Apple Buys a Chip Maker Behind the iPad Brain - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/technology/28apple.html?hpw

<comment><USER2> I don't really understand why Apple would spend half a billion on buying chip manufacturers and paying their employees. What is the benefit for them to throw away profit and get into competition with part suppliers?

Seems like a poor business decision to branch so far from their core business model - especially in a field where you have to keep up with heavy competition. Haven't they always bought their chips from IBM(PPC) or Intel(newer Macs and ARM chips for iPhone), previous to this?

<comment><USER3> They're just trying to keep the best technology away from competitors. At their scale it's worth the money. Half a billion is nothing compared to iPod/iPhone/iPad profits -- if they can keep the technology out of competitors' hands for 6 months it's worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I thought the A4 was a result of their acquisition of PA Semi a couple of years back.

I doesn't really make sense for them to develop the chip offsite, and then buy the company _after_ it ships. Especially when they've already got the team to do it internally.

<comment><USER5> _I thought the A4 was a result of their acquisition of PA Semi a couple of years back._

There's no evidence of that.

 _It doesn't really make sense for them to develop the chip offsite, and then buy the company after it ships._

Perhaps consider it the world's longest job interview.

 _Especially when they've already got the team to do it internally._

It's not clear to me how much skill overlap there is between PA Semi and Intrinsity.

Since everybody loves unfounded conspiracy theories, here's one: PA Semi's hotshot circuit designers went to Agnilux so Apple had to buy Intrinsity as plan B.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a bit strange how Jobs is referred to as "Steven P. Jobs", I checked Apple's exec profile and it's still Steve Jobs according to Apple. <http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/jobs.html>

<comment><USER7> That's because of the New York Times' style guide. The same reason they say "I.B.M.". Ugly.</comment></comment>


Introducing Google JS Test - <AUTHOR> http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/09/introducing-google-js-test.html

<comment><USER2> What's the purpose of complex testing frameworks like this? What's wrong with using a simple framework whose tests must simply return a bool?

For example:

             var myObject = new Something("foo", "bar");

    	 assert("simple operations", function() {
    		return myObject.doSomething() == "baz";
    	 });;

    	 assert("post-operational state", function() {
    		return myObject.state() == 123;
    	 });;

    	 assertAync("async polling", function() {
    		return myObject.poll().length > 0;
    	 });;

Note that those tests would be much prettier in CoffeeScript.

Is the purpose of heavy testing frameworks purely for the useful functions like "deepEquals"? If so, why not make a library with functions like "deepEquals" and use that library with a simple testing framework? Surely, there must be something I'm missing.

 _Edit: I should note that the beautifully written CoffeeScript compiler/translator doesn't use a testing framework (favoring a few simple hand-rolled functions), and it has a massive suite of tests._

<comment><USER3> One advantage is debugging failures. If the test framework only knows that a test passed or failed, but not why, then you don't get to know why either, because it can't tell you.

For instance, many test runners will show you the expected and actual values when a comparison fails. If they're large blobs of text, it can show you a diff, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is for unit-testing in V8 only: no DOM. I'm currently using PhantomJS, which is V8 + Webkit and seems to be a superset of this new "JS Test". I can't see any reason to add JS Test in addition to PhantomJS.

<comment><USER5> Could be very helpful as a node.js addon

<comment><USER6> Not really, node.js already has heaps of testing frameworks that work fine in it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Did anyone else notice the screenshot is of a translucent terminal? I was curious what was in the background so I played with the levels.

<http://i.imgur.com/6jifV.png> <http://i.imgur.com/cIXox.png>

<comment><USER8> I would love to hear how did you do that.

<comment><USER7> In Photoshop, I opened the image up and first chose Image -> Adjustments -> Replace Color. I shift-clicked (sampled) each color of source code by clicking on a few different pixel of the text. I dragged the Lightness slider to zero to make the source code black thereby "erasing" the source from the window.

Next, I opened up Image -> Adjustments -> Levels and dragged the grey (middle) adjustment slider toward the left to lighten the darker areas. Dragging the white (right) slider a little left also helps to reduce the maximum blackness of the image.

<comment><USER8> Thank you for the explanation. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've been using jquery in node.js for a while now in my tests. This gives me access to the DOM and all of the great stuff that jQuery gives us:

        @GET "/", ( err, response ) =>
          response.withJquery ( err, $ ) =>
            @equal $( "#blah" ).text(), "Something"

Really cool stuff.

<comment><USER10> Have you looked into zombie.js (<http://zombie.labnotes.org/>)? It allows for selectors as well, and is a very straight forward headless browser.

<comment><USER9> No, I hadn't. It looks great, I'll certainly check it out properly soon!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've been really happy with JazzMoney: <https://github.com/pivotalexperimental/jazz_money> I'm looking over the limited documentation available and so far I'm not persuaded to switch. I'm very curious about measuring code coverage - nothing seems to be mentioned there about it, but I imagine the Goog does do that.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm looking to branch out after having used qUnit for the last year or so. Looks like this framework does mocking REALLY well (which I feel like I can't do well in qUnit). But it's v8 specific, so I can't test if Internet Exploder won't screw up my script.

Would anybody recommend any other unit-test frameworks for mocking stuff out?

<comment><USER13> You can look at jasmine + sinon

[http://tinnedfruit.com/2011/03/03/testing-backbone-apps- with...](http://tinnedfruit.com/2011/03/03/testing-backbone-apps-with-jasmine- sinon.html)

<comment><USER14> There's also a fantastic tool for running those tests headlessly with jasmine- headless-webkit[0]. The benefit is that you can, if you so desire, test against the DOM as there is a complete browser in the background.

[0] <http://johnbintz.github.com/jasmine-headless-webkit/>

<comment><USER13> Ah, interesting.

If headless is not what you want, js-test-driver[1] looks promising. It has adapters for jasmine too.

1\. <http://code.google.com/p/js-test-driver/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Anyone recognize the font in the screenshot?

<comment><USER3> Monaco 10pt.

<comment><USER15> Rats, somehow I dismissed Monaco as the obvious answer -- I think I'm used to seeing it at smaller sizes. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Jasmine.js FTW.</comment>


Ask HN: Crazy but plausible uses of neural nets - <AUTHOR> I've always had this thought about a computer that given a story in form of a screenplay or some other textual format, would output a video production of it! I know little to nil about neural nets but given that we have huge amount of training data (e.g. Youtube), this should be doable in the long run.<p>Has anyone else had similar ideas? <comment><USER2> I've got an idea for an endless game that uses neural networking and game AI to generate game worlds that develop stories even without the player's direct involvement.</comment>


Debian 7.3 is out - <AUTHOR> http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

<comment><USER2> Better link with more info: [http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20131214](http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20131214)

<comment><USER3> It truly confuses me that the upgrade instructions are so obfuscated, bordering on unfindable. Can someone point me to the chapter where an upgrade from 7.1 to this version is covered?

[http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release- notes/in...](http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release- notes/index.en.html)

<comment><USER2> As others have mentioned:

        $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

In this particular case, from 7.1 to 7.3, "dist-upgrade" is not needed (you aren't upgrading from one distribution to another (e.g. from 6 to 7)).

<comment><USER4> This is not Ubuntu.

Better use 'aptitude':

      sudo aptitude update && aptitude full-upgrade

<comment><USER5> Why is it better to use aptitude on debian?

I've been using debian for years and always just used apt-get.

<comment><USER4> For a start, aptitudes command line options are less confusing and more powerful.

Furthermore:

[http://superuser.com/questions/93437/aptitude-vs-apt-get- whi...](http://superuser.com/questions/93437/aptitude-vs-apt-get-which-is-the- recommended-aka-the-right-tool-to-use)

<comment><USER5> There doesn't seem to be anything that jumps out as a reason to use aptitude over apt-get there. It mentions that the defaults for upgrading the distro are better for aptitude but doesn't say why or what differences there are.

I can see the search being useful though.

Seeing as my muscle memory is set at apt-get, i'll stick with it for the moment.

<comment><USER6> There was a brief time when aptitude was smarter than apt-get (it was smart enough to remove auto-installed dependencies when you removed a package, for example). During that time, the advice was to use aptitude instead of apt-get.

Those smarts were later moved to apt itself, but it's still a part of the folklore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It has already been said, but this is just a point release. If you keep your Debian system up to date (which you should) you'll only get a few new packages.

See also [https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases/PointReleases](https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases/PointReleases)

</comment><comment><USER8> I recently gave Debian a try and one thing that surprised me, coming from Arch, is that the tool to install software, apt-get, can't list what software has already been installed. You have to use dkpg to get that information.

Even funnier, I found the answer for that on the Arch Wiki page on Pacmac Rosetta:

[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta)

<comment><USER9> Sort of makes sense if you consider the history behind it: dpkg installs software, not apt-get. apt-get, aptitude, etc. are higher-level dependency resolution tools that simply loop in dpkg to actually install packages. dselect is an older tool that did dependencies before apt-get came around.

RPM distros are similar, as they use higher-level tools to do dependencies (yum, zypper, etc.; there was even apt for RPM) and then RPM to actually install the packages and track them.

Admittedly though Debian's command line tools are stuck in the past in this regard, as the user shouldn't need to care about all this. Arch gets this right by putting it all into pacman.

