Accurate World Cup predictions posted on Twitter the day before the match - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/fifndhs <comment><AUTHOR> The game wasn't actually rigged. This twitter account just posted lots of potential outcomes and deleted the inaccurate ones after the game.</comment>


Xkcd: Online Communities 2 - <AUTHOR> http://xkcd.com/802/ <comment><USER2> the map is pretty big so I may have missed it, but I'm surprised I didn't see stackoverflow on there. Its ranked 333 in alexa

</comment><comment><USER3> Thankfully(?), HN didn't seem to make the map.

<comment><USER4> Maybe "Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics" ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> While an update is nice (I have the original on my wall), I like the first version's compass - this one doesn't seem to have such a thing.

The fact that it's just a clip out of all communication is nice, though.

<comment><USER6> Link to first map: <http://xkcd.com/256/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Love the stream of lifeboats leaving digg for reddit

<comment><USER8> Similarly there's an invasion fleet near the coast of Google Talk island.

<comment><USER9> I think the invasion fleet is leaving Google Talk island and heading for Skype...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> 4chan is connected to Gaia by a 'ferry'.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think/hope he underestimated blogs.

<comment><USER9> I don't think so...the whole of the blogosphere is shown as roughly the size of AIM. I really doubt that more people blog than interact via AIM, particularly when you consider that it measures the volume of communications and people chat more frequently than they blog.

Fandom is misplaced - most fan interaction happens on archives and forums - but is probably roughly the correct size.</comment></comment>


The core memory module from a home built PDP-11 - <AUTHOR> http://porkrind.org/missives/the-core-memory-module-from-my-dads-homebuilt-pdp-1105/

<comment><USER2> In 1975 (I think...) Boise State University upgraded the memory for their IBM 370 from one megabyte to two! The board in question was two feet by 14 inches or so. All of the hardware types in the back room were extremely proud of the new 'toy' and promised 'great things' to those of us pounding away at our model 029 keypunch machines. Not too surprisingly the memory was from this new upstart called 'Intel'!

</comment><comment><USER3> The first time I found out what a 'core dump' was and its historical significance I was properly amused. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_dump>

</comment><comment><USER4> Oh you kids. I have some core in a drawer somewhere. Yes the cores are very fragile. At this point, just picking it up leaves 'bits of bits' behind.</comment>


Liberals outnumber conservative academics - Unbiasing Academia - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/02/unbiasing-academia/70955/ <comment><USER2> Already well addressed:

[http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/ideas-are-not- th...](http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/ideas-are-not-the-same-as- race/)

Conservative ideology is inherently anti-science. It's deeply unsurprising to discover they don't go into scientific fields. Next you'll be telling me that atheists are underrepresented in the clergy.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. We should file this under "knock me down with a feather" -- waste!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think this can be explained by a simple model introduced by Thomas Schelling.

Most people do not particularly like to be in a minority, for whatever reason. At cocktail parties, groups often begin to sort themselves into male and female groups. While everyone may have a total preference for mixed groups, they also have a steadily increasing preference not to be in a group dominated by the other sex.

Hence, when a woman leaves a group of 5M / 5F, the remaining 4 women feel slightly outnumbered. Then another one leaves. Before long the last 3 women have dried up entirely. A similar spiral can occur if a man joins the group in the first instance.

The same model can explain racially polarised neighbourhoods and politically polarised professions. Conspiracy is not required.</comment>


FCC Is Undoing Rules That Make It Easier for Small ISPs to Compete - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ev5mm7/at-the-behest-of-t-mobile-the-fcc-is-undoing-rules-that-make-it-easier-for-small-isps-to-compete-with-big-telecom <comment><USER2> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture)</comment>


Ask HN: Do you gpg sign your Git commits? - <AUTHOR> Do you or your team members cryptographically sign git commits at work?
personal projects?
open-source projects? <comment><USER2> I don't currently, but I have been considering it for personal projects as a trial balloon.

At work it sometimes feels tough enough to make sure everyone is comfortable enough with git to push to the step of hoping for signed commits.

Though, as I think of it, as the guy most likely to create version tags, it might be good enough that I adopt the practice, at least for those. Then again, I've not seen a strong need on the projects at work.

<comment><AUTHOR> If it was easy to setup (for you and all your team members) would it be something you'd value at work?

<comment><USER2> Maybe if I had stricter auditing requirements, which I don't currently have to worry about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Setup is easy I think. And I do sign all my commits. But none of my team members.</comment>


Why I Am Not Reading Your Blog - <AUTHOR> http://www.mkebiz.org/5-reasons-i-am-not-reading-your-blog/

<comment><USER2> What a superficial criteria for blog reading. Points 2 and 4 have some validity, but point 1 (You must have glitz) and point 5 (I need sharing tools because I am lazy) have nothing to do with content or annoying the reader. Point 3 is why we go to blogs these days, if you don't have the attention span save the page or just read stuff on microblogging sites.</comment>


The Bicycle Barometer - <AUTHOR> http://blog.oftcc.net/post/39219681688/the-bicycle-barometer-takes-data-about-the <comment><USER2> I often feel like this is where web analytics needs to go. Ultimately, no matter how many pretty charts your product displays and fancy map reduce jobs transform the data into "intelligence", unless someone can immediately take action based on what decision the analytics tells them they need to make, it's not really "intelligence" in the thinking sense, but "intelligence" in the military sense.

In my day job, I develop software to fit a big data + intelligence niche market. No matter how many pretty charts I've been forced to make (to better sell the software to CEOs), the people who make the decisions based on the data we provide don't care about visualizations AT ALL. They want our software to tell them what to do. Period. And if the software tells them to make a bad decision that costs them money it's our fault (unless they can't execute the decision due to safety laws, which happens), no matter how many charts they could have double checked to see if the decision was sane.

Dashboards and charts are all well and good, but ultimately a simple display that unambiguously tells you what to do (like the bicycle barometer) is much more powerful.

<comment><USER3> Then you can skip the middleman and just automate the taking-action part.

<comment><USER2> That would be ideal, but often decision making follows a pattern similar to computational complexity theory. Even if the computer tells you what action you need to take, actually executing can be monumentally more complex for a computer. Automating lights is easy: just flip a switch. But how would you automate the bicycle barometer action? The computer can't put you on a bike! The field of "big data" is filled with applications where execution of decisions is monumentally more complex than decision making. But even if we can't automate decisions, telling people what to do is still way better than giving them a bunch of real time plots and leaving it up to them to use that data to make good decisions.

<comment><USER4> You're really stretching the meaning of, "They want our software to tell them what to do. Period." In the real world, as you mention, it makes sense to tell people what to do, because humans usually make better and cheaper robots than robots do, but in computing you only need humans for two things: physically interacting with hardware, and human judgment. In my admittedly limited experience in this domain, what people wanted was alerts that indicated that human investigation and judgment were needed. The systems I worked on only ever told humans to do one thing: "Look! Look at this!" If the system knew more, it _did_ it. (A nice feature of one system I worked with was that it automated the routine aspects of investigation, so when an alert was generated, relevant information for the type of alert such as traceroute output and previous alerts related to a host was gathered and attached.)

