TechCrunch Has Redesigned, Again - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/techcrunch-has-redesigned-again/ <comment><USER2> Personally I think TechCrunch's content is the issue, not the design. Although this design is much improved, I'd also like to see them make some editorial changes. Step in the right direction regardless.

<comment><USER3> Responsiveness (especially on news sites) is a HUGE win for those reading on tablets/phones. The content doesn't matter if it's completely unreadable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> TechCrunch is a hype machine. The writers tend to be bandwagoners. Creating awards for best start-ups misses the point of a start-up, to become a great company, not a media darling.

I look at TechCrunch the way I look at Deadspin, Gawker, or any tabloid website. Not for content, simply for splash.

</comment><comment><USER5> They don't need to re-shape the way their website looks, just the way they handle journalism. These guys are one of the few to bastardize journalism in the tech space. We want to read about News - about reporting what happens, exactly right? Not about what somebody else _thinks_ of the news. And that's exactly what Techcrunch does - Steal the news from communities like Hackernews, Reddit, etc. and add their own bias, repackage and sell it with ads. Viola, money! Because AOL.

<comment><USER6> Neither here nor there. No reason to use a story about a redesign as a soapbox for your complaints, no matter how accurate they may be.

<comment><USER7> Under the correct assumption that there was some effort to increase readership by this move, commenting that the design was not their biggest problem seems relevant enough for an internet comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Makes those recycled press releases really shine.

</comment><comment><USER9> I prefer the old version. i have a 13 inch screen. All i see is a big header and little content. I think the new design has a whitespace problem and lacks of personality. It feels like it was designed by developpers , not by designers.

As for the content,i prefer ArsTechnica, I like long articles about specific subjects instead of news about "dirsuptive app X".

</comment><comment><USER10> I found a positively amateur Javascript/HTML problem that tells me maybe they have a porn-site problem where no competent programmer wants anything to do with them, much less take their money in exchange for work. Or they've been pranked.

My apologies to the porn site industry for the aspersion.

</comment><comment><USER11> I notice they're placing the thumbnails to the right of the headline. Most arguments I've seen strongly advocate for placing thumbnails to the left of the headline or just above the headline, because the eye will be quickly drawn to the image and you want it to flow top to down or left to right, into the headline, as a natural habit for western languages (jumping right to left in the process of viewing / reading, is unnatural, that is).

</comment><comment><USER12> I know first impressions are not always the best, but I find it much harder to read the titles quickly. Take a look at Mashable, for example -- scrolling through that is a mess. I had no problem with the old TechCrunch design and now I feel there are so many competing things happening at the same time. AllThingsD article titles are right there and the contrast in color and clean design makes it easier to scroll.

<comment><USER13> FWIW, the Mashable design was constructed with a focus on visual content over serial order of headlines; for those of us that are used to an RSS reader, it's less optimal, but it was intentional after coming to a better understanding of our core audience. It's worked out quite well for us.

<comment><USER12> Thanks for the clarification, cheald! Of course you did user testing and know your audience way better than I do, haha, but the design just irks me for my way of consuming Mashable content. So my opinion is as always my own subjective taste (selfishly). But I do still consume some of the content :)

<comment><USER13> I totally understand - I wasn't nuts about it, either, since I really do tend to like serial textual information, rather than more undirected visual information. It's grown on me, though (looking at it for hours on end will do that!), and it's been hard to argue with the analytics!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Classic TechCrunch: Aesthetically pleasing, terrible content.

</comment><comment><USER15> I love the logo re-design the most. Finally!

</comment><comment><USER16> Actually an improvement

</comment><comment><USER17> Looks great.

</comment><comment><USER18> I miss the days where you visited a website and all you got was a 960px wide centered site with a banner and a clearly distinguishable menu. Maybe if you were lucky you had a sidebar, and if you were _really_ lucky it wasn't designed terribly.

This new design resembles that era to a degree for me. Might actually start using it now.

Dead simple navigation is what I look for every time and this redesign nails that. I love that as well as the "recent fundings" and footer. Stories ALL the way down, with a huge ass number for pages gets me excited and has me potentially spending a _lot_ of time on TC in the future.

It took me about 5 seconds to know exactly how to use the new site, and that's amazing.

Really gives it that "go to" feel that websites strive for.

edit: looks beautiful on my Nexus 7 as well.</comment>


Mercalli earthquake intensity scale - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercalli_intensity_scale <comment><USER2> Love how this Wikipedia link appeared in "new" before the official news article.</comment>


AWS' Sponsorship of the Rust Project - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/jp/blogs/opensource/aws-sponsorship-of-the-rust-project/ <comment><USER2> This appears to be part of a larger announcement that they are now providing AWS promotional credits to open source projects.

Source: [https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-promotional- cred...](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-promotional-credits-open- source-projects/)

<comment><USER3> Credits are available for one year. Sorry, this new credit program just seems like another customer acquisition cost and not a long-term commitment to supporting open-source projects.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I read this a couple of times and I can't tell _how_ they are sponsoring the Rust Project. Apparently Rust uses some AWS services, are they now getting these for free, is that the sponsorship?

<comment><USER5> Yeah, free CI and web hosting. Those are probably the biggest costs in running the project, besides paying developers to work on it.

"We're thrilled that AWS, which the Rust project has used for years, is helping to sponsor Rust's infrastructure. This sponsorship enables Rust to sustainably host infrastructure on AWS to ship compiler artifacts, provide crates.io crate downloads, and house automation required to glue all our processes together. These services span a myriad of AWS offerings from CloudFront to EC2 to S3. Diversifying the sponsorship of the Rust project is also critical to its long-term success, and we're excited that AWS is directly aiding this goal." [https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-promotional- cred...](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-promotional-credits-open- source-projects/)

<comment><USER6> CI for Rust can be VERY expensive, given the vast amount of CPU and memory the Rust compiler needs. Good for Amazon to handle this important task.

<comment><USER7> CI is not run on EC2, MSFT is covering that on Azure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Hard to find a corporate sponsors list.. but from the RustConf list, looks like AWS, Google and MS/Azure are all Rust supporters. Not to mention MS looking into replacing some Windows internals with Rust.

I think Rust will see huge growth from best of breed WebAssembly tools to the really small/fast libraries available. I'm not that deep, but it's been an interesting learning curve. Hoping to find a couple things to actually work on in terms of projects this coming year with it.

Edit: I am curious if we'll see some Docker tooling move towards Rust, most of that is currently Go, though some of the wasm stuff might be a better direction vs. containers.

<comment><USER9> There was talk about Docker supporting wasm alongside containers:

[https://mobile.twitter.com/solomonstre/status/11110049132223...](https://mobile.twitter.com/solomonstre/status/1111004913222324225?lang=en)

<comment><USER8> That's part of what I was referring to... Also in my own reply regarding getting sqlite working inside wasm (wasi being part of the fs interface spec). AFAIK, sqlite won't currently work in wasm against an underlying fs exposed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There seems to be an uptick in open source related announcements from AWS as of late.

I can't imagine why...

<comment><USER11> All of the AWS teams have to lock what is going into reInvent weeks before the event. I'm assuming there is some sort of cutoff happening soon, so lots of activity is happening now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> No love for Ruby again, the folklore of Ruby hatred within Google and Amazon is quite real.

<comment><USER13> Ruby is used super widely throughout Amazon; any hatred is likely well deserved.

<comment><USER14> Amazon uses Ruby a lot? I've never seen them talk about anything with Ruby at all. Can you give any pointers?

<comment><USER13> It's a lot of internal tooling, likely nothing interesting to you or worth talking too much about.

<comment><USER14> > nothing interesting to you

How do you know what's interesting to me?

