No, Snowden wasn't behind 7 proxies at SXSW. It's a 7 year-old Internet joke. - <AUTHOR>

Claiming to be behind seven proxies is one of the oldest jokes on the Internet. It's been in use since 2007. The sarcastic remark is used to jokingly bait someone who is trying to find your location through the Internet. Telling someone that you're behind seven proxies is a joke playing on most people's poor understanding of how to use the Internet securely. <comment><USER2> "Good luck, I'm behind 7 proxies" is a catchphrase typically used as a sarcastic retort when someone either threatens to report you to the authorities, or claims to be able to track down your location. Origin

While no archive of the thread exists, the phrase is believed to come from a 4chan thread on September 15th, 2007.

After cracking into a woman's computer, Myspace account and college financial assistance fund, the hackers posted several pictures and videos of her on 4chan. When she became aware of this, she went to 4chan in an attempt to have them taken down. After threatening to involve the authorities, she was met with the response: "I WENT THROUGH 7 PROXIES GOOD LUCK". The following screenshot is reported to have come from the thread. [1]

Example of various images [2]

Google Trends 'Seven Proxies' [3]

[1] [http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/131703-good-luck-im- behind-7-...](http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/131703-good-luck-im- behind-7-proxies)

[2] [http://imgur.com/cOW0CB8,Lbl8tLl,sOVvWaP](http://imgur.com/cOW0CB8,Lbl8tLl,sOVvWaP)

[3] [http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en- US#q=%227+proxies...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en- US#q=%227+proxies%22)

<comment><USER3> 4chan at its best _sigh_

<comment><AUTHOR> absolutely</comment></comment></comment>


ZumoCast Is Like Cloud Storage Without The Cloud, Or The Cost - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/27/zumocast-is-like-cloud-storage-without-the-cloud-or-the-cost/

<comment><USER2> Here's another invite code for the private beta: <http://www.zumocast.com/?i=hackernews>

You have to give your UUIDs for iPhone/iPad and we'll send an ad-hoc build shortly after. But you can install the server app and see the web interface immediately.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a brilliant idea. I am looking to create my own media center for my family to gain access to from different parts of the country. Any commercial or open source alternatives to ZumoCast?</comment>


Stealing Data from Computers Using Heat - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/03/stealing-data-computers-using-heat/ <comment><USER2> Not quite "stealing". Rather, both computers are running special software used to transmit information between them using heat. The bandwidth is also incredibly low:

> [...] currently, the attack allows for just eight bits of data to be > reliably transmitted over an hour [...]

It works by intentionally generating heat in one computer, and then detecting that heat increase with the one sitting next to it. Patterns in the rise and fall of the heat allow you to send information.

You can't use this method to steal arbitrary information from a computer that you do not already have access to. This title is sensationalized.

<comment><USER3> This is really more of a practical demonstration of using the thermal channel for transmission than any sort of security news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> They installed software on one computer that generates heat by running the CPU. They installed software on the other computer which detects heat through the computer's existing heat sensors, and when detected, moves a little foam dart gun.

Not as scary as I thought.

<comment><USER5> Exactly. They just came up with a way of transmitting information from one computer to another with the appropriate software running on each computer.

From the headline, I was imagining some tempest like result where data could be read from the heat signature of any computer. But this is just more click- bait from Wired.

<comment><USER6> Indeed, requiring the air-gapped machine to first running malware doesn't exactly make this revolutionary, and the bandwidth is so incredibly low. Also, likelihood of ambient interference is quite high that the reliability of this seems suspect best.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In the early days of desktop PCs, the CPU was essentially running at full load all the time (in an idle polling loop) and the temperature would stabilise after a warm-up period, so this type of attack wouldn't be possible. This was when processors only consumed a few watts. Now they vary between a few watts at idle and 100+ at full load, and can make such power transitions in a few microseconds.

I think the acoustic method is more clever (and has a higher bandwidth):

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6927905](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6927905)

<comment><USER8> The optical method is also quite smart, if you happen to, say, have an activity LED wired to a bus without much of a filter in between. LEDs switch faster than you might have thought¹.

This kind of thing is intelligence-agency home turf; they have decades of experience, not necessarily relating to computers.

[1] Joe Loughry and David A. Umphress [2002] "Information Leakage from Optical Emanations." ACM Trans. Info. Sys. Security, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 262-289 <[http://www.foo.be/docs- free/tempest/optical_tempest.pdf>](http://www.foo.be/docs- free/tempest/optical_tempest.pdf>)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> "Air-gapped systems are used in classified military networks, the payment networks that process credit and debit card transactions for retailers, "

Payment systems are most definitely not air gapped.

</comment><comment><USER10> Firstly, 40 cm isn't much of an air gap. If your secured and networked machines are that close together, maybe consider larger cubicles. Otherwise, this attack is probably mitigated by a cheap electric fan aimed at the gap.

It almost seems as though it would be worth designing your own isolation boxes, because a mere air gap is not enough any more. A commercial version could secure kiosk computers and ATMs.

<comment><USER11> An 'air gap' is basically a bit of perfectly permeable, transparent air.

I suppose that a real air-gapped system would be behind some less-transparent wall, or several, possibly with some electromagnetic insulation layer (foil, mesh), with no paths of direct optical contact, and some sources of noise of many sorts: wide-spectrum RF white noise, wide-spectrum acoustic white noise, random IR flicker, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The payment networks by their very function are not air-gapped.

</comment><comment><USER13> So if you go to a protected place and put some hardware in a computer with secrets that you want to spy you could... err, spy it (and this only will take you about forthy years). Or you could just take the laptop with you and run.

I have a better idea. Design a keyboard that mecanically plays a little different ultrasound each time you tip some specific key, thus you could steal passwords and data in real time using a trained bat (or a ultrasound register, what you prefer).

The heat approach sounds slow, teorical, and too prone to false positives to be taken seriously. Good history for films or making jokes about people looking at porno in front of the computer, or your cat taking a nap and launching a missile, not much more IMHO.

</comment><comment><USER14> Silly question, could you put a telescopic sight, on a thermal camera to detect the bits of output. Or would the IR get absorbed by glass windows etc, making that impossible.

<comment><USER15> In my computer security class in uni, my professor quickly listed various ways your computer could be compromised in ways you wouldn't expect and this was one of them. He didn't get into detail unfortunately, just that things could be inferred from the heat of your monitor/computer. He also mentioned driving a truck with a receiver into the path of a Line of Sight connection, and just plain using the telescope to look at your monitor if it's facing a window.

Reading about Starfighter recently reminds me of that class..our assignments were to perform buffer overflow and other attacks, it was a lot of fun!</comment></comment>


Best way to find engineers to iterate from core product - <AUTHOR>

What is the best way to find solid engineers to iterate from a quality product/code base?<p>We're using a Python/Django stack <comment><USER2> The real best way is already know people suited to the job, and then go ahead and hire them for it.

This does not scale.</comment>


Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage? - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/09/711181385/are-plastic-bag-bans-garbage <comment><AUTHOR> > The best policy, Taylor says, imposes a fee on both paper and plastic bags > and encourages reuse.</comment>


Pkgsrc on OS X - <AUTHOR> http://www.eliteraspberries.com/blog/2013/03/pkgsrc-on-os-x.html

<comment><USER2> I very strongly advise to NOT ever use a case-sensitive file system. While in this case we have an example of software the _NEEDS_ case sensitivity, a lot of applications folks use will _BREAK_ (or would historically) when installed on a case sensitive file system.

Examples include: Dropbox, Steam, Photoshop. I'm sure more recent versions of these software tools can handle case sensitive file systems (one hopes), but I can say with certainty that there is plenty of other software in the wild, especially if its origins date back using FAT or NTFS on WIN32.

In an ideal world, software would be written in a way that works fine on both Case and Case-Insensitive file systems, but we live in a world were software engineering is rarely so disciplined.

point being: if you want to use any interesting desktop software that at some point may have been targeted in part at WIN32 systems in some past era, please make sure you stay with a _case INsensitive_ file system

that was my PSA for the day/week/month

<comment><USER3> Hope everyone realizes that by default, os x's file system is not case sensitive. (Case _preserving_ , yes.)

<comment><USER4> Yep, its no different than NTFS really. I just wish developers would test their apps out on case sensitive filesystems so we could use them.

<comment><USER5> Why? Case Sensitive file systems are a truly ridiculous idea. I can't imagine anything more annoying than having README and Readme being two different, independent files...

<comment><USER4> I guess I find it more annoying that they're preserved but sensitive.

Typing LS and having it work is... odd.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Has anyone tried this? My two worries are that:

(1) OS X is different enough from NetBSD and pkgsrc's assumptions about how the OS is set up and what kind of base installation is available [compilers, linker and what not), so that I can't really expect that the average package will actually _work_ ; and

(2) It might not have the packages I need (possibly because of licensing issues). Homebrew, which I am using, is license-agnostic, whereas I think NetBSD excludes (L)GPL code?

A casual browse through the package list [1] shows me that it has many things I use, but also lacks many things I use. For example, it lacks Discount (the Markdown processor), rbenv (what I use to easily switch between Ruby versions), rbbuild (what I use to easily install Ruby versions), Node, Elasticsearch, Redis, Riak and Proctools (pkill etc.). Not too bad, but it means that any switch away from Homebrew will involve a lot of work with very little upside.

