Radium – The Music Editor - <AUTHOR> http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/ <comment><USER2> It looks nice, but, serious question, is there a reason why the UI in all screenshots is so dark and completely lacks contrast? I really couldn't look at black text or dark blue text on a dark background all day :/

Examples of what I mean:

\- [http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/pictures/overview1.p...](http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/pictures/overview1.png)

\- [http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/pictures/pluginmenu....](http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/pictures/pluginmenu.png)

<comment><USER3> Unless they hardcoded the color scheme, this won't be an issue for long.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, it's all editable. [http://i.imgur.com/8pJMhCb.png](http://i.imgur.com/8pJMhCb.png)

<comment><USER2> Ah, nice. I was just looking through the github repo and found some config files for qt with color schemes. And yet my question stands: Why present a project like that?

<comment><USER5> Because the team is primarily developers, not designers? That's my best guess... its quite common amongst open source projects (although this is becoming increasingly rare).

<comment><AUTHOR> The team is one person in this case. Project started in 1999.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So, because I can't resist any new audio toy, I downloaded it and tried it...it locked up X, or the desktop or something, on Fedora 21. Which seems odd, as it's using tk for the interface, which ought to be old and stable, by now. But, maybe nobody is testing current desktops against tk anymore, so bugs don't get found.

Also, the color scheme in the screenshots is really the color scheme; it's not just botched screenshots. Completely unreadable, for me, at any reasonable distance from my monitor. I mean, I understand I'm not so young and my eyesight has never been great, but I can't believe this is a comfortable level of contrast for anyone. Hopefully this is easily configurable.

<comment><USER7> There was a relatively recent bug in X11 which would cause X to crash when any arcs were drawn on screen with certain beginning/ending angles. This might be what's affecting you at the moment.

<comment><USER6> A yum update and reboot allowed it to work. You're likely right (or it was some other Xorg bug). Getting color scheme readable was easy (making it look nice _and_ be readable will take a lot more work).

It feels pretty complex, and it seems like it's heavily reliant on hotkeys to be able to do much of anything quickly/easily. I recall being very effective at getting ideas working on hotkey based trackers in the distant past, but it's been a long time, and I dunno if I have the patience to learn enough of it to be productive even approaching the level I'm productive on other tools. It almost feels like Impulse Tracker is its ideological ancestor, in its reliance on keyboard navigation. Which some folks love. I'm not necessarily in that camp these days.

But, still an interesting experiment and UI design for music.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow, this looks really impressive. I've messed around with trackers since the 90s, and I think lots of people who do kind of wish they operated a bit more like this rather than with fussy hex values and hard to remember effect codes. I've always, for example, just wanted to draw the shape of the track volume as a left-to-right line over top of a track rather than having to hand edit the volume column or use a volume effect (or use a track-effect that's in a different window somewhere).

This looks like it's really going the right direction.

The compressor also is worth taking a look at.

</comment><comment><USER9> A serious question from someone who is in and out of studios weekly and who works almost daily in Ableton and weekly in Pro Tools and Logic (doing production as well as post stuff).

Does anybody use something like this to make music for any professional/commercial use or is it really just of academic interest and for tinkerers (no offense - there is value there to I know).

I ask because when I look at this (and I'm also an EE and a software developer) I get a headache.

<comment><USER10> I wonder if you've ever tried Ardour and what's your take on it as recording pro? Personally I think it's wonderful. I haven't used ProTool and Nuendo etc for years (I produced a couple of albums about 15 years ago, but haven't done much professionally since), but it seems very nice and produces great results IMO.

<comment><USER11> I am a big advocate of Ardour. But I really hope they get their act together and stop adding new features, but start making the release more stable. The last really stable and great version for me was the last of the 2.x releases.

They improved the looks but there was always something that didn't work quite right. IN the 3.x series Midi was introduced, but it crashed all the time (and I've updated every time there was a new release).

Now I am using 4.x and it is dog slow for big sessions (which I originally recorded and mixed in 2.x on a much lesser PC with no problems).

I do understand their arguments. I know that they want to release something for Windows, Mac and Linux to improve their customer base (greatly). But I really hope that Ardour solidifies and they start improving the quality that it comes back to the quality of the 2.x releases.

<comment><USER10> I used 3.5 about a year ago for a few months, and it was pretty stable once I got my Jack setup stable. It seemed like most problems were with iffy drivers and plugins. Installing everything from Ubuntu Studio's apt repos seemed to produce pretty stable setup and it was also pretty fast (I used a VERY strong machine thuogh). Haven't tried 4.0 yet.

<comment><USER11> I didn't had any problems with Jack or plugins - the problem with 3.x was Midi editing. Well it was introduced in this release, but I did some drum programming (our drummer was sick, so we've programmed drums to our music) and it sucked.

It was totally normal that Ardour crashed at least twice in the 1 or 2 hours when we were editing drums. And the devs knew that this problem existed, but they've basically told, that it should be fixed in 4.x.

<comment><USER10> I hardly did any midi with it, maybe that's why I didn't encounter that :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The subscription model is beautiful.

Must subscribe to access the full version. You can unsubscribe and only lose access to updates.

</comment><comment><USER13> Warning: this program trashes the keymap table.

An incorrect attempt is made to save/restore the by extracting the original name (e.g. "us") of the keymap layout with

         ${RADIUM_DIR}/bin/packages/setxkbmap/setxkbmap -query

and then attempting to restore the keymap table with

         # LAYOUT_NAME="us"
         ${RADIUM_DIR}/bin/packages/setxkbmap/setxkbmap -synch -layout ${LAYOUT_NAME}

That is, it assumes no modifications have been made to the table, and restores the original standard layout. This is a serious problem if you use utilities like xmodmap(1).

</comment><comment><USER14> Seems to check off all the boxes for things I'm looking for in a good music editor. The CMN support is nice, too. Downloading the demo right now.

</comment><comment><USER15> Looks very cool. I'll definitely give it a try.

As a huge fan of Sunvox, Radium looks quite appealing.

</comment><comment><USER16> I love this line on the download page:

Information to warez groups: Since the source is open, it should be simple to turn the demo into a fully featured version. Please let me know of any problems. (Just compiling the source is cheating!)

</comment><comment><USER17> It looks awesome.

First thing that looks like candidate for contributions is a build system. I tried to build a package out of it and it is a collection of Makefiles and shell scripts that for sure can be used to build the thing on a developer's machine, but not useful outside that context.

<comment><USER18> Not sure the developper is interested in contributions about that: [https://github.com/kmatheussen/radium/issues/223](https://github.com/kmatheussen/radium/issues/223)

<comment><USER17> I see. Well, from the homepage, the developer sells the builds so I can understand he is not interested in making packaging and distribution easier.

<comment><AUTHOR> It doesn't seem to be the case, though:

"The linux binaries have only existed a few months, and I've got requests to add a "make install" option to the makefile for a couple of years, so that it would be easier to package. And I've refused to to it for the same reasons as above. So this has got very little to do with "selling builds".

Of course, I can't deny anyone to make custom radium packages, but I hope they won't. It's simpler and safer if everyone uses the official package, which I also know is packaged (fairly) properly."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The features mention "Extension language support" that lets a user write programs to generate music / modify songs. Anyone care to elaborate on this or provide some examples of extension languages (maybe integration with ChucK or Max/MSP)?

<comment><USER6> Some of the screenshots have Pd (Pure Data) running.

<comment><USER19> Ah, thanks! It even looks like Pure Data is already embedded (says it's linux- only for now). According to Pd's homepage it looks like you can even use "externals, i.e. objects developed in another programming language" as part of your workflow.

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/kmatheussen/radium/issues/69](https://github.com/kmatheussen/radium/issues/69)

The developer says: "Pd should be included in both windows and osx as soon as I convert Radium to use the new multi-dsp system in Pd that Miller made last year."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Might want to change the name, Radium is an internet streaming application that has been around for years. People might find it confusing, I did..: [http://catpigstudios.com](http://catpigstudios.com)

<comment><USER21> This Radium has been around since 1999.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Sorry for silly question, but: is "Radium" a DAW? If not, how does it compare -- what can it do that a DAW can't, and what can't it do that a DAW can

<comment><USER6> "DAW" is a ridiculously overloaded term.

It contains such diverse tools as:

REAPER and Ardour and ProTools - Multitrack recording tools, used for recording live performances, with some basic MIDI capabilities built up over the years.

Cubase and Logic - MIDI sequencers, with multitrack capabilities accreted over many years to the point where multitrack recording (in the same contexts as the above category) is not unheard of, though the UI focus is different.

Fruity Loops and Ableton Live - Loop composition tools (for lack of a better description). Both are designed around loops as the basic building block of sound. While they have limited recording and MIDI capabilities, one likely wouldn't use FL or Ableton to make a symphonic soundtrack for a film, and certainly wouldn't use either to record a full band of performing musicians.

Renoise and apparently Radium - Trackers for the current century. These evolved out of the old Soundtracker style music programs (including Protracker, MED, etc. on the Amiga and then onto FT and Impulse Tracker on early PCs). They've acquired most of the functionality one expects from sequencers and loop based music programs, but don't usually have any multi- track recording facilities.

