Another Expansion of Copyright - <AUTHOR> https://act.eff.org/action/stop-another-expansion-of-copyright-tell-the-senate-to-vote-no-on-s-2823 <comment><USER2> It's not just about 'yay free music', though it would absolutely impact streaming services.

This would have a huge impact on remixers, hip hop beat track artists, original music creators, and people who cover old standards.

The way it is now, it's difficult enough for creative people to use the music that falls under free use as it is.

For example, an animator used Annette Henshaw recordings from the 20s that were no longer under US Copyright, and spent over 9,000 hours creating animation that synced up to the music, only to still end up in a copyright battle over the recordings.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita_Sings_the_Blues#Copyright...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita_Sings_the_Blues#Copyright_problems)

Check out the movie, it's pretty fab, [https://archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues](https://archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues) , but would it exist under the new CLASSICS act? I doubt it.

Youtube already removes ad revenue/or the music for videos that use some recordings of music from the 30s and 40s using the Content ID system of ownership (not copyright).

and that doesn't even cover how passing this act would affect companies, artists, people who've been using these works as the basis of their work for years.

Will they have to get multiple retroactive mechanical licenses? [https://www.harryfox.com/license_music/what_is_mechanical_li...](https://www.harryfox.com/license_music/what_is_mechanical_license.html)

Or will the record companies just claim their works/revenue from the works?

<comment><USER3> See also The Right to Read: [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to- read.en.html](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are 23 Democratic cosponsors, including California's Senators Feinstein and Harris, and 22 Republican cosponsors.

[https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate- bill/282...](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate- bill/2823/cosponsors)

<comment><USER5> People should be more suspicious of bipartisanship, and increase scrutiny. It annoys me to no end as student of political science that people think bipartisanship is inherently good, and that aggressive ideological battle diminishes the conversation. All good things in politics come from vociferous arguing, and only later comes some sense of compromise. This bill and its bipartisan sponsorship is not the result of debate followed by compromise.

<comment><USER6> > All good things in politics come from vociferous arguing

I would hope you recognize the opposite. The natural inclination is to increase aggression to try again when battles are fought viciously and lost. The idea of losing as commonplace and safe is not reinforced enough. While I don't trust a single representative (very bad sign), I also don't think the arguments should be full of frothing.

<comment><USER5> Actually I'm far more suspicious of the opposite. Sure it can happen that there is dispassionate lawmaking that benefits most people and harms almost no one. But I'll continue to argue that this is only due to many prior frothing arguments, which distill out the crap, and leave only the salient arguments, and the skilled arguers.

Watch a debate in the British Parliament and then watch a U.S. Senate hearing. It's difficult to take the U.S. Senate or House seriously because there is so little frothing. It's docile, servile, and subservient, and their master is the dollar.

In self-rule, ultimately the buck stops with the citizens. Not only voters, but all of the citizens. The state of affairs is due to the combined effect of action and inaction. The blame ultimately rests with them, same as the buck rests with the shareholders of a company.

<comment><USER6> > The blame ultimately rests with them,

This sort of rhetoric, specifically has hurt democratic culture. If something you dislike happens, it's because you didn't do ENOUGH instead of the intended realization that everything is impermanent and open to revision.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I did a quick search on the Senator who sponsored this bill and was unable to find a recent news article where he explained his support for it.

I don't know enough about how the Senate interacts with the news media to determine if that's unusual or not, but it sure seems weird to me. If you're going to propose legislation with such a broad impact, why not speak up about it? This is something that a lot of folks want to talk about.

<comment><USER8> It's Chris Coons, a D from Delaware. I don't see much in his past to explain bringing it forward - other than he campaigned for Reagan in the 80s and later went D. I'm hoping this is some 3D chess move, but that seems doubtful. He's taken a great move to unearn people's distrust.

<comment><USER9> Well I could be paranoid but you could just follow the money.

His top campaign contributions come from lawyers[0]. What kind of layers you ask? They do IP law[1]. BTW it possible I am missing something, this came from 5 minutes of google'ing. But the simplest solution is the most likely one IMO.

[0][https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of- congress/summary?cid=...](https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of- congress/summary?cid=N00031820&cycle=2018&type=C)

[1] [https://www.youngconaway.com/](https://www.youngconaway.com/) (scroll to the 'Our Practice' section)

<comment><USER3> I find it amazing how US managed to legalize bribes in the form of 'campaign contributions' and 'lobbying'. And how this model spreads across the world, because money is what matters most. Hence, extended copyrights, more expensive health care, more policies driven by interests of money and not for the masses...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Full text of the CLASSICS Act (since it's not referenced in the campaign page): [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate- bill/239...](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate- bill/2393/text)

</comment><comment><USER11> Oh, Walt Disney copyright expiring again?

<comment><USER12> This wouldn't touch any Disney content.

So no.

<comment><USER13> I'm not sure if Disney doesn't own some record labels with old recordings (music from Oz etc)

But yeah this has nothing to do with Steamboat Willie expiring

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Don't know much about No on S. 2823 but you would think that more focus should be on enforcing what's there already than to add more restrictions and rules.

</comment><comment><USER15> The fine article does not make a convincing argument to opposing the copyright extension. They just whine that the record companies will "wring out more money" from pre-1972 works. If that were the whole argument, then I would actually be in favour.

It seems that the EFF position is "we want free music", and does absolutely nothing to address culture and access to culture.

<comment><USER16> If you've not managed to recover a sufficient wage for your work in 1972 from 46 years of publicly enforced monopoly then I think the public should have a right to cease offering you that monopoly. If you have, then why do you need this protection?

20 years at most IMO, anything longer damages cultural progress.

Copyright is nothing like a natural right, so it's not really the EFF's place to make a convincing argument against it, more the proponents should be convincing the public to extend this favour.

<comment><USER17> My proposal: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17463018](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17463018)

<comment><USER16> To me that's a bit hard, one needs to balance things so as not to disproportionately harm individual inventors/creators.

It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in practice (and too many potential loopholes).

One problem with early, high cost, renewal fees is that companies know they can wait out an individual; you're not going to pay a £M renewal without already having done serious revenue.

It can take a long time to get a new technology, or a new book, or whatever, to market -- the IPR system needs to enable individual creators.

<comment><USER18> > It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in > practice (and too many potential loopholes).

Charge proportional to declared value, with the declared value also an offer to accept payment from any combination of parties to buy the work into the public domain at that price. (It's not _exactly_ based on revenue, but based on value to the copyright holder, but that's close enough to the same thing.)

<comment><USER19> * The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core technologies into the public domain.

* If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next minecraft.

<comment><USER18> > The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core > technologies into the public domain

By buying them out at a price set by the competitor involved, sure, and only _after_ the first renewal is due, sure.

Of course, a monopolistic incumbent can have the public (instead of tolerating monopoly rents) and prospective competition band toether to buy _it 's_ technology out into the public domain for competition to use, too.

> If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you > need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next > minecraft.

Well, no, because we are talking about the method for setting a _renewal_ tax for copyright, not an _initial_ one. So you have to have an idea of how valuable it is to you before the first renewal.

(I like the 4-12 year granted period proposed upthread, but using the declared value approach I would probably go with annual renewals with a long limit—maybe even the current maximum—rather than 6mo renewal with a 21 year cap.)

I might keep the idea of having an exponentially escalating fee by doing that for a required _floor_ to declared value of a work (maybe even instead of a maximum time limit.) Have a nominal floor at the first renewal (say, $1 in today's money) and increasing by 50% each year, with the annual fee as 5% of the declared value. Sure, you can keep renewing as long as you want, but after 50 years of renewals you're at a $32 million minimum renewal fee.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Any senior Rackspace people here on HN? - <AUTHOR> My startup company is coming out of stealth mode soon with a product that is built for Rackspace and would be directly interesting to Rackspace.
However, I'm having trouble getting the attention of senior Rackspace technical management.
I want to show the product to senior technical folks at Rackspace - I have no doubt they would find it interesting.
Are there any Rackspace people here on HN who can help? <comment><USER2> You're doing a startup that's building something only relevant to one other company, without any pre-existing connections to that company?

"Ballsy" is the most-positive-slanted word that comes to mind.

<comment><AUTHOR> Rackspace, Google, Amazon, Digital Ocean, Softlayer.

Each of these companies is supported by my software.

My software stands on its own two feet and will (I hope) succeed with or without the direct interest of the platforms that it runs on, but it would certainly be mutually beneficial for my software and the target platforms if they cross promoted, or at least know that we exist.

Partnerships are a good thing for a startup to foster, especially if the target partner company stands to gain new customers.