<comment><USER13> An attempt at a polite way of saying "I'm not going to talk about it." Please take a hint instead of downvoting :)

<comment><USER15> Telling someone "this isn't interesting to you" in place of "I don't want to talk about it" is definitely not polite!

I'd say it's rude in general to tell someone they won't find something interesting, and especially so when it's done as a way of disowning your own preference not to talk about it.

<comment><USER16> There's way too much being read into a statement which begins with "likely". There are plenty of things in life that are hard to explain in a way that doesn't lead to misunderstandings which are also not very consequential.

For example, when people ask what I do, I could say I work at an ISP, or that I'm a systems engineer (my title), or that I'm a system administrator (some of what I do), or that I'm a software developer (the rest of what I do), or any number of other things. Depending on how interested in it I think they will be, or how interested in explaining it I am, I might respond that it's likely not that interesting.

If the person asking actually wants to pursue it further, the polite thing to do would be to say "oh, I find it interesting, if you're willing to talk about it". If they responded "How do you know what's interesting to me?" I would take that as somewhat aggressive, and definitely wouldn't be interested in explaining further, depending on how I perceived their disposition.

Perhaps it's a cultural miscommunication.

<comment><USER17> That phrasing (at least without the "to you") is fine when you are genuinely open to saying more. It's not fine as a way to refuse to say more. So you're talking about a completely different context.

If they get aggressive and you _then_ decide that you don't want to explain, that's fine. But that's not what happened here.

<comment><USER16> > But that's not what happened here.

Eh, I don't think you can say that definitively. I took it as WaxProlix not wanting to/being unwilling to talk about it because it's boring, and as they found it boring, they thought other people would _likely_ (the word they used, which I think people are ignoring) find it boring as well.

<comment><USER15> I'd agree with you if it were just the first message. But they then explained exactly what they meant and why, and that's what I offered them feedback on.

They apologized to the person they said it to, and it all seems settled from my perspective.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Typecast acquired by Monotype - <AUTHOR> http://typecast.com/monotype-acquires-design-by-front

<comment><USER2> As a designer who studied typography and spent a few years working in print a long time ago, I love typecast. But practically speaking, Google Fonts has serviced most of my needs. It's free for one, and that's a pretty big deal. And two, I just prefer its lean implementation.

Type design is an interesting industry. It takes years to master which is not appreciated by the market. And I'm not a qualified type designer, but as a creative director (and purchasing gatekeeper) -- I feel the pricing model is really dated and beautiful type is being held hostage because of it.

<comment><USER3> Are you thinking of Typekit, maybe? Typecast is an app for typesetting web fonts, basically. It uses fonts from Google Fonts, Typekit, and I think a couple other webfont providers. It's not in competition with webfont providers at all. Although, now that it's been acquired by one, that may change.

<comment><USER4> Even though we've been acquired by Monotype (the company behind fonts.com), Typecast will continue to offer web fonts from a range of providers.

We think that designers should be able to experiment with the best type available on the web and that belief doesn't change now that we're part of a bigger company.

<comment><USER3> That's good to hear, and I appreciate the response.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Holy crap. I sure hope Monotype doesn't break Typecast (with their record of 'you-can't-embed and all: [http://print21.com.au/adobe-takes-agfa-monotype-to- court-ove...](http://print21.com.au/adobe-takes-agfa-monotype-to-court-over- pdfs/42158) )

<comment><USER4> Hey. We hope so too! The plan is for us to operate independently and continue making it easier for designers to work with type on the web.

<comment><USER5> Thanks Paul, nice to see the CEO reads HackerNews +1 ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Correct me if I'm wrong, but Typecast doesn't actually serve the font, right?

It always seemed like an extra hassle to have one more service in the mix, I'd rather just pick my font right in Typekit or Google Fonts even if the selection is more limited.

<comment><USER4> Yes, the fonts are still served by the providers. We make it easier to experiment with type independently of the provider but once you've finalised your type styles you don't have to serve the CSS from Typecast (although you can).

<comment><USER6> So I _can_ serve the font from Typecast? Or are you only talking about the CSS, but not the fonts?

<comment><USER4> I was only talking about the typography styles, not the actual font files. Although that _is_ an interesting idea :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Congratulations on this news, that's great to hear, you have the opportunity to evolve typecast! Good to see a tech company from northern Ireland doing well!

</comment><comment><USER8> I am sure my concern is the same as many others, how will this acquisition affect how well Typecast works?

<comment><USER4> Even though we've been acquired, we're still committed to making the web a better place and I don't expect any changes to how Typecast works.

We'll be continuing to operate autonomously so there won't be any negative product changes for customers. There is no intent for this to become a Monotype-only service or to do anything other than build the best tool for working with type on the web.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Home Made Air Purifier - <AUTHOR> Note: this is not my idea, but I have used it for 2 Cal fire seasons successfully.
1) Acquire a box fan
2) Acquire a large "FPR 10" rated filter from home depot
3) Duct tape filter to the out  flow side of the box fan. Make sure the arrows on the filter point in the correct airflow direction.
This works dramatically well for very little dollars and can help save your lungs if air purifiers are not available or expensive.
Also, check air quality of live sensors on purpleair.com (no affiliation) <comment><USER2> I bought some air purifiers a couple of months ago with the finest filters I can buy. I've been off allergy meds for the first time since I was 5. A pretty significant quality of life improvement I should've done decades ago.</comment>


stayinghomeclub: Who's staying home because of Covid-19? - <AUTHOR> https://stayinghome.club/ <comment><USER2> As promised! [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22538213](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22538213), I am home. Will I be fired? unlikely.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not me because our team has to show to our manager that we're willing to "go the extra mile" for our manager's ego :)

Luckily the death rate is very low for my age bracket (1 in 1000) so I've been rewarded with much less traffic than usual.

Long Island egos never cease to amaze me.</comment>


I tried to delete a Skype account  - <AUTHOR> http://m.imgur.com/HFSIhyS

<comment><USER2> What's the problem with the chat response? You didn't identify yourself correctly as the account holder. That appears to be a very good reason for not deleting someone's account.

What I find more scary is that using those exact questions I could answer them for at least 20 of my contacts, since:

1) I know their email addresses

2) I know when they signed up (because they asked me to accept their contact details when they signed up) and I have all of my chat history back to 2003.

3) I know at least five contacts on each account, because I share them with those people (work contacts).

TL;DR I could delete all of my work colleagues Skpe accounts assuming those questions are Skype's standard identifications questions.

P.s. I understand that you want a feature in Skype to "delete your account"!

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the question is should any service that stores your personal information allow you to delete your account if you choose to - Yes. And is a service purposely making it difficult for you to, while continuing to claim - we give you the right to delete. There's reason to believe that's what's going on here, logging in confirms your identity so a delete button on the site solves the problem. The one that did it for me - what MONTH did you open the account.. I can't remember by password much less when I opened accts..

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> SORRY!

Should have mentioned that I found that screenshot randomly. I wasn't the person the conversation with the Skype CSA.

Apology again for not mentioning when submitted.</comment>


Firefox Achieves One Billion Downloads, 31% Marketshare - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5327961/firefox-achieves-one-billion-downloads-31-marketshare <comment><USER2> That's about 17,600,000,000,000,000 bytes, or a sustained download rate of about 110 MB/s over 5 years.

</comment><comment><USER3> We should launch a campaign to re-re-rename it.

</comment><comment><USER4> The weird thing is that in spite of the news everywhere being that Mozilla/Firefox is gaining ground and IE is losing ground that I see IE regaining a bit of ground since January on my own sites (58% in January, 61% today).

