Hunting down Ken's PDP-7: video footage found - <AUTHOR> https://bsdimp.blogspot.com/2019/10/video-footage-of-first-pdp-7-to-run-unix.html <comment><USER2> Man stuff I love stuff like this - what a trip. Reminds me a lot of Xerox's mother of all demos (in the same year 1968). These animations/graphics have such a wonderful feel to them that are still compelling and interesting in 2019 =)

What an amazing video.

<comment><USER3> Are you referring to Doug Engelbart's demo of the Online System (NLS) [1]? He was at SRI at the moment. The things that happened at Xerox after that were inspired by NLS, and build by some of the people that worked on it.

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos)

<comment><USER2> That's the one! This early stuff gives me chills man - I'm so into it. Pioneers of a new era =)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "this film features the song "Daisy" sung by a computer, a plot point that would feature heavily in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey."

The mentioned Bell Labs film is apparently from 1968, but it seems that the Daisy song inspired Clarke already in 1962 and 2001 was already made before that film and released in April 1968:

[https://kottke.org/06/04/hal-daisy-2001](https://kottke.org/06/04/hal- daisy-2001)

"In 1962, Arthur C. Clarke was touring Bell Labs when he heard a demonstration of a song sung by an IBM 704 computer programmed by physicist John L. Kelly. The song, the first ever performed by a computer, was called "Daisy Bell", more commonly known as "Bicycle Built for Two" or "Daisy, Daisy"."

</comment><comment><USER5> Wow what a video and the whole time I was saying this is 1968. Incredible. So many things I forget half of them. A digital stylus on a CRT display with real time input able to change the program on the fly and run simulations to test said programs. I saw what really reminded me of the Matrix drop text effect however it was on the horizontal. Computer speech and programing the various sounds. And Finally, at 14:27 in the video someone please chime in here are they showing a QR code back in the day? They show what looks to be a QR code while talking about how computers will allow us to communicate visually in ways we can yet to imagine. Very cool video I recommend the short watch.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not QR code, per se, but something quite similar...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really enjoyed that video. Soundtrack was brill

</comment><comment><USER7> <sniffle></comment>


Don't Start a Company, Kid - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bignerdranch.com/4428-dont-start-company-kid/

<comment><USER2> I have huge technical respect for Mr. Hillegass (bought and read several of his books). I also respect the crux of this post, which for me was the following sentence:

"Being smart and hard-working got me to seven employees. Luck took me the rest of the way."

The funny thing is that I don't want to be an entrepreneur for the money. I'm also not interested in the hockey stick. I wonder if the odds are better if one is just aiming for a lifestyle business.

</comment><comment><USER3> Best part of the article was almost a sidebar:

 _When you have Enough, the extra money means very little. I've been broke, and being broke sucks balls. Having Enough is awesome. How would I define "Enough"? Enough means that you can take a friend out to a nice lunch and not have to worry about how much it costs. I have hung out with a couple of billionaires—my experiences indicate that being a billionaire is just incrementally better than Enough._

Exactly.

<comment><USER4> As someone who would absolutely _love_ to be a billionaire (I once wrote an 'Ode to Wealth', it's under my comments somewhere), honest question: What makes that the best part of the article?

<comment><USER5> I tend to agree with you on this.

At the end of the day no one can argue that someone that lives on $20,000 a month doesn't have a better quality of life than someone living on $5000 a month.

I totally appreciate the sentiment in the article but at the end of the day, money equals freedom.

If I had assets of $5 to $10 million in investments throwing off $200k-$500k a year in cash, that would be a nice lifestyle indeed.

Does it mean I would work any less harder? Probably not. But, if I want to take that 3-4 month trip to Europe and spend 50k on the trip, then that's what I would do.

And I think the comparison is wrong. Being billionaire is incrementally better than a multimillionaire (let's say net worth of $5 million and beyond).

Making $100k a year is definitely not close to somebody making $500k a year.

In terms of starting a company and the risks involved, I think for most people that do it, its an itch. The money is the reward but that's not why we want to do it.

I also think that the odds increase dramatically when you focus on building a business where you don't expect it to ever go IPO or be worth more than 5-10 million.

<comment><USER4> Finally, a kindred spirit!

You said it best: "at the end of the day, money equals freedom." My previous sentiments: [0]

>At the end of the day no one can argue that someone that lives on $20,000 a month doesn't have a better quality of life than someone living on $5000 a month.

Oh, you'd be surprised. TONS of people will disagree; I know several of them :). They'll create strawmen, saying things like "Oh, yeah, he spends $20,000 / month, but he {had to sell his soul to get it | isn't happy | has a bad relationship with his family"}. Personally, I think it's just jealously, and bitterness.

Me? I'm a 1st year CS student. I have a math final on Thursday, but I owe about USD380 on my tuition, so I'm gonna be barred from sitting the exam, which means an automatic fail. The course is a pre-requisite for semester 2 courses. Which means my degree plans just got pushedback. Being in this situation, when I hear people talk like money ain't a thing, it kinda makes me shake my head. No beef with @carsongross, but to me, money is really, really important. For want of 0.4BTC, my kingdom is lost ;(.

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025537](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025537)

My 'Ode to Wealth': [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2026680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2026680)

<comment><USER6> Really? You can't find a way to scrounge up $400? I've found your first obstacle to being rich. Go talk to people. That is a problem you should easily be able to solve. Try to find the money. Can't find the money? Go talk to people at the school until it gets taken care of. You are effectively giving up a semester of your life for $400. Be persistent. There are things of enough importance that you should not simply resign yourself to the fate someone else has dictated. I'd also suggest buying a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People if you can scrounge up another $10. The lessons in that book were the main reason I had enough to eat my first 3 years of college.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have a friend who works for BigNerdRanch here in Atlanta now. It seems like a really great company, led by a smart, hard-working guy who has, as he notes, both earned and lucked into success. They have a great company culture where they value results over presenteeism and time clocked, and they build truly innovative solutions for a variety of different clients.

If I desired to work with Ruby or Apple technologies it would be a delightful place to work.

As for his recommendation, I would add the caveat that if you have an idea you want to get off the ground, treat it as a hobby or side-project and jump to full-time working on it if you can get either investment or profitability. There's no reason to wholesale discourage people from starting a small company, but be responsible!

</comment><comment><USER8> When you work for a company, like our client Procter & Gamble, they will present you with a problem. "Here," they will say, "is our problem and a big bucket of money. Please create a solution." There is no need for guessing.

Ummm i want the best of both worlds... how can I (a person with no contacts in the company) go to procter & gamble, and say "hey I'm pretty good at tech, let me solve your problems"?

<comment><USER9> In the UK, you can work as a contractor on a software project for BigCo. If you go as a permanent employee as part of a consultancy company (eg Thoughtworks, IBM) they will take the lion's share of your day rate. As a contractor that changes to your benefit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Fuck it! If people have the balls and drive to go after what they perceive to be doable, why stop them? Failure is part of all our lives. That failure will lead them towards a) bettering whatever they thought was going to make it big or b) settling for conformity. I say let them fail, it will bring life lesson not learned any other way.

<comment><USER11> Yes, but is not necessary to fail right now!

Also, you need the right kind of failure... one to bad will have lasting repercussions (or delay things more). Changes get better with a little of experience doing things "normally" and do side things. Eventually then jump...

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It hurts just thinking about it:

      You will spend a large percentage of your energy on stuff
      that will eventually be thrown away.

</comment><comment><USER12> Where's the counter, inspiring epilogue?</comment>


Japan's special take on a packed lunch - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181009-japans-special-take-on-a-packed-lunch <comment><USER3> Ekiben are amazing. They are delicious, efficient, and compact. One big difference between these bento boxes and the typical grab n' go foods we see here in the US is that they provide such a diverse set of foods—meat, rice, veggies, fish, etc. Certainly, some contain an unhealthy amount of fried foods, but on average, you're getting a pretty balanced meal at a reasonable price. Compare this to a prototypical hot dog that you grab at an American train station.

<comment><USER4> I miss Japan for it's food. Always made sure to grab an Ekiben when my Shinkansen journey went over lunch. Never disappointed.

<comment><USER5> *its

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a train culture. You get to use both hands to eat and there are no sharp turns.

Food on trains was a big thing in the US when passenger trains were a big thing. The Fred Harvey diners were famous in their day, enough so that the restaurants called "diners" today were attempts to emulate the mobile versions.

Also, at the other extreme, Japan offers Calorie Mate "balanced food blocks"[1] These contain all the nutrients required by humans in a convenient package. Popular with Japanese salarymen who eat lunch at their desks. It's the humanoid form of dry dog food. They have a liquid version, which is like Soylent without the hype.

[1] [https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/products/caloriema...](https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/products/caloriemate/)

<comment><USER7> You ever see someone eat on the train in Japan (not Shinkansen) ?

I one time saw an older lady sneak a sip of water...

<comment><USER8> A few times on local trains, eating on express trains (most people seated) is normal. It's common to see salarymen drinking booze too

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wonder what it would take to get similar offerings to compete with American fast food? Now I'm hungry and there's no Japanese food anywhere near me.

<comment><USER10> Have people demand fresh and quality food. Our standards for food quality are low compared to Japan or Europe. What people find as acceptable here would not fly in other places.

