Apply HN: Getline – p2p reputation system - <AUTHOR> Get Line is a peer to peer lending platform with adjustable credit line and simple solutions to directly invest in other people.
There's a better alternative to loans than what is currently offered by the financial industry. We've created Line with strong belief that social connections and reputation are the most important currency. We're fixing the lending experience with social networks based on trust. That's right - we encourage our users to invest in other people's dreams.
I wrote more about this in medium.
https://medium.com/@kacperwikiel/social-lending-alternative-approach-e835a290f760#.fkmvasj5g <comment><USER2> How will you handle fraud and defaults?

How are you establishing a credit rating? Why is it better than traditional credit ratings?

Lending your friends money often results in both the loss of your money and your friend. How can you prevent this?</comment>


Congress tells Mozilla that blocking 3rd party cookies endangers children - <AUTHOR> http://stanford.edu/~jmayer/content/Pompeo_Mozilla_Letter.pdf

<comment><USER2> Ad networks display AMBER alerts and tornado warnings? Since when? I've never heard of this. If Congress were to legislate that some actor on the Internet needs to display such messages to users, it would almost certainly be done at the ISP level by modifying the html sent over HTTP on a non-HTTPS connection.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like someone's been spending money behind the scenes.</comment>


Show HN: Visualize Your Rails App to ER Diagram Automatically - <AUTHOR> https://www.holistics.io/blog/visualize-rails-database-to-erd-diagram/ <comment><USER2> There's also [https://github.com/voormedia/rails- erd](https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd) and my favorite [https://github.com/amatsuda/erd](https://github.com/amatsuda/erd) which is fully interactive (can write migrations based on changes from the UI)

<comment><USER3> A word of caution: some of these rely on Graphviz, which is GPL'd. I stopped using my preferred ERD gem because of licensing issues.

<comment><USER4> Graphviz is licensed under the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Public_License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Public_License), not the GPL.

Neither library bundles or depends on Graphviz directly, you need to install Graphviz yourself. I'm wondering what kind of issues you're afraid of? Are you banned from using software that is licensed under a copyleft license somehow?

<comment><USER3> You're correct. I think it's ruby-graphviz that is (was?) under GPL.

Either way, as a lawyer, I wouldn't let anything copyleft touch a project that is intended to be proprietary. If nothing else, the drafting of copyleft licenses is generally abominable, and prone to unintended consequences. For non-commercial projects, they're fine but of marginal utility at best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I recently discovered schemaspy and while it took a bit of working knowledge of java (need to execute a jar file from the command line) to get it working, it's absolutely fantastic and one of the most sophisticated tools for dealing with ERDs at the DB level. Plus it's open source! The only things I see that are possible improvements with this product are the fact that you don't need to bootstrap a local database to generate this and it's probably faster and easier to generate. I had a reasonably complex schema (200 ish tables with relationships) and schemaspy took about 3 minutes to generate the output. Once you do generate it though, it's just a bunch of html and SVG in a folder so you don't have to regenerate it until your scheme is updated.

</comment><comment><USER6> I appreciate the side project but it's very hard to read. It doesnt really show much anything either. I much prefer [https://github.com/voormedia/rails- erd](https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd)

Example: [https://camo.githubusercontent.com/f705fefa37f808758adbfa8e5...](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/f705fefa37f808758adbfa8e53d7ba2d8d9a59d7/68747470733a2f2f766f6f726d656469612e6769746875622e696f2f7261696c732d6572642f696d616765732f656e746974792d72656c6174696f6e736869702d6469616772616d2e706e67)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! This diagram generated by rails-erd is indeed very nice. Something we should definitely look into to improve our visualization.

I think both tools serve slightly different purpose. How we're different is that we started by being a tool to help you draw databae diagrams by typing code. And adding Rails support was added rather quickly recently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> In a more general sense, I don't understand why we can't define field attributes in ONE spot and have most of the application software automatically just use that info rather than reinvent it in code?

Things were moving that way in the 80's it appeared, then OOP came along and overzealous practitioners declared RDBMS and tables as an official evil. Sure, different screens or reports may need different subsets of such fields, but filters can be built to sort or filter different "views" as needed per usage point. (OOP is good for some things, but not others.)

I'm tired of retyping or mass-replicating the field wheel. Let's return to table-oriented programming and data dictionaries. It's a D.R.Y. sin. Code is NOT the best place to store most field info. (RDBMS can also store navigation, screen, and menu info, but one thing at a time. 90% of typical CRUD could be done in a declarative sense.)

You are welcome to disagree; I encourage spirited debate.

<comment><USER8> Rails finds the fields from the dB and turns them into properties automatically... Isn't this exactly what you were asking?

<comment><USER7> Do you mean it generates code? That's still a "DRY" violation. And if you mean it _only_ looks at the RDBMS table, then it has insufficient info. Describing a field well often requires more info/meta-data than what a typical RDBMS schema has.

Here's a list of typical attributes: db-field-name, type, display-name, form- sequence, list-sequence, relation-type (primary key, foreign key, etc.), reference-table, min-length, max-length, default-value, help-tip, bootstrap- column-width, grouping-filters/codes, search-form-type, and other optional do- dads.

<comment><USER8> It doesn't generate code, it "just" allows you to load and save fields by checking the tables structures. You still need to add code manually for relationships and some specific features.

Regarding the attributes you listed, looks to me like those are very CRUD- oriented. Many fields don't have a direct representation in the UI at all...

<comment><USER7> Example? One can pick and choose what fields are included in what using WHERE clause filters. And yes, not everything is necessarily displayed, but that won't "hurt" my suggestion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It doesn't work. When I import my schema.rb file it takes issue with basically every line saying things like unexpected token etc. I'm using the "upload schema.rb" file button, but it's like it's trying to parse it as SQL.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! It seems like we haven't catered for more complex table syntax (when you added extra stuff like `force: delele` et al). We'll look into this and fix them.

Really appreciate your feedback here!

<comment><USER10> How is the code parsed. Is it regex/string-reading based or is it executed?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's string-reading, we use PegJS for that :) [https://pegjs.org/](https://pegjs.org/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is really nice!

To those trying it out: if the diagram seems inaccurate, try dragging tables around.

I uploaded a very simple schema, but seemingly unrelated tables looked connected. Turns out it's 100% accurate, but relationships can run behind other tables and make it look like things are connected that aren't. Detangling is easy with a few drags/drops and you get a really nice diagram out of it.

<comment><USER5> This comment is precisely why I have a ton of respect for the people who develop visualization algorithms like in Graphviz. Given a DAG or ERD, the logic to properly render that as something that makes sense to your typical developer is HARD. Mad props to the people who tackle that problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is super useful, for Django you can use the Django-Extensions [1] to generate a similar, static representation.

[1] [https://django- extensions.readthedocs.io/en/latest/graph_mod...](https://django- extensions.readthedocs.io/en/latest/graph_models.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> This looks really great and seems to handle some things better than rails-erd (multiple relationships between the same 2 models).

Are there any plans to make the interactive version exportable or embeddable? I'm working on an application right now that this UX would be perfect for.

</comment><comment><USER14> Looks great. I used to use rails-erd when I needed a diagram. This seems a lot better

</comment><comment><USER15> Looks neat! I was unable to use it on my more recent Rails projects which all have schema version that contain underscores. Example: `ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 2018_10_23_121007)`.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Can you work around by changing that to a number and try again?

<comment><USER16> It is a number:

> 2018_10_23_121007.class => Fixnum

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've got an error, lambda functions inside schema aren't recognized; f.e.:

        t.datetime "created_at", default: -> { "now()" }

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for this! Looks like we haven't handled all the custom syntax cases properly. Will sort it out shortly!

For now, a workaround is to remove those lambda and it should work!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is really cool. Are there any examples on how to create svg like that or is this project open source somewhere?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We actually built this in-house using D3js. Maybe we can look into open sourcing the rendering component.

</comment></comment><comment> mega-tux works ok but I had to remove "on_delete: :cascade" on add_foreign_key lines.</comment>


Qooxdoo: a javascript UI framework for rich Internet applications - <AUTHOR> http://qooxdoo.org

<comment><USER2> hush! There is this another one now.

How many more js frameworks do we need?

<comment><USER3> qooxdoo has been around for ages. tried and true technology.</comment></comment>


Lithuanian Parliament legislated Internet censorship - <AUTHOR> https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=lt&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fit.lrytas.lt%2Fismanyk%2Fseimas-nusprende-lietuviai-laisvai-narsyti-internete-nebegales.htm%3Fp%3D1&edit-text=

<comment><AUTHOR> Google translation is a bit poor. So, basically, it legislated blocking selected gambling companies which are not licensed in Lithuania (not some shady ones, but including major ones like Unibet). These companies were dominating the sports betting market here.