<comment><USER5> Individual site mileage may vary. Areas of the world may vary. For example, some countries in Europe have 50% Firefox usage. I have one ecommerce site with very high IE6 usage because one of their main customers is one of those stupid large corporations that's fallen with Microsoft software and can't get up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Yaay :)</comment>


The 5-Hour Rule Used by Bill Gates, Jack Ma and Elon Musk - <AUTHOR> https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/317602 <comment><USER2> _The five-hour rule was coined by Michael Simmons, founder of Empact. The concept is wonderfully simple: No matter how busy successful people are, they always "set aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) over their entire career for activities that can be classified as deliberate practice or learning."_

 _Simmons traces this phenomenon back to Ben Franklin. "Throughout Ben Franklin 's adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin's five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday," Simmons wrote._</comment>


Keep your code stupidly simple - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/tiagosilvapereira/keep-your-code-stupidly-simple-3jik <comment><USER2> I tend to make my code more readable by reducing the number of functions called per line of code.

It may be more compact to call several functions in one line, but it is more readable and easier to debug when you restrict the number of functions to one per line. And it's easier to insert additional lines when you don't have to deconstruct an pre-existing line to do so.

Yes, your compactly written line may run a mite faster. But you will be spending more time on maintenance and debugging than you have saved.

And yes, you may need to declare and use several extra variables to enable you to keep to the 'one function per line rule'.

And lastly, there is this old adage: [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alfredth/2009/01/08/are- you...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alfredth/2009/01/08/are-you-smart- enough-to-debug-your-own-code/)</comment>


Bayesian Estimation with PyMC and IPCluster - <AUTHOR> https://www.wakari.io/sharing/bundle/wakari_demo/ipcluster_mcmc

<comment><USER2> What about the difference between a players normal probability to hit a free throw given he missed the first one. Shaq didn't hit many first or second freethrows, how can this model account for that?</comment>


Google OnHub review–Google's smart home Trojan horse is a $200 leap of faith - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/google-onhub-review-googles-smart-home-trojan-horse-is-a-200-leap-of-faith/

<comment><USER2> "Trojan horse" \- I get the impression that it's kind of a fashion to be overly paranoid about simple products (doesn't matter is it Google made or not). At least in media - you toaster will get ALL your information and send it somewhere.

And there's no serious debate on real threats - like government surveillance in such media.</comment>


Dropbox expiring old passwords - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/help/379/en

<comment><USER2> This is annoying.

Luckily, there is nothing stopping you from just entering the same password again, which is what I did.

The two main passwords I remember are my dropbox password, and my keepass password (the keepass db is stored on dropbox). They are both long and complicated passphrases, and I have managed to burn them into my memory. Don't make me do it again "every so often" because you've decided my passphrase is no longer good enough.

</comment><comment><USER3> If anyone from Dropbox is reading this, as a matter of policy, I immediately cancel any service that expires my passwords, and encourage others to do so.

No company should be dictating passwords to paying customers, full stop.

I am currently a paying Dropbox customer. Please rethink your policy.</comment>


Ask HN: Why are so many HN readers anti-crypto ? - <AUTHOR> You would think that the HN population would be a subset of the crypto community, but I have found a lot of anti-crypto sentiment here.<p>I am studying the space and welcome all shades of view. <comment><USER2> Define Crypto.

If you're talking Cryptography, there's quite a few buffs of it here.

If you're talking cryptocurrency on the other hand...

My objections to it tend to be based around the mechanics of it. Particularly anything based on Proof-of-work. Computation isn't free, and anything that predicates being a store of value based on computational work being done misses the point. We burn resources in order to facilitate that currency exchange. When compared to say, printing off monopoly moneu, and getting a bunch of buy in from other people to respect it (the basis of fiat currency), your fiat currency wins out in that cash doesn't require anything but people's faith they can trade it to be valuable.

Other than that, and the tendency for the technology to lead to pump and dump schemes, I just find the tendency to think that making digital financial transactions easier/more pervasive repugnant.

Digital payments may enable expansion into previously untappable markets, but it hasn't in the years I've worked in the field, done much but create more middlemen to extract fees without creating anything more than a negligible convenience value for being in a position to process the transaction.

<comment><USER3> > your fiat currency wins out in that cash doesn't require anything but > people's faith they can trade it

Disagree. Fiat money requires an enormous expenditure to maintain its economy. You literally need an army and authorities to protect its use, prevent stealing, prevent counterfeits, track it and tax it. This "fiat" is huge in man-hours and time. With blockchain you have that for basically free. It takes an enormous amount of effort and preparation to roll out a fiat (like the Euro) while a kid in a basement can roll out her own ICO and (even though the coins are useless) people can still trust that they wont lose them.

<comment><USER2> Except your cryptocurrency is bootstrapped on a highly-developed industrial product that requires extensive infrastructure to build and keep operational to the point you can _start_ moving to the crypto currency as a means of exchange. Think about it. In terms of both physics and logistics, you need a functioning economic landscape in order to bootstrap your cryptocurrency based economic landscape; and even then, what have you really gained except that now everyone else is maintaining a copy of everyone else in the ecosystems financial transactions. A prospect really only palatable to those who have something to gain by being able to parse all of that data and extract meaning.

Localization isn't a bug. It's a feature. Me paying Joe 5 bucks should not be causing bit flips to have to happen in Japan. That _feels_ free nowadays, given, but there is real and tangible cost there, even if it isn't necessarily physical.

Furthermore, what about your failure modes? How do you reconcile partitions in the network leading to divergent branches over time? Throwing out 24 hours worth of transactions by half your users isn't a terribly good model.

How about manual reversion? Care to do a blockchain transaction on paper? No processor mind!

Something I've learned about evaluating technological impacts is that the "Loop on! Shiny! Cool!" aspects start to give way more and more as you scale up to get replaced with "Well, crap, we really painted ourselves into a corner here."

I can see the applicability of blockchain to niche applications; however, I'm simply not sold at all as to it's desirability as an overarching means of common economic exchange (e.g. currency).

It's a ledger, and a token. It's great for assigning some value to the token, equating it to the national currency, and then tracking your economic exchanges with the population of users who use your stuff.

In fact, I'm not so sure the big obsession with blockchain and crypto hasn't been subverted from it's anti-establishment/anti-regulation roots because tech companies have started to realize how valuable the giant chunks of financial transaction data will become given enough other information to reason from.

I mean hell, this is just off the top of the head kinda stuff.

<comment><USER3> > is bootstrapped on a highly-developed industrial product that requires > extensive infrastructure

You can deploy a TCP/IP network on a moon base powered by solar cells. Infrastructure wise cryptos are way easier to deploy and maintain than having to print paper, create banks, ATMs, safes etc etc.

> what have you really gained except that now everyone else is maintaining a > copy

No what you have gained is that instead of needing an entire army so people can trust your currency, you have an algorithm. Cryptos are the google of money: people trust the algorithmn because they can't trust each other.

> How about manual reversion?

Of course ideal cryptocurrencies are immutable. It should be impossible to reverse anything. But, markets usually build insurance services on top of it, which cover for all the things that the blockchain does not - at a cost of course. Still better than fiat.

> Localization isn't a bug. It's a feature.

And yet most of europe has either moved into the Euro, or pegged to it. And global central banks are more in sync than ever before. Localization is impossible and incompatible with globalized market.

Look at the Euro crisis, it was really caused by the lack of "local" central banking, where none of the countries had the option to devalue their currency. There was a lot of talk and pressure about getting out of it , yet it did not happen and people still overwhelmingly support the euro , despite the austerity. I think this shows the resilience of a deflationary currency (the euro is close to it). IMHO, the euro proved to be a slightly better option than devalued currencies , the devaluation of which would cause much more severe problems in today's globalized, self-insufficient economies than it would in the past.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> 10 + years of Cryptocurrency hype and no killer or even useful app gives people the idea that it's useless. A few people have gotten rich but there's no single useful use.

