The East-Coast Blizzard from Space - <AUTHOR> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=41979&src=eorss-nh

<comment><USER2> I work with the folks who calibrate the data from the instrument (MODIS) that acquired that image. They do good work!

</comment><comment><USER3> I am a meteorologist. This GOES-14 visible image loop is amazing (aka even better). [http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/svr_vis/eastcoast_s...](http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/svr_vis/eastcoast_snowstorm/ch1loop.asp)

<comment><USER4> It's Santa! <http://i.imgur.com/5cnxD.png></comment></comment>


Show HN: We are building a site to help you validate your ideas and projects - <AUTHOR>

Will This Fly? is an online platform to gain feedback and validation on projects, ideas and minimum viable products.
Building on the success of MVP1 (over 200 votes and plenty of feedback) we have improved the voting system, added the ability to attach a comment to your vote and improved the design. Check it out; anyone can vote and comment on MVP2.
http://willthisfly.net/
(Note: We will be taking a limited number of project submissions shortly. If you have a project of your own, a minimum viable product or even an idea you are considering, you can leave your email address and we will let you know when it is ready to add projects.) <comment><USER2> How is this supposed to work? Most projects are going to require a specific demographic to show up and vote. For example if I am creating a tool to help dentists keep better records of their patients, how will you find dentists to vote on my project? I won't care what most other people think.

If someone is creating an application or tool that could be used by anyone, and thus, could be reviewed by anyone, they would be better served by putting a survey on a site with good distribution like facebook or HN.

I'm not sure what this app solves. I can already type up my app ideas and put them on the internet if I want. That's not the problem. The problem is getting a pulse from the right people. I'm dealing with that problem right now. I have a rough idea of what I should build but I'm hunting down the right people one by one because there isn't many better ways to do it and the general public's opinion of it would be worthless.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like the initiative. But last time I checked, having people vote for your "viability" was one of the worse ways to assure viability :).

</comment><comment><USER4> How is this different from/better than taking a survey? I don't think your landing page/site answers that for me. I expected a lot more than what I saw. I don't know what I expected but a three state voting button and comments are just not what I expected.

</comment><comment><USER5> You could maybe add some gamification features to this service, for example check what <http://feedbackroulette.com/> does. Nice start!

</comment><comment><USER6> I like it. Just voted too. Looks like an interesting idea. Having started a few projects in my time I think I would use this.

I'll be keeping an eye on it. Is it just for app development?</comment>


Don DeLillo: 'I think of myself as the kid from the Bronx' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/06/don-delillo-kid-from-the-bronx-interview-xan-brooks <comment><USER2> De Lillo is a great writer, his novels are intelligent and thought-provoking. I've read White Noise many years ago; to this day, I consider it the best investigation that I've ever read about Death. We all have to die sooner or later and yet, interestingly, death is the great taboo of our modern society.

<comment><USER3> I bet a lot of people on HN would enjoy Ratner's Star. I'm a huge fan of his early novels: End Zone, Great Jones Street, Ratner's Star and Running Dog are my favorites. All of those novels are quick, amusing reads that unfolded in my mind for many years afterward.

<comment><USER4> _Ratner 's Star_ is one of my all time favorites and I still use the quote " _No definition of '_ science _' is complete without a reference to '_ terror _'._ " as my email signature.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Note that _cryogenics_ just refers to the study of very low temperatures, and cryogenic liquids are used in a vast number of scientific and industrial devices. The topic of the book is more specifically _cryonics_ , the (speculative) preservation of people using low temperature.

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

</comment><comment><USER6> A good "documentary" on DeLillo by the BBC in 1991:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DTePKA1wgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DTePKA1wgc)

Musings on terrorism (through the lens of the Kennedy assassination) are even more prescient today.

</comment><comment><USER7> I am disappointed that the interview did not include more of DeLillo's motivation for choosing to research and depict cryonics, or his personal take on it.

Their underhanded marketing ploy worked ... now I have to buy the book!

</comment><comment><USER8> "I'm still, I'm still Donny from the Bronx..."</comment>


Carlos Kaiser, football's greatest conman - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/apr/26/the-forgotten-story-of-carlos-kaiser-footballs-greatest-conman <comment><USER2> Previous discussion on the man (different article): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12337073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12337073)

</comment><comment><USER3> For those fascinated with these kinds of personalities, there's another brazilian who was famous for, aside doing all kinds of scams throughout his life:

\- Acting as son of Gol's owner, one of the major airlines in Brazil, convincing even a famous celebrity interviewer. This makes him able to have a luxury lifestyle by being offered all kinds of favours and party invitations by famous people around him.

\- Acting as one of PCC's (criminal faction) leaders and leading a rebellion where he was incarcerated.

\- Acting as guitarist of a famous brazilian band.

There's a book and even a movie [0] about his story.

[0]: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1997594/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1997594/)

Edit: An interesting anecdote:

When the writer interested in publishing the book about his story went to the prison and asked how he lied to people, he said "only after we sign the contract".

Then after the writer came back days later he said he was not interested anymore as another publisher came by. The writer then told him he would take 50% of the earnings.

After signing the contract she asked again, to which he said "well, you just had a practical lesson".

</comment><comment><USER4> That article is a very enjoyable read.</comment>


Perfect example of real-life hacking - <AUTHOR> http://www.futilitycloset.com/2010/02/22/the-pudding-guy/

<comment><USER2> There are people who buy dollar coins straight from the US mint (with free shipping) with credit cards, deposit the coins to pay off the bill, and accumulate rebates and frequent flier miles. IIRC one guy bought an appreciable fraction of a million dollars worth of coins, a few grand at a time, and got a similarly ridiculous number of frequent flier miles out of it.

One reason this is considered "real life hacking": it's an exploit of a bug. Credit card companies generally exclude "buying cash" from their rewards programs ("some restrictions may apply"), but some of them failed to account for dollar coins as a form of cash.

<comment><USER3> And they got free shipping on the coins!

Story is here: [http://www.google.com/url?q=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB...](http://www.google.com/url?q=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126014168569179245.html)

(google link to get behind paywall)

<comment><USER4> I'm assuming the Treasury is funded by taxpayers which means the free shipping is paid for by taxpayers. Cool hack but kind of lame.

<comment><USER5> Not to mention the credit card fees, which is what actually funds the miles.

<comment><USER6> The irony is that if you pay your taxes with a credit card, you have to pay the credit card fees in addition to the balance on your taxes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For a long time, 1 in 6 20oz pepsi products had an instant win cap worth another soda free. If you held the bottle still enough at the right angle you could easily check the cap in the reflection on the soda. I don't think the savings over the years of free soda would be enough to cover my dentist bills though...

</comment><comment><USER8> A friend of mine, Paul, did this in Zurich back in 2002. He saw that the Migros grocery franchise was giving 10x points for a week, some products were giving 10x points and his credit card was giving (I think) 10x points for the month. There was a special offer for miles-to-points at the time. So he put it all together for about 30 round-trips flights in Europe for a couple thousand bucks. At first they yelled at him, and then they relented.

When he told me about the idea, I just thought it was funny. When he told me he found a product cheap enough, and spelled it out, I immediately went to get the Migros point card, only to find out I had to wait a week for it, and the offers expired in the meantime. Damn.

Edit: I'm really fuzzy on the details. I'll ask him about it, if you want the exact specifics.

</comment><comment><USER9> this is a good example of needing money to make money. When I was unemployed for a while I found myself in a death spiral where I didn't have enough liquid cash to take advantage of some money making opportunities that came along.

<comment><USER10> Worse than that: not having money means not having safety nets, getting injured/sick/stressed with no backup, resulting in losing the job/house/car..and down you go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Periodically you will find cereal boxes with a 'Free Adult Movie Admission' inside. The cereal is around $3.00 while movie admission is around $14. My friend and I used to buy some cereal, tear off the coupons on the way to the theatre and enjoy a nutritious snack during the movie.

<comment><USER12> I definitely read "Free Adult _Movie_ Admission" as "Free _Adult Movie_ Admission" the first few times through. Nothing like cereal during porn?

<comment><USER13> Reminds me of: <http://www.frenblog.com/illusion/dolphin-illusion/>

NSFW

<comment><USER14> Comments to the post show that almost everyone regardless of age sees the couple first and dolphins later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Unfortunately when you try a similar thing with Pepsi they refuse: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc>.

</comment><comment><USER16> Are you sure this is real?

I ask because this anecdote seems to be verbatim from the movie "Punch Drunk Love". Although the movie I mention was released in 2002: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/>

<comment><USER17> And let us not forget the Lazlo Hollyfeld from the 1985 classic The Real Genius (<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089886/>) who computerized his "no purchase necessary, enter as often as you like" way to millions in cash and prizes.

<comment><USER18> That was based on a real event at Caltech:

[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_cal...](http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_caltech_sweepstakes_caper/)

The short version: in 1975, at the dawn of the computer age, a group Caltech students used the school's IBM mainframe to print out 1.2 million entries to a McDonald's sweepstakes, stuffing them into the entry boxes at 98 separate restaurant locations. The students ended up winning 20% of the prizes, including a new car and $3000 worth of groceries.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Reminds me of the Burma Shave example from the 1950s - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1152409>

</comment><comment><USER20> It's funny that the company made that mistake, but it is really cool that the guy got his miles. I would have thought that they would have a 'Some Restriction may apply' clause and have put a maximum on the amount of miles you can receive.

