The Dyson Battery Electric Vehicle - <AUTHOR> https://www.dyson.co.uk/newsroom/overview/features/june-2020/dyson-battery-electric-vehicle.html <comment><USER2> It seems they really got out of their depth with this project. There are a lot of photos and videos of aesthetic things that (arguably) Dyson is good at such as the steering wheel user interface, the shaping of the wheel rims and the colour palettes for the paint job. But there is very little evidence of hard engineering, only one grainy video of the prototype car actually running (the other videos appearing to be the car running are definitely good quality renders).

As Elon Musk put it "For cars it's maybe 100 times harder to design the manufacturing system than the car itself." and I think as soon as it dawned on them the scale of the manufacturing process to build this car and all the precisely engineered systems they got cold feet. Yes conceptually a car is similar to a vacuum cleaner, there's a motor, a battery, a control system, a chassis and bodywork but they are in a completely different league in terms of the scale and engineering. A car needs to be able to run safely without faults for 8 hours a day 365 days a year whereas Dyson vacuum cleaners tend to have a lot of reliability problems even when using for an hour each week.

<comment><USER3> They also struggle with the culture of software.

From what I've heard from employees, software is looked down on by management and is not really something they 'get'. Things like app connectivity are after thoughts and not core to their products.

A good chunk of what makes a Tesla unique is the radically different software and digital user experience. Dyson (the company) are not ready to embrace the fast moving culture that enables that.

<comment><USER4> > Things like app connectivity are after thoughts and not core to their > products.

Good!

God help us the day something like a fan or a vacuum cleaner needs "app connectivity".

<comment><USER5> A good example of intelligent appliances would be like my Samsung washing machine... It had an error, so I called their support line. They asked me to hold down two buttons simultaneously, then put my phone near the door. It let out a 10s or so digital song, the kind that modems did in the 90s - that gave them an entire diagnostic, age, model etc, and they sent someone around as they knew I couldn't fix it. Pretty amazing stuff.

<comment><USER6> A counter example of an unintelligent washing machine:

My Whirlpool emitted a diagnostic puddle of water underneath it. I Googled the seal, ordered it from an independent supplier, and installed it myself.

It is now on its 25th year of use with us, and cost less than $400 when new.

<comment><USER7> While I, too, am using an ancient washing machine in my home, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. New washing machines use far less water and electricity than their older counterparts. They also remove more water during their spin cycle, reducing the amount of drying necessary. And if your dryer uses natural gas (as mine does), a newer washing machine will reduce your use of natural gas as well.

<comment><USER8> What kills me is that every feature you mention can be done without needing an app, an lcd, or the cloud, and the same thing applies to electric cars.

How much cheaper would an electric car like a tesla be if it didn't have autopilot, electronic keys, and LCDs everywhere? How much more secure would it be without an e-key to unlock it? I hope when I'm ready to buy an electric car I can find something like that.

<comment><USER9> I'm willing to bet the LCD screens and fancy hardware are a small part of the vehicle cost, esp. when compared to the batteries.

All software is expensive up front but near zero cost to deploy to each additional car.

At some number of cars sold the software costs becomes a rounding error.

<comment><USER10> Except when that software needs more than a microcontroller to run. The computers Tesla throws into the cars are not super cheap.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > Electric cars are considerably more expensive to make and manufacturers are > making big losses on the sale of each car.

This is rather disingenuous. The Model 3 was one of the most popular new cars sold in the UK last year, Tesla isn't losing money on those sales. You can't do a market analysis that ignores the main competitor.

If I had to hazard a guess, the real reason James Dyson pulled the plug is a) EV development and tooling for manufacturer is hugely expensive, and b) Dyson is private, and James Dyson doesn't want to accept investment or inject his own capital into the effort.

<comment><USER12> Tesla has certainly lost money on every sale to date when you consider what they have spent designing the cars and creating the capacity to mass produce them. They may now have unit costs that will allow them to eventually recoup that money and make a profit, but that doesn't just mean you can disregard all the initial capital.

<comment><USER13> That's not the way you consider manufacturing and accounting. You consider gross margins. You don't disregard the initial capital, you consider depreciation.

<comment><USER14> Right, but while Tesla has positive gross margins, they have never turned an annual profit (Positive GAAP Net Income).

<comment><USER15> This is the same as the people who complained that Amazon never turned a profit for many years. But it wasn't because they weren't making money per unit, it was because they were spending it all and then some on expansion.

If you make profitable cars and you want to make profitable cars and trucks then you spend all your car profits building a truck factory. In cash-based accounting that looks like losing money right up until the point that it turns into making twice as much.

<comment><USER16> Amazon did turn a profit for many years on an EBITDA basis. They reinvested that profit in R&D, but they could also have chosen to send those profits to the shareholders as dividends.

Tesla has not achieved profit on an EBIDTA basis, so it's not even remotely the same thing.

<comment><USER17> TSLA had positive EBIDTA in 2016, 2018 and 2019 (and Q1 2020).

[https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/tsla/financials](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/tsla/financials)

<comment><USER16> Tesla had positive non GAAP EBITDA, which means nothing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Vehicles are weird. I feel like we try to jam all use cases into one, when I really need three different things:

1/ To go to work and back. Same route everyday. Not very long. Currently use a bicycle, but I've used mass transit for these very common in-out routes in the past.

2/ Small local journeys. I can't collect 6kg of wheat from the local farm with a bike or a bus. Taxi is viable if I could get them to wait 20 minutes while I hang around the farm, or perhaps I could use two taxis to get out and back, which seems wasteful and the market for getting a cab from the country back to the city is challenging vs the city to countryside version.

3/ Long distance journeys. City to city is easy and pleasant with mass transit. Harder with a family and luggage, especially if the destination is not in a town or city. Personal vehicle works well here, and it's getting more common to be doing long distance journeys from suburbia to non-city destinations, for me.

It felt like I could do without a personal vehicle for a long time. I bought a petrol car five years ago and finally live somewhere where I need it as of two years ago.

Now that we're all potentially migrating away from big cities (a real trend I see, albeit anecdotally) I feel like my ideal fleet of personal vehicles would be:

a/ big lovely slow commute bicycle

b/ local BEV for cargo

c/ something else for long range

What would be fantastic would be to combine b and c. Something where I could carry a few kg of 18650s for a 10 mile errand range, and load it up with 1000kg of cells for a 400 mile round trip (or 500kg if my parents would foot the bill to recharge the long-range incarnation of my mythical modular BEV, something which feels socially unviable with anything other than trips to see close family.)

<comment><USER19> How about a battery electric cargo bicycle? Like a Tern GSD ($$$) or Radwagon ($)?

The tern gsd can carry 180 kg of cargo and has detachable batteries, so that at least gives you the option of bringing extra batteries for long range. Or haul people or wheat.

<comment><USER20> I'm a huge fan of the concept of super-lightweight EVs. I still think something like the ELF [[https://organictransit.com/](https://organictransit.com/)] is one of the best ideas in this space, and I hope someone takes over the brand or concept and figures out how to market it better.

This needs robust offerings for both lower-end and higher-end models, but it's hard to say which should be initially focused on these days. My instinct is to go for the low end & maximize volume. There has to be a sweet spot between usefulness and affordability. As has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, designing for modular upgrades would probably help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Moved company to Singapore to pay less taxes while pushing for Brexit because UK's lost sovereignty and the "EU tax". Good vacuums but he's a douche.

<comment><USER22> Good vacuums? Where? Reliability issues and the plastic chassis broke not long after purchase. I won't pay the premium again, that's for sure.

<comment><USER23> Totally, have a V-something cordless and the whole thing is just plastic. Even the hinges and stressed parts on the charging dock, I'm just waiting for it to snap.

<comment><USER24> Their design mantra seems to be "plastic everything".

I could understand if they did it to keep prices low... But they aren't cheap products.

I could maybe understand it if they did it to keep things light or eco- friendly, but dysons structural plastic parts are thick and heavier than a metal equivilent part.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sadly, will not go to production:

"We never normally show our aborted projects, however, it felt right to give a glimpse of the Dyson car to show what the team achieved."

[https://twitter.com/Dyson/status/1268144470589165570](https://twitter.com/Dyson/status/1268144470589165570)

<comment><USER25> They claim their batteries are very good so they might end up licensing them to battery manufacturers.

<comment><USER26> This seems to me to be becoming the standard failed car startup "face save" excuse. Couldn't make a car, but by George we can sell some slightly differently shaped batteries we patented!

I'll believe it when we see it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The only way to be successful with EVs is to have substantial scale and that scale needs 10's of billions of dollars, which means public markets or huge private rounds which also means dilution. Many things that are probably unpalatable to Mr.Dyson.

<comment><USER28> Sadly, I think in trying to make an EV fit into a market full of ICE cars has blinded the public, designers, and engineers that a sedan is not the only form factor an EV can take. Something like the Renault Twizy[0] is an excellent use of EV tech. And it's technically classified as a moped or scooter.

For now we're constructing 2000kg wagons to move 200kg of cargo and that just doesn't seem efficient.

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

<comment><USER29> ALL the early green cars looked stupid like this or ultra futuristic and no- one wants them. Tesla came a long and made one that just made a good looking car.

<comment><USER28> And people have also stupidly convinced themselves that what they need is a petrol powered 4WD SUV that can climb mountains, ford rivers, carry groceries and commute to work. It must also be capable of doing the weekly cross country road trip, apparently. This can all be yours for 84 payments of $500/month.

