Ask HN: Making an all-in-one startup kit, tell me what you think? - <AUTHOR> Hi guys,
I've been using a level-based system I created to teach Lean Startup in small steps and based on feedback have been exploring making it into a DIY kit.
What do you think of the concept? Why would you or wouldn't you use something like this?
Does the site clearly tell you what the box does?
www.idealevels.com <comment><USER2> It's still not very clear what the kit includes.

My guess is that this will appeal more to wantrepreneurs, if at all.

By the nature of startups, there can be no levels to build a startup.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. The levels relate to the Lean Startup process e.g. Document your best plan, validate the plan, run experiments, launch a minimum viable product etc.

It's really more of a straight forward way to follow the prescribed process faster and easier without getting overwhelmed or off track.</comment></comment>


How corporates co-opted mindfulness to make us bear the unbearable (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/how-corporates-co-opted-the-art-of-mindfulness-to-make-us-bear-the-unbearable-47768 <comment><USER2> If it can be sold and used as a tool for subjugation humans will quickly determine and optimize the ways in which to do so.

That's the beauty of capitalism--or possibly even economics in general--it acknowledges and respects nothing that falls outside of its own scope. No matter how ancient, sophisticated, sacred, or meaningful a practice may have been--no matter what reverence our ancestral betters may have applied to it, capitalism will find the most effective way to utilize it as a strictly economic material and convert it into profit. For the true capitalist there is no extra or supra-capitalism. Capitalism envelops the world. It swallows and defuses all meaning and translates it into the small subset of meanings it understands. All is reduced to pure economic terms--it is no longer a question of interfacing with the practices of your ancestors, respecting history or engaging in spiritual practice--the meditation is only understood and useful insofar as it has an assignable quantity related to productive increase or related directly to profit.

I can at least take some comfort in the fact that articles like this still crop up and call the beast into question.

<comment><USER3> So corporations find that mentally healthy employees are more productive/valuable so they promote mental fortitude. Somehow anti-capitalists spin even that into some deep evil. Ridiculous.

<comment><USER4> The point is that corporations encourage mental health only inasmuch as it promotes their own ends.

<comment><USER5> At least they're promoting mental health! If there is a natural law then what is in the best interest of the worker is in the best interest of lawful business. And since anything that goes against the natural law ultimately destroys itself, as Aquinas explains, a lawful business is the only kind of business you want.

<comment><USER6> Sorry, but that's total bullshit. The promotion of mental health stretches only to those with mostly-good mental health. A true focus on mental health is severely deprioritized in the workplace for legitimate mental health problems. Which, go figure - only makes mental health issues even worse.

<comment><USER5> Yes, perhaps this result can pave the way for a broader focus.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I used to teach meditation and yoga for a while. One of my teachers said that meditation should make you less resilient to stress and make you realize that need to change your life. So if someone credits their material success to meditation it's best to view this as an abuse or misunderstanding of the practice.

It took me a while to accept but now I agree with this viewpoint.

<comment><USER8> _One of my teachers said that meditation should make you less resilient to stress and make you realize that need to change your life. So if someone credits their material success to meditation it 's best to view this as an abuse or misunderstanding of the practice._

That doesn't sound accurate. Are you suggesting that one would be less resilient to stresses linked to livelihood or stress in general?

Over time meditation and yoga practices should help develop equanimity extensively, a factor that helps deal with stressful situations with more grace and emotional balance.

<comment><USER9> One thing I've never quite understood - if you are teaching yourself to become more equanimous how do you avoid becoming less concerned about the things that really matter also?!

<comment><USER7> Equanimity doesn't have to be numbness. You can be very passionate about something and still being calm.

<comment><USER10> I had a boss who didn't understand the difference between panic and urgency. Every 'pep talk' he tried to give us turned into a short day and drinks after work because we were so depressed or freaked out.

If your friend falls in the water or is about to be hit by a bus, getting excited about it doesn't help anybody. You have do something, and quickly, but with purpose and reason.

<comment><USER7> I think a lot of people think it's good to be super excited about everything. You have to be outraged, really angry, deeply offended and whatever. Everything has to be amplified to the extreme.

<comment><USER9> I agree. I should move to Finland, I gather they are more sanguine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 'The current translations of ancient mindful practices are also highly gendered. In a culture where women are much more likely to be encouraged to apply acceptance, silence, stillness and the relinquishing of resistance to their problems, the trap of mindfulness can be set to stun for those who may be much more in need of speaking up, resisting and taking space in the workplace.'

This seems completely back to front to me. Surely it's men that have greater societal expectations of stoicism, toughness etc. than women, and fewer options for social support. I'm sure we all know about higher rates of suicide in men. These are often linked to the types of pressures I mention.

Apart from that I generally agree that this trend is pretty insidious. One of their latest wheezes is 'resilience', which from my reading boiled down to 'hey there x, what's your major malfunction that you can't cope with the soul destroying drudgery and corporate psychopathy like y? Perhaps you should read our piece about resilience to learn how to become a good drone again. We wouldn't want to have to lose you would we?'.

<comment><USER11> I'd like to hear more about it, but maybe there is too much content behind it for the editorial. Are women more likely to accept a bad work environment? Are women more likely to be encouraged to keep quiet? Is being encouraged to keep quiet more likely to be effective on women than men?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> > "If we truly become mindful of our existence then our recurrent anxieties > become not just a wave we watch pass through our minds, not something to be > mastered in order to be a better servant, but a call to take action in order > to be more fully alive."

Agreed. The whole point behind meditation and mindfulness is to create a more well rounded spiritual life/existence. Not to ignore the things that cause you distress or pain, but to identify them clearly and untangle issues to figure out how to get past them.

My current company offers a whole slew of "wellness programs" \- yoga, meditation, running clubs, etc. Great in theory, but they all take place during "lunch break", are limited to 20 mins or so, and charge (albeit, a small fee). None of these, I believe, are to benefit the lives of the employees but to create a sense of "forward thinking" in the company to encourage productivity.

Want my stress and anxieties to disappear at work and get me to be more productive? Pay more and ask for less working hours.

<comment><USER7> Yep. That why I wouldn't teach meditation in a corporate setting. It's just window dressing without any real intent of making people's lives better.

<comment><USER13> As the teacher, couldn't you have taught it in a way to make people's lives better?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Yep, just how antidepressant manufactures co-opted research on social dominance to reverse some of the biochemical changes that happen when you are "ground down like a minion".

<comment><USER15> Do you have a source for that? Or something I can read further?

<comment><USER16> Of course not

<comment><USER14> Of course:

[https://innermammalinstitute.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/10/...](https://innermammalinstitute.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/10/Serotonin-and-Social-Dominance-Citations.pdf)

[http://www.ulm.edu/~palmer/TheBiochemistryofStatusandtheFunc...](http://www.ulm.edu/~palmer/TheBiochemistryofStatusandtheFunctionofMoodStates.htm)

I thought everybody knew this.

<comment><USER13> Most people think depression is caused by, "an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain", and don't know much else about it.

Thanks for the papers, they're interesting and I hadn't seen all of that research, despite being somewhat familiar with the field.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> While there is truth to that, mindfulness provides the basis for authentic expression of the natural self. And often times, that will mean GTFO of an abusive situation.

How you know whether it really is authentic and not simply a story is that it arises naturally, spontaneously, and effortless. It will have a "deep" marker to it. There is an active test you can apply: try to poke at the action. If it resists, comes up with any excuses, rationalizations, or justifications in order to stay attached to it, then it is still a story, albeit, coming from a very deep place inside of it.

If in poking it, it stays silent and it feels like it is expressed _unsupported_ by any narrative, then that is coming from your authentic self. In other words, it doesn't need your approval or disapproval, or anyone else's, including social norms and corporate policy.[1]

Note: the Buddhist notions don't have a notion of "true self" (or rather, it moves from "no self" -> "true self" -> "no self"). I'm drawing from classical, transcendental non-dual Shaiva Tantra[2] (which inspired and cross-polinated with tantric Buddhist), and it goes with "true self" -> "no self" -> "true self".

The point of mindfulness is _your_ freedom and _your_ state of mind. It's fine if you are inspired to practice it because corporations made space for it (or more cynically, make you do it in order to tolerate bad situations). Your mind is your own, whether you want to be happy or miserable. There _are_ people who will mindfully tolerate bad working conditions as expressed from their authentic self ... and there are many others who won't. You won't know until you have cleared enough of your own obscurations to find out.

[1] The followup is: in tantra, someone's natural, authentic self may be an asshole. If you don't like what your natural, authentic self is, tantra provides the tools for transformation into a different natural, authentic self. However, it is not as simple as changing the narrative, since a change in narrative is merely a change in narrative and not a change in your natural, authentic self.

[2] Christopher Wallis. Tantra Illuminated

</comment><comment><USER18> Interesting take. I could paraphrase this as a response to this sort of strawman, "It sucks that we have to pay [for xyz necessity], wait [in traffic for abc experience], and accept [toxic influencers on your life], but thats just part of the human experience".

I think its an acceptable strawman, as often we do need to remind ourselves that, "No one but me is actually forcing me to [live here / work here / see these people ]".

</comment><comment><USER19> I would say that most institutions that exist for moral edification -- religions, Boy Scouts, civic clubs -- do essentially the same thing which is align the attitudes of the weaker to the benefit of the stronger.

<comment><USER20> Much the same way that popular media has sold socially-acceptable prepackaged rebellion for the mollification of disgruntled adolescents (and adolescents- at-heart) for decades...

