Netflix and Amazon are struggling to win over Indian viewers - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/05/netflix-and-amazon-are-struggling-to-win-over-indian-viewers.html <comment><USER2> I am a Netflix subscriber in India. The monthly subscription fee is Rs 800. Which is very high by Indian standards. A very small portion of Indian audience has taste for American shows. Some of Netflix's Indian shows have a political/ideological undertone which is not liked by a segment of audience. Netflix and Amazon both suffer from a very limited collection of Bollywood movies. These are some reasons IMHO.

<comment><USER3> What's the political/ideological undertone?

<comment><USER4> Netflix and its leadership are hard left. India, as a whole, is not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Behind the scenes, this has been a big boon for CDNs, my work is powering Amazon, and it is interestingly derived from work from Netflix on FreeBSD TCP. Together we are making TCP work much better on these largely wireless networks.

<comment><USER6> I know just networking basics so when I hear that someone's improving TCP I'm instantly captured. I need to know more. I had no idea you could improve TCP. I thought it was a fixed entity, for better or worse.

<comment><USER5> Most of what I'm doing is systems engineering. Incorporating research and code from others. Reporting and occasionally fixing bugs. The research in this case is primarily coming from Google. Linux has the state of the art TCP stack at the moment, but for various reasons ([http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2018_04_11-bowling_in_the_lime...](http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2018_04_11-bowling_in_the_limelight)) we run FreeBSD. So the other part is re-implementing things on that. I am individual contributor on the main body of our code, I directly recruited and hired my team, and sought out and set up contracts to get features like TCP Fast Open done (with some particular twists that make sense for our workload). In an industrial setting, it is both competent and desirable for most companies to be in this kind of engineering mode (application of existing technology).

I'll give this simple example as a call to action. Schedulers of any kind, say the one that puts threads on to CPUs, are open-ended problems. If you co- design a system with hardware and software, it is highly likely you can get a 20% speedup in a system by manually emplacing different workloads (i.e. NIC interrupt handlers, application threads). In TCP, this same kind of thing applies. If you run Linux, there are a lot of things in the Documentation/ directory of the kernel that are worth reading and tuning. Selecting a congestion control, and tuning buffer sizes is very much "working on TCP" and could benefit any company using TCP. It's also something anyone with a few years of general development experience shouldn't feel intimidated to do! The most critical skill isn't any particular technology but learning to measure and confidently make and deploy changes. Likewise, there are very few things on computers that can't be improved. This can range from tuning general settings to a particular workload or change of underlying hardware, to algorithmic advances.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The problem that I personally see, at least with Netflix India, is that finding content is like finding needle in a haystack.

Some time back (last year or so), they were showing IMDB ratings for their content, but not now (maybe a falloff with Amazon since it owns IMDB). Now they try to find similar to what I've already watched, which IMHO does not make sense most of the time. I am here to find something new, not exactly same to what I've already seen. Moreover, I first look up the rating on IMDB of whatever I want to watch, and these days it mostly hovers around (5 or 6) out of 10 for almost all of their content.

PS: IMDB isn't silver bullet, but the user reviews are quiet spot on.

<comment><USER8> This is one of biggest gripes with Netflix as well. Their percentage rating system just tells how close a title is to stuff you have already watched. The problem with this kind of recommender system is that you stay in a bubble and never see content that is a departure from what you normally watch. Sadly, this is the case with most applications today.

Coming back to the topic, Netflix sorely needs an actual rating system, either like IMDB or something built in-house.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> India is a highly price sensitive market, like some other developing countries. If something is "free", it will win in India. Not that paid services cannot survive, but "free" will trump those by a huge margin. This just cannot be changed. But with higher disposable incomes and reducing mobile data charges (which still cost a lot on some providers), people are willing to spend a little on quality.

Hotstar has a huge user base mainly because it offers a lot of content for "free", and this is something Netflix and Amazon don't do. If someone were to get the revenue numbers from paying subscribers, I'd bet on Hotstar being far behind the others.

As someone who has used these three services, my ranking of Hotstar would put it way below Netflix and Prime Video. The Hotstar app is quite primitive and is probably two or three years behind Netflix. It doesn't even have lists, ratings, profiles, etc., leave alone features like skipping title screens and others. Hotstar is also restrictive for paying customers since it allows only one screen at a time. Like Prime Video, Hotstar is designed for individuals, not families. For a family of four, if they wanted Hotstar's paid content, it would cost the same as Netflix's highest tier. This is subjective, but it'd most likely be a poorer deal for many.

Those who want high quality content and don't mind paying would go for Netflix. People also share subscriptions with their friends or family members to defray costs. Those who don't want to pay a lot would go with Amazon Prime.

What Netflix and Amazon need to do to grow their subscriber base would be to license a lot of local content (the latter is doing well on that), like movies and TV serials in different languages. They should also look at providing English and other foreign language content voice dubbed in Indian languages. Hollywood movies have long been released in India in English and local languages. The same goes for many English shows too.

Netflix and Amazon will hopefully figure things out, and I'm confident that Netflix is here to stay as the leader in quality on multiple fronts. The rest of the players may replace cable but remain ad supported (like 20 minutes of ads in an hour of content) and kill each other with their "free" and partially free offerings. They're more of a threat to each other than to these two behemoths.

</comment><comment><USER10> Netflix's android app is simply horrible. I prefer to watch pewdiepie on youtube than netflix's latest show because of that. I subscribed to their mid- level plan for about a year. One day while watching the daredevil, I realized the quality was so pathetic that it felt like playing a VCR on my 1440p screen. Canceled the subscription and I just watch Youtube now.

<comment><USER8> What did you not like about it? I've been using it for the last few months and found it to be fairly good. I believe it got some significant updates (especially to the video player) recently.

<comment><USER10> Off the top of my head:

1\. slow to load the main screen

2\. slow to resume a video

3\. quality is very low, both streaming and downloaded

4\. many videos cannot be downloaded

5\. sometimes the playback won't start and I have to force stop the app.

6\. the app cannot be minimized to a window

7\. seeking is slow and buggy

8\. many shows have only old series, for example, expanse

These comparisons are with youtube. All in all, it feels like a single sprint effort to me. Guess they are spending all their money on content.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The only way this can be settled, is a dance-off between Bezos and Hastings.

</comment><comment><USER12> This seems to be your 6th attempt to post the same article here (albeit with slightly modified titles). Are you doing this because you are genuinely interested in discussing with the community or because you are desperate for some internet points?

If it's the former, let's hear your thoughts.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,

Fair point. I wrote the story. My thoughts are in the story. I don't generally submit my own stories, but I genuinely want more people to see it. (There is no traffic incentive or anything.)

<comment><USER13> Using HN to find the most catchy headline? :)</comment></comment></comment>


A tale of two expats - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/node/17797134

<comment><USER2> I grew up in Asia (up until my high school year). Back then, my generation were influenced heavily by western culture: basketball, hip-hop, R&B, rap, pop, boy-band, baseball, pizza, steaks, computers.

Many of my friends went to study abroad (mostly US and UK) and hope to settle as long as they can like my uncle and aunt who had done the same thing 20 years ago.

About 2 years ago, I saw a change in tide where most of my friends (or friends of friends) were going back home. Most of them prefer to go back home because they would get a better job, which is normal for western educated young worker.

I went back home twice since 2009 and traveled in SE Asia a bit. I see why people wanted to go back: it's not just the job, it's the culture, the networks, friends, family. The whole package.

It's easy to "connect" with people who have big businesses there. Often you meet them in odd places like noodle shops, outdoor markets, food courts.

Night life is definitely better. By night-life I mean strolling down the Clarke Quay in Singapore, eat dinner outside style food court in Jakarta, or wandering around Ginza in Tokyo, enjoy Seafood in Jimbaran (Bali) mostly with your husband/wife and kids. Not necessarily means clubbing or bar. Thus better here is relative.

After a while, the fried chicken and the filet mignon became dry and tasteless to my wife and I. We've decided to pursue ways to go back to Asia starting this year. We'll see if we can go back there soon enough before our retirement (plan was to go back to retire).

<comment><USER3> What do you think this says about the US? Be honest.

(I don't have any political motivations here. I love my country. But I'm curious as to your perspective.)

<comment><USER2> There are less hype about US these days. That's all. US is no longer the powerhouse it used to be.

US used to be a symbol of pride among SE Asia tourists: you have to visit US, smell the air, buy their bands, etc. These days, Japan and other exotic locations seem a lot more interesing.

It used to be working there is like some sort of symbol of success. These days, only IT and blue-collar workes who still want to go to US. The rest stay put.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am a 30 year old American, lived in America all my live, but have been in Taiwan for 9 months and I absolutely love it.

There's not much of a 'lower middle' class, but there's a sizable 'upper middle' class. If you can get there, you can live very very well.

There's less foreign population than in Beijing (can't comment on Shanghai, some people like it more, some people less). I still get a lot of looks if I'm not in the 'heavily foreigner populated' sections, but you get used to it eventually.

Compared to Beijing, the air is much cleaner, the food much better and diverse, and the english ability is much much better.

Biggest problems: Learning chinese is hard, hot humid summer

Having said all of that... I have no interest in living in Mainland full time. The air is too dirty, the people are too rude, and the great firewall is too annoying.

</comment><comment><USER5> _Europe's toiling masses sometimes go on strike, leaving streets unswept and commuters stranded. Chinese expats find this shocking. Though there are stoppages in some factories in China, no one strikes in public services there_

As an American, I find the public service strikes in Europe pretty disconcerting as well. I don't know if there are major legal differences in the US, but it's much less common here.

