Ask HN: Which sites you visit on a regular basis for knowledge and inspiration? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Might sound dull, but I recommend Wikipedia.

There is a word for it, which I forgot, when you look something up on Wikipedia, the article contains a link to another article, and you go, "Oooh, that sounds interesting", open it in another tab, then, when reading the second article, you come across two or three more of such links, and before you know what is going on, you have dozens of tabs open. The only limit is your patience and your computer's RAM.

Eventually you'll end up reading articles that are not even remotely related to your initial inquiry, but highly interesting nonetheless.

<comment><USER3> I built an app based on that exact concept: [http://thewikigame.com](http://thewikigame.com) which has been running for many years, and is now quite popular.

The database of the site now contains a large record of millions of game plays of players trying to go from one Wikipedia link to another. See here for some interesting academic research that has been done on the site's dataset: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jSGFRZYrJnlDUBhGbQrO9e-n...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jSGFRZYrJnlDUBhGbQrO9e-nzqVRn4DohcQMfsgpOJc/edit)

<comment><USER4> I think that hacker news might have given it a hug of death, I currently have a 'site down' alert when viewing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> [https://theconversation.com/](https://theconversation.com/) \- Great source of news and analysis of everything. Articles by academics and researchers. Claims almost always backed with evidence.

[http://www.kurzweilai.net/](http://www.kurzweilai.net/) \- Articles about some of the most interesting bleeding-edge high-tech research.

[https://arstechnica.com/](https://arstechnica.com/) \- Tech and tech-related news.

<comment><USER6> Well the conversation might say their claims are backed up etc. but so do most other news outlets of scale. Eventually they still have clear, inevitable political leanings and bias there, just as every other news outlet.

<comment><USER7> Any suggestions for which are the least biased news source?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> [http://highscalability.com/](http://highscalability.com/) \- weekly newsletter about scalability, distributed computing, computer science, and other relevant things. I don't think it gets attention it deserves - it's really, really good and contains wealth of (mostly) timeless information.

Also, Reddit. Not the default front-page stuff, of course, but more in-depth and smaller subreddits, such as /r/netsec, /r/financialindependence, or /r/rust - there's a multitude of nice focused communities. Occassionally even /r/programming is more interesting than Hacker News though :)

<comment><USER9> FYI you can make clickable subreddit links by using a subdomain, e.g. :

[http://financialindependence.reddit.com](http://financialindependence.reddit.com)

[http://netsec.reddit.com](http://netsec.reddit.com)

[http://rust.reddit.com](http://rust.reddit.com)

[http://programming.reddit.com](http://programming.reddit.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Nautilus - [http://nautil.us/](http://nautil.us/) \- Science magazine with great art

The Economist - [https://www.economist.com/](https://www.economist.com/) \- I like that they do articles about places all over the world

Find Lectures - [https://www.findlectures.com/](https://www.findlectures.com/) \- Search engine focused on collecting talks

I also collect book recommendations from HN, people I follow on Twitter in an Amazon wishlist.

</comment><comment><USER11> The Morning Paper ([https://blog.acolyer.org/](https://blog.acolyer.org/)) is a nice way to learn about research happening outside my own little bubble.

<comment><USER12> I also LOVE the Morning Paper.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A few sites from my newsfeed (I use Newsblur):

        Hacker News (of course)
        LWN
        Ars Technica
        Angry Asian Man
        Climate Denial Crock of the Week
        Cool Tools
        Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
        ESA Top News (Euro. Space Agency)
        Jewish Daily Forward
        Jonesblog (retinal neuroscientist and photographer:http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/about/)
        NASA Image of the Day
        Physical Review Letters
        Not Even Wrong
        Planet Clojure
        RealClimate
        Retraction Watch
        New York Times
        WTOP (local news)
        Schneier on Security
        Slate Star Codex
        Space Safety Magazine
        CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (highly recommended)
        Stories from the trauma bay

</comment><comment><USER14> Google News - Love how it aggregates news across multiple sources.

Google Trends - To understand what people are searching for

Reddit - Treasure trove of opinions and insights

Hacker News - Quality tech news and opinions

For my own use, I built a simple site to browse all of these sites from one place effectively: [https://newsfeed.one/](https://newsfeed.one/)

<comment><USER15> You lost me at

> Hacker News - Quality tech news and opinions

<comment><USER16> we all love to rag on HN (myself included) yet we all keep comin' back.

<comment><USER6> I mean this is the nature of the web. To be honest HN is already the best we can get compared with most alternatives. That's why.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is my favorite one:

[https://www.quantamagazine.org/](https://www.quantamagazine.org/)

Quanta articles are always extremely enlightening, interesting and well written.

<comment><USER18> Yup, I think Quanta and Nautilus feature the best science writing in the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> A couple that haven't yet been mentioned:

American Scientist (distinct from Scientific American) [[https://www.americanscientist.org/](https://www.americanscientist.org/)] for science, engineering and technology.

Foreign Affairs [[https://www.foreignaffairs.com/](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/)] for international relations and politics.

although I actually switched back to reading these (and others) in ink-on- paper format, which I've found helps me focus much better.

EDIT: Also, Philosophy Now [[https://philosophynow.org/](https://philosophynow.org/)] for more abstract ideas.

These are bimonthly publications, and all worth paying money for.

</comment><comment><USER20> I try to limit it to the following:

US Gamer: [https://www.usgamer.net](https://www.usgamer.net)

Giant Bomb: [https://www.giantbomb.com](https://www.giantbomb.com) (I'm premium subscriber)

Ars Technica: [https://arstechnica.com](https://arstechnica.com)

NeoGAF: [https://www.neogaf.com](https://www.neogaf.com) (I try not to sometimes as it's a time sink, but it's fun, mindless and stressless.)

and

Hacker News of course.

I try to stay away from Reddit and as it's a time sink for me and I find can stress me mentally.

</comment><comment><USER21> [http://www.metafilter.com/](http://www.metafilter.com/)

[http://lesswrong.com/](http://lesswrong.com/)

[http://www.econlib.org/](http://www.econlib.org/), [https://www.cato.org/](https://www.cato.org/), [https://mises.org/](https://mises.org/) (disclaimer: austrian econ slant)

</comment><comment><USER22> [https://gwern.net](https://gwern.net) and [https://atlasobscura.com](https://atlasobscura.com)

For inspiration on UI, I browse [https://dribbble.com](https://dribbble.com) [https://codepen.io](https://codepen.io) and [https://uplabs.com](https://uplabs.com)

<comment><USER23> +1 for gwern, I enjoy his monthly newsletter. Still not sure how that guy gets so much reading and writing done

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I like to read at least one post on [https://www.indiehackers.com/](https://www.indiehackers.com/) to keep me motivated to make my side project successful.

I also read the daily email from [http://oppsdaily.com/](http://oppsdaily.com/) to see if there is a problem that I can solve that someone is willing to pay for.

</comment><comment><USER22> Not a site per say, but I check out PBS Digital Studios daily on youtube. Namely:

Infinite Series - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4aHmggTfFrpkPcWSaBN9g](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4aHmggTfFrpkPcWSaBN9g) (I never thought I would find a math series one of my favorite channels)

SpaceTime - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g)

Crash Course - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6b17PVsYBQ0ip5gyeme-Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6b17PVsYBQ0ip5gyeme-Q)

When done properly, web video/animated content can greatly enhance learning abstract, obtuse material and can be worth 1000 words per second. From Infinite Series, I finally got the gist of quantum computing.

</comment><comment><USER25> I hate newsflood. I figure if it's important enough it will either float up to

news.ycombinator.com

or to the Economist (which I order-but I tend to listen most of the articles as the audio comes free for subscribers and is of excellent quality).

I try to read books nowadays more than random blogposts. Makes my monkeybrain happier (and I secretly wish wiser).

<comment><USER26> We're subscribed to the same newsfeeds. In addition, I only look at hacker news through the weekly newsletter, in order to avoid the dopamine addiction of checking multiple times a day.

As for the The Economist, I've found that they always gives a great dose of history and context to their articles, which is what I would be searching for in reddit anyway, so I've found reddit to be a lot less useful nowadays.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> [http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/](http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/)

Definitively non-tech, but full of knowledge and inspiration.

</comment><comment><USER28> Hacker News, Marginal Revolution and the Financial Times. Reddit mostly for leisure, but occasionally also for knowledge and inspiration.

Recently I've tried to make my procrastination more useful, and read random Wikipedia articles instead browsing news sites. Let's see if the habit sticks.

<comment><USER29> I tried doing the same thing, now on my laptop I've installed Redirector chrome extension[0]. Every time I try going on Reddit or HN I get a random wiki article. I've found myself using my phone more often, or incognito(extension disabled) to browse those sites.

[0][https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/redirector/pajiege...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/redirector/pajiegeliagebegjdhebejdlknciafen)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I mostly uses Hacker News. From there, it leads me to site such as HighScalability, then Medium engineering blog of company or individual developer. Once you like something, they suggest other thing and I go from there.

I also try to visit engineering blog of company that I like such as Github, Etsy, Segment, Stripe and learn from their blog. They usually have very good article about what really happening at a real company and what they do to solve.

Then I also use Youtube, subscirbe to Confreaks, and again, whenever I like some video, they suggest something very close to what I like.