<comment><USER21> >socially-acceptable prepackaged rebellion

I am having a hard time coming up with an example of this.

<comment><USER22> Wild hair, Hot Topic, believing in politics contrary to the area you're in.

It's rebellion, but acceptable compared to bombing state offices or somesuch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This article is from 2015...shouldn't the HN entry be preceded with a (2015) (what are the rules/guidelines on that ?)</comment>


Generative Art in HTML5 Canvas - <AUTHOR> https://color-wander.surge.sh/ <comment><AUTHOR> Here is a blog post about this demo – [https://mattdesl.svbtle.com/generative- art-with-nodejs-and-c...](https://mattdesl.svbtle.com/generative-art-with- nodejs-and-canvas)

And source code – [https://github.com/mattdesl/color- wander](https://github.com/mattdesl/color-wander)

<comment><USER2> Thanks for sharing! This implicitly answered my question about how you made the particles behave like they do:

> The rendering algorithm is a re-hash of an old approach I detailed in a blog > post, Generative Impressionism. Simplex noise is used to drive the > particles, which are sometimes reset to a new random position. Each particle > is rendered as a small line segment in the direction of its velocity. The > scale of the noise is randomized so that some lines curl tightly, while > others head straight.

PS: The distortion map is a really neat trick by the way, I'm going to play with that in some next project!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I highly recommend any developer to find a creative coding library and play around. For JS there is P5.js and Processing.js and countless others. For Clojure and Clojurescript there is Quil. Java has Processing, and for C++ there is Open Frameworks.

<comment><USER4> Any more recommendations for visually interesting JavaScript? I have a kid who is tired of the "just boring text" of Python assignments (things like Project Euler) and wants to start using JavaScript (he can already do static HTML & CSS, but wants to bring it to life with JS), so he can "see cool stuff".

He's already had enough of Scratch, and I don't want a Python graphics library, because it's time for him to add JavaScript to his toolbox (in addition to Python, not instead). He's very artistic (his Photoshop work is amazing), and we both want him to spend the upcoming summer using artistic projects as a vehicle for learning JavaScript programming.

I'll check out P5.js and Processing.js. Any other suggestions or ideas?

<comment><USER5> I echo the other voices saying canvas and pure JS (or, in my case, CoffeeScript or ClojureScript). The canvas API is extremely intuitive — aside from the boilerplate setup, perhaps — and you can make some really neat things with it very quickly.

The home page for my personal site has a starfield made entirely with canvas: [http://ivanish.ca](http://ivanish.ca) — best to view in a dark room so you can see all the pseudo-nebulae.

Source code (if it helps): [https://github.com/ivanreese/ivanish/blob/master/source/scri...](https://github.com/ivanreese/ivanish/blob/master/source/script/stars.coffee)

You might also want to consider Elm, but I have very little first-hand experience with it: [http://elm-lang.org](http://elm-lang.org)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Nice! It reminds me a lot of my own little playthings[0], except more polished.

Do you also use a feedback cycle based on velocity/acceleration/snap combined with randomization to get smooth-but-unpredictable paths?[1]

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seEkX1sSk50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seEkX1sSk50)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLISmtaa5b0&t=6m53s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLISmtaa5b0&t=6m53s) (shitty video I recorded as extra material for a design class I taught)

</comment><comment><USER5> I used to make a ton of these sorts of art generators! I love seeing this stuff. Thank you for posting this.

When Flash died off, it took with it a wonderful environment for creating generative/interactive art. Even though we've had the (limited but approachable) canvas API these past few years, I feel like we're only now starting to see a resurgence in the generative web art space. Flash had a wonderful collection of composable filters that were a gentler form of fragment shaders — absolutely battery-melting, but gorgeous and powerful. A small step toward GL, much easier to get into than ShaderToy, more approachable than Max/MSP/Jitter even. I'm glad Flash died, but I'm sad that nothing has sprung up and improved on it since. Perhaps it's time for the second coming of HyperCard.

If anyone's curious, here's one of mine: [http://ivanish.ca/toy/eigenvectors/](http://ivanish.ca/toy/eigenvectors/) — Flash required, natch.

</comment><comment><USER6> The colors are really good! I was hoping they were generated as well, but apparently they're just the top 200 palettes from ColourLovers.com.

<comment><USER7> Ha, I was wondering how every palette looked way too good to be random. Still, I wonder what one could do with a deep learning algorithm on ColourLovers' dataset.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm a little confused about system resources use. Does this put load on the browser (user's machine) or the server. Also, could this (reasonably) be used on a site to generate a dynamic image with each visit? Would that be too "heavy" for a site.

<comment><USER9> It has a browser component and a node component. The browser component does the animation that's being drawn here, and it's entirely computed within the browser.

There is an alternative feature to do this on the server side in order to generate images or videos, but that is not what is showcased here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> source Matt DesLauriers [https://github.com/mattdesl/color- wander](https://github.com/mattdesl/color-wander)

</comment><comment><USER11> On Chrome, I see nice random images being created. In Firefox, I see only the image that is used as a guide.

<comment><USER12> Hmm... works for me.

FF 46.0.1, Win 10

<comment><USER11> It does for me now, too. I assume the creator fixed it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is this a stand alone JS lib or does this require node as well?

<comment><USER14> It requires node, image generation is done on the server, then streamed down to the browser

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually - the browser demo is just using plain HTML and frontend JavaScript.

The node part is only for generating higher resolution prints, offline (no server). :)

<comment><USER14> cool :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Australian ISPs block 4chan, Liveleak, others - <AUTHOR> https://www.sbs.com.au/news/telcos-block-access-to-websites-continuing-to-host-christchurch-terror-footage <comment><USER2> This is insane and asinine. No good can come from arbitrarily blocking websites; doubly so if it concerns perfectly legitimate websites visited by millions of people.</comment>


[WordPress THEME] Semantic UI for WordPress - <AUTHOR> This project incorporates Semantic UI into a starter (aka developer) theme for WordPress. This project also includes some useful techniques for creating fast, responsive, and easy-to-maintain themes for WordPress. Please keep in mind this theme is meant to be developed for your specific application; and is not meant to be used "as-is." <comment><AUTHOR> Demo: [http://semantic-wordpress.gopagoda.io/](http://semantic- wordpress.gopagoda.io/)

Download: [https://github.com/ProjectCleverWeb/Semantic-UI- WordPress](https://github.com/ProjectCleverWeb/Semantic-UI-WordPress)</comment>


Some things I've learnt about writing - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jgc.org/2012/07/some-things-ive-learnt-about-writing.html?repost-200-days-ago#4239244

<comment><AUTHOR> Trending today: Writing is hard, so do it <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5133906>

Original discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4239244> (recommendations of ~8 books on writing style)</comment>


Blloc – minimalist smartphone - <AUTHOR> https://www.blloc.com/ <comment><USER2> So, I'll give some unsolicited recommendations for your website, regarding accessibility:

\- The contrast between the body text and background is to low; it makes it difficult for people with visual impairments to use the website.

\- Font size and font weight, the font is too thin and adding this to the low color contrast, it makes it even more difficult to read.

\- Images that don't add meaning (textually) to the page, e.g., the logos you use on the "Agile and precise" section. It's a good idea to add `aria- hidden="true"` so they don't "distract" screen readers.

\- Also, several images don't have their alt tag, which describes the image to screen readers.

\- I can't navigate your website with my keyword.

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but your company builds assistive technology--yes, a phone is an assistive device--so it makes sense that you take care of your primary point of sales, your website, and make it _accessible_ to everybody.

<comment><USER3> thx for taking the time, will consider the feedback in our re-launch (we were working already on making our pos better) this thread took us by surprise while reworking it

<comment><USER4> Some even blunter unsolicited feedback: test your website with about:config javascript.enabled = false. thinkxl has the right idea here. Edit: also, I just realized I'm agreeing with a social justice warrior about something; I'm not sure whether to feel disgust or vindication; I'll probably go with novelty.

<comment><USER5> > I just realized I'm agreeing with a social justice warrior about something

Why are you accusing thinkxl of being a "social justice warrior" and why, exactly do you feel that that undermines your agreement? Is website usability a liberal ideology? Lacking any actual justification your edit feels very out of place on hn.

<comment><USER4> Actually, I was referring to [https://sonniesedge.co.uk/posts/progressive- enhancement](https://sonniesedge.co.uk/posts/progressive-enhancement), who literally self-identifies as a "whiney SJW feminist fuck" in the first paragraph. And it's less "undermines my agreement" and more "Eww, I'm on the same side of this argument as such-and-such evil person; please don't assume this means I agree with them about anything else.". I'd go back and clarify, but the edit window is over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Any other details about the OS? Is it an Android? How are the applications managed and what's their update pipeline? Are they whitelisted and managed by the manufacturer's own App Store? What's the privacy policy like? How often will it issue updates?

I really like the display. I've been waiting for a phone with minimalistic display to save battery ever since the Motofone F3.

But there's way too little information there to convince me to pre-order.

<comment><USER3> we def. screwed up communication as we've been focused lately on finishing hardware. its based on Android 8.1 and the apps are downloaded via play-store normally. We don't white or black list, but rather are going through the most used apps and building easier integrations for them

<comment><USER7> What's the differentiating feature between the Blloc and all the other black rectangles that run Android?