The main concern in the country is that it might be the beginning of wider censorship since the technologies will be already in place ('politically incorrect', etc). Will see how it turns out in practice. But that's a worrying start.</comment>


Show HN: Gaia – AI to help create procedural quests - <AUTHOR> For a while I've been thinking about a Agent that can be interacted with during the game. This interaction could be a simple dialog or a quest. This project I'm working on aims to help the game designer to create dynamic and procedural quest or dialogues, once the Agent has some information about itself to answer the player (it's name, it's age, what it's doing...).
Please read the README, take a look at the example and see if this project is somewhat helpful.
https://github.com/victorqribeiro/gaia <comment><USER2> This sort of projects are hard to define - but it looks reasonably clear. (you have a typo in the readme "kill the NPC and still the item," \- should be steal the item.)

If you get each agent a goal, then that will drive what they do.

If you keep a strict subset of available things they can do, and how the agents can achieve them (like fishing, selling stuff), then you will be able to generate quests.

If goal == 'catch 100 fish' and fish_in_inventory < 50: generate_quest('Catch 50 fish for me and I will pay you 10 gold')

<comment><AUTHOR> what do you think of it? I'm going to use this on a project of mine, but I don't see that happening soon, cause I have a lot of other systems to implement first. so I decided to share this part and see what developers think about it. but I don't think I made myself clear enough to get people to look at it

<comment><USER2> I think it is a good starting point - you've got an agent with basic interactions, but as it stands there is not much that a user can do apart from just kill it.

Many will see this as a game, not an agent simulation and will quickly write it off, so you need to show some examples of it acting as an agent.

Try having 2 agents interacting with each other, and show the results in your README

That will help, but I certainly don't have the answers - I tried something similar ([https://github.com/acutesoftware/virtual-AI- simulator#create...](https://github.com/acutesoftware/virtual-AI- simulator#create-a-character-manually)) and it is difficult to get the point across, but it is a lot of fun seeing agents interact, if it is simplistic.

You also need to complete your implementation - show the character getting it's food (fishing, or buying) and then work on the quest generation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> well, looking at my live example, imagine that you can't see any information about the character (agent).

all you would see is a idle agent that sometimes moves around.

as a player you would be able to approach that agent and ask it questions. (that are defined by its attributes).

what's your name? how old are you? what are you doing? do you need anything? can I be your friend?

as I said: dialogues could be generated from these attributes and even quests. making every Agent interactive.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm having a hard time describing this project. Only a few people on Reddit got it.</comment>


Thoughts on the Y Combinator interview process - <AUTHOR> http://arvindn.livejournal.com/105675.html

<comment><USER2> _Near the end of the interview, Jessica said, "so do I make the check out to you?" I said yes. "Did you actually spend 700?" I said I'd spent most of it. I actually spent more than 700, but I only had receipts for slightly less. So she wrote a check for 700 right there on the spot. I was kinda speechless.. I was expecting a bunch of paperwork. We kept laughing about it later. That little incident tells you a lot about why YC is awesome. No bullshit._

And there's an important lesson to be learned here, too: Sometimes it's worth simply trusting people. It's possible that someone who spent only $500 could have gotten a cheque for the full $700; but even if _everybody_ was in that position and was dishonest enough to take advantage of the trust, the amount of money YC would lose would be insignificant compared to the total amount of money involved.

 _So guys, remember that they interview a bazillion companies all at once, so don't assume they remember what you said in your application._

I think this pretty much applies to all interviews: The job of a resume / YC application / scholarship application is _to get you the interview_ , and once you've got an interview you shouldn't rely on your written application for anything.

<comment><USER3> _don't assume they remember what you said in your application._

For interviewees, on the other hand, it pays to remember things about the interviewer or their organization. It is an opportunity to demonstrate both interest and competence.

My first job ever was as telephone order entry operator at a store that sold office supplies. At one point in the interview the interviewer walked me to the floor, past the section that was doing drop shipping. Then she started to explain to me what drop shipping was -- "It is when we take the order on behalf of the supplier and then the supplier ships it from their location directly to the customer's door, without the merchandise entering our physical control at any point."

I mentioned "Well, strictly speaking, you don't deliver it to the door. You deliver it to anywhere on the first floor or anywhere accessible by dolly if there is an elevator provided, for an extra charge of $35, with exceptions noted in the catalog."

That got me some googly eyes.

"Its on your website. I made it my business to know your business."

As soon as I said that I realized that a) that was probably the best line I had ever delivered in my life and b) that job was _so_ mine. And it was. There is a reason they put "attention to detail" in the solicitation. (Incidentally, you can totally hack this. Learn five interesting facts about the opposite party, and steer the conversation such that you're able to use one or two of them. I certainly didn't memorize _everything_ about the company prior to my job interview.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was also surprised by the interview process. I'd read and been told that it was likely to be confrontational and we would be expected to defend our idea, explain our market, and why we could beat our competitors. But they mostly just wanted to see our demo.

</comment><comment><USER5> would be interesting if someone brought a hidden mic to their interview, and upped it for other people to listen

<comment><USER6> Would also be very unscrupulous to upload such a thing without the folks from YC's consent. However interesting it would be, I would hope that no one would actually _do_ this.

Personally, I'd much rather just find out how an interview goes by actually going to an interview.

<comment><USER7> Nice catch, Zev.

your value = the sum of your assets * your integrity

Zero times anything is still zero.</comment></comment></comment>


New York City's Mail Chutes (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/new-york-citys-mail-chutes-are-lovely-ingenious-and-almost-entirely-ignored <comment><USER3> My office is in a building with a Cutler Mail Chute in active service with daily pickup service from the Postal Service.

It just adds that extra bit of character to an old building, especially with the floor-to-ceiling glass. Every so often, you'll see that flash of white out of the corner of your eye as an envelope from an upper floor falls past you.

They do get clogged, and someone has to notice and let the building management know. This can be a problem if the blockage is on an unoccupied floor - <USER2> mail needs to pile up until it is visible on a floor with a tenant!

<comment><USER4> Just like multi hop pub sub messaging systems! If a middle host is dropping messages and there is no monitoring, you don't find out till much later.

<comment><USER3> Well in this case they are in an unlimited size buffer. Once the blockage is cleared, all messages are delivered at once!

I've seen the postal worker doing daily collections in the lobby and the container they use could probably hold the letter volume for a month or two without issue.

Also, to be clear, my office has been there for nearly 15 years. In that time I've known of 4 or 5 blockages. It's actually very reliable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The building that I grew up in (built right before the Great Depression) had one of these. I sent letters down it a few times.

I also tried to send a banana down it, which wasn't appreciated by the super. It turns out there isn't an easy way to retrieve a banana stuck between floors, short of sending something bigger through.

<comment><USER6> But was the banana properly addressed?

<comment><USER5> No, but the apology letter that I was forced to write to the super was.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> kube-system I've worked in buildings with these, but I've never seen one that made me feel confident that my mail was actually going to be picked up at the other end. Given some of the examples in the article, maybe that was a wise doubt to have.

<comment> em-bee you send two letters at the same time. one to yourself, and one to actual destination. throw them in together. if your self-addressed letter arrives then you know that the other one made it through too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've worked in buildings in Chicago with these. The mail slot is just a little too narrow to fit a Netflix envelope.

<comment><USER8> A lot of Chicago buildings had steam chutes to send mail up

<comment><USER9> Do you mean steam or do you mean pneumatic? I've never heard of steam delivered mail but pneumatic was really popular.

[https://chicagology.com/chicagopostoffice/pneumatictubesyste...](https://chicagology.com/chicagopostoffice/pneumatictubesystem/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Our apartment building in Manhattan had one of these, it was super fun to fill! We also had a garbage chute... guess which one was more likely to get clogged when it was 98 degrees and 90% humidity mid August

<comment><USER11> Hey, I was going to mention garbage chutes. I lived briefly in a building with them, and there were occasional chute fires. At least some intentional, I'm guessing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I used one in a building in downtown SF. Works like a charm.

</comment><comment><USER13> Washington, DC, has mail chutes in some buildings. When I first saw one, a co- worker, a New York native, said that she'd never use one, that no New Yorker would, because people pour Coca Cola etc. down them.

The building where I work now has them. I don't use them, mostly because it's convenient to use to box in the lobby.

</comment><comment><USER14> Are these that unusual/dated? I read the article and couldn't tell if these are distinct from mail chutes in general. Both my home and office buildings in DC have them and they're neither very like, historic grand buildings.

Pretty sure the house and senate office buildings also both contain these.

<comment><USER15> Contemporary fire code considers laundry and mail chutes weak points for a fire spreading between floors. First class mail volume peaked in 2001. [https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/first- class...](https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/first-class-mail- since-1926.htm)

<comment><USER16> I work in a 10-story building built in the 1890s, one of the first "skyscrapers" in San Francisco. The mail chute system is blocked, and the beautiful iron staircases have been boxed in at every level with fire resistant doors and walls. AFAIU, in both cases one of the primary reasons was fire safety, according to the leasing agent.

However, I know of at least one other building in this area, the Hobart Building, slightly younger but much taller, where the iron staircases are still open and still serve their aesthetic function. It makes taking the stairs so much more pleasant.

Apparently the fire risk is manageable. I think a bigger problem is that these building were designed for a multitude of small office suites. But today most of these buildings will have (or _want_ to have) tenants who wish to lease entire floors, or most of a floor. Large, open, but single tenant floor spaces are how most modern office towers are constructed, so that's the market expectation.[1] It's difficult to provide such tenant spaces while also keeping open corridors between floors. Even for mail chutes, as the private, controlled-access floors diminish the desirability and utility of shared facilities.