Then sometimes ago, I started to collect links and realize I should share with the world and start this site: [https://betterdev.link/](https://betterdev.link/)

</comment><comment><USER31> Aeon: [https://aeon.co](https://aeon.co)

Stunning art, beautiful and thoughtful essays, ideas and videos.

</comment><comment><USER32> I like the curated, summarized "weekly newsletters", one of them is [http://javascriptweekly.com/](http://javascriptweekly.com/) but there are more.

</comment><comment><USER33> I visit Raymond Chen's blog[0] every weekday.

He posts content on Windows internals, Win32 APIs, and explanations for Windows behavior.

If you program for Win32 then reading his blog will identify bugs in your code[1].

[0] [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/)

[1] [http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=57](http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=57)

Edited for formatting and to omit needless words

</comment><comment><USER34> Blogs by cs profs.. mostly theory of compsci guys. Always interesting to see what they think about current events/ what latest cs theory stuff is like...although often times I can only recall a couple words in their posts from the discrete math courses all those years ago.

[http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/](http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/) is a pretty good one

<comment><USER35> Do you have more recommendations except that one?

<comment><USER36> Scott Aaronson's blog is solid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Some of the only decent writing I ever see on the web:

[http://popehat.com](http://popehat.com)

It's brief, unapologetic, patient explanations about specific cases in law that touch on popular topics. It really shows how non-black-and-white the world is and especially how bringing knowledge to it gives you clarity, even when you're not in total agreement.

</comment><comment><USER38> A few years ago it was [https://coursera.org](https://coursera.org) \- they were a powerful beacon of high-quality knowledge first-hand from world-class experts. I still try to learn as much as possible there, but my feeling of the site being intrusively optimized for business and short-term gain is increasing every day.

</comment><comment><USER39> [https://longform.org/](https://longform.org/)

Curated collections of long-form journalism.

Edit: Forgot to add Codex 99, '...an occasionally updated website about art, design and history, except when it's about something else altogether." [http://www.codex99.com](http://www.codex99.com)

</comment><comment><USER40> Daily - Mostly Tech / Science. I love hacker news as it covers basic science as well. From discovery of planets, to Gene editing. Hacker News :) [http://techmeme.com/](http://techmeme.com/) [https://slashdot.org/](https://slashdot.org/)

Weekly - World [http://kottke.org/](http://kottke.org/) [https://www.edge.org/](https://www.edge.org/) Youtube App on Ipad, Subscription to Joe Rogen, Tim Ferris, and many others Podcasters like these mostly point out to any random topic under the sun, and the discussion is Deep. Example - check out these podcasts and their discussion on Ethics, AI, Health, Finance and Trump :)

Random Facebook - mostly from friends and of personal nature, but I do visit resources they point out

<comment><USER41> You need [http://skimfeed.com](http://skimfeed.com) in your life.

<comment><USER42> An aggregator composed of other news aggregators. As a concept it is great, but it will never come close to platforms like reddit. It's like newspapers, most of them just buy the news from agencies then complain about the decline of the (traditional) industry. An aggregator without curation will be so redundant and boring...

Instead look at those places that have something special and make you come back. They all have some differentiating factor. The WSJ from time to time produces high quality non-redundant content. The comments or content produced by users on HN and reddit are sometimes better than the news elsewhere.

Curation and the user base confer a site personality. This is why places like HN or reddit are so popular. Reddit offers a very high degree of segmentation to users through subreddit subscriptions. This allows users with perhaps very different personalities to get along by only focusing on things they have in common. Not only that, it incentives users to create, share and enjoy content together.

Y combinator has a true commitment to provide a simple platform to a user niche they are interested in. In contrast to the laissez faire curation approach of reddit, the strategy of HN is not as broad but for this specific niche is of higher quality. Although sometimes HN is used for Y combinator's purposes, they don't abuse it and many times the interests are aligned with most of their user base.

<comment><USER40> Google RSS Reader was my defacto, for exactly this purpose. Some were direct feeds from NYT, TechCrunch, etc but many were simply, the topic searches and RSS feed obtained from those. I miss those days.

Google News does allow you some personalization. But, I am big fan of river of news concept (Dave Winer). There are many solutions still, but I am limiting my media consumption and hacker news and couple of other sites faily satisfy the need.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> There's of course Ars Technica, but for finance-meets-technology-meets-basic- socioeconomics nothing beats Matt Levine's Money Stuff.

Archive and RSS feed link here: [https://www.bloomberg.com/view/topics/money- stuff](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/topics/money-stuff)

</comment><comment><USER44> My library physics books section.

</comment><comment><USER45> Some time ago I built [https://10hn.pancik.com/](https://10hn.pancik.com/) to aggregate and rank interesting articles and make them easily readable on the phone. There are days when I don't read anything else, just swiping through 10HN reading few long reads.

<comment><USER46> Not sure if you care, but when first opening the website - hitting the right arrow doesn't work (you have to click first).

Also down arrow doesn't scroll as expected (maybe this is intentional).

<comment><USER45> Thank you! I definitely care and it's on my todo list. I use it mainly on a phone so naturally I keep forgetting to get to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> \- Daily, the full episode: [https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos)

\- HN

\- A whole bunch of other site/blog/channels as feed that I look at when I have time.

</comment><comment><USER48> [https://www.brainpickings.org/](https://www.brainpickings.org/) \- Great website dealing with literary works and thoughts of humanities greatest minds.

</comment><comment><USER49> Here is a list I keep for weekend reading Got some of these links from previous HN posts like this.. Not entirely tech sites

[http://nautil.us/](http://nautil.us/)

[https://lwn.net/](https://lwn.net/)

[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/)

[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/)

[https://meaningness.com/](https://meaningness.com/)

[http://slatestarcodex.com/](http://slatestarcodex.com/)

[http://www.britishpathe.com/](http://www.britishpathe.com/)

[http://www.atlasobscura.com/](http://www.atlasobscura.com/)

[https://scholars-stage.blogspot.my](https://scholars-stage.blogspot.my)

[http://www.counterpunch.org/](http://www.counterpunch.org/)

[http://harpers.org/history/](http://harpers.org/history/)

[http://www.eevblog.com/forum/](http://www.eevblog.com/forum/)

[https://zcomm.org/zmag/](https://zcomm.org/zmag/)

[https://the-artifice.com](https://the-artifice.com)

[https://liliputing.com/](https://liliputing.com/)

[https://dev.to/](https://dev.to/)

[http://chneukirchen.org/trivium/](http://chneukirchen.org/trivium/)

[https://blog.codinghorror.com/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/)

[https://stratechery.com/](https://stratechery.com/)

[http://www.tedunangst.com/inks/](http://www.tedunangst.com/inks/)

<comment><USER13> I formatted my list with names rather than URLs, but now I see the advantage of doing it your way. At a glance I can see that three of your sites are in my browser history.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> [http://abduzeedo.com/tags/daily-inspiration](http://abduzeedo.com/tags/daily- inspiration)

For design

</comment><comment><USER51> I like to read articles on medium, but a particular site I like is scotch.io I myself write on a blog. Unfortunately it is in portuguese so you may not understand. But in case you want to check you can see it here.

[https://mestredocodigo.com.br/visualg-3-curso- introdutorio-p...](https://mestredocodigo.com.br/visualg-3-curso-introdutorio- parte-1/)

</comment><comment><USER52> news.ycombinator.com though I wish it had a way to collapse uninteresting conversations.

Stephen Colbert: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos)

and lately I've been binge watching the Jordan Peterson lectures: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Xc2_FtpHI&list=PL22J3VaeAB...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Xc2_FtpHI&list=PL22J3VaeABQAT-0aSPq- OKOpQlHyR4k5h)

ribbonfarm: though I usually only read the articles by Venkatesh Rao: [https://www.ribbonfarm.com/author/admin/](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/author/admin/)

also bingewatching lessons on 2x from [http://edx.org](http://edx.org). It used to be [http://coursera.org](http://coursera.org) but their servers are sluggish most of the time.

</comment><comment><USER53> Farnam Street @ [https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/):

"Farnam Street is devoted to helping you develop an understanding of how the world really works, make better decisions, and live a better life. We address such topics as mental models, decision making, learning, reading, and the art of living."

</comment><comment><USER54> I find books about topics that I'm interested in learning more as the best source of knowledge or inspiration. Consider the book 'Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture' as an excellent source of Japanese culture and food habits. I have learnt so much from this fascinating book and it's a great source of inspiration too.

</comment><comment><USER55> Youtube

<comment><USER56> Not sure why it's downvoted. That was my first thought too. There are tons of educational videos, lectures and inspiring interviews. If you keep watching this kind of stuff recommendations also get quite reasonable.