(Also, I notice NetBSD makes the same mistake as some Linux distros in creating packages for Ruby gems.)

As a side note, I know this is the *BSD way and all, but remembering a path to "cd" to in order to run "bmake && bmake install" seems silly in this day and age. Is there really no command-line tool that integrates this process, as well as the task of keeping the ports tree synced? "brew install" is so much simpler.

[1] [http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/README- all.h...](http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/README-all.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> So far, I haven't seen any OS X-specific problems with the build process, everything works fine. The pkgsrc documentation says OS X is officially supported.

The pkgsrc-wip project has packages for some of those projects you're looking for:

Discount: <http://pkgsrc.se/wip/discount> Node: <http://pkgsrc.se/wip/node> Redis: <http://pkgsrc.se/wip/redis> Riak: <http://pkgsrc.se/wip/riak>

More about pkgsrc-wip: <http://pkgsrc-wip.sourceforge.net>

To simplify the build process, there is a pkgsrc "front-end" called pkgin:

<http://pkgin.net>

Hope that helps.

<comment><USER6> Thanks, that's helpful.

In general the entire system seems rather... antique. It doesn't give me a happy, fuzzy feeling inside. The reason is that I'm not a Unix geek, not in the ways this system wants me to be.

Oh, sure, I know the tools; I've written hundreds of bash scripts, I've done my share of C/POSIX programming, I know my way around Make and GCC and so on. But I don't _want_ to do those things.

What's so great about Homebrew is that the recipe files are built against an API, which coincidentally is a simple programming language (Ruby). Pkgsrc seems to be based on makefiles, which is not really an API as much as a set of conventions based around Make and bash, where I need to sit down and read a manual to understand what plugs into where. The same problem exists with MacPorts, which uses Tcl; it's just so much more complicated than it needs to be.

The fact that pkgsrc and its ecosystem is is still entirely based on CVS, not just as a sync protocol but as the version control system for everything, is not inspiring, either. I'm sure it works for the people behind this project, but it simply won't lead to _me_ submitting packages.

I'm sure I could use pkgsrc simply to install new packages, and treat it like a black box as a "user". But then one day I will need a package that's not in the tree, or I will have to fix a broken package, and I don't want to be left in a situation where I will have to do a lot of work to accomplish something trivial. In 2001 I would have used CVS and I would have hacked packages, not knowing any better. Not in 2012. :-)

That said, pkgsrc looks interesting, and I will be keeping an eye on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great article, and it's nice to know there are more choices for package management on the Mac.

But, sadly:

 _Install Xcode from the Mac App Store..._

This is the main reason why I've stopped using OS X and am installing Linux on the Macs I use personally. I know it's free and I have an Apple ID, but it really bothers me that Xcode is no longer included with the OS and is unavailable as an anonymous download.

<comment><USER8> >it really bothers me that Xcode is no longer included with the OS and is unavailable as an anonymous download

Like before MAS, it's still available at: <https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action>

The latest version listed is Xcode 4.6 (1.6GB DMG) with Feb 21, 2013 release date.

<comment><USER7> But it still _requires_ an Apple ID, and that's what bothers me. Xcode should be an optional install included with the OS or downloadable anonymously. After all, I need it to install free software with MacPorts/Homebrew/pkgsrc, so I don't think my position is unreasonable, even if it seems extreme or impractical. It's just the line I wouldn't cross myself. With Linux, I don't have to, so I'm enjoying the alternative while it still exists.

<comment><USER4> Seems somewhat over the top and unreasonable to me to be honest. If it was included only on the install dvd or disk image, it could be out of date or have known bugs that are fixed in other versions. Keeping it downloadable means llvm can be updated independent of the OS. Not sure why an id is so offensive to you.

<comment><USER7> Before Software Update was integrated with the Mac App Store, Xcode was an optional install from the DVD that was also freely and anonymously updated via Software Update (beginning with Snow Leopard, I believe). It allowed me to freely and anonymously use my computer in a way that I wanted, so requiring an Apple Id makes it feel like that freedom was taken away. Everyone has a line somewhere, and that was the one I couldn't cross. Why do I need Apple's permission to install Mutt? It seems crazy and, yes, offensive to me.

<comment><USER4> Where do you get apples permission to install mutt? They're only going for a developer id. Put in bogus information if you want.

I guess I don't see this as being a freedom issue at all. From my vantage it seems over the top. And this is from someone thats used linux since 1997ish and osx since whenever 10.3 was. Seems over reactionary to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > pkgsrc has several advantages over other Mac-specific package managers like > MacPorts or Homebrew, especially in regards to security.

I'd love to hear a bit more about what those advantages are. Other than portability (which isn't a concern for me, since 99.9% of the non-OS X flavors of Unix I use have apt), the only argument the author gives for pkgsrc over something like Homebrew is that it has "important security features". Furthermore, its setup and use looks a fair bit more complex than Homebrew, making it seem less appealing without having the context the author clearly does.

I enjoyed the article, and think it's awesome to know that alternatives to MacPorts/Brew exist, but I'm much more interested in the promised follow-up article about the actual security features of pkgsrc and what makes it worth installing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I'll be writing that follow-up post in the next week or so. To sum them up, the security features I alluded to are: signed packages; automated security checks; build options; and compile-time hardening.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> On my Mac, I currently install software in at least 8 different ways: pkgsrc, homebrew, GNU stow (for software that is in neither of the first two), gem, pip, drag-and-drop to /Applications, running installers, and using the App Store. It is becoming a bit hard to keep track and keeping things updated, but I've found it really is necessary to use all of these. Frequently a package from pkgsrc will not build, so I'll revert to homebrew. If it's not in homebrew, I have to build it manually or find a binary distribution somewhere.

On my Arch Linux system, in constrast, everything is installed using the Package Manager or pip.

</comment><comment><USER11> Since a lot of the comments here about the case-sensitive file system, note this comment on the blog[1]:

> pkgsrc hasn't required a case-sensitive file system for some years now. If > you've run across documentation that told you otherwise, could you point me > at it so it can be fixed?

Assuming that's correct, then using pkgsrc on OSX is very simple: simply download pkgsrc, bootstrap it and then use it.

[1]: [http://www.eliteraspberries.com/blog/2013/03/pkgsrc-on- os-x....](http://www.eliteraspberries.com/blog/2013/03/pkgsrc-on- os-x.html#comment-817661833)

</comment><comment><USER12> I am not a programmer, and I've used Macs since 1987. As far as I know, I haven't ever used a package manager and don't really know what they are beyond something that lets you install and delete apps.

If I want an app, I download it. If I don't want it any more, I move it to the trash. If I really don't want it anymore, I use AppZapper. Can someone explain to me why the issue of package managers comes up so often around these parts and why they're so important to people?

<comment><USER11> > If I want an app, I download it. If I don't want it any more, I move it to > the trash. If I really don't want it anymore, I use AppZapper. Can someone > explain to me why the issue of package managers comes up so often arouand > these parts and why they're so important to people?

You're talking about apps in a relatively recent sense of the word: a wholly self-contained piece of software that you drop into the OSX /Applications folder.

Package managers, in the relevant sense, are for installing software (often called 'packages') into places that OSX normally hides from its users (/usr/local for example). A lot of this software is command line software, though on other operating systems, a package manager would also manage GUI packages. (On OSX there is this somewhat artificial distinction between /usr/local and /Applications.)

In any case, the kind of software pkgsrc, MacPorts or Homebrew installs requires more work than just "download it". You can download the source code easily enough, but you can't simply download the precompiled software itself, unzip it and drop it somewhere. You have to build it, and this will require lots of other packages and also a whole bunch of knowledge and or scripts to configure and build it correctly. Package managers like pkgsrc help to automate and simplify all of this.

If you've never needed anything like this, no great surprise, and likely you never will. But if you do need these things, then OSX poses some extra challenges. (Although as far as that goes, every os has its own issues, no doubt.)

<comment><USER12> Thanks, that was very informative.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Tried building it, making sure that I used a clean bash environment not polluted with Homebrew or anything else. Bootstrap failed with no particular error, just a useless "exited with status 1".

Traced it to bmake/boot-strap, which after building bmake will run "bmake -r -m / test". Apparently bmake doesn't understand the arguments but, in typical Unixy fashion, will not say what it doesn't understand, but will instead output a "usage: bmake ..." and exit with a non-zero exit code, which causes everything to abort.

So I added some debug output to bmake's main.c and found that even though boot-strap invoked it with those arguments, bmake itself parsed them as "-j4 -w". Which is what I have MAKEFLAGS set to in my environment. I unset MAKEFLAGS and everything builds.

I love Unix, but I just hate how everything exists with so little separation and so much obscure brittleness, ending up in a situation where a tool called "bmake" will use options I intended for GNU Make (which doesn't have a .gnumakerc and so requires a global environment variable).

</comment><comment><USER13> "Step 1: Create a case-sensitive filesystem". wtf?

<comment><USER10> HFS+, the file system used on OS X system by default, is not case-sensitive, but some packages from pkgsrc assume a case-sensitive filesystem (because they may have two files, e.g. one called "MAKE" and one called "Make" in the same directory).