</comment><comment><USER6> The article doesn't seem to have had more than two sources. I would have more confidence in its perspectives if it had more variety, at least.</comment>


Nodaphone — library to control your webapp with your phone - <AUTHOR> http://dtrejo.no.de/

<comment><AUTHOR> My first real OSS project, feedback appreciated :)

Some backstory:

Last weekend at HackNY my friends and I built a worms / scorched earth style game that you can control with your phone (even dumb phones and landlines).

I then ripped out the twilio and node.js bits so others can make phone- controlled apps.

Enjoy!

PS My friends and I will be presenting the game we made in NYC on November 2nd at NYTM, make sure to come if you're in the area.

<comment><USER2> Where's the Scorched Earth game?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey chopsueyar, since it's meant for situations with a large audience and a projector, we haven't made it public. If we do however, we'll definitely let people know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I was sitting next to you when this was coded at HackNY. Good work haha

</comment><comment><USER4> I didn't get it - nothing really happened for me after I pressed buttons.

<comment><USER5> I didn't get it at first as well, all i heard was "View" on the phone. Did you try scrolling down a bit to the section - "Events show below as people and phones hit the above URLs," your actions get appended below that like.

      {"action":["+XXX-xxx-xxxx","1"]}
      {"action":["+XXX-xxx-xxxx","9"]}

BTW - this is damn awesome, thanks open sourcing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> All it needs is a voice to text translator. This is pretty cool.</comment>


The Tech Job Market and Skills for 2014 - <AUTHOR> http://codingthis.com/management/tech-job-market-skills-2014/ <comment><USER2> Java != Javascript

<comment><USER3> Heh, came here to say this. Something as simple as this really blows the credibility of the entire piece.</comment></comment>


Just because it's falsifiable doesn't mean it's good science - <AUTHOR> http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/01/just-because-its-falsifiable-doesnt.html <comment><USER3> Of course, but if it's falsifiable then once it's falsified _it will go away_. If it's not falsifiable then it's "not even wrong" and it's impossible to convince people to stop repeating it as if it's fact (or worse, an 'undeniable possibility').

<comment><USER4> Right, but how many billions of dollars are you willing to spend to falsify a hypothesis?

The author is arguing that the proposal to replace the LHC with a 100km replacement isn't worth the cost considering the low probability that any of these theories it could prove actually turn out to be true. We have little to gain by them being false and little reason to think they are true.

<comment><USER5> Say the member countries have 500 million people in a population. In order for them to spend 20 billion on LHC, you would need to tax those people ~$40. My intuition is that people would be willing to pay that to understand that some theory is correct or incorrect. Even proving gravity waves could not be done for 100 years after the theory.

<comment><USER6> > My intuition is that people would be willing to pay that to understand that > some theory is correct or incorrect.

When doing this sort of calculations, you have to take into account that you're taxing THE WHOLE population: completely destitute people, people near the poverty line, children who ear exactly $0, etc. For some of these poeple, $40 can be way too much. In practice, if you tax a child that doesn't earn an income, you're taxing the parents. Of course it's possible that on average you can tax $40 from each person, but that might require taxing $400 from some people and $0 from other people.

That said, there might be better ways of spending that money than on this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> He is arguing against building the larger particle collider.

There are too little theory support of such collider can find anything new under the standard model.

IMO, it is not the matter of "science". This is economics.

<comment><USER8> And economics isn't a science?

<comment><USER9> Is it falsifiable ? Is it testable even ?

<comment><USER10> When people are proven wrong, does the conversation move forward, or do large swathes of people grip onto their beliefs anyway?

<comment><USER11> That has nothing to do with whether or not something is a science.

<comment><USER12> It is when the people who don't move on are the people doing the "science."

<comment><USER11> No, even then it has nothing to do with whether or not the subject of debate is scientific.

Bad deontology on the part of an individual doesn't discredit the field as a whole.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I can understand the argument, but what other methods do we have to test particle physics other than building larger and more powerful colliders? Are there some new designs that would make it cheaper?

Otherwise I don't mind spending money just for the sake of exploration, maybe that money could be "more well spent", but that's true for a lot of things. Who knows maybe it will find something interesting. It's not even a total waste anyway as it will probably spur jobs / research / interest.

<comment><USER12> Currently there's a good chance there's nothing to test.

The _real_ problem in physics isn't lack of data, it's lack of direction. The Standard Model has been a thing for decades now. It's good at what it does, but there are a lot of fundamental things it doesn't do.

The proposed Future Circular Collider will cost at least €24bn.

That would fund any number of research programs willing to take a bold look at fundamentals from different angles.

Currently there's superstring theory and various attempts at quantum gravity, but none of them are moving much.

A number of less mainstream possible leads have been discarded for what are really political reasons - prestige and funding - not because they're poor science.

Imagine if we'd never had quantum theory or relativity. Physics would seem incredibly backward. But realistically, in today's academic climate Einstein would never be published.

€5bn a year for five years on open fundamental research with fewer political and academic constraints has a better chance of generating a breakthrough than spending €24bn on a big machine that will most likely produce no breakthroughs at all.

Of course it's a gamble, but in international terms €25bn is pocket money.

<comment><USER14> _> But realistically, in today's academic climate Einstein would never be published._

Can you expand on this? This isn't a leading question, I actually don't immediately see what you mean.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Tangent: I find it interesting that futurists often claim technology is accelerating such that a "Singularity" of technological development may occur. To my eyes, however, the opposite seems true--each technological advancement seems exponentially more expensive, as if we've picked all the low hanging fruit. And now we're building $24bn particle accelerators to test really obscure things that may or may not have any impact on the next breakthrough.

<comment><USER16> It is a time honored tradition for futurists to look at an emerging technology, see that it currently has exponential growth, and then project that out to infinity.

So rarely do you hear them say "Dammit, yet another S curve! Why is it always an S curve in the end!?!"

<comment><USER17> > So rarely do you hear them say "Dammit, yet another S curve! Why is it > always an S curve in the end!?!"

Kurzweil's books and articles are full of this, see, e.g.:

[http://www.kurzweilai.net/seeing-the-s-curve-in- everything](http://www.kurzweilai.net/seeing-the-s-curve-in-everything)

[http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating- returns](http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What is meant by "natural" in the context of the Standard Model?

<comment><USER18> This:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalness_(physics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalness_\(physics\))

Hossenfelder wrote a book crtizising current mainstream thinking on the importance and role of naturalness:

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36341728-lost-in- math](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36341728-lost-in-math)

Here is an excellent review that also links to an article by Wilczek defending the orthodoxy.

[https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.5086393?fbclid=IwAR...](https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.5086393?fbclid=IwAR2ObiWweyc- GnBsJeRZ4qfAahPeLGcPHFWidgnqk2ZE3_PUc7iczTNPQIc)

<comment><USER11> Cool, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Did anyone ever say it did?

<comment><USER20> It's more about whether this aspect is properly considered. Some physicist think building bigger particle accelerators is good simply because it can falsify more models. However the the quality of those models must also be taken into account.

<comment><USER19> Then they should have led with that instead of the general point about falsifiability.

When writing for an audience that has limited attention to give always put the executive summary first.

<comment><USER20> I think it's fine. In the second line it says

> A major reason we see so many wrong predictions in the foundations of > physics – and see those make headlines – is that _both scientists and > science writers take falsifiability to be a sufficient criterion for good > science_.

Personally the line that caught my eye straight away was the one on it's own that said

> Why does it matter?

after which comes the stuff about bigger accelerators.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It is impossible to ever prove or disprove a theory, so falisfiability is a red herring.

For a theory _T_ and observations _O_ , you can have 4 possible scenarios. Where "!" indicates "not":

Starting from theory

      Modus Ponens            : T  therefore O
      Denying the Antecedant  : !T therefore !O

Starting from observation

      Affirming the Consequent: O  therefore T
      Modus Tollens           : !O therefore !T

Denying the antecedent and affirming the consequent are both invalid if other theories may be consistent with the same observations (which is always the case), leaving us with Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens as valid forms of reasoning.

What this means is that we can deduce:

      1. what we should observe if our theory is really true (Modus Ponens)
      2. a theory is not true if we fail to observe what it predicts (Modus Tollens)

Modus Ponens reasoning is used to derive testable predictions from a theory, and then Modus Tollens reasoning is used when checking if the theory predicts the correct observations.

However, the relationship between theory and prediction _P_ is not so simple. It is always the case that other assumptions _A_ must be made along with the theory. These assumptions can be as simple as "the equipment is functioning properly", but can get much more complicated.[1] I.e.:

      (T AND A) entails P

If we fail to observe the prediction _P_ , then the entire left side gets negated:

       !P entails !(T AND A)

This is equivalent to saying _either_ T or A is incorrect:

       !P entails !T OR !A

So even in the best case scenario, you can never know if it is your theory that is wrong or some other assumption you making is wrong.

This should tell us the real value of science lies somewhere else besides falsifiability, e.g. in making _useful_ or _otherwise surprising_ predictions.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duhem%E2%80%93Quine_thesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duhem%E2%80%93Quine_thesis)

</comment><comment><USER22> tl;dr- They're arguing that there's little point to building a new, larger particle collider to succeed the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) because, while there are hypotheses that such a new collider could falsify, those hypotheses aren't sufficiently motivated to be worth falsifying.

<comment><USER23> So I take it the author is well-read in high-energy particle physics to make this claim?