<comment><USER57> Yeah but it's like saying "the Web". You should mention some channels, playlists, etc. at the very least. =)

<comment><USER58> Fair point:

MIT OpenCourseware channel:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEBb1b_L6zDS3xTUrIALZOw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEBb1b_L6zDS3xTUrIALZOw)

Stanford online:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa5G_ESCn8Yd4vw5U-gIcg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa5G_ESCn8Yd4vw5U-gIcg)

Professor Leonard:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoHhuummRZaIVX7bD4t2czg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoHhuummRZaIVX7bD4t2czg)

NPTEL:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC640y4UvDAlya_WOj5U4pfA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC640y4UvDAlya_WOj5U4pfA)

Spark Summit:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRzsq7k4-kT-h3TDUBQ82-w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRzsq7k4-kT-h3TDUBQ82-w)

3blue1brown:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw)

All Things Open:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBhXFK70DbOU15N2BhDQVTg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBhXFK70DbOU15N2BhDQVTg)

etc., etc., etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> [https://sidebar.io/](https://sidebar.io/) for getting better at design

</comment><comment><USER60> [http://workhack.com/finance](http://workhack.com/finance)

</comment><comment><USER61> [http://thesunmagazine.org/](http://thesunmagazine.org/)

</comment><comment><USER62> [http://highscalability.com](http://highscalability.com)

</comment><comment><USER63> [http://spectrum.ieee.org](http://spectrum.ieee.org)

</comment><comment><USER64> [http://cdm.link/](http://cdm.link/)

Create Digital Music

</comment><comment><USER65> [http://www.aldaily.com](http://www.aldaily.com)

</comment><comment><USER66> That might look a bit cliché, but once in a while I'll Google stuff I'm curious about and for which I have absolutely no background.

Reading academic reviews and looking up the vocabulary on the fly is a great way to stay humble.

<comment><USER67> This. Especially when I realize that there is a thing the explanation for which was given to me by someone way before either of us had access to the internet and before Google existed (I am getting old I guess). Like whether eating onions helps stave off a cold. Or how a distributed in a car works. Or whether Nissans are actually reliable or not. Or if you need higher than minimum recommended octane rating in your car. Or why most of Europe uses 240V in their outlets. Or what actually happened in Chernobyl.

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> You can't beat Rush Limbaugh with transcripts and audio. Premium membership is even better: [https://www.rushlimbaugh.com](https://www.rushlimbaugh.com)

</comment><comment><USER69> Google Arts & Culture. [https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/](https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/)

</comment><comment><USER70> [https://lobste.rs](https://lobste.rs)

similar to HN but much much more humble in every way. I quite like it. Although I don't have account so I am mostly reading.

<comment><USER71> Would you like an invite?

<comment><USER72> Yes, please. Can you send me one?

<comment><USER46> Do you still need an invite?

<comment><USER72> Sorry, didn't see this earlier. Yes, still need one. Thanks!

Edit: Oops, turns out I did receive an invite. Thanks, elorm!

<comment><USER71> Always welcome :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> [http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/](http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/)

Great tumblr, suggested by a close friend.

</comment><comment><USER73> \- HN

\- Lobste.rs

\- Reddit (occasionally)

\- Google News (rarely)

I find myself reading a lot more books in person though, namely educational books about topics I'm unfamiliar with or want to review. I think it's important to read about something that you don't know about but want to learn more about, e.g. for me: economics.

</comment><comment> wav-part One that I have not seen mentioned yet: [https://phys.org/](https://phys.org/).

</comment><comment><USER74> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dzone yet.

[https://dzone.com/](https://dzone.com/)

</comment><comment><USER75> [https://learn-anything.xyz/](https://learn-anything.xyz/)

Mostly because we created it. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Can't seem to open this site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> Medium.com, Hacker News, Product Hunt and varoius other sites/posts through some 10/15 newsletters. Also, Twitter.

</comment><comment><USER77> For inspiration: [http://zenpencils.com/](http://zenpencils.com/)

</comment><comment><USER78> Hacker news

<comment><USER79> Recursion

</comment></comment><comment> phaedrus-mg HN and reddit emacs ( and now thanks to you all a lot more)

</comment><comment><USER80> HN, Recode, TheVerge, Pinterest, SBNation, ESPN.

I guess I like sports? :)

</comment><comment><USER81> mostly tech news from hacker news and tech explicit ( [http://techexplicit.tk](http://techexplicit.tk) )

</comment><comment><USER82> [http://www.ted.com](http://www.ted.com). It's pretty hit and miss, but I've gotten a ton of inspiration and knowledge from this website since 2008.

</comment><comment><USER83> Hacker News

GitHub

Twitter

Quora.com

Zhihu.com(Chinese)

And various RSS feeds and emails from MIT, IDC, personal blog, DoD and etc..

</comment><comment><USER84> quora, medium, hacker news.

</comment><comment><USER85> Hacker News, imgur, slickdeals.

Also, mu.

</comment><comment><USER86> RT

</comment><comment><USER87> wikivoyage is awesome

</comment><comment><USER88> crookedtimber.org

</comment><comment><USER89> popurls.com

</comment><comment><USER90> I visit n-gate.com weekly. I am not very well-aware of stuff outside css/js and lot of people here talk confidently about stuff they have no clue of, unopposed. n-gate reminds me how little people on this site know stuff outside of css/js/business. Rest are clueless wannabes trying to one-up each other.

My favorite comment will always be- somebody mentioned that Microsoft Band needs a realtime OS so someone proposed javascript vm. And there were 10 other people talking about it seriously.

I'm sure I'll be downvoted which will be further proof of what I'm saying. Not that I care really. I make an account a week.

<comment><USER91> Is there a secret area on HN where people worship CSS/JS with blind faith? Because whichever post related to it I visit, there's a healthy dose of skepticism, especially in Electron/ReactNative/AnyOtherJSWrapper posts.

Further down you replied to someone else complaining about how other's work is belittled, then you write this

> somebody mentioned that Microsoft Band needs a realtime OS so someone > proposed javascript vm. And there were 10 other people talking about it > seriously.

I am not sure if this is bait or lack of self awareness, though I'd lean towards bait, considering you are also worried about downvotes.

<comment><USER92> I'm scared to mention electron on here, always draws out the torch and pitchforks

<comment><USER93> People on HN will rather gently point out that Electron, being convenient to you, is at the same time a horrible resource hog and exactly the opposite of what an elegantly-written, efficient and optimized application would be. Especially for some of us who actually create native apps using Electron might just be laziness - or inability to really care about the user.

<comment><USER92> Hey look, just what I was talking about. I mentioned electron and now I've been called lazy and uncaring

<comment><USER93> I was very careful to use the word "might", as there really are cases where Electron is the optimal choice. Usually though, it is not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER94> [https://www.kenyatalk.com](https://www.kenyatalk.com)

</comment><comment><USER95> [https://news.ycombinator.com/news](https://news.ycombinator.com/news)

<comment><USER96> you don't need the /news

<comment><USER97> ^ Unintentionally insightful comment :)

<comment><USER95> Oh come on, I answered a question about the site I visit every day and got all this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER98> Life and everything (non-technical): [http://omswami.com](http://omswami.com) Treasure of practical knowledge right from the mouth of one who has attained enlightenment in the transcidental sense of the word. Biweekly post – 1st and 3rd Saturday every month. Earlier (till about an year ago) for roughly 5 years, it was every Saturday so there's lot of pearls of wisdom in there with amusing tales and jokes to instill the knowledge within.</comment>


Palantir will shell out $1.7M to resolve discrimination claims - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/25/palantir-will-shell-out-1-7-million-to-resolve-discrimination-claims/ <comment><USER2> > For Palantir's software engineer position, for example, Palantir hired 14 > non-Asian engineers and 11 Asian engineers — even though 85 percent of the > 1,160 applicants for the position were Asian, according to the complaint

Another interesting issue here is that 85% of software engineering applicants were Asian. Is that typical in Silicon Valley? Or is Palantir special in attracting Asian applicants?</comment>


Super Mario Bros on an 8x8 LED matrix - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/9928343 <comment><USER2> Gotta love embedded systems. On a side note, don't bring it to Boston <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare>

</comment><comment><USER3> The music pushed this from "really cool" to "awesome" for me.

</comment><comment><USER4> CMU HCI makes the coolest stuff</comment>


The internals of PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> http://www.interdb.jp/pg/index.html <comment><USER2> A really cool paper to read is _The Design of POSTGRES_ [1] by Stonebraker et al. It's dated by its mentions of things like POSTQUEL, but it's still really interesting to read about the early design of seminal features like the extensible ADT system, from a time when it was still innovative.

1: [http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M85-95.pdf](http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M85-95.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> I would like to read through this when I'm not so tired. Thank you!

From what I can tell, PostgreSQL is sensibly structured. At least, it seems better than MySQL. The hackiest thing I have heard so far about MySQL is that if you run the exact same SQL text more than once, it will fetch the result from cache. If you run a differently worded query, it will skip the cache, even if the query were to bring back the exact same data.

This is different than what I remember about PostgreSQL (correct me if I'm wrong). I remember reading in some book that PostgreSQL just let its rows become memory pages, and if a query resulted in data already in memory, then it got it from memory, otherwise it got it from disk. No need to make sure you didn't insert a space or something into your query the second time.

<comment><USER4> While that is true and the mysql query cache definitely became a scaling issue as machines got bigger with lock contention etc., postgres doesn't even have a similar feature period.

Suppose you have a query that is doing a group by on a low cardinality field (eg. state) on a hundred million row table. Large amount of data in, small amount out. postgres has to actually look at all the rows to re-run the query. The mysql query cache only has to pull the tiny number of results out of the cache for that specific query.