<comment><USER8> looks like a custom app launcher and some matching apps for some popular APIs. Still cool, but the reality is a bit of a letdown after the initial good impression. Ultimately, having to rely on your phone maker to keep up with every relevant service's APIs and features seems like a losing game. Seems impossible to meet everyone's expectations here long term. Also, I thought/assumed it was an e-ink display at first -- that would be cool. But the app thing, it's hard. Can't really launch an appstore for a new OS, too much momentum in the established players. Ask Microsoft. Perhaps an Android phone with an E-ink display and a custom display driver/some other cool tech to make every app in the play store work with it would be cool.

<comment><USER9> ...does it do RSS?

I'll show myself out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Who designed this site? Readability is very poor. 8px font size for the 'pre- order' button, really?

And the contrast ratio is pretty low too.

Please, don't hire designers who just care about the graphic design aspect and making it look beautiful, but a pain to use, i.e. totally neglect usability.

Erik Spiekermann said it best (enable english captions): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0syzCeH4Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0syzCeH4Q)

<comment><USER11> Probably someone with a 4k or very high pixel density monitor

<comment><USER12> I'm using a 27" 4K monitor. I can't read anything on that site.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Seems interesting.

But can you bump up the font size? Being partially sighted means that with the current fontSize of 10px the site is unreadable to me.

<comment><USER14> I found the same, and my eyesight's still mostly OK. The use of grey text on a grey background doesn't exactly help, and that kind of "design over usability" choice is a bit of a red flag for the product itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It would be pretty funny if the phone's camera only took black-and-white pictures, to match its web page.

There's your minimalist right there.

(Also, what is that, a font for ants?)

<comment><USER16> Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I don't get if the grey scale is only for the web design or the phone is all black and white. Is gray the color color i can pick for the phone? What if I want a red phone? Is it gonna be a darker black phone?

<comment><USER17> no lie i would pay good money for an eink monochrome phone with an insane battery life

<comment><USER18> This seem nice, i think i will buy one

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light- phone-2-design#](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-design#)

<comment><USER17> i want to surf the web on my phone still

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I was excited as long as I assumed this would be E-Ink.

<comment><USER20> It is odd how that has not happened in the mobile phone form factor or even as part of an add on case.

I do think you have a point in that there should be marketspace for what the old Nokia was - something that could stay on all week without babysitting the battery.

Website accessibility is possibly an important part of this, if everyone wrote proper responsive websites that met accessibility standards to look good on mobile then these should read fine on an E-ink display. All text messaging apps should look fine too.

The trick to making the device work is probably the camera, if you could easily connect the screen of another phone to it then you could do selfies and what not. A convenient device to facilitate that, maybe top up the battery of the main phone and work independently of the main phone on a duplicate/tied in SIM, that could work.

<comment><USER21> > I do think you have a point in that there should be marketspace for what the > old Nokia was - something that could stay on all week without babysitting > the battery.

There is, besides aliexpress which has a huge selection (including nokia knockoffs) most carriers have a couple super budget non smart phones.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> 50K for the marketing campaign to probably 200K in pre-orders for a product that will never ship. Not a bad 4X return on investment for the founding team.

<comment><USER3> we didn't accept money so far and won't till we have working phones reviewed by youtubers. The pre-order just reserves u a spot as we're doing limited batches. and oh boy I wish we had 50k on marketing, the website & content is done part-time by the same team working on the OS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Doe the monochromatic design language reduced battery consumption by limiting the usage of colour pixel matrix on the LCD screen?

<comment><USER24> I imagine it will be oled or something similar. Any black pixels will simply be off. Not sure how a white pixel saves power though, since it needs all three RGB to make white.

<comment><USER25> It says LCD in the description.

I can imagine they keep backlight down most of the time.

<comment><USER3> good observation! with this contrast 10% backlight is enough for almost 80% of lighting conditions. we initially used OLED and our phones after testing managed to use on average around 65% of the energy with our ui. We're dropping it unfortunately as its a supply-chain nightmare.. (for now). Black and white mainly increases your focus sharply

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Trying to do hardware and software simultaneously from the start is going to kill this project. Pick one and get it right; let the lessons from that inform the next phase.

It looks like you're building a pretty generic device with an interesting software stack, so I'd start by making the software shine, and leveraging e.g. LineageOS to get an install base. Once you have feedback from a good swath real users you can look at making a bespoke device based on real-world needs.

<comment><USER3> well put advice. However countless projects started the software route and never managed to go beyond step 1. We're focusing on HW atm, offering a great price point, great experience, insurance and using as much off the shelve software as possible. Offering a complete working package that just works right now. And installing the software one by one

<comment><USER27> > offering a great price point

For the listed specs, €359 is not a great price point.

As an example, Xiaomi Mi A1 has similar specs and goes for ~ €150.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Looks fake.

Do you have any working versions of the phone?

A video of the phone being used?

All pictures look like renders, not real devices.

Not sure who would pre-order something with such little information.

<comment><USER29> EDIT: Given the presence Blloc has established online, it's likely that this is a real project. My apologies to adhambadr and the rest of the team.

\</comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-

I noticed this as well. The images of the device are entirely inconsistent with one another [0].

* Rendering effects are visible in some of the images

* The front is displayed inconsistently. In some renders, a speaker is shown. In others, it is absent.

* The front is shown as having a black bezel at the top in some images and on the bottom in others.

* The radius of the rounded corners fluctuates between top and bottom and from image to image

* On the back, the fingerprint reader, camera lens, and LED may or may not be present from image to image

* Antenna cut outs are depicted as either horizontal or vertical

* The side buttons do not appear congruent

* The information on the back is inconsistent (sometimes device info, sometimes Blloc)

* The camera style fluctuates from image to image (sometimes single lens, sometimes dual lens)

On the flip side, the domain has been registered since 2016 [1] and the project has been referenced on other sites [2][3] (using some of the same rendered images). The Instagram [4] has had posts since 2017, but, again, most appear to be renders.

From adhambadr: trademark application [5] and university article [6]

[0] [https://imgur.com/a/W6ogsZJ](https://imgur.com/a/W6ogsZJ)

[1] [https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=blloc.com](https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=blloc.com)

[2] [https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=54753](https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=54753)

[3] [http://startuptv.io/startups/blloc-die-smartphone- alternativ...](http://startuptv.io/startups/blloc-die-smartphone-alternative/)

[4] [https://www.instagram.com/bllocphone/](https://www.instagram.com/bllocphone/)

[5] [https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/register/3020172...](https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/register/3020172312676/DE)

[6] [https://www.fu- berlin.de/sites/profund/aktuelles/news/EXIST-...](https://www.fu- berlin.de/sites/profund/aktuelles/news/EXIST-Blloc.html)

<comment><USER3> not sure how to proof we're legit, but here are some more links : from berlin university ([https://bit.ly/2vDJHSs](https://bit.ly/2vDJHSs)) & our trademark registration : [https://bit.ly/2HoiXed](https://bit.ly/2HoiXed) (why would we bother if it was a scam?)

pictures are a mix of renders and post edited photos, the models changed over time as we tested / verified components

<comment><USER8> No comment on the original question, but a simple set of photos taken today of you handling the phone would be proof. Trademark registrations are relatively cheap and easy, pointing to one as proof that you made a phone seems really sketchy. Again, not taking sides here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Basic Android phone with fancy skin, what am I missing? I suppose their custom launcher app might be neat, but I'm not sure I'd buy complete phone just for that..

<comment><USER31> Check out Siempo (www.getsiempo.com), a new launcher with a similar mission.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I don't see anything minimalist in the specs.

What I do see is the UI which looks good (at least on pictures), and, above all, looks _consistent_.

There would be definitely a market for such an UI. (It's more lucrative if sold with dedicated hardware, of course.)

<comment><USER32> I see lumia/microsoft tiles ;-)

<comment><USER25> Which is good, to my mind.

<comment><USER32> ditto.

I really liked the UI of windows mobile 8 (10 a bit less so) and I find it quite unfortunate that MS decided to 'kill' the platform (there are rumours about new lumia, buuuut) - it was very well optimised, it was easy to grasp and was intuitive, even for older people (got one for my dad and didn't have to explain too much how to use it).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Good idea. Actually this year in the same thougts direction i refused to buy iPhone X. I use iPhone SE with minimal setup of Reeder, Protonmail, Viber, Mullvad Vpn. Made shortkey to homne button for reducing white point and aded black and white color filter. I am definetely your customer base but this is what i want: 1. High res ink display. 2 Open source OS, no ties with Google. 2. Web based apps (like Palm OS). 3. Security by default, hardware encryption etc. 4. Default mail client. 5. Third party GPS / Maps/. 6 Original visual language. If someone made this, i will spend 500+ eur instantly.:)

</comment><comment><USER34> Does anybody know of any projects similar to this one (and Light Phone 2 [1]) but for desktop OS in laptop format? Apple's products of late does not interest me and I'm stuck with my beloved 2013 MacBook Air until it dies or something better comes along. I have yet to find something better.

I long for a laptop purposely designed for productivity, simplicity and minimalism. Ideally with a custom designed OS (could just be a linux distro checked for compatibility etc.) to go along with it.

Is anybody working on something in this vein?

[1]: [http://www.lightphone2.com](http://www.lightphone2.com)

<comment><USER35> Define "designed for productivity?"

If I'm a writer, I will need very different things than a video editor or software developer to be productive.

<comment><USER34> That's true and a fair point.

Although I imagine many aspects to be the same for many general needs (while clearly not for very specific needs). Ideally, those which aren't (such as, perhaps, the monitor) for said general needs could offer multiple choices.