I, for one, think that Crypto is still in its development stage so I still think that eventually there will be a use for it but it needs to evolve and stop being a drain on the world's energy resources too.

</comment><comment><USER5> Great fan, student, and user of, cryptography.

Not a fan at all of resource wasting speculation schemes for no good reason whatsoever, that I wish would stop being called 'crypto'...</comment>


Speed up the browser search with Jump Commands - <AUTHOR> http://jumprope.ai <comment><AUTHOR> Working on a new product and would love your input and ideas for commands. It's inspired by bunnylol, an internal tool at Facebook!</comment>


Stratos Jump with 8 Million Concurrent Streams - Online World Record?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.overdigital.com/2012/10/14/stratos-jump-with-8-million-concurrent-streams-online-streaming-world-record/

<comment><USER2> The world cup had 800k - [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/06/the_world_cup_the_internet_get.html)</comment>


Show HN: Codementor Office Hours  - <AUTHOR> https://www.codementor.io/officehours

<comment><USER2> This is a great idea. Unfortunately, all the upcoming office hours appears to be web framework stuff, most of which I already am pretty comfortable with or am comfortable learning on my own. The only exception to this appears to be Steve's session on open source projects (which I'm sure will be excellent based on his recent blog post on this topic [1]).

However, I would pay good money to be able to participate in office hours with an expert who's discussing lower-level stuff: C, C++, Rust, or even some assembly. I'm really interested in learning more about embedded, but would also attend any type of systems programming office hours.

I'm pretty hungry to learn more about this kind of lower-level stuff, and I sometimes get stuck on my own.

I'd also love to participate in a functional programming office hours, and would pay accordingly. Something with OCaml would be great, or Haskell, etc. These are all languages I have a superficial understanding of, and would love to delve deeper.

In short, diversify your offering beyond web stuff and I'll be there.

1\. [http://words.steveklabnik.com/how-to-be-an-open-source- garde...](http://words.steveklabnik.com/how-to-be-an-open-source-gardener)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Eric,

This is a great idea - we will diversify our offering as you suggested. If you have any specific recommendations on which experts you'd like us to invite - please shoot me an email. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looked at few developers and I don't think most of them could be labeled as experts in any given language.

There should be a better filter that's not based on 'worked on nothing special for 20 years' or 'stackoverflow points'.

<comment><USER4> what kind of developers would you reach out to if you had the chance?

<comment><USER3> Actual technology leaders. Not self proclaimed experts.

One thing that would be great is to have a poll of who users would like to book and perhaps reach out to them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Scrolling is completely broken for me on ios devices (both an ipad and an iphone 5c). Why is there so much temptation to mess with how the user scrolls?

<comment><AUTHOR> sorry this should be fixed now.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sorry apparently Heroku is down right now: [https://status.heroku.com/](https://status.heroku.com/)

<comment><USER6> Looks like it's back up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The youtube'd example on the homepage is not a very strong one because the mentor's accent is very hard to understand and I would say it destroys the reputability of the entire platform.

[http://youtu.be/vw5_YyM4hn8?t=3m40s](http://youtu.be/vw5_YyM4hn8?t=3m40s)

</comment><comment><USER8> Co-dementor seems like a great name.

</comment><comment><USER9> Are the "8 spaces" just for participants in the Q&A? Ie: can I just watch without signing up and 'participating'?

</comment><comment><USER10> I see 'RSVP available soon' \- is there an email list for when new RSVPs are available?

<comment><AUTHOR> Please sign up and we will announce via our email list in upcoming weeks!</comment></comment>


Covid-19: Infection Biology Lecture by Prof. Marcel Salathé, EPFL, Switzerland - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYTQI2DvAfo <comment><AUTHOR> Interview with Prof. Salathé:

"We need to buy time for a vaccine against the coronavirus"

[https://actu.epfl.ch/news/we-need-to-buy-time-for-a- vaccine-...](https://actu.epfl.ch/news/we-need-to-buy-time-for-a-vaccine- against-the-co-6/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Summary on LinkedIn:

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coronavirus-what-facts- ks%C3%...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coronavirus-what-facts-ks%C3%A9nia- tugay/)</comment></comment>


Which startups were rejected several times by VCs before getting funded? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Which-startups-were-rejected-several-times-by-VCs-before-getting-funded <comment><USER2> If we expand beyond VCs, the prototypical example is "Colonel" Harland Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

> But by not knowing that Harland David Sanders was an actual man, who lived > an actual life, people miss out on more than they might imagine. For one > thing, the Colonel wasn't just a fast-food baron who represented his company > on TV, the way Dave Thomas (a Sanders protégé) later did. Sanders was the > living embodiment of what his food supposedly stood for.

His white suit wasn't the invention of a marketing committee; he wore it every day and was never seen in public for the last 20 years of his life in anything else. (He had a heavy wool one for winter and a lighter cotton one for summer.)

He was a failure who got fired from a dozen jobs before starting his restaurant, and then failed at that when he went out of business and found himself broke at the age of 65. He drove around in a Cadillac with his face painted on the side before anybody knew who he was, pleading with the owners of run-down diners to use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on each chicken. He slept in the back of the car and made handshake deals.

<http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2019218,00.html>

<comment><USER3> i think its interesting that, for a guy writing a book about the colonel, he doesn't seem to know why they renamed themselves officially to "KFC". it was because of a trademark dispute with the state of kentucky, not because it wanted to appear more health-conscious.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've never raised funding for a startup before, but I bet it's like most other things in life: persistence pays off more than skill. You just have to not let rejection get to you (even though it can be tough at times!).

<comment><USER5> Maybe one should take a clue from The Shawshank Redemption: I am coming up for rejection next week :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> When an entrepreneur gets a "rejection" by a venture partner, that is only very weak evidence that there is anything wrong with the entrepreneur's project. Instead, the project might become very successful. Uh, a venture partner is not some wise judge obligated to thoroughly evaluate all the projects and pick the best ones. In particular he is not obligated to fund all the good projects.

Instead a venture partner is just a person, with some time, energy, interests, expertise, obligations, and, usually, funds. So when an entrepreneur contacts venture partners, major fractions of those partners:

(1) are fully busy with their current investments, e.g., helping troubled CEOs, doing triage, or trying to arrange exits,

(2) are busy raising a new fund from the limited partners (much like the entrepreneurs try to do from the venture partners),

(3) are near the end of their last fund and maybe making some follow-on investments but no new investments until they get a new fund (if they do),

(4) are close to retirement and just winding down,

(5) are looking to leave their present firm for another venture firm or maybe something else,

(6) are focusing on investments at a stage different from the entrepreneur's project,

(7) are focusing on a 'space' different from the entrepreneur's project,

(8) have their voice-mail and e-mail in-boxes full and are only looking at deals already filtered for them by a few people they know,

(9) have already made a lot of money and just are not working very hard now,

(10) are geographically too far from the entrepreneur.

Also, venture partners just rarely look at seed or Series A deals in any great detail. In particular only a tiny fraction of venture partners have the time, patience, and qualifications for looking at details.

Instead of details or anything thorough, to save time and brain energy, venture partners concentrate on a few surrogate decision criteria. For a seed deal for, say, a Web 2.0 project, they see if the area of the company is hot and if the team has made money for venture partners before and maybe try the user interface and evaluate the user experience. Again for Web 2.0, for a Series A, they look at ComScore numbers and revenue and earnings numbers.

Or, a venture partner tries to invest in some deals where they can make some money but do not put in all the extra effort needed to invest in all good deals or find the very best deals. They don't worry that they might miss a good deal. For missing the next Google, they believe that no one in venture capital can detect the next Google in seed and Series A deals so don't worry about that.

