Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Tiyip Sentenced to Death in Secret Trial - <AUTHOR> https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2019/01/25/death-sentence-for-a-life-of-service/ <comment><USER2> Is it related to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_riots) ? Xinjiang is my hometown, the riots is terrible, many people died in the event(most in the first 2 days), I was impressed becuase I know one man's two twin girls killed in the riots, and the angry man orginized many workers in the next day's riots(revenge...)

It's a complex thing, as I know, there's too many media misleading, in both side.

<comment><USER3> >Is it related to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio..). ?

Well, let us examine this possibility by reading the article.

That was in 2009 and according to the featured article, in 2010 he was promoted to the President and Vice Secretary of the Communist Party of Xinjiang University and he only recently disappeared in 2017.

So I am guessing it would be rather unlikely.

>It's a complex thing, as I know, there's too many media misleading, in both side.

This is also something of a problem in the commentary, it would appear.

<comment><USER4> It's a lot like the HK riots which started as a movement against a law (the very kind of law Tiyip has been taken by) but ended up as a metro station burning game.

I'm in HK and a democrat, sure, but these angelic freedom fighting tales abroad are as misleading as the diabolical black hand rhetoric of the mainland media.

As most human movement, there's a gaussian distribution between two extremes, and the two extremes makes the most noise (because extreme noise brings shocked readers) while most ignore and live on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm guessing he refused to get involved in official corruption. Nothing is so offensive as an honest man.

</comment><comment><USER6> What was he sentenced for?

<comment><USER7> Trial was secret. But 2017 arrest point to "Strike Hard" campaign targeting violent terrorism. "Two-face" label was also something thrown around by state officials at the time against those who preached separatism.

<comment><USER8> >against those who preached separatism

Or who just promoted Uyghur language and culture, or didn't cheer the Party on loudly enough:

[https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/turn-in-the-two-faced-the- pl...](https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/turn-in-the-two-faced-the-plight-of- uyghur-intellectuals/)

EDIT: Do you think I'm exaggerating?

From the link:

"To be more precise, [two-faced] is a castigatory definition that Chinese politicians are using to highlight the "failure" of Uyghur intellectuals to manifest their unwavering and unambiguous allegiance to the CCP."

"In this sense, Uyghur intellectuals are forced to remain in the black and white world for their very survival; and in so doing, they are forced to abandon and denounce their own deeply rich culture against their will."

<comment><USER7> Sure, definitions malleable to the whims of the state. But that typically leads to jail terms. Hundreds of Uyghur academics have been detained, some died in custody, but as far as I'm aware only Tashpolat Tiyip and Halmurat Ghopur have been formally sentenced to death. Both at around the same time in late 2017 which suggest there might be firmer evidence behind the convictions. Or out of the 13,000 arrests officially categorized as terrorists, these two were arbitrarily being made examples of. It was a year after Chen Quanguo (architect of the camps) became the Party Secretary of Xinjiang and escalated the Strike Hard campaign (there's been no terrorists attacks since he took over), and within weeks of him being promoted to the CPC central politburo. Timing certainly is interesting.

E: I didn't claim you were exaggerating? It takes very loose definitions to rationalize the levels of detainment happening in Xinjiang.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Somehow the scariest part was the erasure.

 _Articles that praised Tiyip's achievements are now being systematically deleted from the internet. His name and legacy are being erased, even from the list of presidents of Xinjiang University. Ironically, Sheng Shicai, the Guomindang leader who ruled Xinjiang from 1933-1944, who was described as one of the most evil traitors by the Communist Party, is still listed as a president of the school from 1942-1944. Yet, there is now no trace of Tashpolat Tiyip's name._

Almost a caricature of an authoritarian approach to dealing with an undesirable.

<comment><USER10> And some people don't believe me when I tell them that 1984 is a reality in some parts of the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The circumstances of this are very strange. What's alarming is that I don't understand why the government would take such extreme action on someone who doesn't appear to be active in any political capacity. At least not active enough to come up in any search engine.

Upon further digging, I did find more information this notion of 'two- faceness' from an article in 2017, around the time he was arrested:

\</comment><comment>-

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang- security/f...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang- security/fellow-uighurs-should-beware-of-two-faced-people-in-separatism-fight- official-says-idUSKBN17C0HJ)

In a commentary published by the official Xinjiang Daily on Monday, Yasin Sidik, a senior official from Kashgar city in Xinjiang, urged fellow ethnic Uighur cadres to "bravely stand at the forefront against separatism".

"We must stand out and reveal 'two-faced' people, thoroughly seize bad elements out from the masses, clean them out," he said.

\</comment><comment>-

</comment><comment><USER12> So what's new? China sometimes murders people. What can be done? Boycott Chinese products? There aren't enough people who will give up their favorite electronics to make a difference, and most diplomatic currency is used on trade deals, Taiwan, and various disputed islands.

What ultimately motivates Xi and the Party? What are their objectives?

Are they simply doing whatever they think will increase China's relative power? And they think unity — suppression of multi-culturalism and dissent — will serve that interest? Or have they gamed out a strategy for 50 or 100 years that's more subtle, and this totalitarian BS is just a phase they'll outgrow?

<comment><USER13> According to the former PM of Australia, Kevin Rudd:

" 1\. The centrality of the party, keeping the party in power for the long term, as well as Xi's power within the party;

2\. Consolidating the internal unity of the country;

3\. Maintaining sustainable economic growth to ensure a continued increase in Chinese living standards, breaking though the "middle-income trap," while balancing now against a parallel requirement for environmental protection now demanded by China's urban elites;

4\. Keeping China's 14 bordering countries in a benign, and preferably supine state;

5\. On China's maritime periphery, projecting its regional naval and air power, politically fracturing U.S. alliances in Asia, and ultimately removing the United States from the immediate region militarily;

6\. Leveraging its economic power across China's vast continental periphery, causing Eurasia, and in time the Middle East and Africa to become accommodating to China's economic, foreign policy, and security interests;

7\. and Reforming parts, but by no means all, of the post-war international rules-based order over time to better suit its interests, and to better reflect China's domestic values rather than those of the post-war consensus. "

<comment><USER14> So, in other words, World War III.

Good luck with that y'all, I have no dog in this clown show of a fight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> There is ArchiveBox (self-hosted web archive) for these cases when articles are disappearing.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> According to Amnesty International, after 2 year suspended death sentence, he could be executed in September of this year: [https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA1710062019ENGL...](https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA1710062019ENGLISH.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER13> I thought a million Uighurs disappeared into concentration camps, so hopefully he's still alive in one of those camps</comment>


OpenSUSE Linux 12.3 has been released - <AUTHOR> http://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/13/opensuse-12-3-free-open-and-awesome/

<comment><USER2> I am very pleased to see this released, as some good improvements have been made.

Note, however, that there have been some last-minute troubles with NetworkManager and ifup, and I am not sure they have been 100% fixed[1]. Heise pointed out that they had the same problem with the release version[2]. If any problem should arise, YaST should be able to switch between using ifup and NetworkManager.

Other than that: try Tumbleweed, the sort-of-rolling-release based on the current major version[3]. It is about to be rebased to 12.3 and will receive updates more quickly than the mainline. And it is curated and steered by Greg KH!

[1]: <https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=798348>

[2]: [http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/Die-Neuerungen-in- Opensuse-...](http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/Die-Neuerungen-in- Opensuse-12-3-1821658.html) (german)

[3]: <https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed>

</comment><comment><USER3> I watched the video they had linked for an intro to the KDE desktop. I must say, KDE has become pretty slick now, and OpenSUSE does a good job with their KDE desktop.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHppnzlXN4>

<comment><USER4> Sorry to be so negative, but uggh... So much work has gone into KDE over the years and it still reminds me of 90's IT-guy art. From the rainbow colored icons to the cluttered layouts to the mixed light and dark themes.

<comment><USER3> I was actually more excited about the functionality of Dolphin, than the default theme, which is a bit dated. I have seen some people do some nice themes for KDE. Better defaults are needed, I agree.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Dear lord, the fonts (and font rendering) on Linux (both KDE and Gnome) are just horrendous. How do people put up with this crap?

<comment><USER6> As a Debian user that was something that I wasn't satisfied, and which Ubuntu did much better than anyone else, finally I found this link and I could match Ubuntu font rendering.

<http://bit.ly/reTb4m>

For me the real trick was:

echo "Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault" > ~/.Xresources

<comment><USER5> I'm using Kubuntu, do I need to install the "freetype-freeworld" package?

<comment><USER6> No, you just need to execute this on a terminal:

echo "Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault" > ~/.Xresources

And check the output of:

xrdb -query | grep Xft

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've always had a little bit of a soft spot for SuSE, and I had my fingers crossed that when they were acquired by Novell, it would become more popular in the business world.

I think two main things are holding it back from becoming one of the 'main' distributions. The first is YaST, which is just strange in the land of yum and apt. The second is just the sheer amount of support distros like Ubuntu have. There's not as many resources out there, even though the last time I checked OpenSUSE had a strong, but small community.

<comment><USER8> YaST is not comparable to yum or apt. YaST serves as a general OS configuration tool, sort of like "Control Panel" in MS Windows. While YaST can be used to install packages, packages can be retrieved from the command-line using "zypper" which functions similarly to apt-get and yum: <http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Zypper>

I'm not really sure what you are referring to with "support". If you are referring to the sheer size of the community, Ubuntu does has a larger community and also benefits from the fact that most Debian-related/Ubuntu- derivative related docs/advice apply to Ubuntu as well. It looks like openSUSE has a fairly active community forum: <http://forums.opensuse.org/english/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _experimental ARM 64bit images_

In case anyone else was interested, this doesn't mean arm8 is sampling anywhere as far as i can tell, the people doing the work seem to be using a software virtual machine.