Bottom line: you never intentionally waste a human's time on things that don't require human judgment, and when human judgment comes into play, people want context. Good software helps people establish context for the decisions they make. The bike barometer, for example, doesn't actually tell you whether to bike or not. It just lets you know how a couple of factors balance against each other. The person reading the barometer will factor in other context such as how they feel that morning, whether they want some exercise that morning or would rather read a book on the tube, whether the bike is in good working condition, and so on.

Granted, the systems I worked with were mostly used by full-time operations personnel. If you're talking about a system for non-specialists who may need prompting and guidance along the lines of, "It looks like you're trying to handle more load than usual. Would you like to spin up a few more servers?" then I guess I can see people wanting the software to give them explicit orders.

<comment><USER5> One thing I worry about with something like this, is that if you hide the detection and fixing behind layers of automation, things that are actually broken (or at least buggy in my example below) might get missed.

For example say you have a simple service, however every ~2 weeks it needs to be restarted because of a memory leak. If a human is in charge of this after having to go in and restart the service a few times every 2 weeks they'll know that something isn't right here. If it's automated though, the computer won't have this intuition. What if it is based on the number of requests served, and your traffic is sporadic, so the first time it is 2 weeks, then 3 days, then a month?

<comment><USER4> Automated interventions should be tracked as data in the system, so you can set thresholds and create alerts and reports on them just like you can on anything else.

Sometimes things fly under the radar, though, and that's where the dashboard- style "situational awareness" UIs really shine. Typically the people asking for a "dashboard" are executives who really shouldn't care, who only need regular briefings plus an occasional text from someone in operations warning them of a major customer impact. The people who benefit from them are engineers who browse around the system looking for trouble or simply satisfying their curiosity. "The Foo servers handle the Bar requests. I wonder what their typical CPU utilization is. I'll go check one of them... _click click click_. Whoa, that memory usage doesn't look good. I wonder if it's always like that. _click_ WTF is this erratic sawtooth pattern? Do the other Foo servers have this, too? _click click click_ Yeesh, somebody needs to fix that." That's the ideal case, anyway, if you have a rich UI that is good at presenting pages of data in context that can be understood at a glance, with quick navigation to related data. If the engineer clicks the "CPU utilization" button and gets back a line graph and a table of numbers, with no other context, then the UI is forcing the engineer to have tunnel vision. It should be dashboards all the way down, until the engineer starts running custom queries that the system doesn't know how to provide context for.

But yeah, the chronic restarting scenario should show up in reports and hopefully trigger an alert. I imagine that routine interventions (such as spinning up extra servers for load) and troubling interventions (such as restarting a service) are distinguished in reporting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Oddly, I feel this needs some basic machine learning thrown in. If every day you rated how good commute (and what type) was for you, it could start making the prediction based on your preferences. Possibly even with more information such as when you are looking. (e.g. Some people are ok with colder weather, or if you are running late, the option that is consistently faster will be the better choice.)

<comment><USER7> The problem there is that you don't know how bad the other option would have been.

<comment><USER8> The tube experience is probably fairly consistent, just that it costs more (except in the cases of delays and closures) so rating the bicycle trip is really the most important thing here. Perhaps "flip a coin" with probabilities proportional to the needle's position when it's on the side of the tube and take the bicycle a bit more often to see how terrible it actually is.

<comment><USER9> I would expect some correlation with the weather: nicer weather means nicer tube trips because, with worse weather, more people take the tube, and they will wear thicker, wetter clothes. Also, if it is extremely hot, the tube can be relatively cool (depends heavily on the tube in question)

The tube also can be extremely busy (sometimes with very noisy passengers) due to sales in shopping centers or due to sporting matches, exhibitions, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Every odd day I redesign my car's "automatic" aircon logic (i.e feedback loop on a cabin temp sensor, and a user set reference temperature) to behave in some smarter manner, based on the following premises:

\- if it's 35°C outside, I sure as hell don't want a/c to loop on 20°C

\- if it's -15°C outside, I sure as hell don't want a/c to loop on 20°C

So basically what I want is:

\- 16°C minimum (below produces too much condensation on the windshield, and is not comfortable on long-ish commutes ) \- from 16°C at -10°C to 20°C at 20°C, maybe linear, maybe log, I don't know.

\- and cap at 20°C max inside...

\- ...but have a maximum _negative_ delta of -5°C with the outside temperature (i.e 29°C outside means 24°C inside)

\- yet with a true absolute maximum of 28°C inside

It's really not that hard and I could probably come up with a hack (has anyone plugged an Arduino into a CAN bus?) reading the inside and outside sensors, and controlling the temperature knob while reading its current setting from what the display shows, but damn, where is my car's SDK! Oh, the first world problems I have.

<comment><USER11> Here's SparkFun's CAN bus shield: <https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10039>.

It's not cheap, but it's from SparkFun so it's at least pretty in red. :) And, to be fair, it has a few nice features besides the CAN interface itself (SD card holder, LCD interface, on-board joystick).

The product comments mention this library for the software side: <http://code.google.com/p/canduino/>.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I did something similar for my money a while ago. Takes all the data and simply tells me "You will have X amount of money in 2 weeks."

Can't live without it anymore. Just wish there was a practical way to give something like this to everyone.

<comment><USER13> Sounds interesting. Can you give any more detail? What data sources are you using? I know that trying to get data from my bank is like getting blood from a stone!

<comment><USER12> I'm using two data sources. Toshl for knowing how much I'm spending (and for certain types of income), Toggl for tracking my freelancing with an attached hourly rate.

The fact that I can see my income as a daily thing and not something that happens every X weeks is really what makes this thing useful and cool because it can essentially turn each day of the month into a simple number saying whether it's a positive or negative day (and by how much).

Then it's just some playing around with rolling averages and some other stuff to get a prediction that is surprisingly good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Ambient Devices, an MIT Media Lab start-up, had a beautiful product concept built around analogue gauges like this, with replaceable backplanes to show different information. Their original business model was all around representing complex information in an unobtrusive way -- an umbrella with a pommel that flashes if its going to rain today, so you notice it on the way out of the house. Sadly, they pivoted into making ugly weather boards for Brookstone ...

<comment><USER15> I have their Ambient Orb (<http://bit.ly/XFemSb>) on my desk. It starts at red in the morning then fades to yellow to green as we get more registrations throughout the day.

Also, pre-Arduino we used a WebSwitch $199 (<http://www.controlbyweb.com/webswitch/>) to turn on/off a police siren when a certain goal was reached.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I love, love, love this.

I've been quite interested in figuring out how to turn multiple/complex input into a single, actionable value (it is pretty damn hard!) - and this project is a great example.

<comment><USER17> Agree, this is great. This is the kind of daily-use information you want access to without having to turn on a computer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Awesome idea to aggregate information. I wonder how many daily activities could be automated in a similar fashion?