I wanted to be inclusive by saying "productivity" since at this point I'd be open for literally anything that is purposely designed with those general goals in mind — whatever the professional pursuit. It may still be superior for my specific needs compared to all the bells and whistles I keep seeing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> "The root" is an exact copy of BlackBerry 10's Hub and sounds great. The problem with all these new phones is they can't secure enough funding or developer attention to ever take off. Not to mention hostility from third party app providers like Facebook. This is android based which is great, but how the heck is The Root supposed to work? I don't think it's possible with closed APIs and walled gardens. You chat with your facebook friends how and when facebook wants you to.

<comment><USER37> For a while now people have bypassed Facebook's API restrictions for chat and news-feed by using the "mbasic" webpage version. It's pretty trivial to get around most of their API hostility. How long that'll last I don't know, but it's a pretty important service for connecting people in places with very low bandwidth.

But... That said, building one decent chat app is a massive time sink in itself. Then do this for many different popular apps with massively varied features (Google maps, Uber, etc) - then build that all into Android, then build the hardware - this phone isn't going to be released for years.

Note that it's a pre-order and not an order, it's just not ready yet and likely will never be ready at their price point. They'll get less backers than they expect, burn through the cash faster than they want and will struggle to meet their promise. As other comments have points out, they're better off starting with lower expectations and a website people can use. That's all just assuming it's not a scam.

<comment><USER3> its a bit of hurtful truth bArray there. We did already pull back a bit on most of our SW promises and packed them inside a "beta-mode" as we realised after testing a personal driver phone is no experimenting ground. This post just beat us before we finished relaunching our website with a simpler communication strategy and a def. a better website.

<comment><USER37> >its a bit of hurtful truth bArray there.

I can say from personal experience that it's never easier to hear either. Starting with good intentions is not the same as delivering a good product.

Out of interest, how far along is this project now in respect to hardware and software? Is it ready to ship once you have enough orders?

>We did already pull back a bit on most of our SW promises and packed them inside a "beta-mode" as we realised after testing a personal driver phone is no experimenting ground.

Don't get me wrong, your SW looks awesome. Actually, I would _really_ love a version of this phone I could run Linux (proper Linux, not Android) on.

>This post just beat us before we finished relaunching our website with a simpler communication strategy and a def. a better website.

That's unfortunate. You should "relaunch" your PR push and get across some kind of "we listened" to cheaply get yourself back into public eye on good terms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> who is the manufacturer? what country is it manufactured in? basic information that no one provides, and you have to go to the store to look at the back of the box to see...

<comment><USER16> It is made in the U to the S to the A. Just kidding. Won't even happen in my dreams.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I am totally looking for a phone like this which serves the minimalism purpose.

All I need is Calling, SMS, Whatsapp, Browsing (HN), News Occasionally, Email, Calendar, Navigation (maybe Uber)

Apart from the Black and White UI and amazing looking device, why is this any different than installing Copperhead[0] on Pixel XL and sideloading chosen apps?

[https://copperhead.co/android/](https://copperhead.co/android/)

<comment><USER3> we actually tried copperhead at the very beginning as our base, too slow unfortunately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> >Instead of multiple distractions we aim for focus. Instead of fragmented conversations, we strive for continuity and fluidity. Booking your flight, checking the weather or ordering an Uber, it all happens in one place, the Root.

I don't see how this will work but reading my messages whilst being informed about my Uber, flights, and/or weather seems quite fragmented and unfocused.

</comment><comment><USER41> Nice landing page and an intruiging concept. The Spotify glyphicon is wrong, though - it looks like a duplicate of the one for weather.

</comment><comment><USER10> You should feature Signal in your app section.

<comment><USER42> It would really mean something to all twelve of us.

<comment><USER43> Thirteen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Will you be able to remove or add different widgets (FB/Uber/Maps) on the phone or are you locked with what is pre-loaded?

This is getting very close to what I want in a phone - a pared down smartphone that has the basic utilities for when I am away from a desktop/laptop without the social + internet distractions.

<comment><USER45> I was initially very excited about this device until I read that any app can be downloaded from the Play Store. I doubt my willpower is strong enough to stop me from eventually downloading a browser, Reddit, Instagram, etc... Therefore, to me, this phone is really no different than the iPhone that I already own.

What I'd prefer is a device with no ability to download social apps, a browser, games or even news apps (when did 24/7 access to the news become a necessity?). A device like this is bold but, if it caught on, could change society in a positive way. No more endless checking of social media, the news etc. while on the go or in the company of friends/family. It could strengthen the connections that we have with others.

<comment><USER3> mmm. that was more or less our initial concept in 2016 : [https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ5hmZqhkNU/?taken- by=bllocphone](https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ5hmZqhkNU/?taken-by=bllocphone). But the main feedback and learning was: you can't do without apps. Theres an app for everything and little things and you need it. (like the metro app for a tiny village somewhere) However overall UI design & flow matters, and currently everything is designed to make u more addicted. Try switching from an iphone to an older Android, install a minimalistic Launcher and you'll see how less you check facebook and the news. However its slow af and some apps won't work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Would love to get more information on this Blloc OS in terms of updates, both security and regular. Also, a video of this thing in action wouldn't be bad either.

It's definitely an interesting concept, but for me at least I need a lot more information from the get-go to go ahead and pre-order.

<comment><USER47> >Blloc OS

Everything indicates this is Android based. Some remarked it was compatible with the Play Store.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I am interested, but I will never pre-order another product.

Has anyone seen any details about ship-date / progress?

<comment><USER3> fair-point. we will also (try to) never do kickstarter. We're shipping in August.

<comment><USER49> Good luck with the launch! I'll be keeping an eye out for the reviews.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> [https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-for-vendors-to-sell-an- And...](https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-for-vendors-to-sell-an-Android- device-without-any-Google-services-pre-installed-so-that-they-can-use-similar- services-from-other-companies)

>The AOSP doesn't come with Google Services. You can build a device and sell it, but it will not have the incredibly important set of Google Apps people love, not even Google Play (so people cannot go and download Google Maps and Gmail afterwards).

Hmmm, and yet this comes with Google Maps... Suspicious...

Edit: A post below indicates that it is Android 8.1. I'm no lawyer, but it sounds like a trademark violation to sell Android but call it something else.

<comment><USER50> Lots of companies sell Android devices without explicitly calling it Android. The most notable example is Amazon (Android - without GApps - is the OS on pretty much everything in the Fire line, e.g. Fire Tab and Fire TV).

In other words, I think you've got it backwards: you're not _allowed_ to use Google's branding/trademarks (including "Android") unless you have authorization from Google. Meanwhile, I'm not aware of any requirement to call the OS "Android" even with that authorization; the word "Android" doesn't show up at all in the official product page for Samsung's Galaxy S9 [0].

[0]: [https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/galaxy-s9-...](https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/galaxy-s9-64gb --unlocked--sm-g960uzpaxaa/)

<comment><USER47> Incorrect. Look at the specs page: OS Android O (8.0)

It's not just that it's not visible, it's the Blloc is pretending they invented an entire new os ("Blloc OS").

Amazon Fire is a different story, because they package their own app store ( _not_ the Google Play Store). But Blloc is loading the Play Store. I am fairly sure that a requirement of doing so means you have to accept the Google branding (i.e. you have to call it Android).

<comment><USER50> Well shoot. I even did a Ctrl-F on the page and got zero results, probably because it was hidden under that drop-down.

Regardless, worst-case is they just have to tweak their OS branding to be "Android with Blloc Root" (which is what HTC does, i.e. "Android with HTC Sense"). Yet I'm not finding anything which explicitly requires that (only finding instances where use of Android branding is _not_ allowed, e.g. FireOS).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> How do you say the name? It might be problematic especially if there are more than one involved.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'm unclear from the website what exactly the pitch is. I really like the idea of a grayscale medium intelligence phone which helps counter the addictive nature of smartphones and is focused around the essentials: maps, camera, calendar, email, slack...

For some time my wife and I have both been wanting a dumber minimal smartphone, to help break our addiction to our phones without depriving us of their usefulness. This might be a good fit, but it's hard to tell from the website.

</comment><comment><USER53> Devices like this intrigue me but the price always seems way too high. I wonder if anyone will actually come up with a minimalist phone that has a minimalist price to match.

<comment><USER3> honestly its the lowest thats technically possible to sell. Good components just cost that much. After vat our margin is around 35 (pre-retail) which is lower than most vendors, meaning if we sell to retail we wont make a cent. it just costs that much to get tested, working components with decent manufacturing. If you find good specs cheaper trust me they used B-grade components that will break down sooner or later.

<comment><USER54> I both disagree with your assertion, and find it sad that michaelmior is being downvoted.

My wife uses the moto G Play. <150USD for a perfectly functional phone, and frankly I'd even call it "far from minimal," (it has features that many flagships unfortunately don't support any more, e.g. sd cards, removable batteries, and headphone jacks) and for years have looked for an even more commodity platform myself since I have no need for apps or beefy hardware. (GPS, text, html only browser, email, with barely enough horsepower to run the above + a beefy battery would be the pipedream, and sounds _not too far_ from the brick phones I used ~20 years back)

As I told a coworker when I saw this post: Either our expectations of "minimal" or the english language has gotten entirely out of wack, because 350 pounds for a smartphone is so far from minimal as to be laughable. Maybe a "minimal flagship" (and this is where I'm inclined to think the gap between your view on this and mine is, where you said 'if you find good specs cheaper'. Perhaps my view on "good" is a much lower bar, but I'm perfectly happy with my 60$, 5 year old Lumia, and find it to be _far more minimal_, while directly challenging your "break down sooner or later" assertion; I've had droid flagships that didn't last as long.)