All are called DAWs by their developers and users, and yet how one uses them is pretty different. I pretty regularly use Ardour and REAPER for multitrack recording. And, I occasionally use Fruity Loops and LMMS for tinkering with remixes. And, I occasionally use Renoise for making electronic music.

I'd like it if there were separate terms for each of these concepts, as it would give folks a good language for talking about what each of these types of tools do. It would also rule out a lot of the stupid confrontational crap that often comes up ("Your program sucks because I can't do X, Y and Z, and I only ever use this other program!" where X, Y, and Z are functions specific to one of the above types of DAW...like "I can't easily do loop-based remixes in ProTools. ProTools sucks!").

<comment><USER23> ...I use Ableton Live to do quite a bit of non loop-based composition. It's quite easy to do and feels well supported.

<comment><USER6> Yes, there's tons of overlap in all of these (sequencers and multi-track recorders were the first to begin to blur the lines, but now basic loop-based features are creeping into sequencers and both FL and Ableton can be used for nearly any basic sequencing task), but the focus of the tool makes a difference in workflow.

And, the tools that pros use for specific tasks can also be indicative. You won't be surprised to find ProTools in a high end recording studio, and you won't be surprised to find a film soundtrack composer using Logic or Cubase. Likewise, you won't be surprised to find an EDM producer using Ableton. There's less overlap in what pros use than in what the tools are capable of in the hands of someone really good with that specific tool.

Anyway, doesn't matter. My point is that there are several different categories of program called DAW. The way they display and receive data varies wildly, and the use cases for them is pretty diverse, and I think it's weird to call them all the same name.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> it would be nice to see an editor that stops locking pitch, time, and velocity together. i made a prototype where you can manipulate sequences of pitch, velocity, time, and other concepts independently- its really awesome!</comment>


The Perfect Stimulus: Bad Management - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704353504575596372042140924.html

<comment><USER3> More funny than true. Sure, bad management makes lots of talented people leave lousy jobs and try starting a business. Which leads to more competition, innovation, etc.

Then again, bad management makes perfectly good companies run themselves into the ground, destroying economic value and making lives miserable in the process.

Also, "bad management" is somewhat a matter of opinion. Those talented people who go on to start companies (and don't forget that some of them will fail) may soon have their own employees who inwardly grumble about their incompetent leadership. News flash: sometimes the boss is right. Not always, but sometimes.

Adams' outlook on corporate America is extremely cynical; he views incompetence as the surest path to promotion. To some degree, that is part of his personality, and he's very funny when he expounds his view. But realistically: to some degree, we hate work because it's work. If it was all cotton candy and rainbows, you'd pay to do it, not the other way around. Some of us can find careers we mostly like, and for some of us, that involves being our own boss. But work is still work, and being your own boss may just mean that you LIKE the sociopath who tells you what to do.

<comment><USER4> Its also a reflection of the specific places in corporate America he was in. Adams worked in banks and telecoms during the seventies and the eighties. Even today, these industries are quite slow moving, and back then, the pace of change was absolutely glacial. Its not hard to imagine that one's experience would be colored by dealing with people who know they have a job for life no matter what they do, simply because their corporation is a monopoly in its field.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> _> >the media was giving the phone company a lot of heat because almost all of the managers and executives were white males. So, he explained, promoting me would only make things worse._

Adams mentions that this experience was repeated in both the large corporations that he worked in.

Clearly, this excuse wasn't used to stop the overwhelming majority of executives who shared his skin color and gender. So perhaps, it might have been instructive for him to think about why he was being singled out for this excuse.

<comment><USER6> Banks and telcos weren't adding many executives between 1979 and 1995 [1] (he never said he was considered for a _new_ position), so it's plausible they were all hired before race and gender quotas would have required shunning them.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Adams#Office_worker>

<comment><USER7> Yeah, but the point is it was still just an excuse. They could have fired any of dozens of white male incompetents and promoted Adams, but they didn't, because they were protecting the existing power structure. I wonder how many other people got told the same line? I haven't done a census of phone company executives ever but I'd be willing to bet there aren't more than a token handful of minorities in leadership positions (half of them with titles like diversity officer). So it was just a line.

<comment><USER6> Regardless of who he's replacing, promoting Adams would make things worse for them, because they'd be seen to still be promoting white men. They created the problem by discriminating, so they are required to discriminate differently until the problem is resolved. This is going to take a long time, because they are also not expanding their management ranks, so it only proceeds at the pace of turnover.

I'm sure Adams' contention would be they can't fire incompetents because it takes someone competent and powerful to identify them.

<comment><USER7> All agreed. Just providing a little pushback against the notion that it's all "political correctness"'s fault when the primary obstacle to achievement is the fact that nobody's getting out of the way.

<comment><USER8> If you stopped hiring blacks, specifically, because the Chilean subsidiary missed its numbers on account of an earthquake and now you have to make budget cutbacks, your black non-employees are not being inconvenienced by an earthquake. They are being inconvenienced by the fact that you took circumstances you had no control over and decided to address them with a policy you could control, and your policy was racial discrimination.

CC: American universities with a pallette swap.

<comment><USER7> What, Chile? If they stop hiring everyone, they stop hiring everyone. That's not a discrimination issue either, just like the general lack of room for advancement in mature industries that are run by lifers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> First of all i don't think this is really about bad management, but about employees with a choice.

You have disgruntled employees everywhere. I think the real difference is that in places like the U.S (And Israel) people where raised with a sense of self entitlement, they all KNOW they deserve better (And IMHO they do!).

Some cultures have a sense of self-deprecation, which basically means you should be glad to have even the crappiest job even if it is frozen manure shoveling.

On a personal level, everything said reflects on me perfectly. I just quit the job i had for the past 3 years (IT manager/Support/Trainer), since upper management decided to replace our very loved manager with a douche. Our current manager knew how to take a small team, get them to work hard (even very hard at times) and still come back to work the next day with a smile. My salary was lower than what i could get working in a similar position in a different place (and i was constantly getting offers to let me know that), but i was happy - so i stayed.

Now that i have left, i am joining a relatively new business as a partner - <USER2> offer that i politely declined until now.

</comment><comment><USER10> I was wondering why a piece like this would have been selected for inclusion in the Wall Street Journal, that is until I came across the phrase "white males".

<comment><USER11> Maybe, but it is also exceptionally well-written.

<comment><USER12> Not only is it exceptionally well written, it's also holds true to a certain point to this day.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Hacker News reader for Android tablets - <AUTHOR> https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jwo.hackernews

<comment><USER2> This looks awesome! However, it doesn't address the only problem I have with browsing HN on my Xoom with the regular browser: accidental votes. Is there a way you could add voting arrows larger than the ones on the web page?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm working on adding a tablet interface for the comments. For now, unfortunately you will have to zoom to hit the voting buttons.

<comment><USER3> I am not sure if it would even be possible, but I think it would be a good idea to add upvote buttons to the listview of topics. It would look good on the left beside the topic. Just a suggestion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very nice. A few suggestions in case you intend to develop this further:

\- The "Y" button for hiding/showing the list is maybe a bit too subtle. I only found it by randomly mashing everything on the screen on the theory that surely the functionality had to be somewhere. I think the problem is that it doesn't look at all like an active UI element.

\- Going directly to comments doesn't seem to be possible. I guess you can just tap the list item and then show comments really quickly, but I would have expected tapping the comment count to do that.

\- Would be nice to see which stories / comment pages I've already viewed.

\- Would be even more awesome to see in the main list how many new comments were added since I last viewed the comment page of a story. \- Is it really not possible to view more than the top 50 items?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Thanks!

\- My thinking was that since in portait, clicking on any post will hide the list and make it pretty obvious how to get it back, I didn't need to add a button for it. But I think you're probably right.

\- Yep, thats on my list.

\- Also on my list.

\- Good suggestion. I'll look into adding this.

<comment><USER4> Ah, I see. The reason I ran into this is that when switching from landscape to portrait the list doesn't auto-hide. And this will probably be a common operation when commenting on posts, since due to the stupid 16:9 aspect ratio of Honeycomb tablets landscape is the only comfortable way to read, and portrait is the only comfortable way to enter text.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is this using the iHackernews API or did you roll your own? (I'm guessing the latter, since you reference jsoup.org?)

The iHN API has been very unstable for me lately, but all other HN readers for Android seem to use it (or their UI is just so bad it borders on unusable).

Do you think the CPU cost of parsing the HN soup yourself is significant compared to pre-chewed JSON from an API (say, iHackerNews)?

<comment><AUTHOR> You're correct, I rolled my own parser. The iHackernews API is nice, but I found it pretty unreliable in my testing. I've also noticed most other Android apps report API errors frequently. I'm planning on open-sourcing the library I wrote for this, but I need to clean it up first. Honestly, it's not the best code I've written.

I don't really have a good feel for the CPU load of the parsing (I was mostly concerned with how much time it would take). In my testing it seemed fine. Probably more concerning is the memory usage, as I see the GC kick in whenever I refresh the feed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there something similar to this for the iPad? I really like the UI. Great work!