Perhaps a calorie counter suggesting meals for dinner (keeping a balanced diet and all that jazz)? Outfit suggestions based upon the weather?

</comment><comment><USER19> I want one of these sort of things for my bathroom mirror. I stayed in a hotel once which was close, it had a small LCD screen behind the glass that showed the current forecast (this was the elevator lobby mirror though, not in every room). Very handy.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder how an actual barometer does in comparison.

</comment><comment><USER21> I want one of these telling me when to check my email, with a heavy bias for checking as rarely as possible...

</comment><comment><USER22> I've put the (very quick and hacky) code up here: <https://github.com/memespring/bicycle-barometer>

</comment><comment><USER23> thought you were talking about the tubes in the tires</comment>


Show HN: We are the same, app for practicing compassion - <AUTHOR> http://wearethesameapp.com <comment><USER2> It's unclear what the app does, or why I'd want it. From reading the text over and over I think all you need to write is:

Find happiness and peace, amidst difficult situations.

At least that's the benefit I saw in the wall of text.

Place the text beside the picture of the app with a button that says something like "Get the app"

See <http://piictu.com/> as an example, the "We are the same" app as currently pitched sounds like work, and from the tiny iPhone screenshot it looks like it's a gorgeous app.

<comment><USER3> Correct...you need to clearly identify what it does and why I want it. After having to scroll down to see "How it Works" I still don't get it. Change the wording on "Exercises are designed to induce practical experiences of various aspects of compassion." And give me some screenshots that I can actually see. Cool idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Corrected.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's a very interesting idea and as a Buddhist, I absolutely commend you for trying to help people learn compassion. I'm curious to know if compassion can actually be built through a digital relationship.

Personally, I feel that words typed out on the computer carry less compassion than words through our mouths. But does this mean that this app is about building more compassion for yourself, helping others, i.e. in the mindset of Kiva? Or is it more about developing better relationships with those around you?

Unfortunately, I tried connecting with Facebook and nothing happened.

<comment><AUTHOR> The idea of the app is not to communicate with people directly, but to see them from a different perspective - as human beings, equal to ourselves, deserving our affection and respect.

The app is based on Buddhist approach to developing love and compassion.

Would love to debug the Facebook connect issue. Feel free to contact me on matjaz [at] humane-tehnologije.si

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting idea.

Those with neither Apple devices nor a Facebook account can't try this out.

Edit: My tired mind didn't realize this at first - this service utilizes both photos and statuses of the same person. Facebook is one of the few services which brings together a person's photographs and status updates, and has a large stock of both. The next best supply would be...a mash-up of Twitter and Flikr?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm the app's author. We are thinking about letting users create their profiles in the app. That would be "practice material" for users without Facebook accounts. Another option would be using the address book on the phone.

<comment><USER6> I think I would be more likely to sign up if the page included a short example of an "exercise in practising compassion". As it stands, I don't have any idea of what this app actually does.

<comment><USER7> Agreed with crntaylor, it seems like some form of status sharing application but I don't really have a clue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's not what "compassion" means. It is "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering."

What you really mean to say is "empathy"

[http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between- empathy-...](http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-empathy-and- compassion/)

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right. We added empathy to the description.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> A trial without me linking up my facebook would be good, or a really clear example of what will happen. People want to see visually not read a whole bunch of text and imagine what it will be like.

<comment><AUTHOR> A short demo video is now online. Hope it helps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Interesting idea, but wouldn't pulling a profile from your pool of Facebook friends limit this in a pretty big way? How often are Facebook users friends with people who are _really_ different from them? This seems like it might allow a user to "practice compassion" for people who are superficially different from them, not people who are more radically different, in culture, political leanings, religious background, etc

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a valid point. We are thinking about letting users submit their profile into the global pool of people. With that the practice would not only cover friends but also people we don't know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Cool idea. If you haven't already, you should share this app with Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab -- they work on using technology to influence and change human behavior, especially across differences - <http://captology.stanford.edu/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, will check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for constructive feedback. There's no place like HN for that ;)

We took your advice to heart and changed the text to present the purpose and benefit of the app in a clearer way. Hope it helped.

Right now we are working on recording a short demo video. It should be online soon.

<comment><AUTHOR> Video is now online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Considering hackernews' way-above-average aspberger's demographic, expect a lot of "ERROR INCOMPUTABLE" type comments in here. You're going to need a lot more hand holding in your pitch (not literal hand holding, that makes us uncomfortable.)

</comment><comment><USER13> > Exercises are designed to induce practical experiences of various aspects of > compassion.

I have no idea what this could mean. I think you should have some examples.

EDIT: And reword that. It sounds like corporate-speak, of all things.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice app. Who is the target market? Is this app backed up by any research?

<comment><AUTHOR> Didn't think much about the market yet. For now, it is more an experiment to see what can be done.

The app is based on Buddhist approach to mind training.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> There's a typo on the landing page. Tt instead of It.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, corrected.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have literally no idea what this does.</comment>


Stockholm's deepest subway station is also an ecological wonder - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kungstradgarden-metro-station <comment><USER2> I read more about the spider - it only exists in this one location in Sweden, Kungsträdgårdens subway station. Curious it did not spread to the next stop on the same line...

<comment><USER3> the next stop is the central station, and it's possible that there's too much traffice -> more service/cleaning there. The kungsträdgården station isn't at all active since it's just some strange one-station off-shot in the south-ish direction and there are no transfers there. Might as well get off at central station.

<comment><USER4> That will probably change in the next few years though, as they are planning to extend the blue line from Kungsträdgården out to Nacka. Central will still be Where most people hop off no doubt, but I'd expect traffic at Kungsträdgården to pick up considerable as theres plenty of commuters living south and south east, that work in the offices around there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ok, but where are the people in the photos?

Even a google image search reveals photos much like on altas obscura: vast tastefully designed cavernous space dotted with but a few token humans.

It seems suspiciously clean and well maintained compared to NYC metro. Floors polished, no screaming lunatics, no cracked, floors, walls, ceilings. I am willing to bet it doesn't even smell like pee and vomit? Where are the masses?

<comment><USER6> This feels like a troll comment, in that it asks a back-handed question, to highlight the shortcomings of a comparable example, more than the question voices honest curiosity regarding the question as it may be superficially posed. Possibly in an effort to lead the loaded question down a negative path, such that responses will lend voice to an opinion one might read between the lines.

But first and foremost, no one from New York calls it "NYC Metro." It's _The Subway_ , and it's operated by the MTA. So, already your comment has the ring of someone who doesn't live in New York. And to go one deeper, _The Subway_ hasn't smelled like that since the mid 1990's. Most of the tourist stations "Disney-fied" by Giuliani get power washed every single night, after midnight, during the gravyard shift, to eliminate the smells of humanity.

It's still very old, very dirty, very inefficient, slow, crowded, and peppered with tourists, homeless people, pickpockets and weirdos all at once.