<comment><USER12> Yes, the author is well-read in particle physics.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong. - <USER2>

Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion. - Feynmann

</comment><comment><USER25> Proper link: [http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/01/just-because-its- fa...](http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/01/just-because-its-falsifiable- doesnt.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> Good article. So many armchair "physicists" in the comments it's hilarious.

I'm rather confused by how many got thrown by her comment about dark matter & assuming an unspecified "fluid", somehow they didn't realize she was just making a reference to the formulation of the original definition of "dark matter".

</comment><comment><USER27> I think this woman has a crusade against current modern physics, and only in this kind of websites resonates. Wonder why.

<comment><USER18> Eh, no. She's an established theoretical physicist. She explains her motivations here:

[https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/02/particle- physicist...](https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/02/particle-physicists- surprised-to-find-i.html?spref=tw&fbclid=IwAR0zB0Jmf5clabM- sP1npVpHp3_f2IVEo0z2OQ1AHOL2ZODOJkg4Jmw5oek)</comment></comment>


High-strength cannabis increases risk of mental health problems - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/19/high-strength-cannabis-increases-risk-of-mental-health-problems <comment><USER2> "For comparison, the team asked more than 1,200 healthy individuals from across the same areas about their cannabis use. The strength of cannabis was estimated from the name individuals gave to the drug."

Oh yeah, that sounds solid. My dealer gave me "aghani super haze skunkworks MEGA-THCBOMB", therefore it has 13% THC.

As an avid cannabis user, the idea that you can link the "name" of what you bought to any chemical attributes of the substance is laughable. They will tell you whatever they think will sell it best. Weed "names" are entirely marketing.

<comment><USER3> They are not.

I know what I have and than it's accurate or I don't know but than there is also no fake name.

People don't just invent new names, they buy straines and remember those names.

But yes I would appreciate a study with more reliability

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A zillion to one the author received generous pharma grants while she was with the chemistry research lab at Oxford.</comment>


Blockchains are a new type of database - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/mutable-matter/databased-47fc1eb0763 <comment><USER2> Not really. We're all used to money we don't hold physically, money that only exists as data. We call it a bank account. We can manipulate that money -- use it to buy something, transfer it, invest it -- without ever physically handling it. The system has some friction and costs, but so does Bitcoin.

I can't remember the last time I physically converted a paycheck to cash. Instead I get a direct deposit and never see the cash unless I use an ATM. I also can't remember the last time I waited "three days" for a check to settle. I can deposit a paper check with my phone and the funds get credited to my account immediately.

While Bitcoin does represent a way to exchange funds that didn't exist in exactly that form before, it's hardly a novel idea. And blockchain is not a database, it's a ledger. Not the same thing.</comment>


The "Do it the Hard Way" Trap - <AUTHOR> http://brianrue.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/the-do-it-the-hard-way-trap/

<comment><USER2> I don't think you'd ever hear anyone whose created something truly great say this.

For a lot of them, good enough, just isn't. (partial Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, quote)

Sure good enough MVPs might be alright. Once you find product market fit, build "whole product" and customer experience. Stop building new stuff, take what you're already doing good enough and make it great.

Fab deliveries used to take 1-2+ months a year ago. Now it takes less than two weeks, sometimes same week. Not holding inventory, inbounding post purchase and MVP pick and pack is the easy way. Since they stopped doing things the easy way, I know my friends and I order 2-3x as much.

At Airbnb, we were technically international from day 1. We could've kept doing internationalization like we were doing....good enough. Instead we chose the hard, increased our language and currency support 2-3x, and spent a painful 2-3 months taking all consumer facing localization forward be leaps and bounds, not steps. We pry wouldn't have doubled the previous 3 years of nights booked in 3 months if we hadn't.

At Munchery, a lot of stuff is currently good enough because they were focused on finding product and operational market fit.

We found fit. Now we're circling back and taking everything we're already doing good enough, and making it freaking great.

You can check back in with me in 3 months and see if doing the hard work was worth if you want.

But I'd bet a lot of money that it will be.

As Mark Cuban said "everyone tells you they're going to be special. But no one does the work. Do the fucking work."*

*I added fucking to Mark's quote

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree with most of what you're saying. What I was trying to communicate is that trying to win by doing things that seem more difficult than everybody else isn't a strategy, it's a cop-out. It can feel unmatchable, but often it's actually a waste of effort.

There absolutely are times when the work required really is hard. Your internationalization example is a great one -- you had to do 3 months of hard work, but the payoff was huge. And you didn't do this until the lower hanging fruit was already done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Actually, what the article calls "the easy way" is often harder than "the hard way". "The hard way" is a lot about jumping into the obvious approach at the first opportunity, while "the easy way" may require some heavy thinking and discussing several alternatives, one of which still is, after all, "the hard way" (sometimes you HAVE to reinvent the wheel).

However, "the easy way", done well, can be faster and thus will feel less work-heavy.

I think I'd go as far as to say that I'll never be a very good engineer because I'm always very "hard way"-prone, and it's a flaw that I don't seem to be able to get rid of.

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed, maybe it would be better the "smart" or "deliberate" way.</comment></comment>


Awesome presentations on scala, groovy, java, functional programming. BDD  ... - <AUTHOR> http://www.agiledeveloper.com/downloads.html

<comment><USER2> Checked briefly some of the them, the one on objective-c for experienced programmers seems nice and concise (starting from c highlight what has been added as syntax/libs), bookmarked.</comment>


Fashion-friendly smart glasses - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/icis-fashion-friendly-smart-glasses

<comment><USER2> At this stage in this new product category, the design of the actual glasses is so irrelevant. What matters is how big the required hardware is, the tech specs of said hardware, and the UI/UX within the user's vision. I'd say the UI/UX is the most important factor, since all the physical hardware will change as it advances.

These types of companies are wasting their time trying to design glasses around this tech. There are thousands of different styles of glasses, would probably be easiest if they just partner with Warby Parker or something to make lots of different styles, without all the work of designing them, since as they say in their video they need hardware/software engineering help. Those problems are more critical than glasses design.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm not feeling that particular frame; It makes everyone look like an angry nerd. That said, it's certainly better-looking than Google Glass. If the 6 hour battery life ends up being the final spec I don't see this going anywhere, but it represents an effort to fix perhaps the biggest marketability issue with Glass, which is of course that it makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

Edit: I have to add that it's cute that they named their startup LAFORGE...can't help but read that as a wink to Star Trek: TNG fans.

</comment><comment><USER4> Mode: Drive ... right-side is all social networking icons, argh. As if inattentional blindness wasn't bad enough _without_ field-of-vision social networking.

I also like how the concept field-of-view renderings conveniently have dark backgrounds on the edges for the overlay. Buildings in shadows, trees, etc.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is that hipster-friendly fashion?

<comment><USER6> Lol</comment></comment>


JAX: Numpy with Gradients, GPUs and TPUs - one-more-minute https://github.com/google/jax <comment><AUTHOR> For anyone else outside of machine learning who was wondering what all of this is, here is my best explanation:

The inferencing phase of a neural network attempts to minimize _error_ or _loss_ as defined by the user. This is done by iteratively applying gradient descent to the error function. Thus, the error function must have a known derivative, which can be difficult if the function has loops and conditionals.

Autograd is a software package that produces derivatives of a function automatically. It creates a computation graph of the user-defined code from which it can determine the derivative:

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

XLA is a JIT from TensorFlow that compiles common array functions. The JAX project from this GitHub page brings JIT optimizations to Autograd's automatic differentiation. That will speed-up the error function when inferring a neural network. Neat!

(I would be grateful for any corrections to my above explanation as I am not an expert in ML.)

<comment><USER2> Another small correction: every instance of "inference" in your comment should probably be replaced with "training." It's the training phase the involves running gradient descent of various flavors to optimize the network parameters.

<comment><USER3> This is an important point.

Inferencing means "to predict" (I'm not sure when this terminology became popular; a few years ago most of us were just using the word predict)

Once trained, a model no longer requires derivatives. It's more or less a function evaluation, which can be done on plain CPUs.

<comment><USER4> It's from statistical inference, e.g., when the goal is to find the values of a model's parameters that match the sample. So if the model is y = f(x, params), inference gives you params, and prediction gives you y for a value of x that you haven't seen before.

Also, shouldn't the verb be _inferring_?

<comment><USER3> Except in AI terminology[1], it seems that _inference_ doesn't mean outputting params. It means outputting y.

Yes, I believe the verb is "inferring".

[1] [https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/08/22/difference-deep- lea...](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/08/22/difference-deep-learning- training-inference-ai/)

<comment><USER4> You're probably right then. I find AI nomenclature to be a bit of a mess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My $0.02.

I've been using JAX for a while now. A paper I'm an author on ([https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.09597](https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.09597), a follow-up to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18633215](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18633215)) resulted in an algorithm that required taking second-derivatives on a per- example basis. This is extremely difficult in TensorFlow, but with JAX it was a 2-liner. Even better, it's _super_ fast, thanks to XLA's compile-to-GPU and JAX's auto-batching mechanics.

I highly recommend JAX to power users. It's nowhere near as feature-complete from a neural network sense as, say, PyTorch, but it is very good at what it does, and its core developers are second to none in responsiveness.

<comment><USER6> Why is that difficult in TensorFlow? Wouldn't you just call tf.gradients on the output of tf.gradients? At least that is what I usually do and it's very simple.