[http://www.arm.com/products/tools/models/fast- models/foundat...](http://www.arm.com/products/tools/models/fast- models/foundation-model.php)

<comment><USER10> Greg KH gave a talk at Linaro Connect recently in which he mentions being contacted by somone who accidentally let slip they were in posession of very new silicon, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiED1K98lnw>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sometimes I feel that their efforts are misdirected by supporting multiple desktop environments.

<comment><USER12> It's amazing though, isn't it? KDE, Gnome, XFCE, awesome, Enlightenment... That's a lot of DEs!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> OpenSUSE is an excellent distro. Congrats to the team on another solid release!

</comment><comment><USER14> Is it possible to install OpenSUSE 12.3 on my Win8 secure boot Asus Zenbook?

<comment><USER15> The fact people have to ask this because of "secure boot" is, in my opinion, some incredibly sad shit. Locking down hardware, or erecting barriers, bothers me a lot.</comment></comment>


Why your taxes could double - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/walker.tax.debt/index.html

<comment><USER2> We need a flat tax.

<comment><USER2> [http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/flat-tax-plan-obama- opinion...](http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/flat-tax-plan-obama-opinions- columnists-taxes.html)</comment></comment>


GIT: To force-push or not to force-push - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sensible.io/post/33223472163/git-to-force-push-or-not-to-force-push

<comment><USER2> This sounds like something from Star Wars ...</comment>


Show HN: Watch YouTube together. Shared player - onion-soup https://syncplay.live/ <comment><AUTHOR> this reminds me of rabb.it</comment>


Help me collect the best A/B testing tools - <AUTHOR>

Other than Optimizely, Zentester and Maxymiser, what services are out there for people looking to A/B test their applications and websites? <comment><USER2> I've heard this software recommended for Taguichi method testing (although there's some controversy over whether Taguichi is the right thing to use anyway): [http://www.splittestaccelerator.com/](http://www.splittestaccelerator.com/)

</comment><comment><USER3> HN would be remiss without a mention of A/Bingo, a Ruby on Rails A/B testing framework plugin.

</comment><comment><USER4> I personally like [http://www.phpscenario.org/](http://www.phpscenario.org/) It is super simple to set up, runs on my server and is independent of any ad/no-script/whatever blocks.

</comment><comment><USER5> Visual Website Optimizer

</comment><comment><USER6> Google Analytics Experiments

</comment><comment><USER7> Monetate is another</comment>


PinePhone – Multi-Boot of 9 distros on a single SD card - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqyuKysK6ag&feature=emb_title <comment><USER2> Now that's hot. I don't know what I would do with this ability but I suddenly have the desire to exchange cash for it

<comment><USER3> Haha, you can. :) [https://xnux.eu/contribute.html](https://xnux.eu/contribute.html)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> [https://xnux.eu/p-boot/](https://xnux.eu/p-boot/)

[https://xnux.eu/log/](https://xnux.eu/log/)</comment>


Red Hat on its way to being the first billion-dollar-a-quarter open-source biz - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-on-its-way-to-becoming-the-first-billion-dollar-a-quarter-open-source-company/ <comment><USER2> by cannibalizing IBM, Oracle, etc

<comment><USER3> That's not what cannibalizing means</comment></comment>


Apple Services Unlikely to Offset Soft iPhone Sales - <AUTHOR> https://seekingalpha.com/article/4078582-apple-services-unlikely-offset-soft-iphone-sales <comment><AUTHOR> Author thinks that usage from 7 months of iPhone 7 sales should surpass 6 and 6s usage, despite the larger installed base when the 7 wa released, and the other models being on sale for more than three times as long.

About par for the course with Seeking Alpha articles.</comment>


Our kids may care about brands, but do brands really care about kids? - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/21/david-mitchell-kraft-cadbury

<comment><USER2> _To this end, they'd murder or steal if it weren't for the risk of prosecution, and do so in its absence. People are different. While the law is a disincentive, the main reason most of us don't kill, punch or burgle is that we think it's wrong and consequently prefer not to. Corporations have no such moral sense._

Corporations have no will, motivation, and incentives independent of individuals.

It is like saying that the free market is greedy.</comment>


"Ranger" Supercomputer Marks New Era for Petascale Science - <AUTHOR> http://www.rangersupercomputer.com/release.html

<comment><USER2> Is that enough storage for scientific datasets? After being an admin on a renderfarm with _mumble_ mumble _mumble_ thousands of cores, the storage specification looks really tight to me.

1.7 petabytes / 15,744 Quad-Core AMD Opteron(TM) processors / 4 cores per processor = 28GB per core.</comment>


Microsoft "web technical evangelist" comments about Canvas support in IE9 - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/05/microsoft_ie9_and_canvasn/

<comment><USER2> It's an amazing world we live in where a company as huge as Microsoft is complaining that adding the <canvas> tag is too hard.

<comment><USER3> It is probably too large for them to be able to determine if it can be efficiently implemented in DirectX with hardware acceleration. In order to know that, they pretty much have to implement the whole thing and see. And, if they find things that are poor performing (i.e. its primitives do not line up with DirectX's primitives), they're going to push for changes to the spec to make it efficiently implementable. But, those change proposals are likely to fought by the other browser makers.

Also, I believe Adobe is likely to ask for changes to the <canvas> specification too.

Plus, <canvas> is not that important if you have a high performance SVG implementation.

Finally, <canvas> creates a situation where animated advertising cannot be easily distinguished from other content and cannot be separately blocked from other, useful, Javascript on the page.

So, I think there's more uncertainty regarding the <canvas> specification than people might expect. It makes perfect sense for everything to become more clear before committing to support it, considering Microsoft's very generous support and backwards-compatibility guarantees to its customers.

<comment><USER4> _Finally, <canvas> creates a situation where animated advertising cannot be easily distinguished from other content_

That sounds like an incentive for Microsoft to implement it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why wouldn't they support this? With their share of the browser market constantly decreasing do they really want a large amount of websites taking advantage of the canvas in the future throwing up a not compatible with IE and links to download another browser?

<comment><USER6> IE6 is proof that many will painstakingly support IE instead of just throwing up a "not compatible" message and link to a different browser. Well, not until 5 or 6 years after the release date anyway. So why _would_ they support new standards? :(

<comment><USER7> Glad to be part of a group which made the decision that having people install a browser that supports canvas is not a too excessive requirement. For years people have force users to use IE6 (and still do). It's time we force them to install a browser with the features we need.

Idealistic but if you can do it, go for it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There may be a legal reason for this, doesn't Apple hold patents on the canvas tag? It's likely to be royalty free in HTML5 though.

</comment><comment><USER9> Scare quotes? How "mature".

<comment><USER10> Would you refer to someone as a Christian Evangelist if they said "Have you read the bible? That's a big book. And there's some crazy stuff in there. I mean we'll think about following it, but we'd rather just follow half of it really to the letter"?

Given how much effort he puts into dissing web standards the scare quotes seem appropriate.

<comment><USER9> You're taking selective quoting by a tabloid as proof of anything? Or do you only do that when it supports your preconceived notions?

<comment><USER10> I have read primary sources on various Microsoft blogs saying almost exactly the same thing about a variety of standards (web and otherwise) over a period of years. I have no reason to doubt The Register reporting in this case. This is not in the same league as a tabloid claiming that Elvis and Bigfoot had a lovechild. It is expected that Microsoft will trash-talk standards even, or especially, as they are forced to implement them by market forces.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Animate.css - a bunch of plug-and-play CSS animations - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/daneden/animate.css

<comment><USER2> Awesome stuff. My only gripe is that the other day I ran into one of these CSS-powered animation on an item I was debugging. I thought it was JS, so I was inspecting the DOM looking for the usual yellow highlighting when JS executes on a DOM. It never happened. It made me scratch my head for a while. Maybe they/we/I should put something in the webkit inspector to indicate a css animation action.

</comment><comment><USER3> @_dte here (the author)

vihnboy - a debugger for CSS animations would be great. Luckily, the webkit inspector will tell you all the CSS properties an element carries and indicates CSS errors. However, it doesn't show you errors with associated keyframes - that would be awesome.

james33, johnyzee - the tech is pretty well supported, but indeed has a long way to go. It's in the css3 spec, which is great, and IE10 will support it. Remember - it's an extra layer of interaction, not an important feature of any website. use it subtly.

<comment><USER4> It may be an extra layer of interaction for a regular website, but if you are doing something entirely different like native browser games, it becomes more essential.

<comment><USER3> true, but as I've said here and on the site, the animations featured in the library are meant for interaction. I agree that until this tech evolves, games etc are better suited to Javascript animation (or even flash - or just let them stay in advanced languages and dedicated platforms!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wish there was a library that has a fallback included. I really like the new CSS transitions but as noted, for many use cases there is not a big enough marketshare of supported browsers. But maintaining the CSS3, Jquery animation and the logic behind it, just seems nasty compared to plain jquery animations

<comment><USER3> A js/jquery plugin/fallback is in the works.

<comment><USER6> Thanks! (You are amazing.)

<comment><USER3> You too, Mr Cabbage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great plugin! You should change your demo to use something like

$('#animateTest').removeClass().hide().show().addClass('flash');

So that the same animation can be called multiple times in a row.

</comment><comment><USER8> So are most browser animations done with javascript or css? Seems like from vinhboy's comment most are done in javascript.

