fake eyeglass-nose-mustache disguises.

<comment><USER32> Ceramists and brick layers often have vague or worn-off fingerprints. Just say you do a lot of ceramics.

<comment><USER33> I came to mention that I do some ceramics and hadn't thought about losing fingerprints before but definitely have pretty smooth fingers now. Using grogged clay to throw with can be torture on your hands if you're not used to it.

Like someone mentioned I imagine the prints can be gathered directly by a photographic imaging method - my fingertips are smooth but they still have visual fingerprint patterning. Perhaps if I'm throwing more regularly that would go?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sidewalk Labs unveils its vision for Quayside Toronto - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sidewalk-labs-master-plan-1.4789279 <comment><AUTHOR> Docs including an image gallery of mockups here [https://sidewalktoronto.ca/documents/](https://sidewalktoronto.ca/documents/)</comment>


Life expectancy declines seen in U.S. and other high-income countries - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-lifeexpectancy/life-expectancy-declines-seen-in-u-s-and-other-high-income-countries-idUSKCN1L723R <comment><USER2> I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence from a 26 year old American white male making $37,000 per year in NYC:

It's not income inequality that drives my depression. I'm happy as a clam at my job and I'm able to pay my food, rent, car, and make a little savings.

It is the "bullshit" factor that comes with nearly everything in life these days. Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything...

... everyone is out here just trying to exploit the common citizen and it really, really needs to stop.

<comment><USER3> Lately I've been thinking of moving to a country town to get away from a lot of these problems that are systematic in cities (traffic, crime, office politics.) I don't know what its like in America, but in Australia most towns are also expensive (people take 1+ hour commutes to the city) which creates inequality and problems with methamphetamine.

<comment><USER2> Everything is expensive and the junkies are everywhere and the town government is inefficient and semi-corrupt and yeah it just all around sucks unless you are a multi-millionaire and can pay your way through all of this and set up your own private castle in the woods.

Tbh I pay like $650 to rent a room in a reasonably quiet town and I just spend my time meditating and doing free hobbies outside of work.

The most liberated I ever felt was basically living on a mountain in Chile at 14,000 feet for a week but then you run out of food and water and the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered by society for a moment

<comment> barrow-rider > the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had > to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered > by society for a moment

Because there are 8 Billion people in the world -- wrap your head around that, seriously, like think on just how many people there are -- and understand that there is a LOT of demand for nice places, from all over the world.

If you (the broad you, I mean) want it your way you need to climb to the top of the heap, retreat to the fringes, or learn to live with all of the bullshit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I find it astounding that the opioid epidemic is so severe that there's a measurable reduction in life expectancy in the USA.

Interesting that "deaths of despair" have also had a measurable impact. It seems that since the Global Financial Crisis, we've been locked in this sort of terminal pessimism. Hunter S. Thompson wrote back in 1971, "We are all wired into a survival trip now". Are we locked in the same survival trip from almost 50 years ago, or is it a cyclical thing?

Is the world really worse than the 60s? Or are we just more aware of our helplessness?

<comment><USER5> Wages were rising until the 70s and they've been stagnant since then; in the mean time college, health care, rent, houses, etc. have gotten more expensive in real dollars. People who had well-paying jobs with strong benefits are now often, if not unemployed, in jobs with less pay, fewer benefits, and more precarity. In short: yes, things are worse for many of the people who are turning to opiates.

<comment><USER6> From the many statistics I saw usually the breaking point is the middle to end of eighties. I'm thinking the fall of Soviet Union had a large impact on the middle class Americans. Basically the middle class was discarded as something that served its purpose as a shield from communism.

<comment><USER7> Decades of "trickle down economics" have robbed from the vast majority and given to the tiny, select few.

<comment><USER8> How has anybody been "robbed"? Per capita income has gone up for everyone, yes the top has gone up faster but at the end of the day the lower tiers still have increased in wealth. Honestly I don't understand how you come to your conclusion.

<comment><USER9> Prices have gone up faster.

We consume junk, continuosly.

"robbed" because voters accepted capital concentration by accepting that it would trickle down, which is a lie.

<comment><USER10> It's not a lie. The US welfare state has massively expanded since 1980. The percentage share of GDP transferring via welfare state policies has doubled in 20x years.

Both poverty and homelessness are near 50 year lows.

Healthcare coverage is near an all-time high, thanks in part to the vast expansion of the welfare state.

All of that is being paid for by the rich. The US has one of the most progressive taxation systems in the developed world. The US middle class is among the least taxed of any middle class in the developed world, which is also why the US median disposable income is among the highest.

If you go back to 1980, the inflation adjusted per capita income transfer going to welfare policies, was close to $3,500. Today it's near $9,000. That's a dramatic expansion of the social safety net in the US, and it has had very tangible, very dramatic positive results (including a large reduction in homelessness).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Actual study: [https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2562](https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2562)

Which has a helpful visual summary: [https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/suppl/2018/08/15/bmj.k3096.D...](https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/suppl/2018/08/15/bmj.k3096.DC1/mid_life_mortality_v37_datasupp.pdf)

The title of the Reuters piece is misleading, as declines in 2014 were followed by greater gains in 2015 for most countries.

</comment><comment><USER12> There really is just two things that kill Americans: heart disease and cancer [1]. Despite what you hear, it isn't terrorists, depression, tickets or sharks.

IMHO. Heart disease is related to salt intake and lack of exercise. Cancer is related to a dna gamble on each cell split (the more you intake sugars & fat the better odds these deformed cells have * age). So. Basically stop eating. Fast. Give your heart a break from salt - let those deformed cells die.

[1] [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm)

[2] Fat monkey vs skinny monkey

[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/08/calorie_restriction_and_longevity_monkey_study_shows_hunger_doesn_t_increase_longevity_but_type_of_food_does_.html)

<comment><USER13> Heart disease actually has links to viral infections by things as common as herpes :)

[https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/cholesterol-have-we-shot-the- me...](https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/cholesterol-have-we-shot-the- messenger-a3f5dfeba09)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I find it very counter-intuitive that they would cite an "ageing population" as a contributing cause of a drop in life expectancy. I suppose there might be some way that that could be true, but it's not straightforward.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm shocked it's not caused by all the crappy diet that is still so mainstream: sugary foods, government food pyramid made by lobbyists, meat overdose, etc.