<comment><USER21> It wasn't a mistake. As the Snopes link says, the pudding company was happy with the publicity, and the airlines were as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> He has a wikipedia page: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Phillips_(entrepreneur)>

</comment><comment><USER23> I thought that "miles" is just a nice name for reward points: "Simply multiply the cost of your travel purchases by 100. For example, if your ticket costs $200, you'd multiply that by 100 to determine you need 20,000 miles to redeem."

In fact, in that story the guy might have had a lot of "miles", but it is only $12,500 in dollar equivalent. It means that this "great" hack is a hack, without "great". Please correct me if I am wrong.

<comment><USER24> Indeed, miles is just a nice name for reward points, but you're not quite on target with the calculations. In American Airline's AAdvantage program, you earn miles per dollar spent (for example, CitiBank's AAdvantage card earns 1 mile per dollar spent[1]). However, it takes a static number of points depending on your departure and arrival locations[2].

On top of the $1 = 1 mile business, for whatever reason, lots of airlines hand out frequent flyer miles like candy. American Airlines used to give you 1,000 miles ($500 worth, as you get double points with AA services) just for booking a vacation through their service... the pudding is another example of this. There's lots of potential for bonus miles, basically.

So, depending on how you want to look at it, doing this without rewards, he earned $1,250,000 worth of miles for around $3750. With rewards, it could be anything, but surely he paid the minimum amount.

[1]: [http://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/faq2.do?screenID=801&s...](http://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/faq2.do?screenID=801&sectionName=citibiz_aa_card) [2]: [http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/free- ticket-a...](http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/free-ticket-award- chart.jsp)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Reminds me of the infinite Jamba Juice hack:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875856>

</comment><comment><USER26> "Phillips also got Aadvantage Gold status for life with American Airlines, which brings a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades, and bonus miles."

\- reminds me of the film "Up in the Air" <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/> I only hope that the Pudding Guy story has Happy End

</comment><comment><USER27> How can you call that hacking? He covered every angle like the engineer he was.

<comment><USER28> Because it reminds me of that one dude from the Val Kilmer movie Real Genius who sent in all of the "No purchase necessary" contest forms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> That reminds me of this guy who did a similar thing to get a Concorde flight - <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3204699.stm>

</comment><comment><USER30> Related story from two months ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=981433>

</comment><comment><USER31> What a great find.

</comment><comment><USER32> hacking is not a good thing</comment>


Coding for the kids. Anything for adults? - <AUTHOR> http://www.codecards.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> I like this. Its on PH this morning, good luck to them. Nice balance between physical and virtual resources. Would nice to know the best resource people have seen for adults so they don't quit on day 1. There are lots of adults out there that want to code but see it as a massively steep learning curve.</comment>


Rise in Poor Millennial Health Expected to Have Long-Term Economic Consequences - <AUTHOR> https://curated.tncontentexchange.com/states/illinois/rise-in-poor-millennial-health-expected-to-have-severe-long/article_43428cc1-dfb4-56bd-a5c4-d7afb092c05b.html <comment><USER2> I am sad when i see them drink and eat garbage. The ammount of consumed sugar seems insane once i got away from it. Small kids carry energy drinks or even just cola. A lot of them are ruining their livers, their pancreas and thus the rest of their body. What to eat when you cut the sugar, red meat... etc? Bioavailability of nutrients is a big factor once you look into anti- nutrients...</comment>


Getting a SIM card in India - <AUTHOR> http://dangoldin.com/2013/12/23/getting-a-sim-card-in-india/ <comment><USER2> Despite poor infrastructure in many areas, India has one of the best telecom infrastructure thanks to Sam Pitroda - the father of Indian telecom. From Wikipedia [1]:

"As technology Advisor to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi in the 1984s, Pitroda not only heralded the telecom revolution in India, but also made a strong case for using technology for the benefit of society through missions on telecommunications, literacy, dairy, water, immunization and oil seeds."

Getting a SIM card is intentionally hard partly due to their prevalence for terrorist activities (especially in its initial days when anyone could simply buy a SIM card from a store without any ID proof) and partly from the lack of a centralized electronic citizen identification system similar to SSN.

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pitroda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pitroda)

<comment><USER3> > Getting a SIM card is intentionally hard partly due to their prevalence for > terrorist activities

Seriously? That sounds like the most idiotic excuse ever. Terrorists also eat chewing gum, so we're going to ask for ID and 24 hour waiting period before buying chewing gums?

In the UK (and probably many other countries), you can buy a SIM card in a grocery shop and it's activated instantly. Adding a data plan or call/sms package is as easy as using a shortcode or sending a SMS.

<comment><USER4> Terrorists cannot deploy bomb blasts using chewing gums

<comment><USER5> Unless they are worried about the bill, they can do that with SIMs that roam in India.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My experience of getting a SIM card in Mumbai:

Go to hotel concierge, ask about getting a SIM card. Referred to English speaking member of staff. Offer him INR100 plus costs to get me a sim card with data plan. Browsing the web within 15 minutes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep! That's pretty much what my attempt turned into after trying to do it on my own. It took me 4 hours though - still better than the 24 they said it would take.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Indian here and also work in telecom core tech. So more info below

1\. about 1/2 year back getting SIM was like getting oxygen. It was like Rs5 or even free some times. It started causing lots of issues. Its way for cheap advertising actually you know Indians tend to spend less, specially in business. Following are some of the consequences

       i. Marketing SMS from these free/cheap SIM cards

       ii. Perverts start irritating ladies(yes, this is true)

       iii. Of course lots of marketing calls.

       iv. The worst part is its used for all kinds of illegal activity, when police wanted traces, the SIM card vanishes without any proofs.

       v. The biggest problem TERRORISTS.

Now govt wanted control over these problems.

Govt took few good steps like DND(Do Notcall Directory) where a customer registers himself/herself to this service do not get any unwanted calls. If such calls comes then the operator will be heavily penalized.

2\. Since they wanted tracking of the the valid users of the SIM, strict rules followed to give govt provided photo id for Indians and passport for non- Indians. And also took strict activation mechanism that a voice call is made from operator to verify the user details given.

3\. now the tech part :). You know since India is one of the biggest countries and due to business and competition we have around 17 operators. Even complex part is although Airtel(in your case) in Delhi and Bombay, technically both work as different operators(yes its true). 404-10 Airtel Delhi and 404-92 AIRTEL Mumbai. refer this link [http://modmymobile.com/forums/70-slvr-l9-l72/555395-mcc- mnc-...](http://modmymobile.com/forums/70-slvr-l9-l72/555395-mcc-mnc-ids- india.html) This means if your Delhi user and make call from Bombay the original authentication happens in Delhi itself(in telecom language its called Home Location Register HLR in short). And when you visit Bombay/Mumbai you are in a location called Visitor Location Register in short VLR. Since your card is not yet activated the VLR rejects you,Hope this helps.

P.S: India does not allow location based services as of now. and TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) expects your calls SMS etc are stored for 36 months. So if you have done something wrong using mobile phone in India, beware that govt has 3 years to get hold of you :)

HAPPY MOBILING IN INDIA :)

</comment><comment><USER8> Generally, whenever colleagues from abroad visit Bangalore, I keep a local SIM card in my name ready for them. After the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, the govt of India made it ludicrously difficult for any foreigner to get a local SIM card. I found this absolutely strange since the Mumbai terrorists never used local SIM cards - they were using satellite phones. I guess some guy in national security had a checklist of security proposals to implement and this was on the list. And once a complex process gets implemented in India, due to bureaucratic inertia, it never gets simplified.

</comment><comment><USER9> Getting a SIM card is equally arduous even for Indian citizens. You need to have an ID proof, address proof and of course a photo. If you are a married woman and have changed the middle/last name after marriage, you also need to give a marriage certificate copy! And you have to provide these docs at regular intervals.

Despite this, some unscrupulous people manage to get hundreds of SIM cards activated, some times for crime, some times just to vote on Reality TV shows on behalf of a contestant.

300 for a SIM is too much. Reliance charges INR 10 ($0.16) for SIM.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's surprising. I'd think locals would know where to go and who to talk to get everything working. As a foreigner it's tough to know what to expect and different places will tell you different things.

I guess the 300 rupees was the foreigner tax.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is nothing compared to the $1,000 security deposit an AT&T employee asked me for an prepaid iPad SIM card. They wanted this deposit because I didn't have a social security number.

T-Mobile sorted me out eventually, but they have their own issues.

Not being able to get a SIM card in India is actually a huge deal for travelers because India's roaming fees are pretty much the highest in the world. I remember a short (5 minutes?) phone call that set me back 100 euros a few years ago.

<comment><USER11> I had a AT&T employee helpfully give me an account with nothing more than my first name -- I think he filled in the address of the store and zeros for everything else. But I'd previously had them outright refuse to sell me one.

I bought a T-mobile SIM at Walmart for their legendary $30/mo unltd data plan, and online activation wanted a bunch of PII (I forget if it asked for an SSN as I had one at that point).

I really wish getting a prepaid SIM was easier than it is, but I can understand law enforcement's apprehension about "burner phones". Ideally I'd shove a $20 in a vending machine in an airport when I land and pop it in my phone.

<comment><USER10> Was it for an iPad? Those seem to be especially difficult.

I went to five AT&T shops before giving up. I also went to two T-Mobile shops before someone would help me.

Other challenges: AT&T only allows prepaid SIM cards to be activated using a US credit card that is linked to an address. So foreign or prepaid credit cards don't work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > First off, to get a SIM card as a foreigner in India, you need to have a > copy of your passport and visa, a passport sized photo, and a local to act > as a reference

Except the local reference part, you go through a similar procedure in Saudi Arabia... in fact.. you need to supply your Iqama (work permit) or passport number over the phone every time you need to topup your SIM. All this in the name of curbing "terrorism"

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha - there's another post right now that's talking about how tough it is to open bank accounts in the UK due to the "terrorism" protection laws. It's usually the common folk who get screwed with the new processes.