I know there are a ton of advantages to using css for animation, so why do most people use javascript? Easier to code?

Oh and btw, this is awesome. I will definitely be using some of these animations in the future. Thanks :)

<comment><USER3> The benefits of CSS animations are plenty. Unfortunately, support is still very scarce: the Webkit team brought the animation property to the CSS3 specification. Mozilla have only very recently added support in Firefox.

however, both Microsoft and Opera have announced support in their upcoming releases.

In my opinion, CSS animation are much easier to write than Javascript animations, and don't require external libraries such as jQuery.

<comment><USER9> At this point I'm not sure most web developers consider jQuery an external library. Heh.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Nice work! have you tried using Sass & Compass for doing it more configurable, with it you can use variables and "functions"

<comment><USER3> I prefer vanilla CSS, but if that's something you'd like to see, why not fork it and make your own?

<comment><USER10> you are right! ill fork it!, btw tried it on iphone and works, it will make a good combination with sencha touch :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Looks decent although I don't understand why they used a deceleration equation on the Fading exits. I would think emphasis should be in the start of the animation instead of the end. A simple acceleration equation would easily fix this.

</comment><comment><USER4> I can't wait until the supported browsers are ubiquitous enough to use these exclusively. The animations on the demo page look great!

<comment><USER12> Which technologies does this use that are not ubiquitous? Without seeing the examples, I can't think of anything that couldn't be done with canvas + js and would work in practically every browser. Of course that wouldn't be 'pure' CSS but I can't see a reason to insist on that either.

I'm stuck with Firefox 3.6 on this workstation but it does most of HTML5 just fine so being 'unsupported' for some animation is a surprise.

<comment><USER9> CSS animations like this are proposed in CSS3 but only heavily implemented in Webkit at the moment. Mozilla has some support, IE is entirely and unsurprisingly lacking.

<comment><USER3> true - Webkit is the only browser with _full_ support at the moment. Apple/Webkit team were the ones to bring it to the spec.

Mozilla added support recently, and support has been promised in IE10 and the next Opera release. To me, that spells 'web standard'.

<comment><USER9> "Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress." - <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-animations/>

Lots of things get promised in IE that don't wind up being very complete, and it'll be quite some time until the IE7/8/9ers fade away.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Nice! Feels like when we first tried JavaScript animations and were all excited about it.

</comment><comment><USER14> > Hmm... looks like you're using a browser that doesn't support CSS > animations. You should go get one in order to use this cool stuff.

Yes it does.

<http://www.opera.com/docs/specs/presto23/css/transitions/>

<comment><USER3> Those are CSS3 transitions (a 'tween' between two states, such as a hover event), not animations.

Animation support is coming in the next release of Opera.</comment></comment>


Genetic Glitch May Prevent Kids from Learning from Their Mistakes  - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/151758 <comment><USER2> Applying this information to parenting is the killer app for genetic profiles, much more compelling than employer screening. A sheet of paper that tells you what's unique about your kids and how to raise them? It would be very hard to say no.

<comment><USER3> The danger with this stuff is some people take it very literally, then a few years later we hear that it's not the whole story and unless you take something else into account then you've done it wrong. I'm not trying to shoot down the research I think it's great to have more understanding of how out DNA affects personality, but that's just another tool to add to the whole set. You can't reduce the complexity of parenting or education to an easy 10 step program; you actually have to pay attention to how each individual child learns.

<comment><USER4> "You can't reduce the complexity of parenting or education to an easy 10 step program; you actually have to pay attention to how each individual child learns."

When the child is very young it makes sense to follow the practice that yields the best results on average, absent of additional information. Some children might not benefit as much or at all from breastfeeding, but it would be irrational not to breastfeed your child unless you suspected that your child was an exception.

There isn't a best practice for facet of child development, but I think it would be a huge mistake to come away from this article believing that no best practices exist.

<comment><USER5> Personally I still find the breastfeeding-IQ link dubious. This blog is an interesting look at the study mentioned: <http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/11/breastfeeding-d.html>

If a study that controls for maternal and paternal IQ and uses modern formula still finds a link then it would be more convincing. Having said that, breastfeeding seems to have a clear positive effect on the immune system of babies.

<comment><USER4> I think the immune system effects alone make breastfeeding the clear best practice, even if no IQ boost exists.

<comment><USER3> There is also a school of though that says the extra cuddles and being held in mothers space is good for them alone. This can be done with a bottle but does not have to be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This kind of puzzles me. How can you even begin to cope with society if you don't learn from your mistakes?

Learning from your mistakes seems, to me, like having pain receptors. People without pain receptors exist, and they hurt themselves all the time in terrible ways, so that they need specialised, permanent care just to exist and not kill themselves all the time. The pain allows you to learn from your physical mistakes and not do them again.

If you can't learn from your other mistakes, how can you do anything but hurt yourself all the time? If 30% of children were truly like that, they would be extremely dysfunctional. I'm not saying that this is not the case - after all, if you think about it, there are a fair number of children at school who seem dysfunctional in some ways (though usually not the ones you'd think at first glance), like repeat-offender bullies - but if that is the case, shouldn't the solution be to discover a fix to this dysfunction rather than just telling parents "Oh well, your child doesn't learn from its mistakes, your parenting won't matter very much".

<comment><USER7> You're assuming that because they can't learn from mistakes they can't learn at all.

The article is not specific enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article strikes me as completely worthless, especially the phrase "learn from your mistakes" as a general category. Let me give two simple examples that parents have almost no influence over that require a child to "learn from mistakes."

Walking: a child has to fall down a lot and understand how to lose balance slightly to be able to walk forward. They may observe others closely but they have to learn walking from their own mistakes.

Speech: many adults around a child may correct speech, but over time children have to auto-correct for the most part.

You would think you would find a correlation between delayed development in walking and speech and fewer dopamine receptors but I am not aware of any studies that would support that correlation and I have had good reason to look into causes for delayed development.

Here is the only link between studies and "learning from mistakes" that the article offers, and it's problematic:

"Numerous other studies have linked this gene variant to addiction, obesity and compulsive gambling, suggesting that the underlying problem is trouble learning the negative consequences of your actions."

Addiction, obesity, and gambling all have the property that they are associated with short term pleasure and long term problems. This is very different from being able to "learn from your mistakes." It's possible, for instance, that all three of these activities boost dopamine levels in the brain (as does smoking, another short term pleasure that's problematic in the long run) and counteract the effect of having fewer receptors. I think the real explanation will prove to be more complex (and will need to be evolutionary stable in the same way that dyslexia confers considerable survival advantages).

</comment><comment><USER9> One of the most fascinating things about humanity is the fact that we went through one hell of a genetic bottle neck about 80 000 or so years ago.

That makes us as a whole very genetically similar and sadly the possibility of extinction by virus is real. Not so for chips, just one tribe of them can have more genetic diversity then all of humanity.

But as similar as we are in large groups, the differences between any two individuals can be HUGE. So huge that I can not even begin to imagine what it is like to not be able to learn from repeated mistakes.

Humanity sure is a fun puzzle.</comment>


Have we run out of problems? - <AUTHOR> Lately I have been trying to fathom a problem that software could fix, automate or even replace humans all together. Every time I get that idea or "ah ha!", moment I am finding solutions to those problems already. Might I add really good solutions that sometimes mimic my own or blow it out of the water.
I pose this question. What problems do you face on a daily bases that you wish a new app could solve or make easier? Preferably something without an answer already.
I'm not trying to start the next billion dollar startup. I am just curious to what people beyond myself see as frustrating or troublesome in a day and age who's slogan is "there's an app for that". <comment><USER2> Here's a problem for you: How do you make it easy to find a close by doctor or specialist and make an appointment? I had to make a Saturday appointment and it took me about 12 phone calls to find a dermatologists that come in on Saturdays. So the current process: search via Google Maps, go to local (ugly) websites, manual calling...

Maybe there is an app for that, didn't bother looking for that...

<comment><USER3> ZocDoc?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah ZocDoc is best for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The space we live it -- whether it be San Francisco and the Bay Area, or life as a 20-something male -- is pretty techified. Go hang out in Louisiana if you're looking for ideas :)</comment>


Twisted Release manager discusses decision to continue supporting Python 2.7 - <AUTHOR> https://atleastfornow.net/posts/py2-py3-twisted-downloads/ <comment><USER2> I'm not much into Python, just wanted to say you're right to value your users and installed base more than a language "march of progress". After all, a programming language is a means to an end. A couple years ago I learned Apple's CalDav server software would be discontinued/not developed further b/c it's based on Twisted (though that situation may have changed), a fact that turned me away from using or depending on Python alltogether when I can help it. Python 2 is also used in Blender and GIMP as a user scripting language with limited test coverage still (I believe), and a couple other highly specialized and valuable F/OSS graphic apps/plugins as well where developer resources are scarce, and forced obsolescence is the very last thing anybody needs.</comment>


I'm finally doing it: bootstrapping my start up. - <AUTHOR>

I'm a long time lurker on HN, but this is my first thread. I've always dreamed of starting some sort of startup since I was 11 years old. Of course life happens, and before I know it I'm a month away from my 30th birthday.
So finally deciding to go for it, I sat down and came up with a very engaging idea and roped my wife into co-founding with me and handling financial duties. We haven't incorporated yet, however I'm currently in the middle of a coding tear on 1.0 and I honestly couldn't be happier. Knowing that I'm potentially building my own destiny rather than defaulting to working for someone else the rest of my life is a big motivator.
Do I want to get rich? Well yeah, but even if I don't, being profitable will be just fine. In fact, I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: DFW.
I have a day job that I'm very happy at, so this is just a nights/weekend thing until we can achieve critical mass. Despite my great job, I still feel the pull of the entrepreneur and am looking forward to launching a beta in a month or two.
It was either get a tattoo or start a business. <comment><USER3> Congratulations and happy trails!