This is a dangerous feature because there is a super slippery slope as traffic increases... any change to any of the tables invalidates the cache when you need caching most, and hits all queries against those tables at the same time. But if used well in an environment with many copies of the data (replicated or otherwise) where you could manage when updates happened, it can be a lifesaver.

InnoDB also has its own buffer pool that caches rows and is in general terms similar to the postgres buffer cache.

It is fair to say that mysql has a lot more features like this that are "sometimes life-saving hacks that can bite you hard if you don't understand them" and postgres is much more restrained in ensuring the features are a little more general and thought through.

<comment><USER5> MySQL needs the cache more often though with a limit of one index per query. Postgres seems like it more often can combine a few indexes and turn what scans 100k rows in MySQL into bitmasking two indexes and pulling 10 rows.

Seems sensible, each has features to support the base design.

<comment><USER6> The limit of one index per query was lifted in 2005, with mysql 5.0.

<comment><USER5> It's now one per table. Poor word choice by me, sorry.

<comment><USER6> [https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/index-merge- optimiza...](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/index-merge- optimization.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have been reading about Postgres architecture. The modular design enables - microkernel-like API where different languages can be integrated seamlessly.

The only thing, I am missing are incremental materialized views.

<comment><USER8> What resources have you been using to familiarize yourself with Postgres?

<comment><USER9> I would highly recommend talks by Bruce Momjian [https://momjian.us/](https://momjian.us/) he has separate talks on pretty much everything related to PG + All The Dirt On Vacuum talk by Jim Nasby [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8nErzxPJjQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8nErzxPJjQ)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is now returning a 403 Forbidden.

<comment><USER11> Obligatory Archive.org link:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20170126103158/http://www.interdb...](http://web.archive.org/web/20170126103158/http://www.interdb.jp/pg/index.html)

Also a reminder to everybody to give them a few $CURRENCY if you can. Archive.org offers a valuable service and are very underfunded.

<comment><USER12> The (intentional?) pun in $CURRENCY made me laugh.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It looks GREAT but...

I always see these things posted while they're still being written and then I never go back to see them when they're completed. And nobody posts when it's completed.

I'd prefer the posting not be done until it's finished, or, that there be an "email me when it's finished" button.

<comment><USER14> If you can't be bothered to set a reminder, subscribe to the RSS feed, create an ifttt trigger or anything like that... I don't know what to tell you. There's lots of solutions to this predicament. This one's on you.

<comment><USER15> As far as not having to read things twice, draft and final, I'd have to lean towards @sqldba's position.

<comment><USER16> There is also an interesting middleground named Evolving Publication where the author publishes section by section, and the RSS feed informs you whenever a new section/chapter is added to the article:

[https://martinfowler.com/bliki/EvolvingPublication.html](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/EvolvingPublication.html)

So the RSS feed is not per article, but per article part.

<comment><USER17> That is interesting, ta, although more work for the author.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Switchboard.chat - <AUTHOR> https://switchboard.chat/ <comment><AUTHOR> I made this over the past few months to help out my Wife's school. They rely on SMS to coordinate teacher absences (finding substitutes, etc). They can't rely on any smart phone app, as the school can't afford to buy everyone one, and then they legally can't require it. The goal was to have a shared, central phone number that all the administrators can access, with notifications when a message is received.

Made with Angular (1.x), Actionhero.js, and Twilio.

</comment><comment><USER2> Looks cool - typo on the front page though: "What is swithboard.chat?" instead of "What is switchboard.chat?"

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!</comment></comment>


CIA Cartography Center makes maps available online 1941-2010 - <AUTHOR> https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciagov/collections/72157674854602812/ <comment><USER2> rather unexciting but vitally important. I always liked the CIA factbook</comment>


'Black Panther' Is Groundbreaking, but It's Shuri Who Could Change the World - <AUTHOR> https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/black-panther-is-groundbreaking-but-its-shuri-who-could-change-the-world/ <comment><USER2> As a means to break down racial barriers and increase representation the movie nails it. As a movie, just a movie though? It's just fine, very Marvel, _very_ predictable, but not bad. The acting and cast are fantastic, it has a killer soundtrack, and the action is solid. The plot is basically something you could follow in your sleep though, which has been an issue with MCU for a while.

It might change the world, but that doesn't make it s great movie, sadly.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I found the studies showing the impact that movies actually have a significant impact on career choice to be interesting.

I never thought the effect would be that large.</comment>


Ask HN: maker and manager, is there a job where you are both? - <AUTHOR>

I am McKinsey consultant that is terribly bored with my current job, even if I am very good at it. On my weekends, I pull all-nighters programming and rejoice.
Before joining McKinsey I did my masters in electrical engineering and a couple of long (6+ months) internships (Sony, Daimler) as an engineer. It was great - but lacked a certain "business" fun to it - I was expected to come from 9 to 5 and develop whatever I was told to, not much responsibility, not much planning/working on the big picture.
I would like to do both (say, 6 hours of making and 6 hours of managing). Is such thing possible? In your experience, is someone that is not that specialized valuable for a startup? I've been looking through startup "hiring" pages and never saw a similar position...
Have you been in a similar situation? What did you do? <comment><USER2> I would say that running a small consultancy with 1-4 employees can give you more than enough of juggling between managing and producing (designing, programming, etc.)

I am personally in the situation that you want to be in, and to be honest it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life (this is obviously personal).

Having meetings with customers after X hours of design work in front of a screen is hard.

Sitting down to design for X hours after dealing with an endless stream of information you need to process and be aware of, before lunch is hard.

Worrying about payroll is hard.

Delivering good design/code is hard.

What I'm trying to say is these things are hard enough on their own, and I find myself overwhelmed often. And I'm not trying to dissuade you from giving it a go, I'm just trying to paint a clear picture for you, so you know how it is.

If you think you'll be able to divide your managing hours vs. your production hours — you're deluding yourself. It's a mess and as the saying goes: when it rains, it pours.

The main difficulty with balancing these two roles is time management, and stress caused by having to manage when you'd rather be producing and vice versa.

So, it's interesting, it keeps you on your toes, it beats working in a coal mine, but it's still hard work.

It has personally made me discover that I much prefer working with people that I do sitting in front of a computer all day, so I'm working on transitioning myself from a designer role, to a manager role.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply! - I am certain that it is definitely a challenging thing to do - but don't you see positive results from it, too? I mean, don't you think you are a better manager/maker?

<comment><USER2> Of course there's an upside, and I'm sorry if you got the impression that I'm unsatisfied with my work. That's not what I wanted to get across.

You get to see a more complete picture of projects you work on. You mature a lot as a person, and develop various skills you wouldn't otherwise. It toughens you up, that's for sure.

My main intention was to warn you that it — more often than not — actually means doing more than one job. Both physically and mentally.

I guess the reason I chose to do this is that I get nervous when I'm not in control, and I still like to be in touch with what I set out to do in life; which is to be a good interface designer.

Best of luck to you.</comment></comment></comment>


The Backlash to Plastic Has Oil Companies Worried - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-05/plastic-trash-crackdown-threatens-oil-giants-chemical-lifeline <comment><USER2> Once we shift to electric cars, people of the future will be wondering in amazement how did we ever tolerate combustion engines! Same way we now wonder in amazement how people in the past tolerated horse manure on the street or steam trains in subways...

<comment><USER3> Electric cars still need power - hopefully wind and solar, but most likely also nuclear, and fossil. If one would be to calculate the pollution cost of creating materials to build all the new power sources (wind, solar, nuclear) to support nearly 100% electric mobility, I wonder how it stands against current fossil-powered transportation.

<comment><USER4> Electric cars make the problem fungible.

<comment><USER2> Sorry, what does it mean? I'm only familiar with the term when it comes to currencies...

I think electric cars centralise the problem of air pollution, which in turn makes solving the problem from a centralized place more efficient and can be improved as technology improves.

It's like when centuries ago, urban places didn't have sewers and just let the excrement flow down the open gutters on the street (we are here with combustion engines). In time, sewers were built, but the untreated sewage would flow in to rivers & oceans (similar to as if electric cars became the norm now). In time, sewage treatment plants were also built (power generation shifts to fossil fuel-free).

Same way as we now look at open sewers in disgust, I'd say down the future we'll probably look at combustion engines in disgust and say "how the heck did people live like that?"

<comment><USER4> Yes, that. One source of electricity is as good as another to the car, so once cars are converted to EVs, the problem of pollution can be solved without involving them.

<comment><USER2> I see. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I so wish we could duplicate a pomegranate shell or an orange skin. Such materials would be great for packaging. I have seen pomegranates and certain varieties of oranges last for more than two months when stored in cool and dry places.

<comment><USER6> I can penetrate an orange skin with my finger pretty easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Good. We need more earth ocean friendly ways of bagging our groceries and keeping six packs of beer together.

Exxon knew of climate change in the 70s and hid it.

Electric cars aren't any better for the environment given all the mining that goes into the batteries right?

<comment><USER8> Your first two points are great. Your third is a wickedly pernicious lie. I'm assuming from the context of your first two points that was not your deliberate intention.

Imagine for a moment that coal, oil, gas, metals, rare earth elements, lithium, etc etc were all simply an interchangeable concept of "bad mass". Meaning, we need the mass to do something, but the process of mining/extracting/producing it has bad side affects.