<comment><USER10> Debian (and Ubuntu etc.) has a tool available that unifies all the many different commands required for administrating and querying the package system. It's called "wajig". I don't believe it's installed by default, though. I rarely see it suggested, probably because whenever people complain about the complexity of the command-line tools, the answer they get is "use the GUI tools".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Since I do apt-get update && apt-get upgrade almost regularly, I found out that my system was already running 7.3 (cat /etc/debian_version). So yes, this is not a major upgrade release just that the Debian team thought that there were enough changes and bug fixes to label this as a new release.

</comment><comment><USER12> Can anyone point me to a step by step for how to get debian running on a macbook air? I've googled it and tried at least 4 different approaches, to no avail. I'm talking about a macbookair3,1 (late 2010 11").

<comment><USER13> Try it on a VM like VirtualBox (free, OS X supported). Among the advantages, you get vastly superior hardware support, particularly with the trackpad.

Source: Running Debian Wheezy on a 2011 Air.

edit to add: Here's a quick list what running Debian on a VM gives you:

* Seamless full-screen linux with full hardware access (e.g. GPU)

* Advantage of native OS X drivers (particularly the amazing trackpad -- linux drivers crippled it in my experience)

* Instant, lag-free transition between linux/OS X -- e.g. four-finger "swipe" gesture between desktops.

* Shared linux/OS X filesystem ("shared folders")

* Zero hassle with linux wifi, custom bootloader hacks (rEFIt), etc. VirtualBox has first-class support in Debian -- everything's just an apt-get away: [https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox](https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox)

<comment><USER14> However, performance is shite. I ended up going for a native install and you can appreciate the difference. That is, if you run Gnome 3 (which is a pile of shite as well). When on other DMs, if you can call xmonad a dm, virtual box was just awesome, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

<comment><USER15> Why would you use gnome if you've used xmonad :)I run crunchbang (debian w/ openbox) and it's awesome.

<comment><USER16> So, you're not running "awesome"? So is crunchbang now awesome? Or awesome has been renamed to crunchbang?

The naming of these is confusing :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Anybody knows if the kernel version was bumped?

<comment><USER18> Looks like it's still 3.2 based: [http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/linux- image-3.2.0-4-amd64](http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/linux- image-3.2.0-4-amd64)

<comment><USER19> The kernel version isn't going to change in the 'stable' flavour. You can backport it if you need newer features, or use one of the other flavours.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How would you define a good work ethic? - <AUTHOR>

I started paying attention to my productivity 10 years ago. It waxes and wanes. Right now I'm in a downturn. After an easy day of work, I just browse reddit and YC. It's depressing.
I remarked to my date last night how I wish I was type A. I've seen them at work. They're machines. They literally get done 4x as much as normal people.
However, I remember reading an interview of an Asian billionaire (might have been Li-Kashing) and "capacity to work hard" is what counts. <comment><USER2> I'd say quality over quantity. If someone turns out terrible code at four times the rate you turn out decent code, s/he's doing more harm then good. Sometimes I browse the Internet for twenty minutes, hunker down and write something marvelous. It's just being ready for the moment.</comment>


SECWatch: SEC Filings and Insider Trading Simplified - <AUTHOR> http://secwatch.com/

<comment><USER2> Insider trading simplified? Does this mean I can call the Goldman Sachs CEO through this site and whisper soft, hot insider information in my ear?

This site is a good example of how even industry oversight can be privatized in some ways: Instead of the government regulating then feeding the results back to the public, give the public the tools to properly analyze companies and judge for themselves.</comment>


Reddit Circle of Trust - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/circleoftrust <comment><USER2> Another one of Reddit's strange social experiments... seems most of the user- base has no idea what is going on.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have a neat idea for a blockchain-based system. Does anybody want to help?</comment>


Elon Musk: Mark Zuckerberg's Understanding of AI Is "limited" - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/07/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-artificial-intelligence/ <comment><USER2> No one has the right to presume that the future will be similar to the past, neither Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or Nostradamus.

The definition of AI in public discussion has become so loose that it's basically a religious war. AI can mean anything from, "deep learning enabled by neural networks on graphical processing cards," to "software tools that seem intelligent in some way," to literal Lt. Commander Data type technology.

What does anyone mean when they accuse anyone of having a dim understanding of a poorly defined concept? To may they are basically saying, "look at me, pay attention to me and my companies."

</comment><comment><USER3> Musk is arrogant to think he, or anyone else for that matter, can speak authoritatively on AI matters. He has done zero (scientific) research in the area and tries to see so far into the future that it's ridiculous. The same goes for Zuckerberg but at least he isn't claiming to be more right than anyone else.

<comment> 52-6F-62 But he did co-found an organization to research AI with the fellows who run the organization we're discussing this on.

[https://openai.com/about/](https://openai.com/about/)

<comment><USER3> That doesn't make him automatically right on AI matters when all he is doing is idle speculation.

<comment><AUTHOR> It makes it very likely he's well informed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> He's not passing legislation with Musk Decree.

Just trying to open the floor to discussion, ground rules, and humanism before its too late.

Zuckerburg's view of AI extends into the next fiscal quarter, Musk's extends to other planets.

</comment><comment> norea-armozel I'm not sure why people continue to persist in the idea that AI will magically leap to human and super-human levels of intellect when we have a hard time engineering them to see patterns that it seems the average person can recognize with little training. I'm not suggesting that no such AI can exist but I'm suggesting that we're not at the point of comprehending the components that goes into such an AI (because I think we'll never directly create it but rather build its foundations which then will converge on their own accord and probably by accident).

In any case, I think the key legal problems of current AI and machine learning by extension are related to privacy. We've let such services invade various parts of our lives and we have no legal barriers sufficient to ensure no one's civil rights are violated as a result. So, let's work on those issues before we worry about making the next Colossus or Ultron.

<comment><USER5> I think the worry is that at some point someone will crack a self-improving general AI and at that point the time between "we did it" and "oh shit" could be on a human timescale very very short.

Given the potential downsides are possibly extreme (however unlikely) I'm happy that people are paying attention.

I think a lot of "AI" is hype and hyperbole and largely those people don't worry me that much, its the quiet ones doing fundamental research that worry me a bit more.

You are talking about a breakthrough with a threat level in the same magnitude as nuclear weapons, dinosaur killing asteroids etc.

Personally if I had to put my money down I'd say I wouldn't see a human-level general intelligence in my life time but a self-improving/learning intelligence doesn't have to be human level to be very very dangerous either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Who needs Mayweather Vs. McGregor news when we get to have this

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems like Rodney Brooks was saying the same thing to Musk last week. Musk is out of his sandbox here. The latest iteration of AI gives us a nice categorization and pattern matching tool which has certain ethical consequences, but when I hear Musk talk about it it seems like he thinks that hard AI is just around the corner. I haven't seen anything to suggest that it is. We don't even have AI as smart as a housefly.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not really relevant whether hard AI is or is not just around the corner if it's able to self-improve and set its own goals at a pace we can't follow or understand. The probability of ir happening this afternoon is close to zero, but the probability of it having happened before the end of the century is very close to 1. This means it's possible there will be no meatware celebrating the turn of the century.

<comment><USER7> It does matter because we have no idea what the world will look like when we do get to a point where we know it's 10-20 years away. Right now we're not even close to there yet and so it's mostly fear mongering.</comment></comment></comment>


Power Grids Should Be as Data Driven as the Internet - <AUTHOR> https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/power-grids-should-be-as-data-driven-as-the-internet <comment><USER2> I think they call this "getting high on your own supply."

The purpose of the internet is to move data, it consumes electricity as a side effect. The purpose of the power grid is to supply electricity and moving data is secondary. The ratio of power-to-data will always be different.

(Unless the power company does something really smart (not "Smart TM") and decides that since it maintains heavy steel and copper wires to every home it might as well wrap an optic fiber about it and get high bandwidth to everyone.)

A "smart grid" can find some efficiencies, but if the power available < demand, the best the smart grid can do is cut some neighborhoods off. People attack smart meters for the same reason they attack 5G -- it's a nonsensical enterprise that smolders on for years with breathless press releases, yet if you try to put bounds on the economic benefits these are hard to distinguish for zero.

How is it, for instance, that Samsung is talking about holographic XR in some beehive like Dongdaemun but pick a random spot in New York State by area, call 911, and you shouldn't expect to get through.</comment>


Deep Q-Learning: Space Invaders - <AUTHOR> http://maciejjaskowski.github.io/2016/03/09/space-invaders.html <comment><USER2> I wasn't able to play the video for some reason, but I located it on YouTube:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisFfiEdQ_E](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisFfiEdQ_E)

For comparison, DeepMind:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ePv0Fs9cGgU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ePv0Fs9cGgU)

Note that 550 is a very low score in Space Invaders.

<comment><USER3> Not OP but I believe the low score is due to not enough training time and incorrect parameters such as frameskip. Space Invaders was mentioned as one of the few games they needed to lower the frameskip (from 4 to 3 or 2?) on because of the flashing lasers. I'm assuming OP left the parameters as is from the implementation by Nathan Sprague, which has frameskip at 4, and trained for a few epochs.

<comment><USER4> Changing the frameskip is not needed any more since the implementation does max of last two frames before processing (same as what DeepMind does)

EDIT: talking about Sprague's implementation btw, not necessarily OPs.

<comment><USER5> Actually I did both frame skipping and amxing out two frames as reported in the Natures letter

[https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind- data/assets/papers/D...](https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind- data/assets/papers/DeepMindNature14236Paper.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I learned of q-learning in the berkeley AI course (the pacman course). So I sort of get that. but the course didn't touch neural networks.

what's the difference between q-learning with and q-learning without neural networks? Or, rather, in the process of doing q-learning, where does the neural network slot in, what does it replace if there is no nn?