<comment><USER5> There are two reasons,

1) Take a closer look at tf.hessian()'s implementation. Notice the tf.while() loop, calculating tf.gradient() for each coordinate of the first gradient? That doesn't happen in parallel! Plus, you need to know about TensorArrays!

2) Per-example gradients means an outside tf.while() loop over each example. Another linear slow down!

The difficulty I refer to is in wrangling conditionals in TF, and the trickiness of obtaining partial derivatives (rather than total derivatives) which JAX makes trivial.

There may be a

<comment><USER6> tf.while code will run in parallel as far as possible (if it does not depend on each other) (up to some configurable degree).

<comment><USER5> Yes! Though this answer has some subtlety. tf.while() will run several iterations in parallel but this is not the same as _batching_ those same iterations. For that, you'll need to use the experimental parallel_for feature [0]. Using this should get you into roughly the same speed as JAX.

Tricky!

[0]: [https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/tree/b3e00739468080...](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/tree/b3e007394680801113f492fa1f5a9784e8502f19/tensorflow/python/ops/parallel_for)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wonder how performance compares to cupy : [https://cupy.chainer.org](https://cupy.chainer.org)

Seems a little limited in terms of supported operations for autograd compared to Chainer:[https://chainer.org](https://chainer.org) or Flux:[http://fluxml.ai](http://fluxml.ai)

Really cool to see though! XLA/TPU support is awesome.

<comment><USER8> Actually, advanced autodiff is one of its intended points of, er, differentiation :). The authors wrote the original Autograd package [0], released in 2014, that led to "autograd" becoming used as a generic term in PyTorch and other packages. JAX has all of the autodiff operations that Autograd does, including `grad`, `vjp`, `jvp`, etc. We're working on the number of supported NumPy ops, which is limited right now, but it's early days. Try it out, we're really excited to see what you build with it!

0: [https://github.com/hips/autograd](https://github.com/hips/autograd)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Very cool! I love autograd, it had tape-based autodiff way before pytorch, and the way it wraps numpy is much more convenient than tensorflow/pytorch. Been wanting GPU support in autograd for years now, so am very happy to see this.

I have some academic software ([https://github.com/popgenmethods/momi2](https://github.com/popgenmethods/momi2)) that uses autograd, was planning to port it to pytorch since it's better supported/maintained, but now I'll have to consider jax. Though I'm a little worried about the maturity of the project, seems like the numpy/scipy coverage is not all the way there yet. Then again, it would be fun to contribute back to JAX, I did contribute a couple PRs to autograd back in the day so I think I could jump right into it...

</comment><comment><USER10> This is very cool, and I can see all sorts of use cases where a tool like this could be valuable.

Definitely will try to keep in mind that a tool for fast differentiation of arbitrary functions exists out in the world when starting my next project

Thanks for posting!

</comment><comment><USER11> > JAX can automatically differentiate native Python ... functions

sympy can differentiate functions, but they have to be set up properly. How can JAX differentiate native functions?

(Or do they mean numerical differentiation, like a finite difference estimation?)

<comment><USER12> Automatic Differentiation is an algorithm to efficiently compute the _value_ of the derivative of a function implemented by some arbitrary code. It does not use numerical approximation; it combines algorithmic cleverness with a table of analytic derivatives for elementary functions. Despite reliance on analytic derivatives, it does not compute the analytic derivative of the function–it just computes the _value_ of the derivative for some particular input.