I do have some cautionary advice, though... I say everything here without knowing you, your wife or your idea.

First off, make sure that you read this article and follow it unless you have a good reason not to:

[http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/if-i-launched-a- star...](http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/if-i-launched-a-startup)

Specifically, both you and your wife should have vesting shares. After all, there's a reason that most people do not start up with their loved ones - <USER2> say that the best family business is a sole proprietorship. This isn't a corner store and you and your wife might find your marriage taxed by this radical twist on your relationship.

Would you start up with your wife if you weren't married? If not, then my polite suggestion is that you hire your wife and give her lots of equity for her contributions. Taking on a business partner is an incredibly important decision, and if you wouldn't hire her otherwise then it's a potentially questionable decision now. I wouldn't belabour this point but you didn't explain her background.

The other thing is that it pays to startup with a good idea. I'm a big believer in MVPs and pivoting and trying things until it works... but the fact remains that most ideas are terrible and it's hard to tell when one of your ideas is terrible. Most people around you are inclined to tell you how great an idea it is, because they can see in your eyes that you want them to love it. This is an extremely dangerous confirmation bias because you can and will waste your valuable energy and enthusiasm.

In short: seek people that you can trust to give you honest feedback on your ideas. Steve Blank's 4 Steps to the Epiphany is worth the kudos it receives. And most important of all: make sure all founders have vesting shares.

<comment><USER4> On that last point, I always found that an undiplomatic stranger are best sounding boards. Sycophants are as valuable as an overdue bill.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hehe, smart move on your part. Steady wins the race. Ping me when you're ready to launch (email in the profile) and I'll send you a bunch of traffic. No guarantees of it will convert or not, that depends on a lot of factors but if it won't help it certainly won't hurt.

Being in a 'bad' area is also an advantage, if you can make it there you will be virtually without competition.

Happy coding!

<comment><USER6> When you have something to show, submit it to <http://alphalist.co>. No, I have no relationship with them. I just signed up as a user.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Congratulations. Don't worry -- location is overrated. I met a few folks with successful software businesses in the DFW area when I was there for a shareware conference.

(And besides, it can't _possibly_ be worse than the Japanese hinterlands, and this town can still pack a room once a week with software businesses which are successful for a broad range of "successful".)

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm 43 (and a HN-lurker as well) and I am edging towards starting mine too. Having two kids and a house, I think I know how you feel. Must be as scary as it is exciting. Hopefully I will be able to 'join' you soon.

In the meantime: all the best to you and your start up!

And you said it well: I hope we get rich, or at least be profitable.

</comment><comment><USER9> Congratulations, irrespective of whether you sink or swim, this will change you from here on.

I was in your shoes a bit over 2-years ago and still going at it, so, if I may, give you some pointers.

1\. Before you leave your full time job, model your expenses for as long as you can (did that for six months) and make sure you have enough to see you through both good and worst case scenarios. This will also tell you where the stop-loss is for you.

2\. Have a list of people who you can lean on for emotional and intellectual support. It only takes one bad day to pour cold water on all the good days. Make sure that you have people who will keep you moored on both the good and bad days.

3\. The first month is the toughest one and nothing in the world prepares you for it, especially if you have been securely employed for close to a decade.

4\. Make sure you are doing what you enjoy doing & aim for revenue that will take you out doing things that you don't enjoy doing at the earliest.

Good luck, again :)

</comment><comment><USER10> I wish you the best. I"m 35 and have just started my 3rd. The first two failed. But man did I learn a lot. I have a good feeling about #3. And I hope you're successful as well. Don't look back.

</comment><comment><USER11> DFW == Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)

A startup in an airport? --Way Cool! ;)

</comment><comment><USER12> I know you're excited, but before you get too far on the coding, do some research. I can guarantee you that your idea/product, while possibly genius, doesn't 100% match up with what people need (will pay for), and if you code before talking to real potential customers, you will either a) waste time building features no one actually wants (will pay for), b) not build features that make people do want (will pay for). Notice a trend here. ;) So...

\- Talk to 10-20 people in your target market who are not your friends to verify that there are people out there who will actually _pay money_ for what you're building

\- when people say they will pay, ask them what specifically makes it worth paying for

\- when people say no, ask them specifically what is missing that would make them pay for it

\- look for similar ideas that have failed/succeeded and look at why they failed/succeeded (wrong features? poor marketing? no real market? poor timing? etc.)

Few other things...

Product is important, but so are marketing and distribution.

If you ever get the urge to make an investor deck, stop yourself. Make yourself a sales deck instead. It'll work either way, and sales are much more important.

Mentorship can be more valuable as money.

Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride, man. So prepare yourself for that, and reach out to others for help when you hit the dark spots. We're here for you.

Most of all, GOOD LUCK!

</comment><comment><USER13> Congrats! I run a startup too, at the age of 32, and my wife helps me out when she has time (data entry, marketing tasks, brainstorming, etc). It's exciting, but hard work with long hours. After all, you've got to manage finances, licenses, supplies, taxes, development, design, environments, IT, marketing, invoices, inventory, reporting, etc etc.

At some point you may actually need to take the plunge and work fulltime on it if you want to really make it a success, but until then have some fun!

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm 45 and I'm starting mine too. It's never too late.

</comment><comment><USER15> >I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: DFW.

Beg to differ. There's a plethora of resources in the DFW area for startups. They just don't have a centralized location/leader. There's Tech Wildcatters (incubator), CoHabitat (co-working space and just a great group of people that hang out there), Startup Happy Hours in Dallas (you can meet LOTS of people - lawyers, founders, angels, VC's, other startups, etc.), launchDFW (covers startup news in DFW; disclaimer: I write articles for them), etc. Lots of resources, it's just not easy to find them all the time because it's such a spread out area.

</comment><comment><USER16> What would the tattoo have been? :)

<comment><USER17> "My other midlife crisis is a startup"

<comment><USER18> ^ awesome ^

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Do yourself a favor and bookmark this post to re-read when the demons come.

</comment><comment><USER20> Congrats! Best of luck in your endeavor.

 _Well yeah, but even if I don't, being profitable will be just fine. In fact, I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: DFW._

True, but you're only a few-hour drive from one of the best, if that helps. ;)

</comment><comment><USER21> I love your optimism. Getting on with the dream is a good feeling and it's great to get fired up. I work for a major airline and I'm curious about your product.

At the same time, you have a long road ahead. A startup is a major commitment and it's anything but easy. There will be many ups and downs and it can be emotionally draining.

The key is to press on when that enthusiasm (it really does feel great to get started) wears off and it gets tough, and it will. Make it through the peaks and valleys and you might have something.

I hope things go well for you.

</comment><comment><USER22> I recently visited DFW area and it was wonderful. Although I'm sure tech may not be high on the list their, with all the growth I saw I would expect many of the other up-starts could utilize the new tech.

I'm not sure what your startup entails, but I would recommend reaching as far towards Austin as possible. The city is really having what could be compared to a small Renaissance. Art, music, and innovation are all there. Now all they need is a startup from HN.

*That is how I would approach the situation.

</comment><comment><USER23> Good luck man! I'm sure if you just keep at it it'll work out fine.

But a word of advice, be careful that you and your wife's relationship won't be jeopardized by working together. I don't know either of you but from observing my friends it could put an untold amount of pressure on your relationship.

Your wife will essentially stop being your soother and turn into a business partner(one you live with D:) and thus another source of pressure.

</comment><comment><USER24> > I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: > DFW

I want to change that. Are you in FW, D or in the middle?

<comment><USER25> I, too, would be interested in knowing this. I live near FW, but work near D, so it would be great to make other technology contacts in the area. It's interesting to hear that DFW is one of the worst areas for startups. Perhaps our notoriety for incubating restaurants is more attractive?

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm also a DFW resident and doing the same with my wife as a co-founder as well. We should start a club or something ;)

</comment><comment><USER27> DFW isn't bad. You just can't sit at home and expect to have other entrepreneurs walk up to your front door.

</comment><comment><USER28> DFW?

<comment><USER29> Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Fort_Worth>

<comment><USER30> May not be well known for startups but be thankful it's a big city and there's still some activity. (DFW is 75x as big as Iowa City, my home).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Congrats, best of luck. When things get hard, take a step back and remember why you're doing this.

<comment><USER32> that's what she said

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Congradulations and I hope it goes well. Sorry to hijack but I have a quick question for everyone, should you tell your employer that you are making money on the side with the startup and/or have a side buisness?

<comment><USER34> Is there any reason to volunteer it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Good luck on your journey. If this is the first startup experience for you, I'd like to ask you about if you've done any customer development? (Talked to potential customers)

</comment><comment><USER36> It's very inspiring to read your post. Being 12 years your senior and still sitting on the sidelines, this could just edge me over to starting on my startup idea!

</comment><comment><USER37> Good luck to you! I'm at a similar situation, I actually started implementing my first startup a while ago (finally)!

</comment><comment><USER38> congrats! here's a list of articles i've curated since august that may be of use to you in these early stages:

<http://www.delicious.com/acconrad/startup>

</comment><comment><USER39> I wish you good luck! Always inspiring seeing others who take the leap...

</comment><comment><USER40> Really awesome to hear that! Please do keep us posted on progress :)

</comment><comment><USER41> Best of luck! It's never too late the follow your ambitions!