It's easy to just install one's system on a case-sensitive HFSX filesystem from the get-go by making that choice at install time, but that's not the default.

<comment><USER6> Never use a case-sensitive file system for the OS volume. The OS itself is fine with it, but it breaks too many badly written third-party apps, including Adobe apps and Steam. I strongly recommend creating a read/write .dmg instead.</comment></comment></comment>


Easy blogging with iPython notebooks and the pelican static site generator - <AUTHOR> http://danielfrg.github.com/blog/2013/02/16/blogging-pelican-ipython-notebook/ Blogging with iPython notebooks is now easier than ever. <comment><AUTHOR> Blogging with iPython notebooks has never been easier.</comment>


You Won't Live to See the Final Star Wars Movie - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/11/building-the-star-wars-universe/ <comment><USER2> This page is almost 17MB!!!!!1

1\. [http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/dI1hAg/http://www.wired.com/...](http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/dI1hAg/http://www.wired.com/2015/11/building- the-star-wars-universe/)</comment>


WhatsApp is blocking links to a competing messenger app - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/30/9819460/whatsapp-telegram-link-block-copy-paste <comment><USER2> Welcome to the new WhatsApp owned by Facebook!</comment>


Ask HN: Why 85% of Spam is about medications? - <AUTHOR>

I found that 85% of SPAM in mailbox is about drugs I have never heard of. Most of the times it is Viagra or its variants and rest of the times unpronounceable words like Zepidne.
I am wondering if this is SPAM for the sake of SPAM or really a marketing strategy of the manufacturers (genuine of fraudsters).
Or is there something more profound beyond my understanding? <comment><USER2> That's 'phase 1', 'phase 2' will be about great financial offers by people in warm countries, then you will be offered debt restructuring (phase 3) and finally when all this has failed you will send a random mixture of the above ad infinitum on the off chance that one day you will come to your senses and you will finally succumb to these great offers.

What bothers me more than receiving spam is that they keep sending _the same_ spam over and over again.

If by any chance you've set your email client to display images in email attachements you may be tipping off the spammers that you actually receive their email.

<comment><AUTHOR> "If by any chance you've set your email client to display images in email attachements you may be tipping off the spammers that you actually receive their email."

Thanks for that tip

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's about using the right bait for the fish. The promise of an effortless long/easy/healthy life is pretty solid bait for humans.

</comment><comment> onreact-com Sad but true it's a real life business model that works.

People really click on those links and buy the advertised mediations. Sometimes only a few per thousand but if you send a million of emails...

Most of these life style drugs are not real medications like the stuff sick people need. Also most of them are cheap generics or even counterfeit or fake drugs. These might be even dangerous.

That's the reason the only channel you can sell them is outside the proven medical sector.</comment>


Design 0.101 for Programmers - <AUTHOR> http://www.cykod.com/blog/post/2010-01-design-0101-for-programmers

<comment><USER2> Take the idea, but don't try to learn HTML and CSS from this post. This is bad:

Basic Information

Don't you ever use anything like this—HTML has a nice set of dedicated header elements.

There are the cases when you need to wrap your ULs into DIVs, but most of the time

Can be replaced by simple

Some CSS tips:

a) don't specify units for zero values. 0px is the same as 0em is the same as 0pt—you get the idea. So plain 0, not 0px.

b) properties that accept four values (like margin or padding) allow some shortcuts: if the only one value is specified, it is applied to all sides. If there are two values, the first is used for the top and bottom, the second for the right and left. If there are three values, the first is for the top, the second for the right and left, the third for the bottom. This often comes handy. E.g. "margin:15px 0px 10px 0px;" can be written as "margin: 15px 0 10px;"

The easy way to remember what is the order of the four values is mnemonic TRouBLe: Top, Right, Bottom, Left.

c) If your color values look like #xxyyzz you can use short form #xyz. So #999 instead of #999999, #abc instead of #aabbcc.

<comment><USER3> hah, "TRouBLe", haven't heard that one. That's kinda useful... most mnemonics I've seen typically mean I have to remember _more_ rather than less. Heck, about the only other one I've found useful is "roygbiv", and that's more about being pronounceable.

Any particular reason for not specifying value types on zero? As in, is there a difference in how it's interpreted? Or is it just for code style?

<comment><USER4> I always just thought of it as a clock. Start at noon, and go.

<comment><USER3> I've done both this and the compass too. "TRouBLe" just feels like it's in real competition in my brain for prime spot, instead of a clock (compass died out a while ago).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Programmers never start an article about web programming with "First, we're going to need a web server. No problem, though, because we can quickly whip one up using..." (Well, maybe if they use Lisp.)

Here's my Design 101: OSS web design exists (StyleShout for nice web2.0 stuff, oswd.org for the rest). Dirt freaking cheap web design exists. (themesforest.net or any of a thousand competitors.) Spend five minutes, grab something you like, get back to solving problems for customers. If you want to do something more pretty later, you can always pay a real designer and then tweak the view layer a bit.

<comment><USER6> Most themes available seems to be for blog/CMS style sites, but most of my work are semi-internal CRUD apps. Any recommendations for themes suitable for this?

<comment><USER5> Totally not compensated for this mention: ~$15 will buy you any of a few dozen great CRUD themes from ThemeForest. Again, you're an engineer -- $15 is less time than it even takes to read the linked article. [http://themeforest.net/searches?term=admin&type=files](http://themeforest.net/searches?term=admin&type=files)

<comment><USER6> Ah cool, didn't think to search for "admin". No, $15 is absolutely not a dealbreaker.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I highly recommend The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams for all non-designers out there.

It goes through basic stuff which is important to pay attention to when "presenting information" (designing) such as proportions, whitespace, alignment, repetition, etc. Also basic stuff about using different fonts.

<comment><USER3> Just nabbed it from my library. Excellent looking book after a quick skim- through, it explains a lot of the reasoning behind design choices and their effects, something most design books either lack or are weak in. Or assume a higher level of knowledge of art concepts / terms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The "no defaults" rule is super important. It gets you out of the habit of just leaving stuff as-is, and into the habit of making design decisions. That's all design _really_ is: A series of decisions. If you're not making them, you're not designing.

<comment><USER9> On the other hand your users will lose flexibility and choice if you force some property. If you are unsure of your design, why not follow the users _preference_ then instead of forcing something you _guess_ looks nice. Specifying serif/sans-serif is always somewhat ok, but I don't see the need to be more specific.

edit: what I meant was if you aren't going to put any thought on actually selecting some nice font then I don't see any point in specifying some generic fonts (like arial/verdana in the example) just to not use the default. You end up looking generic anyways, but when using default fonts (serif/sans-serif), then you look at least the way your users prefer.

edit2: bit unrelated; I noticed that the example specifies font-size(and other properties) in pixels (px). I'd think that's bad practice, as I try to promote resolution independence.

<comment><USER3> I'll generally agree, as I like my preferences followed, and I'll generally disagree, as _truly_ good design hinges specifically on many minor things like that. Not that other setups wouldn't work better, or that there aren't equivalently effective styles that are entirely different, just that minutia _really_ adds up in a really polished product. If generic / "just" functional is truly your goal, then yes, I like serif / sans-serif too, but the defaults on some systems just don't read well, and a lot of people don't know how to change them.

Yeah, I know, I'm being contradictory no matter how you look at it. There's no "happy medium" in this, though, everything sacrifices something.

@edit2: same here. Especially as it only specifies the _height_ of the font, and different fonts could easily take up more or fewer lines, breaking rigid constructions at least as severely as different heights. I think a lot of it comes from designers largely working in pixels, and slicing images to be recreated as a relatively static website. Many artistic people are quite bound by physical medium, which can't stretch like a website can. Add to that the hideousness of earlier IE versions, and browser incompatibilities, and static, pixel-based formats make life easier for a lot of people, despite being technically inferior in a lot of cases.

edit: oh, and slightly unrelated (though on the site), I despise different colors on text links, unless ALL links are clearly links (like this site). They break up my quick-parsing of a document, and I read too much to waste more time than necessary (curse you, hacker news! You've devoured my life!). Of course, this is controllable by me through a user stylesheet, but some sites get it _right_ , so I don't want to break those...</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What would you do if you will lose your fingers - <AUTHOR> So I have been thinking about this for quite a while now. What would you do if you'd lose your fingers (one or more)?
Provided that most of you use their hand to write in front of a computer, that would be a very interesting problem in case somebody for any reason lose the ability to use some fingers.
Not to mention that it would be a problem regardless, but especially for those who are paid for typing in a keyboard <comment><USER2> One finger gone - not a biggie. Most people can adapt to using the next closest finger. It'd be a little worse if it was a thumb.

All fingers and thumbs gone - that would suck. Hopefully the bionic options improve and come down in price. Otherwise, automation and voice commands would be a big help for most things.