If it gets too hard to do this people just come up with hacks around it. Similar to how a stranger at the hotel just vouched as a reference without knowing me very well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The procedure is same for Indian citizens too. All operators ask for address proof, ID proof and a passport size photo. You'll immediately get SIM card and it would be activated after 24 hours, sometimes much sooner. Moreover, if you're buying a postpaid or Internet connection, then operators send somebody to the address you've given during purchase to verify if it's genuine.

All these steps are in place to prevent criminals/terrorists getting SIM cards with fake identities:

[http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-17/hyder...](http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-17/hyderabad/35171328_1_new- mobile-connections-mobile-operators-sim-cards)

This link has some info for travelers:

[http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/buying-a-prepaid- sim...](http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/buying-a-prepaid-sim-card-in- india-as-a-foreigner)

<comment><USER14> And of course, criminals and terrorist would never get their SIM cards from someone else …?! :->

A mandatory registration to get a SIM card is very common on a global level but it's more about lawful surveillance of lawful citizens. All other 'citizens' won't bother with providing the surveillance state with valid credentials.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> More annoyingly in India as a tourist if you leave the country you are not allowed back in for 60 days unless it's all prearranged with the embassy as deciding to say pop to Thailand or back to London for a week is evidently a terrorist type thing to do. The main problem with terrorism seems not the infinitesimal risk of actually being killed by one but the certainty of massive inconvenience to everyday people so the politicians can be seen as 'doing something'. Funny aside - I got my Indian SIM in a similar way and then it stopped working which turned out to be because the phone exchange had caught on fire and partly burnt down, which I didn't expect. Indian travel eh?

</comment><comment><USER16> Friendly locals are usually able to get a sim card for you without any delay. I got my first one from a rickshaw driver (I actually bought his active sim card and phone) for a $10 more than it would have cost. A guesthouse owner did the same thing on another occasion. Make sure to ask nicely, because these people are on the hook if you do illegal things with those cards.

I once went through the official channels, too, and it was much easier than I thought. I didn't have a passport photo either, so I went across the street to get one taken. Then I came back the next day and picked up a working sim card. It's only a bother if you need the sim card right away.

</comment><comment><USER17> It used to be relatively hassle free until the terrorist attacks of recent years (they used cellphones to coordinate movement). Indian KYC (know your customer) rules are the counterpart of having to take your shoes off at the airport in the US.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yea. It's expected and probably still easier than doing the same in the US. I'm sure it affects common people a lot more than the actual terrorists though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Store (Vodafone, Airtel, whatever): Think about the normal level of mobile telco bureaucracy in Europe or the US, and then multiply that times Indian bureaucracy. Nobody in the store really cares if your SIM works, they just want the day to be over with.

Stalls: If they don't hook you up with a working SIM, they don't make money :). They will give you an activated SIM and serve as your reference, but you do run the risk that something will go wrong in the process later. I've had my SIM disabled a week later because some document wasn't included (photo, hotel as an address, whatever).

But no worries, they're so cheap you can just get a new one.

</comment><comment><USER19> Considering that cell phones have been a favorite choice of certain elements (they can be used as triggers etc). The process to get a sim card is now really (hopefully) tightened. Or at least not as easy it was before.

<comment><USER15> You really think having a slight hassle getting a SIM unofficially is going to stop actual terrorists? It's all political theatre.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I know the process in Europe (Germany & Italy, at least) is similar, without the need for a local reference or visa. I was very surprised (and frustrated) to discover the need for a photocopy of my passport, but the need for connectivity and the inexpensiveness of the plans finally won me over.

<comment><USER21> Not everywhere in Europe – from my experience to get a prepaid SIM card in Austria, France, Sweden, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and most likely many other countries you just need to plop some cash on the counter and be on your merry way. Documentation is generally only required for a card with a contract.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, the process of buying a SIM card in China is:

1\. Go to a store (or stall) that has them.

2\. Pay money.

In what I (apparently naively) thought wasn't a coincidence, that's exactly the same process that the US uses. I'm kind of shocked to hear that in some countries (Australia?!) you need documentation to purchase one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Sheesh,

To compare that with getting a SIM in Thailand.

You go to one of the three vendors, who set up a stall at BKK hand over your phone and they insert the SIM and configure it (useful if you want Internet access). 5 minutes later and 1'000 bt (ca. 30USD) poorer (depending on the plan) you are on your merry ways.

<comment><USER24> Yikes, 1000THB? You can just go to 7-11 and buy a SIM card for 50 baht ($1.50). They have 3G capable ones too.

<comment><USER23> Depends what you want.

Yes, 50bt will get you the naked SIM, but if you want to make calls, or connect to the Internet you need to charge it.

The 1000bt quoted includes 30 days of Internet access with a 1 - 2 GB traffic included and 200-300bt of additional phone credit for calls and sms.

From that perspective 1000bt don't look too bad anymore.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Interesting. In Australia, you go to any store or 7-11/newsagent, buy a SIM starter kit, show photo ID and sign a document saying you're not a terrorist, then out in the SIM and activate it online or over the phone.

<comment><USER26> Good that terrorists are very honest people...

<comment><USER25> Isn't it? ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> A terrorist is a freedom f ighter who isn't on your side.</comment>


Phishing attack POC: CSS/JS fake browser window - <AUTHOR> http://jack-shepherd.co.uk/labs/fake_chrome_browser

<comment><AUTHOR> I made this since the concept had been kicking around in my head for ages. Obviously I don't condone this sort of thing.</comment>


How to Fight Loneliness with a Remote Workforce - <AUTHOR> https://x-team.com/blog/how-to-fight-loneliness/ <comment><USER2> >In fact, loneliness increases the risk of health problems.

Just like sleep. Working remote you have to care about sleep and loneliness.</comment>


Quickly generate product screenshots in realistic environments - <AUTHOR> http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/ <comment><USER3> This is a more of a rant on an overall trend than criticism of this site completely, but I honestly do not understand the "drag to upload a file" interaction at all.

I'm in all likelihood going to need to navigate through a bunch of folders to locate what I want to upload anyway - why force me to open up Finder, reposition it so that my browser and finder are both visible, with the "drop area" visible as well, find my file and drag it over? With the default file upload that HTML provides, it's going to open a conveniently sized open window from the start, with a clear call to action on how to select the file in question, and no requirement for an awkward drag into some box on a webpage.

It really feels like prioritizing "cool" interactions over usability.

<comment><USER4> 1\. The default file chooser on windows is horrible.

2\. With multiple monitors, multiple desktops, etc, quite often people will have their working files open anyway.

3\. You can drag a picture straight from another open browser tab so it never needs to touch your browser.

4\. Most sites give a choice of either method.

5\. It's a fairly intuitive action. I know that I caught older family members struggling when they used to drag images and then the image would display in their browser. At this point they thought the photo was online and would be confused when they couldn't then find it on the site when they came back to it later.

<comment><USER5> 6\. file pickers are frequently modal, so you can't do anything in other tabs while trying to find a file.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems like this guy's images became somewhat handy afterall:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5794083](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5794083)

<comment><USER7> Was somewhat sure these were the same but wasn't sure how to find the old post. Neat to see it come full circle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice. [http://placeit.breezi.com/cade2ae](http://placeit.breezi.com/cade2ae)

<comment><USER9> Nicer: [http://placeit.breezi.com/e0d7579](http://placeit.breezi.com/e0d7579)

<comment><USER10> [http://placeit.breezi.com/3c07b95](http://placeit.breezi.com/3c07b95)

<comment><USER11> Holy shit that is creepy. What/who is that?

<comment><USER12> Who is right! Doctor Who villain, the Slitheen: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitheen)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This should save a lot of people a lot of time. FYI it's all done under Creative Commons license allowing commercial use of the images.

<comment><USER14> with attribution

[http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for- commercial-p...](http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for-commercial- purposes/)

 _You're completely ok to use PlaceIt-generated-images for commercial use. You just need to attribute PlaceIt if the work is publicly displayed. We're ok with any attribution so long as you're clearly not trying to be an asshole and just burying it. Doesn't have to be large or very prominent either. Anything along the lines of mentioning PlaceIt is fine. We'd obviously really appreciate a link back._

<comment><USER15> Hmm, I certainly won't 'watermark' my app store screenshots and distract potential customers. I'd rather pay a fee to breezi for using the templates.

<comment><USER16> You can mention that you used them in the app description.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is fantastic. I'm surprised I haven't seen something like this before. I think you've got a great potential market here for monetizing. It's like stock photography meets product upsell.

My first suggestion would be to get similar shots to those you've already done with a female replacing the male. It's an easy way to add more shots quickly.

I also like the idea of more scenes including people. Make it look like they're having fun and also using the phone/tablet at the same time. Smiling faces sell products!

<comment><USER18> Yes, absolutely fantastic.

"Hands holding photoshop-able screens in environments" is rich photographic territory. I would also love to see fat hairy hands, dark-skinned hands, waxy old hands, prosthetic hands, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Thanks for sharing, I'll be using it on my revamped marketing site.

I think in terms of conversion, potential users emphatically see themselves using the product with their device with this type of frame (opposed just a screenshot with no device frame).

However, I would suggest several PC shots. Like Lenovo laptop, Dell monitor, etc instead of being so Apple-centric.

</comment><comment><USER20> I was trying to find screen reflection :)

The iPhone 5 screenshot area is off. Top left corner too high, top right corner too close to the right, two bottom corners too close to the right so perspective looks incongruent.