<comment><USER5> Note that Neural Network is just a very complex function.

You usually think of Q as a function (S, A) -> (Expected accumulated future reward)

which is equivalent to S -> A -> (Expected accumulated future reward)

the Neural Network is S -> (A -> (Expected accumulated future reward)) or if you whish the output layer of neural network consists of |A| neurons. Each indicates the (Expected accumulated future reward) given current experience.

<comment><USER6> Thanks!

So what we are saying is that a neural network can be used as the implementation for the q-function? I.e., a q-function is by definition only a mapping of (S,A) pairs to an expected future reward. We can do this using a traditional style like value iteration or back propagation, or we can use a neural network? And it's just a matter of implementation?

<comment><USER5> Yes, we try to approximate Q function with neural network. Which is basically an enhanced version of gradient-descent Sarsa.

The main trick to notice is that you can't provide consecutive frames as mini- batches as these would be highly correlated and would derail stochastic gradient descent.

So we keep many frames (and all other necessary information) in memory and draw these experiences uniformly to form a minibatch that becomes input to the neural network

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is one of my favourite topics recently. ML and AI is something amazing. A very nice skill to have. Good article also.

</comment><comment><USER8> As an amateur, I've always wondered if reinforcement learning could work with games where there are some probabilities in place (e.g. poker). What happens when the action taken is a good one but the outcome is negative due to bad luck?

<comment><USER5> Absolutely. Q-learning has this capabilities and a shallow neural network was used back in 1992 to play backgammon, which has a lot of stochasticity. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-Gammon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD- Gammon)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would like to learn more about the techniques used here. Can anyone recommend some books, or online materials but I generally find those worse. I have a moderately strong math background (undergraduate degree with double major in CS/Math).

<comment><USER10> someone posted this comment in another thread [1]. (Also read the two parent comments of that comment).

Essentially read and do exercises of ISLR (Intro to Statistical Learning, with applications in R). Will both give you a strong base, and increase your job prospects (according to the comment).

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11286980](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11286980)

P.S: my personal opinion. For every R language exercise in that book, try to do a similar exercise in Python. If you don't know Python, learn it. (you'll thank me later).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> "I omit certain details for the sake of simplicity and I encourage you to read the original paper."

This link to the original paper appears to point to theano unit test documentation. Does anyone know what is the "original paper" to look at?

<comment><USER5> Let me fix that. There are actually two papers: [https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf)

and a more recent and more detailed: [https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind- data/assets/papers/D...](https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind- data/assets/papers/DeepMindNature14236Paper.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Now, train the network jointly over the game sequence. Or even better, when given a chance to take action rollout on each action and learn jointly on that rest of gameplay.

Reinforcement learning is very hard. Especially when you create meaningful games and then don't use the fact that a whole game is a one long chain of events, and instead force learning on windowed sequence.

Neural network has enough parameters to remember much of these windows and will clearly perform well, but the training last too long given the fact that no structured information is used.</comment>


Amazon to Add Two-Factor Authentication to Retail Customer Accounts - <AUTHOR> http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Amazon.com+(AMZN)+Adds+Two-Factor+Authorization+to+Accounts/11086924.html <comment><USER2> What about HTTPS by default?</comment>


Show HN: MonsterLumen helps you brainstorm business problems - <AUTHOR>

Hi Hn,
A buddy and I worked on this prototype to see if we could design a system that helps people think creatively. I'd love your feedback, tips and pointers - and yes, I know it's a bit ugly (much css work to be done).
Check it out at beta.monsterlumen.com and let us know what you think! <comment><USER3> I like the idea although it definitely needs a bit more work. I used the nudge a few times out of curiosity a got a question that I wasn't interested in answering but there was no way of exiting the dialog. I think a bit more instruction on what is happening and an indication of how far through the process I am would have been helpful.

If you're planning to charge people for the service you might want to have a think about who your target market is and how you will make money. I see MonsterLumen as an educational tool that teaches you skills and techniques to think outside the box, once I've got those skills I don't need your app anymore so just consider that when you're coming up with pricing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great feedback. You can press esc to exit the nudge dialog - we purposefully made it hard to exit because we wanted people to engage in seemingly silly questions, because in our experience, that's when you have breakthroughs. As an aside, we've also noticed that the tool doesn't work unless you have a legitimate problem that you care about and are trying to solve - made up problems just don't cut it.

I agree that we could do better at communicating progress and more about the process - I think this is one of the major things we need to work on.

We're not thinking about charging for it right now, it's just a proof of concept to answer the question "Can software make someone more creative"?

We're not worried about people leaving and applying the skills elsewhere, since what we've seen in practice is people who've paid thousands of dollars to learn these skills revert to their old habits once real problems pop up.

Thanks a lot for giving it a shot, and for your feedback!

<comment><USER4> I used it for a real problem and I loved the idea and how simply is built. But I used alone, while I still considering try it with my team, I just didn't feel very compelled to send invitations. I use Asana, if this was a tool of their product, with all my teammates there, our taks and projects listed, and people already in the "let's talk about business" mood, I would certainly use it.

I don't see it as a tool to teach you "creative skills", not at all! I see as a good brainstorming tool. A good, simple one. The main advantage to real meetings brainstorming sessions is that this is asynchronous, your team doesn't have to be all together at the same time. You may just say "let's brainstorm this through the next 3 days, and friday we decide what to do". And I liked the 2 nudges I got very much! And I like that is not that easy to skip.

But, as a web app alone, with very poor social resources, it lost all its appeal. Something that I think would make it great is to allow all communication to be made through email (just as Basecamp and Asana do). But if everything is via email, then it may be very powerfull. But you have to create a great UX with added value, because one can simply create a email, copy 3 teammates and start a brainstorming thread. How to introduce the nudges, a good organization of topics and ideas, an easy to upvote good ideas maybe, etc; that would be hard to do through this email communication.

Well, I think the concept is great, I hope you can make a good product out of it.

<comment><USER5> Hi Soneca - thanks for your feedback and for giving it a shot.

I think your hesitation about sharing may be linked to the fact that sharing the brainstorm feels like it's real-time, so to share with your coworkers would involve breaking their flow and dragging them into your current brainstorm. That explanation seems to fit with you not wanting to change the mood - am I correct in this assumption?

I'm really glad you liked your nudges - we were initially not sure people would "get" them. We're a little worried about async brainstorming, because a lot of the real value from brainstorming comes from stealing your coworkers' ideas and building on them - so you make their ideas better. Async makes this more difficult.

I love your idea about email being the conduit. I think i'd like to build on that :), and that with tools like mailgun, it's not going to be terribly hard. Thanks a lot for this 3rd paragraph - a lot of actionable ideas here.

Thanks for your support - we hope to make it into something awesome too :).

<comment><USER4> Your first assumption is partially correct. But I think the problem is there are two invitations at a time: i) please join me at my brainstorming and ii) please use this tool for it.

The invitation i) is inherent of the purpouse, altough is totally acceptable only with coworkers. If I want to brainstorm a startup idea with random friends, this invitation may bother my friends - even if they get that they don't need to answer immediately.

The invitation ii) is not inherent, is marketing. It is a barrier to share. You must have good, cool, smart way to introduce the invited people to the tool. Your copywriting will make a lot of differencehere.

You can note that both problems are solved if the tool is already a feature inside a team management tool - only coworkers and using a tool they already know.

ABout the nudges, I guess you have to find just the right time to use them, and also work hard in making it attractive to users, so they want to "play with it".

And about the "async", actually I used the word wrongly. What I am, the tool must keep the chronological order of a brainstorm, in order to one improve each other idea. But the advantage here is that it allows people do it remotely and free from a time restriction. I will read all the ideas there are coming, but I will send mine whenever I choose to. It still a conversation, but it allows more intermissions than a face-to-face meeting.

<comment><USER5> Interesting.

We're targeting business problems and coworkers since workers have better incentives to contribute (compared to friends), and businesses can see tangible cash value from being more creative.

The thought was that if a coworker sent you an invite/email saying - "I want your ideas on this", it'd be hard for you to not contribute. But I'm hearing that it breaks the work flow too much to expect people to leave email and their current task management tool to use our tool whenever they want to brainstorm. Is that because it feels like they're spamming their friends/coworkers, or because their friends/coworkers don't necessarily want to learn to use another gadget/app? Would it be different if we emailed your coworkers on your behalf saying "soneca just brainstormed x" - want to add your ideas and help her?

I think integrating into a team management tool is a great idea - or maybe directly into gmail like streak (www.streak.com).

Async definitely was what we were going for - busy people want to brainstorm with you and contribute ideas, but it's impossible to get 5 of them in a room at the same time. MonsterLumen should help with that.

<comment><USER4> I like the way you worded the email here "soneca just...". I think you will have to test a lot your copywriting, it looks to me that this will make all the differece in the world for your product.

When/if you implement it using email tell me, I would love to try it on a real world situation.

<comment><USER5> We definitely will.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The URL is <http://beta.monsterlumen.com>, and I'll be sticking around in the comments to get your feedback!

</comment><comment><USER6> you want me to be honest? This feels like a feature to me, not a business. Very hard to get traction with something like this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Most definitely - we love honesty. Can you flesh out your comment a little? I think most businesses have problems getting traction to start out - <USER2> specific challenges are you seeing?