Edit: I found this which looks similar [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernews-for- ipad/id3648999...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernews-for- ipad/id364899977?mt=8) but the reviews are horrible, unfortunately.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! There are quite a few readers available on the iPad. I've only tried a few, but they seemed fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> When I try to install it tells me that "the item you are trying to purchase cannot be found". I've not seen that before. is there an apk on the net somewhere?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, the market is notoriously flaky. Try rebooting your device. Also verify your credit card info. For some reason that helps, even if you're not buying anything. If you're still have problems, let me know and i'll throw the apk up on a server somewhere.

<comment><USER7> Thanks, neither suggestion worked. My tablet is the viewsonic G-Tablet with a modded version of honeycomb. I assume that's the problem, flaky describes the whole thing. I doubt this is a big problem though, I can see why you'd want to keep all downloads through the market for tracking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This just replaced my previous Hacker News client. The interface is quite nice, and the navigation is thoughtful. Well done.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does it have an offline mode? That is what I am missing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet. For an offline mode to work, i'll also need to download and store the actual pages. That could take a some time, so I have a few other features to add first.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Will this work well for phones?

<comment><AUTHOR> This release only works on Tablets. I'm working on adding a phone interface. (I wanted to play around with the new 3.x APIs, hence the tablet only first version).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Tablet-only version is just irritating.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, given the feedback I'm getting I think I'll step up implementing a phone version.</comment></comment>


A valuable lesson from Randi Zuckerberg: Online privacy is complicated - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2012/12/26/a-valuable-lesson-from-randi-zuckerberg-online-privacy-is-complicated/ <comment><USER2> As an avid FB/Twitter/Instagram/everything user, privacy is _not_ a hard problem to deal with: if you put something on the internet, assume that everyone will see it and know it's you. It's as simple as that.

This applies to your job search, family photos, embarrassing music, nude photos, and just about anything else. If you don't want it to be seen by the world, _don't share it_. At the end of the day, _your_ privacy is _your_ responsibility.

<comment><USER3> That's an easy if weak way to deal with a human reality and the failures of tech design to accommodate it. How does it work for information about me that other people gather? Like medical records? Is that my responsibility as well?

<comment><USER4> That isn't a technology problem, it is a people problem.

<comment><USER5> _That isn't a technology problem, it is a people problem_

== & That's why we cant have nice things

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Feels like marketing to me. All of the necessary items are there:

        {
         "Important FB person" : "The sister.",
         "Reporter" : "The lady on twitter",
         "media" : "the \"private\" photo on FB",
         "friendly resolution" : "reporter took it down",
         "what is being sold" : "The Poke"
        }

Of course, they will never admit to it. Viral marketing usually follows a very precise pattern.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's complicated because advertising companies profit from networks that are open and visible.

Facebook's privacy controls used to be very straight-forward and easy to use. Starting with Beacon, etc. Facebook's strategy has been to make it as complicated and time-consuming as possible in the hopes that you will just acquiesce and allow them to profit from your personal information and online social interactions.

<comment><USER8> Facebook's made a lot of mistakes but I disagree with you pretty completely here. It doesn't help your case that Facebook just last week released a new dedicated privacy menu that is exceedingly nice, simple, straightfoward. It goes out of its way to summarize your privacy settings for you.

<comment><USER9> I'm not sure I agree completely with either of you.

Instead, I prefer to not attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. Or too many people deploying features willy-nilly.

<comment><USER10> It could also be a business model that is unwieldy to implement.

<comment><USER11> Or a business model that is fundamentally based on exploiting your personal information.

<comment><USER10> Of course, but maintaining the perception that it's harmless to continue to contribute it is the hard part.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > To be fair to Facebook, figuring these kinds of nuances out isn't easy

God damn it, it is called ACLs. Not exactly a rocket, or even computer science.

<comment><USER13> The problem here is the picture was originally shared with someone who had permission to see it. That person then saved the file to their machine, and re-posted it to twitter.

That is not a technological problem.

<comment><USER12> The person who did all this was not supposed to see the original picture. The whole thing happened because of sharing, tagging and mutual friends. It is a technological problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is this guerrilla marketing for their new "Poke" app?

<comment><USER15> That was my first thought. The picture is quite expressive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The hypocrisy is strong with this one.

While I have never had an FB account, nor shall I, I find these situations all laughable at how pompous the FB 'elite' are.

<comment><USER17> How do you tell if someone doesn't have Facebook?

They'll tell you.

<comment><USER16> I feel that it is contextually relevant when I am commenting on FB related stories. It is not as I am bragging as much as it is a disclosure of my perspective.

<comment><USER10> Yet we still learn that you like Star Wars a lot.

<comment><USER16> ?

I don't recall posting anything Star Wars related on HN pretty much ever...

Are you sure you're not confusing me with someone else? Or are you recalling a post I can't right now?

<comment><USER10> "The...is strong with this one," is a Star Wars reference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A valuable lesson from Callie Schweitzer: Do whatever you want with whatever you find.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure that a fair characterization of her motive, not at least as she tweeted her apology:

"@randizuckerberg I'm just your subscriber and this was top of my newsfeed. Genuinely sorry but it came up in my feed and seemed public."

Screenshot source: [http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/mark-zuckerbergs-sister- comp...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/mark-zuckerbergs-sister-complains-of- facebook-pri)

<comment><USER10> I wasn't speaking to her motive, only the act. Do what you naturally want to do with whatever enters your sphere of attention. It's not our job to run FB's security, so not a second thought should be given to anything that slips through.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> BWAHAHAHAHAH</comment>


Standing desks are on the rise - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576541011003270644.html <comment><USER2> I investigated the different standing desk options and found most of them lacking for my requirements.

The biggest obstacles were that I'm 6'4" tall and need a desk that can support 3 big monitors.

I ended up making my own (admittedly non on the fly adjustable) standing desk out of shelf track - the closet shelf system they sell at Home Depot or wherever.

My keyboard shelf is 40 inches high and the monitor shelf is 52 inches high.

Total costs were around $100 and it only took an evening to put together.

[EDIT] - Pics of build and final desk at - [https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3175742/1/StandingDesk?h=8d1...](https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3175742/1/StandingDesk?h=8d1c44)

<comment><USER3> Are you powering both external displays off the iMac? I didn't know that was possible; the tech specs on the current 27" show it can power just one external....

<comment><USER2> The right one is powered by a mini display port -> DVI and the left via a USB > DVI converter.

The leftmost one is rather slow to refresh, so I use it mostly for our company geckoboard dashboard and for autotest output. The right monitor is a Dell Ultrasharp with component inputs from the Xbox and Wii.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was considering getting a Milk table (<http://www.milk.dk/>). I know the guy who designed it and it's awesome but I decided against it because of the column in the middle. I need to stretch my legs. So I bought an X12 instead ([http://www.holmris.com/htm/..%5Chtm%5Csortiment%5Cx12%5Cx12....](http://www.holmris.com/htm/..%5Chtm%5Csortiment%5Cx12%5Cx12.html)).

Both of these are from Denmark and for the past 14 years of working as a software developer there, I have always had adjustable desks. They are simply everywhere and it was only recently that I realized that this is not the situation world wide (I currently live in Spain and I had to order mine from Denmark!).

This makes me wonder if there is an untapped market in, say, the US for these? I could never go back and I think most people who have tried wouldn't. It's not only the matter of standing up -- just making small adjustments during the day when you change position a bit feels really good and I am sure is good for the back etc.

<comment><USER5> I'm Danish and have often wondered about this too - there are so many options here for electric height adjustable desks and everyone has them, from banks to car dealerships. I would never work somewhere that didn't offer this, I even got one for my home office: <http://imgur.com/A1eS2>. Set me back about a thousand dollars, about what I spent on a cell phone every other few months.

Mine is from <http://www.conset.dk> (Danish) by the way. Huge selection of frames (one, two or more columns) and you specify your tabletop yourself (size, position and dimensions of the cut-in, bezel, finishing (oak/maple/cherry)), all online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's too bad that kneeling chairs are often unmentioned in these discussions - they offer the main benefit of the standing desk (a natural/healthy position for the spine) with much less cost (< $100), set-up and foot/joint strain.

You can see a variety of these with a simple Google image search. Your legs just rest comfortably underneath your body, so you don't strain your back trying to counterbalance your leg (the main problem with chairs). I have a cheapo office chair and a $75 kneeling chair that I switch between (basically just when I feel any twinge of discomfort). After getting used to this setup, I don't really have any back pain.

<comment><USER7> I agree, I bought a Varier Balans five months ago and it improved my posture a lot and I don't have back pain anymore. The first weeks I had some knee pain though, now I try to remember to stretch the legs every half an hour.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Reading this reminds of pg's article about how PR works: <http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

It reads as an ad as much as a newspaper article.

<comment><USER9> Before clicking through, based on the title alone I was fully expecting a quote from a manufacturer on how they're selling desks like hotcakes, but didn't see any desk brands mentioned which surprised me.

<comment><USER10> If it's actually a PR plant, being in the top results (or ad I suppose) in Google for related queries might be enough. Unlike the suits example from the essay, people looking for standing desks probably aren't going to go to a local store and instead will use the Internet to look up brands/models and where to buy. Sure, you are sharing with your competitor, but if it's the difference between the story getting published or not it would still be worth it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I recently got a standing desk and quite enjoy it. They are definitely viral; once a few people get them in an office, everybody wants one.