<comment><USER13> How about toxic chemicals that make us sick?

[https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to- plas...](https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plastic- measures-500cdf1fe528)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Drugs, alcohol, and suicide. All are things people turn to when they want to escape. The question is, what are people escaping? Loneliness? Poverty?

<comment><USER17> People don't need a reason to escape; they need better reasons to stay. Traditionally that's been the role of religions, but what's the replacement? How can we give humanity a reason to live, in a scalable manner, without relying on fictional axioms?

<comment><USER16> Family. Men and women need to care for each other and for their offspring. It's ingrained in all of us.

<comment><USER17> If people only live to make more people, then that's not scalable; it's a pyramid scheme. Earth doesn't have the capacity for everyone to start a family.

<comment><USER18> Are you aware that all people die?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I live in one of the high income economies (Australia) which I think is _not_ in the cohort. I wish it was clearer how the cohorts line up, by economy. The chart obscures this a bit.

My take-away is that the opiod and other health crises are real, and there is a real measureable effect but I am less sure health outcomes by high-income _worldwide_ is in net decline, measured by life expectancy.

[https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2562#F2](https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2562#F2) are the figures which show six economies this didn't happen in:

Finland, Japan, Norway, Australia, Canada, Denmark

<comment><USER20> That's the list and figure for women. For men you have to see the next graph which is slightly different. Then the next two graphs show you that outside of the US the opiod epidemic is not a big part of the reason. Then when you look at the 2016 estimates table you see that this is all just noise except for the UK and the US.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> There's a term for it called 'shit life syndrome' \- [https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-20/hutton-blames- shit...](https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-20/hutton-blames-shit-life- syndrome-brits-slumping-life-expectancy)

</comment><comment><USER22> If only lsd was legal. One of the safest non-addictive drugs out there with therapeutic and recreational benefits.

<comment><USER4> This is starting to become a bit of a meme on Hacker News, that LSD, or ketamine, or MDMA is some kind of miracle cure for all your problems in life.

It's not. I've taken my fair share of drugs in all kinds of different settings, so I'd consider myself at least experienced in the subject. Drugs don't solve the problems in your life, they're escapism. To quote (again) Hunter S Thompson:

> That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America > selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim > meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him > seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could > buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit.

Drugs aren't going to save the world. The hippies thought that they could save the world in the 60s with positive energy, wishful thinking, pot, and LSD. How well did that work out? You could give the whole world a dose of acid, and the very next day they'd be straight back to killing each other.

I'm all in favour of legalisation, sure, but it's not going to save the world.

Upon saying that, in the correct supportive environment, LSD can be an incredible tool for healing past trauma. It's a shame that Timothy Leary and his lot managed to basically kill all scientific research into its therapeutic benefits for decades.

<comment><USER22> When did I say it was going to save the world? I'm suggesting it is an infinitely safer alternative than opioids and perhaps if it were legal then people vulnerable to opioid addiction would be taking something much safer and non-addictive.

<comment><USER4> I think that suggesting that people who are vulnerable to opioid addiction take LSD instead is a pretty reckless suggestion.

I've had the misfortune of taking LSD when I was in the wrong headspace, in the wrong place (i.e. bad set and setting). It was not a very pleasant experience.

If your life is so desperate that you're taking opioids to try and dull the pain of existence (which is a something different situation to progressing from prescribed opioids to heroin addiction), then taking LSD really isn't the solution and isn't necessarily a safer alternative. Physically safer, sure, but LSD can fuck with your psyche in pretty nasty ways.

I'm not saying "poor people shouldn't take LSD", because I'm not a hypocritical elitist. But I don't think it's really an alternative to opioids, and don't think it would stop opioid abuse, you'd just be throwing more shit into the mix.

Weed is a far more appropriate drug. At the end of the day though, drugs are readily available wherever you are. People will take what they want to take. Obviously people are taking opioids (or methamphetamine in some areas) despite the ready availability of marijuana. If people wanted to take LSD, they'd be able to find it easy enough (or it would find them).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Anybody else felt that the study is kind of too broad and they kind of say, yes it is partly because of the opiods but at the same time there is another study that say it isn't. So I feel I literally read noise.

<comment><USER24> Outside the US and possibly the UK it is noise; it's not news and the cause is well understood to be the flu. Fluctuations of a few months in life expectancy should not be a surprise in countries where it is well above 80 years. The question is why the decline didn't revert the next year in two of the 18 countries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Similar conclusion, different article, partially different data sources: [http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population- immiseration...](http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration- in-america/)

</comment><comment><USER26> Give us the data already: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy)

</comment><comment><USER27> Maybe this isn't as bad as it sounds? Fewer people might be the best way to limit climate change.

<comment><USER5> I suppose "people should die so that climate change is less severe" is an easy position to take if you imagine the people being killed won't be you or your family.

<comment><USER27> I don't have a family but I understand your sentiment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> And maybe we all need universal healthcare folks.

<comment><USER29> >driven in part by the effects of the opioid epidemic on younger adults in the U.S. and the impact of a severe flu season on older adults in other nations, two new studies suggest.

More likely we need to fix the socioeconomic circumstances that drive people toward opioids. Personally, I believe there is a complex cultural problem in the first world. We have it too easy, can subsist without working, and now that people are increasingly less religious, with nothing to do all day and nothing to replace god or community but vapid, consumerist materialism. So poor people turn to drugs to numb the emptiness in their lives. M Though I'm sure there's more involved.

<comment><USER30> Are opioids actually an epidemic when measured as a cause of death? 64,000 annually in the US (2016.) That's not even in the top ten of causes of death.