<comment><USER6> well, that's the problem. Getting traction is going to be very difficult with this. You're expecting people to find, or remember this site next time they need to brainstorm something. It's basically a stand-alone "feature".

Marketing is difficult, but more importantly, getting visitors to stick is going to be extremely difficult.

If, on the other hand, you do something bigger, such as create a brainstorming resource site with tips, tricks, and all sorts of useful stuff that will attract visitors - this could be a nice feature to add to that site.

<comment><USER5> I think we were also thinking of it as a platform for community thought. Imagine embedding a brainstorm widget at the end of your blog article to get ideas for a problem your company is solving.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: I'm improving the official erlang docs, need feedback - <AUTHOR> https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/ <comment><AUTHOR> Current one here: [http://erlang.org/doc/](http://erlang.org/doc/)

Here's a list of things you may want to check to compare:

* applications list:

      + https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/applications.html

      + http://erlang.org/doc/applications.html

* modules list:

      + https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/man_index.html

      + http://erlang.org/doc/man_index.html

* a module doc page:

      + https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/lib/stdlib-3.1/doc/html/array.html

      + http://erlang.org/doc/man/array.html

* code examples:

      + https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/programming_examples/funs.html

      + http://erlang.org/doc/programming_examples/funs.html

* one with a little of everything: \+ [https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/reference_manual/exp...](https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/reference_manual/expressions.html#idm45459941751584)

      + http://erlang.org/doc/reference_manual/expressions.html#id80458

* tables:

      + https://marianoguerra.github.io/otp/doc/reference_manual/expressions.html#idm45459941644800

      + http://erlang.org/doc/reference_manual/expressions.html#id81348</comment>


Further Freedom Attacks - <AUTHOR> http://daeken.com/further-freedom-attacks <comment><USER3> People are having a hard time understanding how this could be happening. Perhaps these people don't get out much. What's happening here is simple: the federal government is using Civil Asset Forfeiture for IP/copyright enforcement.

Particularly when armed with a court order, the government has broad authority to seize property that can either be traced to the proceeds of a crime, or that can be shown to be used in furtherance of a crime. This comes up _all_ \- _the_ \- _time_ in drug enforcement, where the police use it to seize vehicles used to run drugs. All that appears to be happening here is that the government is applying it to copyright enforcement.

The Libertarian magazine Reason has been covering the increased use (and misuse) of civil asset forfeiture for years now. It ticked up during the Bush years, and has been validated multiple times during the Obama presidency.

In particular, note that there _are_ due process protections with strict statutory timelines attached to them for challenging civil seizures. One doubts many of these enterprises will avail themselves of those procedures; most would probably lose, and it's simpler just to host offshore.

"Why, oh why, is DHS and ICE doing the RIAA's work for them?" Because it's part of their charter. The "C" in ICE stands for Customs. Customs deals with counterfeiting (it's an importation issue), and hosts a large IPR enforcement division. No, the RIAA has not wheedled its way into DHS and refocused homeland security on copyright enforcement.

Civil asset forfeiture can get very sketchy. I wish there were more bright- line limitations on what the government can and can't do with it. The impression that I have is that in the majority of cases where it's applied, you generally want LEO's to have the power to seize what they're seizing. But every once in awhile, they pull some 60 year old guy over with the cash down payment he was going to make for his new pickup truck, declare him a drug dealer, and end up pocketing the cash because he can't find a lawyer. _That's_ a miscarriage of justice. In light of it, I have a hard time feeling too sorry for people who lose their pirate music storefront sites.

I like 'daeken (I work with him!), and I know and respect that he has a very different take on intellectual property than I do, but his take on this seems a bit breathless.

<comment><USER4> A. Do you have any references/evidence saying that this is the legal doctrine being used?

B. Civil Forfeiture is indeed evil and dubious. IF it were expanded and applied to everything to which one could imagine, we would indeed be living in dictatorship. It's kind of a bleeding whole in rule-of-law, one that hasn't been expanded too much recently - I could only wildly speculate that they hadn't wanted negative attention for it. In any case, this is a good reason to be against it.

<comment><USER3> If you read the story, look at the landing page ICE set up on the seized domains, and then Google the two US Code references on that page, you'll see they were both civil forfeiture statutes.

You write as if your understanding of asset forfeiture was "the government can simply take whatever it wants whenever it wants". That isn't the case at all. It's called "civil" forfeiture because the government is suing for the property. There's a court case and everything. It is, essentially, _the exact opposite_ of what the article we're commenting on claims it is.

<comment><USER4> _You write as if your understanding of asset forfeiture was "the government can simply take whatever it wants whenever it wants". That isn't the case at all. It's called "civil" forfeiture because the government is suing for the property._

Taking "whatever they can get away with" is quite different from "whatever they want".

Whether authorized by a judge or not, a procedure involving "take first then you've got to sue us", is a violation of the basic rule of law - <USER2> requirement to face your accuser _before_ any property can be taken. This goes back to the constitution and even the Magna Carta.

I mean, There was no service or trial in the situation described. Judge- authorization for lawless act is just a dodge Otherwise, we'll go the system of "Judge Dred" ("Judge, Jury and executioner") <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dredd>

<comment><USER5> See my other comment in this thread. It's "all right" because it's the property being sued, i.e. the domain name itself, not the holder of the domain name (yes, you read that correctly). That's how they get away without due process for the holder, it's irrelevant since they're officially a 3rd party.

I'm sure the domain name was properly impressed by the judge's warrant when it surrendered to the US Marshals or whomever.

<comment><USER3> It's simply not correct to assert that the property owner has no due process rights. You obviously don't approve of the specific process accorded to property owners, but words mean things.

<comment><USER5> I mean due process in the seizure. They're allowed to contest the seizure afterward.

<comment><USER3> In much the same sense as they're allowed to contest an arrest... after they're arrested.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I find situations like this _extremely_ difficult to understand. I really don't get it _at all_.

Either we have a system where you are innocent until proven guilty, have a right to a fair trial, good evidence has to exist, you have a right to privacy, a right to trial by jury, no corruption, no torture, etc. etc. or we don't. That's it.

We are continually chasing our tail re-asking questions about when each of these things is appropriate and when they are not. So here's my solution: we make a list. Each time people ask these same questions again and again and again, we point at the list. It'd save billions of dollars too, I bet.

<comment><USER7> It's the perpetuation of a fraud. Even if we presume our people were committed to these ideas, which they aren't anymore, the commitment quickly erodes once _you_ become the one with the power to "expedite" or skirt these protections. Until the character of all those involved in government is pure, government is going to attempt to make "special exceptions" (read: not really that special) and fear monger the whole way so that people stay off their backs.

It is crucial to the preservation of our liberties that The People frequently reassess how well we are following these principles and that they exert their sovereign authority to ensure that they are followed by our representatives and administrators as closely as possible.

Now, does our populace do this anymore? I don't think they do. I think they are mostly concerned with and distracted by social issues (which are important, but have become a huge distraction to all other forms of policy) and let everything else slide until Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann feign outrage to further political or commercial agenda.

It's all a lost cause in my opinion. The People are corrupt and the Government is certainly corrupt. What can we do now? We just have to wait for the inevitable implosion.

<comment><AUTHOR> > It's all a lost cause in my opinion. The People are corrupt and the > Government is certainly corrupt. What can we do now? We just have to wait > for the inevitable implosion.

You know, you're probably right. In all likelihood, it's going to get _much_ worse before it gets any better. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to make it better. We may fail, but at least we tried.

<comment><USER8>
      We may fail, but at least we tried.

That's the main thing, isn't it? </sarcasm>

<comment><USER9> I don't appreciate this type of humor, but Estragon is correct. A programmer, especially of the startup nature, should know this fact all too well:

In the real world it's not about how hard you tried, it's about results. Work smarter, not harder.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not the fact that you tried that's important. It's that if you try, you have at least some chance of success; if you don't try, then failure is implied.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Lost in the fuss over this is the fact that ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) did in fact get a warrant for these and previous domain seizures. Of course, ICE brought this paranoia on themselves, since their scary graphic doesn't include copies of the warrants, details of which courts issued them, or information about the procedure they went through to get them.

But the only person they _have_ to notify is the registrant; and the standards for proof of service (of the warrant) in foreign domains is lower than that within the US. I'm not sure the owner of torrent-finder.com is necessarily an honest reporter - the court may not have provided him with any notice, though I find it hard to believe he's never ever received a complaint or warning of any kind that might tip him off to such an eventuality.

Incidentally, considering that all his contact details are still available via goDaddy's whois, it's a bit depressing that none of the media outlets reporting this so breathlessly have spent the $1 or so it would cost to call him up for a quote. And we wonder why the investigative reporting business is in such a poor state.

<comment><USER11> I think that anyone on the mainstream-media that read that post is scratching their heads wondering what a WHOIS record is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I want to play devil's advocate here, and would love input from others as well, because if I'm right my thinking casts the govt. in a much less harsh light.

ICANN was created to manage DNS and IP address space on behalf of the govt. It's a non-profit that operates independently under a board of directors, and it's mandate comes from a Memorandum of Understanding which set up a relationship between ICANN and the U.S. govt. However, it still appears that ICANN is under the authority of the U.S. govt., although it is formally a non- profit corporation in California. I mean it's under U.S. authority sort of in the same way that the Bush administration could press telecoms to illegally wiretap communications at Folsom St. in San Francisco and elsewhere. Now, that warrant-less wiretapping was blatantly unconstitutional, because legally protected privacy was breached. However, these domain seizures are different, because nobody is guaranteed the right to use domain names; it's more of a privilege like driving. People don't have the "right" to drive cars. That's a privilege granted by states, and subject to their regulations and laws. If a person applied for a license and stated they only wanted to drive so they could rob banks and get away faster, I'm guessing they could be legally denied the license, no court case needed. Well, this appears to be a similar issue. It would make these seizures look like less of an overreach by the DHS.