Actually content areas in almost all templates are slightly off. All these screens have gaps around them, it's chrome - bezel - screen gap - pixels. Consider shooting template images with the device showing a solid color so you have the actual image area baked into the original, not with the screen turned off because you're more likely to get the placement wrong that way.

</comment><comment><USER21> Found it on HN on January and... Why it's free?!

I would be glad to pay for each screenshot generated because saves plenty of time and simply makes presentations look way better.

There is a channel (you already have it), there is a real problem to be solved and it's something people would pay... Sounds brilliant :)

<comment><USER22> I bet its free because now I know what breezi is, and I didn't before Jan. I agree this is an awesome service. I would shell out a few for it too.

<comment><USER23> We're keeping it free for now until we release a much larger library of imagery - at that point, we'll decide what makes the most sense.

<comment><USER24> Maybe 30 stock images for free, gain access to larger library for flat fee.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Only Apple products there - why tailor to the minority? Globally Apple has around twenty-something percent of smartphones, thirty-something percent of tablets and ten-something percent of 'PC's'. You wouldn't suspect if you looked at the media though where it often is Apple or bust. I never understood this herd mentality and I still don't. People will start dropping Android screenshots in your iProducts, Xmonad runninng on Macs (OK, that is plausible but still...), Windows will suddenly magically run on more iProducts, etc.

Diversity is good. Apple is not very diverse. Why not add something else?

<comment><USER26> You didn't look far enough. There are Androids and Windows Phones / Tablets to the right.

<comment><USER25> Ah, better. Now mix them so there is no selection bias.

<comment><USER27> Surely it would make more sense to group them? If I'm going to be creating a universal application for iOS, it would be much easier to see all the available options.

That said, I do think the other platforms should be given some sort of visibility to show that they're actually present.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Isn't working for me right now...possibly server load? But great idea. I too would pay. And I second the suggestion for more diversity in the shots. E.g., I could use one right now in the hands of a Hispanic teen girl. In general, I would need more women.

<comment><USER23> Give it a try now - and we'll add more women - <USER2>

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> If you do an image search on google you can actually find companies which are using them... for example:

[http://sobytes.com/world-news-translate-piechart-news- option...](http://sobytes.com/world-news-translate-piechart-news-option/)

( Did the image search with this one: [http://placeit.breezi.com/uploads/stage/stage_image/113/bree...](http://placeit.breezi.com/uploads/stage/stage_image/113/breezi_placeit_17.png) )

</comment><comment><USER30> This has been discussed before over here - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914)

<comment><USER31> Previous Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914) (118 points, 66 comments, 221 days ago)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I used this for a mock that I posted on Dribbble[1]. I remember when it was first released and there were only a few templates so it's great to see that it's still growing. If the OP is here, how hard would it be to have a scene with multiple images?

[1] - [http://dribbble.com/shots/1023533-Moneys-Mobile-Digital- Wall...](http://dribbble.com/shots/1023533-Moneys-Mobile-Digital- Wallet?list=following)

</comment><comment><USER33> It looks very nice.

Is it possible to add glare/reflection to the actual screen? It would make it look more 'integrated' into the photo's surroundings.

<comment><USER23> Some have reflections and glares on them already

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I created an opensource alternative a few months back, called snappshot. ([https://github.com/justinjudd/snappshot](https://github.com/justinjudd/snappshot))

Right now I have just posted my own images, but my goal is to get other photographers/individuals to add photos of different devices.

I am updating my webserver right now, but for now you can run it locally or deploy it yourself.

</comment><comment><USER35> realistic _Apple_ environments :-)

(I realize there are one or two Android and Windows phones in the list, but still...)

</comment><comment><USER36> Brilliant. Bookmarked.

Would love some Windows-y machines as well, all laptops are Macs. (Which is what I use, but still live in a world of Windows laptops)

</comment><comment><USER37> I love breezi. Unfortunately, it is against Apple's marketing guidelines to use their product in unauthorized ways to promote your app. It is loosely enforced, but they have pointed it out to us and asked for a takedown (politely). They can also hold it against you if they're considering you for a feature.

<comment><USER38> Are you saying you've used the "iPhone being held"/"Photographed in context" style before and Apple told you to take it down? I would be interested in this because I've been considering this style for my landing page update.

<comment><USER37> We have. But that's because we're a big publisher and Apple manages our account with humans. They expect us to follow their rules (in return for heightened visibility with the iTunes store curation/editorial/marketing folks).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Looks great, but it's taking forever to process the image. And I'm sure that because the app provides no feedback or indication that your image is queued, people are probably stopping the process and re-trying their upload which probably only slows things down tremendously!

</comment><comment><USER40> Why not transform the image on the client side? It will save load on the server.

But it's a nice idea!

</comment><comment><USER41> I really want to share this with people, but it's horrendously slow. I uploaded a 2048 x 1536 image generated from my iPad, and it has been processing it for the past 10+ minutes.

edit: over 20 minutes now. I had to restart it.

<comment><USER42> Not working for me either, but I have to imagine the combination of image processing and HN front page isn't terribly kind to a webserver.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Feature request: stages like these [http://www.slickwebsite.com/img/showcase1.png](http://www.slickwebsite.com/img/showcase1.png)

Also, stages with transparent background would be nice

</comment><comment><USER44> Amazing. Thanks for sharing this. I'd been searching for stock images like the ones offered here in which to superimpose screenshots but always came short so just didn't bother. Now I'll bother.

</comment><comment><USER45> nice idea. i can see people paying for this to use some premium background images. 3-4 generic ones are free, you could offer up a lot more custom ones for a small fee.

</comment><comment><USER46> I do wonder if something bad happens if you try to screenshot the screenshot script url, being a get request and all.

<comment><USER47> something goes wrong

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> We had a little bit of fun with these:

Images + Discussion: [http://www.xerq.net/showthread.php?158334-XERQ- marketing-at-...](http://www.xerq.net/showthread.php?158334-XERQ-marketing-at- its-finest)

Images Only:

[http://i.imgur.com/cN6JnLh.png](http://i.imgur.com/cN6JnLh.png)

[http://imgur.com/ZP26pAQ.png](http://imgur.com/ZP26pAQ.png)

[http://imgur.com/of7SN4p.png](http://imgur.com/of7SN4p.png)

[http://imgur.com/RDPznPc.png](http://imgur.com/RDPznPc.png)

[http://imgur.com/ZyKmPkl.png](http://imgur.com/ZyKmPkl.png)

[http://imgur.com/xJu3fE1.png](http://imgur.com/xJu3fE1.png)

[http://imgur.com/F9T34z7.png](http://imgur.com/F9T34z7.png)

[http://imgur.com/OQiCHx5.png](http://imgur.com/OQiCHx5.png)

[http://imgur.com/sl892ST.png](http://imgur.com/sl892ST.png)

[http://imgur.com/TrOHEyb.png](http://imgur.com/TrOHEyb.png)

[http://i.imgur.com/9BDMxZz.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/9BDMxZz.jpg)

[http://i.imgur.com/qUUA1mx.png](http://i.imgur.com/qUUA1mx.png)

*Some pictures may be NSFW

</comment><comment><USER49> Can I have one context photo with a laptop on the top of a roller coster ? This could be a good introduction for a VC or startup conference presentation.

I would suggest to provide HP or Dell computers too because Apple computer everywhere is getting boring. Ask them to giveaway the laptop as marketing campaing.

</comment><comment><USER50> Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you are sending a Safari user-agent string for all of the devices.

It might be worthwhile to send the proper user-agent strings for each device, so that you'll get a custom response from servers which dynamically generate content based on that header.

</comment><comment><USER51> awesome service!

any chance of getting a good ol' boring office version maybe with a real monitor or just a laptop on a desk? the kind of people i would use this for really dont go for "macbook air with a notepad in the garden"

</comment><comment><USER27> Awesome. I was just the other day thinking that there should be this exact service when considering doing one of these shots. This is going to save me a lot of time, thank you. Will be much easier to create marketing assets.

</comment><comment><USER52> I loaded up my first screenshot sequence of the day. [http://placeit.breezi.com/3443524](http://placeit.breezi.com/3443524) Please advise on how to kick up the 4d3d3d3

</comment><comment><USER53> I'd love this as a webservice (I'd pay). I need to create product shots for every customer I have (white labelling) and it would be awesome to be able to generate them on the fly.

</comment><comment><USER54> Would be awesome if this had stages for industrial environments.

<comment><USER55> Yes, that would be fantastic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I'm guessing it takes a higher resolution image than what the device would use? The sites I tried ended up rendering wrong in terms of what media queries were used...

</comment><comment><USER57> I tried to drag and drop one of the images on top, but I get:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

<comment><USER23> Yes, sorry try it in a little while. There's a lot of load right now

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> I was just looking for something like this. Works great!

</comment><comment><USER59> Very nice. When I typed the url of my own website, which is responsive, it didn't get the responsive version. If it did, it would be perfect.

</comment><comment><USER60> I'd love a way to filter the options. Scanning through all the pics looking for all the laptop ones (for example) is annoying.

Otherwise: I like it!

</comment><comment><USER61> It doesn't work at all for me. I just keep gettign 500's

</comment><comment><USER62> what are the terms of use? what is breezi doing with my uploaded screenshot? can I find that out somewhere? are the screenshots stored on their servers?

</comment><comment><USER63> url2png is kicking my butt when it comes to conversions!

They get around 5 new customers for every 1 new linkpeek.com customer.