I'm also trying to get the attention of Digital Ocean - I may have a lead there, and Softlayer - I know the right people and currently shaking that tree. I suspect that Amazon and Google are such big players in this space that it is not of much interest to them if a company builds software around their platform.

<comment><USER2> Okay. "Built for Rackspace" sounded very peculiar.</comment></comment></comment>


How to create and awesome demo video - <AUTHOR> http://grumomedia.com/how-to-create-an-awesome-demo-video/

<comment><USER2> There's a certain irony to this video that only becomes apparent..... about 3 minutes in :)</comment>


Remembering what you Read: Zettelkasten vs. P.A.R.A - <AUTHOR> https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/remembering-what-you-read-zettelkasten-vs-para/ <comment><USER2> My takeaway from the recent trend in articles talking about how great the Zettelkasten method is:

Document what you do, as if you were describing your work and/or learning to a stranger. That stranger is you, in 6 months to 5 years time.

Maintaining that enthusiasm and finding the time to document is difficult, but the results are very valuable because you are building a "second brain". That extra brain can be indexed, searched, tagged, analyzed, and edited using many powerful tools.

Don't waste energy chasing fancy tools and methodologies without already having a simple workflow in place. In other words, don't go all out learning Emacs+org-mode+org-roam when you already have a directory of text file notes. Once you have a good idea of what works for you, then introduce tools designed to make your life easier. (I say this as someone who uses Emacs+org-mode+org- roam every day)

Oh and read "The Checklist Manifesto" and "How to take Smart Notes".

<comment><AUTHOR> > How to take Smart Notes

I have read over 100 pages of the book but to be honest, I am disappointed with it. I learn best by examples, the book is failing short of examples on how to use Zettelkasten. My expectation was the book was going to walk me through the process of implementing Zettelkasten like a tutorial, but instead it keeps going back in circles, talking about why I should use Zettelkasten. I am about to finish the book but I still have a lot of questions.

<comment><USER3> OP here

Yeah, that book was pretty light on practical advice. I didn't find much in there that I hadn't already discovered by reading blog posts about it

One thing that was unique though, was a set of questions to ask yourself while reading to get extract the most insights out of the material.

I posted them here if you're interested:

[https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1195038683461611521](https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1195038683461611521)

<comment><USER4> Genuine curiosity: why do you take the extra effort to choose and then add an emoji at the end of most of the sentences in these tweets?

<comment><USER3> It doesn't take much effort. Win + '.' opens up the emoji selector, and just start typing a word to search the emojis.

Why bother? Sometimes they help to convey emotion that would otherwise be missing. Other times it helps to break up dryer blocks of text.

That, plus it's fun :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love reading and have a frustratingly limited memory. I spoke to my brother about it (who was the better student between us) and he highlighted similar issues for himself which surprised me. His advice was as follows: "accept the fact that your memory sucks and figure out an annotation and note taking system that helps you recall things faster". You don't need to remember the notes about a particular topic if you can remember that you took a note about it.

How we implement it:

1- he and I annotate almost everything we read worth annotating (I wont do it for escape reading)

2- our annotations have similar systems across books. Underlines may be something fun or interesting, stars highlight significant points, "Qs" pose thoughtful questions, top left corner is location in plot top right is general theme of the scene etc

One and two allow us to get up to speed on a book we previously read very quickly or find particular sections in an instant.

For teachable items - books or notes I don't want to forget that are nuanced - I transcribe my annotations to OneNote (my favorite note taking app).

For example I read a book about Japanese death poems. There were a few that really resonated to me. I don't need to ever pick this book up again nor do I need to remember any of them, I just have to remember I wrote them down. Here is one of my favorites:

My heart

is a bottomless river,

a raging torrent.

(Written by a woman who took her husbands life, for taking the life of her brother, moments before she took her own.

Anyway this system works for me and thought I would share.

<comment><USER3> Wow, I really like how you reserve the corners of the page for specific content.

I also really like writing notes in the book, but I take a picture of each page and stick it into Evernote. On each note I'll write down the book and page number that the note came from in case I want to see it in more context.

That way the notes are all searchable and it really helps when I don't remember which book I read something in

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Shout out for Joplin [1] for digital note-taking - coupled with Nextcloud, I have a self-hosted note repository that syncs across my mobile, laptop and desktop. Interface is clean, notes are in Markdown format, and notes can be cross-linked and organised into notebooks. And it's OSS.

Not affiliated, just a fan!

[1][https://joplinapp.org/](https://joplinapp.org/)

<comment><USER7> I could be wrong, but I think as long as you have access to the same Dropbox account, you can sync up as many devices as you want. No nextcloud integration required.

<comment><USER6> Yes, Nextcloud is not required - I'm saying that having that gives me self- hosted synchronisation. You can indeed use Dropbox; there are other options too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Zettelkasten for our Zettelkästen:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23445742](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23445742)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23386630](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23386630)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22085837](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22085837)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21208196](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21208196)

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=zettelkasten&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none)

</comment><comment><USER9> Queue org-mode namedrop in 3.. 2..

Actually, I can just be that guy as I use it myself, and it is great. However I do find myself spending energy I wish I didn't on meta-things like how to organize it all (files, tags, hierarchy etc). I think it could benefit from having preconfigured setups like doom-emacs or ruby on rails or whatever («convention over configuration»). One for a hardcore GTD, one for zettelkasten, one that is bare bones, etc..

I realize the agenda should make this less important, but I still get caught up in it from time to time (tags? Properties?)..

I haven't tried org-roam though. I just feel like theres so many moving parts to my setup already. Anyone had any good/bad experiences integrating it into your workflow?

Speaking of org-mode, maybe I should start looking at those scheduled items in my agenda that are now some 600 days+ past its due date...

<comment><USER10> Totally anecdotal: I've been an org-mode user for years, and have spent some time using RoamResearch directly as my primary notetaking tool.

I _still_ haven't figured out how to use org-agenda properly, and it feels like I'm missing a lot of core functionality as a result.

I tried to get into org-brain for a while. It never stuck for me.

RoamResearch was a lot stickier; I may end up back in it at some point because of the mindshare and effort being poured into it. It's a really great product --my threshold for being willing to do my thinking work inside a program that's finely tuned to distract me (the browser) is high, so this is saying something.

In the meantime, though, I've been giving org-roam some love, more than anything else because it's _not_ in the browser distraction machine (to wit, here I am commenting on HN when I should be billing time...). Getting spun up and fully in the habit of using org-roam took me a couple days of background effort. I find it easy enough to forget it's there, which is good enough for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> OP here

I wrote this article last May and back then it was unclear whether or not I'd stick with PARA

Here's the update three months later:

 _The Bad_ : I'm kinda getting falling behind on some of the proactive archiving/organizing parts of it, especially for my personal notes

 _The Good_ : Falling behind where PARA's Just In Time aspects really shine. I can organize just the notes that I'm about to use

 _The Great_ : BASB made a night and day difference to my project management style

In the past I organized my notes and todos in a completely different way. I was constantly struggling to find the important bits or would miss important tasks. I'd always be feeling overwhelmed and lost

I still feel like that today, but it's no longer because of my notes. My system is no where near perfect now, but it's waaaaaaay better than what it used to be

I shared more of my thoughts in this tweet thread [1] describing the advice I've been giving to my friends who asked if they should sign up for the Building a Second Brain class (where I learned PARA)

[1] [https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1296532147096834048](https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1296532147096834048)

<comment><USER11> > I hated the idea of wasting all that time I spent reading

Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I read in order to draw broad patterns, not necessarily to remember all the things in every book - my brain has limited space.

What are your thoughts on optimizing retention at the expense of remembering to see the forest?

<comment><USER3> 100% agreed. It's been a journey for me to get to this point, but Tiago Forte's thoughts were really influential for me here.

Now I try to only save notes that I found particularly surprising or insightful, I'm definitely not trying to save everything in the book. I don't put it in:

* If the fact didn't make me think

* If it doesn't trigger an "aha" moment

* If it was something I already knew,

For example, I'm currently taking notes as I read The Art of Doing Science and Engineering. If you looked at my notes[1] then you could barely tell that it's a book about engineering.

[1] [https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848](https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >>> "... Farnam Street's tips on remembering what you read. ... writing your notes on the book itself ..."

Almost all of what I read is not on paper. If I'm reading something that I'm serious about remembering, I'll create a precis ("a concise summary of essential points, statements, or facts" [1]). My goal is to reduce the size of the content by 90% or more (10 page article becomes a 1 page precis, 200 page book becomes 20 page (or smaller) precis. The process of creating the precis seems to enhance my recall of the important information, and if I need to refresh my memory of the material, I can do it in a tenth of the time.

[1] [https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/pr%C3%A9cis](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/pr%C3%A9cis)

<comment><USER13> I do something similar but I keep shortening and shortening my summary until I reach the point in which I have a couple of key points at the top of the note, with everything longer than that somewhere underneath.