<comment><USER31> "Poisoning" (overdoses) and suicide are #1 and #2 causes of death for 25-44 year old Americans.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What about the rise of antibiotics resistant bacteria, superbugs... etc. Everyone is sounding alarm on that, but factually how many preventable deaths it caused?</comment>


Ask HN: How did you keep improving your typing speed after 100 WPM? - <AUTHOR> I type at 100+ WPM on a Laptop (Qwerty) keyboard (120+ on a nice cherry blue keyboard). I know many typists get faster than this. I practice on http://play.typeracer.com/ a bit, but it doesn't seem to improve my speed much.<p>I have no need to type faster than 100 words per minute, but I'm interested in how one would keep  improving when all the learning resources are targeted at beginners. <comment><USER2> I rank somewhat high on typeracer: [http://www.seanwrona.com/typeracer/profile.php?username=kanz...](http://www.seanwrona.com/typeracer/profile.php?username=kanzure)

Maybe I can provide some advice. The most important thing is to type very quickly. Heated real-time chatroom activity (read: flamewars) are also helpful for honing this skill...

But chats might not be your thing. One other thing that might help is going to conferences and typing transcripts. Here's a few that I have done: [http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/](http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/) For example, this recently included a Bitcoin event where my typing was originally meant to be a community resource for after the event... but during the event this "resource" became a supplement to and alternative to live translation into Chinese (someone decided to throw it up on a projector while I was typing- no pressure): [http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/2016-july-bitcoin- develope...](http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/2016-july-bitcoin-developers- miners-meeting/cali2016/)

A long time ago I thought of myself as a keyboard snob, but the truth was that I hadn't tried that many keyboards. After experimenting with some expensive keyboards, I have found that for me the actual keyboard doesn't make too much of a difference, unless it's an exceptionally bad keyboard. I would recommend looking for keyboards that support n-key rollover, which would allow you to experiment with plover if you ever wanted to go in that direction for typing.

I use the default qwerty keyboard layout. It might be more productive to experiment with building alternative keyboards rather than changing keyboard layouts. Chording might be an interesting direction to pursue. Skip to using lots of MEMS accelerometer sensors and gyroscope sensors on a glove and get real-time motion capture of tiny finger motions. Use a few accelerometers per finger. You could spend a few hours making weird (easy) motions with your fingers, and then those state transitions could then be mapped to different symbols. You could also use a 3d model of the human hand, forearm and shoulder to compute the exact range of feasible and repeatable motions based on muscle anatomy, then sample from that range and assign symbols to different transitions.

Typing quickly isn't everything. It doesn't help you figure out what to say.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's certainly a lot of words you've typed. Thanks for the detailed insights. I need to Google things like "n-key rollover", so I'll definitely spend some quality time with your reply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [https://typing.io/lessons](https://typing.io/lessons) let you type through code, which exercises the right pinky more than prose. The site also requires backspacing to correct typos. This adds realistic overhead not normally captured in wpm measurements.

</comment><comment> w-m After looking for something similar some time ago, and also not finding anything suitable, I wrote a simple script that would let you repeat given phrases from a text file.

I gave it two modes: 1) show a new phrase to type and time the wpm. 2) of all already timed phrases, show the slowest one to be typed and timed again.

My observations were that you could in fact increase typing speed for certain areas of input, weak fingers or weak letter combinations.

Just showing the slowest phrase is very simplistic, but it does a surprisingly good job. You will only get to see a different phrase if you improved on the current one significantly and learned a new 'skill'. It also automatically does a form of spaced repetition as you normally only increase speed in small steps and will see slow phrases again and again.

It didn't bother me much to type in lots of phrases I was already fast at to single out the slow ones. But: after some playing around with it I saw that for many inputs it's mostly a concentration problem, less a finger-mechanical one.

How much C code can you type at 100 wpm before running out of things to type?

How much C code written by others can you read/parse at > 100 wpm before making a concentration lapse?

I haven't used the script in a while and went on to try to single out the slow patterns in every-day typing (mostly the error rate being to high) and then try to figure out why my fingers don't know where to go reliably. I then make an effort to train these patterns a little, maybe correcting an actual mistakes or lazyness in placement.

<comment><USER4> What length of phrase did you find most effective for this kind of deliberate practice? How'd you pick them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Court reporters are required to type at 240WPM with zero mistakes, or they lose their court reporting license.

You can teach yourself to use a stenography machine. You can build your own steno machine with some open-source software and a fancy gaming keyboard. See this video by Mirabai Knight and the Plover project: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb- dB6g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb-dB6g)

I wanted to try this but I couldn't stick with it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Disclaimer: I type slower than you (~80 wpm) and I have no idea whether this will help you, but it's helped me get to where I am without any formal training in typing. And I never went through a hunt-and-peck phase...it always felt natural to use all 10 of my fingers.

That said, have you thought about taking up the piano? I feel like the dexterity that I develop playing the piano, particularly the ability to very quickly play repeated and alternating notes, has helped me to type faster. It should also help with rhythm, since piano keys need to be correct in both location and time to sound correct. If you're only interested in the effect on typing, you can avoid music with lots of chords and focus mostly on songs that have a quick tempo.

</comment><comment><USER7> Typing ability is mostly neurological. After learning proper technique, you aren't going to improve much more. Sleeping well if you don't already is probably the only thing you can do.

</comment><comment><USER8> Epistory ([http://store.steampowered.com/app/398850](http://store.steampowered.com/app/398850)) might be of interest.

</comment><comment><USER9> Sounds like you're talking about stenography. Have a look here: [http://www.openstenoproject.org](http://www.openstenoproject.org)

<comment><AUTHOR> No, I'm looking at pushing the limits a bit further on a standard keyboard with no specialized software.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Most advice is to start correctly with proper touch typing, and then focus on accuracy and rhythm.

If you got to 100 wpm by that route all you can do is keep practising, maybe with a metronome. (Although that's going to be a horrible noise at that speed).

If you ever look at the keys that's going to slow you down, so use a cloth over your hands to hide the keys.

The other problem is that typing tests require you to read. Try typing some spoken word - try typing a podcast or radio show. You may find you type that faster.

</comment><comment><USER11> The marginal benefit of exceeding 100wpm is quite small. Your time would be better spent learning other things, or just relaxing and enjoying your life.

</comment><comment><USER12> I normally type around 110 WPM and have found I can hit 150+ sprints of a few seconds if I have real-time feedback on how quickly I'm typing without relying on how quickly it feels like I'm typing.