</comment><comment><USER42> Do you happen to be a Horned Frog?

</comment><comment><USER43> Brilliant, keep us posted.

</comment><comment><USER44> Good luck with that.

</comment><comment><USER45> Perhaps a stupid question, but why get a tattoo OR start a business?

Personally I have my startup's logo tattooed ... it seemed only fitting.

<comment><AUTHOR> I dunno, figured I had to do something a little risky once in my life. Besides, it makes a great punchline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Congratulations. Getting the wife in on it is a very good move.

</comment><comment><USER47> Getting a tattoo can be painful, but not following your calling can be astonishly agonizing.

Thank you for being.

</comment><comment><USER48> What ever you do make sure if it fails make sure it won't hurt you financly don't bet to much on it in the begining</comment>


Submit your finished script to Amazon Studios - <AUTHOR> https://storywriter.amazon.com/ <comment><USER2> The submission agreement would be worth reading: [https://studios.amazon.com/help/submission- agreement](https://studios.amazon.com/help/submission-agreement)

 _9\. Compensation. You will have no right to compensation in connection with the exploitation of rights you grant under this Agreement._

The bullet above is puzzling. And no, I'm not taking it out-of-context: that's the entire paragraph.

Are you waiving your right to actually be compensated if Amazon decides to accept your script?

<comment><USER3> _In this Agreement, you grant us rights to display, use, modify and distribute Content on Amazon Studios. This Agreement does not grant us rights to create a television series, movie, or other work based on your Submission_

They are saying you wont be compensated for your posting of your script, that's all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Probably the most important part: [https://storywriter.amazon.com/faq](https://storywriter.amazon.com/faq)

Is my script safe? Yes. Amazon encrypts your screenplay when storing it in the cloud. We will not access or read your script unless you submit it to us for consideration. To further protect your work, you can also register your materials with the Writer's Guild of America.

Register your screenplay with the Writer's Guild of America, West ([https://www.wgawregistry.org](https://www.wgawregistry.org)) Register your screenplay with Writer's Guild of America, East ([https://www.wgaeast.org/script_registration](https://www.wgaeast.org/script_registration))

<comment><USER5> > We will not access or read your script unless you submit it to us for > consideration.

So the server side has zero knowledge and zero involvement with conversion? I would expect this conversion to be done on the server side, however.

(seriously if you are gonna downvote, explain yourself, silence is insulting).

<comment><USER6> I'd imagine you're being down voted because you're nitpicking a technicality. Sure, the server has some "involvement" in the content of your script while processing/storing it. What they're probably saying is that no human person will read/access your script.

When in doubt or a grey-area, rather err on the side of taking the "intention" of what a person is saying, rather than the literal interpretation of all their words.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for your input, but I think it is unfortunate that people see it that way.

<comment><USER7> How would you solve it?

PGP and submit key when you want to submit your screenplay?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Amazon has been accepting scripts for years, if they run the same program, they can exercise an option to buy scripts for $250k for movies and iirc $50k/tv show.

I applied to Amazon Studios legal team when I found out about the screen play program (~2009) thinking it would have been a unique combo of tech and entertainment law. Never heard back...

<comment><USER9> Shoot me your info, contact in profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Yeah, I participated in one of the earliest rounds of when Amazon opened up for submissions. Very clunky system. Lots of waiting, little feedback.

What happened?

They optioned 4-6 concepts and made pilots based on material from industry players.

That stung quite a bit. I felt the whole setup was more of a publicity generator than genuine avenue for discovery. Might be different this time around, but I'm skeptical.

<comment><USER11> > They optioned 4-6 concepts and made pilots based on material from industry > players.

My daughter ran a screenplay critiquing service on the web. She read scripts for her daytime job so it wasn't a scam. She gave the customers what she said she would, for $50 a pop, but she felt guilty because none of the zillion submitters had a chance of their script getting picked up.

<comment><USER10> She worked directly for Amazon? That's the only situation I'm referencing.

I participated in a handful of other 'contest' like situations, one of which also ticked me off because they changed the process to suit their own preferences.

As in, the stated process was pay $40 (or $90 for 1 page of feedback), 3-5 finalists would be selected, brought in for interviews, and from there up to 3 winners would be chosen. What happened? They got so many submissions that they broke out 5-7 different categories and had lists of 10 finalists within each category, and were going to move to some other kind of judging platform (social media votes?) in order to continue to narrow down to the eventual 3-5, then winners.

That doesn't fit the definition of a scam, but it certainly isn't abiding by the rules. I didn't bother with any charge-back on my card, but felt pretty tempted at the time. "Contests" for art, in my experience, tend to be a waste of time and money unfortunately, because the enticement is so damn strong.

<comment><USER11> > She worked directly for Amazon? That's the only situation I'm referencing.

No, I was referring to a similar but different situation. The point was that the odds of getting any script picked up was near zero unless you were in the industry. A friend of my daughter's got one picked up but he's been working in the industry in various capacities for ten years.

<comment><USER10> Oh I know that to be the case, and never thought otherwise. In retrospect you kind of validated my initial postulation - that Amazon's posturing that any scripts or material by non-industry folks had a shot. Thus, if even one of their first concepts had been sourced through Amazon Studios, I would have tempered my critique with that information...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Amazon is investing engineering effort into screenwriting software...? They think people are more likely to submit screenplays if they have a web editor?

</comment><comment><USER13> Does the drones/battlefield script in the animated gif remind anyone else of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"?

</comment><comment><USER14> good luck with that</comment>


IPhone Apps on the iPad - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2010/03/iphone_apps_on_the_ipad <comment><USER2> Setting out to design an iPad app is a strange experience... we've always been used to having some constraints -- a window sized to just the size you need plus a title bar at the top, a menu bar either on the window or at the top of the screen, a Start menu or Dock at the bottom of the screen, etc. With the iPad it's more like "Hello, big blank canvas. How am I gonna fill you up?"

<comment><USER3> Selfplug: This is something I collected to show what other iPad developers/designers are up to: <http://tumblr.com/xjl76lu8h>

<comment><USER4> This deserves its own post - "what we know now about emerging iPad app design".

<comment><USER3> I tried, it sank to the bottom of the new items list sadly.

<comment><USER4> I see. I think a more audience-relevant title would do better, such as "what kind of UI design can we expect from the new form-factor that is iPad".

<comment><USER3> You could always chuck a hash tag on it and try it yourself haha.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is an important point and from a usability/efficiency point-of-view the iPhone apps will have problems in scaling up (even with increase resolution). Think about how inefficient a direct port of the weather app would be on the iPad. Also I believe the screen size is not proportional in the iPhone as compared with the iPad which will create additional porting problems.

This does represent an opportunity (or potential problem) as certain apps will need to be re-designed for use on the iPad. There is a potential for a number of apps to take over the market with reengineered designs made for the iPad.

<comment><USER2> It'd rarely be the right thing to do, anyway. iPhone apps strongly tend toward drilling down through a hierarchy of list views until hitting a full-screen (including controls along an edge) detail view. iPad apps on the other hand have a flatter hierarchy, very often showing a list view and a detail view (for the selected item from the list view) at the same time. This is why iPad apps are more likely to implement a "real materials" style of interface... they're less explicitly about drilling through hierarchies for data and more about direct manipulation of the entities the app deals with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> First thing I'm going to do with the iPad is put a wikipedia archive on it. There's an iPhone app called Encyclopedia that costs a few dollars but lets you download a complete 2.5gb page dump of Wikipedia onto your iPhone for offline browsing. I'm wondering how this app will look on the iPad - huge, blown up text? Or just broader lines? Of course, a native iPad version/equivalent will be released sooner or later.

<comment><USER7> What it (and other Wikipedia readers) really should use is the new Cocoa Touch NSSplitView to keep the table of contents visible (maybe with some kind of cool position indicator as well). Like the mail app, it could do split in landscape and pop-over in portrait.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The iPad SDK is still NDA but my impression is that the new UI components make up for the lack of multi-tasking by facilitating rapid switching/quick actions. The new Mail app - you can rebuild that using the new UI elements. The iPad is probably the first tablet computer that will matter.

<comment><USER9> How could a lack of multitasking be made up for by rapid switching between tasks? Like, if I keep rapidly switching back to my mail client from my browser and then to my music player and back again, I'll feel like I'm actually getting something done?

<comment><USER10> It means that if you are so ADHD that you bounce from app to app like a ferret on a double-espresso the hardware and software platform will not get in your way; it will enable you to accomplish nothing in a way that feels much faster than similar devices.

<comment><USER9> I asked "How could a lack of multitasking be made up for by rapid switching between tasks?"

Single-task at the speed of light for all it matters, you still never get the benefit of not closing everything you're doing just to open up the iPad's text editor.

<comment><USER11> Easy. Apps which save their state when you close them. Not a solution to all problems (i.e. playing music in the background) but to the user it doesn't make any difference whether that Spreadsheet app she just left to take a note keeps on running in the background or quits if she finds it exactly the way she left it when coming back. (As long as it's speedy enough.)

Users don't want multitasking. They may say so - don't listen to them. They want to be able to do stuff. One traditional way to let them do stuff is multitaksing. That's why they are screaming for it now. But there is no reason why the solution that let's them do stuff actually has to be multitasking. It could be something else entirely.

<comment><USER12> It matters if the "stuff" they want to do is listen to their favorite music app (e.g. Pandora) while playing their favorite game. Or let a passenger in the car look up travel info on the web while the GPS navigation app continues to give directions.