That way I can quickly catch a glimpse of what the note offers as soon as I open it, and in case I need to understand the arguments behind those points, all I have to do is to scroll down.

This has proven to be quite effective when I want to reference something I've read about years prior.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The issue at the heart of both the Zettelkasten and the PARA methods seem to be that a person wants their notes to be connected in useful ways. To an extent, "ordinary" knowledge graphs permit this -- where by "ordinary" I mean that the edges are unlabeled. Things are related to other things, but you have to infer the relationship yourself after looking at both of its members.

Graphs with labeled edges seem clearly better. But then what if you want a relationship with more than two members? (Or less! "Not" and "maybe" are two important unary relationships.)

And what if you want a relationship's members to themselves be relationships? This is the nature, after all, of most information. Any but the simplest sentence is a relationship between relationships. "Children ask for cookies because cookies have sugar", for instance, is a "because" relationship bewteen an "ask for" relationship and a "have" relationship.

Once you've reified your relationships that way, you'd like to be able to search intelligently through them. "Ordinary" knowledge graphs let you see all of a thing's children, or parents, or maybe in some cases all it's descendents and ancestors up to some level of recursion. Better would be something that lets you ask targeted questions, like "Show me everything Sally has asked me to do that does not require a computer."

To my knowledge there's only one program that lets you reify your data and query it in the ways I've described. It's called Hode, for Higher Order Data Editor. I wrote it.

[https://github.com/JeffreyBenjaminBrown/hode](https://github.com/JeffreyBenjaminBrown/hode)

<comment><USER3> That's pretty cool Jeff! Those insights are probably used a lot by researchers working on general AI.

How much work does it take you to add your notes to it? I'm curious about it on two dimensions:

* The time it takes to add a note

* What decisions you need to make to add a note (what to link it to, what not to)

<comment><USER14> Thanks!

You've zeroed in on the weakest point of the program. Adding notes is mechanically easy but conceptually hard. That's because there are many ways you could choose to represent the same concept.

For instance, suppose "harry gave sally a book" is in your graph. One way you could represent that is "Harry #gave Sally #object a book". Another is "Harry #did (give #object a book) #to Sally". Another is "Harry #did (give #object a book #to Sally)". And actually maybe you'd prefer to represent "a book" as "#a book", so that you can just search for "book".

They're all plausible representations, and all have different implications for how you would run searches. You've got to be consistent in how you represent those relationships, and the program can't help you because I mean it's a database, not a general artificial intelligence.

The strength of the program is that the structure of your index is entirely up to you. But soon that freedom gives way to being bound by the decisions of your former self. And your future self will inevitably understand the space you're representing better than your former self did when it bound you.

<comment><USER3> Got it. Yeah, this is one of those instances where the paradox of choice can kill you.

Just a thought: if I were interested in adopting a tool like that, my chances of successfully sticking with it would go up 100x if there was a set of "default recommended practices" to follow when saving a new note, to cut down on the decision I would need to make.

Then over time, as I got more familiar with the tool, I could always tweak those default recommendations to fit into my own style

And who better to offer those default practices than the tool's creator? :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The thing I can't wrap my head around is how come Amazon does not have an API where I can pull my Kindle highlights. I know there are services out there like readwise.io but they require me to manually go in and "sync" things using my browser.

I would pay money for a service that was able to grab these highlights and put them into a Zettlekasten or P.A.R.A. style repository. Even Toi Lutke made something to help accomplish this... [https://github.com/tobi/highlights](https://github.com/tobi/highlights)

<comment><USER10> I agree that automation would help out here--could you just hit Readwise's 'sync' page with `curl` and a cronjob?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Contrary to OPs opinion, I believe tooling is relevant to the learning process, because an inconvenient system will put you off from taking notes and from coming back to them in the future. The catch is, there is no single tool that will fit everyone, you have to find your own method. My own tooling choices have changed a lot across the years.

When I began to apply a structured method to my studies, my first choice was to use mind maps. You can structure a mind map to resemble the associations you have in your own (duh) mental model of any body of knowledge you might be studying, and then it's easy to navigate a map with your eyes to recall stuff and fill the gaps when things get cloudy in your head. The first digital tool I recall using was CmapTools, and it's still pretty good.

Nowadays I use mostly LiquidText for reading notes, on books and articles (but there are other similar products). It lets you build something similar to a mind map, and it's really convenient to select a piece of text or image on a pdf and make it a node in a map. It's especially convenient if you have an iPad Pro with a Pencil. However, I could still not find any single tool that encompasses all my "learning modes". For instance, if I am playing with some OSS project and want to take note on something interesting, I have to use a different product.

<comment><USER3> OP here, if the article seemed to imply that tooling is irrelevant, that was not my intent. The most important part of any system is that it be something you'll stick with. I 100% agree with you that if a system puts you off from taking notes than it's bad for you. (I'd add the nuance that what's off- putting for one person might work well for another)

That said, it's dangerous to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I'm trying not to spend too much time researching new systems and instead focus on benefiting from the good-enough system I currently have. I moved to my current system when I was feeling the scaling pains of my old one, and when I feel those pains from this system it'll be time to search for an upgrade!

Speaking of upgrades, I don't have a good way to take notes from pdfs. Looking at their site, LiquidText seems like it's optimized for the pdf use case. I'm going to dig deeper into it to see if I can read pdfs and take notes in there, and then export those notes into Evernote. Thanks for the tip!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Admittedly I haven't tried either of these methods, but just from reading this post, they both seem prohibitively over-complex. There's also no mention of Spaced Repetition, which is unquestionably the best method for remembering things.

Instead of complex note systems, try this: write down quotes, paragraphs, summaries and other related information, add them to Anki / another SRS, and do the cards everyday. That's it. Simplicity is key to building habits and I'd bet any money that SRS works better anyway.

<comment><USER3> (OP here) The philosophy behind PARA is different from spaced repetition.

Spaced repetition is super valuable when you want to keep _all_ the information inside your head. PARA is more geared at when you want all the information _available when you need it_ , and requires much less time/effort than Anki (I've tried both).

Not to say that one is better than the other. Sometimes you need to access the information and cannot use the note taking system (e.g. you're a student and have a final exam coming up). But if memorization is not a requirement, then I find these other systems easier to use.

<comment><USER17> Ah okay, that makes sense. I can see the use case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> A note on folders: I think grouping is a good thing alongside linking notes. I like to combine both methods, but instead of sorting notes into folders, I tag them. For personal knowledge bases it's probably fine to "silo" everything, but I found it really useful to add tags to notes when collaborating on the same knowledge base with multiple contributors. That way I don't need to rely on someone elses judgement and can group them from my perspective without colliding with the author. So instead of having folder -> articles, I have article -> tags and an can query by tags.

Emvi [1] has a tag overview page to allow just that, in case you're interested. I'm using it alongside 7 other people, where 3-4 are actively contributing to it (writing).

[1] [https://emvi.com/](https://emvi.com/)

<comment><USER3> Do you have private tags visible just to you? Otherwise it seems like the system would get pretty cluttered with everyone's tags

For my work notes I've been copying links to the team docs into my personal note taking system and organizing _those_ as I wished

<comment><USER18> Also a good way to handle it.

No, Emvi does not support private tags. But usually you won't need many tags to identify it for everyone. I was looking for the fixed IP addresses of our local network recently and couldn't find them by searching for "IP", because it was tagged as "network". Adding IP as a new tag is beneficial for everyone.

You can bookmark, watch, or create a (private) list for stuff you look up frequently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> It seems like the only real difference is where you put the effort. With Zettelkasten (Z), it's while reading, with PARA, it's before and after a project which might need those notes.

The Z method seems more scalable to me, since if I'm reading, I have time to spare.

<comment><USER3> (OP here) The argument I tried make in the article was twofold:

1) You read waaaay more than you use. So only summarizing what you're about to use in a project takes less time total. (and even then, it's just highlighting passages)

2) The best system is the one you stick with. Yeah, in an ideal world I'd be summarizing my readings right as I'm reading it (clearly I have time to spare in those moments). I tried to do that for a while. But I just couldn't stick with it. It felt too much like homework. It was a chore. The motivation wasn't there. This PARA based system is one I can actually stick with

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> It is hard enough for me to find the time to do the reading, let alone to also do a ton of writing about it. It especially takes me a long time to write by hand, and is just logistically difficult - where do I put the notebook? do I have to do all my reading at a desk? I can type fast, but this has even worse logistical challenges - do I have to do my reading next to a computer? oh, I'll just go check my email real quick while I'm at the computer...