One way of doing things, the bad mass is produced _and consumed_ on a constant basis. The gas in your tank is used exactly once.

The other way of doing things the bad mass is produced and _re-used_ for roughly a decade, after which it can be recycled. The lithium in your EV battery will get used several thousand times in its first life, a few hundred more in a secondary application, and then recycled for who knows how many more uses.

So simply from a "consumed" vs. "re-used" basis the process of mining lithium (and cobalt etc) would have to be thousands and thousands of times worse than the process of drilling/extracting/refining oil _just for them to break even_.

It is good and important to recognize that simply replacing ICEs with EVs is closer to harm reduction than problem-solving, but it is a very very large harm reduction so statements like "electric cars aren't any better for the environment given all the mining" retard that harm reduction.

<comment><USER9> This is a good point. But electricity is still largely produced by fossil fuels. So if one is selling an efficient (30+ mpg) ICE car that they own to buy a new EV, the math may make less sense. At least for the short to medium term, anyway.

<comment><USER8> Individual marginal efficiency arbitrage is the wrong mental framework for analysis of the problem at hand. We are not trying to burn carbon more efficiently, we are trying to stop burning carbon. We are not optimizing, we are solving for zero. An EV run on coal today will automatically inherent the solution as we decarbonize the grid.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What we need is backlash against oil.

The existence of any public subsidies of fossil fuels is unconscionable.

They should all be diverted to subsidize solar, wind, and geothermal.

</comment><comment><USER4> Good. The world was okay before there was an oil industry and it will be better off when it no longer has one.

<comment><USER11> Without fossil fuels, no Haber-Bosch process. No Haber-Bosch process, no fertilizers. No fertilizers, no food security.

<comment><USER12> And that's just one of the many ways that hydrocarbons are woven into critical parts of the global economy.

You can't just snap your fingers, make oil go away and expect modern civilization to keep existing as it currently does.

It took ~150yr to get the oil industry where it is today and that is with a massive financial incentive. People need lubricants, tars, fuels, plastics, everything that oil makes cheaply and well. In the absence of strong organic (not artificial, i.e. regulatory compliance) incentives to stop using oil it will almost certainly take much longer than 150yr to reduce oil usage for energy/fuel to negligible levels. We will likely never stop using oil for plastics, fertilizers and other "critical to modern civilization" things until something that's cheaper and equivalent or better comes along for every last use case.

Keep in mind that whatever we have next will have tradeoffs too.

<comment><USER13> Oil-the-chemical and oil-the-fuel can be considered seperate products. Demand- wise, all uses besides fuel are trivial. Even plastic is only 4%. The spritz of 10W-40 on my bike chain is of 0 consequence compared to the gallon of gas burned in a typical daily commute by car. We're never going to run out of oil for all those important non-fuel uses. Even if every oil well ran dry tomorrow, oil-the-chemical is quite easy to make from carbon waste feedstock.

I don't think it's right to estimate such a long time for oil to become obsolete as a fuel, just because we use it for other things too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As far as I know, most modern plastics are made out of natural gas, not oil. I guess you could still call natural gas companies as "oil companies", after all there's overlap.

<comment><USER15> I'm not an expert, but anecdotally my uncle is a chemist at a company that makes plastics and they make all of theirs from natural gas. They do not drill, refine, or otherwise use oil.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Keep in mind plastic is ~4% of oil consumption and burning it is 87%. Meaning it really doesn't matter if they get strong growth in their plastics or even the entire petrochem division, the overall companies need to be bankrupted, nationalized, broken up and unwound ASAP.

<comment><USER16> "That's a worst-case scenario, but it shows the potential disruption to the industry, where plastics already account for half of demand"

"half of demand" is not 4%. Or is it another industry? What am I missing?

<comment><USER8> half of "petrochemical" demand (vs 'energy') is my guess at how to read that quote, based on the two paragraphs above it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> their worry translates directly into increased bottom line for politicians

</comment><comment><USER18> I hate this backlash because it's just "greenwashing". People think they're virtuous because they didn't use a half gram plastic straw, and then burn a quarter ton of jet fuel traveling by air. A single plane flight uses more oil than a lifetime's worth of single-use plastics, but people have no intuition for the numbers. And people have a limited capacity for doing good, so by thinking these vastly different harms are similar they can do great harm by trading between them.

Single use plastics are responsible for big savings in food waste and transport (which is still almost entirely fossil fuel based). They improve people's quality of life for a very small cost in oil. The only significant problem is a small minority of people disposing of them improperly, and the only reason people even care about that is because of emotive reporting showing dead animals (nobody cares about all the animals killed by air pollution and climate change).

The solution isn't banning single use plastics, it's enforcing existing laws against littering. Enforcement can be funded by a tax on the plastics.

<comment><USER19> The problem is that the plastic straw will still be polluting the environment in 10,000 years. Getting macro plastics out of the environment is difficult getting microplastics may be impossible. At some point we have to accept that single use plastics have an environment cost that is totally unacceptable.

As for emotive press stories about dead animals being the only reason people care. Did you know that the average human meal contains microplastics now? That your body contains microplastics right now?

<comment><USER20> Hopefully, in the timescale of 10,000 years, we'll have refined plastic eating bacteria and the like to get rid of microplastics. It makes more sense to worry about a 20-100 years timescale.

<comment><USER18> Bacteria evolve fast, and hydrocarbon-metabolizing bacteria are already known, e.g.:

[https://aem.asm.org/content/77/22/7962](https://aem.asm.org/content/77/22/7962)

I expect they'll be common well before 10,000 years. It's certainly an easier problem than getting CO2 out of the atmosphere.

<comment><USER19> How is hoping that whole new species evolve and spread without changing ecosystems even remotely an easy problem?

<comment><USER21> Because those species already exist and we are changing the ecosystem (by introducing micro-plastics everywhere)?

<comment><USER19> My point is that changing ecosystems will have unforeseen consequences...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> dfeojm-zlib It was depressing when a plastic bag was found in the Mariana Trench.

<comment><USER22> I have a not good surprise for you. Someone started looking for it and there's spots of high density of plastic waste (equivalent to the infamous Pacific garbage patch) and it's not at the surface. [https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/06/ocean- mi...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/06/ocean- microplastic/591094/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> In South Africa at this point I am more excited about air-to-hydrocarbon technology than electric cars. Personally I would love an electric car, but long travel distances and issues with our state owned utility make modular (powered by solar or at some places wind) fuel producing facilities very promising—provided that this technology actually exists!

It seems like we don't know for sure whether air-to-fuel startups actually have a cost effective way of fixing hydrocarbons from the air or whether they are just trying to lure investor money.

<comment><USER8> Look as a geek i'm interested in and irrationally optimistic despite the odds about air-to-fuel stuff like prometheus.

But as a grownup. As a responsible adult. As someone who passed high-school math. You have to look at the challenge we face, and the timeframe we have to address it, and say "oh, time's up."

We don't get to play the "i'm hoping for X" technology game anymore. That phase is over. It's time, _now_ , to shift everything we can as fast as we can using the things we have and know.

Hopefully air-to-fuel r&d gets somewhere in a decade, and hopefully it can be commercialized quickly thereafter. That'd be great. It would go a very long way toward saving the airline and international tourism industries. But w/r/t cars, TIME IS UP.

<comment><USER23> So yes, what I am saying is I appreciate the arguments around practicality, urgency and time frames; at the same time I see a lot of institutional _inertia_.

A basket of technologies is to me a better determinator for progress (or _shift_ , if you prefer).

The main focus in developing countries is foremostly on the human front: basic needs, personal security, health care, etc. It's does not make sense to me to expect the switch to electric cars to make or break general progress. Air-to- fuel alternatives are very attractive as a basket of "energy goods". I can see companies here setting up their own production centres. At the same time the existing infrastructure can benefit (such as large oil pipelines, the existing car and truck fleet, power generators and peak energy production, etc.).

Don't misunderstand, I think electric cars would be a better future (nitrous oxide byproducts, I am looking at you). Air-to-fuel tech is a great supporting basket item.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> According to the chart the oil demand related to cars is still forecast to increase through 2040. Does it mean we are fucked?

<comment><USER24> Pretty much, yes. Those projections are extrapolations from past numbers and don't consider any potential drastic political actions to stop that growth, but given the total lack of enthusiasm to make such measures happen, they're probably pretty accurate.</comment></comment>


Awesome freebie, because "Coming Soon" pages usually suck.. - <AUTHOR> http://serve2.com/index.php/freebies

<comment><USER2> 8 downloads so far and no comments :)</comment>


Why Revolution Can't Come to North Korea - <AUTHOR> http://techonomy.com/2012/11/why-revolution-cant-come-to-north-korea/

<comment><USER2> Right. Because no country ever had a revolution before Twitter and Facebook existed.

<comment><USER3> The problem is that the government has access to near modern levels of communication and military equipment, but there's no equalizer on the peoples' side.

The power and ability gap between the Government and the People in North Korea is probably the largest that has existed in history.

<comment><USER2> The asymmetry always existed. Weapons, education, means of transportation...

<comment><USER3> Never to this level of disparity.