The issues around DCMA are something different to address. I'm strictly talking about this domain seizure issue, and the claim of unconstitutional censorship. That may not be an accurate claim at all. It may be that we need to ensure ICANN is out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. govt.

<comment><USER13> Everyone has the right to drive a car, to eat a cheesburger, to buy a computer, an ipod, to drive a plane and own one.

We have the right to do anything and everything which is not prohibited by the law. On the other hand, the government can do only that which is allowed by the law.

Thus, we do have a right to own a domain, a domain is private property, the government has no right to cease it unless the legislature has given them the right and if the legislature has given them the right, then whether this right applies in an individual case is up to the court to decide who has the job of interpreting the law and applying it to the facts of individual cases.

<comment><USER12> _Everyone has the right to drive a car_

Well, let me clarify that. People have a right to drive cars _on their own property_. Everyone doesn't have the right to drive cars on public roads. If they did they wouldn't need a license, which can be revoked. At least, I believe that's how it works. Someone please correct me if that is not accurate.

I do agree a domain name should be considered private property. So, you're right that people should have the right to own domains. Apparently, in this case the domains were legally seized private property. So, it still seems to me, the only way to be totally free from paranoia about the govt. potentially seizing your domain is to have ICANN removed from U.S. jurisdiction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Does anybody know why nobody has sued over this yet? it has to be blatantly unconstitutional.

<comment><USER15> I'm not an expert but it seems to be legal and even constitutional. It's offensive, but if you mad-libbed the story, I'm betting it would seem less offensive.

The US Government siezed __number__ of __noun plural__ because of suspected __illegal verb__.

I was upset when I read the headlines as well. Mostly because of what I inferred -- not because of what happened.

My only worry is that one sad effect of this precedent might be people having their domains taken from them because a small number of users use the service for illegal activity.

EDIT: There's another post on the front page right now which says what I wanted to say much more eloquently: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1946154>

</comment></comment><comment> cool-RR Final sentence:

 _We cannot take this sitting down. This must not be allowed to stand._

So... We let it sit down, and we have to stand?

<comment><USER16> We stand up and knock it on its ass. This is a blatant violation of due process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd like to see a list of those 70 domains.

<comment><AUTHOR> 2009jerseys.com, 51607.com, amoyhy.com, b2corder.com, bishoe.com, borntrade.com, borntrade.net, boxedtvseries.com, boxset4less.com, boxsetseries.com, burberryoutletshop.com, cartoon77.com, cheapscarfshop.com, coachoutletfactory.com, dajaz1.com, discountscarvesonsale.com, dvdcollectionsale.com, dvdcollects.com, dvdorderonline.com, dvdprostore.com, dvdscollection.com, dvdsetcollection.com, dvdsetsonline.com, dvdsuperdeal.com, eluxury-outlet.com, getdvdset.com, gofactoryoutlet.com, golfstaring.com, golfwholesale18.com, handbag9.com, handbagcom.com, handbagspop.com, icqshoes.com, ipodnanouk.com, jersey-china.com, jerseyclubhouse.com, jordansbox.com, lifetimereplicas.com, louis-vuitton-outlet-store.com, lv- outlets.com, lv-outlets.net, lv-outletstore.com, massnike.com, merrytimberland.com, mycollects.com, mydreamwatches.com, mygolfwholesale.com, newstylerolex.com, nfljerseysupply.com, nibdvd.com, odvdo.com, oebags.com, onsmash.com, overbestmall.com, rapgodfathers.com, realtimberland.com, rmx4u.com, scarfonlineshop.com, scarfviponsale.com, shawls-store.com, silkscarf-shop.com, silkscarfonsale.com, skyergolf.com, sohob2b.com, sohob2c.com, storeofeast.com, stuff-trade.com, sunglasses-mall.com, sunogolf.com, tbl-sports.com, throwbackguy.com, tiesonsale.com, timberlandlike.com, topabuy.com, torrent-finder.com, usaburberryscarf.com, usaoutlets.net

<comment><USER18> Opportunity for a quick score - reregister as many of those as possible under unregistered foreign TLDs, then sell for a hefty markup when those companies come looking for a safer TLD to reregister their domain under.

<comment><USER9> yuck.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Did WIPO[1]/UDRP[2] play a role in this?

Assuming not, I'm curious, in your opinion, does the procedure WIPO uses to confiscate domain names provide sufficient due process?

[1] <http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/index.html>

[2] <http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp.htm>

_P.S. It would also be nice if you could cite where you learned about this story._

[Update]: saw the big section labeled "REFERENCES", forget my P.S.

</comment><comment><USER20> Still beats syphilis experiments or sarin/VX testing.

<comment><USER21> But maybe not the evils the government commits tomorrow which we won't hear about because of censorship.

<comment><USER22> The arc of history is long but it bends toward freedom.

<comment><USER20> I agree completely. What I can't be sure of is whether these actions are indeed a step in the wrong direction- at least for the time being. Just maybe it's not what it seems.

When Bernanke starts recklessly printing money the way he did recently- that seems like a panic-driven survivalist effort to me, and I begin wondering if this isn't more of the same.

China's got us by the balls alright. I'm sure there's some twisting going on that only the government higher-ups can see, to warrant these reactions of late.

<comment><USER21> > China's got us by the balls alright.

Not sure about that. I think debtors have more power than creditors. After you have a client refuse to pay you, you start to see creditor/debtor power balance in a different light.

<comment><USER23> In the short term possibly, but in the long term refusing to pay a debt such as that would make it impossible for America to source credit.

<comment><USER21> Not sure about that either. I am not sure what I need to google to find this, but I seem to recall reading about countries that devalued their currency, but still were able to get financing. It doesn't necessarily need to be a refusal to pay per say. China asserts that it is their right to keep their currency artificially pegged to the dollar. On the same token, we can devalue our own.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> FYI- This is an elaborate hoax.

[http://grandgood.com/2010/11/27/domain-name-seizures-of- popu...](http://grandgood.com/2010/11/27/domain-name-seizures-of-popular-rap- file-sharing-sites-potentially-an-elaborate-hoax/)

</comment><comment><USER25> I've been here for a while, and I already went through my six-month noob HN- is-reddit phase. That being said, in what possible way is this within the HN guidelines?

<comment><USER26> i asked a similar question on another post and also got voted down. my conclusion is that these posts clearly fall within the HN guidelines (at a minimum very relevant to anybody whose current or future web startup relates to content or online shopping) but there are obviously different opinions. i don't see why suggestions that we discuss it get routinely downvoted.

<comment><USER27> > i don't see why suggestions that we discuss it get routinely downvoted.

Because this kind of meta-discussion is explicitly off-topic:

> Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate > for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going > to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; > there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also > comment that you did.</comment></comment></comment>


Hands-on with the new $399 Oculus Rift S: More pixels, zero webcams, better fit - T-A https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/hands-on-with-the-new-399-oculus-rift-s-more-pixels-zero-cameras-better-fit/ <comment><AUTHOR> ...the Oculus Rift S will have built-in cameras that combine infrared and RGB sensors to map your room...

some more data on you to add to the pile :'D</comment>


New stock images site with unlimited/lifetime accounts - <AUTHOR> http://www.stockunlimited.com/#eyJpZCI6MzgzNDJ9 <comment><AUTHOR> The link contains my affiliate link

Direct link: [http://www.stockunlimited.com](http://www.stockunlimited.com)</comment>


Estimate the latency from your browser to each AWS region - <AUTHOR> http://www.cloudping.info/

<comment><USER2> Could somebody throw a few lines of code together triangulating your position from these times? Maybe even visualized on a map.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm in the West of Ireland yet the Frankfurt ping is consistently faster than the Dublin ping. Only about 10ms in the difference but still.</comment>


Why People in Cities Walk Fast - <AUTHOR> http://m.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/03/why-people-cities-walk-fast/1550/#.T2pyFFw07pc.twitter <comment><USER2> The paper starts by talking about a correlation between a city's "economic activity" and the walking speed. But the graph shows population vs. walking speed. Surely population and economic growth are independent (New Orleans, Detroit, etc.) so I'd like to see if anyone has done a study comparing an economic indicator like DGP of a city.</comment>


Ask HN: What news sources do you follow? - <AUTHOR>

If any, what news sources do you follow and for what? <comment><USER2> Google News, with some custom sections to emphasize news about science and technology and about education, and the many friends I have on Facebook, who post interesting links regularly. I follow several blogs and other websites with regular news updates, especially about science. When I really want to research a subject in depth, I go straight to the academic libraries of my alma mater university across town (now often via its extensive subscriptions to databases that I can access from home with user authentication I gain through an affiliation with that university). For articles to look at for submission to Hacker News, I

1) make sure to have a science section in my Google News set-up, and additionally use Google News and Google Scholar keyword searches to check submissions by other users to HN,

2) follow the recommendations of certain key Facebook friends of mine who are either professional scientists, science writers, or science educators,

3) daily read Science-Based Medicine

<http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/>

(I don't submit to HN from Science-Based Medicine every day, but I have found some GREAT articles there over the years)

4) daily read Why Evolution Is True

<http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/>

(which sometimes has personal posts by the site owner but also has EXCELLENT posts by him and by guest posters on cutting-edge science issues, some of which I post directly and some of which lead to professional journal articles I post directly)

5) daily read Skeptic Blog <http://www.skepticblog.org/>

(which goes from very ordinary to EXCELLENT in quality in unpredictable fashion, and has several very thoughtful co-bloggers contributing)

6) daily read Respectful Insolence

<http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/>

(which has had some EXCELLENT posts about the methods of research over the years)

7) receive specific suggestions of research articles to read on human intelligence and human behavioral genetics either by request or by researcher nomination from the Minnesota Twin Family Study researchers with whom I discuss issues in a journal club during the school year

8) occasionally look at Pharyngula

<http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/>

(which went through a bad dry spell while its author finished writing his book, but which now occasionally has some great posts on topics of much interest to HN participants)

and

9) generally prowl the Web and recommendations I see anywhere else in cyberspace for good articles on science. I test most articles I see submitted anywhere with the checklist from Peter Norvig (Google's director of research)'s article "Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation,"

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

which is my all-time favorite link to share in discussions on Hacker News.