I sometimes daydream about a dedicated writing machine, something small, but with a full-sized keyboard so I can type quickly, and supporting nothing else but text. Sometimes I honestly think about just getting a typewriter, but it seems silly.

<comment><USER21> Me too. I looked into electronic typewriters that export to rtf or something but never pulled the trigger. Would be interested in hearing if people do use specialist devices like that.

<comment><USER20> After writing this comment, I've started wondering about tablets with nice keyboard attachments and only using it with an app like Joplin. Seems like it might be a similar solution. You can install email apps on tablets, but you don't _have_ to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm curious about something. To those who have used advanced note-taking methods over a period of say a few years:

 _Has the method itself helped you in producing work that, without said method, would not have been possible or would have been much more difficult?_

For zettelkasten, the one person for which the method demonstrably led to tangible results was Niklas Luhmann himself. Outside of that one data point, I'm hard pressed to find any other real-life examples.

How does Rich Hickey approach note-taking? Or John Carmack?

<comment><USER2> Before I moved to a Zettelkasten style of "second brain", I used to dump interesting things I've done or learned into my personal wiki page at work. Stuff like "awk that extracts this from that" or "3 different ways of doing X in Puppet and Ansible".

The problems I had with that was that it was located at work, so I couldn't access it easily off-line. Nor could I search and location a particular nugget of information particularly quickly. It was also separate from my daily journal.

In my current setup, my "3 different ways of doing X in Puppet and Ansible" has links to an Ansible page, a Puppet page, and more. Each of those Ansible and Puppet pages have a list of backlinks, so I now have a list of all the tickets that used Puppet or Ansible, and all the daily notes that involved those tickets. So I can spider through my second brain fairly quickly without searching. Which doesn't sound that important but if you don't know quite what you are looking for, then you can remind yourself by walking through the stuff associated with it.

Not the greatest example, sorry. But my "second brain" is still evolving and getting more useful. I'm excited to see what researchers come up with in this problem space!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I use zettr app for note taking. A private slack (with friends) for para. Took the udemy superblearning course a few years ago and picked up a lot of great tips from that too.

<comment><USER3> How do you use slack for para?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> someone who has done this over a period of years, as compared just reading a lot of books, what is the result?

</comment><comment><USER25> The only time it's acceptable to write notes directly into a book is when you're taking it into an exam. Otherwise, it's just an act of vandalism!

<comment><USER26> Can you expound more on why you think this? Do you think it's okay to write in a book you own and don't plan to get rid of?

Saying it's vandalism seems a bit extreme to me—-unless we're talking about a book borrowed from a friend or a library.

I don't really write notes in margins much anyway. It never seemed useful to me to bind my notes directly to the pages that they come from. They become too hard to find.

<comment><USER25> I think it stems from an unreasonable reverence for the printed word. You never own a book, you're just its custodian for a period of time!

I'm only really calling it vandalism with my tongue firmly in cheek–obviously anyone can do what they like with their own books :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I think it's important to be specific about the different purposes of taking notes. I tend to split it into two spectrums, the reference spectrum and the recall spectrum.

The reference spectrum ranges from looking up a small, discrete nugget of information to restoring a complex mental context. At the "small nugget" end of the spectrum could be a command line invocation for a specific task, or your mother's birthday. In my experience, search works fine for this if you put in minimal effort when recording the information.

At the "complex mental context" end of the spectrum could be a project that you were immersed in six months ago and had to set aside. Documentation for this purpose takes a lot of care; it's essentially writing for another person. If you're not careful and systematic, you can end up accidentally taking a crucial aspect of context for granted and leaving it out. To choose how to structure notes for this purpose, I think of myself as a consumer. I have a lot of experience with consuming information, and I know what I like. I don't like mind maps. I like complete sentences of clear, well-structured prose, with an occasional diagram, lightly hyperlinked where it's helpful. All I need is links, basic formatting, and occasionally embedded media.

The recall spectrum ranges from memorizing specific factoids to trying to cement more complex ideas so they're available for thought later. At the factoid end is anything that could fit on a flash card, such as the definition of a word or, whoops, my mother's birthday, which probably belongs here under recall instead of under reference! At the complex end of the recall spectrum is where I would like to put the best books I read.

Again, when taking notes for recall, I think of what helps me in my experience. I like studying Anki cards for factoid recall. For the complex end, I find the effort that is best rewarded is the work of writing straightforward, well-structured prose. It's very easy to sketch graphs and diagrams that _feel_ meaningful, but the ease is a giveaway that you aren't really mentally engaging. Writing is much harder work, because it forces you to engage with the subject in a deeper way than just splashing a vague intuition down on the page. The value is reflected in consumption: well- written prose is invaluable, while most of the images that feel like they capture part of the mental context when I have it are no help in restoring it when I don't. (Technical subjects are an outlier; diagrams are often helpful.) To be clear, since recall is the object, consumption is secondary; what is most important for me is that the act of _writing_ well-structured prose helps cement the knowledge in my mind. It's just a nice bonus that if it doesn't stick the first time, I'll have exactly the kind of notes that are good for refreshing myself later.

Maybe it's just me, but I think discussions of note-taking techniques and structures are skewed by the desire to create something visually impressive. Nobody who is a professional at communicating information to others is using these techniques. I've never heard anybody say, I need to find a mind map to improve my understanding of the French Revolution, or Franz Kafka, or Apache Kafka. Mind maps and similar techniques have been around for many decades and have yet to prove themselves as a medium for teaching or communication. I'm _very_ skeptical of the idea that they have some great yet-to-be-exploited utility for communication, and I'm also skeptical of the idea that their value for personal use vastly exceeds their value for interpersonal use. But this is subjective, and perhaps not everybody is the same as me.

<comment><USER3> I really like how you distinguish saving nuggets from complex mental constructs. That's a super valuable call out.

Regarding mind maps: I've personally found them useful for thinking in the moment and brainstorming. They were also helpful for studying for a test back when I was in school (and the concepts it had to include were limited to a single chapter)

They're definitely less useful as a way to transmit information to other people though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> emacs users check org-roam its quite nice</comment>


2005 - Paramount Said No To TrekUnited Crowdfund Campaign - <AUTHOR> http://www.trektoday.com/news/120405_02.shtml <comment><AUTHOR> Star Trek has always been a forward thinking community and back in 2005, fans tried to crowd-fund $10M to produce a 5th season of Star Trek Enterprise. $3M was put in by private donors of which one was believed to be Paul Allen.

Beyond that the crowd raised $145,000 dollars to bring the total to about $3.2M raised.

This month Veronica Mars will probably beat this amount on Kickstarter, a platform created to do just that, raise money from the crowds.

We have come a long way. On to the future..</comment>


Newbie question about Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> Hearns stated that Gavin shared the commit privileges with four others, creating a now-problematic majority-wins scenario.<p>However, I don't hear anything about Gavin not being able to appoint additional people, presumably bearing his philosphy.  Is this an official restriction or, if not, why not? <comment><USER2> Historically there have been very few people who are both qualified and willing to work on Bitcoin Core.</comment>


Show HN: Fuzz Stati0n – Type Check Un-Annotated JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://demo.fuzzstati0n.com/demo/fuzzstati0n.html <comment><AUTHOR> Founder here - Please try our auto type-annotator demo and let us know your thoughts - thank you!</comment>


Know your weaknesses as a Founder - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Sounds like good advice even if you're not a founder.</comment>


Evolution of the Corner Store - <AUTHOR> https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/9/evolution-of-the-corner-store <comment><USER2> Corner stores were an essential feature when walking proximity to your customer base was necessary, but between the economics of plopping a greyfield Walmart on a busy avenue (as in the States), or a greenfield Carrefour or Auchan on the ring road between the city and the exurbs (as in Europe), they struggle enough on their own, without zoning or the town's own planning commission being at fault.

As the article says, the decline of neighborhood shops carrying fresh produce is one of the processes by which food deserts perpetuate. But the pivot to chips and soda-selling gas stations -- where the fuel, also being a community service, is just a hook sold as a loss leader to drive traffic to high-margin drinks and snacks -- is an economic one, where the state of the emergent market rewards an establishment selling 87, cigarettes and nonperishable Coke and Lays more than one selling lettuce, tomatoes, and peaches. Towns can distort this field to try and improve local outcomes (and they probably should), but larger forces are also at play.

It could also be that some of the solutions come with new tradeoffs. Getting sustainable markets of perishable items with US innerbelt settlement patterns to compete favorably with supermarkets is probably harder, and a longer-term venture than, say, setting up a delivery service that ships subsidized, fresh foods to families in need -- but this solution doesn't do as much for community cohesion, doesn't change settlement patterns, doesn't fix market failures, and pollutes more in transport. Nonetheless, it can improve real quality of life for many people. Negotiating such tradeoffs is where interest groups begin to diverge.