In order to differentiate native functions you have to accept a fairly loose definition of "derivative" that basically assumes you can ignore discontinuities in functions. For example, in the function below we can say that the derivative is piecewise continuous with a value of 0 for all x < 0, and value 1 for all x >= 0. AD extends this idea to "each output produced by a function follows a single path, so the corresponding derivative follows the same path".

``` def f(x): if x >= 0: return x else: return 0 ```

AD cannot magically determine the derivative of `lambda x: exp(x)` or similar–it needs a lookup table for elementary functions, for example: [https://github.com/HIPS/autograd/blob/304552b1ba42e42bce97f0...](https://github.com/HIPS/autograd/blob/304552b1ba42e42bce97f01c6be16e64006c8323/autograd/numpy/numpy_jvps.py#L94) However, AD does support differentiating through program flow control including function calls, loops, conditionals, etc. subject to the caveats above, which is much more difficult to do analytically.

The idea has now been generalized to all linear operators in functional programming [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkNSsGAZhw&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkNSsGAZhw&feature=youtu.be) and the associated paper [https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3243631.3236765](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3243631.3236765)

<comment><USER11> After checking the wiki link: Does it internally construct a kind of AST for the symbolic derivative, but only returns particular values, not the derivative itself? i.e. Since the new function returns derivative values, it seems it must itself be the derivative...

Looking at your github link, multiplication (product rule) doesn't seem to be handled there (only `def_linear(anp.multiply)`).

Would an implementation be something really straightforward, like:

        *(f(x),g(x)): f(x)*g'(x) + f'(x)*g(x)

i.e. it internally constructs an AST of the derivative, but only returns results at specific points, not the AST itself.

(Actually, the wiki eg for Forward Accumulation ([https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_differentiation#Forward...](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_differentiation#Forward_accumulation)) does include a product differentiated in this way, so I guess I got it right).

<comment><USER13> > multiplication (product rule) doesn't seem to be handled there (only > `def_linear(anp.multiply)`)

 _def_linear_ is what handles the product rule. Other product operations (like anp.cross, anp.inner etc.) are implemented the same way. It's called "linear" because products are multi-linear functions, i.e. they are linear in each individual argument and you can get the derivative with respect to each parameter by simple substitution. (x+Δx)y - xy = Δxy. Together with the chain- rule for multi-parameter functions, the classic product rule falls out for free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What does it do, if the function is not differentiable? Most of the commonly seen functions in real code aren't.

</comment><comment><USER15> How does it compare to CuPy (in terms of Numpy compatibility)?</comment>


Things I Learned the Hard Way at Amazon.com - <AUTHOR> http://blip.tv/business-of-software/tyler-rooney-5964490

<comment><USER2> Now I know why I lost thousands of dollars in orders last summer as a marketplace seller. The great part is that Amazon denied it and refused to take negative feedback off of my account when I got multiple orders for items that were no longer listed and I had to cancel my orders.

Even better is the fact that they have absolutely no support for marketplace sellers. If you get your account banned by their automated system, the only thing you can do is email their tech support and get automated responses back.

They take a 16% cut of most orders. I made them thousands of dollars last year as a result of my sales and they couldn't even give me the common courtesy of being able to talk to a support rep when they banned my account. To this day, I still don't know why my account was banned. I've been selling for years on other venues with no issues.

I always have positive feedback and answer customer issues quickly.

Even worse is that when you're on Amazon, you pretty much have no control over your business.

You can't communicate with your customers outside of Amazon and if a customer makes any sort of claim (through their A-Z claim system), they win 99% of the time. As in, they didn't like the item for whatever reason, make a claim, and get a refund without you getting your item back.

I seriously doubt if you ordered an iPad on Amazon and wanted to return it that they would give you a refund before you actually returned it.

Oh and one more great thing I wanted to add: Although Amazon has a 30-day return policy, they will force you to give refunds even a year after a person ordered something from you. This happened to me and I know it's happened to other people.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with Amazon's business practices.</comment>


PlantUML in a nutshell - <AUTHOR> http://plantuml.com/ <comment><USER2> Maybe PLANTML => PlantUML?

Anyway, PlantUML is my go UML tool because it is a markup language that can be version controlled by git.

<comment><USER3> And embedded in Asciidoc!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting thing to know : it's rendered on gitlab.com[1]. so you can directly embed the plantuml code within your README and see the diagram.

[1] [https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl- infra/infrastructure/issues...](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl- infra/infrastructure/issues/2163)

<comment><USER5> This is definitely one of those things I wish GitHub would "backport" from GitLab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really like plantuml, but I just wish there was a way to give layout hints to the engine.

You can sort of specify the direction of arrows, but since everything is a fluid layout, changing those in bigger diagrams behave very chaotic and unpredictable... I very often I just end up using other manual tools to paint those diagrams.

<comment><USER7> There are actually a number of layout engine hints available for compact, minimize crossings, hard angles instead of curves, top/down vs left/right, and using hidden lines to force specific relationships.

It's scattered about a bit through the manual, but you can achieve most things you need.

Really, there's a Zen of PlantUML where you stop trying to control it and focus on defining the relationships.

<comment><USER6> Thx. I will take a look at those.

What I would like is way to specify start and end row and column number of nodes. That way it would be more predictable and changing the relations of two nodes does not cause everything to change.

<comment><USER8> In some diagrams you can use ->, -->, --->, -...-> to specify "ranks" between connections. The layout engine will space accordingly, depending on the top- down or left-right hint.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> We've started to embrace PlantUML in our Systems and Software engineering teams at work.

One nice feature of this markup language is creating diagrams programmatically. We wrote a small python tool that will take a State Transition Table (States cross Events) and create the diagram. I have found it helpful to start from the table to ensure States and Events are well defined and all options are considered, but once that is done the diagram is also quite useful for discussion.

Things that we have found helpful are the MediaWiki plugin and the Word plugin.

We've also started adding unique identifiers to all diagrams across our large development program, and keeping all diagrams in one central spot. That alone has been almost as useful as PlantUML.

<comment><USER10> Can you expound upon how the unique identifiers are used and how the central repo works?

<comment><USER9> It is REALLY nothing exciting or novel, sorry to disappoint.

I got tired of finding documents with a figure we needed somewhere else and hunting for 15 minutes for the source material.

We number the figures PRJ-FIG_0001 and have the source files in a top level shared folder (or svn/git). Note it's important to have the figure id in the figure itself as well as the file name so when it's imported into a doc the ID is embedded in the figure itself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think the submission should say "PLANTUML" (adding "U").

<comment><USER12> True

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I use this often enough but it's rather tedious and the diagrams don't look very polished unfortunately

They suffer from formatting issues and are generally more trouble than anything to grapple with

It's probably best for sequence diagrams but activity diagrams with swim lanes and things are quite a chore to implement in an aesthetically pleasing way

<comment><USER14> Skinparam definitions really help to improve the polish. You can even create templates.

The only issue I've really had is controlling the arrow paths.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have followed PlantUML for a long while, but mostly use OmniGraffle to make UML sequence diagrams and occasionally high level class diagrams. I wrote a UML book with Paul Harmon many years ago, but now I only use UML a bit.

I will give PlantUML another try since OmniGraffle is an overkill for the simple diagrams I make now.

</comment><comment><USER16> I have been using WebSequenceDiagrams [1] for years. Love it. It is declarative and simple, and works really well. The syntax seems similar but not the same as the OP article.

In a readme's or wiki page for an epic/story I often usually use a copy of the diagram image, with a link to edit the text/markup, or the text just in a collapsed wiki element. Though there are now also plugins for Confluence and more I believe.

[1] [https://www.websequencediagrams.com/](https://www.websequencediagrams.com/)

<comment><USER17> Seems to me they just use plantuml internally anyway and style it differently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Reminds me of "[https://mermaidjs.github.io/"](https://mermaidjs.github.io/") I've used mermaid for basic network documentation and simple routing diagrams. And Mermaidjs has a viewer plugin for AtomIDE

<comment><USER19> > Reminds me of > "[https://mermaidjs.github.io/"](https://mermaidjs.github.io/")

Why do you have to put an URL into quotes? You force everyone to manually remove it first because like this the link is broken.

Also to save other people some work: [https://mermaidjs.github.io/](https://mermaidjs.github.io/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there any viable alternatives to PlantUML out there?

I want there to exist a simple format that I can put under version control that gives me neat looking diagrams – without requiring me to run a Java based server component.

Monodraw [0] and such are nice, but the diagrams are neither nice nor easy to change without having access to the editor.

[0] [https://monodraw.helftone.com/](https://monodraw.helftone.com/)

<comment><USER21> I have embraced the blockdiag series of programs, which include seqdiag, actdiag, and nwdiag. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you learn to customize things well it works very well. There are limitations but I got so fed up with Vizio a few years back I was determined to focus on the kiss principle.

[http://blockdiag.com/en/](http://blockdiag.com/en/)

<comment><USER22> awesome! just bookmarked. i am going to try to translate some existing diagrams using that tool because the images look nice.

btw, the repo isn't showing any picture only the documentation does. that could be improved!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I love PlantUML. It's made my job a lot easier and I love the whole documentation as code.

I've written a converter for it too. [https://www.npmjs.com/package/pcomp?activeTab=readme](https://www.npmjs.com/package/pcomp?activeTab=readme)

</comment><comment><USER24> Disappointingly, it looks like it doesn't support mathematical diagrams other than via embedded math-specific languages. I continue to want a markup language for hypergraphs, categories, finitely presented monoids, etc.

<comment><USER25> Isn't TikZ the right answer for that kind of thing?

<comment><USER24> No. TikZ is only for _drawing_ , but diagrams are proper objects with properties and data, and we should be able to manipulate them, not just display them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I want to make diagrams like the ones on this page - [https://www.google.com/amp/s/creately.com/blog/diagrams/aws-...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/creately.com/blog/diagrams/aws- templates-for-architecture-diagrams/amp/) \- but I want to have a way to define them in a text format and version control and modify them easily.

I've tried doing this with PlantUML but never got it right. Is there a tool like PlantUML that is specifically for architecture diagrams like the ones above (custom icons, etc)?

<comment> m-p-3 Not sute if that would fit all your requirements, but I'm sharing just in case

[https://mermaidjs.github.io/](https://mermaidjs.github.io/)

<comment><USER26> Thanks, I looked at it a while go and had some trouble getting started. I'll try it again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> There's also a good VS Code plugin with live preview update.

</comment><comment><USER28> I like PlantUML but have been disappointed by the quality of its vector output options (SVG, etc.). I found that things rounded corners tended to be rendered at limited resolution, which becomes apparent if zooming in enough.

<comment><USER29> SVG doesn't have an intrinsic resolution; that's determined by the rendering device. The SVG could be incorrect, but I don't think you can blame plantuml for your device rendering at inadequate resolution.