</comment><comment><USER3> (no particular order) daringfireball.net digg.com gizmodo.com and other gawker sites noupe.com smashingmagazine.com highscalability.com sometimes engadget.com i still enjoy reading wired.com sometimes major events - foxnews.com or msnbc.com (don't really care for cnn.com) and obviously HN

if i find myself going to the same site from an aggregate often, i'll add that to my daily morning news blitz before i get to work, but there are SO many news websites / blogs, i stick to my list and follow the links if a headline catches my attention.

</comment><comment><USER4> If something important happens, Hacker News will tell me about it.

Also: NYT daily email, read articles without subscribing.

Counterparties: <http://counterparties.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> Hi, you can try www.circcle.com, where you can create personalized video news feed based on topics you are interested in.

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://betanews.com/></comment>


Should Microsoft Buy Blackberry? - <AUTHOR> http://mustapha.svbtle.com/microsoft-blackberry

<comment><USER2> Most definitely they should, the Windows phone 8 is a perfect replacement for a Blackberry. I used to be a BB user but switched to WP8 about 1 year ago and never looked back. For a business user, the WP8 is a perfect fit and the BB user base is a great fit in my view.

</comment><comment><USER3> If they had a time-machine, yes. But MS today has Nokia and WinPhone, they don't need BB anymore.

<comment><USER4> Maybe having 2 winners on their hands would be seen as too much?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was a big supporter of the "MS buys Blackberry" theory, but I think that after the Nokia acquisition it's probably off the table for awhile. There already will be a transition period for absorbing one handset company, merging another into the mix right away would be difficult.

I'm actually quite surprised that BBRY stock didn't tank after the Nokia acquisition because of this.

</comment><comment><USER6> I always wondered about this and always came to the same conclusion: the old java-based and the new QNX o/s is just not going to fit with the MS ecosystem. I don't think they are compatible at all.

<comment><USER7> its an acquisition for clients. A market share grab.

Honestly though, if they have no good patents, ms wouldn't give two shits about them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> He make some compelling arguments. The biggest downside is the mobile, what do do with that. MS has Nokia now so it don't need BB anymore. Other than for their patents, I don't see it happen.</comment>


Rumors That Facebook Is Secretly Recording You Refuse to Die - <AUTHOR> https://gizmodo.com/rumors-that-facebook-is-secretly-recording-you-refuse-t-1819941278 <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15581114](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15581114).

</comment><comment><USER3> Why should they die until somebody with 0 conflict of interest does a proper test: Speak targeting words in front of 10 random phones and check ads 3 days later.

For example, aside from simple dishonesty, one possible explanation is that this "commercial-recognition" software is so shoddy it "mistakes" conversations for commercials.

</comment><comment><USER4> Lol what did they expect when they launched that microphone-based feature</comment>


Noca, The New Online Payment System - Say Bye to Paypal - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/22/noca-targets-transaction-fees-with-new-online-payment-system/

<comment><USER2> Micropayment systems have a long history of failing, and chances are this one won't be different.

Just for fun: take a closer look at the screenshot of the virtual check: 00 dollars and 00/100 Cents. 00/100 Cents. Milicents. Yes. Although technically correct in this case of 0 (mili)cents, it doesn't build confidence.</comment>


Bringing search to Angular - <AUTHOR> https://blog.algolia.com/bringing-search-to-angular <comment><USER2> I really like how they credit the contributors at the end</comment>


NSPCC denies involvement in Facebook cartoon avatar campaign  - <AUTHOR> http://www.madeformums.com/mums-and-dads/nspcc-denies-involvement-with-facebook-campaign/12044.html

<comment><USER2> I changed my facebook icon to a picture of Craig Shergold. He's a poor English lad, dying of kidney disease, and if you send him the pull-top rings from aluminum cans, you can help fund his dialysis. He's trying to set the record for most pull-top rings received.</comment>


San Francisco:  Experts say beach radiation unrelated to Fukushima - <AUTHOR> http://www.hmbreview.com/news/experts-say-beach-radiation-unrelated-to-fukushima/article_d3bb5b14-77ea-11e3-a37b-001a4bcf887a.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I imagine people will be relieved to hear that Fukushima is not (yet) the cause, but will officials clean-up the beach?

 _> "It's not normal. I've never seen 400 cpm when I just wave my Geiger around." he said. "There has to be something radioactive for it to do that."

Weiss is no amateur; for 40 years he has made a living designing Geiger counters, most recently for International Medcom Inc. After he verified the hotspot, he took a sample of the dark sediment and sent it to his company's main offices in Sebastopol for analysis.

International Medcom CEO Dan Sythe later put the dirt sample in a spectrum analyzer to view the radioactive "signature" of the particles, the photon energy associated with each isotope. What he found was different from cesium-137, the fissile material used in the Fukushima reactors. He would know – since the 2011 meltdown, Sythe has visited Japan nine times to help map the cesium fallout. _</comment>


Why Should You Focus on  Obstacles Instead of Goals? - <AUTHOR> https://www.gymastery.com/single-post/2017/09/15/Why-you-Should-Focus-on-Obstacles-instead-of-Goals <comment><USER2> All your habits of thinking and acting are stored in your subconscious mind. It has memorized all your comfort zones and it works to keep you in them.</comment>


OpenBSD on Digital Ocean - <AUTHOR> http://www.tubsta.com/2015/04/openbsd-on-digital-ocean/ <comment><USER2> What is the technical blocker to installing OpenBSD without a FreeBSD shim, e.g. is there incompatible code in the OpenBSD installer?

<comment><USER3> On digital ocean you get a very limited set of boot options. You can't provide them your own installer, boot image, kernel, iso, or any of that jazz.

You also don't get a pre-boot console.

For linux, they don't even let you provide your own kernel in userland or the like, so there's actually no way to install a BSD from a linux shim on DO.

FreeBSD on DO is the only way to get an instance that is capable of booting anything non-linux, so it's necessary to start from freebsd.

Edit: It looks like the kernel limitation has been lifted for some linux instances too. See: [https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to- upda...](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-update-a- digitalocean-server-s-kernel)

<comment><USER4> If yoy want to run your own kernel you can always use kexec (not ideal, but works): [https://gist.github.com/cpuguy83/6143347](https://gist.github.com/cpuguy83/6143347)

<comment><USER5> Has anyone got kexec to boot a non Linux kernel?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This also probably works on other cloud providers if they support a virtualization layer that OpenBSD will work with. I've heard of successes here too: [https://vultr.com/](https://vultr.com/)

Just be sure you use miniroot58.fs -- OpenBSD 5.8 wasn't released when this was written.

<comment><USER7> Vultr allows installing from ISO, so no need to shim. I can verify that OpenBSD 5.7-stable will run with no issues. One thing to watch out for is that outgoing TCP connections to port 25 are blocked until you ask them to open it up.

<comment><USER8> "connections to port 25 are blocked until you ask them to open it up"

Thanks for that info, that seems like a fairly reasonable policy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Okay, I know someone here is trying this... success or failure?

<comment><USER10> I used these instructions a few weeks ago and they worked. You will need to download miniroot58.fs (not miniroot57.fs).

<comment><USER11> True indeed, the article was written a week before the release of 5.8...

<comment><USER12> Huh, 5.8 hasn't been released? What you mean is that snapshots / current are now using that version number.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Tangentially related at best...anybody here succeed doing PXE with virtualbox's tftp and openbsd? I get an unhelpful error msg.

<comment><USER14> I have done a few bits with PXE booting inc OpenBSD, so I might be able to help if you can provide more detail. (I do feel your pain as PXE error messages are largely pretty vague, but not posting the error message is even less helpful).</comment></comment>


'Ghost kitchens' spring up in SF, and delivery-app customers are none the wiser - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/Ghost-kitchens-spring-up-in-SF-and-15021856.php <comment><AUTHOR> > This is the future of food — or at least one fast, cheap and dystopian > future

When did everything new originating from tech (or tech adjacent) companies become "dystopian"?

I think there's a lot of room for innovation between full service restaurants and home cooked meals, and this is one of them. I think it makes a lot of sense that some restauranteurs want to specialize in the food prep side of things and not have to deal with the hospitality side at all.

I'd really like to see drive-thru only restaurant explored more. Let me order my dinner on an app (maybe even a few days in advance if that will help) and then I come pick it up on my way home from work without having to wait for it to be prepared.