Frankly, interacting with the computer would be worse than if you had your fingers but I would rank that very low on the list. Computers have more accessibility tools than most physical objects. Imagine trying to open jar lids, using can openers, undoing twist ties - and these are common barriers to eating many foods just to survive by yourself.</comment>


Cupholders Are Everywhere - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/cupholders-are-everywhere/558545/?single_page=true <comment><USER3> I remember reading an old Road & Track or Driving magazine review of some new 80's or 90's era Porsche 911. It said something to the effect:

 _" The cup holder in the new 911 remains where it has always been - <USER2> the drivers legs."_</comment>


Cards Against Humanity buys Clickhole, turning it into an employee-owned company - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/cards-against-humanity-buys-clickhole <comment><USER2> > The Onion, which created Click Hole, will remain a part of G/O Media.

It's a little strange. The Onion created Click Hole, but now click hole is safe but The Onion itself is still under G/O media. How did the employee split happen? Were they fully separate?

<comment><USER3> I think the big picture is that The Onion has reached peak brand value, and its most profitable exploitation mode is to gradually lower content expenditures while maximizing revenue through ad-plastering.

I hope I'm wrong, but that's a general trend I've observed.

<comment><USER4> I got the feeling that The Onion had peaked and waned already a few years ago once they no longer produced steady video content. "Today Now", the coverage of the 2012 US presidential election and "Sex House" were brilliant, high- quality productions, but if the company couldn't keep it up that augurs badly for its business.

<comment><USER5> My goodness, I had completely forgotten about Sex House.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So... Feel like I am asking the obvious here but is Cards Against Humanity also employee owned?

<comment><USER7> No.

<comment><USER8> So how can a company that's not employee-owned become employee-owned by getting bought by another company that's not employee-owned? The only way that makes sense is if Card Against Humanity was owned by the employees of Clickhole.

<comment><USER9> Could also just be a philanthropic act for the media attention. CaH have done a lot of advertising through weird (mostly positive) means, it wouldn't surprise me if this was just another example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Employee owned sounded good when I joined my last company, but there was one downside that led to it's demise! The founders were both in their 80s and their estate was going to sell their shares (plus a lot of early employees with many shares were retiring). Unfortunately the company could not get enough cash to buy the hundreds of millions needed for this - so the company was sold at a discount to a larger competitor.

<comment><USER11> This seems strange.

Surely with the popularity of employee ownership (here's a list of some of the biggest employee-owned companies [https://www.nceo.org/articles/employee- ownership-100](https://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100) ) that aspect of it must have been figured out by now.

<comment><USER10> This specifically was an ESOP which as I understood it was more popular in the 1970s when the company was started. You are probably right, there could be improved corporate structures now!

<comment><USER12> I'm pretty sure labor coops, which don't have this problem, are much older than ESOPs (maybe a century older.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Fingers crossed some of the other sites can be saved from G/O management

</comment><comment><USER14> I've read the comments to this news and I must ask: what's the matter with G/O Media?

<comment><USER15> there are about a hundred layers to that onion

short version: they're a pirate-ship/skeleton-crew management team sent in to do a "turnaround" (or flip) on the former gawker media by a private equity firm.

the way a friend put it is that they adopted a rescue pit bull that has already bitten its last two owners and they started slapping it. absolutely breathtaking in terms of how they loaded the gun, carefully took aim at their foot, and pulled the trigger 3 - 5 times.

you can point to any one fight they got in and think it seems like the staff are pushing their luck, but the pattern of over and over again proving mgmt had _no_ idea what they bought and have _no_ idea how to handle it just serves as a shining case study in what bullshit artists most of these "turnaround management consultant private equity" firms are.

<comment><USER5> So, to be clear, it went something like:

* The Onion existed and spun out AV Club and ClickHole, all were great for awhile but there senior staff began a mass exodus in 2012-2013.

* The above were bought by Univision. I believe by this point most of their senior staff had departed.

* Univision acquires Gawker Media in a fire sale and folds it and The Onion properties into Gizmodo Media Group. The Onion properties are migrated to Kinja, a move the Gizmodo project manager described as being about integrating e-commerce tools (chiefly Amazon referral links) into the site content.[1] At some point in this phase the last of the old timers left.

* Great Hill Partners bought Gizmodo Media Group and turned it into G/O Media

[1] [https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the- publishing...](https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the-publishing- system-at-the-heart-of-gawker-lives-on-under-univision-update/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I am probably misunderstanding something here, but what's the point of buying a company without owning the whole thing? What are they actually "buying" here? I assume Temkin/CAH owns some significant portion of Clickhole so it's not 100% employee owned? Else why would they do it?

<comment><USER17> > I assume Temkin/CAH owns some significant portion of Clickhole

Yes, 60% because they gave the other 40% to the existing employees. Considering it has 5 FT employees, that sounds like a pretty good deal and a great incentive to keep existing staff.

<comment><USER18> > Yes, 60% because they gave the other 40% to the existing employees.

The article mentions no numbers, buy it does specifically say the current employees have a combined majority stake. Where did you get these numbers from?

<comment><USER19> This was bothering me too. I couldn't find numbers anywhere. Even though no one is likely to see this as the post didn't get big and this is over a day old. Parent comment was continuing the hypothetical 40% CAH ownership of grandparent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> More employee owned companies please.

</comment><comment><USER21> surprised it went for only 1 mil

<comment><USER22> Very likely less then that.</comment></comment>


Why NoSQL DBs will only let you perform transactions on a single data item - <AUTHOR> http://dbmsmusings.blogspot.com/2015/10/why-mongodb-cassandra-hbase-dynamodb_28.html <comment><USER2> Because distributed locking is hard?

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it's just a matter of keep it simple so it stay fast, since this is the whole philosophy behind NoSQL.</comment>


Micron Chip Sales Banned in China on Patent Case - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-03/micron-chip-sales-banned-in-china-on-patent-case-rival-umc-says <comment><USER2> This is at the exact same time that Chinese-Taiwan competitors has replicated Micro's core IP:

[https://www.eteknix.com/micron-claims-chinese-startup-has- st...](https://www.eteknix.com/micron-claims-chinese-startup-has-stolen- memory-secrets/)

Coincidence? Very much unlikely.

In many ways Trump's aggressive trade practices may be the only answer to this if Trump focused on China. Unfortunately he seems to be focused on Europe and Canada instead, which are small fry in the grand scheme of things. Fragmented Europe and Canada are not fighting for economic world leadership in the way that China is.

<comment><USER3> > In many ways Trump's aggressive trade practices may be the only answer to > this if Trump focused on China.

That's circular, US "aggressive trade practices" (which means unilateral tarrifs, let's not spin, please) came first, so making them "the only answer" is sort of self-fulfilling.

Frankly it's much more likely that Chinese trade shenanigans like this are the _result_ of the escalating trade war. The volatile climate makes "big steps" like enjoining a whole foreign company more attractive as the relative threat of retaliation is less. If you think your opponent is going to pull the trigger, you shoot first.

Now we just have to wait for more, ahem, "aggressive trade practices" to be announced by the White House, and we'll escalate further.

This is what a trade war looks like, folks.

<comment><USER4> > US "aggressive trade practices" (which means unilateral tarrifs, let's not > spin, please) came first

This just isn't true. China has not played fairly against the US in modern history. Putting aside problems like currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, and putting up barriers for foreign companies, they also haven't played fair with regards to tariffs.

Take Elon Musk's word for it if you don't believe me: "an American car going to China pays 25% import duty, but a Chinese car coming to the US only pays 2.5%, a tenfold difference"

[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/elon-musk-sides-with- trump-o...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/elon-musk-sides-with-trump-on- trade-with-china-citing-25-percent-import-duty-on-american-cars.html)

<comment><USER5> No one plays fair in international trade. I mean, we've literally installed dictators in countries to get better trade consideration. And recently thanks to Snowden, we know that the NSA hacked AirBus to give Boeing an edge, and appears to believe that the "economic security" of the US is a component of their SIGINT domain.

I'm not really sure why we expect others to "play fair".

<comment><USER6> Do you have a source about that NSA/Airbus/Boeing comment? Would be interesting to read.

<comment><USER7> nsa spied on airbus _along with german intelligence_ to see if they were violating embargoes

<comment><USER5> And then passed that information to Boeing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The claims in the article seem like hyperbole. The specifics of this sort of thing are very difficult to know, though it does seem like there may have been some state-enabled theft of intellectual property.

The key takeaway from this article for me is not the specifics of the case involving Micron, but the attitude of the Chinese government toward non- Chinese companies trying to compete in their country and their willingness to use underhanded tactics to prevent fair competition if it means furthering the agenda of a Chinese national actor.

We will have to wait to see how effective US tariffs are at preventing growth of the Chinese economy, but I imagine that they will be viewed as too little too late in the grand scheme of history.

</comment><comment><USER9> A question: Chinese courts rule against Micron...appeal after appeal. Biased or not, doesn't matter, a court ruling is a ruling. What options does Micron have after exhausting their _China_ appeal options? I have a feeling we already know how they'll rule.

I see bad times...China wants the tech and they'll get it. Stealing is much faster and cheaper than spending tens of billions and decades in R&D

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> > China accounted for more than 50 percent of Micron's revenue in fiscal 2017, > according company data.

The stock is getting absolutely hammered, down 7% and still going down:

[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/mu?p=mu](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/mu?p=mu)

<comment><USER10> Given the nature of the news, Micron dropping 5.5% definitely does not qualify as getting absolutely hammered.