I even wrote a set of Perl scripts to keep track of how much time I spend sitting vs. standing, and how it changes over time.

The only problem is that I don't know of any good studies on what stand / sit ratio is medically recommended. Too low and you get back and other muscle problems; too high and you get joint problems.

<comment><USER12> You shouldn't be getting joint problems standing around all day. If you are getting something like that, these issues might be arising from fatiguing of the muscles from having to support yourself standing all day. When your muscles are fatigued, you end up supporting yourself less with the muscle and more with the joint, so you get weird "wear" patterns, things misaligned slightly. For example, the front of the thigh pulls more on the thigh bone than the rear of the thigh. That can cause kneecap soreness (patellofemoral tracking gets all whack). Muscles in your core can fatigue, and they are also essential to maintaining correct posture.

The fix in that situation would be to work on basic leg and core strength. A set of ankle weights, straight leg raises, side leg raises, calf raises, some basic "good all around" core exercises (forget the crunches, think plank) can really help you avoid joint-related issues from standing all day.

<comment><USER11> I'm not feeling joint problems _now_ ; I'm concerned about ones later in life.

See also: [http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/13/the-dangers-of- sitting...](http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/13/the-dangers-of-sitting-at- work%E2%80%94and-standing/#ixzz1O43u6dzd)

<comment><USER13> From a article from two years ago, when this rage wasn't at its peak: <http://www.hazards.org/standing/index.htm>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been loving my adjustable desk. I spent the majority of my time standing, but sometimes it's great to sit down.

I purchased a (relatively) inexpensive hand-cranked base from <http://www.kitchensource.com/table-bases/gb-1000-1001.htm>. I also got a cheap ($30) 48" x 24" x 2" wooden tabletop which I was able to sand, finish, and easily mount to the base. I added a desk-mounted monitor arm (<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IWOBGI>). The price for all of this compares extremely favorably to most other adjustable desks I've found.

This setup has been a huge help for my back issues. If I were to try to quantify the cost of having a sore back that renders me unable to be active, it'd be vastly higher than what I payed for this setup. If I am offered a position where I need to go into an office, I would make offering me a similar setup a precondition of me accepting the offer.

</comment><comment><USER15> I found an easy way to try this out a couple of weeks ago: five cinder blocks. Stacked three high to hold the monitor, and two high to hold the keyboard. Their mass forms a very solid support, yet it's light enough to use on almost any desk.

I needed to find a separate small stand for the optical mouse too, and I do sometimes wish I had a little more surface area at keyboard height. Still, it's cheaper and easier to install than a dedicated standing desk... and very easy to "uninstall" if you change your mind.

If you try this, be sure to put a piece of cloth or paper underneath the blocks, so that they don't scratch the desk surface. You also will probably want to get something decorative to cover the blocks; molded concrete isn't the most attractive office decor :)

<comment><USER16> Reams of copier paper are also great for propping up your monitor. No scratching and easy to find in a lot of offices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> They're called workbenches and have been around for years.

<comment><USER18> Yeah I picked a nice cartography desk setup for $1 each a few years ago. People where just ditching them.

I had one set up for standing, and a second set low for computer (so my rising chair could be used).

Following all the rage around these I might look at grabbing a tall saddle stool and adjust the computer desk unto standing height as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Funny, I went as far as the credit card entry form of <http://www.geekdesk.com> today but stopped short of sending the order. I looked for cheaper alternatives, and found <http://www.ergodesktop.com>, which is still pretty damn spendy.

What I want is a solution that's easy to setup, and is _portable_. I work at a variety of locations and would like some mechanism for turning any surface into a standing workstation. I think I may whip up a few prototypes in my spare time.

<comment><USER20> I made 2 boxes out of plywood and put my desk on them. It was free (I had the scrap plywood). And it wasn't quite high enough (lower back pain) so I added 1x4s until it was high enough.

Pretty portable too I guess. You'd need someone to help you lift the desk on/off the blocks.

<comment><USER19> Ha. I'm talking portable as in airplane portable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Standing desks seem to be the new fad. I don't believe that sitting for 10+ hours a day is healthy, but I don't believe that standing that long is healthy either.

The bigger problem lie in what motivates us to spend so long at our desks without breaks. I think there's a culture of "strap the developer to his chair" that we need to break out of.

If you're taking breaks every 2 to 3 hours to stand up, get a drink and walk around a while, I can't really see it being as bad as everyone's making it out to be.

<comment><USER22>
      I don't believe that standing that long is healthy either.

You're right, which is why many people with standing desks alternate between sitting and standing. Some use motorized standing desks and others, such as myself, use tall chairs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> When I moved into an empty office last year to work on my startup, I had a dilemma. I didn't have a desk or chair. At my last couple jobs I had an Aeron and I knew that a good ergonomic chair is worth the expense. I haven't had back problems and I like it that way.

I wanted to get a "good" chair like a Leap but, as a cheapskate, I didn't want to spend the $400 they cost (used of course). So instead, I cut the Gordian knot and spent the money on the desk instead of the chair. I managed to score a well-used custom standing desk and barstool-height chair on Craigslist. Paired with a thin standing mat, it's been awesome and has even helped me sleep better.

The sore feet at the end of long days went away after a month, I'm always shifting position and I generally feel like I have more energy. Standing or perching on a stool both feel better than sitting and you never have that "I have to get back up? I just sat down!" feeling.

I haven't missed flopping into that desk-chair gravity well, so adjustable height isn't that exciting. If you think you want to stand, go for it.

</comment><comment><USER24> I switched to a standing desk a year ago and love it. I didn't want to invest too much into it at first, since I didn't know if I'd like it, so I got the Fredrik desk from IKEA (~$149).

<http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60141484>

I'm just over 6' tall and it work perfectly for me. The only detraction is that you cannot adjust the height after you build the desk (unless you take it apart again).

</comment><comment><USER25> I wanted to get a standing desk. Does anyone have experience with one of those desks in hospitals that are used to serve meals to patients ? That would be a solid piece of furniture for me.

Edit : I mean something like this : [http://www.amazon.com/Invacare-Over-Bed- Table/dp/B000QA0EHI/...](http://www.amazon.com/Invacare-Over-Bed- Table/dp/B000QA0EHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314912099&sr=8-1)

<comment><USER26> While not flimsy, they do not need much pressure to deform and flex. If you type heavily the table may bounce a bit. Not much, but enough to be distracting. Keeping your laptop closer to the side with support might help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I am interested in starting a company that builds and sells standing desks. I'm a technical guy, but ideally I'm looking for a partner who knows far more than I do about marketing, manufacturing, and supply-chain logistics. My goal is to do it lean startup-style, and develop an MVP first. My email is in my profile, or reply in this thread.

What do you want from a standing desk? What would get you to buy a standing desk?

</comment><comment><USER28> My treadmill desk:

[https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/treadmill-desk- part-6-...](https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/treadmill-desk- part-6-hopefully-the-final-summary/)

Yes I'm still using it, about 1 year after making it. I moved it to a different part of the house so I can look out of the window though :-)

</comment><comment><USER29> For the viral popularity of stand up desks, the available products leave much to be desired. The general consensus in the comments is that a few of the offerings are great, but quite expensive for what they offer.

I recently joined the crew of diy stand-up deskers with this: [https://plus.google.com/105852617539894761688/posts/F4sN8nUd...](https://plus.google.com/105852617539894761688/posts/F4sN8nUdQMK)

By my specs you get shelves/desktop 48" wide, where you have one 28" deep desktop, one 24" deep large shelf, one 14" deep display shelf, and two 12" deep accessory shelves. It's pretty modular, so you can configure however you like. It is nowhere near as adjustable as something like the geekdesk, but for about $300 you could build two...

<comment><USER2> That looks pretty cool. What's on the adjustable arm to the left of the desk? Mic?

<comment><USER29> Thanks, it definitely meets my needs. The arm is a halogen lamp.

I forgot to mention the build supports desk heights from 30" to 52".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm a fan of using standing desks and wanted to figure out how to convert my home desk [which had 4x4" wooden legs] to a standing desk. I did so by: getting 4 12" 4x4s; nailing beam caps (<http://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/BC.asp>) onto one end of the 4x4s; lifting the desk while my wife slipped the 12" 4x4s under the desk legs. $30 and 15 minutes work -> nice wooden desk -> standing desk.

* Note: I didn't attach the beam connectors to the desk legs since my desk is lodged in a corner and I didn't want to mess with the legs, but I'd recommend attaching them...

</comment><comment><USER31> I work in my bedroom with a notebook computer. It took no convincing for me to throw out the desk and chair, because I was so weary of sitting all day.

My solution is simple. I slapped a desk top onto my chest of drawers, with a nonslip mat underneath to keep it from sliding. Pardon me for not running to grab the measuring tape, but it's at about my elbow height (I'm 6'2").

I stand at it most of the day, and when I get tired I just unplug everything and move to my bed for awhile. I can't take my external display to bed, but so far that's never really bothered me.