The US government also subsidizes corn, soybeans and wheat over fruits and vegetables, making it far cheaper to produce meats, carbs and sugars, and thus easily undercuts any other food types. It can be more expensive to buy a head of lettuce than it is to buy a hot dog.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#/media/File:United_States_farm_subsidies_\(source_Congressional_Budget_Office\).svg)

<comment><USER11> I think it depends a lot on culture - US seems to have inherited a rather pragmatic, utility focused approach to food from Germans and Brits. Going from East Germany westwards towards France makes you realize such differences. Japanese are at the far end of that spectrum.

I guess the best you can do is steal the best ideas from everyone - <USER2> at least have zero issues with doing just that, going right back to first western contact with the Portuguese that brought them Tenpura and a bunch of cakes.

<comment><USER12> I think it's because immigrants who came to the US could not find equivalent ingredients to their traditional recipes as easily. Also distribution of fresh food is hard as you go west. So people had to settle with low quality recipes and food. This resulted in there not being as much of a food culture in the general population. So now nobody (as in the average person doesn't) cares about how food tastes like in the US.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> crooked-v As an office worker, I really wish I could get stuff like this here. There's very little that fits the intersections of "fast enough to get on a lunch break", "reasonably healthy"†, "more or less fresh", and "has a mix of flavors and textures".

† Especially this one - there's lots of food carts but those are a long way away from 'healthy'.

<comment><USER13> My observation: In Japan, there is no bad food being served. I am sure it's possible to find, but despite years living and traveling there, it simply hasn't happened to me.

My hypothesis: Massive population density, combined with almost nobody home- cooking and then bringing in a boxed lunch, leads to a HUGE market for lunchtime food options (restaurants, bento). However, due to population density, rent is high, and so bad restaurants get pushed out _quick_ , because if a place is bad, there are ten other options _in the same building_ that are delicious.

So, I often wonder if US cities achieved the same population density, if we'd get the same level of amazing restaurants crammed into 10 story tall buildings, block after block after block.

As for why Japanese food is healthier, I'm just guessing culture.

It is truly remarkable though that I have literally never had a bad food (taste) experience, ever, in Japan, despite having eaten thousands of meals and snacks there.

<comment><USER14> I am not sure where did you live during your years in Japan, but let me assure you it is very easy to find bad tasting food in Japan. I consistently find food at tourist trap destination overpriced and tasted pretty bad.

And most married persons do bring boxed lunch. Along with a lot of female, married or not.

And Japanese food is no where near healthy with all the deep-fried menu as a staple. But I guess if you compared it to US fast food..

<comment><USER15> Honestly compared to bad food in US or Europe for that matter Japanese bad food is not bad. You have to go to really shitty all you can drink bars to get really shit food.

<comment><USER14> Probably. Never been to Europe so I don't know. But compared to normal Japanese food (or Asian food in general), bad food is not that hard to find.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Getting an ekiben and a beer for a shinkansen ride is one of my favorite experiences in Japan.

<comment><USER17> Second this.

Beyond the ekiben, even the grab-n-go food of the convenience stores (7-11, family mart etc) is even a step above most in the States.

<comment><USER18> I'd be perfectly happy surviving on nothing but Lawson's karaage for an entire trip.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What happens to the box when you're done? Even if it doesn't have music circuitry or a heater in it, the bamboo, wood, ceramic or plastic would be pretty lavish materials for something you're just going to toss. Do they get reused or recycled? The "Daruma" box is described as having a slot so it can be turned into a coin bank (nice try), but there's no other mention of the box's lifecycle after the meal.

<comment><USER20> Recycled. Japan has a very strong culture of "carry your trash around with you until you find the right bin", and a lot of self-sorting. See e.g. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_Japan)

The companies making these products have to pay the recycling authority for waste management in proportion to the amount of trash they generate.

<comment><USER21> Jeez I wish we had this in the US. The sheer amount of waste produced by this kinda stuff here is mind boggling.

<comment><USER22> Japan is far from perfect when it comes to excessive packaging and recycling. According to this article it actually recycles less than the US:

> In the bigger picture, however, Japan is a recycling laggard. According to > 2014 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, > the municipal recycling rate for Japan was only 21 percent, below top-ranked > Germany at 48 percent, Sweden at 33 percent and the United States at 26 > percent.

[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/06/10/environment/pla...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/06/10/environment/plastic- fantastic-tokyo-recycle-waste/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I've wondered whether ekiben would fare well as a food truck in a major North American city (prepared in a commercial kitchen and just distributed by truck / hot-dog stand / whatnot).

<comment><USER24> not quite the same thing but there was a startup trying to serve bento boxes. IIRC after they started the realized there were spending more per box than they were making

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/startup/kitchen-confidential- sea...](https://www.gimletmedia.com/startup/kitchen-confidential- season-3-episode-6)

<comment><USER25> Classic startup strategy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Working in Manhattan, I am lucky to have access to a Sunrise Mart that sell bentos and other Japanese comfort foods. It's my go to lunch spot when I'm in a rush and want something cheap and healthy.

There's also a growing UK/Japanese chain called Wasabi Sushi & Bento that has locations in both Penn Station and WTC Oculus.

<comment><USER27> Coincidentally, there's a New York Mart in Sunrise (FL), and they're Asian too! [0]

[0] [https://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-mart- sunrise-3](https://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-mart-sunrise-3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> An American friend of mine once explained that a lunchbox is considered a sign of poverty in the US. Well there is nothing wrong with cheap and healthy.

<comment><USER29> Not if it's a Vera Bradley lunch box.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> And yet... when I went to Japan, McDonald's had _block busting lines_.

<comment><USER31> It's a novelty there. But I think the point is that in Japan, healthy and local but fast food is something you can get at a train station, while that's rare in the U.S. I'm in and out of Union Station (DC) and Penn Station (NYC) all the time. What can you get to go in those places? Besides McDonalds, Pizza, Chipotle, etc., you've got deli sandwiches. Which are just awful in comparison to the options you have in Japan. (And even the deli sandwiches are better in Japan--the random place at the airport is comparable to what you can get at the specialty Italian market near my house.)

<comment><USER32> McDonalds has been in Japan since 1971, and occupies precisely the same culinary niche as it does in the US: cheap, fast and crappy. (Although, this being Japan, they're not _quite_ as crappy as in most countries.) In my uni days students used to go there and buy bags full of their 59 yen burgers, because the calories-for-buck ratio was better than instant ramen.

<comment><USER8> McDonald's sales shrank (for the first time ever?) a few years back so they have been trying hard to not suck.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Managing Redis Reconnecionss from Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://sorentwo.com/2015/08/25/managing-redis-reconnections-from-ruby.html

<comment><USER2> Can you fix the typo in the title?</comment>


Peter Seibel (Common Lisp) talk - Dec 13 - Why Syntax [Does|Doesn't] Matter - <AUTHOR> http://techblog.justin.tv/2007/11/second-live-tech-talk-peter-seibel.html

<comment><USER2> What time on Dec 13?

<comment><USER3> 12:00PM says <http://www.justin.tv/hackertv></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is firebase prices are expensive? - <AUTHOR>

https://www.firebase.com/pricing.html<p>I was thinking about how to be if I use firebase as my backend. It really looks cool to me. But Im confused about prices. What do you guys think about prices on the list. Are they normal for connections they handling? <comment><USER2> I think it's relatively reasonable. At least it's not based off of month active users but concurrent users at any given time. 50 concurrent users is good to start off with and $150 for 750 users is reasonable at a business standpoint. 750 concurrent users would translate to over 1 million monthly visits according to their stats (In our experience, 1 concurrent corresponds to roughly 1,400 monthly visits.)</comment>


FriendFeed Is In Danger Of Becoming The Coolest App No One Uses - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/06/friendfeed-is-in-danger-of-becoming-the-coolest-app-no-one-uses/

<comment><USER3> If no one's using it, how cool can it be?

I signed up for friendfeed when it launched. It solves zero problems in my life.

It can't help me build an audience for my startup like Twitter can.

It can't keep me in touch with my friends like Facebook can.

I think Friendfeed's problem was that it banked on the assumption that people would be using 30 plus services on the web and needed one place to store it all....but really people are just using 2, Facebook and Twitter, making Friendfeed unnecessary.

<comment><USER4> >but really people are just using 2, Facebook and Twitter, making Friendfeed unnecessary.

Make that one, since Twitter has only 5-6 million users (about 4 million of whom seem to be "internet marketing" consultants)

I think you're right about people just using Facebook for everything, making Friendfeed unnecessary. In my opinion the same will happen with Twitter - <USER2> microblogging hits mainstream it will be on FB's Twitter-like functionality rather than Twitter itself.

<comment><USER5> Really? I guess I use facebook and twitter in different ways than you.

For me, facebook is about connecting with people from high school, sharing photos, and keeping tabs on random family members.

Twitter, on the other hand, is about communication with core friends and keeping track of companies/services I'm interested in.

The two are very distinct for me, and I really appreciate the separation.

<comment><USER4> I agree, but I think that you and me and other HN users are a niche.

Twitter serves that niche well (6 million users after 3 years of constant hype proves it is a niche IMHO), but I think for an FB size audience the usage patterns will be different.

<comment><USER6> Not necessarily. The core of twitter allows anyone to "follow" anyone else. Whereas for facebook, you need to first become a friend of that person before you start getting updates. People on twitter easily have thousands of followers even though most of those aren't "real" friends. You could probably do that with facebook, but it would defeat the purpose of having friends & family on there if 95% of your friends were random people on the internet that just wanted to follow your status updates.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> At Startup School last year, Paul Buchheit said that Friendfeed was an aggregator of social media traffic in much the same way that an e-mail client was an aggregator of SMTP traffic.