</comment><comment><USER64> Awesome idea. Great execution.</comment>


JZed.js – The functional JQuery alternative - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/zedshaw/jzed <comment><USER2> > _This also only really works on IE9 and maybe IE8 or better, but honstly IE6 > and IE7 users users can seriously go fuck themselves with a dirty brick._

This kind of language doesn't belong in a software project, let alone its README, and is very likely one of the reasons software professionals are often not treated like professionals.

<comment><USER3> And what kind of language _does_ belong in a software project? He's literally giving away work he did in his own time for free and you complain about the language he used when he did so?

If you don't like the language, don't use the library? Seems a simple solution.

<comment><USER2> That sounds nice, but I don't think it works that way. People see software projects like this, and they develop impressions that software programmers are not professional. The result is that programmers are not treated like professionals.

<comment><USER4> I would pick Zed's code over the code of a "professionnal" any day. I prefer direct, raw and to the point language over watered down politically correct speech any day. The former cares about substance while the later cares about appearances.

After years in the industry, I've become weary of the word "professionnal". It doesn't mean youre talented, it doesn't mean you have a good understanding of how computers really work. It only means you're good at being politically correct.

And that has very little value when it comes to developing software. You can't describe something rational using emotional language.

<comment><USER2> "Politically correct" seems to mean "being respectful, courteous, and considerate of everyone involved". I fail to see how that's a negative thing to be avoided, or how it's "watered down".

<comment><USER4> That's negative if you use it as a filter. I'm not saying being polite is wrong, far from it. What I'm saying is that professionalism is a mediocre metric in our industry. Just like lines of code is a mediocre metric for the progression of a project.

Both metrics look good on the surface. Yet using them shows a very poor understanding of what engineering is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >> I'm doing a bunch of work with CORS and requiring target sites to use jquery is insane when I just need a few little things.

Why would target sites need to have jquery?

<comment><USER6> I don't understand this also. Isn't CORS a server thing? I have used CORS, but still don't understand this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a fan of min.js[0], as it is closer in spirit to jQuery. Looks like the major addition this has is the XHR. Not sure how I feel about the individual $method style, but it looks like you covered almost anything one would need!

[0] [https://github.com/remy/min.js](https://github.com/remy/min.js)

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm guessing zed was bored - or just felt like trolling?

The library isn't "functional", does very little of use, and horribly pollutes the global name space.

Maybe he just felt like venting about jQuery overuse and snobby programmers.

</comment><comment><USER9> > The library is tiny. Seriously, just go read the code. It's good education

Thanks, Zed! I really appreciate what you have done for helping in education in other programming languages. Reading a small library which does much the same as Jquery is a great addition to your materials. I may not use this as a Jquery replacement, but I will certainly be looking through the code to see what I can learn from it. I spend far too little time in the front-end and it's time to change that.

Edit: Edit: Okay, you guys didn't like my joke. So I removed the joke and expanded on the first part of my comment.

</comment><comment><USER10> If this interests you, check out [http://zeptojs.com/](http://zeptojs.com/). Seems like the same concept.

<comment><USER7> Zepto really aims to match the jQuery style and the majority of methods while trimming the fat and sacrificing browser compat, and weighs in at 9.2k min gzipped.

I'd say the only thing this has in common with jQuery is the use of the $. Most of the methods here can be found in many homegrown toolboxes. There is no chaining and no relationship to any of the methods here.

<comment><USER10> I guess the semantics really matter to some people but a few direct quotes from the Readme

 _JZed is my alternative to JQuery_

 _This is a tiny amount of code that has enough of the functionality found in JQuery_

 _then I filled it out with more based on the list at[http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/](http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/). _

The semantics are different but the functionality is completely based on jquery.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is a wrapper around the DOM API, nothing like jquery at all.

<comment><USER12> You know that jQuery is primarily a "wrapper around the DOM API", right?

<comment><USER11> Not exactly, jquery offers it's own API which is what makes it powerful and allows for it's method chaining, plugin system etc. A $(".className") returns a jquery object , not a DOM element.

<comment><USER12> > _Not exactly, jquery offers it 's own API_

Yes, that's the definition of a wrapper: it offers it's own API.

<comment><USER11> jquery is really it's own abstraction, the jquery API allows you to interact with jquery objects which can do DOM manipulation on your behalf. This library literally returns DOM objects.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't understand the talk about CORS. In what way does this library help CORS stuff and what situations is he referring to exactly?

</comment><comment> the-kenny What makes this library functional?

</comment><comment><USER14> I see nothing that makes this library "functional".

</comment><comment><USER15> Pull requests like this show it's rather immature so far:

      Fixed $next() and $previous() not returning anything - 2 hrs ago

</comment><comment><USER16> So how is it "more functional"?

</comment><comment><USER17> Don't like to much the name, is so "egoista", but i love the functional approach :).

<comment><USER18> In the Readme he says he picked that name to annoy people!

<comment><USER19> Annoying people is easy, I don't know why he would go out of his way to do it. It's certainly not something to be proud of.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> How cross browser is this thing? Does it at least support all the browsers versions as JQuery v2?

<comment><USER21> _This also only really works on IE9 and maybe IE8 or better, but honstly IE6 and IE7 users users can seriously go fuck themselves with a dirty brick. I may add a function to detect these two bad browser so people can start forcing them to use a real browser for a change._

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I like the idea, but the tone of the docs is a little too rough for me (although I don't consider myself a functional snob).

[http://www.snapbugz.com/p/98f1d5a6](http://www.snapbugz.com/p/98f1d5a6)

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm really liking the idea of having lots of new $ instead of chaining/burying things like jQuery does. Most of the functions are bareboned but as a concept it looks interesting.

<comment><USER24> The reason jQuery (and _.js, and others) do this is so that you minimize the number of global variables/functions used.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Looking through your code, you have some name mismatching in $parse. Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER26> Would be nice to detect CommonJS environment and not export to the global scope.

</comment><comment><USER27> Always nice stuff, it would be cool if Zed would publish this on npm or Bower.

</comment><comment><USER28> This gives me an idea of reimplementing jQuery as part of learning javascript.

<comment><USER6> Don't do that, do something no one has ever done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> cool, this guy is doing some good work.

see also mongrel2, a language agnostic webserver [https://github.com/zedshaw/mongrel2](https://github.com/zedshaw/mongrel2)

</comment><comment><USER30> function $new(tag, id, html) looks like it has a bug.

next line should read var new_tag = document.createElement(tag); not var new_tag = document.createElement("div"); unless I am missing something

<comment><USER31> Isn't this what GH Issues is for?

<comment><USER30> Zed actually fixed it - this joke will run and run. Smashing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Thanks! But I've long ago replaced my js with clojurescript.

</comment><comment><USER33> > _It 's also functional so now LISP hackers can pretend they're both > JavaScript Oakland Living Node.js gangsters and high class San Franciscans > with their functionality snobbery._

Oh Zed. Don't ever change, our industry needs people like you.

</comment><comment><USER34> Zed is dead.

<comment><USER17> As your comment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Jay-Z will be along for trademark infringement in 5... 4... Same as Coinye West!</comment>


Automobiles Seeded the Coronavirus Epidemic in New York City - <AUTHOR> https://marketurbanism.com/2020/04/19/automobiles-seeded-the-massive-coronavirus-epidemic-in-new-york-city <comment><USER2> These attempts to claim that crowded subways have nothing to do with the spread in NYC are bizarre. If there's no problem spending upwards of an hour with many other people in a small enclosed space, then the entire concept of social distancing is useless.

<comment><USER3> > _If there 's no problem spending upwards of an hour with many other people > in a small enclosed space, then the entire concept of social distancing is > useless_

This is an extreme conclusion. Subway equipment is sanitised more frequently than private cars' interiors, for instance.

<comment><USER4> What parent is saying is that every passengers' exhaled breath needs sanitized in the small enclosed space before it gets inhaled by a fellow passenger.</comment></comment></comment>


Amazing 3D Projections on Buildings  - <AUTHOR> http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/56343

<comment><USER2> Here are comments from the previous time this was posted here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1055968>

</comment><comment><USER3> Similar to the AC/DC vs. Iron Man one <http://vimeo.com/11160666>

Cool Stuff!

<comment><USER4> Kind of like this too: <http://vimeo.com/10692284> Video projection mapped onto blocks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's probably worth noting that the video embedded in the article is a simulation and not a real performance.

The "real thing" is here: <http://www.vimeo.com/5677879>

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if the effect is as stunning when you are not on the specific spot designed to view the 3D effect.</comment>


Gentlemen prefer buying diamonds online - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881758&fsrc=RSS

<comment><USER2> A submarine <http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html> ?

<comment><USER3> Unquestionably, and yet interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> how about "Gentlemen don't like to buy diamonds at all, but if forced to, they prefer buying them online."

Making women "want and require" diamond rings for weddings is the bigest brainwashing and most successful marketing campaign ever. good job DeBeers.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you are buying a straightforward diamond solitaire ring, go for it. blue nile, ebay, whatever.

But if you have something particular in mind, suck it up, go to a jeweler and pay full price. But haggle. Don't pay sticker.

</comment><comment><USER6> A few years ago I gave my daughter a ruby for her birthday from <http://www.geolite.com> along with a little book on gem synthesis.

<comment><USER7> Ruby on Rings?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I bought my wife's engagement ring on eBay. It was scary as hell, but I saved a lot of money and she flat out loves it.

I would do it again.

</comment><comment><USER9> The diamond market is proof that women do not, in fact, want respect.

<comment><USER10> The diamond market is proof that women want diamonds.</comment></comment>


Would you take on a large debt in this economic/political climate? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I considered carefully refinancing my home mortgage recently because of low interest rates. Weighing the closing costs of refinancing I wasn't excited about losing the 4k in liquidity for a net savings of 20k over the next 15 years.