No one wants EVs because of the same stupid question that gets asked and answered repeatedly, "this would be great, but what do I do when the battery runs out?"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Canceled: [https://electrek.co/2020/05/18/dyson-cancelled-electric- car/](https://electrek.co/2020/05/18/dyson-cancelled-electric-car/)

<comment><USER31> $180K per car to manufacture is really quite expensive!

<comment><USER32> How did they manage to make it so expensive per car?!

<comment><USER33> Making a car cheap is the hard part. You have so many less known "luxury" manufacturers who will build cars on demand for tons of money. The scaling and cost management is the hard part.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Dyson seems like a company/brand mired in being clever vs. actually creating anything of practical utility. We have a dyson stick vacuum thing that was ~$300 and it can't even pick up cheerios. The airblade hand dryer supposedly spreads something like 60x more germs than regular dryers and over 1000x more than regular warm air hand dryers.

This car thing apparently didn't work out.

$400 hair dryer?

$1,700 dyson roomba competitor?

I guess every brand has its fans but this is one I just don't get. I'll never purchase another dyson product after being bamboozled with that damn vacuum.

<comment><USER35> You might be right about the germs, but the dyson hand dryers are a lot better at drying than regular ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> How unfortunate it's not going to production. It probably would be a great Tesla contender at some point!

</comment><comment><USER37> There is an idea ... that driver-critical, frequently used information (like speed, temps, trip odometer, etc.) can be displayed, offset, in the center of the car.

You can see this "idea" deployed in the Tesla model 3.

This is a clownish, absurd idea that, were it not for _actual, extant production examples_ would be mistaken for parody ... they would be assumed to be in jest.

If you are a designer and you think there is any positive value in this design, find a new job: _you are a clown_.

<comment><USER38> As someone who thought that that was exactly the reason I'd "never" by a Model 3, but then bought one and now daily drive it...

I'll say that those things (speed, temps, trip odometer) rarely seem driver- critical to me.

* When driving, you typically norm your speed relative to those around you, right? You can easily glance over and see the speedometer if you need to if you're alone on the road and worried about speeding (or you could just flick the right-hand control stalk down and let the cruise control engage).

* What temperature is driver-critical in a BEV? If we're talking about internal air temp, if you're hot, make it cooler; if you're cool, make it hotter. Who cares what the actual number is?

* Trip odometer seems even further from driver-critical. It's visible with a swipe from the big screen, but I've only checked it once in 18 months of owning the car; in fact, I've never even reset it. I guess it still exists for a reason (when young, we used to use them as a backup to an inaccurate gas gauge in an old Volvo, but now you have much more accurate info on-screen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> The video that says "See the Dyson car on the road" is so strangely fake.

So you're driving down 6th ave away from the Madison Square Garden sign promoting the Knicks? There's not going to be a double yellow line because it's a one way street. Perfectly smooth road in Manhattan? Nope.

Here's what the area really looks like: [https://email@example.com,-73.9922756,3a,75y,3...](https://email@example.com,-73.9922756,3a,75y,355.72h,83.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4bPdERzIHZyr9FeF_cO4Pw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192)

Credit to whomever thought adding "Modells" would make it look more locally authentic though.

</comment><comment><USER40> Understandable that they don't want to take this on, it's a massive undertaking beyond a lot of consumer products.

I do wish they could contract out some design or other manufacturers would consult with them. Reducing distraction with physical buttons on a steering wheel is so much more thoughtful than tossing in a touchscreen and pushing everything to software (I realize cars have _some_ controls on the steering wheel, but it's not enough).

Every time I see a modern car I'm kind of shocked by how distracting the interior is. At least voice interfaces have improved somewhat.

</comment><comment><USER41> Dyson is a con with a big marketing budget. I had their "revolutionary" cyclone nonsense for three years thinking I have a great vacuum, until my cleaner complained that literally everyone else had a decent vacuum cleaner and mine was useless. I bought a different one - it uses about a third of the energy, and usability and capability-wise it's on a different planet. And it's cheaper!

Not to mention the incredibly useless hand dryers in half of UK pubs.

Dyson is the perfect example of how if you strike the right(???) note with your marketing you can sell any crap at a premium price.

<comment><USER42> I don't know which of their hand dryers you're using, but we have the Airblade V at work and they're great. But you do need to have lots of air pressure; I've encountered some which somehow don't blow very hard, and they're only a little better than a standard dryer. You want one that's installed so that you can feel it flensing you every time you use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I quite enjoyed this exchange at the end

        I even took one on Blue Peter and demonstrated it to Anthea Turner!
        (embedded video @ 1:48)
        Anthea: What do the manufacturers think of it?
        James: Well they quite like it, but they're not doing anything about it.
        Anthea: Are steps being taken to do anything about it?
        James: Well no unfortunately we need to pass some laws so that people are forced to fit it.

\--nothing like invoking the coercive power of the state to force things on others.

</comment><comment><USER44> It's surprisingly not ridiculous looking. That's the downfall of so many electric cars.

It's not a _good_ looking car, but so few are.

</comment><comment><USER45> Strange there's no mention of the solid-state batteries, that may have given it an edge over competition.

<comment><USER46> I was hoping on some news on those, too. Only this sentence on the page that's interesting. Quote: The aluminium battery pack casing was flexible in design to allow for a variety of possible sizes and types of battery cell solution to be fitted throughout the life of the vehicle platform without the need for any significant re-engineering.

<comment><USER47> Such a flexible design in a part that is out of view and non-serviceable by the owner only adds avoidable costs to the total costs of manufacturing each car.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> The Dyson Mains Electric vehicle suffered from range problems.

</comment><comment><USER49> Can't trust Dyson with batteries, my worst experience ever. Ended my problems by ordering via AliExpress from China at one-tenth the price bought from Dyson.

</comment><comment><USER50> Interesting how the battery container is a stressed member of the chassis, I don't think any other manufacturer is doing that.

<comment><USER51> In Teslas the battery container also is structural, or a stressed member of the chassis as you put it.

There are many aspects here copied from Tesla or coincidentally the same, although he conveniently leaves out mentioning that fact at any opportunity. For example the lowering of the car at speed... copied from Model S.

<comment><USER50> Are you sure Tesla batteries are structural? They don't look it and I haven't heard that claimed before. Lowering at speed has been around for a long time it wasn't invented by Tesla.

<comment><USER51> To your question yes, it's well known and has been widely covered.

It's always interesting to me that absence of knowledge of something is taken as a basis for believing that the thing is not happening.

Lowering not invented by Tesla, fair point. It seems I do the same thing too.

<comment><USER50> I feel like I know more than most people about it, I've seen Sandy Munro and Ritchie B Kidd tear them apart and talk about them, I've just googled tesla battery structural and found nothing. They are a thin metal stamping held up by a few bolts. The one in the Dyson pics looks like its built into a deep aluminium floorpan rather than being a separately cased item.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> Photos on this page seem like James Dyson showing off pretty, custom car, he ordered his people to make for him personally.

</comment><comment><USER53> So many bad design decisions, those seats are the worst though. Good luck cleaning out all those areas between cushions.

<comment><USER54> Why, they'd have had the perfect accessory for one of their vacuum cleaners to do just that!

</comment></comment><comment> awinter-py I like the part where they project the wind tunnel flowlines on the physical model of the car

That looks like science

</comment><comment><USER55> Must be some tech than can be repurposed/pivoted? Perhaps offered to other car companies?

</comment><comment><USER32> why didn't they copy the Tesla strategy and start with a high-end electric sports car?

<comment><USER14> Among other reasons: 1) High end electrics are a very small market that is now overly crowded: Model III Performance, Model S Performance, Tesla Roadster (may never be produced, but in consideration of most high end buyers), Porsche Taycan, Audi E-Tron, BMW iX3, and more announced almost weekly. Almost none of these will do well given the limited market size for electric cars in this price range.

2). Dyson is proven and could raise capital if they needed to without a marketable proof of concept. They could have IPO'd a sub and raised money. Unlike when Tesla started, electric cars are now proven to work - maybe not in a profitable business model yet, but they are proven to work. They don't need to show off a high end sports car to prove this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> This is what Apple car would have looked like if Jobs was still alive.

<comment><USER57> And once you got in the car it would lock the doors and keep you a prisoner.

An Apple EV would only charge from Certified Apple electricity. Hell, Jobs would have required an Apple ICE to only accept fuel from an Apple gas station.</comment></comment>


Want a Wireless Plan with Your Netbook? - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com//technology/content/jan2009/tc20090130_964719.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> This would be great if the telecommunications companies would offer a flat-fee monthly data access plan for all devices.</comment>


Ask HN: Forums for ThatHigh.com - <AUTHOR>

I'm thinking of adding a forum to the site.  Last I checked (years ago), I would go with vBulletin or phpBB.<p>Are these still the best options?  Is there any mature python-based forum software I should look at? <comment><USER2> vBulletin all the way. I've used and administered several pieces, and it was by far the best (of the PHP offerings).