Paul is a really really smart guy. It makes perfect sense.

The problem is that Facebook does a pretty good job of being an aggregator of social media traffic too. You can post articles and status updates, photos, etc. I have my Twitter posted to Facebook as well. And with the addition of threaded comments and "Like", etc., in many ways Facebook has made Friendfeed obsolete.

It's almost like Facebook and Friendfeed both came up with the same idea of sharing information and being an aggregator of social media traffic. Except Friendfeed started with the aggregation features, and Facebook started by building a critical mass of users.

When it comes to sharing information with people you know, the critical mass of users wins.

<comment><USER8> The other major difference is that Facebook only takes information in, it doesn't readily share it back out. So Facebook's really not about sharing information, it's about collecting information about you.

There's been no winner. Facebook doesn't work well for the older crowd who mostly don't use it, and they weren't even started around the same idea.

Facebook was successful because it was the first of it's kind. It's a networking application, specifically for keeping up with what your college friends are up to. It was the first to try the "social network for X" and got the first mover advantage.

Friendfeed is totally different. It collects activity from the whole universe of networks and it does a better job, especially for the older crowd who has no use for the extraneous Facebook crap.

There will be no obsolescence, because Friendfeed is open and Facebook isn't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> On the other hand for the life science and research library community, friendfeed has become the de facto watercooler, especially for the computationally inclined. Even to the extent of conference reviews being presented in a journal like PLoS Computational Biology

[http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjou...](http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000263)

<http://friendfeed.com/rooms/the-life-scientists>

It provides a forum for discussion around things we do on the web and I can't think of another resource where doing it is as easy. Note that these are people who aren't looking to get a startup noticed, nor are they looking for page views, and many are not on Twitter. It's just an ideal medium for them.

<comment><USER8> The Life Scientists room is one of the biggest rooms, but I recognize that scientists are a niche audience. It's too bad we can't take the success and community of that room and move it somewhere else where our needs won't be sidelined in favor of making things more novice friendly.

<comment><USER9> I am not sure that's necessary. We've let people know that the loss of room functionality hurts that community. Let's see what happens. Unlike other sites, Friendfeed's betas are real betas, and there have been multiple design changes just today.

In the end it depends on the target audience. My hope is that the success of the Life Scientists makes us one that at least gets a seat at the table

<comment><USER8> I would really hope that the success of the Life Scientists does afford us some consideration, but doesn't that mean that the Persian Friendfeed community gets a couple seats? ;-)

I get the feeling(with the faces instead of service icons, and the tweetbox) that they've decided they want to be more new user friendly, which is a direction exactly opposed to the needs of existing technically-minded users.

<comment><USER9> :-) and given what I've head from Paul on the Gillmor Gang in the past, not a surprise about that particular direction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's quite a shame. There are definitely lots of cool things that can be done in this area, but once a network has a large installed base, the ability to do something in social networking (as an outsider) becomes at the will of those large networks. Am I the only one who laments the winner-take-all nature of the social networking space?

<comment><USER11> There is a winner-take-all nature at all levels of computing. Intel, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Youtube, etc. all enojoy a form of monopoly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why don't Friendfeed creates a Twitter-account layer? This way I could tweet from Friendfeed, view the updates of people I follow, reply, dm, etc. with all their other features

<comment><USER7> Friendfeed does this already - check out <http://twitter.com/paultoo>

As an avid Twitter user, the problem with this is that they end up posting a lot of tweets, since all of the Friendfeed comments get posted to Twitter - and they don't make a lot of sense in the context of Twitter.

I tend to unfollow people that start doing this because it shows they don't really get Twitter.

<comment><USER13> If FF does that already, it isn't obvious. Recently I had to log into FF again to test something, and I didn't see that it could show me the tweets of all my Twitter friends. If it had done that, I might have given it a second chance. That is a must have feature (for the same reason, I am not using identi.ca), and if FF can do that, please don't bury that somewhere in hidden settings.

My impression was that it would only show me updates of my friends who are also on FF, which is next to useless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Are they really that direct competitors?

<comment><USER15> No, but acting as though they are makes for a more dramatic (and higher scoring) blog post :)

FriendFeed is about simple sharing and discussions. bbgm gives a great example in another comment: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550126>

During the live show that lead up to this blog post, there was a very active realtime discussion on FriendFeed about the show (and MA's Twitter/FriendFeed claim): [http://beta.friendfeed.com/stevegillmor/1059c36c/gillmor- gan...](http://beta.friendfeed.com/stevegillmor/1059c36c/gillmor-gang-will- record-monday-4pm-pacific-w)

Regardless of what people think of FriendFeed and these spontaneous, lightweight conversations, it's pretty clearly different from Twitter.

<comment><USER7> Friendfeed is certainly different from Twitter, Paul - which is why posting Friendfeed comments to Twitter is a bad idea that shows people don't "get" Twitter. See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550118>

That said, Friendfeed is a lot more like Facebook. And in many ways, Facebook has evolved to become like Friendfeed. The social media aggregation and conversation features have a lot in common.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Or, FriendFeed Is In Danger Of Becoming The Coolest App Michael Arrington Doesn't Use.

<comment><USER5> No, I think its a fair critique.

I'm a friendfeed member, but I dont find it all that useful. And yet I do find it well designed, so it isnt a usability issue. I use facebook, and I use twitter. For me, these are separate bases of people. I like to send more updates to twitter than I do facebook, and I dont want to link to pictures etc via twitter, etc.

In addition, while I use many of the other connection services friendfeed offers, not in any real way that makes sense to connect them together.

In the end, I think friendfeed is useful for those who use a large number of the services and want to get it all together -- but trying to explain friendfeed to people who are just starting to use twitter is very difficult, and its going to be a long time before they see any usefulness out of it. Twitter and Facebook do not have this problem, at all.

<comment><USER17> I think the key thing that will help clarify the point of FriendFeed will be the search and filters. It would be nice to see Yelp reviews only from a list of people you trust with them, or to be able to see who recently went to a concert by checking blog titles, twitter statuses, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The blog world seems to thrive on rhetorical flourishes (like Paul said to mainly to get attention and page views).

Using Compete/Quantcast stats as the only measure of success of a startup does not seem fair. Friendfeed has fewer users, but I notice that the users active on Friendfeed seem to be a lot more engaged (conversations, likes etc) than a typical Facebook/ Twitter user. I'd rather grow slowly by adding engaged users which is what Friendfeed is doing. They seem to be in for the long haul, which is a refreshing attitude (different from a lot of other companies who are looking to add as many new users as possible quickly and then sell at the first given opportunity).

Either way, Twitter and Facebook are not direct competitors to Friendfeed, atleast not right now (Facebook might be some day).

</comment><comment><USER19> Straight up.

Every FriendFeed account I have seen either pulls data from Twitter or (much smaller number) pushes updates to twitter.

That's not good considering that is their big rival....

I tried friendfeed and didnt like it. If I want to have a discussion about something I prefer to do it on forums and blogs where it gets the right attention. It's useless for twitter-esque updates because twitter does it much more cleanly (KISS) and it's no good for my close personal friendships, Facebook still (just) rules that roost.

FF is trying to be the all-in-one solution: and that never works out well.

</comment><comment><USER20> i think ff has a visual problem personally ..it hangs just over the edge of the feeling of 'info overload'. very cool functionality indeed - but i have a feeling it is limiting itself to power-ish users and not the vast everyday masses being pulled in by fb and twitter.

<comment><USER8> That's the issue at the core - there's a group who love the info-rich stream and have come to depend on it, but their needs are directly opposed to that of new or casual users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Arrington's really weird in this one. It's like a 50s B movie starring the incredible dangerous Twitter! It's a growth monster! And there's somehow something wrong with it buying its search feature, for some reason?

But there's one flaw in this monster movie - we have absolutely no reason to care about the protagonist. He cast everybody's favorite star as his villain and a no-name schlub as his hero. It's true that one of FriendFeed's founders did a cameo in a Paul Graham essay as an amazing startup founder wizard guy, but one paragraph of hearsay vs. a company that took over the world on a shoestring budget?

I don't get why he thinks we wouldn't side with Twitter here. I don't get why he thinks it's either FriendFeed or Twitter. I don't get why he thinks siding with either one makes sense in the first place. This thing could be written in Swahili for all I understand of it. I think Arrington's just insane.

</comment><comment><USER22> I prefer not to stalk my compadres.</comment>


The Secrets of Princeton - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-secrets-of-princeton.html?_r=2&

<comment><USER2> I am a woman with a degree from a top public university. When I was choosing which college in the UC system to attend, I remember my mother having the exact same advice in reference to the male/female ratios at the various schools. And her advice came from the same place as Susan Patton's. I remember her concern over the slightly greater percentage of women at Cal than men, but she was comforted that the difference was significantly less than at UCLA.

This is how 'old boys clubs' are built, and this conversation happens far more often than people realize.

Also fun to think about right now (in terms of vaguely shocking class categories/distinctions): <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973>

<comment><USER3> I just took this test and came up "Elite".

All I can say is: it's a funny old world where liking jazz makes a man higher than his fellow man.</comment></comment>


Microsoft New England Redesign - <AUTHOR> http://microsoftnewengland.com/

<comment><USER2> The events page is nice. [http://microsoftnewengland.com/Events](http://microsoftnewengland.com/Events) has the website been redesigned or is the building. I know the building space is used by a lot of user groups (python, php etc...)