I think later on I may get crazy with some square steel tubing, and build myself a standing monstrosity.

</comment><comment><USER32> I switched to a standing desk 3 months ago. It has been a great thing for me.

My thoughts to those who want to try it:

\+ Give it time. The first 3 days were hard. After a week, it started to feel normal.

\+ Get some padding. I'm using a cheap Yoga mat. I've heard gel mats are ideal.

\+ Suck in that gut. If you practice keeping your lower stomach muscles tight when you start. This will help your back muscles learn to be straight.

\+ Put both feet on the ground. Leaning on one leg isn't good.

\+ Move around. Sway from side to side. Pick your feet up regularly. This helps keep your body and legs healthy.

<comment><USER33> I found an old half medicine ball (not sure what it's called) laying around my parents house and I stand on it at my desk. It felt weird at first but I'm used to it now and it seems to keep my muscles working.I'm not sure exactly what it'll do to me in the long run though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I think the most ideal would be a desk which can be moved up or down via a mechanical handle bar. I have seen them in practice. That way if you get too tired you can lower it and sit.

<comment><USER35> I just have a recliner next to my standing desk.

<comment><USER36> Same here. I tend to cycle between my homemade standing desk (a chest with two amazon fresh boxes on it), my 70s style recliner chair, and a couch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I used a standing desk with eye level dual monitors on clamp-on arms for 45 days this summer. I felt like a check-in person at an airline. I found it uncomfortable in my lower legs but I think it was better for my spine and hip alignment. Since I have gone back to the chair I am more productive.

See occupational hazards of standing at work: <http://www.hazards.org/standing/index.htm>

</comment><comment><USER38> I decided to prototype a standing desk before buying, to make sure it was something I'd really use. The prototype is just a cardboard science fair display on top of an adjustable keyboard stand:

[http://distillery.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2011/06/22/f59c2c49...](http://distillery.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2011/06/22/f59c2c497a0a4d6192392d8dfa13960e_7.jpg)

It actually fits me so well that I haven't bothered to upgrade.

<comment><USER39> That looks like it would be painful on the neck after a couple of hours.

Id recommend getting a monitor and keeping it at eye level.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'm addicted to the L-shaped IKEA Galant desks, so I just extended the legs all the way and then put a bunch of my old PHP and Flex books underneath for extra height. I find it helps significantly to raise the monitor so that the top edge is at eye level. You definitely need some kind of stool to sit on occasionally, or it is very tempting to just go back to a sitting desk.

</comment><comment><USER41> I recently got into building with grid beam. (Found out about it at a Maker Faire.) Consider grid beam an open source version of Erector Sets or a life- size Lego Technic. Building your own standing desk out of grid beam would be the super cool thing to do. Grid beam is a very old idea, but I think it's due for a comeback. Maybe DIY standing desks is the killer app?

<comment><USER42> Wow, I love the idea; thanks for turning me onto grid beams. I need them!

<comment><USER41> Yeah, grid beam is (alas) a highly underrated tech. I've also created my own version recently -- a Lego Technic compatible version I'm calling "bitbeam" - bitbeam.org. Don't know where it'll go, but it sure is fun!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I have wanted one for some time, especially with the threadmill attached (I never get any exercise ever, so it would be a cheap way to get into shape and properly be my only real chance).

For those of you who already have a standing chair, how often do you use it in the standing position versus sitting down? How long time does it take to get use to using a standing chair?

</comment><comment><USER44> I have a standing desk, and my biggest problem is sore foot soles, of all things. Fixed with lots of foam padding underfoot.

</comment><comment><USER45> I tried it for a week and enjoyed it, but I needed to split the time with sitting too. On the hunt for an electric height adjustable as my current setup is not practical! [https://plus.google.com/109940267018696224506/posts/B144cQj7...](https://plus.google.com/109940267018696224506/posts/B144cQj7cBn)

</comment><comment><USER46> I see nobody has mentioned the Ergotron Workfit yet. I am very pleased with mine.

I think the adjustability, allowing you to move from sitting to standing at a moment's notice, is pretty important. If it weren't for that the various DIY solutions would be as much as you really need.

</comment><comment><USER47> I just purchased some shelving parts from Ikea and made my own. It's supposed to be a bookshelf, but it works great as a standing desk. I love it. Had to buy a mat for my feet though. My floor is hardwood, and I was surprised by how much my feet hurt!

</comment><comment><USER48> Varicose Veins are on the rise.

<comment><USER49> Doc here. True. However, the societal health care burdens of obesity and chronic back pain are far higher than varicosities. Personally, I opt for the standing desk and a bar stool on standby if I want a break.

Occupational standing is probably the number one risk factor for varicosities, even ahead of gender

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21846281>

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14531170>

However, the role of prolonged sitting on varicosities (mechanistically plausible due to such factors as pelvic venous congestion and increased intraabdominal pressure) is simply unknown.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12934754>

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Standing for long periods of time negatively affects your blood circulation and may cause varicosis. Not that sitting eight hours a day is healtier, but its one hidden risk of standing that you should know.

<comment><USER51> Yeah, both my mother and my father are biologists who do a lot of laboratory work. They, along with chemist friend have told me that one typical health issue in laboratories is circulation problems due to extended standing periods.

That's why I approached the half and half idea of standing/sitting for my work :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Amazon has had these for a long time. They are just the normal door desk with longer legs.

They are no frills. Just a door, with 4 (4inx4in?) wooden legs attached. I loved the look of them when I was there this summer.

</comment><comment><USER53> I set up a standing configuration yesterday by putting a side table atop my desk and it's been great. If I keep liking it, I'll do a more complete solution that actually costs me money.

</comment><comment><USER54> I had a local carpenter build me a custom standing desk for about $300 including supplies. This is IMO the best way to go for the value.

</comment><comment><USER55> I put my keyboard on top of my iMac and just stand up at work sometimes. Works just as well. Sitting for so long cannot be healthy.

</comment><comment><USER56> Here is my ASCII art rendition of my sub $50 standing desk, from the side and from the front:

        +--    </comment><comment>----  <== monitor platform
        |        |    |
      --|        +----+    <== keyboard platform
        |        |    |
        |        +----+    <== cross-brace
      --+--      |    |

It consists of 2x4s for the frame and two pine boards for the platforms. The base legs are 30" long. The uprights on the sides are now 48.5" tall. The space between the uprights is 36", spanned near the bottom by a 2x4 (originally, I used an Ikea X-brace, but it's a PITA getting it set up without bonking your head without a solid cross-piece to start with).

The upper monitor/laptop deck is a 48" long, 16" deep, 3/4" thick pine board. It's wide so that I can fit multiple monitors, though I'm finding that a single monitor is better for my neck (less twisting). The keyboard platform is a 36" long, 16" deep, 3/4" thick pine board. These are laminated boards, consisting of several strips glued together. They're sold shrink-wrapped at home stores and you can get them paint grade or stain grade.

The keyboard platform is about 44.5" off the ground, and they monitor platform is about 53.25". I currently have about 9" height difference between the keyboard and monitor platforms, which works well for the monitor and monitor stand I'm using (a swinging stand from Monoprice).

The keyboard and monitor platforms are supported by L-brackets made out of glued-and-screwed 2x4s. I made it a point to support the pine boards for about 3/4" of their depth, so that they don't break under stress.

Here is a crude drawing of the L-brackets which support the monitor and keyboard platforms:

        +</comment><comment>+
        | *    |  <== asterisks are drilled holes
        |--+---+
        | *| /    <== 45-degree cut block for extra bracing
        +--+/

Currently, the platforms have holes drilled, and put two bolts through each end to the L-brackets (the bolts screw into threaded inserts which I put into the L-brackets - Google "threaded wood insert"). Then, the L-brackets are through-bolted to the uprights.

I built this particular desk so that I can disassemble it. As such, it uses a series of holes drilled 1" apart in the uprights and the L-brackets. This allows me to move the platforms up and down. Of course, it turns out that this is a bit silly, since the holes don't really line up all that well (i.e. get out the hammer and whack away to get that bolt in), and once I found the position I like, it's not moving. If I were doing this over again, I would use several QuickGrip clamps (and maybe a drilled hole + a screw for safety) to hold everything together while I figure out the geometry, then I would run just drill the necessary bolt holes at that point.

As it stands right now, the desk is a bit wobbly (the monitor sways very slightly as I'm typing this). Using the Ikea metal cross-brace will probably help with that. A simpler solution (which would be important in earthquake- prone areas, btw) would be a small L-bracket at the back of the monitor stand, screwed into the wall behind the desk.

<comment><USER29> Great job! I used a similar design, and love it so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Just built my own. Nice to see silicon valley following my example.</comment>


Only one computer scientist in the world's top 100 public intellectuals - <AUTHOR> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4293 <comment><USER2> The title of the list is a gross misnomer. Half of the people on the list are political activists of some sort.

Take Barenboim. Why is he an intellectual? He is a fantastic pianist, a (IMHO) mediocre conductor and an activist for peace in the middle east.

Take Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is a Dutch politician who build her entire career upon the fact that she has suffered a lot being raised as a female Muslim. She is definitely not what I would call an intellectual.