</comment><comment><USER3> Something that strikes me as interesting is the /rural/ corner store. These I have seen in many small towns, they usually can make sandwiches and the like to go, but also have a deli attached to that to buy meat by the pound. They have frozen cases and dairy cases (not exhaustive but a few items) and then some basic fresh fruit (apples. Bananas, etc) and some canned goods.

Interestingly they almost all seem to have their own dvd rental service as well. Not a red box. But one actually run by them.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's surprising that a corner stor can survive on my block even though there is both a trader Joe's and a full-service grocery a block away. I guess it's relatively upscale and much faster (no waiting in line most of the time) which helps.

</comment><comment><USER5> Just to be clear, today's corner stores do not sell food. That is the problem. Sugary drinks and potato chips are not real food, they are garbage. This isn't exclusive to gas stations and other places like that. In San Francisco, it still holds. There is either no food or food of such low quality as to count as no food. I cannot go into these stores and buy a sandwich or ingredients for one nor do they have fruits or vegetables to cook a meal. Also they are overpriced and generally a ripoff that are mostly useless if your goal is to not be hungry. Like everything else in America, I'm sure there is some twisted economic explanation for this. I don't care too much because regardless of the explanation, the only way to get decent food in America is to drive a few miles and the only way to get good food, is to drive many miles. And I live in a city with a bigger city next door. This idea that we can all have walkable nice neighborhoods in America with amenities close by that this site tries to push is frankly delusional in our current economy.

<comment><USER6> The corner store by my house sells milk, eggs, frozen meals, and fruit. I've seen similar offerings at corner stores around the US. Not all of them do, but to assume they all don't is a rather ignorant approach.

<comment><USER5> So they sell ingredients for half a meal and that somehow qualifies as a grocery store that can replace supermarkets? Not to mention the quality even of these products is dubious and the price typically 2-3x. In no way can such stores sustain a community or, more important to my original point, eliminate driving to get quality food for a majority of Americans.

<comment><USER6> You can definitely make meals out of what they carry, what I listed above is not an exhaustive list.. Selection is somewhat limited, but if supermarkets went away then I'd be willing to bet they would be more than happy to pick up the slack by expanding their offerings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are a few interesting thing about corner stores.

The first is that almost none of them are owned by white Americans anymore. For whatever reason, almost every store, even out in the boondocks is owned by a person of Indian or Arab nationality. The Fox News fans will say it's because of tax exemptions rigged in their favor (I'm sure thats untrue), some will say it's the work ethic, some will say they're the only people brave enough to work at a store in a bad neighborhood. I'm sure it's a combination of the three.

Second, in the sketchy areas of bad neighborhoods, they are epicenters of crime. Gambling, drug dealing, selling stolen merchandise, drive by shootings, illegal purchasing of SNAP benefits... the stores are the first place the cops go when investigating crimes.

They basically poison the surrounding neighborhood with drugs and alcohol, I'm no Puritan but I could see it make sense to limit how many of these stores you should allow in your town.</comment>


NYC's Tech Community Is Getting a $250M Home Base at Union Square - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/3066733/fast-cities/new-york-citys-tech-community-is-getting-a-250-million-home-base-at-union-square <comment><AUTHOR> After reading the article, I have no idea what the "home base" actually is.

<comment><USER2> It's all there in the second paragraph of the article:

 _A new 254,000-square-foot project, steps from Union Square and scheduled to break ground in 2018, could change all that. Dubbed 14th @ Irving, it will feature classrooms and meeting spaces on the lower floors and flexible office space, designed for early-stage companies, spread across a dozen higher floors._

So "home base" is a 12-storey building that will be dubbed 14th @ Irving. Union Square is at 14th St. and Broadway</comment></comment>


Myths of Popular Psychology - <AUTHOR> http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-09-01/

<comment><USER2> Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1665602>

Much discussion there already.</comment>


Ask YC: Are the intern application results out? - <AUTHOR>

Re: http://blog.ycombinator.com/intern-at-a-yc-company <comment><USER2> We're sending emails out this afternoon. You should find out whether you've gotten to the next round by 5pm.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just got this email:

Hi! Thank you for applying to intern at a YC company. We wanted to let you know that your application has made it to the next round.

We sent your application to one or more YC companies we thought would be a good fit for you, and who are looking for someone with your skill set.

If the company would like to interview you, you will hear back from them within a week. Otherwise, you'll be hearing again from me.

Thanks again for applying!

\- Y Combinator Team

<comment><USER3> And I just got this email:

Thank you for applying to intern at a YC company. Unfortunately we weren't able to find a position for you this time.

Since it's our first time matching interns with YC companies, we're beta testing the program with just a small number of companies. Based on the high volume of high quality applications (over 1600) we received, we hope to expand this program in the future. We hope you'll apply again.

Rejected again. Unfortunately I don't have the prestige of MIT, Stanford, Harvard, or other top schools to carry my application through.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think school is too important. My friend and I are from the same school, I got to the next round, he didn't. (He's going to go work for Google anyway, so it doesn't matter). That being said, it probably does play _some_ factor.

<comment><USER3> What school?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> They said they'd be back by today, so I'm assuming 5pm or so. I haven't heard back either yet.

</comment><comment><USER5> Has anyone who made it to the next round been contacted by a company yet?

I haven't :(

</comment><comment><USER6> Are emails being sent out regardless of the decision?</comment>


Hybrid apps: Do not copy. Do get inspired. Avoid reimplementing native UI - <AUTHOR> http://www.makehybridapps.com/2014/06/21/do-not-copy-do-get-inspired-avoid-reimplementing-native-ui/ <comment><USER2> This "your UI shouldn't mimick [sic] the native style of the platform" advice reminds me of what we used to hear when using Java and Swing a decade ago.

It resulted in a bad user experience then, and I think that still holds true today. Swing apps never felt right on any platform, even when using a native theme. It's probably no different for apps built using Cordova, too.

<comment><USER3> This advice sounds more like sour grapes disguised as best practices. I believe a similar excuse was trotted out with Swing ("Swing is it's own platform!"). Users didn't care, they hated the non-native, slow, accessibility-unfriendly Swing apps, which they perceived as bloated and low- quality largely due to the feel.

I can't help but chuckle at the fact that we're making literally the same mistakes we made eight years ago while claiming progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Secondly, your UI shouldn't mimick the native style of the platform.

hmm..?

> After all, it's another case of copying the looks and the two reasons > mentioned earlier apply here too. It still is time-consuming and distracts > you from thinking about your user's actions.

From a development perspective this may be true, but from a usability/UX perspective, this definitely isn't. It's not just about copying.

<comment><USER5> It's one thing if you think about your users' needs and decide that copying native style is helpful. It's different if you just mimic the native style without thinking about whether it's what your users need.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I found the performance of PhoneGap still lacking. Currently, I develop a very simple app with Impact.js, which is an HTML5 game engine and can be deployed with Ejecta. However, I don't do a game, more like a calendar app.

The downside is: You can't use any HTML/CSS elements for building the UI. Because Ejecta supports only the canvas element.

The plus side is: If you manage to make a basic UI like in a "game" with canvas only, you'll get near-native performance, since Ejecta implements an OpenGL-enhanced canvas element.

<comment><USER7> The performance problems are not the fault of Cordova in the newest version which can be configured to use to the newest version of Chrome on android devices. Instead performance issues are the result of inefficiently manipulating DOM. Try famo.us with phonegap and you'll be able to overcome the performance issues you're seeing.

disclaimer: I work for famo.us, but trust me here. do a proof of concept of something with cordova and famo.us that in you prior experience was poor with just cordova alone.

<comment><USER8> Or avoid unnecessary DOM updates and use only opacity and 3D transforms in your animations to get the same performance as famo.us

<comment><USER7> Basically. Although, any way you slice it you're going to want something (famo.us, some future alternative that uses the same same techniques or your own solution that uses the same techniques), because letting the logic that manages opacity and 3D transforms to be mixed in with your app logic code is poor encapsulation. Honestly, it would be great if the browser makers realized the value of a low level scene graph API to permit people to create solid app- like experiences while also preserving semantic HTML structure within the leaves of the scene graph.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Like every tool, you need to know the pros/cons and be able to apply them to your situation. Unless your goal is to make a super simple app that has 100% coverage across all mobile devices, Phonegap shouldn't be the tool you use.

The market share of phonegap in hybrid apps is depressing to me. It's not hard to learn the Apple/Google sponsored way of doing things and then progressively decide when to bring in html/css in a webview.