<comment><AUTHOR> Just the site has been redesigned. This is part of Microsoft's larger brand refresh, but we also made sure the site was fully responsive as well.</comment></comment>


Spectacular Tesla crash after flying 25m in air shows importance of crumple zone - <AUTHOR> http://electrek.co/2016/05/06/tesla-model-s-crash-large-crumple-zone-gallery/ <comment><USER2> The word that comes to mind here is amazing. A shift to electric vehicles would surely have a measurable impact on vehicular death.

I've seen several of these wrecked Teslas and it seems death always escapes the equation, at least in the reported crashes that make news.</comment>


Google-Backed File-Sharing Service Spreads Malware - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/google-backed-file-sharing-spreads-malware-131014/

<comment><USER2> Seems pinned on some random employees.

How much risk is there that criminals will "buy off" employees of large software companies to build out a massive botnet?

Are malware profits high enough / deniable complicity easy enough / the number of employees who could do something like this around the world large enough that we should expect this sort of thing in the future?</comment>


Ask HN: I've been falsely accused of an H1B violation, how can I prepare myself? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Get a lawyer and don't post another word about it online.</comment>


My Top 100 Programming, Computer and Science Books: Part Two - <AUTHOR> http://www.catonmat.net/blog/top-100-books-part-two/

<comment><USER2> Lists like these are completely overwhelming. 100 books related to programming can't even be consumed in a year.

Feature request: distill this to 10.

Edit: I get that I can pick and choose, but I'm more interested when someone can narrow down a set of books to a small list that they found fundamental to help their understanding to the field. When I generate a list of top 100 books, it's going to contain things that I found mildly entertaining.

<comment><USER3> I don't think the author is really intending for anyone to go through every single book in the list. I'd prefer to have 100 recommendations and pick the interesting-looking ones than 10 recommendations I may or may not have any use for.</comment></comment>


"We're moving from a mobile-first world to an AI-first world" -Google CEO - <AUTHOR> What are your thoughts/opinions about this statement?<p>I believe this was said in yesterday's Google conference by CEO Sundar Pichai. It is in reference to devices like Echo, Siri, and Google Home gaining popularity. <comment><USER2> It is clear that the application paradigm is broken and that people hate apps (even though they think they like them). A unified interface will soon replace it.

Most people seem to think that the main interface with this so-called _AI_ will be text/speech. This is incorrect. Interaction with AI will be spatial (think HoloLens), graph-oriented (think Semantic Web), and binary (think Tinder).

The big idea, which most people don't seem to appreciate yet, is that all apps are basically the same. Tweaking the layout and renaming "share" to "retweet" doesn't change the semantics of the underlying interaction. The _next big thing_ will be some kind of app/service/protocol à la WeChat that let users accomplish 80% of what all other apps combined offered. Yes it will kill branding, yes there will be a learning curve. I suspect that those who will succeed will make kids their target demographic.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's just a buzzword. Every buzzword has agenda behind it.

What company do you think of first when you hear "mobile"? Apple.

What company do you think of first when you hear "AI"? Google.

</comment><comment><USER4> Mobile phones are getting more and more commoditised every coming year. The consumer sentiment too has gone from "I have an HTC" to "I am on Android". I am an iPhone user, but when i search Siri for "What day is the 23rd?" it redirects me to a web search. Google Now says "Sunday".

Not qualified enough to comment on how good this bet is, but AI/deep-learning _is Google's play_ for the coming decade. Here is a recent article that elaborates on the specifics: [http://fortune.com/ai-artificial-intelligence- deep-machine-l...](http://fortune.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-deep-machine- learning/)

Google isn't alone in this, AI is Nvidia's biggest bet too: [http://fortune.com/2016/03/22/artificial-intelligence- nvidia...](http://fortune.com/2016/03/22/artificial-intelligence-nvidia/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Great! Now tell me how will Google make ad dollars in this new AI first world.

<comment><USER6> 42

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is meaningless.</comment>


Putting the "Tor" back in "Torrent" with Hidden Services and Popcorn Time - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/obvio171/addb26214a8c159f84a8#file-putting-the-tor-back-in-torrent-md <comment><USER2> This is basically exactly what I2P does automatically.

Each peer is also a router, so that point is covered. It already has a well documented method of transmitting torrents over the protocol, unlike Tor.

I2P has dedicated .maggot links too for distributing files over that network.

It uses garlic routing too, which makes it even more difficult to discover hidden services through network saturation.

So by all accounts, I2P is the better network to choose for this, it has all the resources there and a community that's willing to help. But you decided to go down the unsupported route with Tor, a route that's going to be very unpopular with the Tor community.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's great to hear! I haven't decided anything, I'm just more familiar with Tor and thought this would be something interesting to do with it. I'm not even building anything really, just getting feedback on the idea.

I don't see any antagonism between the two, and I'm glad to know there's something being done with I2P already, will check it out.

A Popcorn Time dev got in touch and showed interest in the idea, so it could be a great opportunity for the I2P community: [https://twitter.com/xaiki/status/487732035331842048](https://twitter.com/xaiki/status/487732035331842048).

You should get in touch with them, I'd be thrilled to see this happen!

<comment><USER2> I fully support this venture with I2P, since the infrastructure is pretty much already there.

I'm not an experienced programmer, more tinkering than anything, but I suggest that you pass these messages onto some of the I2P devs on Twitter (@i2p, @echelon and @str4d would be able to help you the best with this).

I'm actually trying to bundle I2P with a portable version of Seamonkey with less than exciting results. I was also hoping that there would be some open source equivalent to Bittorrent Surf available to bundle too, however the only plugin that's similar apparently uses a proprietary network.

<comment><USER3> We have operational code which combines Tor with Bittorrent. Operates exactly as you describe in this delightful read. Current download speed is 23Mbit/sec for a 3-hop Tor onion circuit on average laptop. We're in contact with the real Tor people.

[https://github.com/Tribler/tribler/wiki/Anonymous- Downloadin...](https://github.com/Tribler/tribler/wiki/Anonymous-Downloading- and-Streaming-specifications) Thumbnail navigation is also included in this client. All going into next code release.

<comment><USER2> I2P still preserves anonimity with its connections, the same cannot be said about using Tor in this client-relay fashion.

I would still recommend I2P for a project like this, anonimity is the key goal here.

<comment><USER4> I don't know, Tor has more people and organisations developing it, if I had to trust one, Tor would be more likely the result.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Btw, seems like Popcorn Time got removed from Github because of DMCA. Is that valid? The code wasn't pirated, so how does that make sense?

<comment><USER5> One of the hurdles for a technology is having "substantial non-infringing uses" which may be arguable (are there enough open-source movie torrents out there?), but it's unlikely GitHub felt like figuring it out and just took it down when a complaint came in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Will this also be able to connect to non-Tor peers (via exit nodes)?

One of the biggest problems for any peer-to-peer technology is the chicken- and-egg problem. You need to bring together a large number of users in a short time, or else everyone abandons your product because none of the friends/files/etc. they want are on the network. A BitTorrent client that can only connect to Tor-enabled peers is therefore doomed from the beginning. You need to be able to connect to all the existing non-Tor peers without compromising your own anonymity, while also providing plenty of incentives for other nodes to switch to Tor (i.e. presumed immunity from the MAFIAA). Maybe after 10 years when everyone is anonymous, then you can drop this "compatibility layer" and go entirely dark.

For a similar reason, I support your decision to use Tor instead of I2P. The latter's design might be easier to integrate into a BitTorrent client, but the former has many more users and much greater network capacity, is backed by an organization that will fight to the death to protect its integrity, and above all, just happens to be much better known.

<comment><USER2> The latter's network capacity scales up with each new user due to its design, which is far more efficient than the separate client-relay design that Tor uses.

And simply because Tor has the benefit of a greater pool of users doesn't mean that the network would benefit from the addition of this program. Tor is already being extensively used in other ways and the network is quite congested already. The addition of this extra data, plus from the scores of users that will strip out their relay to increase bandwidth for them, will make Tor a less attractive option for what it's being used for currently.

It should be noted that Vuze (Azareus) has a comprehensive guide on how to get their program working with I2P, and it also allows the user to mix torrents from both I2P and the clearnet, so such transitional software packages are possible and do exist.

EDIT: There is also an issue which arises when you run a relay on a hidden service. [https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor- talk/2014-July/03...](https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor- talk/2014-July/033819.html)

<comment><USER6> OP's proposal is not just to add bandwidth-heavy clients to the Tor network, it is to add a large number of relays by making every BitTorrent client a Tor relay. OP also devotes two long sections on why he thinks his program will not harm the rest of the Tor network. Sure, there are issues to overcome before this can become reality. But the Tor network has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and there's no reason to be pessimistic about its ability to handle a lot more traffic.

Sure, I2P already works reasonably well with BitTorrent. But what's wrong with trying to achieve a similar result with Tor?

<comment><USER2> The architecture is already there with I2P, it has proven to be efficient over I2P, Tor already has extensive use as an anonymous web browsing tool, whilst adding relays to each client would help mitigate Tor's network constraints somewhat, it would still degrade performance on the network to a degree due to the nature of how it anonymizes data. There's also the issue of not being able to run a client and a relay AND remain completely anonymous, as I posted earlier.