<comment><USER3> I guess you're right we have complete perception of minimal. I wrote somewhere else our aim was to be exactly between Flagship smartphones and complete detox options like litephone or an old refurbished nokia, I think you're more looking for those options.

<comment><USER54> You're probably right re: how we're looking at minimalism, and if that range was your aim, your price point seems much more fair.

The mental dissonance came for me simply from my perception of the word "minimal;" I have a wonderful moment of "Oh man someone's finally making the phone I wish I could buy" whenever I see a thread with this or similar verbiage, then the sad realization that I'm apparently too far to the 'throw out everything but your matress' side of minimal.

I was simply surprised to have not seen other feedback along this vein, and moreso when the other commenter was going grey for advocating what I thought were some good examples of models in that range.

Anyway, I'd want to cap this with a friendly "good luck"; Don't take my jaded disappointment as anything more than the whinging of someone tilting at the windmills of eternally larger and more expensive phones. (Although if you DO ever get the chance to advocate for a truly bare-bones-minimalism in a future product, here's a hearty nudge nudge from this curmudgeon.)

<comment><USER3> thanks a lot and sure I def. got your point and I think our target is different than you (you should checkout the other products like lite & punkt). The tag - minimalist was written by the OP and not us, we barely use (and stopping more often) the term minimalism esp. that closely to our brand / product. our html title is "back to the root" and our slogan is "people first" (printed on the packaging & on the back of the phone) as it better describes our mission.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> I like the idea! Aaaand I'd love to try it on my Pixel, because I know and love its hardware.

Is there a functionality reason that restricts the OS to the Blloc hardware, or might we see OS builds for certain hardware targets available for purchase eventually?

</comment><comment><USER56> Including insurance is brilliant.

</comment><comment><USER57> Looks like designer vaporware to me.

All focus on the typography and making stuff "look cool", without any concern for how the page actually functions or how the device would actually function.

All UI, no UX.

</comment><comment><USER58> Impressive. Per the site, this is a phone that adopts a monochromatic interface to increase power efficiency, yet there is no mention of battery life anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER59> Nice design. I also like the idea of built in insurance (but only 12 months, seriously?). Fact that it runs Android kills the case for me, though.

<comment><USER3> thanks. We're still negotiating extension price (for an extra 12) but will be < 20€. Whats the no-go in Android for you ? you'd go for a phone that can't install most apps out there ?

<comment><USER60> Hi Adham, I'm a reporter with TNW, and I'd like to learn more about your progress with Blloc. Please could we chat? I'm available on Twitter (@aghoshal) and via email - email@example.com.

Thanks for your time!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> Interesting but I'd like way more details before preordering. The extended battery is specially appealing but it needs way more explanation.

</comment><comment><USER62> Has this phone been subsidised by EU tax payer? It would be good to see what kind of support has been provided by entities in the footer.

</comment><comment><USER63> Probably the font size heirarchy must be reviewed and changed to rem and em values instead of pixels. Incredibly hard to read!

</comment><comment><USER64> It would be nice to have the physical dimensions of the device, how can the manufacturer leave out such an important detail?

</comment><comment><USER65> I would like an e-ink smart phone please

<comment><USER66> [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light- phone-2-design#/](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-design#/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> Battery Non-removable, closes tab.

<comment><USER68> I appreciate the honesty of them pointing this out on the website though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> Will this be available in the US? if so, which carriers or can it be purchased unlocked?

</comment><comment><USER70> I stopped reading as I came to the "Facebook messenger included" passage..

</comment><comment><USER71> Are there any videos of the phone in action? Curious about the UX!

</comment><comment><USER72> Just a warning on the name. Phonetically, it could sound very close to bullock, or bullocks (if multiple of them).

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

<comment><USER47> I think it's on purpose, because it's a fake marketing site designed to steal the money of gullible people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> It's a smartphone but in grayscale.

</comment><comment><USER74> Meh. Just give me some portable device like the PocketCHIP or the ZipitZ2, not this hipster bullshit.

<comment><USER25> This is just for a different audience than CHIP.

Good luck running e.g. Google Maps or Firefox on a CHIP.

<comment><USER74> Also, Surf with the PSP user agent is really good.

But someone will create a clamshell like device as the old 90-00's PDA with Linux, and it will show Android as a clunky device to _create_ media instead of being just a TV substitute.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER75> Doesn't it have a front camera?</comment>


The Most Gratifying Job on Earth - <AUTHOR> http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/The-Most-Gratifying-Job-on-Earth

<comment><AUTHOR> It's obvious that Bill is happier doing philanthropy than he was running Microsoft. It's not too surprising when you think about it, but it's a good reminder for those of us who are still working to make our millions that happiness often comes from living for others. Giving away your money can be more gratifying than making it.</comment>


Why I no longer use MVC frameworks - <AUTHOR> http://www.ebpml.org/blog15/2015/12/why-i-no-longer-use-mvc-frameworks/ <comment><USER3> "Why I no longer use full MVC frameworks to build sites that have no need for models or controllers." The better question might be why you ever started?

As a bonus, the article discounts React out of hand as one of those "average MVC frameworks" that does too much, then reinvents an incredibly crude version of hand-rolled JS components rendering DOM...the one thing React does.

The takeaway from the article, I think, should be:

1\. If you only need some simple React components being fed by a basic Sinatra or Express server, just do that; it'll be ten times easier to develop and maintain. (Edit: Although frankly, the example is so simple I think the author might be better off with a static site generator...)

And:

2\. Do your research before reinventing the wheel badly.

<comment><USER4> In addition, I find it funny, that TFA's final solution isn't really much different than static server-side rendering using react, mercury or a number of similar tools already invented. Not to mention that using babel you get jsx and es6 template string support... even if not using react/jsx I'd still favor string templates for my code.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This article has kind of occam's razored me, because I can't actually tell if the author is serious. Do the inline HTML strings common to this style of programming remind anyone else of the good old days of writing PHP code with a bunch of echo statements and concatenated strings to build your pages? It seems to me that the author has sort of managed to move the V from MVC into the C, which I thought we had already discovered was a bad idea.

I work in a Flask and Jinja shop, so it's not really fair for me to pass judgement one way or another without having actually spent a month using this style. I just can't help preferring the Jinja method of templates that are mostly HTML with some templating code mixed in, vs. executable code that happens to be mostly concatenated strings of HTML.

<comment><USER6> Re: good old days of php.

Drupal 8 still does this. Look at the core modules help functions as an example if you don't beleive it.

<comment><USER7> See: why I will vehemently avoid all future Drupal projects (1 was enough)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Beginning CS students frequently don't see the point of object-oriented design, because intro-level class projects are by definition small, simple programs that can be readily comprehended by a single person and written from start to finish in a few hours. For such simple programs, the modest organizational gains from OO programming don't seem to justify the extra boilerplate and conceptual complexity.

The first time I started using Django, I was really confused and everything seemed incredibly bloated and complicated. Flask seemed much more attractive -- but as soon as I had a Flask project started to grow a moderate number of features, Django looked better and better. For simple projects, the modest gains from using Django's features don't seem to justify the extra boilerplate and conceptual complexity.

I know someone who insists that assembly language is where beginners should start.

The common thread: It's hard to start working at a high level of abstraction, because understanding the lower level of abstraction first is what gives you the grounding for appreciating exactly what the higher level abstraction does and why you want it to be done.

I think the author of this article is at a point in his web dev learning where working at a low level of abstraction is easier. When he gets to larger, more complicated projects, he'll probably end up writing his own half-baked home- rolled MVC, or having a project implode under the weight of its own spaghetti architecture. Then he'll start to see the advantages of using a framework.

Nothing negative is implied by going down this path -- it provides valuable learning experience and an intuition for what the internals of a good framework do without even using the framework (since you've experienced first- hand things that seem like they would be common pain points and how they're dealt with at the lower level, you'll (often correctly) suspect that standard higher-level tools might have ways to help people deal with those pain points.)

<comment><USER9> But he could have used an existing template language. Seems like he only needs some templates with sub-templates and there are many solutions for that. Angular 1 with ui-router is for example great for mapping data into templates. Ember does it and so does many, many other systems.

<comment><USER8> This illustrates my point. You'd be introducing a second language and a large framework with lots of other unrelated stuff -- which is completely unnecessary when you have a _language builtin_ which is perfectly adequate to the task.

Yes, yes, I know, separating data from code, filters, escape sanitization, there are a lot of good reasons to use templates. If you're a developer just starting out in web design who is creating a very simple project, string concatenation will let you get up and running without the extra complexity.

Of course when your project gets big enough, you'll start to try to modularize things, and _then_ when someone spends 5 minutes explaining templates to the idea, you can immediately see why you want them, because at that point they'll actually reduce the complexity of your project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Funny thing is that recent React fully supports (even recommends) exactly this style for his use case. Stateless component can now be just a function.

[https://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2015/10/07/react-v0.14...](https://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2015/10/07/react-v0.14.html#stateless- functional-components)

He could just change few lines and have JSX, React state management, contexts, property type and all that other stuff available if he ever needs it.

With his own solution he'd eventually need to re-implement bits of React.

<comment><USER4> Exactly... My first thought seeing his composite is that it isn't much different than react, mercury and others... And imo JSX is easier to reason with.