This isn't the best they would, could, or should do; and it's not what their Web site or public image suggests they do; it's just what they do do.</comment>


Hey. You. Get Off Of My Cloud - <AUTHOR> http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2010/05/hey-you-get-off.php

<comment><USER2> Has anyone started the "You Own It" proxy server yet? A proxy server that you use to grab off a copy of everything of interest, ever comment you submit, ever photo you post, etc. Some sort of plugin thing to work with different websites, etc.

Not just a Facebook specific one, either.

I've had it in mind for a while now, surely someone has built it...? Or started?

<comment><USER3> It's an excellent idea. Such a device could also be used to self-monitor one's Internet use. It's also quite a dangerous device. I could imagine applying the interface ideas of Time Machine to such a device.

Perhaps a proxy is the wrong way to package this. How about a browser that does this?

<comment><USER2> I'm actually thinking of a locally-run proxy, so basically, this _is_ a way of making your "browser" do it, without tying you down to IE or Firefox or anything else. It just sits there and quietly grabs things of interest and ensures you still have a local copy.

The two hard parts are figuring out what to do with the data after that, and dealing with all the various text/HTML formats for things like submitted comments and such.

<comment><USER3> You should be able to construct rules per site. Facebook, Digg, reddit, HN should be obvious. It would work like ad-blockers. Actually, might as well throw one of those in there so long as you're going to have a proxy.

The reason why I proposed a browser, is that the thing is going to look and feel like a kind of Browser History. So why not just roll it into that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> _At the heart of this is a simple question: once the great singularity comes, are we going to evolve into a thinking machines that will live forever? Or are we evolving into some kind of hive mind where everything is shared and processed in parallel?_

Hive mind. We are becoming neurons in a big, amorphous brain. Like neurons, we often don't really comprehend the signals though we might filter and process them in some way.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't think this is workable. First off, it means that everyone requires a single, authoratative identity on the web, which search engines and content grabbers can reference. Second, there's nothing in it for the search engines/content grabbers. Any service that gives people sweeping power to delete content is at a disadvantage to those who don't. And third, there are plenty of good reasons why you can't lay claim to everything on the web that involves you. Say, for arguments sake, that we're just talking about photos. Suppose I take a great photo and you're in it. Now I upload that photo. My 2015 photo sharing site uses facial recognition, and it appears on your list of personal data. Now what if you don't like my pic? Should the photo sharing site take it down? What if I don't even know you, but you happened to be walking in front of a public landmark on the day you said you were off sick? In fact, what if I'm a photojournalist?

<comment><USER5> _everyone requires a single, authoratative identity on the web_

I don't think so...why couldn't you just use OpenID or some equivalent. If I'm posting a comment or tagging a photo, I get to choose which identity service represents me.

 _Any service that gives people sweeping power to delete content is at a disadvantage to those who don't._

Not necessarily. Right now, services have to spend time and money dealing with removal requests. If they ignore those requests, they get law suits, which are expensive. Staff time, especially attorney staff time, is expensive. Automating the removal process might save money.

 _And third, there are plenty of good reasons why you can't lay claim to everything on the web that involves you_

This is a choice that reflects our values though. European privacy law represents a different choice based on different values. Under those legal principles, my image is part of me. I have a material right to control how it is used, just like I have a right to control who can publish the copyrighted novel I wrote.

 _what if I'm a photojournalist?_

Then you can't publish it without my consent. People who are not public figures have privacy rights under the law right now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1\. Archive.org -- kind of kills the whole "delete my past" idea.

2\. Even if it were possible, what about personal responsibility? Why is it a good thing that your past can simply be erased? If you're running for office and it turns out that when you were in college you had lots of crazy coke parties and posted them online, I want to know that and hear you explain it.

I just don't see a strong argument here for why we need to be able to hide what we once thought should be public.

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't say delete. I specifically say I would like to annotate any personal data of me on the web with my preference for public release. My preferences may change over time.

I'm not asking to change the way the internet works or to pass any kind of law or anything. I'm simply purposing a standard way to, in one location, provide some feedback about all my data.

I would imagine that if we did this, at a later stage web applications would either certify that they followed this standard -- or not. No skin off my back in either case.

So for the case of the guy running for office, he'd just have one place to go to in order to say no, I really don't want to share that any more. And perhaps provide an explanation of what happened and why he feels the way he does. People would still be free to distribute whatever data they wanted, but a mechanism is provided to centralize new information related to me. Not the data, but a control block -- which apps can choose to use, ignore, display as an annotation, etc.

<comment><USER6> If companies are acting in their own interest, then there's no reason for them to do this unless it's a law. I believe there is legislation being drafted regarding how people's information can be handled on social networks.

How would it help though? Sites are still caching old versions of pages. You can annotate that you don't want to share it anymore, but a copy still exists and can be found.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A simpler counterproposal: Don't post things to the internet that you don't want to be on the internet.

<comment><AUTHOR> So -- no change?

I believe that's another way of saying "no problem here"

If that works for you, great. I believe there is a problem, however.

I can picture a college party, in the not-too-distant future, where people do stupid things. Everybody is live-recording everything. By simply attending, did you just voluntarily post something on the internet? Or does your rule expand to "Find out who is recording what at all times around you and don't do anything when you are in their presence that you wouldn't want posted on the internet"

<comment><USER8> Of the N people in your party scenario, who owns the photos/live recording? How can you retract something that someone else might want to publish, or might not object to being published?

<comment><AUTHOR> Because I'm tagged. Once you tag somebody, the link is created.

If you don't tag me, no harm no foul. But once you do tag me, then I should at least be able to speak my mind in a public open forum about how I would like that data to be used.

<comment><USER8> I still don't follow 100%. If there are two people in a photo, how does your input supercede theirs, on how it is used or not used?

<comment><AUTHOR> I believe you are thinking in terms of how some specific application may choose to implement this proposed standard.

I really don't go there. See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1364381>

<comment><USER8> The implementation is completely unimportant.

For as long as there has existed youthful exuberance (read: stupidity - we are all young or once were), there exists the risk and responsibility to own up to the consequences of ones actions. If you're caught on video or film or soundclip or with your own words, doing or voicing something stupid, then the onus is on you to explain that if and when the situation warrants.

The more I read over your post, the more I get a sense that what you're suggesting is a means by which to automatically explain (or errata) your data you put out there on the web. Is this the case?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes.

Many of the commenters are asking me to solve the total problem presented. I do not have the solution. But I know the first step is to define and measure the problem.

Right now I have no idea even how big a problem this is, much less what to do about it. As a problem-solver, I would like to start getting an idea of how much and what kinds of data we are talking about. This is a crucial question for future discussions about public policy.

It used to be there were only a few companies with enough data storage to hold all the data that people generated. As storage prices continue to drop, the number of companies will grow at an exponential rate. If I've got a million little copies of me in that chicken suit at the office party, there is no way I can chase them all down and annotate them. But I can provide a central repository where folks can come and see my wishes, desires, or feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> you dont know me and you dont know my style</comment>


The Elephant in Apple's iCloud - <AUTHOR> http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/the_elephant_in_apples_icloud/ <comment><USER2> Apple will fix these issues. First, the average user isn't trying to upgrade the moment new software is released; I'd guess most of the people upgrading on Wednesday were the kind of people who need to have the latest iOS and OS X the minute it comes out, and those are also the types who will power through and figure it out. The average users will upgrade a few days or weeks later, and the kinks will be worked out by then.

And Apple is working to merge multiple Apple IDs. These issues presented here have relatively easy solutions and are probably close to being solved.

<comment><USER3> > Apple will fix these issues.

What makes you so confident that they have the expertise to do so?