<comment><USER11> Um, yes, sure. I even mentioned that (you might have missed it). Those are problems, but you don't necessarily have to solve them with multitasking. Or better: the kind of multitasking you know. Most apps can just save their state and quit. Some apps in some specific circumstances should keep running. The iPhone already supports that kind of multitasking (Phone app, iPod app, Voice Memo app) but only Apple can use it. I see no reason why they wouldn't extend that to all developers sooner or later.

The iPhone and the iPad suck if you want to do what you just said regularly. That's certainly true. But many other traditional tasks of multitasking are handled quite gracefully right now without any multitasking.

<comment><USER13> > The iPhone already supports that kind of multitasking (Phone app, iPod app, > Voice Memo app) but only Apple can use it. I see no reason why they wouldn't > extend that to all developers sooner or later.

I see a reason. Apple may want to give iTunes a competitive edge over other music apps by keeping it the only music app that can work in the background. This doesn't seem out of line of Apple's character as of late.

<comment><USER11> No way to resolve this other than to wait. I don't know. Apple sometimes does strange stuff that seems otherwise out of character.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I have this rule when reading blogs.

When I read "well-informed little birdies" or "inside sources" or "people I trust," I replace that with "based on a random email I got from an anonymous source." If I read a lot of these types of statements on a blog, then I stop reading the blog.

This was usually reserved for DailyKOS and other crazy political media, but tech sites are now getting to be bad about it too, especially ones that cover Apple.

<comment><USER15> Whilst I agree with your comments in most circumstances, Gruber has an excellent track record with Apple rumours.</comment></comment>


The Poverty of Entrepreneurship: The Silicon Valley Theory of History - <AUTHOR> https://thenewinquiry.com/the-poverty-of-entrepreneurship-the-silicon-valley-theory-of-history/ <comment><USER2> The French plantation regime, he claims, bred a "culture" of "ignorance and superstition," "no long-term planning," and "low loyalty"—factors that impeded successful slave insurgencies.

Yet at the same time, he notes that such a culture can be transformed, almost in an instant, by a charismatic and creative leader.

Kinda make you wonder how important leaders are? It would be my assumption that on some things a leader is nothing more than right time right place. But, you have to wonder about people like Einstein would his theory have been thought up by someone else at the time? or a group of people? Obviously without a time machine no one can answer that but still something to think about.

</comment><comment><USER2> Of the Spanish arrival in Hispaniola, he writes:

They introduced Christianity, forced labour in mines, murder, rape, bloodhounds, strange diseases, and artificial famine…These and other requirements of the higher civilization reduced the native population from an estimated half-a-million, perhaps a million, to 60,000 in 15 years.

Obviously it sounds nicer when you call it "innovation" and "collective learning."

\--Interesting way to frame it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Interesting essay I thought. And whilst I think that it's as okay to view history through a well, venture capitalist lens as it is through a Marxist lens, the following stood out for me:

"Theirs are also visions of history that are basically uncurious about the past—that is, they are indifferent to the idea that people in other times and places may have thought and felt differently about the world than we do"</comment>


Ask HN: What android apps do you use? - <AUTHOR>

Just got my first android (2) phone and while I can see the potential, there's also a huge amount of chaff to sift through on the market.  What apps are worth your time?  Thanks! <comment><USER2> google's listen is fantastic for driving down the freeway! searchable and queueable podcasts that you can save locally for when you have no cell service. Not sure how many can be queued up and cached, but I've done two no problem.

Also, you'll want a task killer app, since you'll find that apps never "go away" until the system runs out of memory causing android to take over and kill some programs. My favourite so far is "Taskpanel". Additionally, for recording a GPS track, use "My Tracks" which is simple and enjoyable enough to use, lets you email the file to yourself when done.

"gpsstatus" is fantastic - the must have for a tinkerer! Also usable as a level, so no need to get one of the trillion level applications.

Believe it or not, the flashlight apps are very handy to have on the desktop, as they keep the phone from sleeping/dimming too soon.

HANDS DOWN the best application if you do any amount of texting or MMS, is 'handcent sms'. It is a fantastic program, and one of the nicest Android programs I have used. Can't praise this enough!

For twitter, 'twidroid' is my favourite. I don't do too much twittering, so am not sure the competition, but this one is speedy, feature filled and never bogs down my phone. You'll find that isn't always the case with android apps, so twidroid gets a nod for this (as well as handcent, it is rock solid).

If you use ampache at all, my buddy Kevin created an android app to stream from your ampache server. It's called 'amdroid' and is pretty decent. It's definitely a work in progress but it's fully functional.

'phonalyzer' is cool for seeing stats on your phone usage. Much better than any carrier specific graph on a webpage, and it's small enough to not worry about having it installed and taking up space. It's definitely what I call a "toilet" app, because that is about when I use it, however, it's nice to know my usage here and there! I guess that is praise, because it means I don't have to spend hardly any time using the app to get benefits from it.

depending on the android version/carrier/handset manufacturer, you may want to install 'spare parts'. It's a few more settings not found in the settings menu, but I think this only supplements handsets running android 1.5, but I am not sure off top of my head.

Finally, root your phone and install 'wireless tether for root users'. I kid you not, it's the most useful app i've used. You can't find it in the market, but a simple google search will get it for you, and you can just click the link from the android browser to install it. It has access control lists, WEP (better than nothing) and multiple concurrent client support. I love this application, but of course, use at your own risk as you have to root your phone to use it (not a problem for most handsets), and you may run up data charges fast if you don't have unlimited.

That's my main list, anything else has been tinkering. These have been installed/reinstalled on my phone since I have had an Android device.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have a G1.

Android apps I use:

DoggCatcher -- podcast fetcher and player, mostly for NPR and various tech shows. News on my schedule. I've used this since before Google Listen was available and haven't compared them, though many say DoggCatcher's better.

Pandora for music pseudo-radio.

Google Maps (great for traffic), GMail, Search, Voice Search (works surprisingly well), Goggles (less useful than I'd hoped), built-in music player for MP3's, camera, contacts, alarm clock, YouTube.

AndroZip for file {de,}compression and filesys browsing.

Dolphin browser, better than stock browser.

Watched a few TV show episodes on TV.com. Quite nice, I hope they expand their offerings.

ConnectBot for ssh access. Remote Desktop for remote Windows login over VPN during emergencies. Had a VNC viewer, forget which one, before last factory wipe.

Icviewer for PDF files.

AcroBible for full NIV and Portuguese-AA bible editions w/ commentary.

Google Voice for very cheap international calls.

Had a Facebook app installed at one time, I'll get back to it when I have the patience.

What I'd REALLY like: a way to reformat and fetch AT&T U-Verse DVR shows onto the phone from anywhere to watch them while away from home.

</comment><comment><USER4> Aside from the built in stuff like email, calendar, contacts and maps with the traffic view I use the following every day: shuffle as my to do list, and StreamFurious (free version) for streaming audio.

The TripIt and Yelp apps were useful on my recent vacation.

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://mytracks.appspot.com/> if you're into that sorta thing.</comment>


He Who Must Not Be Tolerated - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/opinion/joichi-ito.html <comment><AUTHOR> Kara Swisher writing for the NYTimes: "Joi Ito's fall from grace for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was much deserved. But his style of corner- cutting ethics is all too common in tech."</comment>


Make two lists - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/06/make-two-lists.html <comment><USER2> > grievances, disrespects and bad breaks

> privileges, advantages and opportunities

So either I feel bad because I'm constantly reminded that bad things happen to me or I feel bad because I'm constantly reminded that I don't deserve the good things, because they are 'privileges'?

<comment><USER3> What's really going to blow your mind is when you realize that everything belongs on both lists - it just depends on your point of view when thinking about that particular list item.

<comment><USER2> Could you elaborate how getting cancer goes on both lists?</comment></comment></comment>


The Unbalanced Negative Externalities of Cybersecurity - <AUTHOR> https://securityledger.com/2015/05/the-unbalanced-negative-externalities-of-cybersecurity/

<comment><USER2> > Regulation and legislation is – and should be– a choice of last resort for > solving problems in the digital age. However, externalities are sometimes > best managed via regulatory intervention. (Consider global climate change as > one example.) Just as the federal government sets a minimum standard for > motor vehicles on public highways (functional brakes, turn signals etc.), > perhaps it is time to start discussing a standard of hygiene for the > computing devices traveling our digital highways.

And this is, coincidentally, being proposed by Symmantec, who is a totally disinterested observer who wouldn't benefit at all from this restrictive legislation.

<comment><USER3> Part of the problem with regulations is that regulators often don't have the tools they need, resulting in wasteful and needless compliance work that leaves systems less secure than they were before.

Regulations are generally OK where they dictate personnel or procedural requirements but often extremely problematic where they intersect with technical matters.

An example would be cryptography in the HIPAA security rule. The only crypto standard regulators had in their toolbox was FIPS 140-2 (I believe it's a recommendation, not a requirement). Sadly, FIPS is a total footgun.

Many organisations however (sometimes under misleading advice from compliance paper pushers who do not know anything about security) then interpret FIPS 140-2 compliance or certification as a requirement for vendors.

Well, what's the problem? FIPS-140-2 is absolutely toxic to software. Trying to run systems in FIPS mode weakens them and breaks a lot of compatibility. Also, technically, you're not allowed to patch the crypto routines after certification!

See: e.g. [https://blogs.oracle.com/darren/entry/fips_140_2_actively_ha...](https://blogs.oracle.com/darren/entry/fips_140_2_actively_harmful) for a discussion of some of the problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > This hygiene model would scale NAC principles globally.

This guy is suggesting that computers should be legally required to have spyware on them.