<comment><USER3> Not to mention, it gives the best experience to your users. I flat out hate using a phpBB forum - usually, I just move on.</comment></comment>


RegExp Lookbehind Assertions - <AUTHOR> http://v8project.blogspot.com/2016/02/regexp-lookbehind-assertions.html <comment><USER2> Wow, I didn't even know there was a different way to implement lookbehinds in such a way that variable-length patterns were even allowed:

> _Generally, there are two ways to implement lookbehind assertions. Perl, for > example, requires lookbehind patterns to have a fixed length. That means > that quantifiers such as_ or + are not allowed. This way, the regular > expression engine can step back by that fixed length, and match the > lookbehind the exact same way as it would match a lookahead, from the > stepped back position.*

> _The regular expression engine in the .NET framework takes a different > approach. Instead of needing to know how many characters the lookbehind > pattern will match, it simply matches the lookbehind pattern backwards, > while reading characters against the normal read direction. This means that > the lookbehind pattern can take advantage of the full regular expression > syntax and match patterns of arbitrary length._

> _Clearly, the second option is more powerful than the first. That is why the > V8 team, and the TC39 champions for this feature, have agreed that > JavaScript should adopt the more expressive version, even though its > implementation is slightly more complex._

regular-expressions.info has roughly the same explanation here: [http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html](http://www.regular- expressions.info/lookaround.html)

I guess I had just assumed that if even Perl didn't implement variable-length lookbehinds, then the performance or implementation cost must have been severe enough to justify leaving out such useful flexibility. What is the tradeoff that .NET and now JavaScript are willing to make?

edit: According to a comment in the posted article, Perl 6 now implements variable-length lookbehinds [http://www.perl6.org/archive/rfc/72.html](http://www.perl6.org/archive/rfc/72.html)

<comment><USER3> Implementing lookbehind by reading backwards is not more computationally expensive than reading forward. It adds some complexity to the regexp engine, yes, but that's manageable.

There are some quirks vs. stepping back and reading forward, like the article already explains.

I guess Perl initially just did not implement it this way, whatever the reason was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Yang Guo, Regular Expression Engineer

Interesting and specialized job :-)

<comment><USER3> To clarify, this is not a real job title. Chrome and V8 blog posts are written by engineers who worked on the feature being blogged about, and can choose a funky title to go with the name :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use regex quite often and I'm happy we have it now more powerful in Chrome. Though, what is so painful in regex is all those flavors of it. I with it was standardized across all languages / implementations.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder what code could profit from such a niche feature. I cannot even imagine a situation where I would want to use this.

<comment><USER7> Ever used \b? This is like that, but for other patterns. Very useful in many situations, like tokenizing (because you have to match on things the last match already consumed).

<comment><USER6> Maybe I've used \b before, but I can't recall using regexes for tokenizing. They've either been too powerful or not powerful enough for my tokenizing needs.</comment></comment></comment>


More on Sparrow and talent acquisitions - <AUTHOR> http://www.marco.org/2012/07/21/followup-talent-acquisitions

<comment><USER2> Nothing new of value in this post. It seems a rehash of his last post.

<comment><USER3> Well, with ads on the blog one better be milking it for every drop there is.

I've stopped taking any HN-linked blog seriously if they have ads on them, because it's hard to decide if they are serious with their opinion/stance or just baiting to get impressions.

<comment><USER4> spot on.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Mapipedia: Platform to show your data on maps and sharing with others - <AUTHOR> Mapipedia is a web platform I've created to make it easy for people to share goespatial time series data and display it on animated maps. There's also a social media component that allows you to write comments, follow, share and like data sets. You can also download the CSV data and embed animations into your own websites.
I initially posted about Mapipedia in March 2019. I've taken a lot of the feedback on board and done a major overhaul of the site as well adding a lot of new features.
I'd appreciate some feedback on overall look and feel (on mobile and desktop - there were problems on mobile previously). However it is best viewed in Chrome on desktops becuase it looks better on larger screens. I've also had some people say the website is blocked but have not been able to figure out why. If you have any thoughts on that it would be appreciated. The site also crashed last time I posted here so I'm wanting to test changes for robustness as well.
The main home page is https://mapipedia.com
Here are some links to try (press Play to start the animation):
https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/average_life_expectancy_by_country_since_1800.html https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/forex_comparison_history.html https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/united_states_of_america_formation.html https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/seven_wonders_of_the_ancient_world.html https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/captain_james_cook.html   (Cook's first voyage sailed him around the world) https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/nobel_prizes.html https://mapipedia.com/s/u/drdave/fall_migration_of_white_storks_in_2014.html
Thanks for your help! All feedback is appreciated.
Cheers David
PS Feel free to email me at email@example.com <comment><USER2> Hi David. I've never had the need to graph geospatial data so I'm probably not your target audience but I did have a lot of fun playing with your examples. I found the main application intuitive and easy to use on a desktop computer (did not try on mobile). It also seemed pretty fast and I didn't have any performance issues.

I tested out the embed code and I was expecting something more stripped down. Even with all the checkboxes unchecked it still looks like your main app squeezed into an iframe. I would expect it to not include the full page header and footer. I was really expecting just the most essential features, like the What/When/Where/How sections. I'm imagining a use case where it is embedded into a blog post or news article. I feel like the far right column with all the info could be optional for embeds.

Hopefully that's helpful. Good luck with your project!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for that useful feedback. I have to admit I probably haven't paid as much attention to the embed option as I should have. I'll take another look at it. Cheers</comment></comment>


Why You Should Eliminate Titles at Start-ups - <AUTHOR> http://bostonvcblog.typepad.com/vc/2011/07/why-you-should-eliminate-titles-at-start-ups.html

<comment><USER2> Right on. I was at a start up where 8/12 of the folks were VP's. When you think about it, it is ludicrous.

I say the minimum threshold for calling oneself an "executive" of some sort (like "VP of -" or "C-O") is the responsibility for a budget of real money and the ability to hire and fire staff. Anything less, and its the equivalent of a kid dressing up in adult clothes and playing boss.

</comment><comment><USER3> People will always have titles, even if they aren't official. When someone asks you, "What do you do?" there is always an answer.

The trick isn't to eliminate titles, but rather to make it clear that "That's not my job" is a banned phrase. Everyone's 'job' is to advance the company. In return, the company takes care of you.

Some people will have particular job duties they just despise. And that can be worked around, and a good manager will deal with it transparently.

But for all that, titles will always exist. At my previous job, they asked me one day, "What do you want your title to be?" I just picked something offhand. It didn't matter, because I did whatever was necessary and within my power.

Interestingly, others had opinions on the title, but they seemed to be aimed at making their future resume look better rather than anything at the current company. That seems disloyal, but nobody stays at the same company forever these days. Getting a nice title was just an improvement for the inevitable future.</comment>


Dynamic image manipulation technology using "energy seams" - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's the paper. <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1276377.1276390>

Also got some coverage on an Adobe blog which makes me think they want to duplicate this functionality as soon as possible. <http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/08/holy_crapworthy.html>

<comment><USER2> The paper you linked is behind a paywall :(

Here's a free version from the author himself:

Paper: <http://www.faculty.idc.ac.il/arik/imret.pdf>

Hi-rez video: <http://www.faculty.idc.ac.il/arik/IMRet-All.mov>

PS: This stuff is probably in the process of getting patented. Adobe will have to license it. Few years back Adobe got into a lot of trouble for "stealing" healing brush from one guy. He sued them and I think they settled.

<comment><AUTHOR> sorry about that and thanks for the link, I'm gonna miss my University tunnel when I graduate/drop out.

<comment><USER2> don't drop out :)

<comment><AUTHOR> It's just a fantasy, I do Industrial Engineering and it's a truly miserable field. I get to drop out and move to NYC if my company hits 300k revenue next year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The 2D image processing stuff at Siggraph this year was truly exceptional. I usually skip right through that part of the conference and proceedings, but this year there were a few really cool things.

<comment><USER3> This was pretty cool too:

<http://vis.berkeley.edu/papers/softscissors/>

</comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen That is beyond awesome.</comment>


Bloom Filter (Python recipe) - <AUTHOR> http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577684-bloom-filter/

<comment><USER2> One thing that takes a minute to sink with Bloom Filters is that the size requirements are independent of the size of the individual elements! Storing N elements with a given false positive probability has a fixed cost, whether you're storing integers or 100MB strings.

If you are concerned with speed, a bloom filter is exactly the kind of thing I'd never implement in Python. Twiddling bits is orders of magnitude more expensive than in C.

<comment><USER3> Python is written in C and the time consuming parts of this algorithm are delegated to C modules (random, sha256, long int bitshifts, etc). Also, the space efficiency (which directly related to effective use of high-speed cache) is language independent.

If you care about the cost of the Python glue code, the PyPy project nicely optimizes that away. Unless you're writing for a Google production server, the programmer time writing this in C will likely never be paid back in saved CPU cycles.

<comment><USER2> What you have said is theory. Here is practice.

I wrote a simple bloom filter in C. It took about an hour, including debugging. Here is my bloom filter vs. CPython and PyPy doing 1M lookups:

        $ time ./bloom
        real    0m0.027s
        user    0m0.022s
        sys     0m0.002s
        $ time python bloom.py
        real    0m32.876s
        user    0m32.693s
        sys     0m0.119s
        $ time pypy bloom.py
        real    0m42.280s
        user    0m42.054s
        sys     0m0.178s

In other words, C was 1216x (or 121,600%) faster than CPython, and 1564x (or 156,400%) faster than PyPy. If it took 1 second in C, it would take 20 minutes in Python. Put another way, Python runs this algorithm about as fast as a the C algorithm would run on an 8086 from 1978.