This is satellites and fighter jets vs bows and arrows stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Indeed, would the French revolution have even happened without all the bad press the royal family got from Marie Antoinette's tweets and the subsequent flashmob at La Bastille? And the American revolution's well-attended "Boston Tea Party" Facebook event?

<comment><USER5> It might not have happened if the French government used a modern (2012) system of surveillance utilizing both technology and social networks; filled labor camps with dissenting individuals and their entire respective families; and regularly executed anyone attempting to escape. France __never__ got as bad as North Korea is today.

The author did focus too much on the enabling power of the WWW, but don't dismiss the plight of the North Korean people because of his mistake(s).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nit: The entirety of the Korean peninsula is referred to as the "Hermit Kingdom", dating back to the Joseon dynasty.

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

This error is a stupid example, but the entirety of this post is a bit breathless.

<comment><USER5> I think the term more accurately describes the north nowadays, so why not use it?

The DPRK deserves to be ridiculed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> No insight, no new information, not worth the time it takes to read.

<comment><USER5> This might be true if you're Lieutenant Commander Data, but both I and others believe that reframing ``old'' information often results in something of value. If it makes you think differently (or think at all!), then it's most certainly ``worth the time it takes to read''.

<comment><USER7> That is why I led with "no insight". If it was an insightful analysis of existing information, that would be great, but it's not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> prisoners stuck in prison. can't get out because the guards are immoral totalitarian rulers and will do anything to preserve their prison. Giving them internet may be a mistake. they will use it to rule with a unobtanium fist rather than an iron fist.</comment>


Back in 2007, RIM Thought Apple Was Lying About the Whole iPhone Thing - <AUTHOR> http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2010/12/back_in_2007_ri.html

<comment><USER2> I find it hilarious that the source of this article is what "Shacknews poster Kentor heard from his former colleagues of the time".

</comment><comment><USER3> _Apple was effectively accused of lying as it was supposedly impossible that a device could have such a large touchscreen but still get a usable lifespan away from a power outlet._

As always, big leaps are hard to predict (classic innovators dilemma). I don't find it hard to believe at all that RIM was doubtful about Apple's ability to meet what they were announcing. They were working on their own products, facing their own limitations - there's no way they could predict what a company with a blank slate would come up with.

<comment><USER4> As nailer pointed out in a comment on the earlier thread [1], from RIM's perspective the iPhone probably just _didn't_ have _usable lifespan away from a power outlet_.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2043835></comment></comment>


Kids are the future; teach them how to code - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1034-kids-are-the-future-teach-em-to-code <comment><USER2> I've been volunteering once a week at a local school teaching 6th graders how to code, and it's really amazing how quickly many of them pick it up. Even small things like learning to mix blue and red to make purple using rgb(255,0,255) is utterly fascinating to them.

I asked one of the kids how he would like it if they taught programming as a subject in school. His eyes just lit up and said "that would be awesome".

It's also fun talking to kids about startups - the fact that you can use code to solve problems for people and start a business. They're usually more interested in building a fun game but still, you can see some flickers of awareness lighting up. A lot of these kids are selling candy to each other at school anyway, so they're pretty entrepreneurial by nature.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying that teaching kids to code is one of the most rewarding and challenging things you can do, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone on the fence.

<comment><USER3> I'm in university, and even here I wish there were classes that taught how to code. Everything is quite academic and high level, with little to no mention of how to learn a language, its libraries, how to code with a team, or any other day to day problems I face when making games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _"Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code > when you were seven years old."_

Probably as awesome as I am as a baseball player, which I actually learned at age seven...and quit for spring soccer at age 9 because games and practices were so incredibly dull.

However, I suspect at age 9 I would have traded the prospect of a Saturday afternoon programming in a New York minute for sitting in the dugout during a baseball game.

</comment><comment><USER5> The concept here is encouraging, but at the same time a bit disheartening when I consider how many of my peers have recently graduated or will soon graduate with expensive, decreasingly valuable degrees in subjects they love, but will have difficulty securing employment with. For instance, I have a good friend studying history right now who has recently taken up programming in an effort to spruce up his resume. I can't help but think "Why so late? Why didn't anyone nudge you in that direction when you were younger?"

I know my parents wanted me to truly understand new technologies, not just interact with them, so coding was an integral part of my life from an early age, but I fear many more parents probably saw the rate at which software was advancing and the promise of the internet and thought "Well, programming probably isn't that important anymore" (assuming, of course, that they had any opinion on programming at all).

He's a bright guy, so he'll be fine, but the fact that so many people my age will likely need to spend much longer acquiring and honing these skills (if they even bother to try) than children of the iGeneration is a bit depressing in the "Born just a bit too soon" sense.

</comment><comment><USER6> When I watch how much my 3 year old son uses our iPad it makes me sad that there still isn't an integrated way to program the device on the device. Someone with more time than me should solve this problem.

<comment><USER7> Check out Codea. In a few minutes I threw a rocketship sprite on there, mapped its position to CurrentTouch, and blew my son's mind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have started feeling indifferent to this topic.

How can you teach a seven year old to program? Kids of that age are hardly learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers. How difficult would it be for a kid to grasp concept of function - in context of both math and programming.

Teaching kids how to program is not as easy and logical as it sounds. My opinion is to let a kid grasp and understand the basics - which are math, science and logic at an abstract level. Such a rush to throw everything at a kid is overkill IMHO.

<comment><USER9> I feel like a seven year old could play <http://armorgames.com/play/2205/light-bot> and that's just programming.

<comment><USER10> Check out the very awesome Runestone Wisp for a similar idea: <https://runestonewisp.appspot.com/>

It presents various "arcane runestones" like "look ahead" and "look left", which send out "magic" over "threads of silk" to power other runes like "walk forward" and "turn left". The harder puzzles introduce AND and OR gates, and later on something similar to flip-flops to store "magic" and send it out later.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Missing tassel in this puzzle IMHO: Something like Codea (iPad app, incredibly cool to learn programming to children) but as a web site, with a similar interface and "visual" objects, language Javascript.

After you create an app you should be also able to "name" it, so that <name>.this-site-name.com means instant-deploy of your app.

This is the thing more similar to BASIC of C64 that I can think, in terms of easy access, and ability to build something that you can actually distribute/show.

</comment><comment><USER12> I hope that if I ever have kids, I'll be able to educate them as well as I can in (in no particular order):

1\. Basic programming & general computer skills 2\. A foreign language 3\. The ability to learn by themselves

I have no desire to hothouse them of course, nor is it anything to do with improving their career prospects etc. I just look forward to sharing the fun of learning with them

<comment><USER13> _I just look forward to sharing the fun of learning with them_

There is no end of fun in learning with children, as I can attest as the homeschooling father of four children, one now grown up.

<http://learninfreedom.org/>

(I will have to remind my oldest son, a computer science student in university and hacker, that I could use his help updating that website.)

<comment><USER12> I envy you sir :) and thanks for the resource

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Programming should be part of mandatory curriculum for students. I often sit at meetings an hear non-tech colleagues say things like "how does the internet work?" or "what are we going to do if the internet fills up". I would hope that theae ideas are taught...knowing many teachers who have very limited tech experience makes me worry...

</comment><comment><USER15> Grammar is the future. Learn about sentences.

</comment><comment><USER12> Any opinions/experience on the best language to introduce kids to programming with? My instinct says python simply because I personally found it the easiest to get to grips with, but I guess practically anything will do.

<comment><USER16> Lua. Relatively simple language, but super fast (lua jit rivals C). Dead simple C api, so you can hook up whatever library you want to, if you need it (say GTK or even openGl, though I assume that somebody has already done that).

Either that or some form of Scheme. Not that it is simple to most programmers but it has very few basic pieces of syntax learn and when you start programming all of it is foreign anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when > you were seven years old.

I started learning at 8 so another year wouldnt've done much.

In regards to the program this is really cool. I've been trying to teach my younger brother how to code to help him in his math classes at school. If you can break a math problem down far enough to be able to build a calculator for it, you must understand it, which is in fact why I started to learn to code so young.

</comment><comment><USER18> Indeed it's really sad that here in the U.S. our school system's do not offer coding classes as electives. Though we still put a strong emphasis in offering foreign languages like French and Russian?

Having base coding knowledge and experience will go a longer way for our children then teaching them a foreign language like French, Russian and other languages!

<comment><USER19> _Indeed it's really sad that here in the U.S. our school system's do not offer coding classes as electives._

They don't? I took Logo and BASIC programming on the Apple IIe in 7th and 8th grade (1988, 1989). BASIC on the PC in 9th. Switched to Pascal and covered all the basic data structures and algorithms in 10th - 12th grade. That was a looong time ago. Surely computer education in schools has only improved since then in most places, right?

<comment><USER18> That maybe the case in some select schools and those schools are now offering html,css,photoshop,javascript, python, ruby, iOS, java, php and others. Though those schools are not your average schools.

In general the school system is still more focused on offering foreign language classes to students then teaching them coding languages. The latter skill being more valuable then the former!

<comment><USER19> But the former being far more valuable for understanding one's own language, and preparing a young person for college-level reading and writing.