I don't mean to be nasty about this, but if there is one thing Apple has consistently shown they do not understand it's networked infrastructure. iTunes has been plagued with problems for years. iDisk is unreliable, MobileMe was a disaster, WebObjects was a framework nearly universally rejected, the apple store has to close its curtains for inventory updates (wtf? It's 2011, Apple), Back To My Mac has never worked well (when it works at all), Apple's streaming video servers frequently have problems that put AppleTVs in bad states (restart required, sorry!), and OSX Server has never been a robust platform for infrastructure.

All the evidence suggests that this is Apple's big weakness. pointing this out isn't being unfair; it's being legitimately worried about their ability to execute on iCloud. No one worries if Apple can execute on the mobile or user- facing software side of the plan, because they've consistently shown they can execute there.

<comment><USER4> _the apple store has to close its curtains for inventory updates (wtf? It's 2011, Apple)_

Marketing. Have you heard of it?

<comment><USER3> Really. Really? You think that is the plan?

<comment><USER4> Sure. Do you honestly believe they cannot update the store on the fly?

<comment><USER3> Yes. I have no reason to believe otherwise. Do you?

<comment><USER4> I would be very surprised if they only updated they store a couple time a year. You know, they sell tons of other stuff, accessories and so on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm far from a heavy Apple user (with only a MacMini, iPhone, iPad, and an AppleTV... I only really use their gear for communications and entertainment), so the only major problems I had were with migrating MobileMe to iCloud, and the whole confusion over having two Apple IDs. The iCloud setup was rather un- Apple-ey complex, but nothing most tech-inclined people couldn't get through. (Which was part of the problem.)

Was the iCloud setup any easier for folks that didn't have a .Mac or MobileMe account to migrate?

</comment><comment><USER6> The biggest annoyance is what it doesn't even look like it will do. I can't (meaningfully) sync my docs between my mac and my iPad. That's one of the main reasons I wanted to upgrade.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wouldn't it be better to wait until there's a better idea of how many people had problems? typically only those with problems are vocal about them, those without don't bother. I upgraded two ipads, two iphones, an iPod touch and a couple of macs, and they're all working fine. I don't think we'll know how widespread any problems were unless Apple apologize publically, like they did with MobileMe.

</comment><comment><USER8> I don't understand why people share an iTunes account with their spouse/family.

Does that mean they share an email address too? Why?

<comment><USER9> I don't share an id with anyone, but I have friends who share an id with their spouses so that they only have to buy songs, apps, movies, & books once, and can both have access to them on different devices. Today, one such friend spoke of how it's nice for him to be able to snap a picture of their daughter, and have it show up in the photo stream on his wife's phone.

So before iCloud it was just a cost-saving measure. After iCloud it's savings plus photo-stream sharing.</comment></comment>


The Inevitability of Serverless - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@carimura/the-inevitability-of-serverless-5680d5c88d33 <comment><AUTHOR> oh and for the embarrassing video of the talk itself: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuO5cKTRU1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuO5cKTRU1c)</comment>


Wall Street Lays Another Egg - <AUTHOR> http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/12/banks200812?printable=true&currentPage=all

<comment><USER2> I'm amused that the author seems to think that precious metals are in some way more real than paper money. They are limited in physical presence, perhaps, yes. But their worth is no less determined by human whim than a series of binary jokes laughing their way through the Wall Street infrastructure. Money is one of the ultimate human abstracts.

<comment><USER3> What you say may have been true once, but by now they all have applications in industry.</comment></comment>


Women from Apple's Early Days Recall Working with Steve Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://recode.net/2015/11/02/women-from-apples-early-days-recall-life-with-steve-jobs/ <comment><USER2> More info in [http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/geek- life/hist...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/geek- life/history/steve-jobs-realworld-leading-ladies-gather)

Would prefer to see the video though. These mediated summaries seem next to useless. (Not that public talks like this are that much better. Like when you go to conferences and you meet people whose real views are much more serious and critical than the BS feel-good manufactured-conflict talk they just gave.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wikipedia link: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Hoffman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Hoffman)

She is daughter of the Polish Jewish film director: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Hoffman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Hoffman)</comment>


Balancing text for better readability - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.adobe.com/webplatform/2013/01/30/balancing-text-for-better-readability/ <comment><USER2> I think it's odd that a post about readability has grey text (#686868) on a white background. Next to the black screen grabs the text is very light.

<comment><USER3> Which device are you using and with what light settings? I've received one report from a user saying that the text on my site is "unreadable" due to the contrast but nobody inside my organization can see what the problem is, so I'm interested in how other people are experiencing such problems.

<comment><USER4> Ubuntu Chrome & Firefox On MacbookAir screen: horrible on dell side monitor: amazing.

<comment><USER5> I'm on a MacbookAir(OSX) running Chrome, looks fine to me.

<comment><USER6> That's because you have OSX font rendering, here is what it looks like on ubuntu: <http://i.imgur.com/YysUNuX.png>

I'd hate to see what it looks like on windows (especially chrome which makes fonts even thinner).

<comment><USER7> Chrome on Win 7: <http://screencast.com/t/S6OTjtWpKI>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why not just use the Knuth-Plass algorithm as implemented in <http://www.bramstein.com/projects/typeset/>?

<comment><USER9> None of Knuth's extensive work on typography seems to be well respected among designers (I'd love to be proven wrong about that).

<comment><USER10> Not respected, or not known?

Edit: I'm seriously asking here, if anyone knows.

<comment><USER11> As mentioned above, Knuth's algorithms are implemented in many professional typesetting and layout applications. I think the people implementing those applications have great respect for Knuth (and Plass.)

My impression is that the users of those programs are unfamiliar with the algorithms used, so I think it is the latter.

<comment><USER10> Awesome, thanks! I foolishly forgot to see if there were siblings to my post. (I try and keep a handle on discussions I'm in with the "threads" link.) So, yeah, apologies for missing those posts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For subtitles and ledes, or really anything larger than the main body text, I actually prefer the <br/> solution. It's important not only to break in a pleasing shape, but also to break at grammatically-sensible points. So it's better to say:

        Take the blue car
        to the shop

vs

        Take the blue
        car to the shop

or

        Take the blue car to
        the shop

<comment><USER12> These latter two examples are worse because the first splits up the subject and the latter splits up the prepositional phrase.

<comment><USER13> That was his/her point.

<comment><USER14> Both comments were written by the same person.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is a very legitimate addition to CSS. I bet we will see it in a future release. It makes a lot of sense for headings. I hope it will not get abused for other text blocks (but I am sure it will).

</comment><comment><USER16> For plain text, see "par", a much nicer version of "fmt".

<http://www.nicemice.net/par/>

</comment><comment><USER17> Chrome still doesn't support CSS3 hyphenation. I wish they would, because it has a huge impact in web typography. <http://caniuse.com/css-hyphens>

<comment><USER11> I agree, hyphenation is crucial to proper line breaking. If you don't mind a JavaScript solution you can have a look at:

* <http://code.google.com/p/hyphenator/> * <https://github.com/bramstein/hypher/>

<comment><USER17> Yeah, I've looked into this in the past. In fact, it was exactly a year ago that I tweeted that Chrome doesn't support hyphenation. Had to double check today to see if it were still true.

In fact, it seems even more important now that they have Chrome on tablets and phones (this was announced one year ago as well, incidentally).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I long for something that would just wrap all big paragaphs of text at 70-ish characters without hacking at element widths (I've tried user stylesheets, scripts... nothing satisfactory). If this were implemented, I imagine it would be easier to do that.

(For example, the first line of the first paragraph of the post renders as 134 characters on my screen. Maybe I am just old, but I find this hard to read.)

<comment><USER19> What was wrong with setting a max-width to (for instance) 70ex for p elements?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The Knuth optimal balancing algorithm is implemented in C in the Gnu Core Utilities program "fmt" -- see <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> \-- and is plenty fast enough for a browser to render text.