[1] The nearby Crown Zellerbach Building (1959, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Bush_Plaza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Bush_Plaza)) was at the vanguard of this office tower design evolution.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Before Covid my office was in Smith Tower in Seattle. My first week I sent a letter through the mail chute on our floor and was delighted when it showed up home a few days later. Smith Tower's are similar to the one shown in the picture of the Roosevelt hotel.

</comment><comment><USER18> OT for this thread but perhaps of interest to others on HN. What a massive Anti-user pattern for the cookie opt-out on that site. I literally could not opt out with my iPhone.

</comment><comment><USER19> This style (Art Deco?) always reminds me of Bioshock.

</comment><comment><USER20> What would be a modern analogy of this I wonder?

<comment><USER21> trash chutes! tall buildings today, especially in NYC but many other places too, have trash chutes on every floor. It's very satisfying to open the door and hear my bag of kitchen trash hit the sides as it falls 250+ feet and slams into the bottom (which is a chute into a trash compactor)

one company that cleans them is called 1-800-CHUTE-ME

there is also a button in the elevator called "taxi". if you push it, it lights a red light on the end of the awning over the sidewalk out front. Back in the day, a taxi could notice it and stop. You see them around NYC but the taxis don't really pay attention to them any more.

<comment><USER22> Are trash chutes still a thing? Back in France I've seen the existing ones in the older buildings being sealed, presumably due to hygiene concerns (and they are valid - all the chutes I've seen were disgusting and presumably a breeding ground for all kinds of nastiness) and no modern buildings seem to have them.

<comment><USER23> I would think it's more to prevent fire from moving easily between floors, and perhaps for HVAC efficiency reasons.

<comment><USER21> the trash chute doors on each floor are spring loaded, close automatically, and have a gasket seal, and they are inspected and kept up to spec. they are also in a closet behind an ordinary "residential" fire proof door like the apartment doors. Sealing in/out odor also stops airflow, happy coincidence.

there are other ventilation systems that move air all over the building (they bring it in from outside, filter it, condition it, and pump it into hallways (elevator lobbies) up and down the building; it travels under the apartment front doors, and it is sucked out the bathroom vents; it is called "make-up air") These other fans and vent systems also shut down and seal and seal if heat/smoke/fire is detected.

buildings are intricately balanced mechanical engineering systems where all the parts are intertwined</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.harc.net/programs/wb8elk-balloon-tracking.pdf <comment><USER2> Whenever I see things like this in light of the various threats to amateur radio (usually from various interests who would like to get the frequencies sold at FCC auction for commercial use), I'm reminded of the tremendous value this hobby adds to engineering education. So many of the engineers I know who work with radio got started by tinkering with amateur gear.

<comment><USER3> Related discussion from yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23795913](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23795913)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The tracker is very cool: [http://habhub.org/](http://habhub.org/)

It's a crowdsourced set of antennas around the world that upload data to central server (think Flightradar24 for high altitude balloons). It's been running for 15 years or so.

Various bits of more reading if you're interested in this stuff: [http://picospace.net/](http://picospace.net/) [https://ukhas.org.uk/](https://ukhas.org.uk/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Wow, that's amazing. 22 laps around the world over the course of one year. And HF data rx in Australia from this tiny circuit board attached to a tiny balloon over the mid-atlantic. Worth a read. Also bonus Windows XP points.

Btw how are they flying a circuit board in the raw without damaging environmental effect from water? I'm new to this part of the hobby.

<comment><USER6> Maybe they just put on a thin layer of conformal coating?

<comment><USER7> What about clear coat paint you would get from a hardware store just before launch?

<comment><USER8> fwiw You can get urethane and silicone conformal coating in a spray can and it's not _that_ expensive.

<comment><USER7> Agreed, and your wife won't be upset when she discovers all the nailpolish is gone :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> As fascinating as the electronics tech is, I'm perhaps more interested in the balloon tech.

Perhaps more reading will help me know the answer, but it doesn't seem like these are just off the shelf Mylar party balloons. Nor do they seem to be sized such that they can expand a lot as they rise.

The below linked article is kind of interesting in this area: it's about how Death Valley is littered with Mylar party balloons. According to the article...

"Mylar balloons do not go higher than about 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet before they either explode or lose their "lift." This is because of their inability to expand to any great extent."

Read more here: [https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather- watch/art...](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather- watch/article39489087.html#storylink=cpy) [https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather- watch/art...](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather- watch/article39489087.html)

<comment><USER10> There are several approaches that can be taken with balloons. By design, they do not expand like a weather balloon does. One wants to put in enough lifting gas to make it fly high (mostly to avoid clouds that will bring down a balloon with such little free lift), but not enough that it will burst.

In the referenced article, an SBS-13 balloon is used. It's made from a clear Mylar-like material and will fly at 40000ft+ when filled with helium (higher with hydrogen). This is the 'gold standard' of balloons and can fly for months at a time as it's over most weather. The downside is that they cost close to $200.

Another approach is to buy a cheaper 36" diameter balloon made of similar material from AliExpress that cost about $1. These are often pressurized to a certain differential pressure to 'stretch' the balloon before launch and gain some extra volume, as well as to QA the quality of the balloon (the QA on a $1 balloon isn't extensive). If filled with hydrogen, these can fly at 35000 ft+, a bit lower for helium. Usually two of these cheap balloons are used for a launch for more lift, though a single one can be used and a lower altitude reached.

A light payload is desirable as it will increase altitude. I've seen as light as 5 grams and the heavier ones are closer to 20g. One can calculate the free lift where the differential pressure of the balloon at altitude will pop it, but it's usually around 7g (so the balloon + payload + 7g will neither rise or fall before launching).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why is the UK (in the unusual company of Yemen and North Korea) an important "do not transmit zone"?

<comment><USER10> Airborne transmissions of this sort are not legal over the UK, North Korea, or Yemen. Guessing it's a leftover rule from WW2 in the case of the UK, not sure.

These transmitters typically have geofencing routines that turn off the transmission when flying over these countries.

<comment><USER11> But in my brief attempt to answer my own question I only found pages detailing pico balloon launches _from_ the UK.

<comment><USER10> I'm sure people in the UK are doing launches, but it's illegal for them to transmit when flying in UK airspace.

In reality, it's an almost unenforcable law to begin with. Most of the WSPR transmissions are on the order of 10mW (probably similar to the Bluetooth output of your cell phone). It's not unusual for these transmissions to be heard several thousand miles away, which is quite amazing!

<comment><USER12> If I remember right is the reason is that it's illegal do use amateur radio bands on something that is flying, so that excludes APRS. However, using the ISM bands are fine so that's what people in the UK tend to use, but it means no APRS and you have to have people tracking you in other ways (e.g. sending your telemetry over LoRa or RTTY)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is the coolest thing I have seen this year. I think I always wanted to do such a thing, circle the earth with a balloon — had no idea it was within reach. I love all the ways in which they shaved weight on the payload.

I suppose having heard about the gas-powered model plane that crossed the Atlantic decades ago started my obsession. Then learning about the Japanese fire balloons that crossed the Pacific in WWII....

</comment><comment><USER14> How are these ballons flights managed, in relation to airspace? Given the increasing restrictions on drone flight, I'm surprised such balloons are allowed to wander and descend Without any control.

<comment><USER15> In the US, a balloon with a total payload weight of less than 4 pounds doesn't require any kind of clearance or approval.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Can this frequency/protocol be used from sea level? I have some boats offshore that I would like to track. We currently use a combination of AIS and SPOT trackers.

<comment><USER10> You can, but you may not get the results you're looking for.

APRS is a line-of sight signal. In a balloon, you might be heard by transmitters 200 miles or so away. On a boat, I'd expect that range to drop to 50 or less. So if you're out at sea, it's unlikely you'd be heard when you're much outside the view of land.

WSPR has a very long range, but the density of information transmitted is very low. Each transmissison takes about 2 minutes and the tx rate is around 5 baud (not 5kb...5 baud!). The protocol was developed to test the range of ham radio antennae and it doesn't give you much more than the transmission voltage and the 'maidenhead' coordinates (which will give your location within a roughly 80 mile box depending on your latitude).

If that rough estimate of your position is good enough, WSPR may be useful to you for tracking a boat. Some balloon trackers also transmit a secondary signal under a different callsign with some more advanced telemetry information, such as altitude, speed, more granular position within a 2 or 3 mile box.

Also, you'll need an antenna of some length. My balloons transmit on the 20m bands, which means it has a 17 foot antenna both above and below the tracker constituting a half dipole (it's 36 gauge magnet wire so weights almost nothing. If your boats are big enough to cross oceans, you can likely mount them in a way where you'd be heard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Do these balloons transmit any weather data along with their telemetry? Or at the altitude they fly, maybe there's not much weather to report?

</comment><comment><USER18> [http://leobodnar.com/balloons/](http://leobodnar.com/balloons/)

more reading

<comment><USER19> I love Leo Bodnar's stuff. I made a 'flight sim' joystick and pedals from one of his boards

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> What's the purpose of that capacitor?