That said, based on my own experiences, I think that a fast-track program could be developed to create functional, real-world (e.g. CRUD apps) developers straight out of high school. Basically, technical school for the modern world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I always think of this. Not because I have kids, but because I teach children coding(web development). I have 2 groups, 13-14 years olds and 15-16 years olds. The younger group learns everything twice as faster. I plan to teach my kinds basic logic, maths, chess and after coding starting from age 4.

<comment><USER21> Do you have any tips or resources for teaching children? I have a 12 year old in the family who I would like to get started. I can teach him html/css but anything beyond that we would be learning together.

<comment><USER20> I ususally use lynda.com resources. I also have problems with teaching something beyond html/css, but usually with enough repetitions and assignments students finally "get it". Brightest students of mine are the ones who really interested in programming. So, in order to make it interesting, I tell them about what sites like Google and Facebook are programmed like, how their best video games work, how they can make a "simple" version of their facebook like social site. They seem to get motivated by those talks of mine :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think it makes sense to mention the potential influence of raspberry pi on education here, it's potential that is to provide far greater accessibility to a superior coding/learning platform in education. The next few generations might just be raised as linux users.

</comment><comment><USER22> Coding is great, but what about exposing them to some hard, meaningful problems while we're at it as well? Otherwise, we're just gonna get 10 times more photo sharing apps in the future.

</comment><comment><USER23> _Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when you were seven years old._

Not that much, if I happened to want to work in any other totally unrelated profession, like a language teacher or a chef or a doctor. Now, imagine how awesome I would be at MY chosen non-coding profession, if I had learned it since seven years old. Which actually doesn't make sense, because I hadn't made my choice of profession yet.

So let seven years olds just be, and if some of them are programming prodigies, OK, but not everyone has to learn to code. It's just programmers thinking they are "the shit".

Here's another thought: kids are the future, teach them how to behave and be considerate.

<comment><USER10> Learning to program (at least, learning the right way) teaches important skills independent from the actual ability to program. Most importantly, it teaches the ability to abstract and see patterns. Take a look at [https://rwxweb.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/teaching- algorithmic...](https://rwxweb.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/teaching-algorithmic- thinking/) for an example.

<comment><USER24> Not just the ability to abstract, but the ability to think at a very granular level of detail and multiple levels of abstraction _simultaneously_. Not many fields do that to the extent programming does. And the instant feedback loop reduces the need for expert outside guidance and instruction.

There's also the idea of CS + X, for all X[1] (or for most X, as batista points out).

1\. <http://www.xconomy.com/new-york/2012/01/18/cs-x-for-all-x/>

<comment><USER13> _Not just the ability to abstract, but the ability to think at a very granular level of detail and multiple levels of abstraction simultaneously. Not many fields do that to the extent programming does._

Thank you for suggesting a generalized benefit of learning programming. My oldest son (grown up now) is a programmer, and maybe there is something to what you say. I'm glad he had early opportunities to learn Logo, C, and Scheme as part of thoughtful computer science curricula before he finished his high school education. Anyway, I'll encourage all of my children to go beyond the programming I reached decades ago with a time-sharing terminal running BASIC back in the 1970s.

But if I think about this issue of the educational benefits of learning this or that subject on multiple levels of abstraction, I wonder if the unique benefits of learning programming are really all that unique, and really all that generalizable to domains other than programming. I raise this question as someone whose last formal higher education was in law, a domain in which I practiced for a time, before turning my attention to specific issues of policy that are not all issues that raise legal questions. As I look at public policy discussions here on Hacker News, and especially at threads in which legal issues are discussed, I don't often have the pleasant experience of seeing multiple-level abstract thinking going on in those domains. Usually the comments here on HN about public policy or law look as elementary as my comments about programming must look to any experienced programmer. Many of the best comments about law on Hacker News, perhaps to no one's surprise, come from lawyers. Maybe the ability to think really abstractly (and correctly) on multiple levels is much more domain-specific than people who have been trained and practiced in one domain but not another usually acknowledge. Maybe part of domain-specific expertise is an "ability to think at a very granular level of detail and multiple levels of abstraction simultaneously," without much transfer of that ability to other domains.

Knowing I am among learned people here who like to think, I'd be happy to hear the comments of any onlooker to this idea that learning is often stubbornly domain-specific.

<comment><USER10> First, I'd suggest that HN comments about legal issues sound so "amateurish" (on the scale where "professional" means "lawyer") because they have a heavy bias towards how we believe the law _ought_ to work rather than how it _does_ work. Abstraction, generalization, logic, and other CS problem-solving skills don't automatically provide an understanding of a field whose details often seem utterly contrary to rationality, without the addition of a pile of domain-specific training to understand the idiosyncrasies of that field. :)

Law sometimes seems to have the most in common with machine learning techniques like neural networks: start with something simple, evolve it in small steps based on potentially-flawed fitness functions, hope you don't get stuck in a local maximum, and in the end end you have a tangled mess that more or less gets the job done but which nobody can fully understand or explain. :)

More seriously, I think abstract thinking and similar methods do help in law and many other fields, but they complement knowledge of those fields, rather than replacing it. You still have to understand the details of any field you want to work in. However, abstract thinking helps greatly when attempting to apply that knowledge.

The article I originally linked to, [https://rwxweb.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/teaching- algorithmic...](https://rwxweb.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/teaching-algorithmic- thinking/) , mentioned an applicant for a CS job who didn't know how to sort words because they'd only memorized an algorithm to sort numbers. The same issue would apply to a lawyer who doesn't know how to deal with a stolen meal because the examples they'd worked with only dealt with stolen cars, and (hypothetically/rhetorically/probably-untrue-in-reality) because the law doesn't specifically talk about stolen meals. (Feel free to provide a more relevant example; I don't have the expertise to supply a higher-quality analogy.) And on the flip side of that, just as a programmer ought to know some of the quirks that apply to strings but not numbers (such as dealing with locale-specific sorting), a lawyer also needs to know the specific quirks that apply to stolen meals versus stolen cars (such as "theft of services"); otherwise, in both cases, they'd wind up with faulty generalizations. So, experts in a field need both the abstract-thinking skills that apply to any field and the knowledge of the specific details of their chosen field.

<comment><USER25> This is an interesting point. Like tokenadult, my last graduate education was in law, which I currently practice, although I also know how to code, but don't have a particularly "formal" education in it. Law school (debatably) doesn't prepare you to actually practice law, but it does attempt to teach you to "think like a lawyer." The presumption is that, once you have this thought process down, and know some fundamentals of law (almost exclusively taught in the first year of law school), any "details" of the law that may be necessary to actually practice law are easily acquired, because you know where to look, what to look for, and how to use that knowledge. From my experience with CS, I don't think this is particularly different than how many coders are trained to think and apply knowledge. For example, someone that didn't know how to sort words because they'd only memorized an algorithm to sort numbers would seemingly have received a failed education in CS, as a lawyer who doesn't know how to deal with situation X because they only have dealt with situation Y would have received a failed education in law.

However, I take tokenadult's point to be that the lack of analytical reasoning as applied to law by some commenters on this site is very unfortunate given that presumably the same thought processes go into coding, which many people on HN are very skilled at. I agree that some fundamental details of law are important, but I think these details are far fewer than non-legally educated people believe. The whole idea of "the common law" as applied in the United States (in contrast to, say, doctrinal "civil law") is that it should be accessible: this is exactly why judges give reasoned opinions, as opposed to decrees, and much of the ideological underpinnings of the common law rest on the presumption that law simply "exists" in the ether, and one only had to meditate on it to discover it (for example, we used to have non-codified crimes, we still don't accept "mistake of law" or "ignorance of the law" as a valid defense, even if it practically would be impossible for someone to know of a law's existence and so on). We've obviously moved away from that presumption, but, from my perspective, law is intended to be accessible, not arcane.

It's therefore highly unfortunate, and possibly the fault of the legal profession, that law, today, is seen as inaccessible. Reading a legal opinion is not an exercise in futility--it's intended to be read, and often intended to be read by people with little knowledge of the underlying subject matter. I would challenge people, particularly coders skilled in analytical reasoning on HN, to take the time to read judicial opinions in their entirety on legal topics of interest, because I strongly believe that the analytical reasoning one uses in coding does have excellent applicability to understanding legal decisions. Law is NOT as convoluted as many presume, and judges try every day to harmonize conflicting legal concepts--in fact this is largely the entire job of appellate judges whose opinions one might read.

No one here would discourage non-coders from getting their teeth wet by doing something--anything--related to learning how to code, even if that person didn't go to school to learn it. But, commenters on HN would be perplexed if someone didn't bother do that at all, but then tried to express an opinion on some programming technique they never bothered to learn about. This is the same sort of perplexity I get when people comment on legal topics without reading or knowing the much about the (accessible) underlying topic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm sick of hearing that we need to teach kids to code. No, we don't. This idea comes from other coders who seem to be living in a bubble. It's important that we teach kids to be computer literate but coding is not an essential skill. Do we need to teach all children to be doctors? I mean, we all have a body that needs to be taken care of, right? Do we need to teach all children how to assemble an automobile engine? No, driving the car and being able to check the oil or change a flat will suffice.

Programming just isn't for everyone and no matter how often or loudly you scream that it is that doesn't make it so. Coding is hard and people think its boring. They won't persue it any further than they would a sport their parent puts them in that they dont like. There are things that all children should learn like reading, writing, and math but you wouldn't say all kids need to be trained in writing like a writer would or that mandatory math needs to incorporate the kind of stuff the guy from A Beautiful Mind was doing, right?