</comment><comment><USER3> For better or for worse, the modern connotation of an intellectual is heavily slanted towards the matters of humanities and arts. I've had the pleasure of studying under some great computer scientists, but unfortunately, although geniuses in their field, very few of them could be considered an "intellectual" in the current form of its meaning.

<comment><USER4> Note that the list is of _public_ intellectuals -- intellectuals who play a prominent role in public discourse. Most great computer scientists tend to stay out of the public realm, for the most part -- and perhaps with good reason.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The emphasis is obviously on the "public" more than the "intellectual." Witness Thomas Friedman's place on the list!

<comment><USER6> "He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius."

[http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm](http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are two biologists, one physicist, one neuroscientist, and one medical scientist. The list is dominated by individuals with careers in politics, religion, literature, philosophy, and history.

<comment><USER8> I agree, a list of the Top 100 Intellectuals would be dominated by mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and probably a hacker or to, but this list is titled The Top 100 PUBLIC Intellectuals, i.e. public policy, so I wasn't expecting any different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't have much faith in their selection process. Their list of economists includes the man who guided Russian economy into a 40% GDP drop.

>Yegor Gaidar, Russia, Economist, politician

>Gaidar was Boris Yeltsin's acting prime minister from June 15 to December 14, 1992 and a proponent of "shock therapy" for the Russian economy.

<comment><USER10> You left out:

>He is a contributing editor to FP.

That should make clear both the quality and the nature of this publication.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> They left off Charles Murray who incidentally derived a novel way of measuring intellectual influence semi-objectively.

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

</comment><comment><USER12> So, who are some computer scientists (and mathematicians) that should be on the list? That is a loaded but honest question.

<comment><USER13> Grothendieck, Knuth, Paul Cohen, Terence Tao, Shing-Tung Yao.

In my opinion Godel was the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, but he's dead.

<comment><USER14> How can you possibly think that Grothendieck should be on a list of _public_ intellectuals?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> There's also Noam Chomsky

</comment><comment><USER16> I find it very hard to believe that Slavoj Zizek is better known, or more influential, than, say, Linus, RMS, PG, Joel, ESR or many others in our field.

Silly, vague, badly defined list.

</comment><comment><USER17> IMHO Mandelbrot, Prigogine, Mccarthy and Minsky should be on that list and by the way Baremboin was born in Argentina.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> ... and zero mathematicians.</comment>


Being dead is breach of contract, PayPal tells deceased patient - <AUTHOR> https://www.rt.com/uk/432612-paypal-death-contract-breach/ <comment><USER2> Extensive discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17499555](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17499555)</comment>


Popular Science Sells 10,000 iPad Subscriptions in First 5 Weeks - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2011/03/30/popular-science-ipad-10000/

<comment><USER2> I look forward to their ability to make this work. Its been interesting to watch the Economist, the WSJ, Popular Mechanics, the Daily, all of these toe into the e-periodical world.

In rockets, there is a point of maximum turbulence (or dynamic pressure) where the rocket is going faster and faster and being buffetted by the atmosphere but the atmosphere is getting thinner and thinner. The danger zone is where the force of drag (as a function of velocity and density) reaches its maximum. Rockets die here, and its the point you have to survive if your rocket will be successful.

For electronic publications that point is where the electronic version subscriptions have cannibalized enough of the print subscriptions that the cost of printing the publication has gone up so high to start losing money (remember that printing, like other manufacturing, has fixed costs that as you print fewer and fewer become a larger and larger component of each issue).

Success will be defined where the publications gets through that point and digital subscriptions take over paying the bills even when you eject the entire print business and drop everyone who won't subscribe to the publication digitally.

How a publisher survives transitioning through maximum dynamic subscriber pressure (to coin a phrase) will define successful publishers in the 21st century. (my opinion of course)

</comment><comment><USER3> They have a $14.99 1 year subscription until Mar 31. Loved the magazine as a kid. The iPad could add an interesting dimension to a science magazine.</comment>


What's next in HTML: the sandbox attribute - <AUTHOR> http://blog.whatwg.org/whats-next-in-html-episode-2-sandbox

<comment><USER2> Good stuff. Too bad you can't finely tune what is and what isn't allowed. Like disabling just window.location, etc..</comment>


2-Year Stanford Study Shows the Productivity Boost of Working from Home - <AUTHOR> https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/a-2-year-stanford-study-shows-astonishing-productivity-boost-of-working-from-home.html <comment><USER2> Here's the paper :

[https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/gsb-cmis/gsb-cmis-download- auth...](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/gsb-cmis/gsb-cmis-download-auth/364391)

The population was workers with at least 6 months time and who had a private room to work in. Also they were call center employees.

I would hesitate to draw a conclusions for a larger population. Some professions and industries might need more time than 6 months. And these aren't jobs with a high level of communication. Plus starting a new project isn't something that is the same for a more detailed profession and might not apply in that case either.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think having a quiet place to work with few (or at least more controllable) distractions is paramount to getting in the zone and staying there. It's always been clear, and now we have some hard data, that working from home lets employees deliver better bang-for-the-buck; and shows that making everyone come to the office day in, day out has a real tax to it.

So maybe you don't need to hire more; just better position the people you've got for success.</comment>


Hydrofoiling America's Cup Yachts: Interview With the Architect - <AUTHOR> http://www.sailingworld.com/blogs/racing/americas-cup/writing-the-rule

<comment><AUTHOR> Some videos of them in action for anyone curious:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzbZ53cSGPE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzbZ53cSGPE)

[http://www.youtube.com/americascup](http://www.youtube.com/americascup)

[http://www.youtube.com/user/OracleRacingTeam](http://www.youtube.com/user/OracleRacingTeam)

[http://www.youtube.com/user/EmTeamNZ](http://www.youtube.com/user/EmTeamNZ)

[http://www.youtube.com/jnavas2](http://www.youtube.com/jnavas2)

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5g3gSoWCSI&t=25m40s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5g3gSoWCSI&t=25m40s)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should I get a 2lb, 3lb or 4lb laptop? - <AUTHOR> Tried using iPad Pro 10.5 for a few weeks as a walkabout machine but it's driving me a bit nuts. Should I get a 2lb, 3lb or 4lb laptop? Basically maps onto MacBook, MacBook Pro 13, MacBook Pro 15. I have a desktop I use for heavy lifting.<p>What's the argument against the 2 lb MacBook? Or is the 13" the "just right" between the "too small" and the "too big"? <comment><USER2> I would go with a macbook air, it's super solid quality wise and a great walkabout. Macbook pro's keyboards are failing left and right. Wait till they sort that out and then think about a pro.

</comment><comment><USER3> We don't know about your use case, style, tolerance for real estate, or eyesight quality, but think of how the appliance is going to be spending most of its time- folded up on your back.

Weight (and to a lesser extent bulk) can make the heavier, more powerful laptops a far worse option. I always cringe when the company "standard" issues my back a heavier-than-necessary burden.

The true merit for me is performance per pound. I've found the heavier laptops, by that metric, lose ground quickly in most situations.

</comment><comment><USER4> Upfront, I'm not a Apple person. I generally buy Business Class windows machines (after making sure I can install Linux on them). While their speakers generally arnt the best, I do enjoy the extended battery life and SSD. I mostly use them for coding laptops. I also like the "flippy" ones, but that's only because I have the tendency to carry them around by their laptop lid and this way it does not snap the neck.

<comment><USER5> Do you know how well the latest x1 yoga supports Linux? Or current "flippy" recommendation? I'm looking for something that allows me to flip the screen when I plug in external mech keyboard

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just my 2c, if money isn't an issue, the latest MBP13 will be good for computing on the go. But will recommend the 256gb model since 128 is a tad too little. imo, the touchbar is just gimmicky and I have friends who don't use that at all.

MacBook is pretty but for a slight top up, you get a better processor and computing power. MBP15 might be a little too much for basic computing.

</comment><comment><USER7> I have MacBook Pro and I hate it for the weight. Its older model and I switched HD, removed optical drive etc.. but its just too heavy. Forget about it. Always get lighter if You can but make sure You can upgrade RAM.

</comment><comment><USER8> Anyone has experience with system76 serval? Weight, looks etc don't bother me as long as they function well and I can have them for at least 5 years.

Also, does adding RAM later work well?

</comment><comment><USER9> What would you use on a walkabout machine exactly?

</comment><comment><USER10> get the 4lb laptop

grow strong</comment>


DHH's journey to Le Mans - <AUTHOR> http://www.alms.com/articles/dh-h%E2%80%99s-journey-le-mans

<comment><USER2> This is pretty typical of the series. There are 3 or 4 drivers to a car for the Le Mans race (24 hours continuous racing). Two or 3 of those will be professional drivers, and one is a rich amateur who brings money. Pay-to-play.

How much you pay and how much you play is up for negotiation. Every team is different.

<comment><USER3> _Two or 3 of those will be professional drivers, and one is a rich amateur who brings money. Pay-to-play._

Often, though, amateurs and pay drivers end up becoming respected professional racers (e.g. Schumacher). DHH's results are showing that if he chose to do so, he might be able to do the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was actually in pit crew (honorary) for another team at this ALMS.