Or how about restaurants the assemble food kits that are cheaper and easy to go pick up?

I've never thought the delivery aspect of companies like GrubHub or DoorDash were its strength—I think people just don't want to go to the grocery store, cook (especially for 1) and clean up. But cost has always limited the growth of those companies, so giving people cheaper options to eat, even without delivery, could be a big deal.</comment>


What happened to CouchDB's popularity? - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/trends?q=MongoDB%2C+couchDB <comment><USER3> A lot of this is the result of the confusion in the community, there is the CouchDB Apache project, then the CouchBase work and their own "Single Server" releases that don't necessarily map 1:1 to the Apache versions.

Then there is the CouchBase "Couch Server" offering which, from what little I can tell, is membase + CouchDB and their CouchDB build, according to their docs, isn't 100% 1:1 with the Apache CouchDB builds (some differences about protocol or something).

Then you have no officially maintained libraries for the different platforms which was a turn off to me the first time I cracked that egg open.

Then you have CouchBase wanting to focus Couch on the mobile-cloud story since they are the only NoSQL solution doing that , with native builds for some of the mobile platforms.

Then you have BigCouch and IrisCouch and a slew of other things I can't figure out where they fit in.

Ultimately when you enter the eco system and start digging, it is hard to figure out exactly what "CouchDB" is, where to grab binaries for your platform from and drivers for your platform.

As wavephorm pointed out, you _can_ figure it all out with some reading and digging, but you have to persist.

It's not like Mongo, you don't just head to the official site, grab the official binary and install the official driver.

I'd also point out that CouchDB's biggest feature, the must-have feature no other NoSQL repo besides RavenDB replicates, is the master-master replication. If you don't need that, your barrier to entry with the other NoSQL solutions is much easier/straight forward.

I hope at some point the CouchDB community focuses their efforts on barriers to entries and figures out a common message for beginners they can communicate, and from there introduce the customizations for the people that need them (mobile Couch, BigCouch, etc.)

<comment><USER4> Couchbase offers 3 products -- Couchbase Server (which is Membase, with an instance of CouchDB for persistant storage). Couchbase Single Server (which is CouchDB plus Geocouch plus a few other addons). Couchbase Mobile (self- explanatory).

My understanding is that version 3.0 will probably merge the Membase and Couchbase products into one, so you'll have Couchbase and Couchbase mobile.

BigCouch is a separate product from the Cloudant guys, which is essentially CouchDB with an elastic sharding layer. Cloudant also sells a hosted version of BigCouch with -- I think -- a Lucene engine on top. There will likely be some overlap here between BigCouch and version 3 of Couchbase Server.

IrisCouch is a hosted version of Couchbase, with GeoCouch thrown in as well.

"Then you have no officially maintained libraries for the different platforms which was a turn off to me the first time I cracked that egg open."

I think this comes out of the initial popularity of CouchDB-- a bunch of people wrote drivers for all kinds of languages. Some of those guys work for Couchbase now. The libraries at <http://www.couchbase.org/code/couchbase- single> aren't comprehensive, but they do give you a good idea as to what's out there.

There was a bit of digging involved to get a lot of driver and connection information, but it seems like the Couchbase guys are doing a great job at cleaning up what was previously a scattershot list on the Apache site.

<comment><USER5> Also, CouchDB is all REST, so many people just write their own drivers.

<comment><USER4> I think it's also important to add-- writing a "driver" for Couch is, basically, writing an API that essentially calls some HTTP library with some options set, and then parses the resulting JSON data.

For example-- Ektorp, one of the more popular Java libraries? Wraps the Apache HttpClient, and uses the Jackson library to parse JSON. CouchDB4J does something similar, only it uses JSON-lib. A good Java coder could probably write their own fully-functional driver in a day.

jquery.couch.js is basically just a wrapper to $.ajax().

node-couchdb uses the built in client library for node. A good node coder could probably write a fully-functional driver in an hour.

So I don't think it's a matter of "download the official driver" as much as it is "download your platform's preferred JSON parser".

<comment><USER6> This is true until you realize you'll need to support keepalive and chunked encoding to write a reasonbly good driver. Two things that often require significant effort, if not custom coding, to make work with http libraries.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> CouchOne abandoned any sort of marketing effort around CouchDB long before they got acquired by Membase. Since then, they have focused their attention solely on marketing the Couchbase brand, with close to zero time spent evangelizing Apache CouchDB. The other CouchDB "vendor", Cloudant (who I work for) never had much of a marketing budget, so we spent no time marketing CouchDB either (we focused on building and marketing our own products, open- source BigCouch and hosted Cloudant).

This situation did not catch us by surprise; I flagged this as a potential issue at Cloudant and had conversations about it with the CouchOne guys back in January 2011.

What you see here is just what happens to open-source technologies when nobody spends time evangelizing them — and when maybe, just maybe, they're not hip enough to get self-sustaining traction. I love CouchDB to pieces and believe it's an immensely useful tool with great things in its future — but it has long stopped being cool, compared to the MongoDBs and Nodes of this world. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing… Strong communities are not built on shallow attraction.)

So yes, both vendors decided to focus their limited resources on advertising their own products (successfully & deservedly so, I would argue) but I think the success & money that phase brings in will undoubtedly be funneled back into even more evangelizing & involvement in Apache CouchDB. (I'm speaking for Cloudant at least, don't know what Couchbase's open-source plans are for Apache CouchDB.)

</comment><comment><USER8> One of CouchDB's standout features is that it handles synchronization of data across devices (not that it doesn't potentially do other things well, but I think the conventional wisdom for a while was: "If you want to do synchronization use CouchDB.")

That's nice, but I think that synchronization in general is less of a need as we've all become more and more connected and internet access has gotten more and more ubiquitous.

The core CouchDB devs are ex Lotus Notes guys and I get the sense that with Couch they are trying to "do Lotus Notes right" not thinking that the environment has really changed and synch is not the killer feature it once was.

<comment><USER9> > synch is not the killer feature it once was

I disagree. Mobile connectivity is going to continue being spotty for the foreseeable future and Couch's "store locally, sync whenever" paradigm is perfect for any application that needs to remain functional when not connected.

<comment><USER10> Agreed. I'm using CouchDB for a front-of-house ticketing system; the roving units need to sync back to main base (surviving disconnections thanks to spotty wireless). CouchDB is perfect for this.

I'm actually pretty worried about CouchDB going away. What's out there that does the equivalent (NoSQL or Relational, I don't care)?

<comment><USER11> CouchDB won't go away, at least not as long as HTTP and JSON are relevant. If you'd like to see more open source contributions, do what I did and learn the code base, contribute patches and ideas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm using CouchDB every day and could not replace it with Mongo if I wanted to. So I guess I don't care how popular it is with others, since it solves my problems today (and it's at least popular enough to be maintained and improved).

That said, CouchBase has a huge messaging problem. It took me hours to figure out what CouchBase and all their editions were about. I'm interested in exploring their products, the write performance improvements should be huge, but their web site definitely is confusing and off-putting.

</comment><comment><USER13> About a year ago I built a prototype system on top of CouchDB, and it turned out to be very flaky when I went to install it elsewhere. The javascript engine (was it Rhino?) was super hard to install from source, and the distribution packages on Ubuntu were unreliable. I really like the concepts of CouchDB, and it's really influenced how I think about designing systems for future projects, but I was going to wait for it to mature more before I pushed on it again.

I see that it's now using SpiderMonkey. Maybe in a few more versions I'll give it a try again.

<comment><USER14> I too built a prototype using couch. The thing that scares me is that the database gets really huge and has to be compacted "by hand." I'm not exactly sure when to run the compactions when lots of users are on as I understand that it can create some performance problems.

I find it's performance reliable and repeatable (with SpiderMonkey) however. I just don't fully understand its working parameters (I also wonder how much they are likely to change).

The mailing list seems excellent, FWIW.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> If we're comparing CouchDB's popularity to that of MongoDB's, it's simple - 10gen. 10gen has done a very good job generating lots of hype around their product. I believe they have people dedicated to this task (aka, evangelists). CouchBase on the other hand, has not done so well at this.

<comment><USER16> And that hype turned me off. I have an allergic reaction to it. Especially when they were caught acknowledging they didn't have default durability for their writes. Then suddenly they removed their benchmarks from their site and made some comment about how data will be lost anyway, so it is not a big deal.

<comment><USER17>
      caught acknowledging

instant classic.

<comment><USER16> > caught acknowledging instant classic.

Those that can, comment, those that have nothing to say, make fun of those who speak English as a third language.

<http://blog.mongodb.org/post/381927266/what-about-durability>

Feb, 2010

"We get lots of questions about why MongoDB doesn't have full single server durability, ...there are some very practical reasons why we think single server durability is overvalued"

[http://www.mongodb.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=2752708&...](http://www.mongodb.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=2752708&navigatingVersions=true)

May, 2010

"MongoDB does not publish any official benchmarks...."

EDIT: Added link to blogs, quoted parent, in case gets removed

<comment><USER18> A moot point since single server durability is enabled by default in Mongo now, actually from the 1.8 stable (currently at 2.0 stable)

<comment><USER16> Not moot for someone who already chose a different product because of that. These decision are extrapolated and people infer the quality and seriousness of engineering from such decisions. Those, in my opinion, matter more than marketing or flashy websites.