Unfortunately I don't know of any tools that go much further than that in providing useful feedback.

</comment><comment><USER13> For me the best training is vim. I have 80+WPM, peak 105. If you have keyboard that suits you, the only thing you can do is type more.

</comment><comment><USER14> Switch to Dvorak.

<comment><AUTHOR> _real_ men use Colemak, right? /sarc

I tried Dvorak for a couple of weeks and got to OK speeds, but in the end it wasn't worth throwing out the countless hours of experience with qwerty, or the slight discomfort of using other computers and having to switch mentally.

<comment><USER15> I've been using Colemak for the past 10 years now and couldn't be happier with it. I have abandoned the German QWERTZ layout, mainly because writing code with QWERTZ is a real pain (curly braces, brackets and many other special chars can only be reached with the ALT modifier). Also, the layout for special characters on QWERTZ is different for Mac and Windows and I'm using both.

Colemak is way easier to learn than Dvorak if you come from QWERTY. With Colemak, all special chars and some common shortcuts (undo, cut, copy, paste) are on the same key as on QWERTY.

I don't know if I'm faster with Colemak than I would be with QWERTY now for normal text, but it certainly feels smoother and more natural, if that makes sense.

Unrelated to Colemak: I wrote a typing game a few years ago. It's more "playful" than Typeracer and targeted at beginners. I don't think it will improve your typing speed past a certain level, but it should still be fun:

[http://zty.pe](http://zty.pe)

<comment><USER14> That's because of keyboard-layout colonialism: most programming languages in common use were developed in English-speaking countries, particularly the USA, and make use of symbols that are not hard to type on the US keyboard layout.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I peak around ~160 wpm, just practice. Work on 0 mistake and then after that speed.

</comment><comment><USER17> What is this, humblebrag? Advert for typeracer?

You type at 100WPM. Unless you're transcribing can you really think at 100WPM?

I haven't measured it, but I think I type around 40 wpm (although adjusted much slower, I have poor typing accuracy) and I certainly don't feel like my typing slows me down, my typing more than keeps up with the speed of thought.

Maybe I just think really slowly.

But honestly, "Oh no I only type at <ludicrously fast speed>, what can I do to improve?" sounds a bit silly.

<comment><USER18> The average talking speed is above 100 wpm. Why not learn to transcribe your thoughts (internal speech) in real time?

<comment><USER19> Really? That seems very high. I think I shoot for 10-15...

Ideally, I can measure my speech in wph.

<comment><USER20> I'm not sure I understand. 15 words per minute means you say one word every 4 seconds.

<comment><USER19> On reconsideration, I think I'm still estimating too high on the average. I might be a little laconic.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is SICP worth the time investment for a Clojurian? - <AUTHOR> After I joined HN, I pretty much immediately began learning Clojure (via Clojure for the Brave and True) and it was a very enlightening experience. I hyped it (and LISP) up to my coworkers, because of the profound impact it had on my programming mentality. I would say I really internalized functional programming, the power of macros, the simple underlying data structures that allow the same function to operate on nearly all structures without extra code, etc.
I also got SICP, but have only really flipped around to keywords that interested me. I don't know if SICP is going to be that "aha" moment, of if it's going to just push me a little harder to internalize these LISP ideas.
I ask this as a pretty efficient person who typically likes using the 80/20 rule to determine if something is time worthy. Is SICP going to be a good use of time, or is more like 80% effort input for 20% more knowledge? <comment><USER2> yes It worths, SICP is a great book!, It's the same you are working with Clojure, Javascript or C++.

Its purpose isn't to teach Scheme or Lisp but it is to teach a bunch of techniques and ideas about the state, programming functional, object-oriented, compiler, and interpreters.

If you read it It will make you a better programmer.</comment>


Why Nikola Tesla Is Your New Hacker Hero - <AUTHOR> http://betabeat.com/2012/09/tesla-edison-the-oatmeal-indiegogo-shoreham-wardenclyffe/

<comment><USER2> The man has a fundamental unit of physics named after him. He is not obscure. Can we please stop with the hero worship?

<comment><USER3> One doesn't need to be obscure to be a hero; quite the contrary, and he isn't a hero for being obscure; he's a hero for being a genius inventor who, as you mentioned, even has a unit of physics named after him.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Actually a nice digest of what's been happening with regards to Tesla in the most recent times, for those who weren't following.</comment>


Webshop with the most amazing design ever - <AUTHOR> http://www.arngren.net/ <comment><USER2> I love it. Imagine being a kid and opening this web site: it's very visual and very obvious what they are selling.

</comment><comment><USER3> Brings back so many memories...and felt like a kid again.

</comment><comment><USER4> NSFW</comment>


Do Too Many Young People Go to College? - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239253121093694.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet

<comment><USER2> Too many young people have college debt, that's for certain.

I still think that exposure to the type of humanities courses that have been part of a traditional college education are very important for generating citizens with the critical thinking skills necessary for a functional political system. However, as the funding base for our university system is attacked, that very important component is often the first to be jettisoned.</comment>


YouTube Taking Down Gambling Related Channels - <AUTHOR> https://www.onlinecasinoreviewer.com/igaming-news/youtube-banning-slot-streaming-sites/ <comment><AUTHOR> YouTube are actively taking down channels which stream the playing of slot machines online for real money. In addition just last week they suspended the popular slots channel Dunover Slots.

I interviewed Dunover on Skype earlier in the week. Needless to say the comments on the video we uploaded of the interview has everyone divided.</comment>


FOI Request: leet speak (FBI) - <AUTHOR> https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/leet-speak-fbi-10154/ <comment><USER2> This is the worst rendition of PDF I've ever seen. Is it done on purpose to prevent OCR?

FTA: "This list has about 2800 entries you should find useful in your work or for keeping up with your children and/or grandchildren"

<comment><USER3> I think they are worried about metadata and similar info being embedded and not properly redacting it. This is a fool proof method against that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's the link you actually want: [http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1199460/responsive- doc...](http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1199460/responsive- documents.pdf)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the link. We include a direct download link right on the page but ...