Here is my C implementation: <http://pastebin.com/TexbJjbB>

Here is the Python program I compared against (using code from the article): <http://pastebin.com/gqw7C68e>

<comment><USER3> Not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Python version is fully general, using Random() to create probes (as many as needed). Instead use the optimized, 4Kb fixed size version shown later in the recipe. Also, improve your timing by making the loop in a function and using something other than range(1000000) to fill-up memory (like timeit does). The C version should also use sha224 for comparability (otherwise, you're basically comparing two different hash functions in two different languages meaning that some of the difference can be ascribed to the choice of hash algorithm).

That being said, you've done a great job showing that it doesn't take long to correctly implement this algorithm in C. That is a nice win.

<comment><USER2> > Not an apples-to-apples comparison.

These kinds of arguments make sense if you're 20% different, or 2x different, or even 10x different. When you're 1000x different, no amount of minor tweaking is going to bridge the gap.

Using the 4k version and using timeit() instead of range(), the speed is 21 seconds instead of 32 seconds, so it did speed up, but it's still 800x slower. I'm pretty sure that only a tiny fraction of Python's time is calculating sha224, so I don't think that making them use the same hash function is necessary.

Look, Python is cool and has it's place. But it's annoying to get downvoted for stating the obvious: algorithms like this will be much, much faster in C. It's annoying to hear people insist that dropping to C is a waste of time when my personal experience shows time and time again that it can lead to drastic improvements.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Got a Launchpad, but I suck at music. So I built a Tetris for it - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/mxwllt/status/819245451270615040 <comment><USER2> This is super cool. The source lives at [https://github.com/maxwellito/tetrispad](https://github.com/maxwellito/tetrispad) for anyone looking.</comment>


Why does 500 Startups' www point here? - <AUTHOR> http://www.500.co/

<comment><USER2> Thanks for pointing this out, we're working to fix this now.

</comment><comment><USER3> It looks like they might have started using Torbit to speed up their site, and something go messed up in the process (either on their end, or on Torbit's). You have to change your dns settings to use it, so this seems like a likely possibility: <https://secure.torbit.com/site-optimizer/technical>

</comment><comment><USER4> They seem to be using a reverse proxy web accelerator service/CDN similar to cloudflare bit it looks like they've only configured 500.co not www.500.co to go to the correct backend.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's a name that was reserved by the .CO registry. I don't know if they are hosting the website as well, but I have contacted CoInternet to suggest they address the issue.

</comment><comment><USER6> Hey Thanks all! In touch with 500.co - and they are on the case. @DotSauce - thanks for letting us know! -Lori.co

<comment><USER2> We've already fixed it.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> aaaaaand it's fixed.

</comment><comment><USER7> because www.500.co is cname'd to 500-co.torbit.net.</comment>


Twitter killer in the works? - <AUTHOR> http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/73007

<comment><USER2> Not one mention of how they would convert people from Twitter.

They would have a huge traction problem. Not that it couldn't be done, but I don't think its more than hot air and an attempt to "encourage" Twitter at the moment.

Now if it involved Facebook and status updates in an exclusive way...</comment>


Show HN: Our last product, favmonster - <AUTHOR> http://www.favmonster.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, we have just opened our closed beta for favmonster, a kind of social sharing/bookmarking site. All kinds of feedback are welcome, we just want to create a very useful product.

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER2> This is so cool! But maybe I'm not really unbiased, because I'm part of the team too... But this is so cool!</comment>


You can't trust Mac finder photo preview - <AUTHOR> https://www.smop.co.uk/2019/10/mac-finder-preview-quality/ <comment><USER2> This is most likely due to Finder initially showing the embedded preview image in the original image, and then switching to a resized version of the original.

It's much (much) faster to show the smaller 4MP preview than resizing the 25MP (or whatever) JPG or raw image.</comment>


Show HN: Your kids find math boring/difficult? Make it fun - <AUTHOR> https://www.splashmath.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Splash Math has iPad apps as well, and surprisingly it's all made in HTML5/CSS3, but gives full native performance even after so much of animations.</comment>


SFC and FSF Achieve GPL Compliance for Canonical IP Policy - <AUTHOR> https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/jul/15/ubuntu-ip-policy/ <comment><USER2> You guys don't even want to know what triggered this, suffice to say, canonical is not a happy open source love fest.

<comment><USER3> I don't, actually, because I don't really care.

The GPL has held back open source and left the door wide open for Apple and Microsoft to push a locked-down cloud future in which general purpose computing has been or is in the process of being destroyed for 99% of the population.

It's a stupid license that grew out of naive politics, and has done nothing more than made the world suck more; quibbles over pointless GPL licensing minutia are a waste of resources and fail to inspire in me a dramatic response.

<comment><USER4> I wonder if attitudes such as yours actually hold "open source" back. In my mind it can't be good to gin up infighting for no good reason, especially on a forum thread like this one that is not at all related to the topic of permissive vs. copyleft licensing.

I'm not sure what your age is... but I suspect you might not remember the world of personal computing before the GPL and free software were everywhere. If you do remember those times... it is very difficult for me to put myself in your shoes and understand how you come to the conclusion that the GPL has made the world suck more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think sfconservancy sums it up pretty well with "full permission to redistribute Ubuntu as a whole remains in question."

While I'm happy that there is full GPL compliance, there are other parts of the stack such as X11 which are not GPL and don't mention anything about not adding additional restrictions ontop of the binaries.

<comment><USER5> Just a quick follow up to this, I just had a look at the X11 license ( [https://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy#X11_Licen...](https://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy#X11_License) ) which mentions a 'copy' of the software. In my interpretation of the license it also means a binary copy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> A few followups:

[http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2015/07/15/ubuntu-ip- policy.html](http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2015/07/15/ubuntu-ip-policy.html) [https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/35969.html](https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/35969.html) [http://jriddell.org/2015/07/15/ubuntu-policy-complies- with-g...](http://jriddell.org/2015/07/15/ubuntu-policy-complies-with-gpl-but- fails-to-address-other-important-software-freedom-issues/)</comment>


Scientists say you can cancel the noise but keep your window open - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/science/windows-street-noise.html <comment><USER2> Very timely. So, after boycotting a certain manufacturer for more than a decade on account of their root kit debacle I finally relented and spent some money on a noise cancelling headphone. It works pretty good, the tech has matured and the difference between NC on and off is remarkable. Even a neighbour mowing their lawn or using a chainsaw disappears to the point that I can focus on playing an instrument or writing a piece of code or text.

This was a key element for me in overcoming my insomnia, I used to stay awake at night because it was finally quiet enough that I could concentrate. After identifying that as a key part of the problem noise reduction became a focal point. It has created a new problem: the headphones are so good at this that it is very easy to creep up on me and scare the bejezus out of me when I don't receive any other clue such as a changing shadow or something like that. I'll have to figure out some kind of early warning system for approaching people.

Whoever cracks this particular nut without headphones and manages to create a bubble of 2 cubic meters or so that is silent from outside interference will make a lot of money. The article lists one entrant that seems to be a move in the right direction but it does not look like that particular version will be ready for prime time in the near future.

My 'ideal' soundsucker (sonic black hole) is a ceiling mounted device that projects a cone of silence. One possible way in which it could work is by using a phased array of speakers to 'fake' a larger one. But that ideal will likely never be reached due to limitations in physics, imagine the problem as applied to a wavy surface of water: create a wave pattern that cancels out the wavy surface in one circular area without touching the water directly.

Edit: Another - unexpected - benefit is that all the fan noise and other ambient noise in the room I'm in (which I normally don't even notice) also drops by a very large factor with NC enabled.

<comment><USER3> > spent some money on a noise cancelling headphone Which one? I also facing a > noise issue with some people that move closer, and getting crazy...

<comment><USER4> I'm not OP, but I'm sure he's talking Sony, I did a similar boycott (rootkit on Sony music CD's), but recently bought WH-1000XM3 and the NC is phenomenal, battery life is very good; very comfortable and lightweight; not sure I could sleep with them on though.

<comment><USER5> Can't say about the Sony, but you can't sleep in Bose QC20. Well... you _can_ , and they were pretty comfortable, but they'll very likely break pretty quickly. I went through several pair until I finally twigged that sleeping in them was probably the root cause. Have had fewer problems with the QC20 since not sleeping with them in.

<comment><USER6> Really, for sleeping just get a good set of passive earmuffs like shooters use. Cost about $20 and will provide 25-30db of real noise reduction (and unlike active NC will also work on non-periodic sounds like sirens or revving car engines). Can double up with foam earplugs too for even more blockage.

<comment><USER7> Where do you people live that you need ear muffs capable of deafening gun shots just to sleep??

<comment><USER6> Anywhere noisy? When used around guns that don't (nearly) deafen them, just bring them down to non-damage causing levels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A low tech alternative mentioned in the paper is the Plenum Window. Imagine sliding glass shower doors, but with a bigger gap between panes for airflow. It also claims 10dB reduction, and doesn't need a computer :)

Also from the paper: typical noise cancellation systems create local dead zones of radius ~1/10th the wavelength of blocked sound. E.g., you can block a 1KHz wave within 3.4cm of an error correcting microphone. Good enough for noise canceling headphones but not a whole room.

This work builds on an earlier finding that you can treat the window itself as a point source. Noise cancellation at its source is much more effective, so this way they're able to create a dead zone the size of your apartment.