New York has more going on than many other cities, and is as dense as it is diverse, and it's been that way for at least 100 years (or at least the subway has), and that's a somewhat conservative time frame, but

Other cities aren't like that, and some of it is due to strict policing. Not always though. Some of it has to do with climate, sunlight and weather, or in social terms, the implicit understanding of the expectation of one's peers.

In lively cities, when transplanted people lose a sense of expected behavior among strangers, behavior loosens up. Some cities have a specific reputation as being a destination for the specific reason to either lose or find one's sense of self. New York is one of those places.

<comment><USER5> Not my intent to make a troll comment. But, yes, "the subway" in NYC does STILL smell like pee and vomit in many places and, yes, it is chaotic. That's been my impression of subways in many but not all cities.

I think that it's possible to do better. I question why so many cities allow their public spaces to decay to such a low level while others seem to cherish their spaces.

<comment><USER6> I think aspects of the operational technology should improve, but should the subway be a brighter, more cheerful space? Of that I am uncertain...

I'd advocate for more reliable trains, in the same way I want the elevator to show up as soon as I press the button. Of course I want that instant gratification, but the atmosphere of the subway, on the other hand, I find to be a less urgent concern.

Mostly I think people are generally accepting of the fact that New York City's subways are like an unfinished basement. It's a moldy, musty cellar, and it's not a destination. It's a liminal zone.

If you want to talk about smell, consider this curiosity. One of the most irritating parts of the subway for me right now is the new cars. The bright, automated cars with the electronic conductor voice, and the light blue bench seating. [0]

These new cars have an air conditioned ventilation system miles ahead of the old cars, where you could just crack a window, and I swear to god these cars utilize an engineered odor as a crowd control mechanism. I harbor a suspicion that they radiate a strange odor on purpose so as to repel most normal people, so that no one lingers in these cars casually. It's a unique smell. It only affects the new cars. And I only smell it inside those cars, even when they're freshly cleaned. I suspect it's the same tactic restaurants use [1], with artificially manufactured food aromas, but with a scent chosen to disgust.

None of the old cars smell like that. The plaform doesn't smell like that. When the ventilation is off, and the doors are open, and the train sits in the station for 15 minutes, the new cars lose the smell. But for years, that smell has only affected the new cars. It smells like bad breath, if I were to try and describe it. Not vomit. Not urine. But more like if you lick the back of your hand first thing in the morning and smell it before it dries. That's the closest smell. And I think it's no accident the new cars smell like that.

[0] [https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/01/26/04/3093161B000005...](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/01/26/04/3093161B00000578-0-image-a-62_1453783462326.jpg)

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

<comment><USER7> As a parent, I would not enjoy having my child commuting to school in a "mouldy, musty cellar".

Stockholm doesn't have less homeless people roaming around than New York because they've been driven out by how clean everything is, it's because Sweden has a working welfare and health care system.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Feedback on my startup, skimic.com - <AUTHOR> We just launched our website and more than anything are looking for feedback to understand the value of the use-case and what next steps we should take.
Giving more information right now would bias your review so feel free to try the site as a new user that just found it and feedback.
Development on the mobile apps is almost finished (some final polish to go). Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> I could not identify a clear editorial focus that would answer the question: Why would I visit Skimic instead of Reddit or Technmeme or similar news aggregators? Or to put it another way, what makes Skimic a _more_ valuable use of my time than competing sites?

Maybe, instead of trying to appeal to approximately everyone, focus on building a news feed that is unique and _strongly_ appeals to a narrow interest (think Anandtech.com versus Reddit).

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello, first of all thanks for your feedback. We were working the whole day on improving the landing page to solve that problem and try to make it clear.

Going for a niche is definitely one of the options we are considering. Skimic is only 3 weeks old after 5 months in dev (by me only)... No excuse, but just to make it clear that it is still a work in progress.</comment></comment>


MongoDB shares jump more than 30% in $192M IPO - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/19/mongodb-mdb-ipo-stock-price-on-first-trading-day.html <comment><USER2> MongoDB isn't usually seen favorably but everyone must admit that it's an unlikely success story that deserves admiration. Think about it. Bringing a database to the market with a completely different paradigm, growing it to the enterprise-production-ready level, and creating a billion-dollar business around is no small deal. Yes, they did ride the NoSQL zeitgeist but they survived when others had no major success.

Undeniably, they did have their fuck-ups in the start, but I think they have done a good job fixing them.

<comment> munk-a If they had done so by presenting a product that was picked up due to it's merit and continued to gain traction based on that then I'd be rather impressed. Instead the story of MongoDB seems to be how extremely well targeted marketing and sales can build a so-so product into a huge IPO, there have been performance comparisons showing it isn't even the best at what it does so this IPO is riding on the network effect of those early stages of marketing alone.

In our economy this is sadly an entirely valid route to making money but their mindshare is going to continue to collapse as the warts on their product show more and more.

So the admiration you have should probably be directed at the wool the marketers behind MongoDB managed to pull over your eyes.

<comment><USER3> Most people forget that with startups, what you are trying to create is a business... the technology behind is only one element to it.

It is extremely difficult to do good marketing and sales and they did it.

Solve a customer problem while building a healthy business... a success story in my book.

<comment><USER4> Agree - I think there is a perception that if you build an awesome product it sells itself.

There is so much work to running a successful business, especially at that scale. Marketing, Sales, Implementation, Support, on top of G&A, and that's not even touching on HR and retaining employees in a competitive market.

There is a reason some people are known as the "business" guys, I think expertise in that area is underrated, especially among people who've only worked at smaller companies or startups.

Edit: Genuinely curious to know why I'm being downvoted. Care to elaborate on why you're downvoting?

<comment><USER5> Mongo as a business has largely catapulted itself to where it is by making money off of information assymetry more than actual technical superiority. They may have since corrected a lot of the fundamental technical isssues with their product, but that doesn't change the fact that (contrary to SV dogma) their success doesn't rest on the creation of wealth, only its extraction from magpie-type customers. Downvoters likely chafe at the notion that such a strategy is laudable or valid.

<comment><USER6> Even assuming that the product is so-so, saying that they did not create wealth is a bit disingenuous. They basically created "NoSQL" discussions at a time where most settled on some SQL variant despite their difficulties.

It's not like they were just a vendor of some other product. They actually spent money on the product, on evangelism (kind of marketing, but also kind of development), on so much.

Stripe's technical achievements at first were basically "a nice button" and a slightly friendlier risk model. Yet they are lauded (as they should be!). We can cut Mongo some slack given how we act about other companies.

<comment><USER7> I would say that NoSQL was more popularized by Amazon's whitepaper on Dynamo, which they published in 2007.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is it me..or does Mongo not seem as relevent and 'hip' as it once was... I mean I feel postgres is much more solid, and you can combine some of the aspects of document store via the json data types they added... of course I'm not really a DBA and don't have a lot of Mongo experience ... but personally I feel rdbms make more sense for growth/scaling..

<comment><USER9> RDBMS makes sense for _most_ applications. Most applications store data that can be fit to the relational model. Most applications aren't big data or data mining OLAP.