I did get to say hi to DHH tho: [https://twitter.com/joshu/status/201736494426226689/photo/1/...](https://twitter.com/joshu/status/201736494426226689/photo/1/large)

<comment><USER5> Since we are doing this <http://i.imgur.com/5cWxu.jpg>

<comment><USER4> awesome!

the pit i was a guest at is the one DIRECTLY behind your head (TRG).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> DHH commissioned a custom supercar, the one-off Pagani Zonda HH <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1670712>

</comment><comment><USER7> This isn't hacker news. It's DHH and car racing fan news.

Spend less time hero-worshipping and more time being a hero.

</comment><comment><USER8> Money can't buy happiness but it can buy some very fast cars.

</comment><comment><USER9> Try fixing new basecamp before poncing around with this bollocks

</comment><comment><USER10> He's basically becoming Bruce Wayne

</comment><comment><USER11> There are very few people on this planet who make me envious, but DHH is one of them.

</comment><comment><USER12> What a waste of fuel.</comment>


Zero-shot learning: Using text to more accurately identify images - <AUTHOR> https://code.fb.com/ai-research/zero-shot-learning/ <comment><USER2> > WHY IT MATTERS:

> To become more useful, computer vision systems will need to recognize > objects they have not specifically been trained on. For example, it is > estimated that there are more than 10,000 living bird species, yet most > computer vision data sets of birds have only a couple hundred categories.

I think it matters more for Facebook that they can apply these techniques to learn more about the 4 billion people that are not on Facebook, I don't think they care that much about birds ;)

<comment><USER3> However, where do you find a nice and detailed text description of you?

next on facebook: block accounts randomly and reenable them if you can describe a friend

<comment><USER4> They have been doing something like that for years: if you get locked out of your account, they show you pictures of friends and ask you to identify them. I know this has nothing to do with what the article describes, I'm just stating this for the record :P

[https://www.androidtipster.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/08/fa...](https://www.androidtipster.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/08/facebook_identify_friends.jpg)

(It's an old Mac and an old design of Facebook... Just so you can see how old this screenshot is!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm sorry, but I work in this field and I find this so amazing that I don't have any sensible comments to make.

I still find the fast.ai devise paper demo[1] amazing, and that is just working on labelled but unseen classes via the ImageNet hierarchy.

In this case they do really fine grained classification on unseen classes, with no hierarchy and instead exploit plain (noisy!) text.

This visual pivot thing is something I'm going to spend the next year coming back to I think.

[1] [https://github.com/fastai/fastai/blob/master/courses/dl2/dev...](https://github.com/fastai/fastai/blob/master/courses/dl2/devise.ipynb)</comment>


Kobo says you cannot share your account: not with a spouse, your kids, anyone - <AUTHOR> http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/10/23/kobo-says-youre-no-longer-allowed-to-share-your-account-not-with-a-spouse-your-kids-anyone/

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting bit in the comments:

«I remember being at a demo of Adobe Digital rebook reader when it was first released many years ago. The rep went through the license agreement with some care and pointed out that under the rules, it was forbidden for anyone to read over your shoulder. That's just how silly some of these guys are.»</comment>


Unit Economics I HATE You - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@guyshachar28/dear-unit-economics-i-hate-you-7c28b9aef08d#.tjvd6ozao <comment><USER2> If your not trying to scale your business for investors you have a lot of play in unit economics though. There are lots of ways to obtain customer cheap but they usually don't scale and you don't get lots of them. targeted SEO versus PPC, bing and/or targeted ppc campaigns versus google, doorhangers versus direct mail, non-viral social media.

</comment><comment><USER2> I think the biggest problem with uber for X is the business model usually entails trading margin for streamlining the business by outsourcing the capital/labor intensive parts to others. And it can only work if your the goto place for XYZ over google and everyone else.</comment>


Stop with "contamination" about GPL. It's just "hereditary" - <AUTHOR> http://tieguy.org/blog/2012/02/02/the-license-term-smorgasbord-copyleft-share-alike-reciprocal-viral-or-hereditary/

<comment><AUTHOR> Reading the comments about Apple's move to reject the GPLv3, describing the GPL (v2, v3) as 'viral' or 'contaminating' non-GPL code, or being a 'trap', is the reason why I posted this link.

People who say the GPL is viral have either no idea what they're talking about (i.e. they haven't read the license or they don't understand it: it's a legal document, it's not easy) or they're just against free software (open source) in general.

For information, the term "viral" was coined around 1999 (earlier?) by Microsoft (which itself has now contributed to the Linux Kernel, under.... the GPL!)</comment>


Is there a creativity deficit in science? - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/is-there-a-creativity-deficit-in-science/ <comment><USER2> It's not just government funding. It seems that even most scientists and fans of science are hostile to research projects that seem to contradict known facts or trusted theories.

For example, consider the recent report from NASA's Advanced Propulsion lab on a weird microwave resonance chamber that supposedly produces an anomalous thrust when powered up. In their initial test, they found a force that they could not explain as error, and recommended a more rigorous set of testing.

Keep in mind that this is a respected institution (NASA), that is funding a small team of people to check out ideas that seem crazy. It's exactly what this article says we need more of.

Yet, the reaction was visceral mockery and rejection, even from other professional scientists. Not even a "hmm, that's really weird, we should keep checking this out." It was more like, "you stupid idiots, don't you know that's impossible??"

It's a cultural problem in the U.S. that seems to go well beyond funding. The public supporters of science have become so focused on fighting culture wars against "bad science" that their default reaction to anything surprising is to attack attack attack.

When in fact the whole point of science is to find things that seem unexplainable, and then try to find an explanation.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you're a scientist, it's best for your career to do small incremental improvements on previous research. That guarantees a steady stream of publications.

If you go for a big idea and are wrong, then your career is over.

Also, peer review is censorship. If you're doing something radically different, it's less likely to pass peer review.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the cons of the Seattle area?   - <AUTHOR> On paper, this city and state seems almost perfect.  The government is solvent.  There's no income tax.  The housing is somewhat affordable.  A rail system is actually being built.  I hear there is a strong technical community there as well.
While Silicon Valley is definitely first, it looks like Seattle could be a good alternative.
So what's the cons of the place?  The only ones I can think off on the top of my head is the lack of a non-compete agreement worker protection, less venture capital, and a giant volcano which gives me nightmares of Pompeii.  Anything else? <comment><USER2> Housing is expensive. In a lot of areas, it's cheaper to rent a house or apartment than to pay a mortgage on one of similar square footage, but occasionally you can find good deals.

There is a lot of theft. Not trying to scare you, but three of my friends' cars have been broken into or stolen. King County seems to break up theft rings every few months, posting online pictures of stolen property to be reclaimed.

While there are a lot of ethnic food restaurants, they are average to poor compared to ones in other metropolitan areas, and are often Americanized. So if you like authentic spicy Tamil South Indian, Indonesian, or Thai cuisine, you may be disappointed as compared to San Francisco, Houston, or Chicago. American food and sushi, however, is plentiful and good. BBQ is rare, and finding good BBQ is often a topic of casual conversation, and it becomes a big deal whenever a BBQ restaurant opens or closes.

If you have sinus problems like non-allergic rhinitis, the stagnant damp air and the lack of frequent sunshine as a disinfectant often leads to sinus infections. Having lived in three different regions (Midwest, South, and Seattle), I've had far more sinus problems in Seattle than in the other regions. Many people have told me they started having allergies only after they moved to Seattle.

As others have said, there's traffic.

<comment><USER3> Agreed on the allergies, if you got 'em then you got 'em. Mine went away when I moved away. I'd still go back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The traffic is atrocious. Because the tech community is split between Seattle and the Eastside across the lake, which only has two bridges, you either have to only work at companies on the same side of the lake as where you live, move whenever you change jobs, or endure a nasty commute.

The rail system isn't going to be that helpful. That's a mainly north-south link, but there's no good east-west transit or arterials in Seattle. If they ever manage to get rail to the Eastside, that'll be helpful, but that's probably a decade away.

The weather and sunlight levels during the winter, which is from late October through mid June, is depressing. It's constantly cloudy, drizzly, and dark. The sunrise is around 9, and sunset is around 4:30. Because of the dense cloud layer, I often keep my lights on even at noon.

The people are hard to befriend. Search for the "Seattle Freeze". Everyone's polite, but no one invites you to do anything.

</comment><comment><USER5> There's a reasonably high earthquake risk, more likely to happen in your lifetime than a volcano.

On the social side, Seattle tends to be somewhat slower paced than SF or NY. You might not see the same level of high intensity and fast paced tech development that you find elsewhere, and might feel like you're moving slower than you want. There is an oft-noted 'seattle freeze', where people are polite, but reluctant to form close friendships - meaning that you might have more trouble finding the same strong friendships and communities that you can elsewhere.

<comment><AUTHOR> How hard is it to network and have spontaneous idea exchange with strangers? How hard is it to find help from strangers?