No thank you.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why aren't the people who fail to secure their computers liable for the damage they cause if their computer is used in an attack? This should be covered by common law, why does this need regulation?

<comment><USER6> Why should you be liable if someone else uses your property without your consent or you being aware of it to commit a crime?

If I left a toolbox that contained lockpicks at the sidewalk, am I liable for a thief stealing the lockpicks and breaking into another house?</comment></comment>


Screens are killing your eyeballs, and now we know how - <AUTHOR> https://www.popsci.com/screens-killing-eyes-blue-light <comment><USER2> Better article and some discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17724995](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17724995)

Bottom line, the antioxidant alpha tocopherol repairs the damage. This only affects people with low levels, most likely due to aging. Also it's not clear how bright the blue light was that caused damage in the experiment.</comment>


Ask HN: How could one monetize a small maker space? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Sell things?</comment>


The Truth - <AUTHOR> https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2020/06/04/the-truth/ <comment><USER2> Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this confession is an essential ingredient of truth. (Peirce 1901, CP 5.565).

...mmmm...</comment>


Best overview of all crowdfunding platforms - <AUTHOR> https://crowdfunding.zeef.com/robin.good

<comment><USER2> thanks for sharing. one of the most comprehensive + nicely organized lists of crowdfunding sites i have come across.</comment>


A primer on designing better cameras for games [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/293929/Video_A_primer_on_designing_better_cameras_for_games.php <comment><USER2> The camera engineer for the PS3 game Journey gave a great talk on 3D third person camera systems a couple GDCs back that covers a lot of useful ground: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7307qRmlMI&t=2432s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7307qRmlMI&t=2432s)

<comment><USER3> I was about to recommend this exact video myself! It was a fascinating talk. I highly recommend it! (Watch at 1.25x speed)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> See also Virtual Camera System [0]. One of the camera system that first impressed me was the one in Super Mario 64. It's so nicely designed that you'd often forgot it's doing anything - for example it would follow Mario while rotating around him so as to point in the direction of the current path. I was a big fan of the camera angles in Resident Evil 2 as well, they've created interesting sequences of shots that would built up tension without actually showing any direct threat.

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

<comment><USER5> the SM64 camera was absolutely groundbreaking in its day, but it really doesn't stack up against modern games. remember that part in wet-dry world where you have to walk across a narrow plank, and the only reason it's hard is because you're fighting the camera to walk in a straight line? that's a bit telling (and both Zelda games for the 64 had the same problem).

the GDC presentation by Journey's camera designer [1] makes a few very good points on this topic. modern 3D Mario games use hybrid camera systems that operate as fixed cameras most of the time, and it's a big improvement.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7307qRmlMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7307qRmlMI)</comment></comment>


I built an arcade machine - <AUTHOR> http://www.garrypettet.com/i-built-an-arcade-machine/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hoping this might provide a bit of inspiration for other non-DIY savvy programmers/nerds like myself. It's easier than you might think to build.</comment>


Apple: The Obstacle to America's Future? - <AUTHOR> http://decomplecting.org/blog/2013/12/09/apple-the-obstacle-to-americas-future/ <comment><USER2> The App store is a big step back for developers as far as healthy rapid iteration practices go. Week-long byzantine review cycles, expensive closed- source tools segregated to one platform, a single source for all downloads, inability to beta your product etc. This all set us back considerably with regards to where we are now on the web. For now Apple can get away with this, their lead is massive and the customers are very passionate about their products, but they won't be at the top forever.

It "may" be for the better of the consumer, but that's also not clear. The only effect is likely that Apple doesn't offer half-baked apps, which affects only the perception of their store, and doesn't add much value to either consumers or developers.

<comment><USER3> Why would the speed of App Store review affect rapid iteration? You distribute test versions during iterative development directly to testers. The App Store is for release versions.

<comment><USER2> Modern day web companies push changes into production dozens of times a day, if not more often (see the illustrious etsy example). We have continuous integration and delivery for that reason. Having to wait a week for something to make it into production or to fix a bug is no longer acceptable.

<comment><USER3> Apps are not web sites. Consumers expect a higher level of stability and quality from their apps than they do from web sites.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So have the kids learn to code on Android.

Problem solved.

There is no "Obstacle to America's Future" here. The point is for every kid to learn to code... not for every kid to build a business publishing iPhone Apps. Why does it matter WHAT they code on???

I learned on an Apple II e, why? Because that's the computer that was donated to my school. It was old and haggared and no... my programs were not compatible with the PC dos or that cool, slick new "Windows" thingy everyone was talking about at the time. And CERTAINLY nothing compared to the little Mac that was out.

But so what?

I still made a pretty cool Angry Birds style game on it using only hline and vline. It taught me the basics... that was the point.

If kids want to publish apps... well... publish them to Android. There is nothing wrong with that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Problem solved, if kids have access to Android. Apple is aggressively pursuing the edu market, and seems to be winning there. This is antithetical to the "kids learning to code" ideal.

I don't care what kids code on, I care about access. And forcing people to pay $99 to run their own code on their own devices is beyond unconscionable.

<comment><USER5> The $99 is to publish apps - I've made a couple of little quick fix utils for work projects by building and deploying straight to the phone via USB, no subscription required.

<comment><AUTHOR> Without jailbreaking?

<comment><USER5> Of course without jailbreaking

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting take. I'm curious how you respond to the counterpoints I usually hear to this argument:

1) Apple is creating a quality filter for $99, one that seems to be successful comparing the aggregate quality of apps on iOS vs. Android.

2) Yes, to test on your own device it's $99, but XCode is free and has all the simulators you need. If you're willing to build an entire app from scratch and invest that much time, $99 doesn't seem like a terrible investment to publish all the apps you want for a year.

3) In terms of their nitpicking your apps, again, that seems to just be basic quality filtering that isn't in the Android space.

<comment><USER7> Apple can do a lot better, in fact all these counterpoints you mention are tripe, let me elaborate:

a. $100 (this _99_ bullshit annoys me) is a pretty big investment for a student. A common argument is that if one is able to afford Apple hardware -- i.e. the Mac and a mobile device -- this $100 fee is puny in comparison. Not true. One can get an iPod touch for $200 and a Mac for $600 (Mac Mini). With a little more effort, e.g. trawling classifieds, one can get second hand hardware for cheaper. So the developer fee ends up being north of 12.5% of cost of ownership, and that's just for a year, it doubles to 25% if you use the hardware for 2 years, and so on. N.B. Even when parents buy kids their computers, this percentage argument stands. The simple point is, if someone wants to program _their_ own device, why not let them do it? Why should they have to pay a 100 bucks?

b. The owner of the device (talking mobile here), should have the right to install whatever the fuck he or she wishes to install. Okay, do not open the door for people to do so by mistake, and have basic authentication. It should be trivial for Apple. Any device with an apple id tied to it, can and should allow the owner to plug in a cable to install a custom app. Make people enter Apple id's twice, once on XCode and once on the device itself, if that's what it takes (I bet there are easier solutions, but this came to mind first)

c. Now, for someone wishing to sell an App in the App Store, charge the $99. I think taking care of App distribution, developer documentation/videos, app vetting by App Store employees etc. would _then_ justify the $99 fee and perhaps act as a filter.

P.S. I don't buy the filter thing either. Over time, the Android App store now has the same high quality popular apps as the Apple App Store (hold on, I know that tablet apps are still better on the iOS platform, but the big names are getting there)

<comment><USER6> a) $100 is steep, but $25 on Android seems percentage-wise much higher, considering you can get Android devices for so little (you can probably get an old device for less than $25 on classifieds). I don't think the device-to- development percentage fee really holds up. Absolutely, yes, $100 is more than $25, and I think Apple should lower it just to encourage more people to try it out. But then again, free XCode with all simulators isn't enough to try it out?

b) I totally agree with this point, this does really bother me. If I'm willing to take the chance of bricking my iPhone, that should be my right. I've also been trying to do some testing with the new Bluetooth Low Energy tech, and not being able to unplug my phone from Xcode is pretty damn annoying.

c) I can dig it.

<comment><USER8> The $25 mentioned for distributing apps to friends is actually only if you want to do it through the Google Play store. Your friends can install any app you give them as an APK file free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why is "learning to code" equated with "writing an app for iOS"?

Walk before you run. There is more opportunity than ever for someone to get access to free software (BSD, illumos, Linux) and cheap hardware (Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard) and do whatever the heck they want. "Coding" needn't be synonymous with an iPhone or iPad.

<comment><USER10> For that matter, write some HTML and JavaScript and make a thing that works on just about anything. Distribute it to your friends for free. "Coding" needn't be synonymous with native app development.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, but if you want to run that code on a device you own, why should you have to pay Apple a $99 ransom?

<comment><USER11> Good thing he didn't say "Build apps for your Playstation or xbox", you should see those ransoms...

Edit: Also, if you dad buys you a $500 phone, I'm sure he can spend $99 to for educational purposes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm sorry, but if you think iOS lock-in is the obstacle to America's future — not pathological consumerism, not Tea Party politics and a government that can't function well enough to pass laws, not your disappearing middle class — then you're not seeing the forest for the trees.

Sure, vendor lock-in is a drag. But let's not forget that open source software and increasingly hardware have never been stronger as a cultural movement.

</comment><comment><USER13> Many seem to dismiss the issue too quickly. You can't tell kids to learn to hack their devices if you do not do it yourself. I'd say 80% of education is just giving the example.

If father and mother both have locked devices or computers and have no interest in fiddling with them because "it just work" and "no time (to lose) with configuring/tweaking", then the kids will often follow the same tracks.