We made a conscious business decision to skip having ads, to not have a paywall, and even to let you view and download 100% registration free because it's what we believe in. But hotlinking PDFs on highly trafficked places has a huge negative impact on an already very tight budget. Using our viewer, or only downloading if you're actually interested in the docs, saves a lot of money and helps us continue our government transparency work ad- and paywall- free.

Thanks!

<comment><USER6> You should consider building a viewer that's usable on mobile devices then. It's nearly impossible to read your document on a phone.

Additionally, I couldn't find the PDF link from my phone either.

<comment><USER5> Thanks a lot for the feedback: Download links are right under the thumbnails of the respective file, but I'll work to add them in the main document view, too:

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/62n8umb9jcaqfv4/Screenshot%202014-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/62n8umb9jcaqfv4/Screenshot%202014-06-16%2023.23.43.png)

We are definitely working on a better viewer, with a mobile redesign due in a few months, but we don't have any full time developers on staff: My cofounder and I both have day jobs, and our main focus is making sure we continue to get and publish government records as efficiently and openly as possible.

The reality is also just that there aren't really any great PDF viewers we've found on the web, though we're definitely open to suggestions/inspiration if you have one you think works really well.

<comment><USER7> I'd recommend having a play around with PDF.js from Mozilla, it's the default PDF viewer in Firefox, and is open source and lightweight.

[http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/](http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd like to see a FOI request for information on their process for creating such low quality PDF documents responsive to FOI requests.

</comment><comment><USER9> It looks like it really stumped the FBI to determine what "leetspeak" actually is, given that the only responsive document is the Twitter acronyms summary. (Is it even fair to call most of these "Twitter acronyms"?)

</comment><comment><USER10> Did they purposefully try to make this un-OCRable?

</comment><comment><USER11> So I see 83 pages of twitter shortspeak as the only thing released in this FOI Request, it is possible that there are leetspeak terms defined there, but I did not bother checking.

</comment><comment><USER12> Wow. Way to not actually respond to the request.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you see something, leak something.

Otherwise we'll continue to get crap like this.

</comment><comment><USER14> My favorite: WTFT What the French toast? (polite WTF)

<comment><USER15> Or, slightly below that: WYLABOCTGWTR = Would you like a bowl of cream to go with that remark?

Seriously, though, I think most of this list was drawn from a common source. Doing a Google search for a few of the acronyms in conjunction yields a bunch of very similar lists.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is barely readable. Wow FBI(even if it's for OCR reasons)

</comment><comment><USER17> New headline is much less descriptive than the old one...

</comment><comment><USER18> > CYA = see ya/cover you're ass

Cringe.</comment>


Txtng associated wiv superior reading skills - <AUTHOR> http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/03/txtng-associated-wiv-superior-reading.html

<comment><USER2> Seems like a bunch of bull to me, perhaps the children who have a phone with a text messaging plan are more likely to have access to a computer and the internet, I can see the internet as improving reading skills. txting isn't going to have large words the most I can see is interpretation of word orders and meanings being improved.

The title of the article is terrible in an attempt to be cute I had to look a few times to realize it was supposed to be with and not some acronym as me nor anyone I've ever known has abbreviated with w/ a 3 letter word..</comment>


PL/I as a Tool for System Programming (1969) - <AUTHOR> http://web.archive.org/web/20030401195859/http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/plisprg.htm <comment><USER2> You can find the code they wrote with that compiler (EPL) and more information about Multics here. It's browsable but not in any modern archive though ([https://web.mit.edu/multics-history/](https://web.mit.edu/multics- history/)). And here are some links to a simulator that allows you to boot Multics up ([https://multicians.org/simulator.html](https://multicians.org/simulator.html)). That web site also has a bunch of history about the system.

<comment><USER3> There is also [https://ban.ai](https://ban.ai) for a publicly accessible Multics system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> PL/I (and PL/C) was my first high-level language when I studied Computer Science in the late 70s.

CS 101 at my college was "IBM 370 Assembly Language". Then we moved on to PL/I.

And it was on punch cards.

</comment><comment> W-Stool My first paying gig was to write PL/I code for a factory monitoring system on a VAX @ Buick City in Flint Michigan, 1981. Anyone remember DEC and those wonderful VAX systems?

<comment><USER5> My first paying gig was as a temp worker college freshman and I designed and wrote the link level protocol in PL/M for a Ku band satellite terminal @ Harris in Palm Bay at exactly the same time. The engineers with real jobs @ Harris were in nicer parts of the building and got to work on the network layers and above on VAXen. Those were great times. Yeah we had useless offices literally the size of closets (but we all had offices, ones with walls and doors that closed) but we did everything in the lab, playing music, talking, everyone was a smoker and cigarette smoking in the lab was almost a requirement the air was so thick with smoke. Before I left we fantasized about putting bubble memory into the terminal when bubble memory was a thing. Small world. Thank you for making my afternoon nicer with the memories.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> My first project in Fortran (early 80s) involved writing a parser (go figure, what a dumb idea). I had no idea what a parser looked like so someone gave me a printout of a PL/I parser - word wrapped. It made no sense, I went to the library and got some books and got it done somehow.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This article is by the recently deceased Dr. Corbató, who lead the development of early time-sharing systems, such as CTSS and Multics.

It seems that PL/I wasn't a good choice in hindsight, being too complex to implement a compiler quickly, given the memory constraints back in the day.

I posted this because I was interested in a comment about Multics that stated that PL/I's design prevented memory access bugs, because it had variable length arrays/strings(?), and not C's zero-terminated strings. Of course C/unix was a better choice for the memory-limited systems of the day than the relative behemoth that was PL/I/Multics.

<comment><USER7> PL/I doesn't prevent memory access bugs, but it makes it easier to do good programming. For example, parameters are passed by descriptor, so the allocated size is passed allowing run-time bounds checking. On the other hand, there is an equivalent of C type-casting, so it is still possible for the programmer to shoot themselves in foot while simultaneously hoisting themselves on their on petard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I used PL/I in about '68 to do transmission line calculations. It was great for the task because it had a complex float type and a full set of complex math functions. It was a lot better than Fortran or Cobol at the time. I think it did not succeed because the PL/I compiler was too big and slow for the first generations of minicomputers in the '70s. There may have been intellectual property issues that kept it from being more widely used as well.