In the same way that we all need to know how to read, write, and do basic arithmetic, that's how we need to teach kids to code. Sketch the broad strokes of how a computer works. Give definitions of hardware and software and teach them how they interact with each other. Introduce them to the concept of binary data and how all code is just one's and zeros. After that it should just be up to the child to decide if they are fascinated enough to learn to code. Even if there is a shortage of software engineers it doesn't matter. Teaching kids to code young won't help them pursue it any further if they aren't interested. No one taught programming in schools years ago but I love it. I became fascinated with the idea that I could make the computer do anything I wanted and there are a lot more like me that did just fine without being taught it in schools. That's how any profession is, really. Pilots don't become pilots because they took an aeronautical engineering class, they do it because when they're little kids they see a plane in the sky and say "wow, I want to fly when I grow up". Same with programming. Somewhere, a kid who never has or will take a mandatory programming course before college is sitting at the computer, browsing Facebook and thinking "wow, I want to make my own websites/games/other software when I grow up".</comment>


Show HN: Review our weekend project, The URLD - <AUTHOR> http://theurld.com/#

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, Tim Erickson here, one half of the team that built this. Feel free to ask me any and all questions.

We built this in a weekend because we we're constantly emailing links to each other, family members, colleagues and friends. The problem was, the emails didn't provide much context unless we took the time to copy and paste a segment of the article, or an image. The URLD does this automatically.

Wether you're sending important business articles to coworkers, or lolcats to friends, The URLD will help you send it quick.

<comment><USER2> It looks very polished. One immediate request: a way to create an account without going through Twitter or Facebook. It would also be good to provide a sample of the emails that the app sends - perhaps they're simply lists of links, but maybe not? (Ideally, I would love to be able to edit or customize those mails.)

Nitpicks aside, I think it's a great idea and a very nice interface.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is a sample email with one link shared: <http://cl.ly/15300W0g002N1n3t2L2O>

<comment><USER2> Thanks. I like that you give recipients the option to unsubscribe. Saves them from (well-intentioned but overeager) friends.

One other thing I'm just noticing: after you add a URL or email address on the website, the form field isn't cleared. A screenshot may make this clearer: <http://cl.ly/6M7A>.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> you might want to register your new project with <http://projectilo.com> to get continued feedback from other developers</comment>


The US Military Is Creating the Future of Employee Monitoring - <AUTHOR> https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/03/us-military-creating-future-employee-monitoring/155824/ <comment><USER2> Where's L. Bob Rife in all of this?</comment>


Why does HTML think "chucknorris" is a color - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8318911/why-does-html-think-chucknorris-is-a-color

<comment><USER2> This oddity was neat the first time it went around, but this link is the 5th mention this year, and the last was less than a week ago.</comment>


Ben Laurie on Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://www.links.org/?p=1164 <comment><USER2> Speaking only with regards to engineering marketing outcomes: allowing people to trivially conjure Bitcoins out of the ether early in the lifecycle, then making them increasingly dear, is a good way to engineer having a base of committed evangelists. It's kind of like genes, right? Genes don't have good features or bad features. Genes only _spread_. The gene for sickle cell anemia wasn't designed to kill people and doesn't care that it does: it just causes chemical reactions which have a tendency, on average, to create more copies of itself in an efficient fashion. The successful currency/social network/software/etc won't be the best currency/social network/software/etc judged by any standard of quality engineering, it will be the spreadiest currency/social network/software/etc.

I am being very value neutral in describing this feature of Bitcoin. This is about all I can say without being very unneutral in a fashion that would transgress HN's norms about politeness.

<comment><USER3> The problem with this assumption of early virality being important is that the value of this property drops significantly over time. There is a critical inflection point where this pseudo-currency needs to provide value outside of the core group of true believers and if it fails to do so the bubble will pop as true believers eventually fade away and the circle of people who are willing to accept your confederate money becomes smaller and smaller. I see no reason yet to believe that bitcoin will make this transition and a lot of hints that it will in fact fail to make this transition (e.g. the currency is getting too much publicity too early -- it is making itself a target before it has any real social defenses.)

<comment><USER4> > it is making itself a target before it has any real social defenses

The system doesn't exactly have control over who notices it.

Some people are (rightly or not) excited about it and building services, sites, and the like around it. That aspect of its virality certainly isn't a bad thing if the community wants to live past that coming critical inflection point you suspect will happen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Bitcoins are a great consumer currency at this point, considering that it's possible to generate them out of thin air makes it attractive to get. It's like getting an allowance as a kid-you do some(relatively) trivial work, and get some money from it. The problem is that it won't always be this way, especially when the mining stops.

Normal currencies have a cyclical economy. A consumer gets money from their job, then spends it somewhere. The money goes up the supply chain, eventually getting to a bank, which loans it out to a business, who then pays employees. Bitcoins currently are only used in the first transaction, then exchanged for USD or other currency. They are acquired by consumers in two ways: mining them, or buying them from a Bitcoin exchange. After the mining phase ends(or becomes prohibitively expensive), you won't be able to conjure up BTC from thin air. The only way for a consumer to get BTC is to buy them from an exchange, since the overwhelming majority of people aren't going to actually be paid by their job in BTC. Also, since it's doubtful that ISPs or hosting providers will accept BTC, the sellers need to exchange their BTC for USD to pay their bills. So, in the end, this means that the only ones that really win in this economy are the BTC-USD exchanges.

<comment><USER6> bitcoin is not longer practically generatable without specialized hardware and specialised software. i.e. If you download the bitcoin client and start mining bitcoins, it'll take years before you get your first set.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This guy completely misses the point. The excitement over Bitcoin is due part to the fact that it operates over a decentralized P2P network that exists independently from the creators.

Perhaps if one of the earlier forms of digital currency had been as altruistic in their engineering they would have seen as much enthusiasm from the public.

In other words, nobody is going to get excited about propping up the next big evil empire like PayPal. Bitcoin puts the powers of paying and being paid right where it belongs; directly with the people.

<comment><USER8> _Perhaps if one of the earlier forms of digital currency had been as altruistic in their engineering they would have seen as much enthusiasm from the public._

Really? It was an altruistic project? The creators of bitcoin aren't sitting on stashes of bitcoins in the (forlorn) hope that if bitcoins ever _actually_ take off they'll be insanely wealthy?

<comment><USER9> Original paper is here if you want to judge motivations: <http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf>

At the current value, they are already rich and probably not forlorn.

<comment><USER10> It is important to remember exchange rates are not static. The exchange rate is determined by the supply and demand of the two currencies for exchange. If you suddenly liquidate a lot of BitCoins all at once, you will raise the supply on the BitCoin side and thus drop the BitCoin-to-dollar exchange rate. It is not valid to take the exchange rate, multiply by the number of extant BitCoins, and declare that to be the size of the BitCoin economy in dollars; that will _grossly_ overestimate it.

(This has nothing to do with BitCoin _qua_ BitCoin, it's the nature of currency exchange. Because most currencies that people deal with have such enormous economic bases, people tend to reason about them such that they neglect certain terms that they don't have to worry about in practice because of sheer size. If I exchange $100 to Euros, I won't personally budge the exchange rate noticeably. But in a much smaller economy, you can't neglect such things.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Search Y Combinator - <AUTHOR> http://searchyc.com/ <comment><USER2> Question: Why isn't this linked from hacker news, in the header or footer?

Why do we keep waiting for questions on "how do I search hacker news", to pounce and share this link?

<comment><USER3> Because WebMynd is a portfolio company, and ostensibly searches Hacker News.

<comment><USER4> How do I use HNSearch without Firefox?

When I click on the link I only see a page where I can install a Firefox extension.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.google.com/search?q=site:ycombinator.com+%s>

replace %s with search terms.

<comment><USER6> I know I prefer SearchYC because it also provides links to parent in the search returns. I often use it to find an article of comment I replied to, so that extra function saves me a click.

<comment><USER7> Moreover, it can also sort by points - a feature I really like (though indexing at SearchYC seems to be slow)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Works. Thank you. Search plug-in in FF works fine too.</comment>


Show HN: HNsearch, a ruby gem for searching HN via command-line - <AUTHOR> https://rubygems.org/gems/HNsearch I was learning to write RubyGems and this is what I came up with. I know that it doesn't follow the usual convention of lowercase naming but this is what I started with and then I ended up deploying it.
The gem doesn't do a lot other than query the HNsearch.com API and then just pretty prints the results. I am working on making it better and will be introducing some more commands.
I would like to get some review on my code quality and also how can I make this gem better.
I even wrote a small post on the same - http://aniketpant.com/2013/05/hnsearch-my-first-gem/ <comment><AUTHOR> I was learning to write RubyGems and this is what I came up with. I know that it doesn't follow the usual convention of lowercase naming but this is what I started with and then I ended up deploying it.

The gem doesn't do a lot other than query the HNsearch.com API and then just pretty prints the results. I am working on making it better and will be introducing some more commands.

I would like to get some review on my code quality and also how can I make this gem better.

I even wrote a small post on the same - <http://aniketpant.com/2013/05/hnsearch-my-first-gem/></comment>