Most RDBMSs can do key-value stores very well now. Most applications also care more about consistency over availability, which is what RDBMSs do (CAP theorem). Many NoSQL data stores choose availability and partitioning and sacrifice consistency (i.e., "eventual consistency"). There's a lot of applications that you can't sacrifice consistency for. Electronic health records, financial records, student records, employee records, etc. You care that the data are accurate and up to date, and you want the system to error if it can't provide that. Wrong answers and "close enough" answers aren't good enough.

Now, if you're running Reddit or Wikipedia or Facebook or HN... do you really care if a user doesn't get the absolute latest version of a document or comment? No, not really. If the content is hours old it's a problem, but it's not a big deal if it's a few minutes out of date. You care more that your users get _a_ version of the document more than you care that they get the _latest_ version of the document.

<comment><USER10> You don't seem to know this, but no traditional RDBMSs actually provide CAP consistency, for that they would have to use at least two-phase commit or something, but they don't. So, they all are noCAP databases. Electronic health or financial records are way safer in a proper eventually consistent database, like orders of magnitude safer, but everyone just takes the risk with some insurance at best to cover the losses.

EDIT: If you downvote, please explain why. You can't disagree with the truth.

<comment><USER11> > "no traditional RDBMS actually provide CAP consistency, for that they would > have to use at least two-phase commit

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/language- elements...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/language- elements/commit-transaction-transact-sql)

> If the transaction committed was a Transact-SQL distributed transaction, > COMMIT TRANSACTION triggers MS DTC to use a two-phase commit protocol to > commit all of the servers involved in the transaction. If a local > transaction spans two or more databases on the same instance of the Database > Engine, the instance uses an internal two-phase commit to commit all of the > databases involved in the transaction.

I'm only versed in SQL-Server but I'm pretty sure other RDBMS vendors provide similar functionality.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for pointing out. Oracle has distributed transactions too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't understand why everyone is so happy when IPOs go up and make it sound like a good event.

I see it as the founders needlessly missing out on 30% of money (in this case), which ends up going in the pockets of the Wall Street middle men that get first access to the stock offering.

<comment><USER13> Pricing is hard, but yes, I think they did price this one a little too low.

That said, the goal is for shares to have a nice upward pop when they hit the open market.

This helps encourage a broader based of shareholders, protecting against the case where a big shareholder decides to dump all of their shares.

This also helps in the case where the company comes out with bad news in the near future. Shareholders who make money are less likely to sue.

<comment><USER14> The ones who made money are the ones who sold and who are ex-shareholders.

<comment><USER13> And the underwriters, and the early shareholders who grabbed a little chunk of that 30% on the way up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Having gone through a few acquisitions where MongoDB was used, I would never recommend using it from a legal/compliance perspective. You either have to pay for a very expensive commercial license OR adhere to their AGPL license (which is very difficult).

[https://opensource.google.com/docs/using/agpl- policy/](https://opensource.google.com/docs/using/agpl-policy/) [https://github.com/mongodb/mongo/blob/master/GNU- AGPL-3.0.tx...](https://github.com/mongodb/mongo/blob/master/GNU-AGPL-3.0.txt)

<comment><USER16> Why do you need a commercial license or have to do anything special for AGPL compliance if you aren't modifying the codebase and using the binaries from Mongo's website/repo?

It looks like all of the drivers you would use to connect to it are Apache 2.0 licensed so that wouldn't be a reason.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> >Twenty-one percent of respondents told industry site StackOverflow that MongoDB was the most popular database, second only to versions from the dominant technology, SQL, which traces its roots back to legacy technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.

Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle are legacy technology companies? What kind of hipster journalist wrote this article?

</comment><comment><USER18> ->"MongoDB was the database that most software developers said they wanted to work with, according to StackOverflow's survey of 64,000 developers."

Does this just seem like it can't be true? Does anyone know where or why this would be the case?

<comment><USER19> A lot of the bootcamp schools use mongo from what I remember. An interesting comparison would be what devs with 5+ years of experience prefer to use.

<comment><USER20> That's not "software developers", though. And how many people would that actually be, not most I'd think...

<comment> eric-hu A friend of mine works in a commercial real estate consulting company. One of his former co-workers was non technical, but kept insisting they use Mongo for their projects. He believed it would automatically boost the performance of a system. I guess he thought of it like installing a turbocharger in a car.

I have no idea what his sources were for this, but it signals Mongo's marketing power to me if a non developer would become so avid about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hmm, I work for a competing nosql company and the good news about the IPO is: It should raise the visibility of all database products, not just Mongo. The second part is that IPO for a database company is viable in this climate. Some of the early workers have been waiting for a long time for the IPO. I bet this spawns a new group of seed investors.

<comment><USER22> yes MDB's success is fantastic news for innovation in the space as a whole. I hope your company does well too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> ach, the interminable hatred of mongodb is an anthropological artifact worthy of study.

It's the only truly working example of a horizontally scalable arbitrary document storage and retrieval system with indexing on any element. It is a much more general tool then an RDBS, and should never be used when an RDBS would do the job.

However, it's really good at collecting searchable, arbitrary schemaless data in real time. The newest versions do what they're supposed to do rather well, it's a tool like any other tool.

That said, the company is guilty of overhyping for sure, and I wouldn't invest in the stock on a rational basis.

<comment><USER24> Only? Many of the early MongoDB employees came from MarkLogic. Several have returned too.

(Full disclosure: PM at MarkLogic)

<comment><USER23> Well you guys must have a pretty lame marketing department because I've been using noSql for the better part of a decade and I've never heard of you.

A quick look at your web page tells me why. You have no open source or free version that I can download and kick the tires of.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Mongo is a marketing company for a mediocre product, but no doubt they're damn good at marketing it.

<comment><USER26> They're also f*ing annoying. One of their sales people was bugging me for 2-3 weeks sending e-mail nearly every day. He even subscribed me to their mailing lists without my permission.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Per crunchbase they raised their last funding round on a pre-money valuation of $1.6 billion. Since the market cap now is less than that valuation, why is the coverage saying this is a big success? It seems to me like this is a down round of some sort. Does anyone know if I am missing something here? Or does this type of down round not really affect the employees common stock?

<comment><USER28> That really depends on the terms of their last investment round. As far as I know those haven't been disclosed. I would suspect that the investor in the last round is compensated with more shares, probably something similar to if he had invested at a 1.1 billion instead of 1.6 billion valuation. Maybe not though. Depends on the terms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> After being introduced to the MongoDB stale read issue in 2015 [1] we abandoned MongoDB and never looked back. Anyone knows if this is resolved in the latest versions?

[1] [https://aphyr.com/posts/322-jepsen-mongodb-stale- reads](https://aphyr.com/posts/322-jepsen-mongodb-stale-reads)

<comment><USER30> It got significantly better in 3.4 -- this analysis claims that the issues were finally resolved in 3.4 (although they were in the RC) [https://jepsen.io/analyses/mongodb-3-4-0-rc3](https://jepsen.io/analyses/mongodb-3-4-0-rc3)

<comment><USER29> Thanks. Seems they did some good work indeed. Though it takes time before they get back the trust they lost over this.