</comment><comment><USER9> I wrote a Battleship game in PL/I on a Univac 1100 ca. 1978. It was a pretty cool language, but those /* comments */ felt weird after FORTRAN and COBOL.

<comment><USER10> I used PL/UM, a PL/I variant at the University of Maryland at about the same time. Also on a Univac 1100, specifically an 1108 and/or 1106. Where you there, too?

<comment><USER9> I was at Petro-Canada in Calgary, Alberta. I displayed the Battleship arrays on HP character-based CRTs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Man they seemed so naive in those days.

I bet they still feel nostalgic whenever they see `proc options(main)` or `put skip edit` though.

<comment><USER12> You know this is Multics we are talking about here :-)

I must be one of the few on hn who has actually programmed in Pl/1 on a system (Prime 750's) that used it as its systems programming language.

It is a Dream Language it just F&%ing works

<comment><USER13> I worked in PL/1 for 4 years. Saying it is just "F&%ing works" made me laugh hard! The compilation never failed because the compiler assumed what you really wanted. I got many bizarre programs.

<comment><USER14> That was typical of PL/C and the silly IBM timesharing language based on PL/1, not so much of PL/1 itself.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What Do You Do with InterruptedException (Java)? (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.yegor256.com/2015/10/20/interrupted-exception.html <comment><AUTHOR> The article and discussion regarding "Common Multithreading Mistakes in C# – Unsafe Assumptions" (HN 2017/02, [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13704763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13704763)) were good, and as others noted applies to a large degree to Java as well as C#.

This brought to mind a related problem in Java, which the original article here discusses very well -- "What Do You Do With InterruptedException?". I worked with Java for several years recently at a low-engineering-function place where properly addressing InterruptedException was really really low- priority compared to other problems. So ... only one other team member seemed ready to discuss properly addressing InterruptedException though it was relevant to a lot of our use cases ...

So I'm curious:

        * have others worked in environments where InterruptedException
          was actually both handled correctly, and proved useful?

        * how often have others seen frameworks that demand that you,
          as a framework user/extender, properly handle
          InterruptedException/Thread.interrupted() because they, i.e.,
          the framework, will notify your framework thread to stop
          what it's doing via Thread.interrupt()?

        * how well to library-code implementers (e.g., code in public
          Maven artifacts) adhere to best practices in this area?

As a product developer, or as a framework user, I don't think I'd ever want to exclusively rely on Thread.interrupted()/InterruptException to deal with "canceling" work. Of the 10 to 60 libraries I might typically use that do network I/O, disk I/O, sleep, etc., I don't think I ever could rely on all libraries properly propagating the "interrupted" status back to my own code. And I'd likely not manage to get co-workers to honor and propagate that either. I'd always end up writing own separate "job-status-checker" in worker threads to get them to find out whether they should continue with their work or quit, since there's low-trust with InterruptedException.

So ... what's been your experience?

[edits: re-wording, grammar]</comment>


Ask HN: Can I visit your SF startup? - <AUTHOR>

I got my ticket to WWDC and I am planning on staying  an extra week to explore (I've never been to California).  The conference is the week of the 4th, and I'll be around the week after (11th).  Anyone have an open door? <comment><USER2> Not a startup, but I'm usually around Mountain View if you want to grab coffee or a drink. Maybe we can even get some other HN people to join?

<comment><USER2> To everyone responding to this, please feel free to email me or get in touch on twitter (both in my profile) so we can organize something. I didn't see contact info for you guys. Should be fun!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I was wrong on the dates. The conference is the week of the 10th, not the 4th.</comment>


The unsung women of technology - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/slideshow/detail/123864/The-unsung-women-of-technology

<comment><USER2> Surprised to not see Grace Hopper on the list. She was instrumental in the creation of COBOL.

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

<comment><USER3> Actually, she is mentioned in the introduction, along with Ada Lovelace, as a well-known woman of tech. Remember, the article is about the "unsung women".

<comment><USER2> Don't know how I missed that. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This list is pretty thin. And here lies much of the problem of who is "unsung" or not. If you began to list even just currently active academics in CS which happen to be women (but are very recognizable names) you would end up with a much longer list.

Of course, listing all the unsung men in the field would be an enormous list. Being male does not automatically mean you are sung, and being female does not automatically mean you are unsung. There is still a demographic imbalance which is reflected in who is sung.

</comment><comment><USER5> Unsung? I have seen posts for the past two or three years of "unsung women of tech" quite often... I think they're.. "sung" now?

It should go without mentioning...but gender shouldn't (and doesn't) matter in fields. This is science, technological advancement. Your addition matters, not the space between your legs.

</comment><comment><USER6> The article doesn't really work for me, but I checked out Deborah Estrin's Wikipedia page. It doesn't seem impressive enough for her to be called unsung. There's thousands of technology non-profit co-founders that nobody have heard of.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is a great article, I learned about a lot of people I didn't know about before.

</comment><comment><USER8> Great to see mention of folks doing the early work in compilers and optimization.

</comment><comment><USER9> Cheers!</comment>


New Emergency Preparedness Partnership - <AUTHOR> https://www.airbnb.com/press/news/airbnb-san-francisco-and-portland-city-leaders-visit-white-house-announce-new-emergency-preparedness-partnership <comment><USER2> Political move or not, I think this is an excellent thing for society. It lowers the bar to providing your home as a resource to disaster victims, and makes it easier for disaster victims to find recovery havens.

This is a good thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Political move to keep dissent quiet about Airbnb raising rental rates in large cities and to stick it to the hotel lobby.

<comment><USER4> A couple of weeks ago, all the subways were plastered with ads from AirBNB for their "New Yorkers Support AirBNB" campaign.

Not even two weeks later, literally every such ad that I have seen is covered in angry graffiti about AirBNB (multiple handwriting, so it doesn't seem like just the work of a single dedicated disgruntled person).

Ex:

[http://imgur.com/8bSdTcN](http://imgur.com/8bSdTcN)

[http://imgur.com/QW0RBFB](http://imgur.com/QW0RBFB)

<comment><USER5> Why the hate? Did I miss the stories?