<comment><USER30> It may be exporting a PNG or JPEG embedded into an SVG.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> This one has zero comments because developers are allergic to diagrams :)

<comment><USER32> Might or might not be true. But I'd say producing good diagrams is implicitly mandatory if you want to advance your career.

I didn't use them much as an individual contributor, but as a lead, I rely on them all the time to communicate ideas.

PlantUML makes it so easy to do so.

<comment><USER31> I spend my day trying to convince many developers they should engage in formalized design at all. Big fan of diagrams here.

<comment><USER33> Same here, with little success. Often people want to find some tool to generate diagrams from the code, which totally misses the point.

Still, I use them in my projects and they help me very much.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: A simple API to store and retrieve JSON objects - <AUTHOR> http://openbucket.io/ <comment><USER2> works great, but I see that you are using non-secure http connection, it would be great if you are planning to include SSL encryption over it.

<comment><USER3> Don't spend your time including anything like that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks nice. I made a similar app few days back and made it as a self hosting one.

You can check it out here. [https://github.com/avinoth/apistore](https://github.com/avinoth/apistore)

</comment><comment><USER5> If required , this tool [http://jsonformatter.org](http://jsonformatter.org) jsonformatter and support url too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't understand why anyone would ever use this instead of a simple KV store like Redis or Memcached?

There are literally zero technical details about what the system runs on or how data is stored. In the time it took me to look around trying to find some technical details or source code to look at, I could have started a VM and installed Redis.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wow. Great timing. This will pair nicely with an Html5 app I just posted

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10506149](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10506149)

Also, I always used to wonder why something simple like this already exists. Well done!

</comment><comment><USER8> I made something similar for HTML, check [http://motyar.info/gist/](http://motyar.info/gist/)

</comment><comment><USER9> and, what can it be useful for?

<comment><USER10> a quick database for cacheing data temporarily from a web app's client-side code, maybe? I wouldn't make a whole platform depend on it, but seems useful enough at least for prototyping.

<comment><USER9> That can well be done locally</comment></comment></comment>


React Toolbox – Bootstrap Your App with Beautiful Material Design Components - <AUTHOR> http://react-toolbox.com <comment><USER3> This is really nicely done. It's great to be able to import a library like this and pick and choose only the components you need without bloating the bundle. Thanks for your contribution to the community.

It feels like we're seeing the promise of Web Components with these React Libraries - truly modular components and styles in a lightweight package - <USER2> from a previously unanticipated direction. I'm happy that it has come at all.

</comment><comment><USER4> Scrolling completely broken on iOS, no momentum. Components display also broken, sidebar takes up 70% of the screen.

When loading the dialog component in the playground, it only takes up about 10% of the screen (it's centered though), I think it's width is relative to the view being clobbered by the sidebar

This is all on an iPhone 6s/ios9

<comment><USER5> Hi!

I´m sorry the responsive version is not ready yet. The layout in the documentation is quite tricky and I haven't time yet to build media queries so you can use it on your phone.

Consider also that using the playground in a touch platform doesn't make too much sense, but sure I will make it responsive.

Thanks for your feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Would love a comparison to material-ui[0]. So far they seem to have many of the same components, with material-ui being smoother.

[0]: [http://material-ui.com/#/components/](http://material- ui.com/#/components/)

<comment><USER7> If you take a look to react-toolbox.com source code, you can see that it's a different approach. Using ES6, CSSModules (we hate inline style modes) and a decoupled components system.

Also all our components use the real Material Design SPEC (we love each pixel of this spec).</comment></comment>


Golang Self-referential functions and the design of options (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2014/01/self-referential-functions-and-design.html <comment><USER2> A really clever abstraction...

We used it to good effect in go-ipfs: [https://github.com/ipfs/go- ipfs/blob/2e116b40eb7ea41564c3371...](https://github.com/ipfs/go- ipfs/blob/2e116b40eb7ea41564c3371b0b3552c9791b59d1/cmd/ipfs/daemon.go#L466)</comment>


J&J warns diabetic patients – Insulin pump vulnerable to hacking - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-cyber-insulin-pumps-e-idUSKCN12411L <comment><USER2> This really doesn't sit well with me on multiple fronts:

"Company technicians were able to replicate Radcliffe's findings, confirming that a hacker could order the pump to dose insulin from a distance of up to 25 feet, Levy said. He said such attacks are difficult to pull off because they require specialized technical expertise and sophisticated equipment."

Specialized technical expertise and sophisticated equipment? Based on what I just read from the product manual, this attack appears to be capable of being done with two HackRF's since none of the frequencies used by this device exceeds 2.4 Ghz. Is a HackRF really as "specialized" as what is being implied by the manufacturer? Further, I get it, I've used GNU Radio. It's not easy, but it's also not terribly difficult to pickup. Yes, if someone wanted to kill someone with an attack on an insulin pump like this, there are likely easier ways, but ultimately, for anyone that has any reasonable level of technical ability, developing an attack against the system isn't much of a barrier and would leave little trace - certainly none that would likely lead to a murder conviction in most jurisdictions. Further, once someone does develop an attack, if they then publish or sell that attack, it becomes instantly available to anyone.

The other problem here of course is the statement about 25ft. Ultimately radio is radio and it's hard to make definitive statements pertaining to range since that'd dependent on the power of the transmitter and sensitivity of the receiver, both in control off the attacker in this kind of attack. Is the insulin pump actually somehow measuring with atomic clock precision the time it takes for a message to traverse the air from the remot and if it's longer than it takes to travel 25ft, cutting off communication? Doubtful.</comment>


Your web / back end stack for 2016? - <AUTHOR> 2015 introduced even more languages for backend. Now we are to have a big pool of languages, frameworks for backend programming, REST API: from traditional enterprise Java, JEE, PHP to bleeding edge like Swift, Elixir, Perl 6. What language, stack are you planning to choose for your next professional or pet project in 2016? <comment><USER2> I'm planning to work on a project using Elixir/Phoenix very soon.

</comment><comment><USER3> JavaScript everywhere.

<comment><USER4> +1</comment></comment>


Canadian researcher behind one-minute workout has a shorter option - <AUTHOR> https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/article-the-canadian-researcher-who-coined-the-one-minute-workout-has-an-even/ <comment><USER2> _The reason this matters is that "lack of time" often crops up as an excuse when scientists try to figure out why so few of us get as much exercise as we know we should. Gibala and others have been whittling away at this excuse for more than a decade now, designing ever more time-efficient workouts._

The solution to the "I don't have enough time" problem is not to make shorter and shorter workouts, but to encourage a cultural shift away from constant media distractions and pointless hyper-productivity posturing. No one is too busy to spend 30 minutes exercising 3 times a week.

Ditto for the obesity crisis - the solution isn't to make less caloric foods, it's to change the culture of excessive portion sizes and sedentary lifestyles.

<comment><USER3> Considering that a 30 minute workout often incorporates, getting dressed (5 min), driving to the gym (20 min), working out (30 min), driving home (20 min), taking a shower (15 min), being so exhausted that the rest of the night is down the drain....

The 30 minute workout is a myth...

<comment><USER4> > being so exhausted that the rest of the night is down the drain.

You're only exhausted after a 30 min workout when you have 0 physical training. After a few weeks it'll have the opposite effects. As developers our body is rotting away day by day, if I didn't push myself to exercise the most physical thing I'd do most of the days is pull a door to open it.

Even a set of dumbbells, a pull-up bar and a stretch mat will be miles ahead of doing nothing. It's very insidious because you can be passive all your youth with almost no side effects, but all those years of passivity will come back at us when we hit 50, 60, 70.

<comment><USER5> _You 're only exhausted after a 30 min workout when you have 0 physical training._

If you're not exhausted after a 30 minute workout that just means you're not pushing yourself.

<comment><USER4> I run to and from the gym (~15 min), mostly do compound exercises like ohp / squat / deadlift / bench press for 1-2 hours 3 times a week. I'm usually home before 9PM and cook / continue with my day. Unless you have to chop wood when you get back home you'll be fine.

Even after bouldering for hours to the point of not being able to hold a glass of water in my hand I've never been "so exhausted that the rest of the night is down the drain.", and I'm far from being a genetic freak or a good athlete.

I used to be your average 70kg skinny fat teen, that was 4 years ago when I decided to do something to not end up like all the chubby 30+ years old guys I was seeing daily and who were unable to go up 4 flights of stairs without panting, at some point you have to take decisions for yourself. It's not some bs like "you can be the next Einstein/Musk/Bezos if you try hard enough", there is no luck involved, no barrier to entry. The hard truth is that there is no magic bullet, no quick ways to do it, you just have to get up and move, be it cycling, lifting weight, running, swimming.

It's pure lack of motivation/confidence, once you get started everything falls in place and gets easier. 3 or 4 hours of quality workout a week, even at home, will change your body in a few month and you'll never look back. And if you can't find 3 or 4 hours a week to take care of your most precious physical possession (your body) I guess you have bigger issues to take care of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This was initially as a response to wattengard. But I realized more people would benefit from this, so posting as a top comment.

I just wanted to post some options to workout from home. So it cuts down atleast on the time to drive out the gym and driving back. And if done in the morning also avoids the extra shower :)

Please note that other than having used these videos, I have no other affiliation to both these options. Both are free resources.

FitnessBlender[1] has >500 workout videos. The best part is, these videos are tagged by their difficulty from level 1 to level 5. You can jump into any workout at any level. If it is overwhelming or underwhelming, you can adjust accordingly. At my weakest even a level 2 workout was killing. Then I had moved upto a level 4 or short level 5 workout. You can do all the exercises with a dumbbell or bodyweight. Lost nearly 20kg using this. Then I got careless and let slip. Now I am starting back at level 3. I used to make my own workout plan, putting together the workouts that I liked. They also have paid workout programs that makes all the planning much easier.

100Pushups.net[2] and its associated pullups, situps running etc. These are just text resources that give you a detailed plan on how to progress from a single pushup(or none) and slowly build up until you can ultimately do 100. (The tracking app was added later and I have not used it.) It is purely bodyweight. You do need a pullup bar. I tried it for a short period and started seeing results in a very short period. But somehow working out with the video was a lot more motivating and I pushed myself more, than working out alone following some plan on paper. So I went back to FitnessBlender again. Yet, I feel, if you are good at pushing yourself, then this would be a good option.

Other please, share at-home workouts that have worked for you.

[1] [https://www.fitnessblender.com/videos](https://www.fitnessblender.com/videos)

[2] [http://www.100pushups.net/](http://www.100pushups.net/)

</comment><comment><USER7> It's not a 'lack of time' why people don't exercise, they don't make time to do it. I totally understand why: it's so much easier and convenient to not do it, and for a very long time, you don't notice it all that much if you don't if you fail to do any exercise; it's only afters a long time of being sedentary and then having to do something slightly intensive you notice that all your strength and stamina is gone.

It's not lack of time; it's that people do not actively feel how badly their bodies deteriorate when they do not exercise, since it goes so slowly, and they do not do any exercise, so they also never really find out until it has become a real problem. If people would feel how bad it was not to exercise, they would be much more accommodating in their immensely busy schedules and actually take time out of their day to do so.