<comment><USER10> These are run by solar panels that only transmit during the day. The capacitor just gives a half a minute or so in the event of brief cloud cover, panel not facing the sun at a good angle, etc. Not strictly necessary, but since a WSPR message takes almost two minutes to send, a good idea to not have it abort in the middle of the transmission due to lack of power for a couple of seconds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This kind of reminds me of CubeSats. I love the simple little design with the side solar panel wings.</comment>


Twitter-based Hedge Fund - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/id/41251767

<comment><USER2> I wonder if the April 1st launch date was intentional. They might be better off doing it after that day so everyone doesn't right it off as a joke.

</comment><comment><USER3> I now have zero faith in our financial sector. How can you justify making investment decisions based on the "mood" of the market which is discovered by data mining Twitter? The "mood" of the market only shows you where the market has been, not where the market is going. Any previous information showing that the Twitter mood reflects the market, is causation without correlation.

<comment><USER4> I completely disagree. It is one thing if this fund's algorithm is based entirely off of data extracted from Twitter, that would be an utter mistake. However, if the algorithm is combining fundamental financial data, analyst's outlooks/forward looking statements, current trends/movements in the market, AND Twitter/media data then I think this could be quite successful. A huge reason why our capital markets are not perfect is because of emotion in the market (case in point Ford's strong run for the last year fueled by optimism and relatively strong performance and the pullback since qtr 4 earnings were released, and a thousand or more other examples). Effective investment algorithms must attempt to be comprehensive in taking into account factors that effect share prices and the public's sentiment is certainly one of those factors.

The positive trading sessions for companies with quality Super Bowl advertisements following the big game is a perfect example of this point. Check at this article: [http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/does- the-supe...](http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/does-the-super- bowl-help-boost-advertisers-stock-prices.html)

A 1% lift captured in ten days on a hundred million dollars is what annualized return? I'll let you do the math, but I'd take it.</comment></comment>


Exploring Timing Attacks with Python - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWj4xfQxQQ8&t <comment><AUTHOR> The video goes through a simple password timing attack in python.</comment>


Android outstripping iOS in ad impressions and device market share - <AUTHOR> http://www.theequitykicker.com/2011/08/15/android-outstripping-ios-in-ad-impressions-and-device-market-share/

<comment><USER2> ad impressions are meaningless. eCPM in mobile ads has been on a precipitous decline. As an example, last year ad revenue made up ~15% of my total revenues and my eCPM was around $3 (with paid apps and in app purchasing making up the rest). This year? It's barely a rounding error (< 1%) and my eCPMs are ~ $.10. Other developers are reporting the same thing across the board. Granted this is for iOS and not android, but I can't imagine android being a whole lot better.

To make an analogy with the web, I think mobile ads are pretty much stuck in the Yahoo era. It only works because there are new suckers to replace the old ones. Almost all of the indie developers I know that have tried mobile advertising have said it doesn't give you a good ROI.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but to me it's clear that the future for app monetization is paid apps and in app purchases. If you are going to rely on # of ad impressions to choose your platform you are looking at the wrong metric.

</comment><comment><USER3> It feels to me like the conversation around mobile platforms is anchored in the past. It seems analysts and pundits can't function properly in a world where markets are diverse, and so every day someone somewhere comes up with a metric which is then presented as one platforms domination another platform. Like this one.

And the market for consumers and investors suffers as a result. These are not the "Windows vs Mac" days. This is not a "Google vs Apple" contest, no matter how hard analysts and pundits wish they were.

I personally don't care about stats like this because they tell us nothing. They look like they do, because you can pretty much extrapolate to your hearts content to make information like this positive or negative, and only confirmation bias influences which way you lean.

I'd prefer it if Analysts and pundits talked more about forward progress in terms of hardware & software and real life product launches, which would make their ramblings useful to consumers and investors.

With the exception of a rare few, they're basically just white noise.

</comment><comment><USER4> I hate articles like this. It's like saying "this just in, four cylinder Yamaha motors are selling much better than BMW 328i's"

Of course they are! Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi use Yamaha motors.

</comment><comment><USER5> So Google is doing well charging for those ads and showing them to people who never buy a thing?

<comment><USER6> Maybe what's really going on is that iPhone users are more likely to buy full version, non-ad supported applications than Android users are?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is it really surprising that an operating system used by many companies is used more than an operating system used by just one?

I'd like to see the OS share total including smartphones along with tablets and devices like the iPod Touch though...

<comment><USER8> I've seen this argument several times over, but it doesn't make it any more sound. If iOS was offered on, say, three types of smartphones simultaneously (instead of just the one new one at a time now), that wouldn't make its sales triple (not even close).

Having more options doesn't necessarily increase sales. In some cases it drives down sales, because of a confused consumer. If Apple all of a sudden offered three different flavors of the iPhone 5, yes sales would probably increase a bit because of options being present that previously didn't exist. But for the most part you'd see the existing singular iPhone's sales merely split to all three options. We saw this with the unveiling of the Verizon iPhone. Yes, sales spiked for a short period of time, but at the end of the day it didn't cause iPhone's average trend of sales to increase more than it was with it only on AT&T. The people that wanted a phone with iOS, got a phone with iOS, only now they didn't have to switch to AT&T to get it.

And I'm sure you would like to see OS total share across every type of electronics device under the sun, because iOS is in an entire sector of the market that Android is not: MP3 players. The results would obviously favor Apple.

<comment><USER9> > _We saw this with the unveiling of the Verizon iPhone._

This isn't really a fair comparison since so many of the VZ iPhone target market may be locked into contracts. (even still, the iPhone is VZ best selling phone)

> _If Apple all of a sudden offered three different flavors of the iPhone 5, > yes sales would probably increase a bit because of options being present > that previously didn't exist._

What happened to iPod marketshare when Apple released the iPod mini? (again not a perfect analogy, but related).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > The best Android phones still don't match the iPhone (and as I said on > Friday my next phone will again be an iPhone), but with the scale advantages > Android now enjoys I think it will only be a matter of time before their > phones are the best

I don't understand what he means by scale advantage.

<comment><USER11> Neither do I. I think he's implying that if more people will buy android then android will get better because of it.

<comment><USER12> Which would make sense if Google got more income for every copy of Android sold. But they don't.

<comment><USER13> Sure they do - Google is the default search engine on most of those devices. Granted, not enforced, but still.

<comment><USER14> It's also the default search engine on Safari in iOS, so I'm not sure there's a point to be made here.

<comment><USER15> That can change whenever Apple feels like it. Not so with Android. With mobile exploding, Android is excellent insurance for the future.

<comment><USER12> Android handset manufacturers can change search provider whenever they feel like it. Aren't a few already sold preset to Bing?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is it really that surprising that the ad impressions on a platform where the majority of the popular apps are free and ad-driven is outpacing the ad impressions on a platform where the majority of the popular apps are paid-for and thus don't feature adds?

Until there's some parity between the Android Market and the Apple App Store, such that developers can easily accept payments from every supported country, then reports like this are going to continue to be meaningless.

</comment><comment><USER17> I have AdMob running on a mobile version of a website I run (a Crossword focused site FWIW) and the eCPM is horrible. Pennies. Yesterday on the same site the difference between AdMob and AdSense was an AdMob eCPM at about 10% the AdSense eCPM. I don't think this is necessarily Google's fault (I mean Apple isn't exactly killing it with iAd), but in general I get the idea there's a huge glut of inventory.

</comment><comment><USER18> Interesting. I wonder if Android users see more ads per use-hour based on the Android eco system's revenue model than other mobile os's. ...I have no data to back up my proposition, just a thought.</comment>


Mother Learns the Identity of Child's Grandmother. Sperm Bank Threatens to Sue - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/health/sperm-donation-dna-testing.html <comment><USER2> Nobody is going to be a sperm donor anymore because of consumer DNA testing. It's not worth the risk. Just wait until some court makes the donor pay child support.

<comment><USER3> Doesn't law exempt you from child support obligation if you donate sperm (via a legal clinic, not "have sex with a friend" way)? Otherwise companies could offer insurance as well, or make hopeful mothers sign a contract...

<comment><USER4> In states that adopted Uniform Parentage Act, yes. In others, not necessarily.

<comment><USER5> I think that in all other cases, but sperm bank ones, biological fathers have been forced to pay. At least I've read all kinds of such stories.

They can't make sperm bank donors pay child support or else no one would donate, ruining the chance of having kids for a lot of people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is a great example of the principle of unintended consequences. It's interesting to reflect on whether sperm banks contracts from decades ago give them protection from lawsuits in such cases. It is even unclear the degree 23me are protected. Both policy makers, on the the regulatory side, and lawyers doing risk management, should take a hard look at stories such as this.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd say it's in the best interested of the child upon turning 18 to find out the identity of the father. The biological father may well be financially well off and the child would be entitled to a share of any inheritance. At the very least the child could sue the estate to get their portion of any assets.