<comment><USER10> > Exactly... My first thought seeing his composite is that it isn't much > different than react

Yes. And in React composition is not done through string concatenation and values are escaped by default.

I'm not sure about mercury and others but React is first framework I've seen, and I've seen few, that does the composition (from the point of view of react user) exactly the way I'd do it. I had my own framework in PHP (before Rails happened) that did something similar. My components were server side could be composed freely and bundled not just html and js, but also php, css, images ... and could be extended in a way that allowed derived component to override inherited css, images, html, whatever. Flow of information was accidentally unidirectional (thanks to how HTTP works). But the important thing was idea of freely composable components (instead of pages, resources, views, templates, layouts or whatever)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The MVC _pattern_ is honestly so simple it or something like it usually emerges from most UI architectures. I would argue that even the increasingly common backend vs. frontend separation is a form of MVC. Of course, MVC isn't synonymous with _MVC frameworks_.

When it comes to pure old MVC, I feel that it is a bit like Greenspun's tenth rule:

> Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, > informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common > Lisp.

So any UI environment will eventually contain an architecture that more or less embodies the spirit of MVC.

And I think MVC is fine _within a single environment_. That means, the information travelling from the models to the controllers to the views does not contain intermediary where mediums are crossed. A traditional Rails application crosses from databases to a Ruby program to a web browser, and each bit of logic is dependent of the others.

What makes the backend/frontend separation such a good model is that a front running on a REST API is not inherently dependent on a protocol or a server implementation, and the same applies to the backend. This will work in the post-HTTP world, whenever that comes.

Traditional Rails apps assume they are talking to a web browser. This is assumption is no longer tenable.

<comment><USER12> Plenty of websites don't need routing. Just like plenty of websites don't need databases. IMO, a problem with frameworks is you start seeing everything in those terms even if say static HTML might be your best option.

<comment><USER13>
      sufficiently complicated

<comment><USER12> True Scotsman.

Complexity does not grow in all areas. You could have a 3D MMO which is more complex than 99.9% of websites without routing for example. Static HTML can include 100MB of JavaScript that simulates something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A lot of hate for this guy here that is, IMHO, unjustified. What he did isn't insane. It's not exactly what I would've done, but then, the meta-lesson from this post is that _you don 't have to do what everyone else is doing_.

The comment here about the point of MVC frameworks being for communication is true. However, this guy isn't working on a frontend dev team. He is a consultant doing primarily server-side development, building a landing page for his business. The code he wrote in this entry probably took him all of about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, many of the comments here say that he should've used Jade, or Angular, or Knockout, or Flask, or Jinja. How long would it take him to get up-to-speed on that? That's time he doesn't get back, which won't be spent _working on the things that make money for him_.

I wrote a similar build script to try out different landing page concepts - <USER2> about an hour, I'd wired up Babel, PreCSS, and Marky-Markdown so I could write all my marketing text & tutorials in Markdown, my CSS in CSSNext, and have a common page layout for everything. It's a lot cheaper than the MVP generators on the net, it's easier to change and gives me more flexibility than Bootstrap, and it's a lot less code than writing everything from scratch in HTML. No, it bears no resemblance to any living framework, and no, it's probably not intelligible or sane to any other frontend developer. However, it doesn't have to be. If I get to the point where I'm hiring frontend devs, they'll be rewriting everything anyway in the framework of _their_ choice, so my opinion doesn't matter anyways, and in the meantime, the landing page and product description helped me discover that I didn't need a frontend component at all, at least for an initial version.

Optimize for the problem you have, not for the problem other people have. And when other people come up with a solution that's different from what you would've done, try to see how their _problem_ differs rather than saying they're stupid.

<comment><USER3> > A lot of hate for this guy here that is, IMHO, unjustified.

I disagree; I don't think there's a lot of "hate" just some gentle mockery.

> What he did isn't insane. It's not exactly what I would've done, but then, > the meta-lesson from this post is that you don't have to do what everyone > else is doing.

The thing is, he _did_ do exactly what everyone else is doing, just a bit worse than most of the popular solutions.

> And when other people come up with a solution that's different from what you > would've done, try to see how their problem differs rather than saying > they're stupid.

But his problem didn't differ. He had the same problem everyone else has, and ended up re-inventing the same solution everyone else is using.

If you're working on the web, you'll need to turn data into HTML, and his solution was a JS function to turn data into HTML; it's the single most common problem and the single most obvious solution pattern. The issue is that there are already good solutions for his exact problem, and his isn't one of them.

<comment><USER14> Say you have two options:

1\. Spend an hour writing 50 lines of code.

2\. Spend 3 hours identifying a framework that includes those 50 lines of code, reading the docs for it, finding exactly which call or combination of calls duplicates the functionality that you would've written yourself, writing code to that API, and then debugging where your mental model doesn't match the mental model of the framework authors.

Which of those is better?

I suspect most of the commenters here would say #2. My point is that the real answer is neither: it's "it depends". It depends upon who you're working with and what their background is; how long you expect the code to live; whether you expect to use additional functionality in the framework in the future; how well-documented the framework is; what fraction of the framework will be used in this solution; etc.

A lot of people, particularly more junior ones, look at an established framework like React and think "because it's supported by Facebook and thousands of people use it, _of course_ you should too". I'm saying that it's not always that simple: sometimes it's appropriate, but sometimes, just rolling your own is fine too.

(My perception is colored because when I was at Google, I was frequently the one writing the software that everybody else assumed they should be using, and I was intimately familiar with all of the downsides and weaknesses of said software. I recall running into a post on servo-dev where someone proposed using the Gumbo HTML parser, which I wrote, for Servo's HTML parser. pcwalton's reply was "Just because Google released it doesn't mean that it's suitable for our purposes" \- which is exactly correct, Gumbo was never meant to function as a browser engine.)

<comment><USER15> How many times are you going to be spending an hour to write 50 lines of code? Is the code going to stay at 50 lines? If the answer is "one or two or three" and "yes" than ya... do it however.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This post makes me kind of sad. There's a whole slew of developers who believe "X is bad so I did Y" and are in turn alienating themselves from design patterns and frameworks needlessly. I think posts like these breed arrogance and it should be less about "why not to" and more about "why to".

</comment><comment><USER17> He lost me at the moment he showed me the all-encompassing, all-powerful, all- knowing spaghetti wrapper function in JS.

If he really wanted to build a nice looking web template solely with front end technologies, he could build it with Jade for the HTML part, Sass for the CSS, and JS/TS/Babel for the behavior part and structure the template in a modular and component-based fashion for reusability, maintainability, scalability, customizability, and above all sanity.

If you're looking to build a web app instead, just pick any framework you feel comfortable and your future self will thank you for that decision as the web gets bigger and bigger, you'd still can keep it together and deliver good results consistently.

<comment><USER18> You're making it sound all complicated with all those frameworks. This is a static site. It needs html, css and some js for animations. To avoid repetition, php/fi ca. 1996 provided this awesome 'include' function.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I feel like the author is talking about how bad MVC is without fully understanding what MVC _is_.

<comment><USER20> MVC is usually done very badly. The View and the Controller are often smooshed together into an unholy mess.

<comment><USER19> But it _can_ be done well. I think the author simply isn't very good at using the MVC pattern properly, which leads them to dislike it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > I first saw a "web app" when Steve Jobs introduced WebObjects at the Moscone > Center in 1995, which he claimed was the first dynamic HTML app server to go > to market (followed by a few others like Kiva, WebLogic…). It was quite > something to see for the first time a Web page which content was dynamically > constructed from the result of a query to a database. If I remember > correctly it was a list of cars (Chrysler may have been a client of NeXT).

Kind of an aside, but I think this might be that presentation:

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

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you for digging, I believe that one was a few months later (MSPDC) but still!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Ok, then add in some routing for your different pages, and tidy it up a bit, make it all callable from a URL mapping, and low and behold, you've made your own MVC framework on top of express.js. Congratulations.

</comment><comment><USER23> _A natural extension of that pattern would be to create standard Web apps /Website components (wrapper function) such that you could replace the underlying "theme" as needed, as the interface would remain the same._

Yes. That's called separating the Controller from the View. And pieces of HTML with dynamic parameters are just templates (like Mustache and such).

I think you just wrote your own (M?)VC framework, with your own templating language.

</comment><comment><USER20> I think he just reinvented Perl-CGI in Node.js. I guess the inexorable march of reimplementing everything in JavaScript continues.

</comment><comment><USER24> * Why I invented my own MVC framework

</comment><comment><USER25> I've never understood why MVC is so popular. Any other form of application development, you just look at what your application needs to do and design for that. You might use a pattern, you might not, it depends. But for some reason in web development this is THE ONE TRUE WAY, despite the fact that it's a pretty awkward pattern for a lot of problems.

The thing that makes it more baffling is that HTTP and HTML are so simple on their own. Almost all these abstractions being built on top of them are vastly harder to understand then the things they attempt to abstract away in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER26> Wow! A single developer working on small websites doesn't need MVC? What a revelation! I bet he doesn't have any pesky problems, such as; working in large teams, long term support, developer turn over, documentation, changing requirements, deadlines, scaling, etc. etc. Oh, but the rendered HTML looks nice!

MVC frameworks took off because they allowed more than one person to reason about an application. I can hire an Angular developer and expect them to have a fair understanding of my application on day 1. If I'm new to a React shop, I can read tons of documentation online, without pestering my new coworkers. My Product Management team likes to change stuff on the fly, so I can use Knockout to build small, independent components which I can piece together like lego.