<comment><USER26> Still, the settings that let them pass these tests are not defaults.

And the reason for them being non-defaults is that it will drastically reduce performance.

Edit: Also looks like Kyle saved for the next time testing of server crashes and restarts which is another difficult problem to handle when performance is important.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> In real-live-production workloads I've had nothing but pain with MongoDB. They see more like a marketing and sales team piggybacking on a strange and immature database technology.

</comment><comment><USER32> Lets just hope the db that is used to store the data on said shares isn't MongoDB ;)

</comment><comment><USER33> Interesting valuation. 8x revenue is a success for SaaS companies. They were initially priced at $20/share, which would imply ~9.5x revenue. At $32/share they're at ~16x revenue. Very steep.

They also fail the VC "rule of 40" where SaaS companies should have growth plus margins equal to 40%. (50% growth and negative 10% margins, or 10% growth and 30% margins) They seem to be at 50% growth, but minus 40% margins.

Somehow they pulled it off. Great for them!

<comment><USER34> For non-tech people, MongoDB often represents areas such as "big data". I work with a lot of people that have very little tech knowledge and the name comes up frequently to demonstrate that you're hip. It's the same that being on AWS convinces investors because running your own servers is so yesterday.

Only Hadoop probably has an even bigger name. That's what everyone connects with machine learning and AI, so every big company needs a Hadoop cluster.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> As usual, the confusion and religious comments are numerous. There is no such thing as "nosql". There are different types of databases, with traditional relational being useful for 95% of scenarios (especially on increasingly fast servers with decent replication features) while the rest of the time something more specific is needed.

SQL is just an interface, obviously common to relational databases but can be applied to any datastore. Spark/Drill/Presto/Dremio/etc can give you SQL over any data, even just files in a folder somewhere, so let's clear up this notion between actual database technology and the access path.

Document stores are definitely useful. MongoDB is one of the better ones today although it had a rocky start. RethinkDB was an interesting experiment but never matured, RavenDB is a solid contender, Couchbase has proven itself, Riak might stick around, and there are dozens of others.

There is a place for everything and MongoDB is being used by plenty of companies to great extent. It might not always be the right choice but when it is, it works incredibly well. Good luck to the team, I'm glad to see the success in both the product and the company.

<comment><USER36> > There is no such thing as nosql

This is not at all correct. SQL has well defined semantics that are standardized around the relational model and ACID guarantees. A nosql datastore is one that intentionally makes tradeoffs that force it to deviate from that model. The name makes sense if you understand that SQL was the first broadly adopted language that targeted the relational model.

I'm not very familiar with the systems you mention other than Presto. But if they do not provide relational guarantees then even if they have SQL-like syntax the semantics are sufficiently different for them to not be implementing a true SQL. Hence, nosql.

<comment><USER35> SQL = structured query language. That's all it is, a language to access and manipulate data and data structures. It comes in several variations, standards and dialects. Any system can implement (a form of) SQL as an interface, just as any system can also implement ACID guarantees around data access, but these are completely separate concepts. ACID isn't even mentioned on the SQL wiki page. [1]

Relational databases have a history of offering both in a single package, but there is no "true" SQL. There are also plenty of non-relational data stores that offer SQL and/or ACID guarantees so this limited generalization isn't accurate or useful.

"NoSQL" has no meaning other than originally describing systems that did not have any SQL access at all, usually due to different storage layers, distributed architectures, custom access protocols, and general immaturity around usage. A decade later, all of these systems have evolved and there's both convergence and specialization everywhere.

It would be far better to just talk about the actual type of database, and the interfaces and guarantees it provides, rather than marketing jargon like nosql.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Maybe machines are too fast today. Back in the 70s, even departmental computers were slow. This might have forced better engineering choices onto the product designers.

The difference between and O( n log n) algorithm and an O(n^2) one could have made the difference between a decent product and a totally unusable one.

Nowadays, toy examples can seem to work fine even when the products have really terrible implementations.

</comment><comment><USER38> Obligatory: MongoDB is web scale.[0]

[0]: [https://youtu.be/b2F-DItXtZs](https://youtu.be/b2F-DItXtZs)

</comment><comment><USER39> I think the share price will be eventually consistent.

<comment><USER40> Is this a pun? For puns I go to Reddit, for substance to HN.

<comment><USER39> My sincerest apologies. I hope I didn't ruin your entire week.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Whats MongoDB's business model !? Open source, and separate "enterprise" closed source version !? Are contributors OK with this or are most contributors in-house ? It seems Nginx et.al are also using this business model ... I'm thinking about starting my own open source business.

<comment><USER42> Bait and switch

They promise that it's so easy to use you don't need a DBA, you don't need any ops staff to run it, etc, just develop and go! Then once you're in too deep, they get you...

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> The irony of the situation is that MongoDB is now pretty good at horizontal scalability, probably because of all the big companies that were fooled into using it, which then had to fix it :-)

Seeing the comments in this thread, it's interesting how it gets compared with PostgreSQL. People are missing the point — NoSQL only happened because of horizontal scalability requirements, being the number one reason for why people want NoSQL.

Just because PostgreSQL can now store and interrogate JSON, that doesn't mean that PostgreSQL can scale horizontally. In fact PostgreSQL sucks at horizontal scaling, historically its replication story has been worse than MySQL actually.

And might not have big data, but you might want redundancy and scenarios with pretty tight SLAs are not uncommon at all.

</comment><comment><USER44> _> "Most applications today run on a database technology that was introduced in the 1970s," Ittycheria said. "In the '70s, I was using a rotary phone to have a phone conversation. So people are looking for a modern, scalable and flexible platform."_

It's like a weird version of the Turing test where you have to decide whether someone's speaking seriously or in jest when they talk about NoSQL.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs)

<comment><USER45> I know there's quite some aversion to NoSQL around here, and generally I don't care much as I'm seldomly dealing directly with databases.

But recently, I've been exposed to a fairly big and complex SQL one with several references between entities and lots, lots of X_has_Y tables. This makes me think that with growing complexity (which seems to be a general trend), NoSQL databases seem more practical at some point, or at least something less rigid than classic relational ones. I'm not saying SQL is obsolete, but it seems like its domain of usefulness is shrinking.

<comment><USER46> i got downvoted in another thread for saying nosql has a lot of advantages in reducing work like not having to worry about carefully creating indexes when joining billion row tables. someone replied you dont need indexes. i replied I dont know how you plan on running joins on billion row tables in postgress without indexes. got downvoted again.

I bet they are still waiting for that join....

<comment><USER47> Whether you need indexes really depends on what you're trying to do. Full table scans are more efficient if you are doing analytics on most of those rows in a time series. If you need 1 row in a billion, yes, you need an index.

<comment><USER46> if your doing a join on two size N tables, your O(n) cost for each record is N, thus you are doing N^2 lookups. basically reading the entire DB into memory each record.