The I2P network is also being underutilised at this point, it has a lot of potential for growth especially in this area. It makes sense to use that potential to grow a specific specialised network, rather than potentially impact an already perfectly functioning network that Tor currently is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I actually agree this would be a great way to add capacity to the Tor network if implemented in the way described.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has thoughts on something like this or if anyone know if something like this has been attempted before.

<comment><USER2> This is exactly the same way how I2P propagates its network, each peer is also a relay.

However, he should have used I2P, it's much more suited towards this project than Tor ever will be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Have you seen what telehash.org is doing?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hadn't heard of it, thanks for the link! Seems like it doesn't protect metadata though, does it?

<comment><USER8> What metadata are you referring to?

<comment><AUTHOR> Which peers are connected to which, for example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Neat idea, but the onion routing in Tor is quite slow. You might consider cjdns instead for better performance and scalability.

[http://cjdns.info/](http://cjdns.info/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there any kind of connection privacy on cjdns? I'm not too familiar. With labels/studios spying on trackers/peers to go after downloaders, it's important to have that added security.

<comment><USER10> Not really no, just plausible deniability that traffic didn't actually come from you. Cjdns (or really the only deployed cjdns network Hyperboria) also encourages knowing who you connect to somewhat personally. It's not yet (ever?) suitable for widespread anonymous deployment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I sure wish Tor would absorb the best of I2P.</comment>


Show HN: Automate QA Pipelines for Heroku Review Apps - <AUTHOR> https://assertible.com/blog/automating-qa-pipelines-for-heroku-review-apps <comment><AUTHOR> I love how trivial it is to get unique disposable environments for each GitHub pull request automatically w/ Heroku.

This post talks about how to enhance review apps with automated post-deploy QA testing. In short:

\- push commits to GitHub PR

\- CI builds the code

\- Heroku deploys code to a temporary environment

\- Assertible runs automated tests against unique Review App environment URL

\- Assertible flags GitHub status check as pass or fail, dependending on the results of the tests.

Interested to hear how other people are executing smoke tests & acceptance tests _after_ deployments.

<comment><USER2> This is actually a pretty cool workflow for teams on GitHub: set up a suite of smoke tests to run after every push on a PR, before manual QA, and before prod.

I'd love to hear how other teams run automated tests during development or any similar workflows.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Alert for deepweb databases - <AUTHOR> https://alertfor.com <comment><AUTHOR> Its a google alert for deep web sources. you will get alert when your "search term" matches the recent content of any website. Content could be anything (an entity - new article/product/post/house/car, etc). The web site has landing page, please signup for early access. Any questions are much appreciated.</comment>


Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature's Most Common Form of Water - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/black-hot-superionic-ice-may-be-natures-most-common-form-of-water-20190508/ <comment><AUTHOR> Previously posted from Wired, this looks to be the origin of that article, the actual paper being in Nature.</comment>


Show HN: BARK - submit GitHub issues by shaking your phone - <AUTHOR> http://stagebloc.com/bark

<comment><USER2> Very cool tool!</comment>


Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/6/5/17424770/asus-zenbook-pro-screenpad-specs-release-date-price-computex-2018 <comment><USER2> Dave 2D had a great video review on this product.

What makes this totally different from the touch bar is with the touch bar, you have to wait for developers to add support in their products (or as a dev, write your own tooling). Apple has the muscle to simply make everyone support their crappy bar.

The ZenBook screen is usable right away by anybody. You can just drag any window there. It can be your Steam chat while playing a game, it can be a browser with a Twitch stream or soccer game running in the background while your program, it can be your color pallet for Resolve while editing video ...

It can be used for a lot of things the end user can take advantage of immediately without waiting for a developer to make explicit use of it.

I wonder if it will work on Linux.

<comment><USER3> > I wonder if it will work on Linux.

If it's on one of the built-in Intel graphics outputs, then it will likely work out of the box (though of course none of the desktops will understand where it's supposed to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...).

If it's some crazy piece of hardware Asus found, then maybe never.

<comment><USER4> > (though of course none of the desktops will understand where it's supposed > to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...).

Changing display layout on modern Linux desktops is really really simple IMO.

You just open display settings and drag them into the layout you want.

<comment><USER5> or

xrandr --output $touchpadscreen --below $builtinscreen

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think this is a wonderful idea, given that touchscreen responsiveness and power optimization have been a focus of research over the last decade. At worst it's a touch pad, at best it's so much more. Of course a lot depends on how software developers will embrace it - and I hope Linux users get some love. (I wish Asus and reviewers will stay away from gimmicks like watching movies on it.)

In any case, far better than removing a set of useful keys from the top of a physical keyboard.

Add: this also enables new types of casual games, similar to Wordament, Angry Birds etc. Oh, and better smudge tools on Photoshop.

<comment><USER7> I'm actually surprised it hasn't been tried before. It sounds super cool but I wonder if it's still a bit of a gimmick (and you end up just using it in touch pad mode all the time).

It still has the problem where you have to take your eyes off your screen in order to interact with it, so I imagine there'd be some effort involved in getting used to actually looking at the touch pad while you poke at it. That said, if there are good app integrations that are intuitive and turn the thing into more than a pointing device (and not just a Spotify controller or some such), then I'm interested to see what those could be.

It'd be quite nice, for example, if it allowed notifications to pop up on a part of the touchpad instead of obscuring what you're working on, allowing you to tap that part of the touchpad to open it up instead of moving the pointer to the corner of the screen.

<comment><USER8> Razer something similar about 5 years ago.[1] I personally really like the idea. Feels more functional than a bar and should be easily dropped into "dumb touchpad" functionality if the user wants to save battery life or just doesn't need it. Would be nice to see this migrate across the entire laptop pc segment.

[1][https://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable- pc...](https://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops- and-netbooks/razer-blade-pro-1094451/review/3)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think Asus's Project Precog[0] deserves more interests than this. We programmers always complain about display size , ratio and amount. Using this dual screen laptop vertically with your beloved external keyboard could be sublime. It's like having two Surface Pro tablets right in front of you, or a dual screens desktop setup that fits in a backpack. As long as my way to interpret this product works, I don't care whatever Asus comes up with to make it feels like a normal laptop.

[0]: [https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/](https://www.asus.com/Project- Precog/)

<comment><USER10> Looks awesome... but what does that have to do with AI? I guess "optimized for blockchain" was already taken?

<comment><USER11> It seems that by AI they mean "non keyboard input", and not... any of the other wildly more practical uses of that term.

> Project Precog is designed to provide a smooth and intuitive experience for > industry-leading AI technologies. With support for the Windows Cortana and > Amazon Alexa voice services, the dual-screen design lets you keep your main > tasks in full view while Cortana and Alexa process other tasks on the second > screen

Definitely feels like a weird marketing gimmick atop an already strong looking product offering.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Maybe I'm a bit conservative and/or sour, but I think this is a bad idea for two reasons.

1\. It will require a lot of developer effort and testing on this specific device. I regard this as a move in the bad direction: Computer interfaces should be more unified, not less.

2\. You're giving the touchpad two functions which are not compatible (and the second function is not necessary: we already have a screen!). If you're happily clicking your way through stuff and some menu suddenly shows up, you will click a bunch of random stuff.

<comment><USER13> You can just display what's on main screen and have nice touch support without having your fingerprints visible on screen and wiggling laptop.

<comment><USER12> That could work well! Although it's not really what the article suggests.

If you have Spotify on your touchpad like in the picture in the article, that means that you can't use your touchpad - I imagine it would be bloody annoying.

<comment><USER14> There has to be some kind of quick switch to toggle between direct input to the small screen, and using it as a touchpad. E.g drag in from outside the edge of the small screen to begin using it as a touchpad. Drag from the inside and out off the screen to switch to direct touch.

For obvious reasons it can't be both a touchpad and a touch screen at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> When I was looking for an inexpensive touch pad for a product idea, it appeared that small touch screens were only marginally more expensive -- and worked better -- than available off-the-shelf touch pads. That was without even lighting the display up. But of course the temptation to use the display for _something_ would have been irresistible.

<comment><USER16> My theory is that economies of scale for 5.5 inch 1080p touchscreens in mainland Chinese manufacturing make it a lot cheaper now. That is just about the most common screen size and not the higher than 1080 resolution found on high end phones.

<comment><USER17> The LCDs are probably not made in mainland China though, and ASUS is still Taiwanese.

<comment><USER16> ASUS is Taiwanese but as with most Taiwanese oem and odm these days, does the bulk of its manufacturing in the mainland. Same for others like msi, tyan, supermicro, quanta, hon hai precision industry (foxconn), etc.

<comment><USER17> It does the bulk of its assembly in mainland China, assembly != production obviously, which is why, for example, most of an iPhone isn't made in China even if it is assembled there.

Components not made in China are actually more expensive to source there outside of SEZs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm never ever going to buy another ZenBook again.

I got one for my girlfriend and another one for my dad, around the same time one of my dev friends also decided to move to ZenBook from rMBP.

Compared to Macbooks it looks, feels and works cheap (the trackpad, d'oh), but that's not the major issue as almost everything is that way excepting Surafaces/XPSes.

But the real issue here is this: hinges. They're horrible. They break every 2 to 9 months. Their quality is also very easy to test - just open any ZenBook in shop and wobble it. Macbook's screen is as solid as rock, won't move an ich, while ZenBooks one - well, it wobbles. Almost unusable on the bus for example, your screen will shake as hell on even smallest bump or corner. And then the hinges will break and Asus will replace them for you. And the new ones will last a year, if you're lucky. Then it happens again and again and all of sudden you're out of warranty and at this point, after replacing hinges for a few times, you're told that they'd gladly replace them for you - and it costs only around $400, while you paid for your ZenBoook $1000, two years ago. %#$# them.