I have a 4yo boy and when I play with my adult toys (grinder, drill) he will very quickly find a toy with enough ressemblance with a grinder or a drill and just mimic me.

I would say it is the same for any kind of activities you wish kids would do (reading books, eating fruits, finishing whatever they started, play lego, hacking things), the best way is to just do it yourself first. (I'm giving no lessons here, I never eat fruit and now my boy decided he do not like them too, shame on me)

So I will agree with the article, the tendency to require all devices to just work, to be sexy design (but closed), to require no config, no fixing, to be replaced with a new one when broken, etc, all these which are kind of the signature of recent Apple devices, are bad for the future (i.e. bad for kids education).

</comment><comment><USER14> Is $100 really that expensive? I'm quite broke, being a freelancer with irregular income, but even I could save $100. It's $100/yr not $100/app or per month. Also, it's one ecosystem out of many. Don't like it...can't afford it...don't build for it. You can still code without having to build a product or create a startup.

<comment><USER8> ... and seeing as you're defending Apple, I'm assuming you already had a Mac, which is also required.

<comment><USER15> Practically, you can still install(, or STEAL from Apple's perspective,) a Hackintosh if you have plenty of time and energy to do the homework. If you have already secured a job and have a salary higher than the price of a Mac Mini divided by the time you need to invest for Hackintosh, just buy a Mac Mini. It's simple and straightforward economics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My siblings, all younger, have Macs. They can download Xcode for free and mess around with building apps--mobile or otherwise--all they want.

Their computers ship with a Terminal app that implements a fully Posix- compliant Unix shell, so they can learn shell scripting.

It comes with a LAMP stack, so they can learn basic web development.

It runs C, Objective C, Ruby, and Python programs, so they can work on more advanced programming.

And of course it can run the Java VM and Javascript V8, which confusingly have nothing to do with one another.

How is any of this an obstacle to America's future?

<comment><USER17> Weren't you listening? Apple is involved, so it's obvious all evil. Apple has never done anything at all without an evil ulterior motive; don't you read HN?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is idiotic! Apple is not THE obstacle, it's just another platform. People who love apple get accused of being fanboys. What is the opposite of that? Some one who drags in Apple into any an all argument, and figures out a way to blame them for anything and everything. Teenagers who can't afford to pay $99 have a clear option, Android.

It's like arguing that Ferrari is preventing kinds from chasing their dreams of becoming race car drivers because they charge too damn much for their cars.

<comment><AUTHOR> When you're talking about K-12 edtech education, in many cases the kids have the patforms their schools/districts endorse. And in many, if not most cases, that's iOS.

plus, we're not talking about $99 to publish, we're talking about $99 just to run your own code on your own device. I don't know about you, but when I was a 10yr hacker, that would have been a deal breaker.

<comment><USER19> >> When you're talking about K-12 edtech education, in many cases the kids have the patforms their schools/districts endorse. And in many, if not most cases, that's iOS.

It seems that what you are asking is whether the school should take steps to ensure that kids can develop mobile applications. If that is the case then the school could just set up a single app store account as part of a mobile development course. If the school really wants people to develop mobile applications then the $99 fee is meaningless. I doubt that there is any overwhelming demand to do that on the part of students or teachers.

Of course, any kid can develop a whole plethora of applications for a variety of platforms at very low cost if they really want too. Considering that it wasn't too long ago that it took thousands of dollars to even get a computer(and many people I know didn't grow up having access to a computer of their own) your criticism is essentially looking a gift horse in the mouth. There are a lot of factors that come into play with encouraging kids to get into computers, a $99 deployment requirement for an expensive device isn't one of them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is absurd. I've done a lot of PC, web, and mobile programming in a variety of contexts, yet I've never owned or extensively used an iOS device. You can absolutely ignore Apple and their ecosystem and still learn how to code.

</comment><comment><USER21> Article was poorly written lament from current android developer that wishes he was an iPhone dev but on principle doesn't have $100 to take his developed app to market. Overall, proud of Obama and I hope youth hears his call.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here, current iOS and Android developer with active accounts on both. Difference being: I'm happy to be an Android developer (will be happier when the Clojure/Android project reaches fruition); every time I have to dip my toes in Apple's filthy ichor of an app ecosystem I want to vomit.

Not about money for me, but if I was a little kid hacker again, money would have been a big deal.

<comment><USER17> Why do kids have to learn to code for iOS? I learnt to program on a mac and have never written anything more than the most basic Mac os iOS apps; it's just never interested me. I've spent most of my time writing Haskell and C, among others, both of which new coders could learn relatively easily and both of which work on many platforms. New coders don't need to know anything about any company's ecosystem, they need to know how to code in the language they've chosen, be it C, python, Haskell, ruby, C++, java, brainfuck, Modula-2, Ada (highly recommended) or anything else.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> When it comes to 'learning to code' I'll have to go with the Stallmans of this world - open systems are better.

You know what would be awesome? If kids learned to code on and tinker with Raspberry Pis. They could learn to code, turn them into robots, do all sorts of cool things. If a few break, no big deal, a 35$ pi is a drop in the ocean compared to how much schools spend on Macs...

For mobile, Firefox OS seems to be the only choice for a truly open platform, and it doesn't hurt that Javascript is the single most accessible programming language to learn (in that you don't need to install anything, just fire up a browser and a scratchpad).

</comment><comment><USER23> I started coding on vintage Atari and Commodore PCs, where the first thing you saw after powering up your machine was a flashing cursor ready to accept basic code. The whole machine was an open slate, and it was easy to drop into assembly and call into the system directly.

Making coding this easy and this immediate was definitely an incentive to start hacking around and experimenting. Javascript + HTML hacking now is almost as easy but being able to hack the same hardware all your friends use as their main computing platform was cool. Now that mobile is becoming more and more the primary, if not only, way people interact with computers, the hackability of mobile platforms does matter.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> OP here... I think my tongue-in-cheek intent might have been lost in dry prose.

That being said... I meant what I said about apple's mindshare. Take, for instance, LA County's iPad boondoggle[1]. EdTech is a particularly gnarly sector, and the fact that districts are going after iOS to this degree is a damn shame.

[1] [http://pando.com/2013/11/29/ihave-a-dream-the-unanswered- que...](http://pando.com/2013/11/29/ihave-a-dream-the-unanswered-questions- behind-las-edtech-fiasco/)

</comment><comment><USER24> 100 bucks isn't that much. My 13 yr old son has quadruple that saved up from odd jobs, chores, and gifts, and can't decide what to do with it. If he wanted to get a license for Apple Dev, it'd be no big whoop. Seriously, 100 ain't what it used to be.

(he's already bought an iPod touch using the same sources, and easily could use one of my Macs as the dev env)

Plus I have a RaspPi i bought for him to learn to code. He's picked up some Python so far...

</comment><comment><USER11> I completely disagree for several reasons: 1- 99% of the people who learn how to program nowadays starts from web development, not Java or Obj-C 2- I decided to learn Ruby on Rails because I like to build things, being an extensive Apple user didn't slow me down a bit (actually made it easier in some ways). 3- Only because I know how to develop doesn't mean I want any type of crap on my phone or something I'd enjoy less to use.

</comment><comment><USER25> Why do you need to pay $25 in order to share code with your friends?

Why can't someone wipe the phone's storage clean and install their own version of Android, or some other OS?

Think back to the days before "smartphones", when your smallest computer was your laptop. Imagine if you had to pay Microsoft to be able to share a program you wrote with anyone else. Or if MS made it infeasible to remove Windows without making the laptop unusable.

<comment><AUTHOR> You don't. It's $25 to publish on Google Play; you can share a *.apk with whomever you wish.

On iOS, on the other hand, it's $99/yr if you even want to run your own code on your own device. And you have to 'provision' your friends' devices if you want to share with them. It's extortion, it's stupid, it's immoral.</comment></comment>


Electric Airports - <AUTHOR> http://lochief.com/2015/12/05/electric-airports/ <comment><USER2> This post seems completely divorced from reality. There are many overlooked issues:

\- To hover, you need a thrust/weight ratio >= 1. Taking off vertically requires an even higher thrust/weight ratio. A modern Boeing 737 has a thrust/weight ratio of 0.15. So a comparable VTOL aircraft is going to need engines ≈7x more powerful than current ones. But those don't exist. The most powerful jet engine in the world (the 777's GE90-115B) can't lift a 737 straight up. An electric version? Forget about it. The best production electric motors are almost two orders of magnitude less powerful than the GE90-115B.

\- Hovering and vertical takeoff are fraught with safety issues. With multiple engines, any failure creates a deadly thrust imbalance. You also have to avoid vortex ring state. And while VTOL craft like helicopters can autorotate, it takes a skilled pilot along with the right combination of velocity and height.[1]

\- Landing on skyscrapers means you'll have to deal with higher winds than near the ground. While you can orient the craft in any direction, wind is not constant. Gusts and swirls from the skyscraper will make landing difficult.

I could see VTOL electric craft replacing helicopters, but passenger jets are not going away any time soon. The physics just don't work out for larger VTOL aircraft.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_height%E2%80%93velo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_height%E2%80%93velocity_diagram)</comment>


Show HN: Dull – The best of the Internet in one app - <AUTHOR> http://dull.rocks

<comment><USER2> I'm the maker of the app (iphone at the moment), should you have any questions or remarks, please ask them here, or maybe at [http://www.producthunt.com/posts/dull-always-a- moment](http://www.producthunt.com/posts/dull-always-a-moment)

<comment><USER3> This site appears to be nothing but pictures with no information. The features page says nothing. (Using iPhone/Chrome)</comment></comment>