<comment><USER47> No. Worst case a nested join of two tables M and N would be O(MN). But most real databases would have a merge or hash join which could bring this down to O(M+N) if the tables are already stored in a sorted indexed order. It is also rare the cardinality of these databases will be similar in an analytical query - usually you have one time series "fact table" and a bunch of dimensions to enrich that data.

If I'm doing analytics on a time series this gets even better with partition pruning and hash joins or bitmap indexes. And if I have a columnar database, that blows up this whole complexity argument.

My point is that, layout and indexes should never be assumed to be one size fits all. Keep in mind if I'm doing analytics I _want_ to bring my time series data into memory at least as a stream, as I need to calculate / filter / transform the records. Not everything is about rendering a page on a website.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Does anyone use Mongo anymore?

Edit: Honest to god question. I was surprised when I saw the headline, because I've never seen anyone use mongo in production, and never ran into any articles talking about using mongo.

<comment><USER49> I can't think of a compelling reason to use Mongo over Cassandra except "we already use it and don't want to change".

<comment><USER50> It's a fair bit easier to setup than Cassandra and a document store is simply easier for most people to reason about than column-families.

For something like your typical rails app, Mongo has some real nice properties. It makes it sticky. You start out with Mongo because you can just drop data in and off you go. You keep using it because Mongo, despite all of its drawbacks, is really plenty good enough for more than 80% of the stuff on the web.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> $192M IPO means $192M of funds raised in the sale, at a valuation of $1.2B.

<comment><USER14> Which is a little more than the amount of money they lost the last two years. Taking into account their 100M in the back this gives them roughly 3.5 years at the same loss level.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I hope Neo4j will achieve something similar. Relational does a lot very well but for certain use cases a graph is far superior.

</comment><comment><USER53> Technology aside, how's their financial status now that they have IPO'ed? Does it seem like a good investment?

<comment><USER54> I would look at year over year growth. How you define growth will decide the riskiness for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> MongoDB worth > $1B?! Ladies and Gentlemen, we're back in 2000 again. Brace yourselves for the bubble bursting!

</comment><comment><USER56> This article is still relevant: [http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2013/11/11/why- you-should-never...](http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2013/11/11/why-you-should- never-use-mongodb/)

The main point is: most of your data is most likely relational and not document based. Use the DB that fits your data model, and not the data model that fits your DB.

<comment><USER57> Even for document data, Postgres is quite competitive

[https://www.percona.com/live/e17/sites/default/files/slides/...](https://www.percona.com/live/e17/sites/default/files/slides/High%20Performance%20JSON%20-%20PostgreSQL%20vs.%20MongoDB%20-%20FileId%20-%20115573.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> ride that gravy train till there is no more gravy

</comment><comment><USER59> I thought they were supposed to go closer to 1 BN

<comment><USER60> The IPO was $192M, the worth of the company is slightly above $1B

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> Who would have though given that at some point this "Don't use MongoDB" seemed to have taken over HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3202081](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3202081)

</comment><comment><USER62> This means the company absolutely positively mispriced the offering. The company could have successfully raised nearly 30% more money.

<comment><USER63> That's not how it works. When you're shopping around your IPO before going public, you need to get commitments from institutional investors to buy your stock at IPO at a particular price. Just because people will start buying at +30% shortly after IPO does not mean you can get investors to commit to a 30% higher IPO price beforehand.

<comment><USER62> That's exactly how it works. What you are describing is the standard IB B.S. speech. It has been debunked multiple times, starting from the time of DLJ.

<comment><USER63> Huh? I'm not saying it's reasonable/good or doesn't involve cronyism and "discounts" for "favored" investors, but what I described is actually how it works.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> Twitter...Snapchat....MongoDB...Beware!

</comment><comment><USER65> In a world where Giphy is valued by investors at 400M, I'm not sure if half that for mongodb is good or bad.

<comment><USER66> They sold 8,000,000 shares at $24 but that is only 16% [1] of shares outstanding. The stock is ~$30 as of now, which yields a total valuation of $1.47B

[1] [https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1441816/000104746917...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1441816/000104746917006396/a2233556zs-1a.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> So instructions on making a successful company in 2017:

1\. Spot a non-trivial expense type applicable to most Fortune 500 companies.

2\. Make a startup offering the same thing under the cost.

3\. Use your network to get sales people that personally know exec-level people from Fortune 500 and will pitch the product to them.

4\. Get them to sign up. Of course they'll do, you're offering it under cost at the investors' expense.

5\. Show impressive revenue and customer base growth and forget the word "profitability".

6\. Make an IPO and cash in before the public realizes that your might have been selling dollars for ninety cents.

Who's left holding the bag? Average Joe, who's pension fund ended up investing in a promising technology company showing exemplary revenue growth over an extended time period...

<comment><USER68> To be fair, Average Joe's pension fund was probably invested in one of the VCs that who cashed out at the IPO too. So Average Joe likely still benefits at the end of the day.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why does the logo of this Chinese app stutter and color shift? - <AUTHOR> You might have noticed many videos shared from a Chinese app like this one: https://i.imgur.com/gDbbhjP.gifv<p>What strikes me is their logo.  I have never seen any other video logo stutter and color shift.  Is it merely a flashy aesthetic choice, or is there some other technical wizardry going on? <comment><USER2> I think it's the glitch/vaporwave style of this app

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.android...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.android.ugc.trill)</comment>


Effective Emacs (2006) - <AUTHOR> http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs

<comment><AUTHOR> An old article, but seemed appropriate to repost.

<comment><USER2> Thanks!</comment></comment>


Elon Musk's Ultimatum to Tesla: Fight the S.E.C., or I Quit - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/03/elon-musks-ultimatum-to-tesla-fight-the-sec-or-i-quit.html <comment><USER2> Skimming through it, nothing in the article really suggests the headline. Elon rejected settlement 1, took settlement 2 and that's it?

</comment><comment><USER3> If there's a cunning plan behind all of this, I cannot spot it.

If there isn't...honestly this is a sad sight.</comment>


New HipChat for Mac: Cleaner, Faster, and Snazzier - <AUTHOR> https://blog.hipchat.com/2016/03/01/new-hipchat-mac-cleaner-faster-snazzier/ <comment><USER2> Just what we need a Snazzier hipchat.</comment>


Unpublished children's notebooks reveal poignant view of history - <AUTHOR> https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/unpublished-childrens-notebooks/ <comment><USER2> Related: Onfim is a 13th century Novgorodian kid whose writing exercises and drawings survived: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim)

I love these windows into the past. Student exercises also help preserve a lot of cuneiform writings as semi-standardized exercise texts can then be found in fragments all over Mesopotamia. Here's an example of such a thing from Sumeria around 4000 years ago, involving a kid being made to go to school, being late, being punished, and admonished to study diligently: [http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/408](http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary- sources/408)

<comment><USER3> Onfim is just wonderful, thank you for that! (I love the one of an adult horseman labelled "Onfim.")