</comment><comment><USER21> Yes, the website is ironically displaying text in an inconvenient way for a bunch of users.

But as for the content itself: why not just use left align justify? I understand that justify _asymmetrically_ inserts spacing to apply a balanced center throughout, but is this _really_ an issue? In what context are users so hypersensitive to readability issues that they need the justify spacing to not only balance the entire text but evenly balance each space within the text in reference to one another?

Pardon me for not finding this significant. I just think it's a bit anal when we have a solution already.

<comment><USER22> The linked article isn't about balancing individual word spaces within justified text, it's about re-wrapping the lines so that the last line isn't markedly shorter than the others, even in the face of changing viewport and font sizes.

<comment><USER21> Okay. Thanks for clarifying!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Ugh, I really hate newspapers and the like that stretch out words and letters randomly just to have it make a perfect block. Random spacing to meet your criteria of prettiness does not improve readability. This person centers too much is his problem, I think. Just left align, read down the page with every line starting in the same spot, stop when done. Yay. Most web readers don't even read every word anyway, they skim, and you are producing something anti- skimmable by not keeping a nice solid left line where all the text starts wherever possible.

<comment><USER24> Holy ignorance about layout.

Balancing headlines and the like is complete standard everywhere. Abusing letter spacing has nothing whatsoever to do with it and is generally frowned upon. If you see that someone made a mistake.

You are clueless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Wow. Grey text on a white background. This is really annoying to read on a matte screen.

A little ironic given the subject matter?

</comment><comment><USER26> The simplest solution to a similar problem (a single hanging word in a headline) that I've seen is to replace the 'space' between the last two works with an   This forces the last two words to stay together as a unit. It can be automated with a simple piece of ECMAScript.

<comment><USER27> It's not the single word alone in a line. It's a final line that significantly shorter than all the others. You want to strive for text that's mostly ██-shaped, not ▐▀-shaped. Replacing the last space by a non-breaking one just shifts the problem around a bit (and you still have occurrences like "I am" at the end of a sentence – it's not like the final word is always something nice and long like "sightseeing").

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Any list of quality web typography resources accessible for programmers? Thanks

<comment><USER11> My colleague Tim Brown maintains a website containing links to all sorts of web typography resources: <http://nicewebtype.com/>

<comment><USER28> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wouldn't it be easier and give you more editing control to just put text in a <pre> element? Seems like it would be hard to algorithmically determine what will visually look good

<comment><USER24> InDesign already does this (as does quite a number of other software) and it works remarkably well. There is rarely a situation in which manual adjustment improves the typesetting and the automatic solution i definitely always good enough.

A manual solution is possible but not very practical, as was also mentioned in the article. Especially when the web design is responsive, such manual adjustments are problematic. But HTML is (luckily) also very flexible and neither font size nor the font are guaranteed to be constant, making a manual solution break horribly in e worst case.

CSS desperately needs feature parity with something like InDesign when it comes to typesetting. Adding stuff like this is obvious, something those working with layout programs had at their disposal for a long time.

<comment><USER30> I do agree that typesetting in CSS is a bit lacking. We haven't really had any significant changes in this area since CSS 1.0 came out (with word-spacing and text-spacing). @font-face is great, but it's more about specifying the font to use instead of specifying the type layout.

It's also nice to see some constructive issues already being raised on the project. Whether or not the current implementation is perfect, it'd be really neat to have this _type_ of functionality implemented in a CSS spec.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Lovely idea. One might also consider the special case of two centered lines, where many have an aesthetic desire for the first to be longer than the second.

</comment><comment><USER32> It's a good idea, but it needs to be fleshed out more for internationalization. Even for the given case, English, what exactly constitutes a word?

<comment><USER33> Doesn't that already have to be determined by the browser anyway, for normal word wrapping?</comment></comment>


One Instruction Set Computer - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_instruction_set_computer <comment><USER2> So like x86 mov?

[https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator](https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator)

<comment><USER3> Came in to mention that, but the crazy stuff I was thinking about is surprisingly not mentioned in the main readme. Behold:

[https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator/blob/master/vali...](https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator/blob/master/validation/doom/README.md)

Yes, Doom running with just MOV.

<comment><USER4> "Running" might not be the best word for it: " _The mov-only DOOM renders approximately one frame every 7 hours_ " I.e. about 0.00004 FPS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Transport Triggered Architecture seems not only isomorphic but essentially equivalent to a conventional architecture if you notice it is effectively just relocating/packing the opcode bits into the operands. This seems to be an implementation detail of the hardware (which bits does it gather opcodes from) and not an essential difference in the ISA. Am I missing something?

<comment><USER6> If you had a writable control store then yes. But most processors these days don't expose that API.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> A thread from 2015: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9388137](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9388137)

2011: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3046980](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3046980)

</comment><comment><USER8> Semi-related, I just learned about this 1-bit microprocessor the other day: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MC14500B](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MC14500B)

<comment><USER9> Daniel Hillis' famed Connection Machine architecture (until the radically revised CM-5) featured hypercube-geometry "one-bit processors" which were really "definable logic gates".

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is good, although I study esoteric programming so have known a few of these things.

I have also once designed a schematic for a transport triggered architecture without knowing that it was called that; I just had the same idea. (But, many people will have similar ideas, and not always know what it is called.)

TOGA computer is like a presettable binary counter, NOT gate, memory, some logic for timing (so that it does not interfere with itself), and not much else.

But what is not mentioned is Muxcomp, which is something I am much more interested in, and is also with only one instruction. (Although, I thought of using it as part of a user-programmable VLIW microcode.)

</comment><comment><USER11> Every example under "Instruction types" looks like a combination of 2 (or more) instructions. "Do this AND do that".

<comment><USER12> Whether something does one or several things largely depends on your perspective. You might think of ADD as a single instruction, but it fiddles with a lot of bits...

This is "one instruction" in a sense of having only a single opcode.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've just recently started looking into implementing a minimal ALU, and I've been having trouble finding good resources to answer the question "other than a one-instruction computer, what is the smallest number of instructions needed in a Turing-complete RISC?"

I'm guessing it would be NAND, ADD, increment, and some sort of branch?

NAND covers all of the bitwise ops. If you have ADD, NOT and increment, you can get SUB. If you have ADD and SUB, you can get MUL and DIV.

Am I missing anything?

<comment><USER14> This (educational) ISA has just NAND and ADD: [https://user.eng.umd.edu/~blj/RiSC/RiSC- isa.pdf](https://user.eng.umd.edu/~blj/RiSC/RiSC-isa.pdf)

<comment><USER13> Exactly what I was looking for, thanks so much!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this the era of microcomputers like we have microservices?