<comment><USER7> There is zero entitlement to assets from sperm donor. This is very clearly spelled out in law.</comment></comment>


A speculative case for nuclear-powered cargo ships - <AUTHOR> https://betweenthecracks.substack.com/p/taking-shipping-back-to-the-future <comment><AUTHOR> The big issue with the NS Savannah was timing. Even with free fuel, you can't quite manage to get break bulk cargo shipping to be cost competitive with containers. If she launched a few years later after Ideal X's success, then we might have more nuclear ships.</comment>


Two-Button Modal Window Design Patent (Apple, 1998) - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=bpQEAAAAEBAJ&dq=inassignee:apple&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=0&as_miny_ap=&as_maxm_ap=0&as_maxy_ap=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_ptype=2

<comment><USER2> Too bad more people didn't respect this patent. I hate modal windows.</comment>


With Self-Driving Cars Coming, What Happens to Millions of Jobs? - <AUTHOR> https://www.yahoo.com/autos/as-cars-roll-toward-self-driving-what-happens-to-125514634282.html

<comment><USER2> A peripheral concern is the direct job loss of the millions of truck drivers as self-driving semi tractor trucks are developed. In nearly every state, Truck Driver is the #1 job.

Will Minimum Income be the solution?</comment>


Durr: A shivering unisex bracelet that investigates our perception of 5 minutes - <AUTHOR> http://skreksto.re/products/durr <comment><USER2> > it adds an undeniable "rhythm" to the day, chopping it into chunks

      The gods confound the man who first found out
      how to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,
      who in this place set up a sundial,
      to cut and hack my days so wretchedly
      into small portions!  When I was a boy,
      my belly was my sundial — one surer,
      truer, and more exact than any of them.
      This dial told me when 'twas proper time
      to go to dinner, when I had aught to eat;
      But nowadays, why even when I have,
      I can't fall-to unless the sun gives leave.
      The town's so full of these confounded dials
      the greatest part of the inhabitants,
      shrunk up with hunger, crawl along the street.

— Plautus (c.254-184 BC)

<comment><USER3> > With Durr you become aware of how your brain alters the length of a bus > ride, how fast you finish a beer, how time flies by when you enjoy yourself, > and drags along when you wait in line at the post office.

Let me propose the 20% case that'll feel like the 80% case. Having a beer with a friend and sharing laughter, and ...buzz.buzz.buzz... being reminded mid- laugh that you're having a beer with a friend sharing a laugh.

I enjoy the moments where my brain adjusts the volume of the world around me, I get lost in thought and time becomes my bitch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This reminds me of feelSpace[1]. It is a belt which has vibrating motors all around it and a compass. I believe the point is to give you an extra "sense" which after you have worn it enough you incorporate with your other senses.

[1] - [http://feelspace.cogsci.uni- osnabrueck.de/](http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/)

<comment><USER5> That in turn reminds me of magnet implants which are an interesting (and a little odd) concept. [http://www.iamdann.com/2012/03/21/my-magnet-implant- body-mod...](http://www.iamdann.com/2012/03/21/my-magnet-implant-body- modification)

<comment><USER6> Doesn't work well in my 9.4 T MRI environment :)

<comment><USER7> That's for sure. I wonder how safe these sort of implants are even when just playing around with other rare earth magnets. Having the implant ripped out because you absentmindedly picked up another magnet would _really_ suck.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Shivering unisex" must have done well in A/B testing.

<comment><USER9> better than the alternative: "vibrating unisex".

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This must be a gag, or the worst example of western opulence I could possibly think of.

Seriously, an electronic gadget made to disrupt your day every 5 minutes. I think this requires a better explanation of the purpose before I take it seriously. Right now all the marketing speak combined with the banality of this device makes me think it's the perfect april fools but a few months too soon.

Let's assume it's for real, why would you want to get reminded that 5 minutes have passed when you've lost yourself in a fun life moment? Or when you're waiting for something a long time, that would be even worse.

<comment><USER11> I think you're misunderstanding the experience.

I'm sure it would seem interruptive the first few times. But after that, it would become familiar. If you've ever lived near a clock that ticks or chimes, it eventually becomes part of the background, a subtle reminder of the flow of time.

Your approach to consciousness, to get lost in pleasant things and to be oblivious of unpleasant things, is one way to be. But other people are after different things. Plenty of people want a better sense of the flow of time. Note, for example, the popularity of the Pomodoro Method.

<comment><USER12> I grew up in a terraced house that was immediately adjacent to the back of a convent/nunnery. There would be frequent bell-ringing to call the sisters to prayers, etc.

I slept right through it. Always.

Until we moved house, then I'd find myself waking up at, say, midnight for the first few weeks being slightly disturbed that the bell _hand 't_ run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Anybody that wants one of these: this looks like it would be /trivially/ easy to build. An attiny85 and a vibration motor would do it.

The only "hard" part would be fitting a battery in this form factor.

Go to your local hackerspace during some open hours, and tell the hackers you want to build one of these. I bet they'll do it with you!

(Hell: I'LL do it with you if you come down to heatsync labs [in Phoenix])

<comment><USER14> I was thinking that it would be easy to add this functionality to my pebble watch.

<comment><USER15> I was exactly what I thought. Is there any "watchapp" that does this?

<comment><USER16> There is an interval trainer app for running but I think it will work for this. Set it up for 5 minute intervals and you should get a similar functionality. The only thing is it won't run in the background so you have to keep the app open.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's a really nice idea, but why buy a watch when you already have a vibrating computer in your pocket?

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nedzadhrnj...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nedzadhrnjica.android.alarmevery15minutes&hl=en)

<comment><USER18> I was thinking the same thing but could you imagine your phone vibrating in your pocket every 5 minutes? If I didn't expect my phone to also vibrate for phone calls and messages all day long, an app would be viable... sadly, you probably need to distinguish in an obvious way

<comment><USER19> Might be workable if you have the option to change the vibration pattern to something clearly distinct from a notification.

<comment><USER18> Agreed.

I was thinking maybe an audio queue... haha [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBSrBqogPY&noredirect=1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBSrBqogPY&noredirect=1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> From TFA: > Oh, and no, it's not waterproof, so don't shower with it.

Water resistance just seems to be a requirement these days - even my Pebble which I'd never wear in the shower is water resistant so when I am forced to react to a bath incident, I don't worry about the watch, and my kids instead.

Sounds like a pet project - maybe they should hire a real watch designer who can get them from hobby to actual product at some point.

<comment><USER21> _" Even my Pebble which I'd never wear in the shower is water resistant"_

One of the things I love about my Kickstarter Pebble is that I have gone swimming with it, and I've even gone diving down to about 20 feet with it and it still works brilliantly. It's nice to not have to worry about it around water.

I'm definitely a risk taker with electronics and water though. I actually put my new iPhone in a ziplock bag to see if it would make an effective underwater camera while diving. (Just so you know the ziplock bag did succeed in keeping my iPhone safe, but the video was too blurry to be useful because the lens didn't focus right under water.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The idea might be good, but the price is extravagant. I think the parts should cost only $60-70, maybe less, so charging nearly $148 is laughable. Especially when I can get a nice, brand-name watch for $118 or so.

<comment><USER23> What was the price? They sold out of them and have apparently taken it down now.

<comment><USER22> They posted that it was £90. That converts to $147.71 USD today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is the first time I've upvoted a post that sells fake watches.

</comment><comment><USER25> My MotivAider does this fantastically, I like it on my belt and aside from being bulky, is perfect machine for $50.

[http://www.amazon.com/Behavioral-Dynamics-9609-QC- MotivAider...](http://www.amazon.com/Behavioral-Dynamics-9609-QC- MotivAider/dp/B000MMVSKW/)

I've been using it to establish habits, remind myself to be mindful and focus on task.

</comment><comment><USER26> Why would anyone pay money to get interrupted every 5 minutes? I would pay money _not_ to get interrupted every 5 minutes.

<comment><USER27> Maybe you could use it for something, like a reminder to stop browsing internet sites and do some work :) There was a write recently of someone who got a ton more work done by hiring someone on craigslist to slap them in the face if they ever go off task, like spending a lot of time on facebook.

<comment><USER26> But they were getting slapped when they were distracted: not every 5 minutes whether they were focused or not.

I'm having a hard time imagining constant interruption being _good_ for concentration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Better: Install "Multilingual Speaking Clock" instead (windows only I think) and set it up so it announces the time every 5 minutes through your computer speakers.

It. Is. A. Mind. Game.

When your brain "idles" you lose track of time. Time in the mind only exists as a comparison of one moment in the past and another moment in the present. So when you're daydreaming (mostly brain idling) time appears to fly by because there's less datapoints for your mind to use to compare. But when you're checking the time constantly time appears to go by very very slowly.

It can become mentally exhausting when you do it too much though because it speeds up the mind. You become aware of every little moment. It can make you extremely productive but you really do have to take "brain idling" breaks every now and then. Also when you first start off, time will appear to fly by, it'll feel like "5 min" are flying by every 30 seconds. But after about 30 minutes your brain will stop idling so much, you'll become aware of more time points, and it'll feel like time is slowing down and you're thinking "faster".

Give it a try. It's really fascinating.