<comment><USER6> The anti-airbnb side claims that airbnb takes apartments or rooms off the market for people who want to live full-time in that city. (thus increasing the price of available rooms)

The pro-airbnb side, I'm guessing, would claim: 1.) Why should certain people (renters) get preferential treatment to live in a city over other people (visitors). 2.) Are flat/apartment/home owners not entitled to do with their property what they wish?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A smart move for everyone involved.

FEMA trailers for Katrina were a boondoggle. Costing $15,000 each, most were never used.

[http://i.imgur.com/kdzzG8U.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/kdzzG8U.jpg)

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The total cost of ownership for many of the trailers ended up being north of $100,000 or even $200,000.

[http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08106.pdf](http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08106.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm curious whether other organizations like Couchsurfing could hop on this bandwagon. Even without a city-wide natural disaster, sometimes there's an immediate need for local relief and people have excess capacity.

Here in Baltimore there was a street that collapsed a few months ago and residents were sent to hotels way outside the city with no way to get to their jobs, schools, etc. Luckily a week or two afterwards they moved them to hotels closer to their homes, but Airbnb, Couchsurfing and other organizations could provide relief for minor crises like that, too.

</comment><comment><USER9> I know this seems like a good move, but I live in a part of Louisiana that wasn't directly affected by Katrina or Rita that the victims of both retreated to. I've gotta say I'd never do it, the amount of problems that resulted from that was too high. Just imagine anything and everything trashed or vandalized.

</comment><comment><USER10> Yeah, but what happens when all of the police officers and fire fighters have been priced out of San Francisco and can't get into the city from the East Bay during the event of a major earthquake?

</comment><comment><USER11> How does this mesh with legal efforts trying to shut down Airbnb? Is the service being endorsed by the federal government while being banned by state and local governments?</comment>


Forecasting - <AUTHOR> http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/06/forecasting.html

<comment><USER2> I've seen many articles about forecasting over the years. Yet none of the ones I've read actually provide any detail as to how to perform the actual forecasting.</comment>


Coinbase Fradulent Transaction – flybe [markbandawatgmail.com] - <AUTHOR> I've attempted to reach your Customer Service multiple times on July 7, 2017. There is no one available. There was a fradulent transaction that took place on July 6, 2017 associated with my Coinbase account. I sent $146.03 USD (0.05632694 BTC) to the following address: 16a783DyJ4RpxpWgrTTPqEGy5hVZMtiLtX only to find it the transaction was unconfirmed on the blockchain. The address: 16a783DyJ4RpxpWgrTTPqEGy5hVZMtiLtX is associated with the website mlt-bitcoins.com. They promised me my deposit would be multiplied by 100X.<p>I would like a refund including all fees to the email address associated with my Coinbase account,firstname.lastname@example.com. <comment><AUTHOR> If this does not get resolved within 8 hours, I will pursue other avenues. The choice is yours.</comment>


Richard Stallman's 22-Page Rider (2011) - <AUTHOR> http://waronpants.net/article/richard-stallmans-22-page-rider/ <comment><USER2> As someone who's hosted RMS for a week, i appreciated having this information available.

I find websites that call out Richards eccentricities to be in extremely poor taste. It's no-ones business but Richards, and the people who choose to host him. To put it delicately, having a clear user manual for a non-neurotypical person helps immensely.

<comment> J-dawg Is Richard Stallman known to be 'non-neurotypical'? Can anyone be described as neurotypical?

Everything quoted in the article seemed perfectly reasonable to me, even if I wouldn't make the same requests myself.

I'd love to be able to give a 'rider' to everyone I work with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hasn't this been round loads of times? Shouldn't we have the video of him eating something off his shoe too?

Even though the rider is incredibly extensive, I don't think any of it is particularly unreasonable. He's just specifying exactly how he wants things to work, just like you might other kinds of protocol.

Friend of mine looked after RMS at an event. RMS was one of his heroes, he said it was very humbling to discover that they didn't get along at all.

</comment><comment><USER4> Sometimes high profile presenters and event coordinators put rather odd things in riders as a quality control check to make sure the sponsor is being thorough. I'm not sure if this is Stallman's intent but it sure sounds like it.

There is a famous rider meme concerning Van Halen. When they toured they required M&M's in their dressing room with the brown ones taken out. They didn't particularly care about M&M's. They just wanted to make sure the organizer was reading the rider.

<comment><USER5> I don't think that's the case with Stallman. That makes sense when you put in one thing as a quality control check, but he seems to genuinely just be very, very particular about lots of things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> _I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up._

It's one thing not to want to eat breakfast, but making it a taboo subject seems extreme.

<comment><USER7> I'm guessing that was added the 1000th time he was asked about breakfast, this one last host being very pushy about it.

<comment> jon-wood There's so much in there that I can't help thinking got added because it happened at some point in the past, like his demand that you not buy a parrot just because he's visiting and like parrots.

<comment><USER8> We have a parrot; they are really amazing animals and we've had people ask us about getting one after they've visited ours. People really underestimate how much work and knowledge is required to take care of one. The longer lived species can live 60+ years, and they require an enormous amount of attention and enrichment to help keep the mentally and emotionally healthy. He may just want to spare a bird from the harm of being bought by someone who is unprepared to properly care for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By > catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which > is not a role I like. I start to worry that I might subject them to great > burdens without even realizing.

Then:

> I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will > do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up.

<comment><USER10> > By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, > which is not a role I like.

Exactly - so by this logical path, should we just ignore the rider, if he doesn't want us catering to him?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> >Please call the hotel and ask whether they will demand to see my passport

I've yet to stay in any hotel that wouldn't demand to see my passport. I think in many places they're required to by law.

</comment><comment><USER12> These are some of the blandest, most routine requests someone can make. There isn't a single one that's weird, especially given Stallman's background. If this is the most "weird" the OP could find out of 22 pages, those are some boring-ass 22 pages.</comment>


Web 2.0 companies settling in San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15137372?nclick_check=1 <comment><USER2> It wasn't long after Yammer moved up from LA that I joined, so IMHO it was a good move :) SOMA is just about the perfect place for startups: tons of converted office space, access to both City and peninsula engineers, it's easy to get to, and technology permeates almost everything you do.