I would consider the impact of defaulting carefully before taking on a new debt today.

</comment><comment><USER3> Debt is only good if you will benefit from it long term. If after you repay the debt you have more than what you started with then go for it. If on the other hand you have less, most loans, then don't do it now.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would never take on any debt, in any climate. I don't have credit cards. I don't have a car loan. I don't have a mortgage. I don't care what my credit score is.

Peace of mind is priceless to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's interesting. How much do you make a year, if you don't mind me asking? Have you ever tried to purchase a large asset such as a house?

<comment><USER4> It varies. I work for myself. Recently when I was working at my startup and took a salary I made ~$120k/year. When I was contracting I made $150k-200k/year. Recently I moved from San Francisco to Yangon, Myanmar and haven't been working much. So far this year I've only made $12k (which is enough here to live for a year).

If I wanted to purchase a house I would pay for it in cash, so I don't need a loan. I don't buy things I haven't earned (crazy! I know). I don't use debt. I don't have to worry about what a lender thinks of me.

As far as mortgages go, I know someone else who doesn't have a credit score and got 3.5% using a manual underwriter. If you have good finances you can get good rates without a credit score.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yes, but I feel my job is safe.

</comment><comment><USER6> What for?</comment>


Ask HN: How do you drive traffic to your side projects? - <AUTHOR> Over the last few years, I've built dozens of side projects and I feel like I always drop the ball when it comes to marketing them. I'll release them and maybe make a post on Reddit, Medium, and ProductHunt about it, but after a small spike in traffic, it's radio silence. I've tried running Google/Facebook Ads for some of my projects and they usually have a high CTR and generate a lot of impressions. Which makes me think that it validates - at a basic level - the side projects and confirms that they're at least a little useful to the right audience. Though, I've found the Facebook/Google ad costs a bit higher than what I'd like to spend on a side project.
I'm not really trying to make money from any of these projects, I just want the satisfaction of them being used really. I don't have much of a social media presence besides your normal Facebook/Instagram accounts, but most of my friends are non-technical, so no sense in advertising the projects to them.
I've been posting all of my side projects under the same domain, so I don't have to build up a backlink profile from the ground up every time I release a new project (https://www.digitalbunker.dev/). According to Ahref's my backlink profile is pretty mediocre.
How are you all able to get traffic to your side projects, news coverage, shares, high Google rankings, etc?
I'm not interested in becoming a marketer or SEO wizard, I just want to know enough to jumpstart my projects. <comment><USER2> Some self-promo before I start, I just started - [https://hackerspad.net](https://hackerspad.net)

Here is my plan

      - First code out the part of the site relating to alternatives. About 80% there
      - Next slowly start listing in startup communities that will like this project. I started with small subreddit , then Show HN, then some more startup communities before I go to indiehackers and producthunt
      - Focus on organic traffic. Improve internal linking on my content which dramatically improves crawl rates
      - Submit sitemap to google,bing and Yandex. Don't forget the latter two. They help big time.
      - Next leverage some traction I will have gotten to reach out to atleast 50 people on linkedin. Offer them something for free or ask for a review for a free trial. I will make this as targeted as possible.
      - Look at FB communities which can be a huge source of traffic. Entrepreneur, startups communities are all worth their time.
      - If i was running a saas focussed on a specific audience, I would develop content on the site via those topics that may interest the audience.
      - Build a community around the site. I have just coded a hacker news like option on my site under news and now will improve engagement via emails I have collected so far.
      - I do intend to list at some competing sites but that is after I have some traction just for the backlinks.

Its not very hard. For content specific sites, organic traffic is still the best. Don't add cloudflare if you wish Google to crawl your site aggressively.

<comment><USER3> As someone who just set up Cloudflare on their site, can you explain the negative effects of doing so?

<comment><USER2> Cloudflare aggressively deters bots and Google's bot usually get caught out in this due to their automated behaviour. I have seen cloudflare strangle and limit Google bots activity leading to lower crawl on most sites using cloudflare.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can offer some advice from the perspective of an indie-hacker who has been independent about ten years via an e-commerce thing for law students (Oxbridge Notes).

I view each marketing activity — be that a reddit ads campaign, a series of responses on Twitter, an SEO play, etc. — as an experiment: You test the waters (ideally at limited cost to yourself) and emerge with data about its success. This data you document religiously, analyze, and integrate with previous findings. Slowly, but surely, you hone in what's effective for you and the double-down on it.

This is time-consuming, risk-laden, and laborious. You will face utter uncertainty. But every so often you strike gold — some repeatable, profitable marketing technique — and can milk that opportunity for years — perhaps even building a stable business atop it.

I recorded a bunch of screencasts on what I went through to get traffic to my site (up to 200,000 sessions/month). These might give you a nuts-and-bolts feel for what goes into the process:

[https://www.semicolonandsons.com/episode/seo-strategies- for-...](https://www.semicolonandsons.com/episode/seo-strategies-for-web-apps- part-i)

</comment><comment><USER5> Probably not the answer you're looking for but: I don't.

I don't particularly care how "well" my side projects do - I write them mostly for myself.

</comment><comment><USER6> People share what they find remarkable and recommend what they find useful.

Instead of focusing on web traffic, consider making something that just 10 people find remarkable, get excited about, or can't live without. Chances are if 10 people find it remarkable they will tell others. And then you can accelerate that process by sharing it with others like them.

<comment><USER7> I think this ignores the fact that building something that gets spread through word of mouth is remarkably difficult and doesn't happen on the first iteration of the product.

All while those initial visitors have come and gone - how do you replicate traffic? I think OP needs to take a hand to hand combat route and just find those initial users himself while he searches for at least a semblance of interest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have this same question. I usually do the same thing. Post on reddit a few times, ShowHN, product hunt etc. I got lucky and one of my side projects, deckofcardsapi.com, really took off because of HN, but I haven't been able to replicate it.

<comment><USER9> I have not seen your project earlier. I just checked it out.

Here is my feedback, hope it helps you.

First off, instead of showing off an api calls & response, show a use case. Make a simple site that utilises the API, then in the details page show the calls & response. Don't make api details your whole site.

I am someone that plays cards with my friends and I didn't understand the use case of the API.

API is the backend that you developed for some reason. Its nice you are sharing it. Show the reason. So that other can addon or make their own spin. Make a demo project using the API.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> For my side project: [https://randomdailyart.com](https://randomdailyart.com)

I've been the most successful by going directly to artists and art lovers. Posting on artist sub-reddits was the most successful. Targeted ads on Facebook works as well, but like you said, it's expensive.

Posting on HN or product hunt is sometimes a waste of time if that's not your audience you're going after.

So know exactly who the audience is and go to where they are.

</comment><comment><USER11> Read about 1000 true fans: [https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true- fans/](https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Find out exact segment or group of users that are converting. Locate similar people online. In fb, Reddit groups or Quora or wherever. Write articles or courses to help them.

Try research oriented newsletter

Get audience and rest will follow. Also try to look for viral loop within your app. For eg drop box had a auto viral loop when you share files with others. Look for such opportunities.

Since you are not going to spend on ad, viral loop and content are only ways to grow.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you have a well structured blog, it helps. Think about how you would create a table of contents for a book on the topic your side project covers. Break that out into the structure of your site. The Google bot can get a good idea that your site has good coverage of a topic.

Combined this with technique in the book They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan and you should have a good starting point.

</comment><comment><USER14> With my own side project[1], a lot of people still find us via Product Hunt (even 1+ year later), I personally try to engage with people on Reddit, Twitter and IndieHackers. I don't necessarily promote our website but answer their questions and they follow the username.

The site's also listed in a few directory tools for Podcasting (I had nothing do with it)

[1] [https://useCastup.com](https://useCastup.com)

</comment><comment><USER15> I join forums where I neglect to cultivate the necessary social capital required for anyone to care about anything I do. Then I get banned.

Coding is 99% marketing and 1% actual coding. You should give up and start a band that plays covers of songs by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Musicians have a better chance of success than coders.</comment>


The Hummer is coming back as an electric vehicle - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/2020/01/31/801570087/the-hummer-is-coming-back-as-an-electric-vehicle <comment><USER2> By giving it ridiculous power and making it somewhat cartoonish, I think it will be hugely successful on one condition, they have to keep the price manageable. Especially if they want to compete with the cyber truck.

<comment><USER3> It also has to be somewhat more energy efficient than an actual hummer, otherwise it's going to go like 50 miles on a full charge. And charging will take three days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't think of a brand that would be a harder sell for the sort of people that want an EV right now.

In my mind it screams "big for the sake of big", not efficient or environmentally friendly...

<comment><USER2> I think this strategy is aimed at the people who think they do not want an Ev under any circumstances

<comment><USER3> They lost the market in 2000 by canceling their ev program. Now they want to get back into it by marketing only to the people who would never buy one? Sounds like GM needs a new marketing department.

<comment><USER2> Maybe it's a subtle apology.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Still waiting on a sub 30k electric sedan that doesn't look like a turd

<comment><USER6> ... and isn't full of tablet computers with half finished software that needs constant updating, miles of wire, self driving snake oil, and other electronic wizz bang nonsense. I just want a car. Not an IT experiment.

<comment><USER7> One which can be repaired without expensive trips to the dealership to use proprietary tools.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This could help at high altitudes where you don't get enough air for a naturally aspirated engine. I ran into this problem off roading above Ouray and Telluride, CO at about 12,500ft. Though adding forced induction would've given me back some power.