The Chinese won't be able to hold their position on the Micron case. ZTE dies if they do.

<comment> oh-kumudo ZTE is like dying anyway, even the netizens are joking they are subsiding an American company now which has FBI oversee their operations.

It is just the whole trade war is going to unfold. It is definitely not easy to win.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm glad I bought my DDR4 last month. Prices are already insanely high. I'm paying almost double what I paid in 2016 for the same amount of ram. Does this patent affect current production DRAM? Are we going to see prices go up even more?

<comment><USER2> I understand a couple very large Chinese factories are about to come online. It should push prices quite a bit lower unless a trade war intervenes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> So, it has begun. Imagine just how nice will it be, once they will go after Qualcomms and Apples.

Will not happen you think? Back a few years, just as iPhone 5 began to ship, an administrator of a bonded customs zone decided to detain all and every Apple's shipment for a few weeks just to recheck all and every of their papers, and to make a statement "I am a big man here." And nobody of higher ups seemed to ever given a f##k about a single lowest tier official holding few billion bucks of Apple's money hostage.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'd just like to point out that they released this at midnight in China/Taiwan with hours before close of markets for 4th of July in US.

</comment><comment><USER14> Of note is that DRAMeXchange is in China I think too.

<comment><USER15> How is that of note?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This article just reeks of BS. There is nothing officially substantiated beyond a Micron competitor reporting that a single court issued a temporary preliminary injunction. Micron has denied the report.

Given the obvious backlash China would face and the flimsiness of this article, if I were a betting man I'd be buying up Micron stock on this dip. So many things have to happen for this to result in a meaningful impact to Micron's earnings that I'd take the other side of that bet.

<comment><USER2> That competitor is a very serious threat to Micron. Thus this isn't likely false if it indeed came from UMT, and wasn't a fake news release.

<comment><USER16> I'm not necessarily saying that the report is false. More that lots of things have to align in order for this to end with Micron losing significant market share in China. The report has to be true and the injunction enacted and the injunction has to hold up for an extended period of time.

Will be interesting to see what Micron says in the coming days. No doubt they would have to publicly address it if they were served with an injunction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> r/wsb is certainly taking this news well....

[https://i.redditmedia.com/r8e17LwuYxaAstKQy20-gHQAC717sHZxEA...](https://i.redditmedia.com/r8e17LwuYxaAstKQy20-gHQAC717sHZxEAEmzR59D_o.png?w=803&s=88ecf05d82ef6de12c820c8b74bcadbe)

<comment><USER15> I was wondering how r/wsb translates to options. Ah: wsb = wall street bets. Indeed.</comment></comment>


My First Virtual Reality Groping - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jordanbelamire/my-first-virtual-reality-sexual-assault-2330410b62ee <comment><USER2> "Women, after all, are supposed to be cool, and take any form of sexual harassment with a laugh."

Who the fuck thinks that?

<comment><USER3> Women are regularly told, when complaining, that it was "just a joke".

<comment><USER2> That's just sociopaths being sociopaths, it isn't a dogma that the male population is trying to enforce on women.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this satire?

</comment><comment><USER5> Reminds me of this h3h3 episode: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UheC38wpRYg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UheC38wpRYg)

Remember people, it's completely within your power to switch the game off at any moment! I guess "I disconnected from a multiplayer game because it was filled with jerks" article just doesn't get the same number of clicks as "I was virtually groped in a misogynistic rape fest!"

But, your honour, I was so traumatised I just couldn't click exit!

<comment><USER6> You're attacking a strawman. She did exit, and she didn't say she "was virtually groped in a misogynistic rape fest".

Perhaps she's just one of those crazy people who think that just because one _can_ stop playing multiplayer games doesn't mean it is perfectly okay to be a massive jerk to other players.

<comment><USER7> _just because one can stop playing multiplayer games doesn 't mean it is perfectly okay to be a massive jerk to other players._

That's pretty much the norm, the cold hard reality is that online games is pretty much the land where trolls come from. Play any game where random people play together and you are bound to land on one that someone is doing something to annoy the crap out of the other players. It is the norm, and most people just quit.

I watch my boys play a game where you can end up killing team members from friendly fire and it never fails that at some point, someone joins that makes it their mission to hunt their team and kill them just to P.O. everyone in the game. I think it would be a far stretch to complain that one is a victim of virtual murder due to this. Rather it is a troll doing what trolls do. She should have done what everyone else does, drop from that game and join a different one, with other players.

<comment><USER8> Game used to have an option "vote to kick player X". That is uber effective against teamkillers and abusers ;)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What are some recent cloud computing articles? - <AUTHOR> According to analysts, this market segment has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 10%, and is expected to reach USD 205.48 billion by 2018 (Source Public vs.Private Cloud Computing ) <comment><AUTHOR> Cloud computing has helped many enterprises transform themselves to better serve customers. visit this source: [ [https://medium.com/@jacknight128/what- are-some-recent-cloud-...](https://medium.com/@jacknight128/what-are-some- recent-cloud-computing-articles-and-whitepapers-that-are-worth- reading-5628e341cdef#.hdm6crim9) ]</comment>


Ask HN: What about the software industry in Iran? - <AUTHOR> I am a Turkish Software Developer and I wonder at the status of software industry in Iran? Do you have any experience or knowledge? I have made some researches about conferences, meetups, events etc but I haven't found anything. <comment><USER2> I'm a developer from Iran. because of US sanctions there are multiple cloning startups for every major global app and websites like amazon, uber, airbnb, waze, google/apple app stores, itunes, netflix etc. some of them are very popular like digikala, snapp, bazaar, etc. community is very young, although there has been a lot of new conferences and events in last few years, there is no huge international event that I know of.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm developer and CTO in Iran companies these days software industry grow fast in Iran, maybe because of dollar rate or progress of removing sanctions

Many investor and global companies try to come to Iran and i think every day software industry going bigger

<comment><USER4> True, but careful.

US sanctions still apply, which essentially blocks a major business and money pipe. Includes EU firms, as they need to be able to trade with US.

Also means you can't partner or sell to US software cos, so no exit strategy.

One of a few countries affected: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and the region of Crimea.

Rule of thumb: if Salesforce.com is not available, something is not right.

<comment><USER5> This, and the fact that many companies are watching US closely to avoid collateral damage. European banks are an example: they are theorically independent, yet they fear an American slash back on their US operations in case they would go to Iran on their own. Nobody wants to be the new Societe Generale.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> US companies cannot buy, sell, or work on open source with Iranians due to sanctions, which probably hurts a lot.

</comment><comment><USER7> Worked for Oracle. They block all downloads, even of the free stuff, from computers in Iran.

</comment><comment><USER8> I am an Iranian software developer which I live in Ankara/Turkey. The IT Industry in Iran and turkey is a little different. Because of sanctions using cloud infrastructure is not popular in Iran and most of the companies are using their own private infrastructure which causes high cost and less reliable services.

Meetups in Ankara is so popular too. In Ankara, we have at least a meeting every 2 days but in Iran, it may be a meeting per 2 weeks. The most of meeting in Ankara is technical and they talk about technologies and tools, in Iran, most of the meeting is about business and startups.

</comment><comment><USER9> check out recommender.io and contact the founders. there is a very active software industry and i met a few of them in germany last year</comment>


Breakthrough on chronic pain - <AUTHOR> http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/01/breakthrough-on-chronic-pain/ <comment><USER2> It astonishes me how much people are resistant to the fact that chronic pain is caused by lifestyles and can often be cured quite quickly by simple methods.

For instance, McKenzie found that about 80% of back pain can be cured by simply putting the back into extension instead of flexion. Unfortunately if you go see a doc for back pain your odds are less than 40% that you will get this treatment.

Similarly a lot of neck pain is caused by overuse of the neck muscles because your posture is screwed up and you are continuously working the muscles to keep the head position. Any kind of strengthening and stretching exercises will make things worse (McKenzie advocates these and they don't work)

Do some exercises on the back and hips for two weeks that will realign your posture so that you keep your neck up without effort and the pain will usually diminish in one or two weeks.

Unfortunately Harvard or other doctors don't get funded to study things like this and get them to the people, instead they get funding for something like this which will launch a $5B research program, than a very expensive drug you will see advertised on TV and then in a few months you will see TV ads from ambulance chasing lawyers.

<comment><USER3> Your last paragraph is how I view the non-trauma side of American medicine.</comment></comment>


TopUp - <AUTHOR> http://gettopup.com/ <comment><USER2> Lightboxes are to javascript developers what pastebins and url shorteners are to frontend developers.

<comment><USER3> I heart all javascript developers who write OSS lightboxes for the rest of us, because a) they're really surprisingly difficult to do right in _exactly_ the way you need it done (an edge case I've seen: does the content stay fixed while the grey overlay moves with the window when scrolled with the mousewheel on Google Chrome?) and b) proper integration of them with your site practically prints money.

You can look at the obvious one on my site for an example -- I've been through a dozen or so iterations of that, from starting with a simple HTML link to an image file (don't do this -- just don't) to a simple Lightbox for the image to the iBox for the image and call-to-action buttons that I'm using right now. Those improvements move the needle for my business.