<comment><USER18> That's a fair point, but the product as it stands is very usable for me. Even if they never updated it, I would keep this build as something that is more than adequate for what it does.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> a bit of self-ego inflating (feel free to bust me down a notch though), but between the C and D points in the MongoDB line, which was quite a spike, The Little MongoDB Book and the mongly.com tutorials went live :)

<comment><USER19> Nice work :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Go to one of the <http://www.couchbase.com/couchconf-world-tour> CouchConf days and ask your question again. The San Francisco edition was exciting; anyone know how New York turned out?

<comment><USER16> Why not invest that time and effort in product features and development instead of marketing, hype, cons & webinars.

This is a database product, I feel that features, benchmarks, documentation, support and real use example would help more than a flashy marketing website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I think Couch simply started moving in the wrong technical direction at some point - mostly because of an unhealthy preoccupation with running on cell phones.

<comment><USER21> The whole platform obsession is definitely hurting CouchDB. Attempt to investigate it's suitability as a data store and you're left with the impression that it's only appropriate for some vaguely defined couchapp ideal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Google trends is not the sole decided of popularity.

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=ruby+on+rails%2C+django&c...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=ruby+on+rails%2C+django&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

Do you really think that ruby on rails has been declining in popularity since 2006?

<comment><USER23> Quite possibly. The Twitter debacle tainted RoR's reputation (fairly or not), and there is a concern that Ruby might turn out to be a flash in the pan. Django/Python is just as effective, and enterprises feel far more comfortable with Python's depth of support across the board.

Google's real fail is the event tags - a grand total of NONE relate to Django the web framework.

<comment><USER22> I dunno, RoR is so widespread now compared to where it was in 2006. I think, because it is widespread now, people don't have to search for "ruby on rails" because they don't know what it means. You are going to be searching for something more particular now. I guess that's sort of my point of what could be happening with CouchDB (I don't use it... so I have no real idea).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Wait what are the Y-axes on that graph!

Google Trends just looks at the term being mentioned or searched for?

So maybe half those search terms are 'How do I get MongoDB to do Foo' while perhaps the documentation for CouchDB is such that a google search is not the first thing to do.

Just my thoughts on that graph anyway.

</comment><comment><USER25> Having worked with neither of them my perception is that MongoDB has "better performance". While I would never rely on that for making decisions about which to use, I'm sure that has some real consequences, particularly where search popularity is concerned.

<comment><USER16> You just don't know about the other side of the coin -- no durability to start with. You'll be flying fast, until one day you realize your data is corrupted.

Not saying it is bad thing to optimize for speed, it is just a bit dishonest to downplay the negative effects especially after calling a product a DATA- base.

[http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/392868405/mongodb- durability...](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/392868405/mongodb-durability-a- tradeoff-to-be-aware-of)

[http://blog.boxedice.com/2010/02/28/notes-from-a- production-...](http://blog.boxedice.com/2010/02/28/notes-from-a-production- mongodb-deployment/)

<comment><USER17> Seriously, now you are just spreading FUD. You even said a few posts up that there WAS durability.

With respect to the speed of writes, MongoDB has, at least, three other things going for it [that CouchdB doesn't]: 1) the journal file is append only, 2) updates can often be done in-place, 3) a binary protocol.

<comment><USER16> > You even said a few posts up that there WAS durability.

When did I say that? Just cut-and-paste my phrase if you are replying to it. I don't remember saying it.

> With respect to the speed of writes, MongoDB has, at least, three other > things going for it [that CouchdB doesn't]: 1) the journal file is append > only, 2) updates can often be done in-place, 3) a binary protocol.

I never said MongoDB wasn't faster. It is in most situations. I was criticizing their hand-wavy attitude and what I perceived was shady marketing when it came to their trade-off. That turned me off and made me look for another product.

Besides, what exactly do those implementation features mean? CouchDB has an append-only BTRee so it doesn't need journalling:

<http://guide.couchdb.org/draft/btree.html>

Updates-in place are great but they again are a trade-off. Now you also need a journal.

Binary protocol -- ok. That probably makes a significant difference in some case. I would actually like CouchDB to have a msgpack or protobuf driver.

Not saying MongoDB is worse or better, it just works differently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> From a rubyist's perspective, CouchDB was a major catalyst in reigniting interest in non-SQL databases—a long-standing cyclical occurrence—this time in the realm of web development.

CouchDB caused a lot of web developers to question what they really needed out of their data store, driving a lot of early popularity, but it turns out that it's not precisely what most web apps need. MongoDB seems to be designed much more to answer this question directly, rather than solving the interesting but perhaps slightly more esoteric problems that CouchDB addresses.

</comment><comment><USER27> The regional visualization is a bit weird. It shows Korea and Russia as the top regions searching for Mongo and CouchDB. US is not even on the list.

When you switch to look at US searches, Chinese is somehow far outpacing English... [http://www.google.com/trends?q=MongoDB%2C+couchDB&ctab=0...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=MongoDB%2C+couchDB&ctab=0&geo=us&date=all&sort=0)

Seems like it's looking for the greatest difference between the two terms, as opposed to general popularity.

</comment><comment><USER28> It may be superficial, but I wonder how much naming and marketing could be a factor. The name sounds a little bland if you don't know what it is. I wasn't that interested to learn more about it until I went to a meetup where a guy explained it in much clearer language and gave some examples as to where it could be useful.

</comment><comment><USER29> My issue with CouchDB is the basic approach. Instead of maintaining indexes, the goal of CoachDB is to pre-cache all search functions with the actual result, for all records. This takes a lot of disk space for certain use-cases. This difference makes MongoDB a more attractive choice than CouchDB.

</comment><comment><USER30> I don't know about anyone else, but using CouchDB feels like I am writing nothing but stored procedures to return the simplest of searches in CouchDB land.

Where as MongoDB has a simple search syntax that I can create on the fly if needed in my code.

</comment><comment><USER31> I use MongoB much more often than CouchDB, but I think that Cloudant's BigCouch open source project is great: easy to set up and a lot of scaling headroom. A nice auto sharding and replication layer on top of CouchDB.

</comment><comment><USER32> I think you answered your own question.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm not entirely surprised. CouchDB is very clunky and minimalist. And documentation is really, really horrible. The futon UI is a pain to use. I had to write my own library for nodejs because all the existing code I found was terribly written and poorly documented. It just goes on and on. And I like the technology, I persisted and eventually learned to be sort of proficient with CouchDB. But I doubt other people will go to the same lengths.

<comment><USER34> ad documentation: i bought the oreilly couchdb book to get some decent introduction, and lets just say it made me doubt the editorial standards (if there is such a thing) of oreilly - a lot.

<comment><USER35> Couldn't agree more, I was amazed that they were prepared to sell a book as bad as that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> The first thing I did on that page was add "membase" to the list. If one adds the "couchdb" and "membase" lines, the result almost - no, not quite - <USER2> up with the MongoDB line. This is compatible with my first thought that people have had trouble keeping up with Couch's continual changes in name and direction. Relatedly, Couch* (the company) has often failed to provide a comprehensive solution, requiring users to grab other pieces from other places - e.g. BigCouch from Cloudant or Futon from the Apache project. Contrast with 10gen/MongoDB: consistent name, consistent direction, single source for the whole solution including client drivers.

There are other factors as well. I've heard some people say that Couch* is a serious memory hog. Others have complained about dependencies. The REST interface appeals to some, but others would prefer a more binary-oriented protocol. The relentless positioning vs. MongoDB, and particularly some of the FUD being slung by Couch* advocates (hi rdtsc) is generating a bit of a backlash as well. For all I know some of these issues no longer exist, perhaps some never existed, but without a focused effort to deal with these impressions they remain liabilities. Couch* comes across not only as developer-oriented, but oriented toward a particular kind of developer.

Note that none of these factors relate to the technical quality of the two products. I think Couch's general distribution/replication model is fundamentally a better one than Mongo's, though I think Mongo wins by having real ad-hoc queries instead of requiring the moral equivalent of stored procedures. I thought little of Mongo's answers regarding durability and replication (and TBH still don't think they're at the level they should be) but I could see that progress was being made and I have enough of a long-term perspective not to get all perma-caremad about it. In the end, I think Couch* has been held back a bit not by its technology but by all the "other stuff" that goes into making a project or company successful.

</comment><comment><USER37> one of couch's strong points is that it is great at giving away your data. most startup bros find that antithetical to their business model

<comment><USER38> Why the unnecessary use of "startup bros"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Why is this post dumb?

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=MongoDB%2C+sqlite&ctab=0&...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=MongoDB%2C+sqlite&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

Nuff' said.

<comment><USER40> I don't get it. Is there anything wrong with SQLite being more popular than MongoDB (possibly except the fact that I don't expect to see MongoDB visible in the graph)?</comment></comment>


Stop, Apple is no different after Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://glipho.com/fbeeper/the-new-thing-is-dead-long-live-to-the-new-new-thing I'm self-submitting my article because I think some of you could be interested. I hope it does not bother anybody :) I'd love to know your opinions! <comment><USER2> While Apple itself may not have changed radically (yet), it's perception by at least a part of it's customer base sure has by Steve Jobs' departure.

Of course there's the thing that Apple seems to be all about lawsuits now, but that might very well have been the case all along..

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely, many changed their perception. But, don't you think that that's a really specific public? Mainstream commerce may respond differently to the hypothetical change. Nevertheless, this feelings could be contagious.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Joke related to the same topic: <http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/14/3335612/apple-is-dying>

xDDDDD</comment>