<comment><USER6> It's really easy to get help from strangers. If you're lost or need a tip on where to go, you can stop and ask a local. Networking is easy too--plenty of tech networking events in the city. Spontaneous idea exchange at a coffee shop is probably a bit more difficult. As other commenters have noted, the Seattle Freeze is a real thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> We opened up an office there just over a year ago. Finally saw it in March last year. We'd planned to go in January, but the few feet of snow and freezing weather wasn't going to fly with my fellow Texans. When we did get out there, it was beautiful. Cost $3.00 to take the rail from the airport to downtown where our office is located. Everything was within walking distance and there's a lot in that area. Never needed a car. I'll visit again, so long as its warm.

</comment><comment><USER8> I've never heard of the Seattle Freeze, but upon reading about it, it can't be any worse than the Salt Lake City freeze if you're not downtown. Interesting, I wonder if moving from Salt Lake to Seattle would make the "freeze" feel like nothing.

</comment><comment><USER9> Other than 9 months of grey skies and drizzling rain, it is perfect. However, a short 2 to 3 hour drive eastward brings you into brilliant sunshine 300 days per year. I've chosen to live in the east half of the state. :-)

<comment><USER10> I would argue that the rain is a perk, and not a negative. But there are some that love the rain, some that live with it.

Washington is a beautiful state, the east side is a lot drier if you prefer less rain.

Lots of opportunities and 20minutes from Seattle takes you into the Mountains to get lost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The traffic is pretty bad.

<comment><USER6> And the public transit isn't great either. No subway and a very limited light rail/streetcar system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Try it for a couple years, you might never leave. Not everything is an exercise in optimization. You could plus/minus yourself right out of the most magical place you'll ever live.

 _Cons_ , because you asked and because _everyplace_ has cons:

Greyer/rainier/mistier than most places, colder and snowier than some.

Related, it can be hard to see much of the sky sometimes, with frequent overcast or moisture combined with everygreens everywhere. You may sometimes feel you're living in a green maze and can't see for long distances. But there is plenty of open space too.

Housing is more expensive than the midwest.

Traffic in Seattle is terrible during commutes if you have to cross Seattle North/South or cross the lake.

 _Pros_ , because I used to live there and miss it:

You will never run out of something to do or somewhere to go.

It's beautiful. Stunning. Seattle is on Puget Sound, a giant inlet leading to the Pacific, but protected from waves and water violence. You can take ferry rides all over the sound. On some days the water is glass, the sky is unbelievably blue, and Mt Rainier is large and looming no matter where you go. Gulls surfing in the ferry's air wake, killer whales, kayaks and boats and ships of all sizes. Giant drift wood, and charming houses and evergreens right up to the shoreline.

It's so green that moss grows on arterial roads in the shade.

There's a lot of old buildings and new, and lots of neighborhoods are still identifiable as distinct neighborhoods.

Archie McPhee.

Green Lake.

Lots of higher education, UW and PLU and others, and all the spillover that comes with it. It's not Stanford, but it's good, and widespread throughout the Sound.

The Cascades Range to the east. Skiing in the winter. It's not consistently dry powder like Colorado, but it's skiing. Lots of places to ski Nordic; they leave the logging roads open for Nordic, and you buy a cheap sticker for your car to pay for the porta-potties in the parking turnouts.

Hiking in the spring and summer.

Kayak camping in the San Juan Islands.

The Olympic Peninsula to the west, including the Olympic Rainforest, and a very rugged west coast facing the Pacific.

A great skydiving community (start with Snohomish and/or Kapowsin), and if you just like to fly it's an incredible view, a line of volcanoes and ranges from British Columbia to Oregon. Lots of little lakes besides the Sound itself, looks like green and gold and blue coins sparkling on a green rug.

There are no snakes in Western Washington.

Farther east is Eastern Washington, essentially desert. There are snakes

To the North is British Columbia. Victoria, Vancouver. Cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska.

You should go.</comment>


India is the next internet frontier (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/business/internet-usage-india-future/ <comment><USER2> A positive thing for International companies is that India has a very large section of English speakers and that is only growing. So they did enter and expanded in the market easily.

But in the last few years due to Jio revolution, people from tier 3 cities and villages and getting connected to the internet for the first time. So companies wanting to capture these markets have to put extra effort into their products. Aside from language preferences, this section sees products in a different manner. Like Tiktok and Youtube have very different "popular" videos here.

</comment><comment><USER3> There is a revolution boiling. Jio not just made internet accessible, it became catalyst in braking the barrier of classes and location and thinking, and education. The whole importance of it will be felt in coming decades if not years. It's crazy out here.

<comment><USER4> I am all for cheaper and accessible internet, but I have a few concerns.

On pricing, the incumbents really needed a jolt with their terrible pricing. But I think Jio went a little too far. It achieved all that it has by excessive and extended predatory pricing, primarily because it had access to unprecedented amounts of cash (from Ambani/Reliance) that the other providers do not. Vodafone-Idea and Airtel (the other major providers) have both suffered massive losses, the former has defaulted on their loans, and the stock has fallen to all time lows, and the firm itself is looking to exit the market - which is even worse as this could lead to a duopoly.

As for the access, I am not sure if India is ready to deal with unchecked free flow of information, considering how much of our population is prey to false propaganda and fake news. Whatsapp has already causes enough harm with the mindless sharing of unchecked/unverified news. With recent reports [1] of the ruling political party (BJP) resorting to distribution of deep fakes using dedicated IT cells to push a false narrative, the situation doesn't look comforting.

[1] - [https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615247/an-indian- politici...](https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615247/an-indian-politician- is-using-deepfakes-to-try-and-win-voters/)

<comment><USER5> > I am not sure if India is ready to deal with unchecked free flow of > information

Fellow Indian, 100% agreed. Most of people who told me Wikipedia was unreliable now trust random WhatsApp forward messages.

<comment><USER6> But this is just stupidity. Does exist also a lot in the western world, but I don't see, how that can improved with restricting information flow?

<comment><USER7> Yup, there is no magic potion for imparting critical thinking. If anybody thinks Indians are the only ones affected by misinformation, please go to the Twitter feed of the current president of the United states, and read the replies.

<comment><USER8> I totally agree that misinformation is everywhere but I still think there's a huge difference in just how impactful/dangerous misinformation can be in countries like india vs the US.

I'm not indian, but a very similar pattern of a sudden explosion in internet access happened in Morocco, where I'm from. Morocco has a relatively large population of uneducated or barely educated young people that are super active on the internet and to be honest, the results are just horrible. Especially since majority of them are unemployed (which isn't their fault, the job market there is just horrible) and have nothing else to do anyways. And what happened to the two danish girls murdered there imo is directly related to that mix of totally ignorant people with total access to information they can barely process that end up radicalized

<comment><USER7> Misinformation has a huge impact everywhere, and I don't see how other companies are more immune to it. With the president of the US claiming climate change is a hoax, invented by the Chinese, and Boris Johnson, the current PM of England, saying NHS will get so much money back on leaving the EU, these countries sure don't look immune. Mind you, these are not trivial lies, these are lies believed by a huge number of their followers. And both of the above people ended up winning elections.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't doubt that for _most_ of India, _most_ of the time, vast numbers of people now have new LTE services on their phone that were previously unavailable to them.

Meanwhile, the Indian government thinks it can order ISPs to shut down Internet services in wide geographic regions for long periods of time:

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia- india-50819905](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50819905)

[https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/how- the...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/how-the-worlds- largest-democracy-shuts-down-the-internet)

Government attempts at censorship are constant and ongoing: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India)

Doesn't exactly seem like a bastion of Internet freedom to me.

</comment><comment><USER10> India is the next Internet frontier, in that the state has awful laws with no respect for the privacy of their users.

I hope there are other frontiers than states & governments infringing & clawing nastily at the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, but it sure seems like that's going to be one of the biggest anti-developments splashes for quite a while.

And India seems absolutely to be a vanguard force in fighting heavily against freedom & user rights.

</comment><comment><USER11> This might very well be a false dawn. Internet speeds are downright awful after the Jio-led boom, prices might go substantially up if we are reduced to a duopoly, and the startups that raised billions on the promise of 600M internet users are now finding out that just because people have internet doesn't mean that they are a valuable audience for businesses.

</comment><comment><USER12> factual error - "almost a third of the unconnected are in India". It should be "almost a quarter of the unconnected are in india.". 0.9B of 3.5B.

There are ~550M internet users in India (2019), that leaves out ~750 million unconnected users. 150M less than 0.9B.

There are other factual errors as well. Real sloppy journalism.

<comment><USER13> The article is from 2018 as mentioned in title.

<comment><USER12> 2018? then it is "even more" incorrect.

What's up with the downvotes? The journalist hasn't done the math and has blown up the numbers to increase the significance of the article. This is a real pervasive problem.</comment></comment></comment>


The midlife crisis confronting many Americans - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/the-real-midlife-crisis-confronting-many-americans-114347 <comment><USER2> "Meanwhile, the adult children of middle-aged Americans are still reeling from the Great Recession of 2008. A tepid labor market combined with student loan debt has left grown adult children struggling to find stable, long-term employment, and they've delayed buying a house and starting a family."

This again? Nobody was forced to spend $100,000 on a college degree with no chance at actually getting a job. Community college was and is a great option at a fraction of the cost.

On top of that, the current economy is better than ever. Lowest unemployment rate in decades and more jobs than people that can fill them.</comment>