<comment><USER4> > b) proper integration of them with your site practically prints money.

Explain please =)

<comment><USER3> It is about 2 AM here, so I can't find the blog post on it for you, but they have tended to greatly increase my conversion rates versus linking directly to screenshots.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >> "TopUp is compressed with Yahoo! YUI Compressor to 44.6 KB"

That seems quite a lot for a lightbox effect.

<comment><USER6> Agree, and it also requires jQuery and jQuery UI. That adds another ~150 KB, depending on the jqUI package you select.

Nice looking lightbox, but that's way too heavy for my tastes.

<comment><USER5> wowsers. You could probably have GMail in that size.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Why don't all of these libs close the popup when you click the image?

<comment><USER8> i also think this is quite annoying. at least pressing escape should work.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are the best resources to learn Product Management? - <AUTHOR> There are so many online MOOC courses for most of the topics, but Product Management is a field where I have never see a quality course or collection of reading materials. There are many articles on Medium these days, but not all of them are good and you can't create a flow out of that for an optimal learning experience. There was a very good resource https://startuplaunchlist.com related to startups and somewhat related to PM which I enjoyed a lot. Do you guys know of any good resources which is properly categorised, be it text, video, etc? <comment><USER2> experience</comment>


Scripting in clojure using jark - <AUTHOR> http://icylisper.in/jark/scripting.html

<comment><USER2> This looks like a slightly better cake. After all, cake provides a persistent VM and you can run scripts with cake with !#/usr/bin/env cake.

It's nice that it doesn't require ruby and has a few additional features like search & install from clojars, and doc search. But it probably doesn't justify the cost of switching since I can get those functionalities from cljr.

What would really be nice -- the maintainers of lein, cljr, cake, and now jark all need to get together and work together instead of providing competing and slightly different tools.

</comment><comment><USER3> When I saw this, I thought, "Wow! A better nailgun?!"

But alas, it's built on top of nailgun -- which presumably means that it inherits all the security problems of that older, apparently moribund project.

<comment><USER4> on the author's site he mentions plans to replace nailgun with nrepl, if possible. <http://icylisper.in/jark/vm.html>

<comment><USER3> Ah! Now we're talking . . .</comment></comment></comment>


You and Your Research (1986) - <AUTHOR> http://www.che.boun.edu.tr/che555/ftp555/kaiser.html

<comment><USER2> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=229067>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=524856>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13218>

<comment><USER3> Indeed, it's a re-post, but it's always one I'm happy to read again from time to time. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow, blast from the past. I remember reading this in grad school -- it's such an inspiring talk.

<comment><USER4> At the time, my roommate and I used to have these conversations on how the prevailing focus in many research labs was more towards simply publishing papers -- which does not necessarily translate to breakthrough, innovate, fundamental research that often takes patience and a long hard look at problems.

The pursuit of publications we felt like it was a factory is a sure way of mediocre/average research that gets lost in an increasing pile of papers.

I remember reading this article then, many times.</comment></comment>


Game Development in Scala: How functional programming helps me sleep at night - <AUTHOR> https://michaelshaw.github.io/game_talk/game.html#/ <comment><USER2> I wish there's a video link for the talk. The slides are very short on the details, like what's the actual type signatures used in their game?</comment>


Top programming languages that will be most popular in 2017 - <AUTHOR> http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/top-programming-languages-that-will-be-most-popular-in-2017 <comment><USER2> I think this list might be in for some real surprises over the next year or two.</comment>


How bad would it be if we accidentally made a black hole? - <AUTHOR> http://www.askamathematician.com/2015/11/q-how-bad-would-it-be-if-we-accidentally-made-a-black-hole/ <comment><USER2> Related article: [http://phys.org/news/2011-05-mini-black-holes-atoms- earth.ht...](http://phys.org/news/2011-05-mini-black-holes-atoms-earth.html)

TL/DR:

1\. Tiny black holes as a dark matter candidate; hundreds might pass through the earth every year

2\. Difficult but not impossible to detect a black hole of 100 thousand kg passing through the earth

3\. A black hole with a mass of 10 million kg at the center of the Earth would take 10^13 years to absorb the planet -- much longer than Earth will survive anyway

<comment><USER3> "according to this theory"

<comment><USER4> One cannot accept the parts of established theory that say black holes of a certain size might exist without also accepting the remaining parts that say what a black hole of that size can and cannot do. It's like accepting science enough to believe in cosmological constants, but not accepting science's measurements of those constants.

<comment><USER5> > One cannot accept the parts of established theory that say black holes of a > certain size might exist without also accepting the remaining parts that say > what a black hole of that size can and cannot do.

That is 100% not true. We don't know what a black hole will do, we just guess. Until we actually measure one we have no idea if there are surprises we have not thought about - or that we simply did not have any way to know were possible since such an environment does not exist on earth.

> It's like accepting science enough to believe in cosmological constants, but > not accepting science's measurements of those constants.

Is there something wrong with doing that? You have no idea if (for example) those constants are actually constant. You have no idea if those constants vary based on some local environment. Perhaps even based on some other constant that we don't even know exists because we have never been able to measure things any other way.

There are a TREMENDOUS number of assumptions baked into theories. And we try to test as many of those assumptions as possible all the time, but there could be assumptions we did not even realize we were making.

You should _really_ look into the history of science - it will give you some humility. At _every_ age we thought we were at the pinnacle of science, only for later generations to find out things we never realized.

There is no reason whatsoever to expect this generation to be any different.

<comment><USER4> _We don 't know what a black hole will do, we just guess._

Normally I don't ask this sort of question, but are you a practicing physicist? If you are then this point is irrelevant. But if not, then we're all laymen/women here, and it's silly to accept the mathematical "guess" that says there might be tiny black holes but reject the proposed properties, when the same math that postulates their existence describes their likely properties.

 _You should really look into the history of science - it will give you some humility. At every age we thought we were at the pinnacle of science, only for later generations to find out things we never realized._

No doubt. I'm not questioning that. I'm saying it's presumptuous to pick and choose elements of a hypothesis without understanding the math behind it. If any of the participants in this thread are qualified to do so (clearly I am not), I'd love a link to your work on black holes. Otherwise, I maintain my original position.

<comment><USER5> The math for hawking radiation is far less accepted than the math for black holes. You are making a mistake by giving them equal weight.

Not that the math for black holes is all that well accepted in the first place - there are many holes in the math that quite clearly scream "we don't really know". For example a charged, or rapidly spinning singularity might be "naked" which breaks all theories and clearly shows how little we know about black holes.

> but reject the proposed properties, when the same math that postulates their > existence describes their likely properties.

That isn't true though. It's completely different math. And Hawking radiation has a large information theory hole which tells us to be cautious - there is a gap in the theory, we don't actually know what will happen.

Remember neither of these theories have ever been observed, it's all math and simulations, no observations. (Super massive objects have been observed, but not event horizons.)

<comment><USER6> > Hawking radiation has a large information theory hole

If you are referring to the fact that radiation brings back information from the inside of the black hole, which undermines notion of black hole being "event horizon", then there is one proposal to close this hole (it had been even submitted to HN recently): computational complexity.

From what I understood this means that while in principle radiation leaks information from inside of the black hole, the computational effort needed to put that information together in its original form is too big to be possible to do in practice (at least before thermodynamical death of universe).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The article makes it sound like a black hole with the mass of Everest wouldn't be scary, since it would only have strong attractive force within a few meters. But wouldn't it fall to the center of the earth, absorbing anything in its way and then wouldn't the earth fall into it? Seems like its lack of strength at a few meters isn't what makes it not-scary.

<comment><USER8> In theory, small black holes should kill themselves almost immediately, but this aside - I find the argument that a small black hole is not dangerous because you have to get really close to it - not a valid argument (as a layman!). Assuming the black hole did not destroy itself and was big enough to attract nearby molecules and atoms, it would suck in all the molecules nearby in an endless stream, getting bigger and bigger and accelerating its growth, until it consumed the earth.

<comment><USER9> I had the same thought. If the black hole were formed lived long enough to fall to the floor of whatever lab it was created in, it'd presumably basically bore its way to the center of the Earth, aggregating matter (and thus mass) as it went.

When it reached the center, I'd expect that its gravity well would pull the rest of Earth into the black hole, unless it somehow found itself in a vacuum large enough to not create a gravity well. That would presumably be a sphere the radius of the amount of core material that is equivalent to the mass of Mt Everest, plus whatever it accreted on its descent.

So really, the question is whether or not a black hole that we could create would be able to make it to the floor of the lab... the article sorta touches on this:

 _The gravitational pull of a few micrograms of matter, regardless of how it is arranged, is never dangerous; you wouldn't get pulled inside out if you ate it. However, you wouldn't get the chance, since any black hole that we could reasonably create would already be mid-explosion._

<comment><USER10> _> If the black hole were formed lived long enough to fall to the floor of whatever lab it was created in_

Since the proposed method of creating the hole is to collide particles in an accelerator, we would expect the hole, when formed, to be moving the way particles created in an accelerator move, i.e., at close to the speed of light. So the hole would fly off into space, since it would be moving much, much faster than escape velocity. (Also, as the article notes, the hole would explode due to Hawking radiation soon after it was created.)