<comment><USER9> That's with one microphone and presumably a single speaker. I wonder how well one could do with several microphones around the room and several speakers, with their relative positions known accurately and some computing power to generate the best possible reverse sound distribution.

<comment><USER8> You'd need a lot of speakers (one every 6.8cm) to get the same coverage with an array inside the room.

<comment><USER10> And it's a _much_ harder problem, because antiphase sound from multiple sources will interfere with itself and probably also interact with room resonances, potentially making the problem worse in some locations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Technology for noise cancelling headphones is fairly straight forward. You put a mic near the entrance of the ear and then reverse the wave. The ear is basically a one dimensional sensor in that configuration. Now, take the headphones away then think about what you have to do to cancel noise. You have this two dimensional window in your home that lets through three dimensional sound waves. The best that you can manage is a two dimensional speaker array which is what you see there attempting to create some sort of sound hologram. It's insanely complex and anyone who thinks that a company who makes good noise cancelling earphones would therefore be capable getting technology like this to work is just very naive. It's another magic leap. A whole bunch of people who think they are not buying into snake oil when they really are.

<comment><USER12> > _Now, take the headphones away then think about what you have to do to > cancel noise. You have this two dimensional window in your home that lets > through three dimensional sound waves. The best that you can manage is a two > dimensional speaker array which is what you see there attempting to create > some sort of sound hologram._

First, what you be the problem of creating a three dimension speaker array? Sounds totally feasible...

Second, is that really "the best" that we can do? I've read about a mesh of special design that you can put on your window that still lets you see outside and lets air go through, but cancels certain movement/frequencies, cutting off noise.

<comment><USER11> You're right, I should have been more explicit. Passive noise cancellation is far superior for a window. I was trying to point out that active noise cancellation is not feasible (not impossible though) because of the extra dimensions and that the engineering behind active noise cancellation headphones is not the same as what it would take to cover a whole window. By several orders of magnitude.

Honestly, people should just drill an extra hole in their walls, add a quiet fan and put a series of passive sound plates and other known geometry to cancel the sound. Or pipe fresh air from the roof.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Creating a negative copy of the ambient noise - won't that increase the noise for everyone else? Say you live across the street from a neighbor who has this device. Street noise happens. It reaches you, and your neighbor's cancellation device, at roughly the same time. The device creates the cancellation wave, timed perfectly for the neighbor. That wave also propagates back toward you, and you hear it as an echo, with a delay corresponding to the width of the street.

<comment><USER8> Sound decays exponentially as a function of distance, so speakers close to you don't need to be loud. Also most speakers are also fairly directional, so i'd expect any extra energy to be absorbed by the room (as heat).

Edit: more importantly these are destructive waves, so if anything you'd actually reduce reflections back out into the world.

<comment><USER14> quadratically (proportional to x^2, the surface of an expanding sphere) as opposed to cubically (x^3, the volume of an expanding sphere) or exponentially (2^x, objects that multiply over time)

<comment><USER8> ah yeah, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is actually very very important in Singapore. There's multiple highways (sic!) going through the middle of the city. Even on higher floors (say 15 - 20) the constant noise is unbearable if you live on top of one.

I didn't notice many sound isolating walls there either. Guess people who were born there get used to it.

<comment><USER16> Out of curiosity, what's the idea behind including a "sic" parenthetical in an original unquoted piece of writing?

<comment><USER17> "Sic" means "that's not a mistake". When quoting, it often means "I didn't make the mistake, I faithfully copied somebody else's" but when writing your own stuff, it means "I didn't make a mistake; I meant to write that".

<comment><USER16> Ok, gotcha. I'm familiar with it (in the "sic erat scriptum" sense) for other people's writing but I've never seen it used in an original writing like that.

Not sure I get it here either, since most cities I can think of have multiple highways going through them, but thanks for the clarification. Always glad to expand my understanding of language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> When I was living in Singapore, all the rich people were on the higher floors where you don't hear the road anyway. Or they had their own villa with garden. Back then, noise pollution was considered mostly a poor people issue. Glad to see that they are now finally getting an upgrade, too :)

<comment><USER19> I live on one of the higher floors (30+) and you can definitely still hear the road from here. Granted, I'm next to a highway...

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The reverse, a cancelling field for outgoing noise, would be great for practicing music instruments, or guest parties, times when you don't want to disturb neighbors (or roommates). Do the scientists discuss this?

<comment><USER2> For many instruments the solution is simple: practice on an electronic version. This obviously does not hold for all instruments and not all kinds of practice but it can have a big impact. It has an additional bonus too, you can put on a headphone and cut the outside world off as well so it works in both directions.

<comment><USER20> I play classical piano, it's really just not the same hehe. At least, the consumer technology is not quite yet there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm actually, right now, spending about 6k trying to sound proof my work area. If I ware a billionaire, I'd give these people millions of dollars as investment. Or to another team that could figure it out how to turn your hearing on/off on command.

<comment><USER22> Maybe in the long run we could decentralize our habitat and eliminate the lions share of the problem

<comment><USER21> tell me about it, I'm working and saving some money so the future me can get a cabin in the woods somewhere. or on the ice, if I'm doing really well.

<comment><USER23> What's a "cabin on the ice"?

<comment><USER21> [https://www.instagram.com/p/B5x5YEVp_B2/?igshid=dn2n66w70sj1](https://www.instagram.com/p/B5x5YEVp_B2/?igshid=dn2n66w70sj1)

<comment><USER21> yeah, this was probably on my copy/paste from a previous conversation. sorry, this is not a cabin on the ice

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> no paywall: [http://archive.is/zo83N](http://archive.is/zo83N)

</comment><comment><USER25> This will be revolutionary if it is deployable at scale. One thing I have learnt over the years is to avoid apartments which have any windows towards the road.

<comment><USER14> With certain windows, for certain sounds, you can put actuators on the window itself. They vibrate the glass as a speaker. Unfortunately it is very tricky- the resonant frequency of glass panes is far lower than sound, so its very hard to make the glass all move together. Instead it prefers to take on wavy bends, which can even create their own noise.

One neat idea is electrostatic speakers! They're one of the more exotic speaker types, but have unparalleled quality at low volumes. However they are prone to distortion as volume increases and require high (100+) voltage supplies. They can be dangerous and fragile.

The idea is you stretch a mylar film very tightly into a rectangle, and then sandwich it between two metal meshes, with an air gap. By putting voltage on the meshes, static electricity pulls the mylar forward and back while keeping it almost perfectly flat.

You can put meshes (or ITO films) inside a double pane window to create a very even force over the whole window, making it an excellent transducer. It requires far higher voltages to move glass, though. Putting mylar in between the panes doesnt work (you need some free space to create proper cancellation- oversimplifying) and putting mylar on the outside is dangerous. Tricky problem.

<comment><USER26> You mentioned danger twice. Can expand on this aspect of the tech?

<comment><USER14> By the nature of the device the meshes need to be fairly exposed. They can be enameled so as not to shock you, but only barely. Any scratch, rubbing, or other wear can expose bare metal at >1 kV. That is a major fire risk; any spark is presumed deadly in electrical engineering. Dust accumulates everywhere, and you'd be amazed how much people mistreat electronics. Leaves, dirty laundry and dust may as well be tinder.

The even bigger concern is mostly that a moderately loud speaker system (>50-150 watts) can electrocute you. I mean that literally, as the portmanteau of electricity and execution. 1 kV is easily enough to put electricity through your heart; 50 milliamps would be lethal. 50 mA at 1 kV is only 50 watts, less than a laptop charger. A big set of electrostatic speakers can just stop your heart if you're very unlucky.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Important distinction: this is an epistemic "can", not a deontic "can".

In other words, they are saying that it is possible to keep your windows open if you want to and still not let noise in--not that you are permitted to cancel the noise, but must keep your windows open anyway.

I had initially thought this would be something about indoor CO2 buildup or something, but no.

</comment><comment><USER28> Can the outside world hear in though?

People may forget themselves and lose sense of perspective. I have a bipolar condition where sometimes I'll pace my apartment and yell about anything and everything, if I lived in one of these places I imagine it'd exacerbate things and bother the neighbors too.

</comment><comment><USER29> > Dr. Lam explained that "in places like Singapore, we want to keep the > windows open as much as possible"

I haven't spent a lot of time in Singapore but the time I spent there had visibility of about 50m from the burning of scrub/jungle in Malaysia and the air quality was abysmal.

<comment><USER30> It's unusual for there to be haze. When there odds have it's awful but it only happened twice, once bad and over mild, in the 4 years I lived there.

<comment><USER29> Thanks, things must have improved as its 10+ years since I was there and it didn't seem an unusual event then.

<comment><USER30> They started suing the companies responsible after the 2014 (?) Indonesian forest fires. Seems to have been effective.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Here's a low-tech approach: fill the window with staggered plastic straws. You don't get much of a view, however, and the airflow would be impeded.

[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Tenpierik/public...](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Tenpierik/publication/336700023_Drinking_Straws_as_a_Broadband_Sound_Absorber/links/5dadc85ba6fdccc99d92851a/Drinking- Straws-as-a-Broadband-Sound-Absorber.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER32> I've lived in a few apartments that were situated along busy roads. Something like this would be nice, but I'm hopeful that we'll someday get to a point where (almost) all of the vehicles on our roads will be electric. Has anybody worked out how much of a noise reduction we can expect from that?