<comment><USER16> that word already means something, and it describes probably every computer you've used in your life. so... yes? but the era of microcomputers started in 1974</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I recruit another programmer for my game? - <AUTHOR>

I've been moonlighting the development of a multiplayer iOS game for about 8 months and I find myself in a dilemma. I'm currently working as part of a 2 person team that consists of myself (the main programmer) and an artist. We've fleshed out a lot of the artwork and core mechanics, and you can even play a complete multiplayer game locally. While not public, the game has received very positive feedback from the communities we have shared it with. The problem is that this game was destined to be played with friends over the internet.<p>I know what I need, a programmer familiar with RESTful web services, AWS, client/server architecture and network libraries. Getting connected with the right developer has proved to be very challenging however. We even hired a contractor at one point, but were left with less than satisfactory results. We're hoping to find someone that can eventually be as excited about this project as we are. We'd love to share our enthusiasm and get this game published. I've tried a lot of different approaches, but I'm at a loss for where I should look? We're somewhere between a startup and a serious side project so we're pretty flexible with the exact business arrangement. Any ideas? <comment><USER2> Publish a video review (preview?) of your game, post a link here, and you may find the person you need. "It's a cool game" is not enough, most of the time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Tried posting on Gamasutra? Also you might save some time looking at a service like PlayerIO: <http://playerio.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Gamasutra looks like a great place to start looking. I'm currently filtering by "network programming". Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi, send me email to email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER5> Send me an email or ping me @taytus.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't find your email anywhere and I'm not on twitter. If you can temporarily put your email in your profile I'll get in touch with you.</comment></comment>


This Is Your Perfect Schedule for a Productive Day (Science Says So) - <AUTHOR> https://www.themuse.com/advice/this-is-your-perfect-schedule-for-a-productive-day-science-says-so <comment><USER2> This is a decent list of recommended times for various actions requiring different mental and physical resources that wax and wan through out the day. But I think anyone paying attention to their productivity has found a similar pattern. The only one I disagree with is working out in the evening. I've found, especially as I get older, the 6pm work-out often doesn't happen. I am just too tired so I have shifted it to first thing in the AM because exercise is too important to short shrift. I mull over the priorities for my day when I am exercising so its not a waste of my early morning powers. I also start to wind down around 9pm by dimming my lights and wearing my blue-blocking glasses to improve my sleep.

<comment><USER3> For lifting, I _prefer_ to work out late in the evening, because:

1) I don't feel I have to "save" energy for anything else, and

2) it _helps make me sleepy_.

It also helps that I bought a membership in a gym 4 minutes from my house, leaving me no excuse for avoidance.

<comment><USER2> > It also helps that I bought a membership in a gym 4 minutes from my house, > leaving me no excuse for avoidance.

Yeah, that is really nice... I once lived two blocks from a 24Hr Fatness and had no excuse not to go so that really helped. I have to drive now and I try to go every other day. When the weather is nice I take my motorcycle which adds to the incentive.

Re: 2): Working out gets me too keyed up for sleep which is another reason to do it in the AM.</comment></comment></comment>


HTML5 applied in educational games - <AUTHOR> https://dacobots.com/#The_Palace_of_Thought <comment><AUTHOR> In terms of performance on mobile devices. The content works ok on late 2014 high-end tablets and phones to 2016 mid level ones.</comment>


Commit Keeps You Committed To Daily Tasks - <AUTHOR> http://lifehacker.com/5878501/commit-keeps-you-committed-to-daily-tasks

<comment><AUTHOR> This is an iPhone app I made that was just covered by lifehacker. More information here: <http://thinklegend.com/commit></comment>


"I'm 10-15": the secret CBP Facebook group - <AUTHOR> https://boingboing.net/2019/07/01/im-10-15.html <comment><USER2> FWIW, the investigation that sparked this BoingBoing post comes via ProPublica, though submission of that link was apparently previously flagged [0]. That said, I like the BB post for including Reveal's investigation 2 weeks ago into Facebook groups for police officer. It's also worth noting the PP investigation has already spurred an internal CBP investigation:

[https://www.propublica.org/article/investigation-of- secret-b...](https://www.propublica.org/article/investigation-of-secret- border-patrol-group-launched-as-new-degrading-facebook-posts-surface)

> _The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has opened an investigation > into vulgar and misogynistic social media posts made by members of a secret > Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents._

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20327391](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20327391)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's curious to see a facebook group that has +9k members, they were only able to grab 2 screenshots from all the news that it's a racist group. Only 2 screenshots certainly can't cast a shadow over the entire group.

I would like to wait a few more days before I see more from this group. I have doubts that it was that bad.

<comment><USER2> The original investigation refers to more than 2 examples: [https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol- face...](https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook- group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Unfortunately a lot of LEO's are part of groups like this on social media. It functions as an echo chamber to reinforce the worst aspects of LEOs.

</comment><comment><USER5> > A particular target for their hostility is Congresswoman Alexandia Ocasio- > Cortez, who was the first Member of Congress to __correctly identify __the > CBP border detention facilities as "concentration camps."

This is an opinion piece masked as a news piece. There are many holocaust survivors and decedents who take extreme offense to this characterization.

I am rightfully flagging this, because it's not at all about tech, but what aggravates me the most is that the people who post this type of left wing political propaganda here do so without penalty, while those on the other side get shadowbanned.

<comment><USER2> "Concentration camp" is not limited to the _death_ camps like Auschwitz, and it is a label used by the U.S. for its own camps in past times:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concentration_and_inte...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concentration_and_internment_camps#United_States_of_America)

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cave-markings-tell- ch...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cave-markings-tell-cherokee- life-years-indian-removal-180971928/)

<comment><USER6> The difference is that people don't _willingly_ go to concentration camps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> as atrocious as this is, it doesn't seem to be related to technical news of any kind...

<comment><USER8> too many of us work for companies willing to support this. We workers could put pressure on our employers not to. In fact, maybe we have to.

<comment><USER9> Just because there's a private Facebook group does not mean Facebook supports it.

I imagine there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of private groups. Should Facebook hire hundreds of thousands of employees to monitor every post and every comment posted in every single group? That simply isn't practical and the technology simply does not exist to do it via software.

A video appeared in my feed last week of a woman 'deep throating' a banana in an extremely sexual fashion, the video lasted more than a minute. I reported it and went to her page, there was also one of her doing the same with a cucumber. I reported it. The next day I got the notification that facebook had reviewed the posts, did not go against community standards, I could block her if I wanted blah blah.

I reported them again. Three days later, I got a notification that the cucumber post violated community standards and had been removed however the far more sexual cucumber video was yet again found to fall within community standards.. if they can't even reliably remove a video of a woman vigorously, intentionally sexually, fellating produce in her car with very sexual commentary in public posts with millions of views... how are they supposed to police every single post in every single private group?

<comment><USER10> There was an article posted on HN recently (no time to track it down) but the thing that struck me about it was; the content moderators they _do_ have are powerless.

One moderator spoke of watching animal cruelty to a lizard, deciding it went against community standards, but being over-ruled by superiors who thought "leaving the video up would lead to crimial punishment." As days went on, more people shared the same video and more people kept reporting it. This one moderator wound up seeing the same video come across his screen many multiple times. It happened for days until enough people reported it and the post was removed.

The people currently doing this work aren't really valued. That's why they're contractors. They are simply fodder teaching a machine how to do this insanely damaging job for the future. That's why Facebook doesn't employ them. They're going to be damaged and replaced by technology soon. That's the roadmap. Nobody wants to pay for their rehab, or their counseling, or even their wages.

In 10 years it might be more reliable, but then we'll be complaining that the human element has been completely removed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This looks like Thought Policing, are people not allowed to express their views on private FB groups ?

What exactly is the crime here except may be Thought Crime.

<comment><USER12> When we're talking about a law enforcement group that has near complete power in the 100 mile border zone?

These are people who aren't restricted by the constitution in their exercise of authority. They don't have to have probably cause to detain, don't have to get warrants to search, can pretty much do whatever they want to you.

So when they turn out to be deeply biased, yea, that's news and it's scary.</comment></comment>


Covid19helpline.info website for people to find local helpline numbers - <AUTHOR> http://covid19helpline.info/ <comment><AUTHOR> We developed a website for people to find Covid-19 Local Helpline Numbers

Website - [http://covid19helpline.info/](http://covid19helpline.info/)

As people are struggling to find local helpline information for #Covid-19 ( #coronavirus )

We have built an opensource crowdsourcing based system today, where everyone can look up helpline information and add more so that people in need can find help.

Please bookmark this site!

Currently, it only has numbers for #India but anyone can add numbers for their country and state.

This is still work in progress, contributions are more than welcome! Github Repo - [https://github.com/rebataur/covid19helplineinfo](https://github.com/rebataur/covid19helplineinfo)</comment>