 _> unless it somehow found itself in a vacuum large enough to not create a gravity well_

Not sure what you mean by this. The "gravity well" of the hole is the same whether it's surrounded by vacuum or matter. The only difference is what can possibly fall in.

<comment><USER11> > to be moving the way particles created in an accelerator move, i.e., at > close to the speed of light.

Not quite. The proposed method involves rotating two [sets of] particles in opposite directions, and then ramming them together. Yes, both sets of particles have super-high velocities- but if they were rammed together, the resulting _net_ velocity should be zero-ish (plus or minus experimental error).

<comment><USER10> _> if they were rammed together, the resulting net velocity should be zero-ish (plus or minus experimental error)._

Not necessarily. This is how current accelerator experiments work, and the particles coming out of those do not have zero velocity.

However, it is true that there is a key difference between current experiments and a hypothetical experiment that forms a black hole. The rest mass of the particles formed in current experiments is fixed, so any energy pumped into the particles over and above that becomes kinetic energy. But the rest mass of a black hole is not fixed, so it would be possible for all of the energy pumped in to become rest mass of the hole, instead of kinetic energy. (Possible, but still not guaranteed, as far as I can see; but since nobody really has a detailed theory of how all this would work, it's all speculation anyway.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The article briefly mentions the large amount of energy stored in the collider beams. In the LHC, "each unimpeded beam is capable of melting a 500-kilogram block of copper." This energy has to be dissipated in a few microseconds if something goes wrong in the collider. For the LHC, the solution is to heat a huge graphite cylinder to over 700 C.

Not as cool as a black hole, but a pretty neat engineering challenge.

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/astrophysics/cern-to- star...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/astrophysics/cern-to-start-up-the- large-hadron-collider-now-heres-how-it-plans-to-stop-it)

<comment><USER8> Very interesting - I wonder why they did not choose to run the beam through water to dissipate energy?

<comment><USER12> There's a technical discussion of using graphite vs. aluminum vs. copper in this paper: [http://flash.desy.de/sites2009/site_vuvfel/content/e403/e164...](http://flash.desy.de/sites2009/site_vuvfel/content/e403/e1642/e1132/e1129/infoboxContent1791/fel2006-05.pdf)

And a comparison of graphite vs. water schemes here: [http://tesla.desy.de/new_pages/TESLA_Reports/2001/pdf_files/...](http://tesla.desy.de/new_pages/TESLA_Reports/2001/pdf_files/tesla2001-04.pdf)

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the links. I note that the graphite vs water scheme paper actually concludes that water cooling would be the preferred method.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> related: [http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/2015/08/tiny-black- holes-c...](http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/2015/08/tiny-black-holes-could- trigger-collapse-universe-except-they-dont)

</comment><comment><USER14> Beyond a certain level of screw-up there isn't anyone around to care anyway.

<comment><USER15> That's not a reason not to care in advance of trying something dangerous...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Tangentially related: Thorne–Żytkow object [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne%E2%80%93%C5%BBytkow_obj...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne%E2%80%93%C5%BBytkow_object)

A hypothetical red giant that swallowed a neutron star, which sinks into the center and replaces the giant's core. Even at such a scale, the star is relatively stable (i.e., it doesn't go all kaboom immediately) because the matter falling into the neutron core is heated to such a degree that it can balance the inward pressure from gravity.

<comment><USER17> > (i.e., it doesn't go all kaboom immediately)

Now I'm imagining astronomers going "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be a star-shattering kaboom!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> So when a black hole collapses, it explodes? I don't think I really understand a black hole's lifecycle.

</comment><comment><USER19> Another concern with CERN's activities:

[http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/04/q-will-cern- awaken-...](http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/04/q-will-cern-awaken-the- elder-gods/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Am I the only one who finds the photo of the spillway intake off-putting?

</comment><comment><USER21> There are no true black holes [0] as researched done by Scientist Abhas Mitra and his colleagues.

>>> Astronomers have certainly discovered thousands of massive compact objects, which are considered as black hole candidates. In a strict sense, no one can detect a black hole as "not even light can escape" from it. They are at the best quasi-black holes. My research (Journal Mathematical Physics, 2009) has shown that true black holes have zero (gravitational mass) which means their positive mass-energy is neutralized by negative gravitational interaction energy . Thus no massive body can be a true black hole. In addition, my parallel research has independently corroborated this fact that true black holes have M=0! And such M=0 black holes can form only asymptotically, implying they never quite form. And only approximate and quasi-black holes can be formed.

Some reports say NASA has confirmed your idea that the so-called black holes are balls of fire. But you say that's not exactly ...

Yes. The NASA report does not mention my research and admits that `Black Holes are not Black Holes'. But the NASA research certainly bolsters my findings because eruption of corona from a black hole is not understood, as admitted in the NASA report. On the other hand, it gets most naturally explained by the MECO paradigm by which the socalled black holes are balls of ultra-magnetized fire (plasma) -something like the Sun.

My research has shown that there cannot be any true black hole. It is just a point and all vacuum with an imaginary boundary Event Horizon from which even light cannot escape. So if the corona (charged particles) have been inferred to be ejected from Black Hole, it means it is not a true Black Hole as claimed in 15 peer reviewed papers by me and collaborators. We also showed that as a star would get hotter and hotter during Black Hole formation, there will be a stage when the radiation pressure of the star material would counter the pull of gravity. This is a quasi-static state and the hot star material would be plasma.

What's your take on Stephen Hawking? Hawking has been trying to resolve Black Hole Information Paradox (created by himself in 1976). Failing to do so, from 2004, he has been making noises that "there may not be exact EH" (2004), and "there cannot be any true black hole " (2014) from some vague Quantum Gravity argument which nobody understands, not even those who believe in black holes . In contrast, my proof is exact, comple te and supported by observations, and based on simple general relativity, no unspecified quantum gravity nonsense. Many Nobel laureates too have been struggling to resolve this paradox, but they want to keep black holes alive. Nobody wants to kill the goose, which has been laying golden eggs. In contrast, only my research resolves it meaningfully , by showing there is no black hole, no EH. Hence, there is no paradox in the first place. You see, black hole is one of the biggest physics paradigms for almost 100 years with thousands of celebrity professors, researchers, Nobel Laureates having personal stake. Who would like to set their own Lanka on fire? <<<

0: [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/There-are- no...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/There-are-no-true- black-holes-Scientist-Abhas-Mitra/articleshow/49966468.cms)

</comment><comment><USER22> Whew!</comment>


How much can a web developer expect to earn? - <AUTHOR> http://fizzbuzz.net/how-much-can-a-web-developer-expect-to-earn/

<comment><USER2> It's important to note that there are plenty of well-paying jobs at larger companies, and that startups are likely to be unprofitable for quite a while.

<comment><USER3> if ever.

Unless you have insight into the _business_ of a startup (i.e. you have experience in their market and you can size up the potential yield) I would recommend against joining a startup for the salary.

<comment><USER4> Do you feel the same about starting a startup? Isn't that what most of HN readers are into anyways?

<comment><USER3> We're launching June 1st, now that you asked, and I am looking for graphic designers :-)

As I stated clearly, do not join a startup for the _salary_. The ratio of dollar/headache is very low, and it hardly makes a wise choice if you have another offer for the same pay at an established company. By the same token, I probably wouldn't want to hire someone who didn't want to bleed with me on the baby company :-)

P.S. Don't let what a the majority of a community are "into" persuade you into behaving ways you wouldn't.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Curated collection of "dramatic" GitHub interactions - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/nikolas/github-drama <comment><AUTHOR> One of the contributors marked an issue I created as dramatic in the list: [https://github.com/kmmbvnr/django- jenkins/issues/349](https://github.com/kmmbvnr/django-jenkins/issues/349) (me suggesting a better place for documentation in django-jenkins)

There's a few funny discussions in the list, I could not stop myself from sharing it ahah.</comment>


Show HN: My first webapp - cheatsheets that help you prepare for job interviews - <AUTHOR>

http://www.littlechits.com
 This is my first web app; I built this on my own, over the past 4 months, using the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, a few other e-books, and a lot of help from the Stack Overflow community!
Feedback would be greatly appreciated, in particular: how can I make this more social?
Thanks,
Faisal <comment><USER2> Firstly, congrats on making a webapp - as someone who taught himself web development, I know how much work it takes. So well done.

A few comments, in the spirit of honest feedback:

(1) Your problem isn't making it more social right now. Your problem is the product itself.

How do people solve this problem right now? By writing stuff down on paper, or in Word Docs, or even making a Powerpoint deck. Your problem here is that the solution isn't much better than these alternatives - even if you offered me free 'chits', I'd still prefer to use a Word doc, just because I'm comfortable with it, and I don't see how the thing you're offering makes life any easier or better for me. Indeed, it just looks like a version of Powerpoint.

(2) The text isn't rendering correctly in Chrome. Specifically, the 'want to improve your interviewing skills' line is overlapping with itself, which means a bad first impression.

(3) The name isn't great. Little 'chits'? Everytime I say that, it feels like I'm saying 'little shits'.