I even open sourced a starting point I've used on my apps that I'm hoping will get more people to avoid using phonegap and learn iOS / Android: [http://imbed.github.io/](http://imbed.github.io/)

Refs: [http://dojo4.com/blog/why-phonegap-sucks](http://dojo4.com/blog/why- phonegap-sucks) [http://dojo4.com/blog/imbed-for- android](http://dojo4.com/blog/imbed-for-android)

<comment><USER10> Please point me to a place where I can understand how to do Objective C in a "not hard to learn" sort of way.

There is way too much going on in XCode that a web developer wouldn't get or understand without having broad strokes glossing over the Interface, file structure, or behaviors included therein.

<comment><USER7> Over and over again I keep hearing people recommend the Big Nerd Ranch guide to Objective-C. I've briefly looked at it myself, but never got into iOS development so didn't pursue it seriously. With that in mind, I found it to be a very approachable resource, but that also comes with the caveat that any way you slice it, you're going to have to become familiar with computer science and programming language concepts and "ceremony" that you previously never had to worry about with JavaScript. The notation/syntax is heavily influenced by C and C++, and its those concepts that "bog" you down until you realize their role in the code you're writing. Basically, I'm not entirely certain there is a 100% "not hard to learn" sort of way, since every resource is going to have to expose to language features where you are asking yourself "why can't this be as simple as JavaScript, the untyped/dynamic interpreted language I know and love."

<comment><USER10> While I was partially playing Devil's Advocate, I'd would definitely agree up to the point where you said JS is simple. I personally think it's awful and we should all collectively feel ashamed that Javascript tends to be the first "code" anyone dips their toe into when starting out in our field.

I've never wanted for better guides, books, and tutorials online for any of the languages I've gotten into. Specifically Golang and Java have both been much more approachable for me in recent months because I feel like I don't need a degree in rocket surgery just to open the IDE.

Maybe that's my problem. I'd rather not have to learn an IDE at the same time I'm having to learn a language. Now that I think about it, I also hated VS (but not Eclipse or the Jetbrains products).

Thanks, Doc ;) I think I just figured out my big problem!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Yes, avoid _reimplementing_ native UI.

But _use_ native UI where possible.

</comment><comment><USER12> Interesting article. I think that the slowness of webviews has much value than we can image. This guarantees to Apple, Google etc to have a total controll over apps distribution, in other words a Fast WebView is equal to minus money for them.

<comment><USER13> Not really, most editors will still want to be in the app store / play store even if they can release a pure web app. From a marketing point of view releasing "an app in appstore/play store" has a lot of value vs releasing "a mobile web app"

Also, iOS and Android since 4.4 have pretty good performances in the webviews.

<comment><USER12> the point is not the releasing to AppStore but the download from app store. You could release a webApp to appstore but not download it from the store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hybrid apps aren't production ready due to performance issues. May be weebkit was fixed in the latest build of Android 4.4, but that excludes the majority of users. The adoption of the newer builds in the android market is much slower than iOS.

Only 18% of users right now have 4.4, for comparison 14% are still using 2.3.

<comment><USER15> I would 100% disagree. The average "app" can most definitely be written in cordova / phonegap with jquerymobile / Intel App Framework or another MOBILE framework and run fine.

I've spent the last few months implementing a plain cordova app with Intel App Framework , google maps api v3, some css3 transitions, etc.

I've tested it on everything from Android 2.3.6 to 4.4, all work fine, no performance issues. Same on iOS.

Now if you are taking something you've written for a desktop (and are using desktop frameworks) or something that starts doing crazy DOM manipulation (or adds "shadow dom's", etc) then yes you might see a performance problem...

Additionally, if you are talking a physics enabled HTML5 game, that might be an issue. But a plain old app with some basic functionality will run fine. If it doesn't , YOUR doing it wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I implemented a little bit of animation and a 'native-esque' SPAM button in my app Herenow. I used css3, and to be honest, it doesn't feel quite native because the webview isn't as fast as a native control would be. Looks are easy, feel is hard.

[http://www.herenowapp.com/](http://www.herenowapp.com/)

<comment><USER17> Author of the blog post here. From my experience, achieving a native feel with a hybrid app on e.g. iOS isn't that hard. There are constraints, true. But it can be done.

My strategy is to use GPU-accelerated CSS transitions, test often on the real device and see how others are doing it, e.g. in UI frameworks (onsen ui, framework7, ratchet, etc).

<comment><USER18> Incidentally i spend the last 2 weeks going through various Android devices, and iOS devices, various javascript frameworks and various CSS frameworks.

I'm happy to see others having opinions on this subject.

Essentially i did the research for these combinations:

[Android devices]x[iOS devices]x[js frameworks]x[CSS frameworks]

It was hard and tiresome but the conclusion - same as yours - iOS works very well for cordova/phonegap. Android is a no-go!.

Among the frameworks I checked: backbone, ember, angular, ionic, topcoat and various other CSS frameworks.

All were slow on Android. Also discovered 4.4 introduces worse performance (acknowledged by google) which is solved with crosswalk. However crosswalk brings many bugs to the table itself.

Really disappointing - currently I'm opting out and going Native.

<comment><USER19> Allow me to suggest taking a look at QML/Qt Quick. I've only recently started working with it, but so far the UI performance is excellent and for someone experienced with HTML/CSS layouts and JavaScript it's quite easy to pick up. (Also, FWIW, it's more enjoyable than twiddling with CSS.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm going to go ahead and assume that most developers don't have access to the millions of dollars in market research, analytics, focus groups, design theory, etc. etc. etc. that Google and Apple do.

Why would we abandon an aesthetic (that as of the L preview) that is two of the best and cleanest looking interfaces on the planet?

</comment><comment><USER20> Implementing a pixel-perfect design in a webview-based Cordova app was a nightmare on Android 4.0—4.3. I'm glad 4.4+ has native Chromium webviews, but I wasn't advocating web-based packaged apps before and I can't see myself doing it again.

</comment><comment><USER21> Just curious, has anyone tried to use React (or Om) for their html5 mobile app?</comment>


Learning from the Earthquake (1990) - <AUTHOR> http://sb.longnow.org/SB_homepage/Earthquake_Lessons.html <comment><USER2> I remember that earthquake. I was 11, home alone, doing algebra homework on the kitchen table with the sun setting behind me. It started as a vibration that then turned to seem like gravity went sideways in a paint shaker for several minutes and the family dog went crazy. Bookshelves spilled like avalanches onto the floor. Half of the pool dumped itself into the bushes and onto the grass. The first thing I did after convincing the dog to get outside was shut off the gas to the house and that of some of the neighbors, fearing a gas explosion should any pipes have ruptured. The biggest thing I remembered was there were aftershocks all night, and we debated sleeping outside. That was one of the last earthquakes I remember in the Bay Area, the ones since were rather small and infrequent. Subsequently, all of our appliances and furniture, large and small, were bolted into studs in the wall. Big, TV-style computer monitors were held down by industrial Velcro.

More recently, I assembled for my mom a trauma kit with woundseal, quikclot and a tourniquet with a metal windlass; I always have mine in the car, readily accessible.

</comment><comment><USER3> Gripping stuff. I want to believe I'd have been one of the people helping, but how can I know without having been there?

Side note, it's depressing how weird it is to see an article like this with no ads, no sidebars, no UI at all except for six terse links at the very top. I can't remember the last time I read something online where the bottom of the content was also the bottom of the page.

</comment><comment><USER4> Everyone in earthquake country -- or indeed anywhere a major disaster could strike -- needs to read this piece.

Lives would be saved.

<comment><USER5> Only if some action happens after reading - assemble an earthquake kit, get CPR certified, join your local CERT. I think one of the things that did happen after this (starting after the LA fires in the 90's) was the idea of training Community Emergency Response Teams. I volunteer at my local one and we do quarterly classes as well as a drill. It's well worth checking out.

My own 89 earthquake story is not so traumatic - I walked from downtown to ocean beach along Geary, and all the Irish bars were giving away free beer. Could see the smoke from the Marina but had no idea of the terrible things happening over there.</comment></comment>


Now set timer on Google.com - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+10+seconds

<comment><USER2> Nice, timers are always handy. Some things I noticed:

* Shortcuts: hr min sec

* Supports countdown or clock: timer 10 sec, timer 14:00

* Clock mode supports am/pm and 24hr format: timer 2pm

* Set a bookmark for a 10 second timer: [https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+10+sec](https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+10+sec)

* Timer stops beeping after about 30 seconds

* If you try to close or navigate away from the page while a timer is active, you will be warned that timer will be stopped

</comment><comment><USER3> Google may redirect you to an other local than english in wich this function doesn't seem to work. With this link you enforce the english local: [https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+10+seconds&hl=en](https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+10+seconds&hl=en)

</comment><comment><USER4> It kind of screws with my timezone. It's 5:50pm and if I query for "timer 6pm" it'll set up a timer for 2 hours and 10 minutes instead of just 6 minutes. Does anyone experience this? Is there a way to set my timezone?