</comment><comment><USER29> Wow... I've been having this idea for a watch for a while.. someone with the hardware knowledge pulled it off. Did the creators try having a short vibration for five minutes and than a longer vibration for an hour?

</comment><comment><USER30> Republish it on April 1st :)

</comment><comment><USER31> I'm curious to see the results of this. I wonder if there are any negative impacts to consciously acknowledging the passage of time with a device like this considering that when "time flies", it does so because you aren't conscious of its passing.

From TFA: > how time flies by when you enjoy yourself, and drags along when you wait in line at the post office

I suspect my experience at the post office be made worse by the fact that there's something vibrating on my wrist reminding me of how long I've been waiting?

</comment><comment><USER32> Check out TicTocTrac ([http://www.tictoctrac.com/](http://www.tictoctrac.com/)). Open source watch that monitors when you check the time, and lets you track time perception whenever you want (instead of buzzing you every 5 minutes, you tap to start the test and then tap when you think X minutes have elapsed). You can save the data and use the site to visualize it later. The BOM comes to about $55.

</comment><comment><USER33> Sounds like something from Harrison Bergeron.

<comment><USER34> "It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains. "

Yeah I'm not sure why people would buy this.

<comment><USER33> Thanks! That was the quote I wanted but couldn't find.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Love the copy. "Wait what". Totally hip.

Interesting concept. Though I'm sure there's an app for that... or will be.

<comment><USER36> Yes, search for interval timer, repeat timer... The closest free app I found for ios so far is "wake me up." It repeats forever but doesn't run in the background.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I love stuff like this. I've been doing some of my own work around this idea by measuring the time it takes me to do certain everyday tasks.

My morning routine is about 15 minutes. So is going to the coffee cart on the corner for coffee and a doughnut. However, I often perceive and think about the latter as taking much longer.

</comment><comment><USER36> Interesting thought. Reminds me of when people around me had an hourly chime on their watch... Usually inadvertently.

I'm downloading a interval timer app to test it out. My guess is that it will drive me nuts soon.

Edit: I didn't find any good options free for ios yet. "Wake me up" works well, but not in the background.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> More here: "A vibrating watch that messes with your perception of time." [http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/a-vibrating-watch- that-m...](http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/a-vibrating-watch-that-messes- with-your-perception-of-time/)

</comment><comment><USER38> Get a GymBoss interval timer. Great for exercise, and can accomplish this perception thing. (it has a vibrate-only mode).

[http://www.amazon.com/Gymboss-Interval-Timer-Stopwatch- METAL...](http://www.amazon.com/Gymboss-Interval-Timer-Stopwatch- METALLIC/dp/B00CH05BLO/)

</comment><comment><USER39> I think a lot of its cost comes from the fact that the device is made in Oslo. In Norway, labor prices are upwards of $125 USD per hour. If hamburgers are $50 there, then it makes sense that this thing is priced like a couple of hamburgers.

<comment><USER40> Your figures are quite a bit off. A Big Mac is $7.51[1], and the average wage in Norway is around $6440 a month[2], or around $40 an hour (based on a 170 hour work month).

They are high - they're nowhere near as high as you're making out.

[1]:[http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac- index](http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index) [2]:[http://www.ssb.no/en/lonnansatt/](http://www.ssb.no/en/lonnansatt/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> This could also be implemented as a smartphone app running in the background..

<comment><USER42> Sure, but how would I distinguish a 5-minute-interval vibration from the myriad email notification vibrations?

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I don't want the watch but I like the idea, I actually have an app on my that chimes every 30 minutes, and I find it useful,

</comment><comment><USER44> In my opinion, this is pretty dumb. It serves no purpose other than as a piece of interactive art. I guess it is pretty though.

</comment><comment><USER45> More a thing to stick in a smart watch like the pebble than a product on its own.

</comment><comment><USER46> Maybe a 'private' version would be marketable?

</comment><comment><USER47> I need this badly, especially while I am reading HN.

</comment><comment><USER48> Ugliest thing ever

<comment><USER49> yeah, but at least they warn about shivering unisex. This device would look much better if put inside candy watch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> How can I achieve this with my Pebble?

</comment><comment><USER51> would buy/wear if colored circle was much smaller or different design idea.

</comment><comment><USER52> Looks fun but could get irritating as a constant reminder, also I would be confused with my phon'es vibration.

The girl could do with a lot less arm hair though

<comment><USER53> Sharp Knees Syndrome.</comment></comment>


New in elasticsearch: Percolator - finds saved searches that match a document - <AUTHOR> http://www.elasticsearch.org/blog/2011/02/08/percolator.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been following elasticsearch for a while now - it's a fascinating project. It's similar to Solr, but it's designed from the ground up for seamless sharded horizontal scaling (Solr is mainly designed for master/slave replication), speakers JSON/REST by default and keeps on getting more and more interesting features - geospatial support is baked in for example.

Percolator has really captured my imagination. Instead of storing documents and running searches against them, you can store searches and feed in a document and ask "which search queries would this match". It turns search upside down. I'm not a hundred percent sure what this is useful for (two examples would be a saved-search alert feature of some sort or something for firing off events based on an incoming stream of data, such as the Twitter firehose) but it's a fascinating ability.

<comment><USER2> Another use case would be to setup business rules or even get a workflow going. If i add this document it matches the queries a,b,c so i can do steps x,y and/or z afterwards.

Percolators is a truely perculiar feauture indeed :)</comment></comment>


MacOS 10.14 Mojave Reviewed - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/?p=1334615 <comment><USER2> Obviously too late for this article, but here's a general tip: if you're going to show a bunch of comparison screen grabs, or before/after screen shots, and the like - e.g., [https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/09/macos-10-14-mojave-...](https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/09/macos-10-14-mojave- the-ars-technica-review/12/#h3) \- don't put a scroll effect in. Don't put a fade down then fade up effect in. It makes it too hard to see the difference. Just flick instantly between one and the next.

(Possibly related: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/02/15/why-does- adobe...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/02/15/why-does-adobe- photoshop-differentiate-between-undo-and-step-backwards/))

<comment><USER3> That reminds me of something that happened when I was working at Adobe around 2002. A coworker saw me using PaintShop Pro to sort through a few photos, and he said, "But... What? You work for Adobe!"

I explained, "I'd love to use Photoshop, but it fails to do the very first thing I need when I look at a batch of photos I shot in burst mode: flip back and forth between them to see which is best."

PSP let me flip between two photos instantly so I could see which I liked; Photoshop couldn't do that. Every time I used Ctrl+Tab to switch photos, it first drew a placeholder checkerboard across the entire screen, and then it slowly pulled in the new photo block by block.

Of course, there was probably some good technical reason for this: maybe some legacy Photoshop code designed for even older computers with little memory. But that didn't help me.

The funny thing about your (valid!) complaint is that browsers are perfectly capable of doing the right thing for you when you replace one image with another - an instant visual swap. But instead, people add scrolling and fading and other effects just to show off how "designy" their site is.

<comment><USER4> If you want a webby award, that's what is needed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Like iOS 12 very promising overall from the sound of it, and a genuine step forward from previous years in the fundamentals of speed and stability just as they promised to work towards. One continuing (though not new at all to the release) disappointment I have with Apple though:

> _The end of OpenGL and OpenCL on the Mac_

A solid summary of the situation, but to me where Apple really deserves blame there is not having MoltenGL and MoltenVK (and perhaps some theoretical MoltenCL too) as 1st party projects. I completely understand them wanting their own directly writable and controlled low level graphics language and having that be the interface layer. They are pretty vertically integrated and are now even doing their own GPUs, but even before that on the Mac they have long built the OS very strongly around GPU capabilities (for better and for worse, basic VM experience is very mediocre if you don't have a hardware GPU to passthrough). If anything I'm mildly surprised in retrospect Metal wasn't done earlier, OpenGL wasn't working for them and it's that big a deal. Microsoft invested in their own graphics layer for Windows ages earlier.

But controlling their own low level layer doesn't mean that higher level non- proprietary interfaces shouldn't still be supported on top. Part of the point should be to enable abstraction there. Apple is a big enough player and platform that this shouldn't be a zero-sum game, and their perfectly understandable strategic concerns addressed by Metal don't preclude OpenGL continuing to be officially supported as a layer on top of Metal. Apple could have even done it as another open source project of which they were the primary sponsor even if they wanted to manage it that way.

This may be just another symptom of their unusual startup-type culture which lets them hyperfocus on specific products but reduces their corporate ability to multitask, but it's still a shame. It could have been just about supporting newer and better stuff going forward, not taking something away. Even if MolenVK/MoltenGL ultimately fill some of that void I don't think that should have been relegated to 3rd party only.

<comment><USER6> I don't blame them for this. They want to get out of OpenGL because how much of a maintenance nightmare it has become due to non technical concerns. To ship top end OpenGL (and DirectX) drivers these days, it's more or less required that you write tons of code that recognizes the application that's calling your driver and fixes bugs in their code. Nvidia starting doing this, and now all end users see is that programs work on Nvidia and not AMD (or Apple as they write their own drivers), and blame everyone other than Nvidia. The switch to these new Mantle derived APIs is as much if not more about resetting those expectations of responsibilities than the technical benefits that these APIs provide (which AZDO 80/20 ruled most of the way to anyway).