<comment><USER33> EVs will require a mind change. I have a hybrid. I drive it in St Augustine FL, America's oldest city. As such the roads in the historic district are narrow.

When I come to an intersection I have to be especially conscientious because pedestrians are use to engine noise bouncing down the road ahead of the car. People have walked out in front of me unaware of my existence. I normally mouth, "Surprise, motha fucka" or "I'm Batman" when that happens.

<comment><USER34> Are you Batman?

<comment><USER35> That's a controversy

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I tried making something like this for closed windows out of a pair of broken NC headphones and some surface vibration speakers stuck to the window. It didn't work very well.

This did get me interested though and am curious of what software libraries and solutions are out there for noise canceling. I would very much like to hook a mic and speakers up to a raspberry pi and get some of the road noise reduced. I'm not sure where to start with software though. I know the basic premise is invert the signal coming from the mic and output that. That's not exactly state-of-the-art though.

<comment><USER37> Interesting. I always thought that the window would make a good speaker. So.. what issues did you run into? You say it didn't work very well? Did you account for the delay?

It sounds like this should work...

<comment><USER36> I took the NC headphones apart. I added wires to the mic used for noise cancelling and hung it out the window, closing the window around the wires. I added wires to the headphone speakers and connected them to a small amplifier that was hooked up to the surface vibration speakers. It took about an hour to do.

When it was on and NC was engaged, it was actually louder in the room when a car drove by. The counter noise was adding, not subtracting.

It's was a quick and dirty hack. I assumed the physics and algorithm they use requires the mic to be closer to the speakers and gave up. It would have been pointless to try to modify it further. That's why I was hoping there is a software solution that I could actually have a chance of modifying and e.g. fix the delay if that is the problem. Maybe even a ML solution.

<comment><USER37> Yeah should be possible. I am thinking of working on this. Not sure if an ML solution is necessary but it would be cool and would work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> This invention seems like something straight out of a Sharper Image catalog. Neat concept, but needs a few generations of miniaturization before I'd remotely consider it.

</comment><comment><USER39> I don't see how it's possible to win ANC against loud, booming, tiny reproductive bits car stereos driving by wannabe cholos because the speaker size to produce phase-canceling mirror sound would have to be 10-12" / 25-30cm and placed probably on 3 sides minimum... say 12 speakers or 24 for all 6 sides. And the SPL of the ANC would need to be sized proportional to the most powerful car stereo one wished to block.

</comment><comment><USER40> For anyone interested in building this DIY on a smaller scale I highly recommend this Tech Ingredients youtube channel's video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--c0tiIZG6o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--c0tiIZG6o)

This is by far the nerdiest channel I subscribe to and I LOVE it.

</comment><comment><USER41> Could this problem be solved with an adequate ventilation system, so there will be no need to keep windows open?

</comment><comment><USER42> I'm always dumbfounded when I see that noise emissions are still not taken seriously and not enforced.

I live near a freeway and the cars don't bother me that much (I'm far away that they sound like white noise). But the motorbikes, however, are the works.

Some of them don't make that much noise, but the outliers make you go crazy. It's a shame really

<comment><USER43> > but the outliers make you go crazy

Agreed, so very much. I live across the way from an old-age care home and, based on stereotypes, you'd figure that would be quiet living. Not so much. Their landscaping crew gets out with leaf blowers every day, they have a weekly generator run-up test that lasts for half an hour and pulses with a deep bass, and every few hours on every nice day they pump out the best hits from the 1940s and 1950s on their outdoor patio.

Almost all of these are louder than the city's rules permit but code enforcement has told me that because both buildings face each other over a privately-owned parcel (one of these "privately owned public spaces"), the noise transmission rules do not apply.

I found this out after I called the care home, twice, to ask if they could maybe turn down the music or do the generator test later in the day (when more people are out and it would be drowned out by other ambient noise) only to be told, politely, to bugger off.

I like living in a city and am not going to move--it's not _that_ annoying, compared to benefits I get in return--but sometimes I wish the commons weren't so tragedy.

<comment><USER44> This is something that drives me banana. The answer you'll get is always "Well, cities are noisy, deal with it or live in the suburb _.

But the thing is they don't have to be. Sure, you have to expect people talking, cars going through, people mowing the grass, the occasional honking. But even in the middle of Manhattan, the only noise that will wake you up in the morning are people being assholes or breaking rules. Special construction permits that have no business being issued (eg: jackhammers in the middle of the night), people screaming (why?), harleys motorcycles (why is that legal?), neighbors blasting music (you can hear it just fine, can you lower it a bit?), musicians in apartments (can't you use an electronic drum to practice?).

Everything's avoidable. People are just inconsiderate, and/or the problem isn't taken seriously. But no, it's not inherent to living in a dense area, unless you're talking about "being surrounded by assholes" being inherent to cities. Then yeah.

_suburbs aren't really a solution because people can be assholes everywhere. But even if they weren't, current pushes to get rid of restrictive zoning means you won't be safe in a suburb for much longer anyway. We need solutions for noise in densely populated areas because we're not going to be able to avoid it long terms. The solutions all exist, they just need to be implemented and enforced.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Is it possible to solve it mechanically? Like airtight, soundproof windows for light and S shaped duct padded with acoustic foam for ventilation?

</comment><comment><USER37> The other solution here is to put the speakers on the window frame, then you can do some projection etc...

</comment><comment><USER46> If you're going to put up a wall up on your websites, make sure they load right away instead of loading the whole article before the paywall gets loaded.

I was able to read this entire article despite its pay wall by screenshotting the article before the pay wall came up. I had to reload the page, screenshot several times, and time it right but I was able to read the whole article.

<comment><USER47> On sites like these i've started disabling javascript.

<comment><USER17> Private window, enable JavaScript, bypass GDPR banner, disable JavaScript. (Though I'm boycotting NYT until the risk to Scott Alexander has passed.)</comment></comment></comment>


What is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/10/what-is-heisenbergs-uncertainty-principle?CMP=twt_fd <comment><USER2> Passages like this absolutely convince me that, while physicists can certainly tell you they are familiar with certain observable phenomenon, the reality is that they don't have clue about the realities of the phenomena they observe:

      Alpha particles are two protons and two neutrons emitted
      by some heavy nuclei, such as uranium-238. Usually these
      are bound inside the heavy nucleus and would need lots of
      energy to break the bonds keeping them in place. But,
      because an alpha particle inside a nucleus has a very
      well-defined velocity, its position is not so well-
      defined. That means there is a small, but non-zero, chance
      that the particle could, at some point, find itself
      outside the nucleus, even though it technically does not
      have enough energy to escape. When this happens – a
      process metaphorically known as "quantum tunneling"
      because the escaping particle has to somehow dig its way
      through an energy barrier that it cannot leap over – the
      alpha particle escapes and we see radioactivity.

They're just making things up and declaring it science.

      The temperatures at the core of the sun are not high
      enough for the protons to have enough energy to overcome
      their mutual electric repulsion. But, thanks to the
      uncertainty principle, they can tunnel their way through
      the energy barrier.

Magic! We know it must happen, so let's make up an idea to explain it, and worry about its plausibility and accuracy later.

      These "virtual particles" appear in pairs – an electron
      and its antimatter pair, the positron, say – for a short
      while and then annihilate each other. This is well within
      the laws of quantum physics, as long as the particles only
      exist fleetingly and disappear when their time is up.
      Uncertainty, then, is nothing to worry about in quantum
      physics and, in fact, we wouldn't be here if this
      principle didn't exist.

Translation: Due to the premise that we are terrestrial beings bound to this planet, who can never know a true vacuum, and regardless of our efforts to shield our experiments, are at the mercy of randomly occurring cosmic rays, let's just repurpose the word "vacuum" to suit our needs, rather than chase an unattainable set of conditions.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know a lot of Quantum Physics, but I do know more than most people (not hard) and I'm having a hard time reconciling what you say with what I know. To help me get some context, can you tell me your own background in QM?

How much of the math do you really know, and how much are you relying on "common sense" and popular descriptions?

The reason I ask is that these passages you quote are pretty much exactly in accord with QM as I know it, and QM as I know it is used to predict lots of stuff very accurately. As a result, QM as I know it seems to be useful. Your condemnation of it seems misplaced, so I'd be interested to know more about where it (your condemnation) comes from.</comment></comment>


Terms of Service; Didn't Read - <AUTHOR> http://tos-dr.info/ <comment><USER2> Posted 5 days ago, comments: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4350907>

<comment><USER3> Strange. Does HN allow posting same link twice?

<comment><USER4> No. A common method to defeat it is adding useless parameters to the URL (like "?1"). I think this case was a genuine mistake, though. This submission has no "www." but the one from five days ago does. (Edit: ludwigvan beat me to the punch by a few seconds.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I welcome this and I hope more people use it.

Unfortunately, companies pay lawyers to come up with incomprehensible AUP/TOS/etc, and those lawyers are unlikely to want to allow the company to use a "generic" document, even if it is very high quality.

There are some ridiculous terms and conditions in some documents, and I'm not sure if any of them have ever been tested in courts.

I'm keen to see how this team can overcome international differences in law to create a simple but effective ToS.

<comment><USER6> As far as I can tell, the plan isn't to create a standardised document but rather to provide greater transparency over existing TOS.

In terms of court testing, one example is the OFT in the UK requesting that Apple make changes to its terms which were considered to be in breach of UK legislation.