<comment><USER9> Sounds like a good location to run out of battery

<comment><USER10> That would be my concern. It's only a matter of time before battery recharge trucks roam the streets and rescue people from offroad power failures. Cheaper than loading an EV on the back of a diesel flatbed to be taken to a recharge station, which I often see in California.

<comment><USER11> In general I expect serious off roaders will carry a generator - they often do anyway for their campsite. Of course we are talking altitude which changes things.

<comment><USER10> A generator to recharge an ev battery needs a lot more power than a camping generator can generate. You'd need a huge unit hence my parent comment.

<comment><USER11> No, it just charges slower. You do of course need a charger that doesn't draw as much power. Enough gas to run a camping generator overnight will get you half a charge and that should get you back to civilization. If this is your normal use case a conventional engine is by far better - but for the average camper this is done so rarely lugging around a generator only when needed makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> GM made a Chevy Silverado platform 'hummer H2' suv, that's what this article refers to, not the milspec Hummer made by AM General.

The GM 'consumer' Hummer was basically a pseudo milspec hummer and this new EV version will presumably be a similar marketing effort. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer_H2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer_H2)

</comment><comment><USER12> Wonder how they'll get on with Cybertruck.

<comment><USER13> They will fight each other at monster truck rallies. "Team Cyber" and "Team Hummer" shirts will sell out. Many corn dogs will be eaten.

<comment><USER14> I would gleefully attend an all-ev monster truck rally.

<comment><USER10> Electric power is well suited to driving the huge wheels of a 4x4 monster truck, great low end torque and wide power band. The problem might be battery weight - monster trucks are basically lightweight space frames with low unsprung weight pushed by a big block V8 engine with a flimsy fiberglass body over the top of it all.

<comment><USER15> Battery pack might be better really, you could move the centre of gravity slightly lower than the fuel tank and engine on a ICE version.

<comment><USER14> With how massive the wheels and tires are, maybe hub motors with batteries packed in their centers could work. I don't get the impression that monster trucks strive to minimize unsprung weight, the tires are wrecking balls.

<comment><USER10> [https://youtu.be/OumQxxO8v1M](https://youtu.be/OumQxxO8v1M) <\- 2014 EV monster truck

You wouldn't need huge battery life for a 15 minute performance, so shaving off battery weight might just work. What most people go to see is airborne jumps rather than crushing things hence need for low weight.

<comment><USER14> IIRC the rubber tires weigh 1000+lbs each, I wonder if the tires could be implemented differently using lightweight materials shifting their weight budget into hubmotor+battery.

<comment><USER16> Tires are consumable so you're unlikely to see monster truck teams adopt anything too exotic for cost reasons unless there's a huge performance improvement to go with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Didn't Arnold Schwarznegger have a Hummer EV 20 years ago? Californians derided him for driving around in a Hummer - so his response was to rip out the gas engine.

</comment><comment><USER3> European sustainability: ride your bike

American sustainability: ev hummer

</comment><comment><USER18> That's pretty amusing. The brand is still recognized...may as well use it and why not try something new?

<comment><USER19> Considering it has both the power figures of a Veyron and a size that requires those roof safety lights, I think it's safe to say the brand will still be keeping with their tradition of absolute trash fuel/power economy.

<comment><USER20> I'll take 40 eMPG if if gets the original 9 MPG ICE Hummers off the road.

<comment><USER21> On one side, yes.

On the other side, the biggest problem with this type of vehicle is 12 inches behind the wheel. They should create a special category of license with extra hours of certified training.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Potential military application? The Hummer originally came from the battlefield after all.

<comment><USER23> Probably not.

1\. Electric vehicles are a terrible fit for military operations

2\. The actual HMMWV is a steaming pile of garbage. Not sure why the US Gov would want to buy an expensive version of the same thing

3\. The HMMWV was recently replaced by the JLTV - it'll probably be at least 20 years before the next refresh cycle

<comment><USER24> I have wondered about an electric tank. Some advantages. Doesn't require air. No thermal signature. Quiet potentially. Instant power. No diesel fuel to catch fire. No hydraulic system. Potentially redundant drive and actuators.

<comment><USER23> Sure. That's all good stuff.

But fundamentally, EVs really only work well when vehicles can recharge on a grid. The Military wants to be able to operate away from the grid.

<comment><USER25> With all this talk US military has been doing about the changing theater of war in XXI century, about how it needs to refocus on effective operations in urban areas, I wonder: do they always assume that the power grid will be off? If not, then there may be some utility in a light and fast electric vehicle that parasites off enemy's power grid (and has solars or diesel aggregate as backup).

Also, did the military consider hybrid vehicles for similar role? They have the capacity to operate off-grid, and also switch to completely silent when tactically useful.

<comment><USER23> > do they always assume that the power grid will be off? ... Also, did the > military consider hybrid vehicles for similar role?

I want to be up front - I'm far from privy to the military's decision making, which is byzantine and absurdist on a good day.

However, I think I can pretty safely say that the issue is not whether the military assumes that the grid will be off, but rather they don't assume that the grid will be on.

I think the closest they might get is a plug-in hybrid. However, that adds quite a bit of weight and complexity to a vehicle. I honestly don't know one way or the other how well that would work for armored vehicles, which are typically quite a bit heavier than you're probably used to thinking.

For example: homemade armor is typically 1/4" hardened steel plate welded to the outside of vehicles (thin skinned trucks, etc.) - about 2x the thickness of the Cybertruck's body. I'd assume that most purpose built armor kits are even heavier than that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Ways GM could enter the electric market.

Electric Malibu: Totally makes sense

Electric Cadillac: Wow, forward thinking!

Electric Corvette: Whoa, world changing

Electric Hummer: But I. But we. Wait. What?

<comment><USER26> It solves the biggest problem everyone had with the Hummer: gallons-per-mile.

And it competes with the Cybertruck, and they don't have to worry about a limited amount of space for the batteries. Seems like a good strategy to me, for a first attempt.

<comment><USER3> But my impression was that the only reason to have a hummer was the whole "I'm whatever enough to be above social responsibility" appeal. So if they make it socially responsible then that takes away their entire market. I've never been in the market for a hummer so maybe I'm missing something.

That said, an electric hummer could be a perfect fit for the hummer stretch limo market. Though idk if that market is big enough to warrant its own whole thing.

<comment><USER11> Are we talking about the mil-spec hummer which was admired by people who spent a lot of time off road, or the H2 which was just another truck (not useless off road, but no better than any other truck) which never actually went off road.

<comment><USER3> H2 is mainly what I was thinking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Do electric horses dream of autonomous buggies?</comment>


Why wouldn't you shop here? - <AUTHOR>

Looking for some feedback on my site... I'm trying to get it known but I'm not sure why it's not taking off.  Any suggestions?  Would you shop here?  If not, why?  Thanks!<p>Site:  CureCart.com <comment><USER2> i _would_ but to answer your question, i might wonder if there's a catch. do the items cost any more than if i go direct to amazon.com? (i know the answer is no) but you may want to make that clear. great idea, and a little transparency can go a long way in earning people's trust</comment>


SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition II [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/2016_0831_hyperloop_competition_ii_rules.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like a fun competition. From the PDF:

Competition Weekend II will be judged solely on one criteria: maximum speed with successful deceleration (i.e. without crashing). This is different from Competition Weekend I, which featured multiple judging criteria. In addition, unlike first Competition Weekend, there will not be separate Pod classes (e.g. wheeled vehicles, micro-Pods, etc.); all Pods shall be judged in a single class with the single aforementioned maximum speed criterion.</comment>


How Europe sleepwalked into the coronavirus crisis - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-prevention-excl/exclusive-things-under-control-how-europe-sleepwalked-into-the-coronavirus-crisis-idUSKBN21J6FF <comment><USER2> There is a huge difference countries in between in Europe. On one hand, you have Spain/Italy and on another, you have Denmark which is starting to plan a controlled opening in the coming weeks [1]. Denmark being the second European country to impose lockdown after Italy. But did so much earlier in the curve than Italy.

Going forward it will be very interesting to compare the 3 Scandinavian countries Denmark/Norway and Sweden. Very similar countries cultural, political, and economical but have chosen two very different paths. With Sweden being the last European country holding out against lockdown.

Edit: While the countries have very different population/area ratio their capitals Copenhagen/Oslo/Stockholm are comparable. And I'm not only talking about the actual number of cases/deaths. But also how the economy is going to be effected in the long run.

[1] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus- denmar...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus- denmark/denmark-eyes-gradual-reopening-after-easter-if-coronavirus-numbers- stabilize-idUSKBN21H2LY)

<comment><USER3> As the other comment already said you're comparing apples and oranges. If you take some regions of Spain that has around the same population of Denmark for example they're more or less at the same level of Denmark. Most of the contagions in Spain are in Madrid.

<comment><USER4> Germany also does better than Italy and Spain and it has a bigger population.

<comment><USER5> I keep hearing from friends in Germany that the death numbers reported are completely bollocks. They say the people who die with pre-existing conditions aggravated with the coronavirus are not counted, nor the people who are not tested after deceasing. Whereas in Italy seems everything that dies in the medical system these days is being counted.

Would love to see someone confirming or disproving this...

<comment><USER4> I read this the other way around.

The death numbers from Italy were completly insane, because they counted in people who would have died anyway and just happened to be infected by the virus at the time of death.

Don't know which is true.

<comment><USER6> Both countries are counting all infected.