And I wasn't unlucky, this is considered normal for Asus:

[http://www.breadcrumbsguide.com/asus-zenbook- review/](http://www.breadcrumbsguide.com/asus-zenbook-review/) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP- NwyE4H4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP-NwyE4H4) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju1aCd4iOo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju1aCd4iOo)

etc.

Terrible, terrible build quality and no respect for consumers, don't even go near them.

<comment><USER19> I moved to macbook when my ASUS laptop's hinges broke about 4 years ago because it's ~50% of the cost to fix it. The macbook's capacitor died earlier this year (funny enough it doesn't complete kill it, just makes it run extremely slow, without EE background it gave me a hard time to figure this out), I went to back to PC because it cost ~80% of the cost to fix it, and, touchbar.

But you're right, it's been so many years and ASUS still haven't figured out hinges that don't break? Don't think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

<comment><USER20> What do you mean by really slow? My old MacBook is also running slowly, and I hadn't thought of the capacitor as being a possible culprit.

<comment><USER19> Exactly, there're many reasons for it to run slow. If yours is still usable it's unlikely, mine takes minutes to boot up, and it shuts itself down.

It's been a while and I got rid of it but IIRC it still provided power but was under watt, you can confirm by comparing the normal level for you model.

BTW once you've confirmed you can pretty much dump it, won't be easy to find fix other than getting a replacement motherboard, which is pretty much everything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I was walking through a computer store recently and I couldn't help but notice how tacky all the computers looked. The Touch Bar may be frivolous, pretty useless and a waste of money, but it blends into the design of the laptop and most importantly, is subtle. Now, Asus could certainly prove me wrong and implement some beautiful, understated software for the touchpad, but judging by the demo photos, that isn't the case. Not to mention, how does it perform as a touchpad? Will I have to avoid hitting some corner for fear that it will open a new app? At least the Touch Bar took away features that most consumers (i.e. non professional computer users) won't miss.

<comment><USER22> I've been trying to find a cheaper MBP replacement after 10 years with 3 MBP. Everything else is ugly. Some decent choices end up at the or worse price point as Apple.

<comment><USER23> Which model are you currently on because my top of the line 2013 15 inch MBP is still running like a champ.

If you are willing to try out windows, the surface pros are actually pretty sweat. I got one for my gf for grad school and will probably get one for myself if my MBP ever dies.

<comment><USER22> Retina 2012 MBP but the battery is practically dead and the monitor seems to be not bright as it used to be. I wouldn't mind a CPU/RAM upgrade.

<comment><USER23> Don't know if you'll get much of a cpu upgrade these days but ram definitely helps. I got mine with 16GB of ram to be future proof since I saw that ram tends to be a major cause for slowdowns as developers constantly eat up more as computers get better. This seems especially brilliant in hindsight considering top of the lines are still at 16GB.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> >Unlike Apple's limited and unhelpful MacBook Pro Touch Bar…

I'm not big fan of the touch bar either, but to state an opinion as fact is just bad journalism.

<comment><USER25> The most stressful thing about starting my next job is that I've got to choose a new laptop only for work. I've only used a Mac for years and this is the first time I've ever considered switching because there are no computers they make that I actually want.

Apple has really dropped the ball on their entire line and the touchbar eliminating a lot of useful keys is a pretty bad idea compared to replacing the touchpad.

<comment><USER26> I've gotten used to using the touch bar for function keys and [esc] after only a week or so. It's fairly customizable, which surprised me. I don't think it's that bad, but then again I am not paying for it (company hardware).

<comment><USER27> Put a new Mac side by side with a touchbar Mac and try doing anything using the function keys on both. The lack of physical buttons makes it atrocious on the touchbar model.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The Zenbook is a decent looking computer, and this completely cheapens the look of it. The trackpad display is trash - it's a low-contrast LCD with bad backlight bleed and aggressive matte finish... something out of the parts bin of cheap phones and old car infotainment systems. When compared to the higher quality main display it looks totally out of place.

If they fixed that, there'd still be the issue of usability & utility. This doesn't seem like a complementary feature, it seems like two separate devices bolted together that require heavy context shifting (e.g. if the music card is up, you can't just use the trackpad to access something else on your computer). As implemented it seems like yet another electronics company gimmick like 3d TVs - made because its easy to build, not because the feature offers enough utility to justify its complexity.

That said, I hold out hope for a lay-flat dual-display clamshell with proper haptics and that re-thinks the entire input UI around that paradigm.

<comment><USER29> [https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/](https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> If my experience with Asus Android devices and routers is anything to go by, the feature will be a minimum viable gimmick with lots of bugs that will be abandoned down the line.

</comment><comment><USER31> Speaking as someone who is slowly having more and more issue with glare, that last thing I want to a second light source on my laptop, but I can see where some people might like this.

</comment><comment><USER32> We'll see if the touchscreen gets any traction. I'd like to point out that this is perhaps the only non Mac laptop that has a 15" screen and doesn't have a number pad. The keyboard is aligned with the center of the screen and the space bar is almost there too. Joy!

I could buy this laptop only for that, even if with Linux I'll probably have to wait the next laptop before the touchscreen is of any use. But no, the RAM is capped at 16 GB and I'm using 32 GB on my HP laptop (several projects for several customers, each one with a different language and environment.)

However my 15" laptop has a useless (for me) number pad with the result that I have to shift it half to the right to be able to keep my hands in front of me and not skewed to the left, which would probably do nasty things to all my upper body. This is the norm for all 15" laptops and I wonder if their designers stopped at the cover page of Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things", with the famous teapot for masochists, and deluded themselves into believing that this is the right way to build stuff.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald- Norman/...](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald- Norman/dp/1452654123)

<comment><USER33> > The keyboard is aligned with the center of the screen and the space bar is > almost there too. Joy!

Oh the keypad hell, it's been such a RSI inducer on my back for years. What nonsense is this to put a keypad on the right side of keyboards which results, being right handed, in either the mouse being too far right or the keyboard being off center.

<comment><USER34> A good design centers the touchpad on the alphanumeric part of the keyboard, example: [http://xahlee.info/kbd/i/Dell_Inspiron_laptop_keyboard_2014-...](http://xahlee.info/kbd/i/Dell_Inspiron_laptop_keyboard_2014-02-07-2.jpg)

<comment><USER32> This is all laptops do, included mine, so we can shift the laptop to the right. IMHO a better design would ditch the number pad and sell a USB/Bluetooth one to who wants it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm glad someone is experimenting with new interfaces, but for me this is kind of a gimmick, like the MacBook touchbar or the big touch-sensitive screens in cars. Any interface that requires looking at it will slow me down/distract me. There's huge value in the keyboard keys all being in the same place and in not shifting your gaze in order to move the mouse pointer.

<comment><USER36> I don't see the value in this myself either but nice with experiments I guess. I've never used my laptop and wished for a small screen in the touchpad. But for some tech, you have to try it to understand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> They beat Apple to the punch! :) Seriously, I think it's a positive evolution. I wish they had the same laptop at 13" though.

</comment><comment><USER38> This is really good for users of international keyboards like me! When I need to type Chinese or Korean then it's much easier on my phone than my laptop, because my laptop lacks the engravings.

</comment><comment><USER39> This is really going to distract touch typists due to peripheral vision. If they really want to do something revolutionary, they should try replacing the entire keyboard with a touch screen with haptic feedback (like the MacBook touchpad). Force touch when the keyboard is displayed will act as a keypress. Soft touch will control the mouse pointer.

<comment><USER40> Something like this maybe: [https://tanvas.co/](https://tanvas.co/)

CES 2017 coverage by Engadget: [https://youtu.be/LrbJWiAc6JI](https://youtu.be/LrbJWiAc6JI)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> I happen to have just watched this video that reviews the device: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wGGp88nBs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wGGp88nBs)

Around the 5:50 mark: "Obviously you could watch movies and stuff on this [the touchpad screen]."

Who writes this stuff.

</comment><comment><USER42> that is very confusing

i am sure the next step, someone will replace the physical keyboard, with full size touch screen and software keyboard

and future laptops will come with two screens and no keyboard ... and they will be like tablets with double screen,

and then someone will sell a physical keyboard accessory to the two screen laptop

and .. it will be very confusing

<comment><USER43> Lenovo already did it I'm pretty sure.

<comment><USER44> yes, and without haptic feedback, it's terrible to type on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> The biggest question I have is if the input resolution and latency are better than a traditional touch pad. The additional display will never be useful enough to overcome a mediocre touch pad experience.

It seems to support acting as a second display so I'm feeling optimistic about Linux.

</comment><comment><USER46> A screen in a touchpad can be useful because it can help users to understand how to use different features like side scrolling or drag-and-drop. Also it can be used to display some useless information, like time, current keyboard layout or CPU load.

Putting buttons on a touchpad is not the best idea because they would interfere with its normal usage.

And by the way, why nobody makes separate keys for layout switching? It is very inconvenient to have a single key to switch layouts (like Win + Space that is the default for Gnome). It would be much better to have separate physical keys for each language so I can start typing with one of them and never type in the wrong layout.

Seriously, why didn't anyone invented it yet?

<comment><USER47> > Seriously, why didn't anyone invented it yet?