<http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2009/136-09>

I don't think the objective is to create incomprehensible terms. In fact I am confident that if most people had the time/inclination to read the TOS, they would understand them. The problem is that their length obviously puts people off, which is where the project comes in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> All the ones I really care about--Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google-- don't have a class yet (what does that even mean?).

Regardless, this is great for a quick summary of what you're agreeing to (or already agreed to).

<comment><USER8> TOSSOS.com has been doing this for a while. It also has a Chrome plugin. Check it out and if you know anyone who wants to help, email email@example.com

<comment><USER9> There's a Chrome app for tos;dr as well:

      https://github.com/shybyte/tos-checker

(You have to install it by hand, so remember you need to be in Chrome's developer mode).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There's a Swedish project called CommonTerms that also tackles user agreements from a usability POV <http://www.commonterms.net/>

</comment><comment><USER11> Great initiative, but at a glance the results seem biased towards Google (no mention of issues around the new unified accounts, complaints about youtube realnames etc.).

</comment><comment><USER12> Do any of the ToS websites use <http://hypothes.is/> for annotation?

<comment><USER9> I don't think hypothes.is have rolled out any system yet.</comment></comment>


Unbalanced oil and vinegar UOV digital signatures - <AUTHOR> https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/03/18/uov/ <comment><USER2> Is there a pencil and paper walkthrough?

<comment><USER3> This stackexchange answer does a reasonable job: [https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/40921/how-does- mu...](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/40921/how-does-mutlivariate- crypto-schemes-work)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best Git tutorial for teaching non technical people the basics - <AUTHOR> I'm mentoring a designer right now and am attempting to teach them bootstrap. I'd like to be able to use git to share code snippets with them.
This person is not particularly technical and probably has no real interest in understanding git at a deep level or understanding it under the hood.
Is there a tutorial directed at this audience? Basically just enough to figure out what directory they are in at the command line, push, pull and commit? <comment><USER2> I liked this one [https://www.rithmschool.com/courses/git](https://www.rithmschool.com/courses/git)

</comment><comment><USER3> Excellent interactive tutorial: [https://learngitbranching.js.org/](https://learngitbranching.js.org/)

You can also directly go to the sandbox (without the tutorial) and just experiment with this link: [https://learngitbranching.js.org/?NODEMO](https://learngitbranching.js.org/?NODEMO)

</comment><comment><USER4> Github UI can be enough for him. If he has full rights on a repo he can even use the builtin editor and understand how the revisions are organized.

</comment><comment><USER5> I really like [https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/what-is-version- cont...](https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/what-is-version-control). It starts with the fundamentals and goes deeper one by one.

</comment><comment><USER6> I always refer to the following tutorial ('Git - the simple guide - no deep shit!') when I am blocked [https://rogerdudler.github.io/git- guide/](https://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/)

</comment><comment><USER7> The Github tutorial is pretty simple. Have a look ast that first.</comment>


Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.) - <AUTHOR>

Hello all!
Every once in a while, I like to offer my time to help other passionate people be a little more successful with their goals (and see any awesomeness they've crafted). If there's anything I can help you with, just ask here. No strings whatsoever. I've done this before a few times now, and it's worked out well for everyone. Check out some of the previous "No strings" sessions I've done to get an idea of how I can help. (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mikegreenberg)
Please be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. I'll typically reciprocate the amount of effort/consideration that you've shown in your request. I'll accept any requests made before the end of today and will attempt to respond by the end of the weekend.
Cheers! <comment><USER2> Hello Mike, I need advice on how to move my idea forward. This idea has been keeping me up at night constantly. Obviously, I lack the technical skills needed to personally build my idea. Even though I am proud of creating a Firework's click-through prototype! I am currently learning to code with Codeyear, but it's safe to assume that it would take a long time for me reach a level where I can build it myself. I have personal money (50k) that I am willing to invest to start the build. Don't want to burn through those funds by hiring the wrong freelancers or company. Not to mention, I lack the technical savvy and experience to find a quality person or company to hire. It is better to pay to have it built, try to learn to code, or hope that I can find a technical co-founder?

Thanks for any advice!

<comment><AUTHOR> I have personally been asked by a few people with the same exact problem. I've even helped one or two of them vet some potential developers they wanted to hire.

Whether or not you hire someone, you should definitely learn to code. The more you make yourself aware of the important issues developers need to worry about, the smarter you can be with your decisions and cash. Happy you're pursuing it!

Should you hire someone or learn to do it yourself? That depends on a few things: Are you planning on making money on this idea? Does your interest in pursuing the idea depend on the success of the idea? Do you have a limited window of time to execute on your idea for it to be successful? If there's no urgency to run to market, then I recommend doing it yourself. There's nothing more satisfying.

If you ARE interested in hustling with this idea, then you need to start sourcing your network for help. Do you personally know any developers? Do they want to help you develop a prototype? Do they know anyone who might? Do you know any computer science/engineering students who might want extra experience this summer? Do you know anyone who works in a Computer Science program or college that could help you source interns? Get involved in your local tech community. Go to meetups and find people who are active and involved. Ask them if they know anyone they could introduce you to. Ask people if you can help them with anything they're working on. (Be sincere!)

I wouldn't focus on trying to find a technical co-founder at this point. This can be something that sits at the back of your mind while you're looking for help, but going around asking for a co-founder is like asking the girl to marry you too soon. It would be a shame to pass on good help because they weren't "founder" material. When talking to people who might help you, ask for small portions of help. People are willing to help a little here and there without thinking twice. If they like interacting with you, you'll definitely feel comfortable asking for more assistance (and it's likely they'll offer without you having to ask).

Show the people you're talking to that you've invested a lot of time on this already. That this isn't just some idea you've been toying with the past few days. Let them look over your mockups. Talk to them about the vision for your idea. Try to validate some assumptions about the problem you think the idea is solving.

Scatterbrained delivery, but the principles have worked for the people I know facing the same issue. Let me know if I can elaborate on anything.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the help! You have added much need perspective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hi Mike, if you have the time and access to an iPhone, I'd love to know what you think of our new app called "Gauss - The People Magnet" on the AppStore and give us your advice on what you think we should change or improve in the next iteration. As we're a bootstrapped startup, we have to focus our time and resources and can't do every thing we'd like at once. Your opinion and advice would be very valuable to us! Thanks! Best Regards, Vidar

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Vidar. I'm afraid I don't own an iPhone. I have a few friends who have one though. If I can persuade one to let me install your app, I'll report back with my feedback. I'll even share theirs, if any. :)

<comment><USER3> Awesome! Much appreciated! The more feedback, the better! :) Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can you tell me how many hours, minutes, and seconds there are left in the timer on this page? Can you also tell me your timezone? Thanks!

<http://test.fezzl.com/deal/1270066/?preview=yes>

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't need any help today, I just wanted to say you're awesome for offering your help.

<comment><AUTHOR> Happy to. Thx!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Mike,

Can you please provide feedback on our idea: www.diglig.com. Also do you think we can get better traction by releasing a mobile app vs. WebApp?

Thanks in advance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Someone (you?) asked me about this 6 months ago. You haven't made any evident progress from the first time I saw it and my original advice still holds. (Re: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3005256>)

Whether you should launch with a mobile app or a web app does not seem to be your problem. Just release something and see if someone uses it. Stop killing your idea with analysis paralysis. If you want to reuse as much of your effort across a web and mobile implementation, create a agnostic API that abstracts your main logic. Then you can build a view for whichever implementation without rewriting much else.

<comment><USER6> Must be my partner. Things slowed down a bit after one guy had a baby and other one had to move. Anyways, I'll check your link for feedback. Thanks.</comment></comment></comment>


QCraft: A Beginner's Guide to Quantum Physics in Minecraft [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hygLNR_wGPo <comment><USER2> Not sure what I think of this. In particular, it seems to be hard-coding effects instead of deriving them from quantum-like rules.

This is particularly obvious if you watch the tutorial video for "quantum teleportation" [2]. Although there is a layout to building the teleporter, it doesn't seem to be related to how actual quantum teleportation is implemented. And the final effect is just a location changer, as opposed to the dual of superdense coding that can be used for fun things like "storing" quantum bandwidth [3].

To be fair, the video and the site[1] both mention this fact:

> qCraft is not a simulation of quantum physics, but it does provide > 'analogies' that attempt to show how quantum behaviors are different from > everyday experience.

I guess I'm just not sure what the goal is. It's a cool mod, but I feel like it will just contribute to the general confusion over what quantum mechanics is. People who use it will learn the names of some quantum things, but have only a vague or even misleading idea of what those things really are unless they go looking elsewhere.

1: [http://qcraft.org/about/](http://qcraft.org/about/)

2: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebxtWnKx5k&index=4&list=PLU...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebxtWnKx5k&index=4&list=PLU7oY59WpYh7YgIipHx3KHVe8Wl_G99qp)

3: [http://strilanc.com/quantum/2014/05/11/Storing-Bandwidth- wit...](http://strilanc.com/quantum/2014/05/11/Storing-Bandwidth-with-Quantum- Teleportation.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Now practically speaking I've been playing on a server with qcraft in survival and found that its of little to no real use.

> Entangled (grouped) blocks are far to expensive, needing 12 (!) dust per > entangled block which makes it impractical to build anything large with it. > I find it a little less frequent than redstone.

> There is no compressed block of 9 dust like ALL vanilla ores have, which > makes storing a bit annoying.