<comment> saiya-jin Once you cross certain threshold in fitness, and keep that level for some time, it becomes painfully obvious when you stop and almost immediately start losing all that hard gained strength, stamina, flexibility etc.

Relatively high fitness level is such a great feeling from oneself, it also positively affects your mind and mood. Every time I stop for whatever reason (ie travelling, sickness) I hate it, and also remember how hard it is to get back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My two cents on the "enough time to work out" topic: I work eight hours a day on grunt level marketing stuff, in an open office.

I used to do power lifting, but between this job, online programming classes, and trying to maintain a relationship with my wife, this dropped off.

Something that helped me immensely was just bringing a couple 25-pound dumbbells to work, leaving them by a pile of junk behind the building, and ducking out for a "smoke break" every 2 hours or so, during which I spend 5 intense minutes systematically annihilating every muscle group I can. The "best" workout is the one you can consistently do.

Pros: Takes maybe 20 minutes a day and I'm doing it on company time, but I don't feel bad about it because I don't smoke and it clears my mind to focus on more PPC drudgery.

Cons: None. Bring dumbbells to work tomorrow and hide them behind your junk pile.

<comment><USER9> Someone left their dumbdells at my old office, and it became community use. Approximately every hour, I'd get up, stretch, do some pushups, and dumbell workouts. Didn't need to hide it, nobody cared.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The problem is, that even after a 1-minute workout, I need to take a shower and change my clothes if I want to stay 8+ more hours with other people.

<comment><USER11> Yes, that's why you should incorporate it in your morning routine right right after waking up, while still wearing the pajamas and then take a shower.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Four years ago I went looking for the fastest way to cut down my weight and ended up comparing different modes of running on Wolfram Alpha. Turns out increasing the incline was the most effective at burning energy, almost 3X or 300% at 30° incline¹ which is bonkers.

I couldn't mod my treadmill to get any significant amount of incline but quickly landed on the idea of using my staircase and thus began a 4 hour regimen (10:30 pm to 2:30 am) of running up and down 25 steps 120+ times. It was highly effective (96 kg to 83 kg) but I blew out my knees and right ankle after 4 months of this, forcing me to stop. It also was a problem when my neighbour's wife kept peeking through their door to let me know they didn't appreciate all that clacking at 1 in the morning.

4 years later I'm holding onto the same level I reached back then (84 kg) and I'd love to do it again and get it down by another 10 kg in an intense two- month sprint. But I get cold feet every time I think about it.

I'm taking Vit. C now to boost collagen so my joints should fare better the next time I try it. The lawyer and his wife have also moved out which is another annoyance taken care of. Whether I can resist the urge to push hard after seeing the results is the question.

¹[https://imgur.com/a/DAvovYA](https://imgur.com/a/DAvovYA)

<comment><USER4> It sounds very tough on your joints, did you consider swimming ? Cycling ? Rowing machines ? It's not all about the numbers, the only diets / workouts that work are the ones you can keep as a lifestyle.

<comment><USER12> Swimming ticks all the right boxes for me but the nearest pool is a bit far from here and I wasn't sure about the quality of water and general upkeep.

If those variables can be controlled swimming is definitely the best way to get a full-body workout without taxing the joints. Just the fact that I don't end up a sweaty mess with an extra load of laundry after each workout is a major win for me. Only problem is I don't trust the people running the pools here.

Edit: Tried cycling for a few years but it ended up not being safe early in the morning with a few politically-motivated murders on my route.

My current workout is just lifting weights + mountain climbers¹. Hasn't rocked my world but they do help me maintain status quo.

¹[https://youtu.be/nmwgirgXLYM?t=40](https://youtu.be/nmwgirgXLYM?t=40)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> _His newest study finds that dashing up a staircase for just 20 seconds, repeated a few times a day, can measurably improve your fitness._

Well, but doing this "a few" times, let's say 3x, results in... 1 min. Where's the news?

</comment><comment><USER14> Don't remember where I heard it but once someone remarked that if President Obama could make time for an hour a day for exercise, then most people (which is to say, people not buried under their work or facing other difficult challenges) probably can come up with a better excuse than simply not having the time.

<comment><USER15> The thing is a managerial schedule has a lot of autonomy. The president decides when all the meetings are. Even ambassadors will move their appointments around to see you if you're POTUS.

Similarly for a lot of these tough-guy manager stories, they aren't doing anything that requires deep thinking like debugging TCP stacks.

<comment><USER16> I don't buy this. Just make yourself unavailable and make it non-negotiable.

<comment><USER17> In a managerial role you can mold your schedule to your life, rather than your life to your schedule.

You can have non-negotiable meetings and shift things around all you want if you have that kind of authority. But a lot of every day folks don't have the kind of work autonomy to have their schedule match their preferences

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I wish this was a joke, but here we are. Luckily I have a better alternative for you; find a meaningful physical activity that you enjoy doing instead, and sit back and watch your priorities take care of the rest.

I have a wooden man [0] and a sand bag in my living room, which means the barrier to training is basically non-existing. And its a kind of training I enjoy, because it leads somewhere and strengthens the body in a non-artificial way. I'll do five minutes here, ten there; with the occasional late night 2 hour session.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbUoSxee0I&t=21s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbUoSxee0I&t=21s)

</comment><comment><USER19> > Still, the stair-climbing protocol isn't just about time, he says. It should > also "remind people that 'exercise' does not have to involve changing into > spandex, going to the gym and making an hour time commitment." The > volunteers in the new study, he notes, didn't don workout gear or shower > afterwards; it was just a brief moment in their normal daily routine.

I completely agree to this one. Ritual of going to Gym becomes a big procrastion.

</comment><comment><USER20> I think I might prefer the opinion of this other Canadian researcher: it's way too hard to incorporate physical activity into your regular activities.

[https://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2019/01/23/it-is- still...](https://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2019/01/23/it-is-still-way- too-hard-to-be-physically-active/)

</comment><comment><USER21> I wonder if this is what a Minimum Viable Workout (MVW) would look like. I'm not trying to make my exercise life more efficient (I think time spent in the gym without a phone helps me disconnect), but because sometimes the effort barrier is too high for me and I fall into periods of inactivity. So I would find it appealing to maintain a baseline of fitness with a "no excuses" MVW.

</comment><comment><USER15> I've often wondered if would help me to do an all-out 1K row right before bedtime, each day. I guess it would take 3:30 or so, maybe 3:00 if I really smash it.

The times I've done that I've felt extremely tired afterwards, and had to have a good long rest.

<comment><USER22> How would regularly performing at max without a warmup affect tendons etc.?

<comment><USER15> Is there evidence this is bad for you?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Lack of time because we must sit tweeting and posting selfies 7 hours a day. Everyone has 24 hours, if you cannot take 1 hour from that for arguably the most important thing for your health...

<comment><USER24> But let me ask you this: if you haven't posted to instagram in the last hour, are you really alive? And isn't being alive the most important aspect of health?

<comment><USER25> Indeed! You can't really post a picture showing how awesome your life is when dashing up the stairs.

It's quite possible to get an hour of good exersize walking the dog though and that is definitely something you can brag about. #zenlife (please, don't hurt me)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can we get information on what Khashoggi was going to report? - <AUTHOR> The House of Saud took extreme risks to terminate Khashoggi. He had something important he wanted to share.
We the people need to find out what that was.
How can we do it?  Does anyone have any ideas? <comment><USER2> Most of what he was going to leak can already be inferred, I would say.

Saudi will continue to be despotic until the political winds shift and they are suddenly cut off, if ever.</comment>


America Could End Homelessness in One Year by Doing This - <AUTHOR> http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/america-end-homelessness-one-year.html

<comment><USER2> As the author hints homelessness is not generally due to housing shortages, but more usually mental health, economic, relationship or legal issues.

That said, its an extremely cool way to build a house and really emphasise the need to re-use material (remember: reduce, re-use, recycle!)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> [OP] I saw this going around the mainstream social web and was surprised that people seem not to know about building houses out of trash in suburban and rural areas, since we have been doing this for many years and even written books about it (eg. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship)). Of course, what would _actually_ be exciting is if folks were to build skyscrapers and other _urban_ infrastructure out of trash.</comment>


MC Hammer's WireDoo: Can It Take on Google and Bing? (2011) - <AUTHOR> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/mc-hammer-wiredoo-deep-search-engine.html <comment><USER2> MC Hammer is doing search engines? LOL that was unexpected.</comment>


ITA Software hiring hackers - <AUTHOR> Hello,
If you are interested in a hacker position for a hacker company in Kendal Square (very close to MIT) send me your resume. A lot of our software is in Lisp and we have a true hacker culture. Feel free to contact me.
My email is firstname.lastname@example.com. I am not a recruiter, I work for ITA and
follow hacker news. I noticed quite a few people maybe interested in ITA.
Our culture is very comparable to that of Google. Looking forward to hearing from you.
http://www.itasoftware.com
-Mike <comment><USER2> For sport over the years, my friends and I have worked through many of ITA's great programming puzzles. I've even used one of their old puzzles (Addagram) in (surely) 100+ interviews where I walk candidates through building up the different considerations in this puzzle. It degenerates or upgrades well for the level of engineer being hired, and when we hire them, it's not uncommon for those engineers to come back with me and work through it some more.

Oddly, one of my friends (absolutely brilliant guy) sent ITA a few solutions and they interviewed him. I know an interview isn't overly efficient, but I lost a good bit of respect for ITA when they didn't offer this guy a position or further interviews. The guy is brilliant and dedicated-- it's always possible that doesn't come through in any given interview. Still, it's good as it means it's easier to get this fellow involved in my startup when needed.

Add-a-gram for the curious: [http://itasoftware.com/careers/puzzle_archive.html?catid=39#...](http://itasoftware.com/careers/puzzle_archive.html?catid=39#Add- A-Gram)

<comment><USER3> <http://addagram.mytestbench.com/>

I too have played with that one, but I used JavaScript... These problems are engaging enough to keep you interested, especially when you are trying out a new language. The challenge is significant, and the optimizations required to solve these help you explore some the deeper depths of a language, when compared to a "hello world!" type of problem.

<comment><USER4> These types of puzzles are also fun to tinker with to pass time during a long road trip (provided you're with the right people).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I needed to understand the complexity of travel search, booking engines, routes, etc. I came across "Computational Complexity ofAir Travel Planning" talk from one of their founders -- fascinating stuff from a understanding the industry and a computer science perspective.

www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ ITA-software-travel-complexity/ITA-software- travel-complexity.pd

<comment><USER6> Correct url to the paper: [http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software- travel-com...](http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software-travel- complexity/ITA-software-travel-complexity.pdf)

<comment><USER5> my bad. thanks Alx.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _Our culture is very comparable to that of Google._

You know, this isn't a big recommendation for me any more. When I think of Google, I think of a grand deception, or a gilded cage. Or a company that used to have productive chaos and now just has internal disorder. A place that encourages regression to childhood dependence, rather than mature creativity.