[https://swprs.org/rki-relativiert-corona-todesfaelle/](https://swprs.org/rki- relativiert-corona-todesfaelle/)

 _The President of the German Robert Koch Institute confirmed on March 20, 2020 that test-positive deceased are counted as "corona deaths" regardless of the real cause of death: "We consider a corona death to be someone who has been diagnosed with a coronavirus infection was, «said the RKI President when asked a journalist (see video below)._

 _According to experts, the number of deaths is severely relativized, since the patients die in many cases from their previous illnesses and not from the virus. Data from Italy show that over 99% of the deceased had one or more chronic medical conditions, including cancer and heart problems, and only 12% mentioned the coronavirus on the death certificate as a cofactor._

 _A look at the statistics of the German test-positive deaths shows that the median age of the deceased, similar to Italy, is over 80 years and that there were usually one or more serious previous illnesses._

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So, the short story here would be: EU proposed to help & coordinate action but individual governments failed to acknowledge/assess how unprepared they were (going to be), as they did not assess the threat properly. And their joint reports provided a false sense of security to the whole.

That there's a deep coordination/collaboration failure here is clear.

But how could several many governments/states all assess that much wrongly on their own capacity to face the epidemics?

</comment><comment><USER8> The root cause failure was not complacency about medical supplies.

The root cause failure was complacency about the contagiousness and mortality rate and the failure to contain Covid-19 to China by stopping all international travel.

<comment><USER7> Containment at the source should have started at least in early December 2019 to be effective. And even then, that would likely not have been effective (because the severity of the epidemic was not asserted widely & seriously enough by then).

So the issue is realistically not there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> China did its best to keep the epidemic secret for at least several weeks, while buying medical supplies from Europe and other areas, draining them of their own reserves.

<comment><USER10> Sure, peddle a conspiracy rather than incompetence in the face of a new outbreak that when it started nobody knew how serious it was going to be.

<comment><USER9> It was both malice on the part of Chinese and incompetence of Europeans. But the punchline is the contrast between the hyper-competent, serious image of US healthcare in the movie Contagion and how it turned out in practice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Surprisingly former Eastern Bloc countries are doing quite well thanks to early lockdowns. I think it's largely due to people not trusting public health systems.

</comment><comment><USER12> What I would like to know: Given the huge number of infected health workers, are ffp2/ffp3 masks with valve still commonly used in hospitals?

<comment><USER13> I think you mean: In institutions where health care workers work, which is much more than hospitals. Many of them work in practices or in various kinds of nursing homes. The masks you may see often in an ICU aren't ones you'll see often in a nursing home or a physiotherapist practice.

<comment><USER14> I think specifically in Spain, there were a particularly high infection rate of frontline hospital staff.

Spain like the majority of European countries does not have issues like lack of staff training or not following state-of-the-art protocols. So it begs the question, are the infection control protocols that we currently have, safe enough to deal with this virus?

An interesting case-study is Cotugno Hospital, an infectious disease hospital in Naples, Italy. It has so far reported zero staff infections. Perhaps their 'over-the-top' protocol is what is required for all Hospitals when dealing with SARS-COV2?

<comment><USER13> This virus is a strange one. Apparently there's no single symptom that affects even a small majority of the infected patients. That's a strange, unusual problem to handle for a system that assumes that illnesses make people ill.

A hospital is self-selecting, in that it doesn't have 50% patients that feel well and show no symptoms. The people who work at a hospital take the precautions that are considered appropriate for the disease they've diagnosed. This means that to some degree, they're not ambushed by asymptomatic infected people.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Unwelcome Return of "Best Viewed With Internet Explorer" - <AUTHOR> http://technologizer.com/2010/09/16/the-unwelcome-return-of-best-viewed-with-internet-explorer/

<comment><USER2> We're better than the 90s! The cutting-edge-features-that-only-work-in-some- browsers today _aren't_ proprietary (à la ActiveX) and will eventually make it into every browser.

I read an article a while back (anyone have a link?) that argued that "best viewed with" _helped_ push browsers and the web forward tremendously. IE 9 is evidence that it's happening again.

HTML5 could really use feature publication — if authors could easily detect support for next-generation features (`if(!document.support.canvas){ tellUserAboutNewBrowsers(); }`), they might be less likely to lock out browsers by name.

<comment><USER3> You mean like <http://diveintohtml5.org/detect.html> ?

<comment><USER2> Yes, and I love you for it!

Guides like yours (and Modernizr) are a case _for_ browsers to make feature detection available through a Modernizr-like API.

We're having to get very, very creative to detect support for some features (e.g. writing data to an <input> and seeing if it sticks — it took a while before someone, Mike Taylor, iirc, figured that one out), and we're _trusting_ that every new feature will be indirectly, accidentally detectable.

I'd much rather there was a standard way for a browser to say, "yep, I support this".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well in defense of that. There are several sites out there that only work google chrome.

Granted, most of them are just "look what can be done with awesome javascript" but still :/</comment>


ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World - <AUTHOR> http://orbis.stanford.edu// <comment><USER2> 'Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.

For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.'

</comment><comment><USER3> I like how I posted this earlier, but the repost with the messed up URL gets the votes ;)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8001507](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8001507)

</comment><comment><USER4> Most interesting. I picked up _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ in a used bookstore recently and this seems like it will be a useful study aid.

</comment><comment><USER5> Too bad, it doesn't seem to work in Safari. I find what I see incomprehensible and unusable. Some shapes seem to be drawn much too large.

In Chrome, it looks better.

<comment><USER6> I'd love to see a screenshot, if you want to tweet or email me. I never had any problems testing it on Safari.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This would make the core of an interesting game.

<comment><USER8> Yes. The mechanic could be a variant of "ticket to ride" where instead of different color trains you get donkey, ship, and horse cards.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > ORBIS is designed for modern browsers and uses technology that works best in > Chrome or Safari.

This is on latest Firefox. Really? The only truly open browser is not "modern"?

<comment><USER10> Does it not work properly on Firefox? If so, I bet they'd probably appreciate the feedback on what is broken so they can try to fix it.

<comment><USER11> For me, on Firefox it immediately displays a splash screen recommending I switch to Chrome or Safari.</comment></comment></comment>


A Haskell DSL for Parsing Binary Files - <AUTHOR> http://cprg-research.blogspot.com/2010/02/domain-specific-language-for-binary.html

<comment><USER2> I built something similar (not quite as pretty) for parsing SWF tags in Ruby: <http://github.com/daeken/Arienette/blob/master/swfTags.rb>

Also in that repo is the beginning of a Ruby compiler for Flash, as part of an implementation that was intended to compile Flash apps to native iPhone apps, before Adobe announced they were doing the same thing. Might be of use to someone.

</comment><comment><USER3> PADS is a related (and more ambitious) line of work from some folks at AT&T: <http://www.padsproj.org/index.html>

</comment><comment><USER4> What are the advantages of this over converting the specification into a CFG and then using a parser-generator?

<comment><USER5> None, because that's what he's doing.</comment></comment>


How Not to Photograph Sex Workers - <AUTHOR> https://fstoppers.com/documentary/how-not-photograph-sex-workers-506874 <comment><USER2> The photographer that that left identifiable faces should be prosecuted. Perhaps that is the most telling problem: these people's rights are not enforced, because those people live on fringes of morality. Making a commercial project based on illegal footage should make it illegal. South European countries have very strong privacy rules and they are actually enforced both legally as well as socially. To have security camera you need a license, and even it's usage for prosecution is limited. On the other hand the word-policing of "prostitute" destroys the article, that very fast comes out as a moralistic piece on how prostitutes are only victims of slavery and violence. In Portugal there was recently some feministic propaganda saying "if you pay you are worth nothing" with an origami vagina on a 20 euros bank note. They basically reduced the body of these people to a 20 euro bill. I found it disgusting and other women protection victims came out saying that the campaign was in extremely bad taste and did not represent the whole spectrum of the activity. It also further stigmatized these people. Personally I found it disgusting. I program for money and often sacrifice a lot of my dignity for it. Should my activity be reduced to a caricature? Hell no.

[https://www.publico.pt/2020/07/30/impar/noticia/tens- pagar-n...](https://www.publico.pt/2020/07/30/impar/noticia/tens-pagar-nao- vales-nada-campanha-abolicao-prostituicao-aponta-dedo-utilizadores-1926429)

</comment><comment><USER3> These pictures are disturbing and apparently illegal (since Spanish law seems to forbid the photographing of identifiable people in public, IMNAL) but damn they struck me and left me well aware of the utter despair and loneliness of these women.

If that was the goal of the photographer: well done, despite the breach of law.

For me, as someone with little to no real live exposure to this metier, they did more to explain the desperation then anything I've seen before.

I'm sad now and will be looking for a way to... help out?</comment>


Hong Kong Metro Collision Report Investigation Panel Report [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/corporate/en/press_release/PR-19-044-E.pdf <comment><USER2> That is a strange signaling system design. Most older train control systems have their configuration data in the wayside units in read-only form. In relay-based systems, it's hard-wired. In older electronic systems, it's in a ROM, which has to be physically replaced to change the configuration. Since the railroad tracks and switches have to be changed in a configuration change, changing the ROM is rarely done. Why are they transferring "conflict data" from one computer to another?

 _" To prevent recurrence of similar incident due to the same causes, the Panel recommended ATDJV to: (a) replace the software design and development team causing the software issue"_

<comment><USER3> Does it also depend on the trains? Things like how long they are, or how fast they can accelerate?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In this case, two non-passenger trains collided. I've been on some incredibly crowded trains on the Tsuen Wan line, so the signaling needs to be spot-on every single time.

<comment><USER5> Not only crowded but if you noticed the trains are mega long. Like really long if you are in the middle you can't see the front or the back.</comment></comment>