Supporting a MoltenGL as a first class item defeats the whole purpose of moving away from OpenGL to begin with from their perspective. OpenCL never got the critical mass in their eyes, and someone else is already taking on MoltenVK.

<comment><USER7> Wait a sec... My gaming PC (2x AMD R9 290X, 8 GB video memory) is absolutely awful with a lot of (esp. Ubisoft) games like Assassins Creed or Watch_Dogs. I just assumed the games weren't optimized for AMD hardware. That is based partly off the Nvidia logos that are shown during startup and in the graphical settings menu.

There's also graphical issues at high resolutions. I've been planning on buying an Nvidia GPU so I can actually play games at a decent frame rate.

Are you telling me part (or all?) of the problem is bad drivers? I got the drivers from Windows Update rather than from AMD so they would just update themselves and be the correct ones.

<comment><USER6> In my mind, the problem is bad code from developers like Ubisoft, and the willingness of Nvidia to expend tons of engineering effort to hack around them on a case by case basis. It's not really fair to call standards compliant drivers "bad" in my mind.

AMD pushed Vulkan (and Mantle previously) hard because it lets them break the cycle due to the layering concept in the driver stack. Intrinsic in how those drivers work is allowing end users to stick API verification layers in at load time. This will allow AMD to go to the press and say "see, it's not us, it's the application developer that wrote terrible code" without leaking any internal IP of those other shops.

<comment><USER8> That is one of the reason why I think Metal is the right way to go. I can't understand how we will be able to sustain the current development of GPU, when more than half of the cost are in software drivers development and cost % is constantly moving up. Another reason why the Desktop GPU market is so hard to break in, as have we seen times and times again, from 3Dfx with poor Direct X Drivers, S3, 3D Labs, Matrox, PowerVR etc. But I tried making this point with an Intel GPU engineers and he said my point is moot. May be he knows something I don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >ending support for 32 bit apps >deprecating openGL

My opinion on APIs have gone from new and bleeding edge to 'support it till the sun burns out'. Computers and meant to work. on linux or mac, no executable over 5 years old seems to work. But if download a .exe from the early 90's on a PC, it often just works.

In 100 years, the windows API and .exe are going to be the lingua franca of programs. there are many indications this is happening, valve baking WINE into steam, the fragmented package managers on linux, and no common runtime environment taking off.

<comment><USER10> Windows is a desktop OS, and the desktop is dying. In 100 years I'd say the chance of anything running Windows would be about the same as the likelihood of it running VMS.

<comment><USER11> Laptops and 2-1 are the new desktop, and the large majority runs Windows.

<comment><USER12> I love my MacBook Pro. Really, I do. And chances are, I'll probably use some iteration of a PC (in this case, I use an eGPU so I could replace my desktop entirely) until I, well, stop using hardware. I also use macOS and Windows on it.

That being said, I will eventually die. Now, the question becomes what are the people that follow after me going to be using. I have kids in school: both use Chromebooks for school work, in one case a PS4 for gaming, and hand-me-down iPhones/iPhone SEs for social, gaming, and the like. Could they eventually need a PC? Possibly, depending on their career path/interests and the level of support for iPads, Chromebooks, etc. at the time. But they don't need it now. And I know people who are my age and older who limit themselves to iPhones/iPads for technology beyond the TV. None of these things are running Windows.

<comment><USER11> Chromebooks are an US school phenomenon, hardly spotted anywhere else.

<comment><USER12> I can only speak for the US market I guess, but they haven't found a real need for a PC/Mac outside of what a Chromebook can do, so at the end of the day, I don't feel it bodes well for PC/Mac long term.

I'm a developer at work for internal applications (and some external). All of my non-server running things are web applications. They could be accessed by Chromebooks instead of the hp Windows 7 laptops we use now. I doubt we'd switch off PCs due to familiarity at the very least, but we don't _need_ them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Dark mode is really refreshing for the eyes.

Tab completion now shows dot files as well; ".DS_Store" is there everywhere. I wonder if they have a plan to do away with the .DS_Store anytime soon.

<comment><USER14> I've never owned an Apple anything and yet I swear I still find .DS_Store files on my Windows/Linux machines from time to time.

<comment><USER15> Assuming you deal with software, I'd guess that's because someone has committed them to a repo. It's one of the reasons Mac-based devs should always have a global .gitignore file.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > But Core Storage, the technology responsible for keeping the most frequently > accessed files on the SSD, can only see data on your drive at the block > level, not the file level. It can't tell the difference between an app that > needs to be launched quickly or a document that doesn't need a lot of extra > speed; all it can see is how frequently blocks are accessed. APFS changes > that. Fusion Drives can now move files to the SSD based not just on how > frequently they're accessed, but also based on how much the type of file > will benefit from an SSD. APFS will store all file metadata on your SSD, > too, speeding up Spotlight searches and metadata lookups in the Get Info > window.

Can someone more knowledgeable than me explain how in the world this is an improvement? The old Core Storage model perfectly makes sense to me: it strictly operates beneath the level of a file system, combining multiple physical volumes into a logical volume family which contains a logical volume. It moves blocks between SSD and HDD using frequency of access. Now, why should we suddenly need to look at the type of file to determine which block device to store the data? Even if it's an application, but if it's not frequently used, why should we keep it on SSD?

And filesystem metadata should be even more obvious. Since basically all file operations need the directory entries and the inode information, the old Core Storage-based system will automatically move them to the SSD. Why do we need to explicitly tell the filesystem to do this?

Overall this feels like a step backward to me. I like systems that are dynamic and self-adjusting, not those with hard-coded rules and heuristics.

Also I'm a bit disappointed as the author, while producing a fine review to read, didn't quite do the deep-dive I had expected for a system that's arguably the most important in an OS—a system in charge of storing user data.

<comment><USER17> > _Now, why should we suddenly need to look at the type of file to determine > which block device to store the data?_

We don't "need" to, it's an extra optimization.

> _Even if it 's an application, but if it's not frequently used, why should > we keep it on SSD?_

Because if we have the space to spare on the SSD, we'd appreciate the faster launch when we do try to use that app. And for other types of files it can now decide to move them or not move them based on the benefit from the faster load, not just the frequency of access (and thus optimize the SSD use).

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Let's talk Gatekeeper first. In High Sierra, Gatekeeper controls access to > Location Services, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Photos—any app that > wants access to any of that data needs to ask for it and be granted > permission first, and the app should fail over gracefully (i.e. not crash) > when that permission is denied.

This is just wrong. Gatekeeper is not the iOS-like privacy controls. It's about enforcing apps to be from the MAS or identified developers. [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491](https://support.apple.com/en- us/HT202491)

<comment><USER18> Technically, Andrew's still in the clear as Gatekeeper is a system facility for controlling what can be installed and run on your machine. Permissions for access to system services and app databases is the only thing that's changed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is the reworked App Store faster? I always wonder how they could make it so slow without any feedback while it navigates between pages.

<comment><USER20> It's faster, but still incredulously slow. For example, when you launch it it's just a black rectangle for 3-5 seconds (2018 Macbook Pro). And the UX is all over the place, with 3-4 different ways to go back/close whatever you're looking at. The way you navigate reviews with side-swipes might sense on a phone but makes no sense whatsoever on the Mac.

You can tell it's made to spec and with zero developer love softening the rough corners, because no developer who cares would make a full-screen screenshot view mode you cannot exit with Esc.

<comment><USER21> >The way you navigate reviews with side-swipes might sense on a phone but makes no sense whatsoever on the Mac.

it makes complete sense, I switched over to mac in 2017 and as I got used to the gestures I tried them everywhere. if i'd found one place where they didn't work I would have abandoned them. the side swipes also work in Netflix on chrome on Mac. I really LOVE this aspect of the mac. gestures are functionally useless on windows coz of the uber patchy support for them....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The pop-up permission boxes don't make a great first impression since I saw at least 5 of them within 2 minutes and they tended to have really obscure descriptions like access to "System Events".

While probably technically much more difficult, maybe they could have the first Mojave launch of every app occur in a separate and invisible "everything allowed" area, where the system just pretends to allow things and tracks everything that the app did on launch that would require permission. And then, it can display _one_ box with a summary of features that seem to be required for that app, relaunching the app in the real system sandbox if approved.

<comment><USER23> How would the system simulate user interaction required to get to a point where the popup would be necessary?

<comment><USER24> An application could access the protected APIs it needs during a first run in order to force the authorization dialogs. If I were designing an API for that, I'd allow a single call to declare as many permissions as needed, so all authorization dialogs would be triggered at once.

<comment><USER23> But then you just have a model where an app asks for a dozen permissions upfront, which may not even make sense in context. For example, should your bank's app (assuming it had one) get camera access? On the surface this seems a bit strange, until you realize that it has check scanning functionality.

<comment><USER25> You could pop up a box that says "Bank of America is asking for access to the following parts of your Mac:"

Followed by a table with the function (I.e Camera, mic), a description from the developer about why, and a checkbox to accept or deny.