I don't know why this post irked me so much, but it did.

<comment><USER27> Completely understand where you're coming from. Frameworks exist for a reason: collaboration.

Also, what happens when you inevitably change jobs 3 years later? "I have 3 years experience with Bob's folder structure." Yeah, that's time in the trash where yes, you learned something, but no, you can't really show value to potential companies.

<comment><USER28> Quite often the co-worker you're collaborating with is you in 6 months.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The author doesn't need MVC, he needs a templating engine.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks guys, I was expecting this kind of answers. The part that bothers me is: why there is no "standard" wrapper functions (sliders, contact form,...) that you can "theme" with various snippets of HTML/CSS. I would expect it would be a lot more practical to deliver a template as a set of wrapper functions, rather than the raw HTML/CSS as it is always the case.

<comment><USER30> Am I missing something, or is what the article describes something that doesn't look that far from from React components, really, minus many of its benefits like shadow dom, being reactive, JSX being easier than strings?

So you render all this on the server, and then the client does what, or are is this only targeting static pages?

<comment><USER31> > React components, really, minus many of its benefits like shadow dom, being > reactive, JSX being easier than strings

React does not have shadow DOM

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> The problem with all the "fancy" JS stuff is: people these days totally disable their JS because people have fucked their users over and over again with endless heaps of tracking, ads and other nasties. Or their connection has a too high RTT (ohai EDGE!) for downloading 100+ assets in a timely matter.

I have yet to see a JS/* framework that allows me as a full-stack developer to deliver the same content experience (sans interactiveness of course) to clients with or without JS, without having to duplicate templating logic or switch to NodeJS which requires a) a host supporting it, which many "mainstream hosters" don't and b) having to code a server in javascript's callback/promise hell.

<comment><USER18> I don't buy your premise: I'm pretty sure the number of JS-disabling users has dropped significantly and we're getting to a point where it's acceptable to require JS. Server-Side rendering is implemented to satisfy search engines (and even that's changing) or to speed up the first page load.

Your second point is a tautology. Of course it's impossible to run JS code on the server if you don't want to run JS code and the server and don't want to rewrite it in another language. FWIW, both ES5/6 as well as coffeescript vastly improve 'callback hell'

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> This style is quite prone to escaping/sanitization issues. I would have at least used a template engine instead of concatenating strings.

</comment><comment><USER34> Interesting article and approach, but I don't think this is really an argument against using something like Angular or React (which alone isn't even a true "MVC"). It's more of "for my particular use case, this worked well"... Angular and React most definitely have their use.

(In fact, you could probably leverage React's server side rendering and JSX to clean up that long chain of function calls in your page function.)

</comment><comment><USER35> This is why we use knockout instead of angular. Much simpler to do basic temptation without forcing some mvc framework client side.

<comment><USER36> Ironically, I've had the opposite problem with projects built in simple templated KO.

As projects have scaled up and teams grown the lack of formalised framework, combined with the amount of logic-y stuff people apparently LOVE to throw into the templates, has eventually required a rebuild to try to get some structure in there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Suddenly the author realizes his web app needs to handle a click event which in turn interacts with data on a database...boom it hits him: this would be simpler with a framework, maybe an MVC framework?

</comment><comment><USER38> This is a static site, at least from the examples given. Using MVC to build it is a way to go but it seems like his way is equally pointless.

Let's take some strings and hardcode them into JS and make the user's browser render this page dynamically every time it's loaded instead of WRITING SOME STATIC HTML... It's all well and good to try a new way of doing things but writing a blog post decrying MVC frameworks for a static site that you're building dynamically with javascript is silly.

</comment><comment><USER39> Is the css in the screen shot "good".

It seems to really unnecessarily break any sort of distinction between presentation and content. For example what is the practical reason for using class "white-text" on a text span instead of an inline style?

</comment><comment><USER40> As always: use the right tool for the job.

React is not an MVC framework also, and it could actually make things much easier for this particular job.

If you don't need MVC or frameworks then don't use them, you'll be happy they are available when you need them ;).

</comment><comment><USER41> TL;DR Web developer rediscovering function composition, data as code, etc.

</comment><comment><USER42> The actual title was "Why I no longer use MVC Frameworks?" and that was enough to make me stop.

I can't stand when people end declarative sentences with question marks. Never again.

</comment><comment><USER43> > a collection of interchangeable themes with standard wrapper > functions/interfaces.

That collection is called a framework...

</comment><comment><USER44> Did anyone else use zope? Add an object db to this and it strongly reminds me of zope.

</comment><comment><USER45> Woof.</comment>


Word Correspondences Between English and French, German, and Turkish - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/translationtalk/status/1256652719693201409 <comment><USER2> This is fascinating! If only subtitles for movies were filled in with the appropriate gaps waiting so that bilingual subtitles were equally aligned.</comment>


A 3-Year-Old, $50k Bitcoin Puzzle Solved - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzpqzz/heres-the-solution-to-the-3-year-old-dollar50000-bitcoin-puzzle <comment><USER2> With price fluctuations maybe we should start saying: "5BTC puzzle solved"

<comment><USER3> Agreed, because it's only a $36,000 Bitcoin puzzle as of right now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Damn, I remember spending 3 or 4 hours on this some months ago. Apparently I had everything that was needed to get the key, except considering the width a variable...

Upon closer inspection of the painting, I am still unable to decide whether some of the flames are actually wide or narrow.

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice story. I was expecting some sort of steganography in the actual bits of the image. Really cool how the author was able to encode binary in the actual content of the painting rather than the pixels themselves.

</comment><comment><USER6> This story reminds me a bit of Ready Player One, but on a much smaller scale.

</comment><comment><USER7> I worked on this thing for about a month around Christmas time and apparently was sort of on the right track -- missed the width bit it seems.

Kind of figured the key was a literal key and could throw enough python at it to get somewhere but unfortunately not the right somewhere.

</comment><comment><USER8> It's really good to see when someone say something like "told me in telegram chat". Looks like telegram is getting acceptance in spite of all those blames it is getting

</comment><comment><USER9> Or did the creator used his secret backup of the private-key to cash out?

<comment><USER10> >[...] the creator used _his_ [...]

>The puzzle centered on a painting created by @coin_artist

>When @coin_artist saw [...], _she_ knew the puzzle had finally been solved—almost three years after _she_ created it.

Just saying.</comment></comment>


Journaling: a better UI metaphor than files/folders/desktops? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gnome.org/~federico/docs/2008-GUADEC/html/index.html

<comment><USER2> I quite successfully adopted an aproach from GTD methodology. The main pillars are three different folders:

1) INBOX - unprocessed input, usually files downloaded from the web or saved attachments.

2) PROJECTS - here, I create subfolders, one subfolder for one Project. In the subfolders, there are files I actively work on, like doc files.

3) REFERENCES - here, I store files I am not working on, like ebooks, texts, photos, etc.

So, in the slide example, I would not lost the file location, since I know it will be in the folder Projects\Write-Essay-On-Teaching. If the project is finished, I remove the directory (and put final output into Refenrences, if necessary).

I realized, at least in my case, that the main problem causing mess on the HDD was related to the fact, that unprocessed, working-on and reference files were stored together by topics.

</comment><comment><USER3> The OLPC features something similar to this:

<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Journal>

<http://laptop.org/en/laptop/start/journal.shtml>

You know, for all the trash talk about the OLPC and it's lack of a regular GUI, it sure does have a few innovative ideas in there that we could learn from.

<comment><USER4> How much trash talk is there regarding the OLPC itself? All the criticism I've heard is for the company designing it, not for the computers themselves.

<comment><USER3> There's always at least one person that will say, "give them food or water instead", and another saying, "how will this prepare them for the future? the OLPC's GUI is nothing like Windows, Mac or Linux. How can they get a job working with computers??"

Maybe that isn't a lot of trash talk, but it quickly gets annoying and old.

<comment><USER4> The first comment: makes a little sense, I think. The second one: bleh. Theoretically, working with the Mac didn't give you experience with the iPhone. Two radically different interfaces, even with Leopard multitouch. It's the CONCEPT of computing that needs to be taught, not the INTERFACE.

If you see those critics anywhere, slap 'em for me or something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Cf. <http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> Maybe, but the Lifestreams people are suing anyone who doesn't pony up for their patents. (E.g., Apple for Time Machine, which is a real stretch.)

<comment><USER7> Hopefully software patents will be emasculated and stop being a 'big stick' for companies like that to carry around.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Give the user multiple ways of accessing information, not just one.

Remember this acronym: LATCH

Location / Alphabetical / Time / Category ("tag"?) / Hierarchy.

[http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=130881&s...](http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=130881&seqNum=6)

It's a good mnemonic for GUI design - get a GUI up then consider LATCH and add another path or view of the info.

</comment><comment><USER9> I love how these slides clearly demonstrate the difference between UI and graphic design: the examples are bare bones yet highly functional.

<comment><USER4> As a counterpoint: wouldn't they have been more functional if they'd been put on one page? And if the examples had been sized a bit smaller so I didn't have to scroll just to see the comments?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> That was terrible presentation. That would have worked much better as a document than as a slide.

Aesthetic criticism aside, isn't this something that some OSes already have? Mac OS X lets you see all the files you edited yesterday, for instance. Doesn't that negate the need for a journal, or is there something I'm missing?

<comment><USER10> It was prepared for an in-person talk at GUADEC (a Gnome conference). Documents don't work very well for presentations.