Perhaps the user demand is not so big or even noticeable? It starts to make sense when you type in more than two languages regularly. I would argue that there are only couple of percents of bilingual users and people using three and more languages are even less common.

<comment><USER46> But laptops often have useless keys like Caps Lock or even Scroll Lock (who uses that?) or Pause that doesn't pause anything. Replacing them with language switch keys makes more sense.

You have to switch to Latin to type things like emails, URLs, foreign band names etc. And if you are writing a code then you have to switch constantly to type comments and messages in your naive language. So inconvenient.

Bilingual users are not that rare, at least at school most people in my country study some foreign language. Of course it doesn't mean they are going to use it after graduation, but anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> I'll be happy when Lenovo releases another ThinkPad which has NO trackpad, and only the TrackPoint.

<comment><USER49> It probably wouldn't sell enough numbers and would be a financial disaster.

As an option, that'd be nice. But that'd probably require re-engineering the inside shell...

<comment><USER48> Until much more recently than I care to admit I'd never experienced an TrackPoint, and was (consequently) of the opinion that laptops were nearly unusable without a table and external mouse. TrackPoints make laptops actually usable (for me, at least).

<comment><USER49> yeah I had an old thinkpad that had one (pre-lenovo). Once I got used to it, it was the best pointing device by far. But anyone trying to use it on my laptop would instantly go 'nah-ah'.

<comment><USER48> I have an older X200 which does lack a trackpad. I'm currently using a X230 which does have a trackpad, but I ended up physically disabling it (and the finger-print reader) simply by unplugging them, so when the Microsoft-powered 'teaching interface' in my own class failed (well, actually lots of times, but memorably – in two different semesters – when the students were giving presentations) I had to put my own machine in service as the 'projector driver', almost of the students were flummoxed by the TrackPoint (since the TrackPad obviously won't work, being unplugged), despite being business students who (I thought) should be familiar with ThinkPad and their TrackPoints.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> This could be useful for app development. A 1080 landscape device on the keyboard, mirrored at 4X on screen.

(Although the digits used are different. When in landscape, my fingers cradle a phone at a 45-60 degree angle with both thumbs used for input. On a horizontal touchpad the index finger(s) are doing much of the input)

</comment><comment><USER51> Off-topic: I had to whitelist javascript on the AMP page to get it to load properly, where it promptly pulled down nine JS scripts:

[https://imgur.com/SkQgMOU](https://imgur.com/SkQgMOU)

Wasn't the whole point of AMP to stop this crap?

<comment><USER52> Loading multiple scripts from one site isn't actually a performance issue. With HTTP2 there's almost no overhead since they all get multiplexed as streams over the same connection. With server push you also don't even have to have to wait for multiple round trips.

[https://medium.com/@asyncmax/the-right-way-to-bundle-your- as...](https://medium.com/@asyncmax/the-right-way-to-bundle-your-assets-for- faster-sites-over-http-2-437c37efe3ff)

AMP is more focused on UI responsiveness with things like having a fixed content layout so the page doesn't jump around when things load, as well as loading things asynchronously in the background so first paint is faster. Splitting up the JS so only the first paint JS loads immediately and then progressively upgrade the page is actually a good thing. It makes it immediately usable for slow connections.

[https://www.ampproject.org/docs/fundamentals/spec#performanc...](https://www.ampproject.org/docs/fundamentals/spec#performance)

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> I thought I would hate the TouchBar. But after two days of using it, I like it. I have been using Pro version for about 3 months and I still love the TouchBar.

I don't know how to explain this, but I just no longer feels the need to press an esc key, and no more tapping for adjusting volume/brightness. I can also adjust font size or color in Words using the touchbar. My I can choose an emjoi in hipchat client using touchbar application. It feels great.

This, I don't know, really weird. I might have to try it, but I doubt I will like it at all. The whole purpose seems like a secondry screen to me. Constantly having to look down instead of looking at the bigger screen so you can control is so backward to me.

<comment><USER54> > Constantly having to look down instead of looking at the bigger screen so > you can control is so backward to me

...unlike doing the same thing with TouchBar (?)

<comment><USER55> The touchbar isn't underneath your hands/wrists while using your laptop though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Didn't razer do this some time ago?

I think this kind of thing is pretty cool, but ultimately, a touchpad below my keyboard is akin to the ones on the dashboard of many modern cars (though a lot less dangerous) in that I don't want to look there.

<comment><USER43> They had a prototype of one where the Razer phone acctually got put in the laptop and was used as a touch pad.

Also I think there was a gaming computer with a screen for a numpad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> This would be cool /if/ it added more functionality. For example—a digitizer, Force Touch, or both. I love my MbP Trackpad, but a digitizer would absolutely slay, especially combined with some sort of display.

<comment><USER41> Do others here use the "hard push" functionality of their trackpad?

I honestly forget that's a thing most of the time.

<comment><USER58> I use it constantly to preview links and look things up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> How long until there's a system dashboard running on that thing. That'd be really cool spot for it on a laptop. Especially if the touchpad works as usual and you can just glance at it for system updates.

</comment><comment><USER60> Toshiba produced a model ca. 2002 with a display in the trackpad. That the idea of an additional display in that form factor hasn't caught on says a lot about the usefulness of the feature in general.

It's tough to imagine the end-user utility will outweigh the engineering challenges to make this viable longterm.

[https://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?conten...](https://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?contentId=384180)

<comment><USER61> > That the idea of an additional display in that form factor hasn't caught on > says a lot about the usefulness of the feature in general.

Or maybe it says more about the economics. Screens have gotten cheaper since then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> Razer has a prototype where the touchpad is an empty slot where you can insert your smartphone into, and use the smartphone screen as touchpad.

</comment><comment><USER63> It's another Window tethered to your trackpad. Probably my cynical side talking but I don't see how this will save me much time from using Spotlight, Alfred or Launchy. And yes, I have a touchbar and feel much the same towards it.

On the flip side, having all keys as little oleds that can be remapped to anything I want is something I would likely use constantly.

</comment><comment><USER58> Not sure about this design, since it introduces modality where there previously was none. Obviously I haven't used this, so I can't comment on it that way, but I fear people accidentally tapping on things in the trackpad when it's in "touchscreen" mode when they really meant to move their cursor around.

<comment><USER64> That's exactly my concern as well. With current laptops, the touchpad is always the touchpad. When you touch it, the cursor moves, end of story.

I don't want to look down to make sure I'm not opening menus or whatever.

On the other hand, I can see a use for modal controls. Sliders, knobs and so on.

But then I would also like a dedicated pointing device as well, like a trackpoint.

</comment></comment><comment><USER65> This reminds me, out of curiosity, does anyone know of any "Turn your phone into a bluetooth touchpad" apps that actually work and don't need you to be running special software on your laptop? I want to be able to use my phone or tablet as a touchpad.

</comment><comment> tiny-dancer How realistic is it that the screenpad will actually be a "drop in" real phone one day?

<comment><USER60> I think it's more realistic to think there would be an app to let your phone act like Apple's Magic Trackpad without needing to house it in the laptop chassis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER66> The big difference between the ASUS usage (which I wouldn't consider buying) and the Apple TouchBar (one I don't love, but can understand for non-pro users) is that the TouchBar is intended to _not be an extension to the display_ [0]. The trackpad as a complimentary display seems pretty gimmicky - at least while the market share for the maker is so limited. Of course some level of that is up to the implementation of the various apps (but since it's not 1st party to the OS, I expect usage issues).

I'd expect a standard user (and even myself) to be highly confused about if they can use the area as a trackpad or if they need to toggle some mode.

> Use the Touch Bar as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, not as a > display.

[0]: [https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface- guideline...](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface- guidelines/macos/touch-bar/touch-bar-overview/)

<comment><USER6> The examples they've currently demonstrated are useless, and that's probably because ASUS alone cannot bring software partners on board. Real use cases will arrive when Windows adds support for touchscreen pads, which I think they should do. Once software support is available, ASUS's implementation can be used by "pro-users" in novel ways; especially in content creation apps.

Apple's bar is one dimensional, which limits what it can be used for. I wouldn't trade that for physical keys I press every day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> I think I'd rather keep a standard touchpad and instead be able to add a small tablet-sized second (or third) monitor. A screen for small things I need to see - especially when I'm working somewhere without my usual at-my-desk setup.

</comment><comment><USER68> A lot of naysayers on this thread but I just wanted to say I think it's a cool, innovative feature. It's like having a second monitor without having a second monitor.

Apple is probably bummed they didn't release it first.

</comment><comment><USER69> For this to provide a great user experience Asus will need a really high level of software + hardware integration.. (Think Apple or Nintendo) Without that this is just a gimmick.

</comment><comment><USER70> Well, it beats replacing the _keyboard_ with a touchscreen (something which I believed Asus did once, years ago).

EDIT: I'm thinking of the Acer Iconia 6120, not an Asus product.

</comment><comment><USER71> This looks like an interesting feature. I wonder though if you would get some neck strain since you are looking downwards at the track pad for a long amount of time.

</comment><comment><USER72> Why? As far as visuals go, the Touch Bar (which dislike) is at least in line of sight and you hands are not over it all the time.

Regardless, why not just improve on using one's phone the way you can already with some 3rd party apps... since almost the first day touch screen phones were available? It can at least be positioned anywhere that works for you.

You'd also save the world a cycle of e-waste for the sake of "we too" 2nd hand innovation.

Imagine Microsoft would have actually worked with them to salvage and re- purpose the millions of Windows phones (now in dumpsters and land fills), as detachable touch pads.