The only real drawbacks are the cost of living and that we're in an echo chamber (SOMA) that's inside an echo chamber (Bay Area); it can be hard to remember that Uncle Joe doesn't check in on FourSquare, has never bought a coffee with Square and doesn't know who @aplusk is. Some startups _really_ lose that perspective. I've worked at some of them. Yammer has perspective, a business plan, and Sacks and our CTO are the best leadership I've ever worked for. If we stay on our current trajectory, someday we'll graduate to needing a campus office park in Palo Alto. But for now, SOMA's a great place to work.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting, but seems hardly surprising - also not restricted to San Francisco. Where I live (Europe) the trendier and younger companies are in warehouse-style offices in the inner city and the more established ones have moved into bigger, more purpose-built places in the suburbs because they need the space and their workforce wants to live there.</comment>


Fractal Boards in WorkFlowy - <AUTHOR> https://beta.workflowy.com/post/fractal-boards/ <comment><AUTHOR> Really interesting addition to Workflowy, with a very nice demo video.

All the people using or implementing various Zettelkasten-ish sites should check it out.</comment>


Show HN: Muki, music streaming from MIDI and chiptunes - <AUTHOR> http://muki.io <comment><USER2> The actual experience is way more compelling than the animated intro. Ditch the explanation (which isn't even worded very well) and bring users right into the experience.

If you want to have an animated intro, make it interact with your actual UI; introduce options, start playing immediately, show cues for discovering additional features.

Also, it doesn't feel natural to have to click the 'hamburger' icon on the top right, when the first introduction to the navigation is invoked automatically and spans the entire width. I keep going back to it to change settings and it's not intuitive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. The intro was thought as a way to onboard users that don't know much about MIDI (or MOD or NSF or VGM), but it can definitely be improved. I'll play around with a more integrated version as you suggest. :)

The reason why the menu is automatically shown is precisely to let the user know, on start, what options are hidden behind the hamburger menu. Do you mean the positioning is weird or that it shouldn't be shown automatically?

<comment><USER2> What about introducing users to specific qualities each track has in the player panel? "8 bit", "MIDI", etc. Get them into the content, and then answer their questions about what it is and why they should care.

I think showing the menu automatically is great, just that when I go to re- open it myself, the button at the top right does not feel natural. I know there was a panel there, so my natural tendency is to scroll or move the mouse cursor in search of it.

You've only got a few core features, so you've got more creativity available in how you present them: On desktop you could reveal the nav when the mouse cursor is in the top 100px, and on mobile show it when the user scrolls to the top. No clicks or taps necessary, because there's nothing that would conflict with that behavior. Consider something similar for the player/info panel at the bottom. When the user stops interacting for a second or two, slide the panels away and show only the visualizer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very helpful insight, thanks again mate.

Curiously, I don't normally click on the hamburger icon because hitting the ESC key also toggles the top menu, so I completely agree with you that it doesn't feel natural.

I've been tempted to put more information on the player panel but have forced myself not to do so to keep the UI as clean as possible (mainly thinking in mobile browsers). I guess I _could_ put in some icons, though, that would give hints to user as to what's actually going on behind the scenes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Wow, this is sick. Quite a wordy intro, however. I kept thinking that most people would ctrl+a backspace rather than try to delete the whole thing by holding backspace, especially considering that it doesn't 'accelerate' like holding backspace actually would.

Minor problem though, since you can skip the intro.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point! And this is actually the _short_ version of the intro, the first one was like twice in length... :)

<comment><USER4> I noticed a slick purple loading bar at the bottom of the page, but it's very thin, it could use some larger height so it's more clearly visible. I'm running Safari on Yosemite.

<comment><AUTHOR> Will keep that in mind. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Contrary to the intro, Seems to me that I recall most old games using MOD and other tracker formats instead of MIDI.... but the point is that it was sequenced samples, I suppose.

<comment><USER6> As far as I can remember, using MOD music was pretty rare for MS-DOS-era PC games. The only exceptions I can think of were either Epic MegaGames titles (Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball) or games that originated in the demoscene (Zone 66).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very interesting project, but intro is way too slow.

</comment><comment><USER8> Very sleek site that brings back old memories.

</comment><comment><USER9> So I get you're using MIDI (instruction source), but what's the sound source? Just whatever samples your browser uses these days? Or is it using a sample set from a soundcard from that era (Yamaha YM3812, YMF262 or similar found in the Soundblaster 16)?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a mixture of patches from different soundfonts, the primary being the amazing Arachno. Playback is done via libtimidity, and old C library that was ported to JS through Emscripten.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Such a great idea with a huge potential. Me feels like a vintage man.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hehe, me too. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Aha, thank you very much for this. :) I quite enjoyed it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much sir!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is there a way to bring back the voting prompt after it auto-disappears? Personally I'd rather hear more of the song before voting good/bad.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not for the moment. I wanted the voting popup to be as least annoying as possible -- that's why it automatically disappears after 10 seconds. I'll add a keybinding to the R key so you can manually toggle it. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Neat! How did you clear the music with copyright owners?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

This is actually a long topic because Muki contains a mixture of ripped vs sequenced tunes, etc. I've contacted some of the authors of sequenced tunes for permission, and also taken great care of crediting both the source where I got each one plus the company who holds the rights for the original tune. You can see this by clicking over a song's name when playing.

That said, I'm definitely not an expert on copyright so if there's something I'm missing please let me know! There's also more info about this if you click on the "about" link.

<comment><USER13> I'm no expert either, though I'm sure theoretically you can't do this. But in practice I think you're safe.

Is there a way to disable the dots so the browser stops murdering my CPU?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, just hit the "V" key.

I guess you're right. YouTube already hosts a ton of game music videos and they don't seem to have any problems.

<comment><USER13> Thanks! Maybe a help page that shows all this hidden functionality would be useful to others?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, as well as a volume control! You can also hit [tab] as a shortcut to toggle the sidepane with the active playlist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Love it!! Need a way to share songs however.

<comment><AUTHOR> Y-E-S! This is definitely number 0 on the to-do array.</comment></comment>