(4) The 3 steps don't make sense. Place my order and then what? Is this a physical product? (It is, but I had to think about it - bad.) Decide whether I want a call with you guys? Why would I want a call? Is the product not easy enough to use on its own? I don't want to waste my time speaking to people... and so on.

Try and make the 'steps' thing compelling, and use images.

Again, congrats on deploying the app, and I'm sure you'll continue to iterate on the design etc - but I would strongly recommend reconsidering the product first. If you've spoken to many customers already and they REALLY WANT these things, and if you've already got orders (do you guys charge money? Again, not clear from the home page) then I'm probably wrong - but I doubt it.

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you, very useful feedback. i need to change the name -- others have raised the same point as you about it sounding too much like little shits - and also add more details.

<comment><USER3> if you want to quickly fix number 2 (overlapping text)

add some line-height to your banner class (40-45px looked good to me)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't get it.

 _We provide free and custom made cheatsheets..._

Ok, great. Next page:

 _...and I'm willing to pay up to US$..._

Clarify the concept for me. Am I meant to bring these into an interview as a reference point or are these to be used in advance to help me prepare? If it's the former then I can tell you, as someone who has interviewed hundreds of people over the years, someone glancing over these in an interview would leave a terrible impression.

Finally, on your about us page you have the following:

 _Faisal used to be terrible at interviewing, but over the past 3 years, and with over 500 interviews under his belt (on both sides of the table) he's gotten pretty good at it._

The instant impression I get from this is that Faisal is terrible at interviews. It's not the most convincing argument.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi - no you would not take these to an interview. You would use these to prepare before going in. Maybe it's not for everybody, but for people who are really bad at interviewing (and I've worked with a few of them) structuring their answers and thinking about them before the interview can help. There's nothing magical about cheat sheets other than the fact that using them forces you to think through and structure your answers beforehand. Maybe you already do that - in which case this product isn't for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like how clean the site is, but (imo) you have to change the name, especially if you want to get some consulting work or build a community out of this.

It's also really hard to tell what the product is (pdf sheets? Physical note cards?) unless you do some digging. If I'm evaluating a product page I've never been to before, I should be able to get a feel for the product within a few seconds.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks, this is great feedback. the product is physical note cards, i will clarify that on the website as well.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Website link: <http://www.littlechits.com>

</comment><comment><USER6> Nice work. Name definitely needs to be changed (sounds like little shits as someone else mentioned). I think the value prop needs to be better. I read the site and I'm still not sure what I'm getting or why I need it.

best of luck

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks. i thought that having a 'benefits' section on the main page would answer the question as to why use the cheat sheets, but i guess i can try to push that message through in an even stronger way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very interesting. I would work on your spelling throughout the site...</comment>


Ask HN: What are the best tornado resistant home technologies? - <AUTHOR>

Also what of those technologies are echo friendlier and easier to insulate? <comment><USER3> Avoiding places with tornadoes in the first place is likely the best long-term solution.

<comment><USER4> This would be a useful reference: [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/weekinreview/0...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01safe.html?_r=0)

<comment><USER3> It is also useful to take into account that it is relatively easy to protect against earthquakes (cf. Japan) and floods, provided that money is less of a concern, whereas hurricanes and tornadoes are somewhat more problematic.

Or put another way: To protect against wind meaningful you have to protect the whole surface area of a building _and_ every high-voltage electricity line etc. etc. To protect against floods, you 'only' have to build reasonable dams (easy) and to protect against earthquakes, you have to build reasonable houses (less easy, but doable).

<comment><USER4> Protecting your property against high-level tornadoes is expensive - <USER2> not worth it for most residences - It makes more sense to insure, and let the occasional tornado/hurricane do its damage.

Protecting your personal safety against an earthquake can be difficult, even with a lot of money (also, cf. Japan) - though clearly safe guards can be taken.

But - with the state of the technology and advance alerts/monitoring today, your personal safety against a tornado/hurricane, if you chose to take some precautions, is almost certainly assured.

An underground storm shelter is basically invulnerable to a tornado - you only have to worry about floods and fire.

The Moore, Oklahoma residens had hours of advance warning that "Tornado Weather" was developing, and had almost 30 minutes advance notice of the actual tornado that hit them. They also had recent experience with a catastrophic Tornado in 1999.

But - the cost of $5000/family for a storm shelter is just something that we as a society (and individuals living in tornado prone areas)- just don't want to spend, even if you consider it to be a one time insurance policy that never has to be renewed again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.monolithic.com/></comment>


'Courage' - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net//2016/09/courage <comment><USER2> Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I'm of the belief that you shouldn't refer to yourself as courageous. Especially if you're a company. Courage is something others must judge, and I was amused during the keynote Apple used the moment to give themselves a pat on the back. Ick.

That said, I'm glad they're doing it. They're putting an adapter in the box and they're selling it for $9, which is more than fair in the Apple universe. And the truth is, Apple is the most b(only?) influential player that can push the industry towards wireless. Nobody else can really move the market, and if Apple doesn't do it, we'll continue to be stuck using this very old connector.

<comment><USER3> > ...continue to be stuck using this very old connector

The question is: what's really wrong with the old connector (from a consumer's PoV)?

When they abandoned ADB, SCSI etc for USB (and at least it was clear that the new thing would end up being better, soon. Abandoning VGA could have been similar except it meant a shift to a parade of different things (DVI D/A/both; DP, mini-DP, etc) which only, (mostly) converged when the rest of the industry finally caught up by standardizing itself on HDMI. And the consumer lost as well as won in that. Switching the MacBook to USB Type C was a transition similar to the first USB one: eventually it will be great but the infrastructure hasn't build out yet (believe me: I own a MB, love it, but don't have any peripherals).

But the TRS connector wasn't preventing much of anything.

I think the real significance is that they are going to a port-free device with inductive charging like the watch. But they can't do that until enough people have switched over to wireless headsets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This goes to show how much of an Apple apologist Josh Gruber is in defending the removal of the headphone jack. People need to realise that not all deductions by Apple were accepted with open arms (remember the buttonless iPod Shuffle) and I feel there might be a 50% chance that this is not the end of the headphone jack on iDevices.

I certainly think that there's courage in what Apple's doing; it's just not not the courage that Phil Schiller described it as the courage to move forward. It's more the courage to test the limits of the goodwill/fanaticism that Apple has built over the last decade of true innovation to force an even more locked down ecosystem that keeps users from never switching away. If Apple were truly courageous for technology's sake, they would have adopted an open standard like USB-C or make Lightning an open standard and drop the ridiculous royalty fees and MFi process associated with it. That is the courage to do what's right with out profits in mind.

<comment><USER5> Bringing up USB-C suggests you miss the point. It's not about picking jacks and wires. The new world is wireless, and incidentally it's standards based.

<comment><USER4> Why then does Apple still sell Lightning earphones and a Lightning to stereo jack converter? What if I don't want the hassle of another chargeable dependency? What if I want the ease of use of plug and play?

With all the dongles required and extra charging requirements for accessories, unfortunately the simplicity and mantra of "It just works" doesn't quite apply to the Apple of today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really hate the idea of having to recharge my headphones. I'm not a fan of the idea of wireless headphones. The whole adapter issue doesn't seem to bother me that much.

But I do feel it goes against Job's philosophy on stuff. I remember reading he hated the idea of stylus's for the phones because he lost them or thought people would lose them.

</comment><comment><USER7> > but which would lead to everyone having a better experience in the long run > (and for early adopters, a better experience as soon as they start using > their AirPods)

How long is the long run? Oh and he forgot to mention that "as soon as" precludes you spending $150 on AirPods. So, after you spend several hundred dollars buying a new phone, you're either relegated to carrying around a pointless dongle for something as basic as a headphone, or you now have to spring $150 more for AirPods, and keep charging them, because Apple now has "courage". IMHO this decision is driven primarily by self-interest from the Beats acquisition.

In any case, I'm actually looking forward to better wireless tech (from any vendor). I'm just not buying the courage BS, or that this iteration of the tech is ready for primetime. I don't doubt that they will get a ton of sales from the iPhone 7. Hopefully it will help bring down the cost over time. I'm hoping that by the time the iPhone 8 comes out, they'll have out of the box wireless headphones and proper wireless charging, etc. I only hope they don't slow down my 6S too much before then.

</comment><comment><USER8> Let's not get too excited by comparisons to the non-inclusion of Flash on iOS.

Back then, a closed, proprietary and bloated system was phased out in favour of openness and interoperability -- because it worked well for Apple.

In this case it's the opposite; the open and interoperable standard is on its way out. Apple is really just doing what they think makes good business sense for them, there isn't some noble aim here.

<comment><USER9> I didn't say it was noble, only that it took courage. It takes courage to rob a bank.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Unrelated, but I found interesting to see that the new W1-powered Beats headphones charge via a micro-usb cable instead or Apple's lightning.

</comment><comment><USER11> What exactly is this W1 chip thing? Does it change the underlying bluetooth communication? That wouldn't make sense as the AirPod works with existing Mac as well. Looks like W1 chip is still utilizing the existing BT protocol but adds extra logic to make it easier for pairing/dropouts etc if the host (Mac/iphone) has support for it?

<comment><USER9> Exactly.</comment></comment>