</comment><comment><USER5> Real cool, it's actually useful when you query it like this: "timer 16:40". Way to go Google.

</comment><comment><USER6> And it sounds just like my nexus 7 timer.

Google - it's the little things.

<comment><AUTHOR> Said it true. Same sound in my Nexus 4.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Nice!

</comment><comment><USER8> It does not work for me :( I see nothing special

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you using it on google.com or some other domain ?

I think it works only on .com and in chrome.

<comment><USER9> It works on Firefox (using the Nightly build 25.0a1).</comment></comment></comment>


Antergos Linux Project Ends - <AUTHOR> https://antergos.com/blog/antergos-linux-project-ends/ <comment><USER2> This makes me sad, but not completely unexpected. I worked on Antergos a while early on and had a lot of fun. That said, at least 2 of the core devs went more or less MIA for months at a time as they got busy with life, counting myself. My hats off to the team but specifically Gustau and Dustin, who trudged along the entire journey through the years. Seriously great developers to work with.

As an aside, I just checked the geolocation server I'd setup for the installer.

03:14:51 up 1357 days, 3:43, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05

It's been up 4 years continuously on a Scaleway ARM box. I can't recommend them enough for such projects.

<comment><USER3> Does that mean part of your infrastructure saw no kernel patches in 4 years?

OS uptime gave me pride in the 90s. Today it's usually a bad sign.

<comment><USER4> Is live kernel patching not commonly used these days?

<comment><USER3> Not really. It's technically possible with Ksplice, but almost no distro actually supports it.

Beyond the kernel, you have various libs and binaries that will be replaced during upgrades. All can usually/mostly be restarted without a reboot, but just upgrading packages alone won't guarantee all running processes have been updated.

<comment><USER5> > but almost no distro actually supports it

Ubuntu supports it officially, so does Fedora. From my experience it works more or less fine on CentOS, so probably RHEL too. For Suse there is kGraft, so basically >90% of install base supports live patching.

<comment><USER6> > Ubuntu supports it officially

I don't think it's part of the usual Ubuntu distro. I understood you need to register to get it. And it's free (as in beer) only for limited use cases. Don't remember the details.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have been using antergos for over 4 years, having dual booted it on with windows on 3 different computers. I always liked the fact that it took just 15-20 minutes for me to start working.

Arch purists may scoff on these spin offs, but they miss the point. The appeal was that even though I know how to set up arch on my own, it takes about 2 hours or so. Setting up nvidia was also a pain. With antergos, you can just sit back, and get a nice working system quickly.

Will definitely miss it

<comment><USER8> Maybe Manjaro fits the bill?

[https://manjaro.org/](https://manjaro.org/)

I never used Antergos but last I used Manjaro it seemed pretty good.

Personally, I'm looking to see concepts like GuixSD and NixOS be extended and remixed. I'm imagining a world where you have a control panel that changes declarative settings then commits them by rebuilding the system...

<comment><USER9> Manjaro is fine, but I preferred Antergos because it used the Arch Linux packages, meaning I always had the latest ones. AFAIK, Manjaro is behind by like a month? In which case, why even bother with rolling release?

<comment><USER10> > _used the Arch Linux packages, meaning I always had the latest ones._

This is provably false, as I can witness from my recent experience where Arch has 14 month old, long superseded, version of a package, while other Linux distros (including Manjaro, but also Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, openSuse, etc.) use the most/more recent version.

\----

> _AFAIK, Manjaro is behind by like a month? In which case, why even bother > with rolling release?_

Even if this were true (and it isn't, see the sibling comment), I've seen responses like yours and I don't understand them.

Where would you draw the line when it comes to rolling? You say that one month behind is too long. Is 2 weeks ok? One week? 3 days? 1 day? 12 hours? Why does it even matter?

To answer you from my perspective:

I "bother" with Manjaro because I like the rolling distro philosophy, but I also value stability. If those two weeks of delay will bring me packages which are better tested and more stability overall - I'm all for it.

Oh and I don't even update as soon as an update hits the stable channel, I regularly decide to wait at least a day or two to see if others have any problems with the update.

For other people, who are more impatient (and more adventurous), Manjaro offers two other channels: testing and unstable.

<comment><USER11> > This is provably false, as I can witness from my recent experience where > Arch has 14 month old, long superseded, version of a package, while other > Linux distros (including Manjaro, but also Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, openSuse, > etc.) use the most/more recent version.

Would you mind telling us what package that is?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's a picture-perfect exit. They have honestly disclosed the reasons and, most importantly, the continuance plan for loyal users. It's a shame they shined the brightest at the end.

</comment><comment><USER13> After this, is manjaro the only wizard I can point people towards for arch? (If you can call it that)

Edit: found this script at least. [https://github.com/MatMoul/archfi](https://github.com/MatMoul/archfi)

<comment><USER14> There is also ArcoLinux.

<comment><USER13> Thanks a lot, I didn't know about this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As a long time Arch user, what's the attraction to these spinoffs?

Seems to me they are mainly pitching being easier to install, but the Arch installer (or lack thereof) is perfectly fine in my opinion. You get the benefit of understanding a little better how your system is installed as well.

<comment><USER16> One reason is that I learned how to install a system that way with Gentoo 15 years ago and I don't need to learn it again now. It's still a slow process even when you know what you're doing (though I still usually do it the slow way)

<comment><USER15> I, too learned how to Linux with Gentoo ~20 years ago, and while that semi- from-scratch approach still appeals to me, Arch 2019 is not Gentoo 2002.

I find myself doing an Arch install once a year or so, and I'd say it takes about 20 minutes to get to my prefered desktop from completely un-initialized hardware - I remember Gentoo taking days!

<comment><USER17> The complexity of installing Gentoo is the same as Arch, the only thing that slow downs the process for Gentoo was compiling all the packages. 2002 CPU speeds wasn't helping either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is for me huge news... I think of Antergos very fondly. I donated when I first installed it and was constantly amazed by it.

Showing Antergos off at work, people was also impressed and almost everyone on the team switched to Antergos from Ubuntu (and this is no small feat). It lowered the entry bar into arch without lowering quality and this is something that is really valuable. It made switching to an arguably a better distro for development (latest packages, the vast aur repository, incredible Arch wiki support...) time-effective: where before I couldn't imagine myself as SysOps recommending arch to the frontent designer, now I can just go "oh, try this, installation is almost as easy as Ubuntu".

I had a small share of grief with Antergos too. With my laptop I had to disable "nouveau" drivers so that I could boot to a stable installation environment using Nvidia 150M GPU and upgrading my home setup to Nvidia from a Radeon GPU killed my previous arch installation and now it won't boot from their live iso.

But what it enabled me to do at work, prompting this switch from ubuntu to arch, is something I can't measure in value. I would love to be able to maintain this project (is it open for public fork?), but I have neither time (maybe a workday a week) nor the preparation to do so, and the community would also have to create momentum in the direction of adopting this project...

Anyway this is sad, but in no way I could hang this over antergos team's heads. I can only be grateful and wish them good luck in their lives, they deserve all the internets they can get.

</comment><comment><USER19> Manually installing and managing Archlinux years ago was the best Linux tutorial I could have asked for.

Before switching to Archlinux I started with Ubuntu and other Debian based distros. The problem with using those is that it wraps many things in nice automated packages and scripts and you don't learn much. And understanding how Linux works can be quite useful at times.

<comment><USER18> That is unfortunately not scalable. It is nice to have for example a team of devs using the same distro. It makes it easier to help one another, debug the system and install packages. I at work couldn't have prompted the team's switch from ubuntu to arch without Antergos. It basically made widespread adoption of Arch with little compromises possible.

<comment><USER19> If your team is not ready to deal with the occasional problems that come from using Archlinux then just stick to Ubuntu. It is perfectly usable distribution and you can always get the latest development software using custom repos, Snap packages or even running it from some Archlinux lxc container.

<comment><USER18> I am ready to support their installations, I do it happily. I just can't justify wasting a couple of hours every time I need a fresh install just to get the bare os up and running.

Automation is something good!

I can't really recommend Ubuntu for for teams that are experimenting with tools. Lots of tools can't be installed with apt and therefore have to be updated manually. Arch with yay is convenient enough to justify base system setup automation.

Also, I stay away from snap whenever possible. I have seen several tools I use (ripgrep for instance) pulling support from snap that makes me uneasy using it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Funnily enough I almost installed Antergos a couple weeks ago but then decided to subject myself to the full fat command line Arch install instead.

</comment><comment><USER21> Thanks to antegros my life changed for the better now it will go away, i'd rather the maintainers offered a subscription for distros just so they can maintain quality distributions over donations.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's a shame to see it go. I never used it, but the fact that it used vanilla Arch packages under the hood was certainly preferable to Manjaro's "don't call it Arch" approach.