Maybe you should say "Google circa 1998-2003"?

</comment><comment><USER8> I see many software companies post (recruitment) puzzles on their sites and you and actually tell a lot about the company by the puzzles they use.

<comment><USER8> I like to play puzzles like this just to get in to different mindsets from my own. Often I find it is better to do it yourself, and then have another go using the tips provided. Sometimes it helps me into different ways of thinking than I would normally take.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This makes a lot of sense. IMHO hackers are the best programmers. I've always been surprised that there hasn't been more acknowledgement of this fact by the big names in the business.</comment>


Node.js Style Guide - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/felixge/node-style-guide

<comment><USER2> god save us all from people's style guides. Use your IDE's reformatting tools and go in peace.</comment>


The online courses you must take to be a better Data Scientist - <AUTHOR> https://davidadrian.cc/top-courses-data-science/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys! Released this post last week in my blog. It is a curated list of excellent Data Science related courses I took over the last 5 years and found them worthy. If you are into DS or transitioning, it may also be helpful for you. Thanks for reading!

David.</comment>


Hybrid cars on the decline - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/30/autos/hybrid_car_sales/index.htm?iid=HP_Highlight&hpt=hp_c2

<comment><USER2> I never quite understood hybrid cars other than buying them as an indirect donation to pursue hybrid technology. Hybrids are worse for the environment than regular plain-ole' ICE cars and don't really give you much of an efficiency boost.

Diesel engines are right up there with hybrids in the fuel efficiency game. Take for instance to VW Polo BlueMotion which is rated 70mpg+ Highway. The Passat BlueMotion is worse but still an impressive 57mpg+ Highway.

Also consider that some biodiesel fuels are near 100% carbon neutral (such as hemp-based biodiesels), in that they sequester as much carbon dioxide from the air as they will eventually burn into once combusted.

<comment><USER3> Hey, I've heard that claim that hybrids are worse for the environment than pure internal combustion engines. Honestly I don't see how that's possible and I've never seen read anything that supports it. But I'm not an expert - do you have a source or can you explain it?

<comment><USER4> Here are some places to start. You really need to research to come to a solid conclusion (your _own_ conclusion).

[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090419130916AA...](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090419130916AAYkRdW)

[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071028204335AA...](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071028204335AAyBECY)

<http://www.hybridcars.com/battery-toxicity.html>

<comment><USER3> I did google it already (and found some of those links, though I appreciate you passing them along). I know a fair amount about the subject matter, I was just looking for a real expert (maybe an electric/chemical/industrial engineer that worked in the area) here, in case my conclusions were incorrect.

The internet is great and all, but it breeds altogether too many fake wikipedia SMEs :)

<comment><USER4> I have engineering training. But to really tell you whether the Prius is an improvement or not over a non-hybrid Corolla -- I'd need engineering data Toyota isn't going to release.

And just narrowing it to that comparison is going to turn off a lot of people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am one of those in the article. A few years ago I needed a new car, running the math it wasn't a fantastic deal and I could get a _much_ nicer car (performance, looks, style, sound, features) for the same total price. I also said "maybe the next one with be a hybrid/electric".

<comment><USER6> My math said the opposite, actually. Factoring in the $50 (minimum) a month saved in gas, and my payment was about the same for a Prius or a Corolla/Civic. Plus, fluctuations in the price of gas effect me far less and in the end, my car is still worth more than a non-hybrid car, if I were to sell it.

A car is an investment. A lousy one, but you still can't think of it only based total price vs features. You have to consider depreciation and operating costs more than upfront price.

<comment><USER5> Back in 2008 when I bought my car the used Prius's were going for almost the price of a new one. This seemed like a short term fad of near zero depreciation and unwise to bet that it would stay that way. The Prius was really the only game in town at the time, gas prices were high, but it was clear that there would be plenty of new hybrids in the coming years.

After hunting around for less than the price as a Prius (used or new) I got a barely used 6 speed manual G35 with all of the bells and whistles (15K miles, very clean engine, good find). The fact that it only gets ~22MPG in the peek of expensive gas might have been part of the reason I got it for so cheap. There is no debate that a G35 beats the pants of of a Civic or Corolla any day. Doing the math of $500 savings in gas a year I still have a few more years before it would have been cheaper to buy a Prius based upon the price difference.

I have had no garage work on my G35 other than the standard oil change etc. To make things simple I will assume that the Prius would have been just as good. (How often do you have to change the battery?)

I just looked up on kbb A brand new 2008 Prius would only be worth ~$400 more than my used G35 if I sold it today. So the math no matter how I look at it worked out for me and I got a nicer car to drive the past few years.

But the real lesson I have seen over and over which is that any time someone runs the math they have different variables. If I were to buy a car today the used Prius's have actually dropped in price so that estimate is completely different that a few years ago, gas is now cheaper, I probably couldn't find that G35 again, and now there are other hybrids to compare against.

<comment><USER6> Well, you're comparing new to used. Used is _always_ a better financial decision when you're buying a car (unless, I suppose, gas spikes and you want a hybrid, haha). But even with that working against you, the Prius would be worth more now and you would have saved thousands in gas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hybrids look even less attractive in Europe. For example a VW Golf Bluemotion consumes actually less fuel on the average with highway consumption being significantly less and top of that diesel is still slightly cheaper than gasoline. Even with a vehicle tax rebate meaning 300-500 euros less per year the Prius doesn't seem such a great buy.

</comment><comment><USER8> I like how the article basically says the Prius does very well because it's so conspicuous. Sounds about right.

</comment><comment><USER9> It's a down economy, and a hybird costs more than a 'regular' car. Hybrid's also have the potential to be confusing, like how many REAL miles can the Leaf do? I still don't trust batteries to keep a full charge after 6 months, just ask my cell phone. (I realize there are other hybrids, just an example).

Plus those regular cars do a lot better on gas nowadays than they ever have.

<comment><USER10> The Leaf isn't a hybrid... I understand your point, but the Leaf isn't a hybrid.

<comment><USER9> An excellent point. haha. whoops. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I live in Ann Arbor (pretty green area) and drive a hybrid Camry so my data may be way off-but around here I see plenty of hybrids. Not as many large cars as my Camry (which btw is a fantastic vehicle only made better by being a hybrid) but loads of Priuses (Prii?) and Honda Civic hybrids. A physcian I know even drives one of those monster Toyota Sequoia hybrids.

<comment><USER12> Could you explain why being a hybrid makes the Camry better? Also, why did you pick the hybrid instead of the standard version?

<comment><USER13> I made this choice just recently. It came down to the civic hybrid vs the standard civic. The hybrid was about $10,000 more. A quick calculation showed that I'd have to drive the hybrid 584,795 miles to break even on the extra cost at today's fuel cost.

Put another way, I only plan to keep the car to around 100,000 miles. If the hybrid cost more than $1717 above the standard, I'm losing out.

Put me in the hybrids are hype column.

<comment><USER14> "Put me in the hybrids are hype column."

In some ways, hybrids are large-scale social/economic insurance. If gas prices _really_ spike, consumers will have a (relatively) rapid substitution for conventional cars.

Plus, a lot of people claim to care about the environment. At least cars offer a modestly tangible way normal people in normal circumstances can show whether they actually do enough to spend modestly more to do some minor good for said environment.

Plus (part two) a lot of jingoistic America-first types can decide whether they really want to help stick it to those people who jingoistic types don't like but who are selling lots of oil or whether those jingoistic types are all hat and no cattle. I find the number of people who favor or favored U.S. intervention in Iraq but who drive pickup trucks to be somewhat puzzling.

<comment><USER15> I purchased my Civic hybrid as insurance. At the time, gas was $4.65/gal, so I decided to take the chance. Turns out that it was the peak in 2008. You win some, you lose some. The Civic is still a nice low maintenance car with a 10 year, 100k mile battery warranty.

When we needed a second car last year, I went for a VW Jetta TDI, and it has been a very good decision. The car averages 34 MPG with my mixed highway and arterial road commute.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Has anyone done a real break-even analysis on these cars (based on real life performance numbers), including maintenance costs and assuming various fuel prices? Even with subsidies, my hybrid-driving friends end up shelling out more money than I do.

Every statistic I've seen is concocted (including the chevy volt's "infinite" mpg claims way back when).

<comment><USER17> Given that your username is 'veyron', I assume that your hybrid-driving friends have shockingly aggressive driving habits.

<comment><USER16> Haha they are stop and go drivers in NYC. I'd presume they would have an edge especially given the poor fuel economy of most cars when sitting in traffic

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm not buying a car until it's fuel efficient AND drives itself. Looking at you, Google.

<comment><USER19> My compromise: I'll by a used fuel-efficient car plus a driverless-conversion kit when they become commercially available, should be cheaper that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I've continued to speculate about the signaling aspect. That is, a hybrid (specifically, a Prius) being a way to purchase a small car without looking "unsuccessful". Unfortunately, I live and work in an area where such reactions can negatively influence your ability to "get things done".

More recently, the new Mini's have started appearing, possibly as another small car that avoids undesired "signaling". They are not that cheap, and they are "fun"; small is ok, if it's "fun".

Some years back, the BMW 3 series straddled this signaling line, to some extent. It was a small, less expensive Beamer (not quite there, yet?), but it was a Beamer and also made a certain sense for the sole commuter.

</comment><comment><USER21> I really thought there would be more all electric cars on the roads by now. The pace of car tech is excrutiating. 5 years ago there was all hype that hybrids were just temporary transition models. And here they're still trying to sell these over-engineered luxury green cars.

Where are the affordable, small, city-oriented all electric commuting cars that would actually make a difference?

<comment><USER22> "Where are the affordable, small, city-oriented all electric commuting cars that would actually make a difference?"

Two things: Batteries, and regulations. Battery technology remains obstinate, and regulations put a lower bound on how light you can make the car before it starts failing a variety of tests in exciting ways, especially collision tests.

I've seen a "car" that gets 100mpg, even at reasonable speeds (~55 mph), on straight-up gasoline. But you would not want to ride that thing into a wall at 55 mph. There was wood where you'd expect metal, for instance...</comment></comment>


Is the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Decision on Assange - <AUTHOR> https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2016/02/09/liora-lazarus-is-the-united-nations-working-group-on-arbitrary-detention-decision-on-assange-so-wrong/ <comment><USER2> The fact that the Swedish prosecuting authorities have persistently "refused 'unreasonably and disproportionately' to 'question him through alternative means offered under the process of mutual assistance'" is precisely what generates the suspicion that they are not acting with honest and transparent motives, leading one to pretty quickly conclude that it seems likely that their real intent is to simply hand Assange over to the US.</comment>


Sleep by Max Richter (iOS App) - <AUTHOR> https://apps.apple.com/app/id1509084936 <comment><AUTHOR> I thought that this app is interesting in part because while it does provide utility as background music, it is also a channel to help drive monetization of the composer's music.

The app is free but it requires an existing Apple Music or Spotify account.

<comment><USER2> Maker of app here. Thanks for posting! That's precisely one of the goals.

SLEEP is a massive musical landscape and there is so much to explore. I hope this app will allow me to hear more of SLEEP while they meditate, focus or ... sleep.</comment></comment>