<comment><USER4> They could scroll down really, really fast... :-P

Couldn't they have used Present, or whatever that OpenOffice thing is?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I like the concept and it makes a lot of sense as I open a lot of different file, browse a lot of different sites and do not always remember the name.

I created a bookmark app (very raw), that orders my bookmarks based on the time they were save and it is tremendously useful.(the url for the bookmarker is public and is <http://www.trk7.com/install/xxx.php> (click on the calendar tab), just in case u want to check)

</comment><comment><USER12> Very interesting... Except I suck at remembering dates.

It would be a cool addition to the directory structure, not a replacement.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can probably remember yesterday, 2 days ago and last weekend. I suspect those dates encompass 80% of the use cases for such a tool.

<comment><USER12> Well, you're gonna laugh, but... I usually don't know what day of the week it is. I stopped observing weekends a long time ago, so everything's kinda lost in time.

Besides, with the things I do, I have to keep careful records for a long time, and be able to find anything really quick. Right now I organize things by theme (project, topic, etc...). An alternate organization scheme that does not get in the way would be cool.

For me organizing anything by exact date is overkill. I need to be able to organize by day, month, week, or year (all at the same time).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> God, someone needs a better UI metaphor than those hideous slides!</comment>


Video of Valley Mogul Kicking His Girlfriend 117 Times Could Send Him to Jail - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/08/video-of-silicon-valley-mogul-kicking-his-girlfriend-117-times-could-send-him-to-jail.html <comment><USER2> I've known the guy, his entire career is based on lies and deception. Some years ago he started a restaurant called Planet Bollywood in Milpitas (ripoff of Planet Hollywood). It obviously failed and he faced lawsuits for trademark infringement. He burned the entire place down and collected the insurance money. Very old story, but nothing about the guy has changed.

<comment><USER3> AdTech in its early years was filled with scumbags

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "And it seemed certain that 31-year-old Chahal was one Silicon Valley start-up star for whom IPO would now stand for Initial Prison Offering." Really? A pun when the topic is that serious. I'm all for dark humour, but domestic violence and puns shouldn't mix.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I thought it seemed a little out of place .

<comment><USER6> And it was repeated numerous times throughout. Really detracted from the overall article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't get why US judges often throw out evidence because it was not acquired according to correct procedure. I understand that confessions made under pressure are worthless, since people confess anything when threatened or tortured. But factual evidence like a video recording? What difference does it make how it was acquired?

The correct action in a case like this should be to use the evidence, and discipline the officer who violated regulations.

When a court disregards obvious evidence, and pretends that it doesn't know things it really does; and when that happens to help a well situated criminal with expensive attorneys; then the obvious result is that the public loses trust in the government. The abstract ideal of "justice" must guide how the law is applied. If courts rule only according to the law as it is written, rather than on the spirit behind it, when courts fail to bring justice to criminals; then we will end up with lynch mobs and vigilantes.

Who can blame a redneck in the woods stocking up on guns when you read an article like that? You can't trust a government that lets a wife beater run free because of a formality. When the system doesn't protect you, you need to protect yourself. Right?

<comment><USER6> While I agree that it's painful seeing evidence thrown out for procedural reasons, there is certainly logic behind it, as it provides a check on the power of the police. It may well be the lesser evil (as intended). Simply disciplining an officer who doesn't follow procedure may not be sufficient incentive to prevent people's rights from being ignored. That's especially true if officers cover for one another so it's not even possible to determine who is responsible. Unless the punishment is extremely harsh (which would unfairly penalize legitimate mistakes), it may often not be effective anyway, as many well-meaning officers could accept punishment in order to put (who they believe is) the bad guy away. The problem is, when you start going in that direction, innocent people's rights will be infringed as well. You already see cases all the time where innocent people go to jail due to police bending or breaking the rules. I have to think that allowing all factual evidence regardless of source would make that worse.

That said, it's obviously not a just result in an individual case like this. It would be nice to be able to have justice in these situations without losing the overall disincentive. I'm not sure that it's possible, but would love to be wrong.

<comment><USER8> > _While I agree that it 's painful seeing evidence thrown out for procedural > reasons, there is certainly logic behind it, as it provides a check on the > power of the police. It may well be the lesser evil (as intended). Simply > disciplining an officer who doesn't follow procedure may not be sufficient > incentive to prevent people's rights from being ignored._

Then escalate that punishment as needed, still without throwing out evidence? E.g. fire the officer outright, don't just "discipline" him, and impose a penalty to his whole department.

<comment><USER9> Evidence is processed correctly almost every time. This suggests that inadmissibility is already an effective penalty.

<comment><USER8> We weren't discussing whether inadmissibility is an effective penalty or not though.

What we where discussing was if inadmissibility is good for serving justice (as opposed to serving as a guard against illegally obtaining evidence, and if so, whether we can abolish inadmissibility and use other, equally capable guards against illegally obtaining evidence).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What's really frightening is how major bribes are done quite casually and as if there is nothing much to it.

That's something you would not want to occur in your democracy.

How do you effectively fight this sort of behaviour? I think what would be necessary is a system where all money is handled electronically and transparently, such that bribes would be immediately visible to everyone.

<comment><USER11> I guess then they wouldn't use money

<comment><USER10> Good point, I was thinking about that too. What kind of system would be mostly immune to bribery and corruption?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This was already discussed on HN. I found really troubling how the whole thing just evaporated. Shit-storm around Brendan Eich who did much less, started around the same time, and lasted for months.

<comment><USER13> Another commenter claims Chahal has secured the services of a PR firm which specializes in taking down stories like this, to keep then from spreading. Maybe it works sometimes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> OK sorry for going off-topic on a topic as serious as this, but I've got a question about something that's been bugging me for ages.

There's 8 sentences in a row that start with "Never mind that..." \- is there a name for this style of writing (repeating yourself, presumably for dramatic effect)? It really irritates me, but I can never describe it to anyone and I don't know how to google for it.

<comment><USER15> When used with care, it's called an "anaphora." At least, that's what we called it in my Latin classes.

<comment><USER8> It might have been called that way in the latin classes, but the term is Ancient Greek for "reference" (as in: "in reference of" i.e. "speaking about", etc).

In rhetoric, it is about what you said -- beginning several statements with the same sentence/opening, addressing the same issue with different arguments for rhetorical effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > In a brilliant move, the district attorney's office asked the judge if the > video from the first case could be admitted to establish that the second > assault was essentially a repeat offense. The judge ruled that it could.

My initial reaction is that this is an interesting ruling, but then my knowledge of these sorts of rulings is decidedly spotty? I'm going to assume it's not the only thing that has been put forward to the judge: the 911 call definitely helped, and frankly I have little sympathy for the accused, but otherwise I find the idea of a video of past behaviour being used as evidence for current behaviour (on it's own) sort of... odd?

<comment> k-mcgrady Is it maybe used to establish character? For example you he could have character witnesses testifying he's a good guy saying this behaviour is out of character and the other side could show the past video to prove it's not?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Rich man does illegal things that involve damaging another person and gets away with it because he's rich and has connections and could pay the victim a hefty sum.

Nothing to see here, people, move on.

<comment><USER18> Did his estate pay you to say that?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> His civil litigation history is here, including some of the lawsuits mentioned in the article.

[http://www.plainsite.org/profiles/chahal- gurbaksh/](http://www.plainsite.org/profiles/chahal-gurbaksh/)

</comment><comment><USER20> 'could' should be 'will'

<comment><USER6> As the article explains, that's not yet a certainty:

> Then again, the judge could conceivably allow Chahal once more to avoid > incarceration, depending on what the probation report recommends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Heh, it seems like he published a book back in 2009 [https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Learned-Rewards- Entrepreneurshi...](https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Learned-Rewards- Entrepreneurship-Millions/dp/0230618952)

</comment><comment><USER22> Does the legal process in USA have discovering the truth as one of its stated goals?

<comment><USER23> > Does the legal process in USA have discovering the truth as one of its > stated goals?

It doesn't have "stated goals" at all, but its probably most accurate to view its goals as determining appropriate consequences under the law, with "discovering truth" as not a goal, but of some value instrumentally to the actual goal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is nothing new. You can't actually even find much information about the whole thing online because he's paid off and sued to ensure that nothing damaging was online and tried to replace it with positive PR.

This article will be gone soon too. Buying off another girlfriend, judge, and a few media sites is still chump change... and it seem VCs seem to jive with that kind of skill set that he has.

He may have a career in politics come to think of it.</comment>


A Spaceplane Is Born: XCOR Piston Pumps – the Holy Grail  - <AUTHOR> http://moonandback.com/2013/09/23/a-spaceplane-is-born-xcor-piston-pumps-the-holy-grail-one-of-a-few/

<comment><USER2> > The typical life-span of a high performance rocket turbo pump today is about > 30 minutes... before it renders itself unusable ... [and] will cost between > $500,000 and several million dollars...

OK, I am boggled...

<comment><USER3> This is part of why SpaceX is so focused on enabling recovery and reuse of their launch vehicles - the rocket costs an enormous amount relative to the propellant/launch site.

As for the turbo pump only running for 30 minutes - if the launch vehicle it's attached to is going to destroy itself, why bother designing the pump to last longer, likely adding several pounds? "Oh, this new pump will last 100x longer than that old model - but you're just going to crash it into the ground at several hundred miles an hour, because recovering it would cost far more than just buying one more of the old model. Sound good?"</comment></comment>