I worked on a similar "batteries included" distro based on Fedora that shut down. Fortunately, by the time it ended Fedora had come a long way towards making initial setup easier for newcomers, and our distro was mostly redundant sans a few extra packages and theming.

On the other hand, Arch still lacks a friendly installer.

<comment><USER17> Antergos was pretty much friendly installer of Arch. They was just packaging all Arch goodies in user friendly box. Despite the fact that I don't like Arch I liked the idea of Antergos and was checking it every once in a while to check what has changed in Arch world.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Funnily enough, distrowatch.com have already removed Antergos from their list. And looks like acrolinux has climbed up a little to 18th spot.

I personally will be still using Antergos for a little while longer. Then trying out arcolinux.

</comment><comment><USER23> So sad to read this.

Been using antergos on my pc and laptop for couple of years now, best distro I've used.

Is manjaro now the only alternative for a simple arch setup?

</comment><comment><USER24> Very sad to hear this. Not sure where I will go from here. I used to live vanilla Arch (and still do on small servers), but once I found Antergos 5+ years ago there was no turning back. Soon I have another look at manjaro or arco perhaps.

</comment><comment><USER25> I have really grown to like Antergos over the last two years. Deepin on Antergos comes the closest to a Linux that is so polished out of the box that it exceeds Windows / Linux in visual and product polish.

<comment><USER26> Try OpenSuse, their KDE environment has an excellent level of polish.

<comment><USER25> I have, Deepin is on another level - trust me!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Sad times :( Was my first dive into arch and I enjoyed most of the journey.

</comment><comment><USER28> Ahhh can the installer perhaps be merged into Arch? I know and love kiss but the installer is super nice!

</comment><comment><USER29> Impossible to read/scroll on my Android phone

</comment><comment><USER30> That's a pitty. The perfect distro for me.

</comment><comment><USER31> Damn, I just installed it 2 days ago.

What should I switch to?

<comment><USER32> You don't need to. As they describe in a blog post, it essentially turns into plain Arch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Wow sad to hear, glad I chose Manjaro.

</comment><comment><USER34> nothing will be missed some dude will fork it in his basement since it does not come with some tool he wants and he will make his own to show the world he is elite!

</comment><comment><USER35> Oh God, now I'll have to fall back on one of the 10 other Arch distros!

</comment><comment><USER36> I've never quite understood the allure of wanting to reinvent the wheel by creating a "distribution." There was one time where the Linux kernel did not support enough abstraction or a project was brought under some less open licensing that these niche "OSes" made sense. I would much rather see less package managers rolling other projects' packages and more unity on a single declarative platform. Today it's systemd vs SystemV, apt vs yum vs pacman vs... ad-infinitum. The Linux kernel is finally at a point where not every snowflake needs to be made. I'm waiting for the day where the concept of a distribution is rightfully pedantic. Maybe by then we may have a real shot at Linux on the desktop. A collection of packages not an OS does make.

<comment><USER37> Distributions were never meant to describe distinct OSs. The term literally describes a collection of packages: or "distribution of packages" to be more precise ;)

The point of distros was never about a limitation of abstraction at the kernel level. It was about different ways of packaging or user space tools; or about what tools came pre-configured as part of that particular package of Linux+tools. This is as true in the very early days of Slackware and Debian as it is now.

Personally I like the variety out there, I call it "choice". I don't like Ubuntu Desktop - I'm not taking anything away from those who do but it's just not a platform I feel at home on. If the choice were "Ubuntu or nothing" then I'd probably be running FreeBSD. But because we have choice it means I can run whatever opinionated flavour of Linux I want and you can run whatever opinionated flavour you want - even if our opinions differ - and thus we all still run Linux.

The whole "Linux on the desktop" argument doesn't make much sense anymore. We now have WSL, Chromebooks, Netbooks, Android tablets and GNU user space tools that run on OSX via homebrew and/or Docker. Not to mention various hardware vendors who do take Linux compatibility seriously on their laptops (even if they may not always ship Linux "out of the box"). Plus many of everyday GUI tools we use these days are now web applications because of how platform agnostic the wider computing landscape has become. So while we haven't seen a surge of GNU/Linux desktops in the traditional Windows sense, I do think Linux / open source has already won in terms of breaking up the Microsoft monopoly.</comment></comment>


HTML5 on Android Samsung Galaxy Tab "disappointing" vs Apple iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/11/html5_on_android_samsung_galaxy_tab_disappointing_vs_apple_ipad.html

<comment><USER2> I realise that defaults matter, but at least with Android you can install another browser. Opera mobile scores 100% on acid3.

<comment><USER3> You can install Firefox too.

I've often wondered whether Android's default browser (MicroB) being bundled with the OS will prove to be a blessing or a curse. It's nice that it's always there and loads quickly due to WebKit being a part of the OS, but as part of the OS it's subject to the OS's release cycle, which is in the hands of the carriers and we all know how that tends to play out on Android. With a browser from the Android Market, users get updates much faster, and that's a tremendous advantage over MicroB, which, depending on the device and carrier, may not get updates at all.

<comment><USER2> Can you? I looked for it but couldn't find it on the Market. (EDIT: Found it on the site). As for the browser being bundled in the OS, it's probably both, since users will need a good browser (which webkit is), but they can install their own if necessary (although we know how likely that is to happen).

I hope we could do the best of both worlds and make the browser a separate app that got updates from the market, like Maps, Gmail, etc, but still run webkit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "When queried in landscape mode, the Galaxy reports a screen.width of 683px and screen.height of 334px. Since the actual device resolution offers 1024×600, it's giving us a 1.5× ratio of device to CSS pixels."

I'm interested if this is because the browser app runs with default support for all screens. I wonder if you built an app that supported large/high- density screens and used a webview if you'd get the same scaling or if it would give you 1:1. I'll have to look into that.

</comment><comment><USER5> It remains incredibly disappointing that Android still doesn't support SVG (including in 2.3), however I discount this article immediately as it comes from AppleInsider. It's like listening to Gruber talk about Android.

Though what's the deal with the caption on the SunSpider benchmark (the one where they don't note that smaller=better): They say that "iOS takes advantage of the GPU as well, so scores here do not reflect actual performance".

What? The GPU has zero relevance to base JavaScript performance, and that aside is idiocy.

<comment><USER6> The review is by Javascript library company Sencha. Who can talk about cross browser js compat than the company that has handful of JS libraries that are expected to work across browsers and devices?

The website on which the news was posted may have an Apple bias, but the reviewer doesn't.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, Sencha did this to get their name out there. Not really sure why they are necessary, though, given that ACID scores, HTML5 test results, and performance numbers are known by everyone.</comment></comment></comment>


Google Wave Preview - <AUTHOR> http://wave.google.com/ <comment><USER2> The first page gives the impression that there is nothing there, but if you follow the links there is quite a bit, including an opportunity to play in the sandbox. It looks like it's the next generation beyond iGoogle and OpenSocial. The emphasis seems to be on social networking and collaboration, but I didnt dig deep enough to see whether it is a true collaboration tool or just a platform for managing tweets and multiplayer games. Since there are API's and bits and pieces can be embedded in a website or application, there are probably entrepreneurial opportunities.

<comment><USER3> Probably move Orkut over also...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks great for more social people. But, like Knuth, I prefer to stay on the bottom of things, not on top of them.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm very glad they're moving beyond Gmail and doing some real innovation, but honestly I think one of the best features about email is that it isn't just like IM.

That's why we use IM for some things, and email for others... not just because people aren't on IM when we want to write them.

The smart embedding is interesting though.

<comment><USER6> I too like the differences between email and instant messaging. I don't _want_ convergence. I want people to choose an appropriate channel for communicating with me. I want phone calls to interrupt me (unless I'm ignoring them), texts to interrupt me in a lightweight, ignorable way, IMs to interrupt me in a less-ignorable way _when I'm logged in_ , and email to be ignorable until I check my email. Colleagues know I check my work email pretty consistently when I'm working and not at all otherwise. My friends have a rough idea when I check my personal email, but they know I'm inconsistent.

I like that each mode of communication has a different flavor. You can't unify chat and email because the etiquette and expectations are different. An email means something different from an IM that contains the same content.

<comment><USER5> Exactly what I was thinking but more eloquent :)

I think most people will agree with us on this, too, even if they don't articulate it - they may not be able to because they never considered this kind of hybridization. I think people will say "it feels wrong" or just "lol wave sux." Or it will just generally

There is a real place for large, threaded, time-delayed packets of info. Email is great for this in many ways. I want to see innovation that expands on email's strengths.</comment></comment></comment>