</comment><comment><USER73> Probably slightly more useful than a Touch Bar, but still it's another over engineered solution looking for a non-existent problem.

</comment><comment><USER74> I generally touch type, so not sure why I'd want to look down to do things. I like the matte finish on the screen though.

</comment><comment><USER75> This is exactly what Apple should have done.

</comment><comment><USER76> Just as a second monitor its a killer app. The ability to drag windows into it seems like a big deal.

</comment><comment><USER77> This is neat. But it needs some purpose. Maybe some indy developer will invent a good use for it!

</comment><comment><USER78> It is just a gimmick. There is a display for that, no need to mess with touch screen (or touch bar).

</comment><comment><USER79> Amazon should sell a laptop like this and play ads on the touchpad.

The Amazon Fire Laptop with Special Offers.

</comment><comment><USER80> Seems quite functional and elegant. Everything that touchbar is not. In retrospect, I think Apple's gonna regret the touchbar design. (But I do have doubts on this touchscreen design like how frictionless it is for a user to switch back and forth between its touchpad and touchscreen functionalities.)

<comment><USER58> > Seems quite functional and elegant. Everything that touchbar is not.

How so?

<comment><USER81> Enough space to actually have some good UX, tool tips etc. This is adding features to the touch pad instead of replacing function keys and losing physical key response.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> Killer app for this is full screen Nintendo ds emulator (any desmume dev here?)

</comment><comment><USER83> This is the logical next step and I'm all for it except it would be great if PC manufacturers first made their trackpads at least as good as Apple's before they move on to whole new technologies.

</comment><comment><USER84> I am genuinely puzzled - what problem does this solve?

<comment><USER85> It solves marketing dept's "laptops aren't selling, we need a new gimmick" problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> They are making laptop more difficult to use.

</comment><comment><USER87> Why has it taken so long for this to happen?

</comment><comment><USER88> So you PC/windows guys, wasn't having a touchscreen on your laptop the be-all and end-all? Didn't work out? Wasn't gimmicky enough?

<comment><USER89> I've been using touch screen laptops for so long now that when I use a mac I instinctively touch the screen to do certain things (usually scrolling) and am surprised / disappointed when nothing happens.

I'm really surprised that Apple haven't combined the mac and the ipad yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER90> The killer app for this is a touchscreen keypad, for the new generation of technology users that type better on one of those than on an actual keyboard.

</comment><comment><USER91> This makes far more sense than apples touch bar, especially if it was modal with a few different keys that brought up different screens.

<comment><USER92> Only advantage for apple is the location. Less visual context switching.

<comment><USER93> It depends...for some tasks, it's less context switching. For example, Apple's Preview app has a feature where you can add a signature to a document. You can scan your signature, but you can also enter it on the touchpad. But the latter is very difficult because you can either look at your finger or the screen, but not both. Having this kind of screen would solve that problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER94> when apple puts a touchpad along the top it's genius, when asus puts it at the bottom it's "dubious"

<comment><USER58> That's because the bottom isn't generally a great place to put a screen if you want it to be visible and usable. It's where your palms are, not your fingers, and generally it'll be at least partially covered by your hands.

</comment></comment><comment><USER95> At first I thought this was an Onion article...

</comment><comment><USER96> Gimmick. Horrible.

</comment><comment><USER97> This is the MacBook Pro's touchbar done right :)

</comment><comment><USER98> OK, I skimmed but didn't see: what if I rest my palms on my trackpad? I don't want random actions taking place because of this.

<comment><USER99> It's a trackpad. What do you think it will do if you touch it accidentally? It's gonna fuck your shit up so bad that you can't undo it, just like a real trackpad would.

<comment><USER98> Not true at all. macOS has some rather intelligent tracking if it's a palm touching, or a finger for example. Alternatively, there's also completely turning off tap to click.

But that's for taps, not for a full scale UI on my trackpad with dragging sliders etc.

<comment><USER99> Mac touchpads are better, but they still suck.

The entire notion of the trackpad is flawed. They are awful, and no one cares. People just use them so much that they get used to them and they don't notice how anymore.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Air Force to Delay A-10 Retirement - <AUTHOR> http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/01/Air-Force-to-delay-a-10/125105/ <comment><USER2> It is too expensive to hunt ISIS with the latest weapon. They do not deserve such cost.</comment>


Elon Musk's Neuralink to livestream special project update on July 16 - <AUTHOR> https://www.teslarati.com/neuralink-project-demo-event-livestream-july-16/ <comment><AUTHOR> "The technology being developed by Neuralink would theoretically allow us to integrate with computers to access and process information just as well as our AI counterparts. Essentially, our brains will have our very own AI in a cloud that our brains can synthesize with as needed. We already interface with our computers on a regular basis, so the jump from an external device to an internal one would seem to be a natural progression.

Musk also suggested memory functionality as an area for Neuralink to focus on, specifically for issues around Alzheimer's, during his discussion on Axios. "It's incredibly sad when a mother forgets her children, and that can be solved, too," he noted. This concept is in line with marketable technology for therapy use that Musk has hinted at before during his discussions with Tim Urban. "We are aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years," he was quoted as saying.

Perhaps this therapeutic research will be included in the July 16th event. Or perhaps we'll see something pulled straight out of science fiction, as he seems to have indicated last year. Both?"</comment>


Rooting a Printer - <AUTHOR> https://www.tenable.com/blog/rooting-a-printer-from-security-bulletin-to-remote-code-execution <comment><USER2> I recall in the recent past a situation where plugging in a USB flash drive to a computer with Ubuntu installed would cause a wireless printer on the same LAN network to make a beeping sound. The printer in question was not added to the printer with the USB, nor had this computer ever been used to print anything before.

I did some Googling to understand how that could happen, and I didn't find much, except for someone claiming that there is a printer daemon that runs in Ubuntu by default and performs various plug and play notifications (I forget the details)?

I didn't have time to investigate more, but that experience made me wonder how many vulnerabilities there are silently laying around in a service that notifies printers about what I'm doing on my local laptop.

</comment><comment><USER3> Australians: not what you thought it meant. Nothing to see here. Move along.

<comment><USER4> I must ask: What does "Rooting a Printer" mean to an Australian?

<comment> X-Cubed [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rooting](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rooting)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My HP inkjet printer lits its display in the middle of the night with no computers awake. I'm paranoid about it. Why does hp printers wake up display malware? After reading the Tenable article I am even more security paranoid about it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Can we assume that this exploit works on most older HP printers?</comment>


PostgreSQL inheritance - <AUTHOR> https://swth.ch/2016/12/03/postgresql-inheritance/ <comment><USER2> Just be aware that this feature is not totally complete.

You can't make a foreign key to the parent table and have it to match all the sub-tables. I needed this, to I used a trigger to enforce referential integrity instead.

See: [https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/ddl- inherit.html#...](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/ddl- inherit.html#DDL-INHERIT-CAVEATS)

Another issue with it is inconsistent output for pg_dump -s (dump the DDL that makes the tables). Depending on how you made the inherited tables the [apparently] same structure can output different DDL.

I suppose that doesn't really matter, but it makes you wonder what's going on behind the scenes. (It also makes it hard to verify that multiple machines all have identical copies of the database structure.)

Anyway, it feels like a nice feature that hasn't been fully polished yet.

<comment><USER3> > dump the DDL that makes the tables

is this a feasable approach? I always tought that DDL and Data should be saved differently? i.e. one should stay in a repository, the other should be done with a backup system like barman or pg_dump -Fca? (P.S.: we use pg_dump -Fca and save the ddl with flyway in a repo)

<comment><USER4> We need to clarify what reasons you might have to dump a database. One is for disaster recovery, the other is for supporting ongoing development.

For many, many PostgreSQL users in need of basic disaster recovery, a simple pg_dump of the entire database is sufficient and reliable for backup. That's not to say that these are sophisticated users, some are small manufacturing companies, some are small retail business, etc, etc. Anything more than a simple nightly dump is more (sometimes) than their staffs can handle. I think anyone on a more sophisticated basis would be using archive logs which are also a mix of DDL and data by their nature... moving into replication which isn't so different).

In a disaster recovery scenario, definition of the database (DDL) can and really should be treated the same as data. If I try to recover DDL from one safe-keeping repository and the data from another, the likelihood that I'll encounter a mismatch and not be able to recover is greater, one missed commit in an important DDL change could mean I can't restore data aware of the uncommitted code. (Most) DDL and data are statefully co-dependent and putting them on separate a separate footing is unnecessary risk.

Now managing DDL and, say, test data during software development is a different matter. I want to version control my DDL (there are a number of good techniques for this), while not fully retaining data, and certainly not doing so in source control. In this case I do want that separation so that I don't pollute my DDL files with data (which would overwhelm them), with the exception, perhaps, of certain kinds of seed data needed for bootstrapping the database (if applicable). Mind you, I wouldn't use pg_dump for getting the DDL but would rather use one of the purpose build database versioning tools to manage code as I want to organize it and before putting it in the database.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Purce CSS cute penguin - <AUTHOR> http://codepen.io/kiraken/pen/xbrovG

<comment><USER2> So much duplicate properties, this could really be simplified!

Also inconsistency, sometimes using vendor prefixes, sometimes not, smells of copy/paste coding.

Improved version: [http://codepen.io/omgmog/pen/ogwKeW](http://codepen.io/omgmog/pen/ogwKeW)</comment>