> The automatic observer that activates through a redstone signal only works > from the sides not top/bottom which makes it more difficult/impossible to > build any redstone activated structures.

> You cannot pickup once placed qcraft blocks, which is _super_ annoying.

> only a few basic full-block types can be used as quantum blocks, no tile > entities and no blocks from other mods (zero mod interoperability)

> the player portal is ugly and fixed to an even size (even multiblock > structures are annoying) and why no teleport across dimensions, I mean its > expensive enough

> ...

It seem to me this mod is very unfinished and not really made for survival nor created by people who actually play the game, and I think its annoying that it introduces its own ore into the world with such little practical use.

Now if anyone thinks thats too harsh of a critic, you need to realize how good minecraft mods have become, look a thaumcraft[1] for instance. The bar is much much higher now when it comes to mod quality.

[1] [http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and- modding/min...](http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and- modding/minecraft-mods/1292130-thaumcraft-4-2-0-1-updated-27-8-2014)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm wondering how observational dependence works when there are multiple observers. It would be neat if two observers could be seeing entirely different results. One could observe the cave lit, while the other observes it dark. I'm not sure how the engine could go about merging the two potentially very divergent versions of the world.

<comment><USER5> Shouldn't be too hard, all the rendering in minecraft is done in the client. All that needs to be done is tell client A to render state A and client B to render state B.

<comment><USER4> I was referring more to the actual algorithms. What if one observer sees a bridge and walks out onto it? Another observer doesn't see the bridge. Do they see the first person floating?

<comment><USER6> [https://sites.google.com/a/elinemedia.com/qcraft/wiki/qcraft](https://sites.google.com/a/elinemedia.com/qcraft/wiki/qcraft)

"When an ODB resolves based on observation, it resolves to the same definitive state for all players in the world (even those players who did not perform the observation). Once an ODB is observed, it will remain in whatever state the observation yielded, until it is first no longer observed by anyone and then is observed by someone anew, at which time in will resolve again based on the observation rules"

<comment><USER2> So... don't look up while standing on the bridge, lest someone else look at it and cause it to disappear.

<comment><USER6> It doesn't appear that standing on a block counts as observing it, so yes. Also don't look back down if you looked away. Which makes it seem more like cartoon physics.

It would be interesting if standing on a block counts as observing certain properties of it, but not others. So standing on dirt means it could change to stone or wood, but not lava or water or make the block disappear.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Technically the entangled particles should be showing INVERSE states of each other, not the same state. But this looks amazing and makes me really happy, quantum needs to become mainstream.

<comment><USER2> Any quantum state that doesn't factor is "entangled". That includes both matching, inverse-matching, and more complicated states with more qubits like "last two qubits contain binary count of how many of the first three qubits are ON".

The state |00> \+ |01> \+ |10> \+ |11> factors into (|0> \+ |1>)(|0> \+ |1>) so it is not entangled. The state |00> \+ |11> doesn't, so it is entangled (in this particular basis).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Never ceases to amaze me what people can accomplish in Minecraft.

</comment><comment><USER9> Note that this is Copenhagen interpretation. There are others, and at this time there's no way to tell which one is correct, if any.</comment>


Neil DeGrasse Tyson Is a Black Hole, Sucking the Fun Out of the Universe - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2016/04/neil-degrasse-tyson-black-hole-sucking-fun-universe/ <comment><USER2> Original blog post before Wired picked it up and added tweets to make it real journalism: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11330297](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11330297)

</comment><comment><USER3> Huh, I've never really been able to articulate why I dislike Tyson – this nails it.

It's such a shame when people compare him to Sagan. Two different playing fields, and this is why.</comment>


Ask HN: Which programming languages allow pass-by-reference in foreach loops? - <AUTHOR>

I've always wondered why the following isn't possible in PHP:

        <?php
        $start_ids = array(1, 2, 3);

        foreach ($start_ids as $id) {
            if ($id > 1000) break;

            print "$id\n";
            $start_ids = array_merge($start_ids, array($id . '1', $id . '2', $id . '3'));
        }
 Do any languages allow this? It'd be nice not to resort to recursion. <comment><USER2> Perl allows this kind of code, similarly to Python and probably Ruby.

      my @start_ids = (1, 2, 3);
      for my $id (@start_ids) {
        last if $id > 1000;

        print $id;
        push @start_ids, map { $id . $_ } 1, 2, 3;
      }

But this is bad, really bad idea. This is bad code, it doesn't describe what you want to achieve, it's difficult to track and analyze, it's hard to tell when it stops. You really should want recursion here.

And it's not "pass by reference" here. References have nothing to do.

<comment><AUTHOR> > But this is bad, really bad idea. This is bad code, it doesn't describe what > you want to achieve, it's difficult to track and analyze, it's hard to tell > when it stops. You really should want recursion here.

Thanks for the warning :) It felt much cleaner, my code for the one like above:

        $documents = $start_ids;
        foreach ($documents as $id) {
            $sub_ids = getChildren($id, 1);
            // Now filter out any which appear in $stop_ids
            $sub_ids = array_diff($sub_ids, $stop_ids);
            $documents = array_merge($documents, $sub_ids);
        }
        print_r($documents);

And the one with recursion:

        $documents = $start_ids;
        foreach ($start_ids as $id) {
            recurse($id, $documents);
        }
        print_r($documents);

        function recurse($id, &$documents)
        {
            global $stop_ids;

            $sub_ids = getChildren($id);
            // Now filter out any which appear in $stop_ids
            $sub_ids = array_diff($sub_ids, $stop_ids);
            $documents = array_merge($documents, $sub_ids);

            foreach ($sub_ids as $sid) {
                recurse($sid, $documents);
            }
        }

> And it's not "pass by reference" here. References have nothing to do.

I've seen this terminology used in PHP - describing 'foreach' as "pass by copy" to make it clear that you can alter the argument and it won't affect the loop, as a copy was made when foreach was run. How would you describe it instead?</comment></comment>


Syncing Backbone Models in Real Time Over Socket.io - <AUTHOR> http://blog.flowdock.com/2013/01/25/syncing-backbone-models-in-realtime-over-socketio/

<comment><USER2> A similar platform for Node.js-based real time synchronization of model data between clients and the server is Meteor: <http://meteor.com/></comment>


Announcing Reddit notes - <AUTHOR> http://www.redditblog.com/2014/12/announcing-reddit-notes.html?m=1&utm_content=buffera24d4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

<comment><USER2> Their cryptocurrency engineer /u/ryancarnated said it won't be an altcoin, but coloured coins or sidechains [1].

What's not clear is why they don't use the word "Bitcoin", if they have already decided they will be building on top of its blockchain.

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2pt4kl/reddit_anno...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2pt4kl/reddit_announces_reddit_notes_aka_reddit_bitcoin/cmztlb0)</comment>


KreMlin: from (a subset of) F* to C - <AUTHOR> https://fstarlang.github.io/general/2016/09/30/introducing-kremlin.html <comment><USER2> Great find, pjmlp! The F star code is incredibly readable. I know nothing about the language but I'm _fairly sure_ I get what it's doing. The difference between it and the C illustrates why it's better to get above C if one can for verification and maintenance. The difference is usually much, much worse. The second, impressive thing is that the C was so close in readability to the F star code.

An interesting project for academics might be re-coding parts of MirageOS's TLS in F star to run through Kremlin. They already wrap C versions of the algorithms IIRC. One could start with the algorithms as a practice run. Then the stateful parts as that's where a lot of risk will be. Then the functional parts. Then integration into a C library.

</comment><comment><USER3> I cannot express how much I like this. This is a great tool and the right one to write a replacement TLS stack with. Excited for things to come.</comment>


Microsoft Smartphone Dock – Create PC-Like Experience - <AUTHOR> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/accessory/hd-500/ <comment><AUTHOR> Depending on actual hands-on reviews, is anyone interested in a device that can act as a desktop for Office-based needs? I want to like this product, but I think its based on the assumption you are willing to forego having a laptop or desktop at your desk. Otherwise, I don't see a reason to have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse just to plug in a smartphone...am I missing something?</comment>


The Loading Dock Manifesto - <AUTHOR> https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a9834/john-hyduk-0511/ <comment><USER2> Summary: This guy is an everyman, a working man, doing the night-shift at a warehouse, mindless work, or rather very specific algorythm work a computer could easily do but they are paying a human to do it still... but... coming soon, automation. You end up really liking the author, authentic very real writing and dispite his lot in life, he seems like he has great friends and great connections.

<comment><USER3> His writing style reminded me of James Ellroy's, except told from the point of view of an everyman instead of a gangster or crooked cop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Used to do the opposite job, I unload the trucks and made sure the loaders and builders didn't screw up my order again. I like to think that it was a good job. Made good friends, something about putting in hard work alongside others makes for enjoyable relationships.

I had a few coworkers who will probably be like this guy in another four decades or so --if these jobs even exist then. Glad I moved on though, my hip used to move sideways when I walked on account of the way you have to pull a pallet jack.

Also, dev work beats $9.50/hour and one vacation day a year.

<comment><USER5> I wish my son reads this. Some kids never listen, until it's too late in life. :-(

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> One of the most enjoyable pieces of writing I've read in a while.

An important reminder that sharp, articulate intellects are everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER7> I read this piece ages ago but stupidly forgot to save it. Every once in a while I'd try to find it again but I could never remember enough specific details, so thank you for posting this so I can finally read it again and save it!</comment>