<comment><USER26> You are more likely to understand the reason an app wants a permission if it is requested the moment it tries to use it.

The behavior you describe is the old Android take it or leave it approach. It doesn't work because then all apps refuse to work if they don't get ridiculous permissions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> What are the pros and cons of upgrading to Mojave for a hacker using a Mid-2013 MacBook Air?

Is that true that Mojave looks ugly on non-retina displays, won't allow your scripts to access some stuff previous versions allowed, integrates with Apple's internet services and DRMs more tightly and can have problems with playing old Windows games like Fallout 3 with Wine?

<comment><USER28> You can preview "ugly" by turning off "Use LCD font smoothing where available" and restarting any app to check it out. It's subjective, lots of folks complained about subpixel being ugly when it was first introduced.

The Apple iCloud stuff is still optional. A "hacker" should have no trouble with the Terminal commands necessary to disable SIP.

Dunno about Fallout but Boot Camp and VMWare are still around.

<comment><USER27> Thanks.

> Boot Camp and VMWare are still around

At least it's too space-consuming to maintain a separate Windows system on a 128 GiB SSD, Wine/CrossOver feels a better solution in the cases where it can manage.

<comment><USER29> Better yet, use SteamPlay

[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Direct download link: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos- mojave/id1398502828?mt...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos- mojave/id1398502828?mt=12)

</comment><comment><USER31> 2FA with SMS was a standout weird choice from Apple. I hope they discourage that quickly with a better alternative.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, maybe it's just a bow to practicality but if anything mildly surprised regardless because they've gotten quite serious about their own HSM implementation which is slowly starting to spread to more and more new Macs, and it's effectively universal under iOS. I sort of expected given initial thrusts like Apple Pay that they'd push hardware token usage way harder, with either direct support for Macs with T-series chips already or else some tie-in to iDevices. Ideally NitroStick/Yubikey/etc would come along for the ride and Apple would work towards a framework that could be used with other HSMs beyond their own, but at this point I'd take any major platform trying to move crypto auth forward over passwords/sms/anything else at all.

<comment><USER18> I think your first instinct is correct, here. While they probably would feel safer if everybody was using Google Auth, Authy, or a physical device, it gets around people having to explicitly copy tokens around which, IIRC has been abused a fair bit in order to steal credentials.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Still using El Capitan on my iMac. Should I upgrade directly to Mojave, or wait a bit?

<comment><USER33> Same boat. I'm still on Sierra and still have concerns as a colleague on High Sierra almost hosed his system with APFS. Any stability issues on the new file system?

<comment><USER18> It's been mostly fine on High Sierra, but I did have one instance where my inodes went wonky. Had to restore from backups as Disk Utility couldn't do anything with it.

HFS+ was terrible, but at least I knew most of the ways in which it was terrible.

<comment><USER34> People bitch and moan about HFS+ but I've never found anything particularly objectionable about it, even after writing several filesystem utilities on top of it.

I've always found Spotlight to be utter garbage, but that's not the fault of HFS+.

<comment><USER18> OK, so you're not just spewing nonsense, but it bears repeating that the internals of HFS+ were horribly dated towards the end of its life. This prevented them from adding features or fixing bugs in a way that would be forward looking.

The system requirements for HFS and HFS+ reflected this and partially explain why there was little progress for literally years at a time.

[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/07/mac- os-x-10-7/12/#hf...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/07/mac- os-x-10-7/12/#hfs-problems)

Eventually, you have to start over.

<comment><USER34> Fair enough; thanks for educating me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> This is a very good review, but it still makes me miss the ones John Siracusa wrote.

He was(is!) a great writer, programmer, and colleague (separately, of course). Hope he's up to something fun!

<comment><USER36> If you're into podcasting, give ATP[1] a shot: John is one of the three hosts. The other hosts are Casey Liss and Marco Arment (developer of Overcast).

John also has some other podcasts like Robot or Not[2] and Reconcilable Differences[3], but ATP is by far my personal favorite.

[1] [http://atp.fm/](http://atp.fm/) [2] [https://www.theincomparable.com/robot/](https://www.theincomparable.com/robot/) [3] [https://www.relay.fm/rd](https://www.relay.fm/rd)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Does it fix the hard crash/freeze issues around hibernation and FileVault? That's pretty much all I care about; I _really do not like_ having to choose between running a laptop without FDE and having to spend ten minutes going from zero to usable every time I stick the stupid thing in my backpack for more than fifteen minutes.

<comment> Spartan-S63 I run with full disk encryption and have never had this issue. I've never heard of this issue either.

So, it just happens when your laptop goes into hibernation with FileVault enabled?

<comment><USER37> Yeah. Two laptops, actually, one whose FileVault activation preceded the upgrade, one whose did not. Doesn't matter which hibernation mode I use, 3 or 25 - either way, it reliably fails to either sleep or awaken cleanly; not sure which, but the wake is a cold boot with no state restoration.

<comment><USER38> I had something similar, and IIRC it was fixed by reformatting the drive. Tedious, but Time Machine helps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > I wish the easy-to-use app icon wasn't tucked away in the Utilities folder, > but it does do a considerably better job of exposing screenshot and screen > recording options that have been a part of the Mac for years.

Command+Shift+5?

> The way the Kids These Days are customizing their email is with emoji

Kids These Days don't use email. Or at least, often, that is.

</comment><comment><USER39> The screenshot annotation UI is an abomination. It's some weird mish-mash of buttons that feels like a word processor instead of a really simple tool that's just an arrow + text with a white outline (like Skitch). I really hope this gets fixed.

</comment><comment><USER40> Anyone else find dark mode stark? It was a bit shocking to see it and very jarring after almost 2 decades of looking at various shades of sliver/gray menubar and dock.

I now kind of miss the ability to have only dock, menubar, notifications side bar, spotlight and HUD for brightness, volume be black.

This mode offered a great balance between classic window chrome and the too much brightness you now get in "light" appearance mode.

I find I can't work in dark mode during daytime. Way too many reflections and reading mail and PDFs in preview are too jarring. Black, beside white makes each other stand out so much.

I think macOS is now least polished it has ever been.

</comment><comment><USER41> Is this the new El Capitan, which was the new Snow Leopard?

<comment><USER23> It's very stable, if that's what you're asking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Is it possible to upgrade without upgrading the boot filesystem to APFS? I have a Fusion Drive, and don't have high confidence Apple got this right.

<comment><USER43> > don't have high confidence Apple got this right

I'd love to know why. The transition to APFS for all other devices has been utterly seamless. Apple probably has a whole filesystem team. I wonder if you have any special qualifications to justify why you think you know better?

<comment><USER42> >for all other devices

Yes, the solid state storage for which it is designed. The Fusion Drive by definition includes rotating media and compounds this problem by involving 2 devices in a common logical storage device.

The APFS support for Fusion Drives was pulled from High Sierra for reasons that were never explained so there were apparently issues, and without knowing what those were it is impossible to evaluate how likely it is that these were all resolved now.

<comment><USER10> They could have pulled it from Mojave too if they felt there were still issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> If you use AppleScript to automate your finder, then I would wait a bit until you have a really good idea how much work it is going to be to change things to meet the new security changes. It is a non-trivial operation. Also, I should probably give up any hope of Apple fixing any scripting errors in the Finder since its still broken since Mavericks.

</comment><comment><USER45> On my MBP 2012 on every boot up the screen will flicker and I guess this is just old age and normal? I guess this is the last update on 2012 model.

Also noticed the resolution is a little bit brighter and nicer for an old MBP.

</comment><comment><USER46> Having an older Mac Pro, I saw that it Mojave will do a firmware upgrade. I won't be using MacOs, but will be running the installer for that. Thank you Apple!

</comment><comment><USER47> How's battery life on Mojave? My 2014 MBPro is still on El Capitan and doing well, so not sure I'd upgrade if there's a battery hit.

<comment><USER48> I haven't noticed any with the betas, nor seen anyone talking about it, but my battery isn't especially happy anyway on my 2012 Macbook Air so I'm used to not expecting much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> I'm surprised that MacOS 10.14 release came almost unnoticed on HN.

</comment><comment><USER50> Does APFS still run like dog feces on a spinning platter drive in 10.13?

I have a bunch of older iMacs I have stuck at 10.12 for this reason.

<comment><USER51> There's no reason to stay on 10.12 to avoid APFS. I tried a fresh install of 10.13 with APFS on a hard drive. I wasn't happy at all with the performance especially at boot (for some reason). So I started over and went with HFS+.

I have no idea if APFS on Mojave behaves better but if it doesn't force the file system upgrade (didn't check this yet) I see no reason to avoid Mojave. APFS would make a lot more sense on an SSD but even with 0 improvement (excluding visible performance drops here) at storage level the other features alone should make the upgrade worth it.</comment></comment>


Obama's Secret Weapon In The South: Small, Dead, But Still Kickin' - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/10/02/162163801/obama-s-secret-weapon-in-the-south-small-dead-but-still-kickin?ft=1&f=5500502 <comment><USER2> Before reflexively saying "Politics! Flagging", go read the article. It's not actually about politics. It's about a demographic quirk in the South, and an interesting possible explanation.</comment>