At some point I should make a collection of all the kid's scribbles I've seen in archives. I remember one in the Huntington Library that was a contemporary copy of John Donne poems, written in beautiful script, but interspersed with a 4-year-olds scribbles of faces and animals via quill pen. It was hilarious.

I also love Darwin's kids drawings on the back of his "Origin of Species" manuscript: [http://theappendix.net/posts/2014/02/darwins-children- drew-v...](http://theappendix.net/posts/2014/02/darwins-children-drew- vegetable-battles-on-the-origin-of-species)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >A passage in this book by a second grader in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reads: "Mr. Brown, owner of the building, gave us a wonderful present. Eighty sprouts of trees. Our teachers explain to us how we must plant them. Let's get to work! In a few years we will walk in the shadow of beautiful paradises. But—I say to my mother—when these trees are grown, I will not be in school anymore. That is indeed true—said my mother—but it is also nice to sow things so that others can enjoy them."

Such poetry makes me want to read the rest of this notebook.

</comment><comment><USER5> Thank you! A very welcome thread. It's been very interesting to watch children during this current period of restriction... to see both their internal robustness (in some ways improved, I think, by the lack of constant ephemeral stimulation) and also how they respond to the cultural memes and currents.

E.g. as the author notes: "I think the most important thing that emerges is the influence that adults try to have on children. Even nowadays, in a subtler way, adults try to mold children and make them adapt to the society they live in."

</comment><comment><USER6> I can't believe that the design of composition notebooks is practically unchanged since the 1930's. Like I had that exact one just a few years ago. I guess "if it aint broke then don't fix it", but I thought somebody would have tried to change it at some point.

<comment><USER7> They fixed them. Most have thin covers now, and fancy ones are plastic.

</comment></comment><comment> seph-reed > A passage in this book by a second grader in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reads: > "Mr. Brown, owner of the building, gave us a wonderful present. Eighty > sprouts of trees. Our teachers explain to us how we must plant them. Let's > get to work! In a few years we will walk in the shadow of beautiful > paradises. But—I say to my mother—when these trees are grown, I will not be > in school anymore. That is indeed true—said my mother—but it is also nice to > sow things so that others can enjoy them."

I don't know if children still believe in creating paradises. Maybe things were just as bad then and all children imagine such things. Maybe this child is merely sheltered. But so confidently looking forward to the future like this; it breaks my heart a little bit.

<comment><USER8> It might be a Western thing - I know kids in Bali who still plant trees and dream of what the world will be like when they grow old in the shadows they will provide. Hope is a human constant - it seems there are conditions where it isn't necessarily foremost though. Perhaps, decadence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I know that good penmanship is no longer necessary, and my own handwriting is rather inelegant due to reluctance to practice when I was a child, but I can't help but feel a little sad that beautiful handwriting is rarely seen anymore.

</comment><comment><USER10> The notebook from Belarus has the inscription тетрадь which, the internet tells me, reads "tetrad'" and means, well, "notebook".

I find that funny. In greek, "ΤΕΤΡΑΔΙΟ", spelled almost identically and pronounced "tetradio" is, also, the notebook.

The root of the word seems to be the Greek word for a "quad" (four things) i.e. "tetrada". I had always wondered why we use this word for notebooks- what are the "four things" it's named after? I'm more curious now that I see Belarussians also use a similar word for their notebooks.

<comment><USER11> Interesting, it was just a foreign word in my childhood. Now I see it is related to "тетраэдр" (τετρά-εδρον) and Tetra Pak. Possible origin:

* four-leaved pamphlet [1]

* four pages of a wax tablet [2]

* fourth of a standard paper size [3]

[1] [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%84%CF%81%CE%A...](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%82)

[2] [https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0...](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C)

[3] [https://lexicography.online/etymology/%D1%82/%D1%82%D0%B5%D1...](https://lexicography.online/etymology/%D1%82/%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C)

<comment><USER10> >> Interesting, it was just a foreign word in my childhood. Now I see it is related to "тетраэдр" (τετρά-εδρον) and Tetra Pak. Possible origin:

And Tetris, of course :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> [https://www.exercisebookarchive.org/books/chn7079xm77781/](https://www.exercisebookarchive.org/books/chn7079xm77781/)

Based on the content on the page, the year of this book should be 67, not 77.</comment>


Researchers use accelerometers to keylog an Android smartphone - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/92946-a-wiggly-approach-to-smartphone-keylogging

<comment><USER2> I agree it is overly alarmist, but it is a clever hack using the accelerometer.

Many people know that the 'Enterprise' class of Seagate SATA drives has a vibration sensor which is used to adjust the seek algorithm under high vibration loads. But you can also read it from the SMART pages. If you have an idle drive on a system you can sit there reading/re-reading that sensor to get a sense of whether or not your machine is being shaken, and if you have a lot of such drives you and make some more interesting observations about not only what is happening locally but in the environment around the drive. Not what Seagate planned I'm sure but a fun result none the less.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm speculating that it would be possible to disable the accelerometer whenever a number pad is on screen. Might be one way to secure against this... I can't think of a reason to have an accelerometer working while I'm typing numbers.

Of course, someone could then present a fake number pad to the user, but then someone could also hit the user over the head with a brick and steal their wallet.

</comment><comment><USER4> The bit at the end is a bit FUD:

> but in theory, someone could take the work of Chen and Cai, implement it in > JavaScript, and then use it to steal your login details and credit card info > when you surf the web

That's only true if the JavaScript can actually get accelerometer data when a password prompt is up. I have no idea about Android, but while the following is pure conjecture, I'd be quite surprised if iPhone gave JavaScript accelerometer access while the page is in the background.

</comment><comment><USER5> Conclusion is alarmist. Web pages can't receive accelerometer or gyro events when they are in the background on iOS or Android. Applications can't receive those events in the background either on iOS (possibly also Android?)

<comment><USER6> Would it not be possible to present a sensitive page in a full-screen iframe, and then capture an approximation of what the user entered into that iframe by picking up accelerometer events from the outer page? Not a perfect hack by any stretch, since the URL would be wrong, but potentially problematic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think it's a great 'out of the box' topic to research.

Initially, I thought it was a couple of students who had pulled this off which lead me to, "Wow, what an awesome curriculum". However, the fact that it was a couple of scientists in research doesn't surprise me. It's still very clever and innovative.

On a side note: I'm very certain, having worked for my local school district's special education program during the summer times, that there exists many disabled students who rely on weak technologies as their way of broadcasting a message. (They cannot simply just walk into the classroom and 'text'.)

For instance, I was astonished when I saw this poor girl, in a push wheelchair, swaying back and forth a little bit, using a head button* to decide on a letter/word/picture/phrase sitting in a 5 x 10 table scrolling the x, then the y to a final destination. 2 minutes later, she said "Good Mrning". I can almost guarantee that a nice bit of software to detect a few twitches and movements is far more welcome to them.

*Head Button: Imagine the chair in the picture below with an over-sized arcade button taped to the chair's headrest. The display she used looked worse than an old Gateway of mine.

<http://imgur.com/2cQ7h>

<comment><USER8> If you're interested, the field that studies these sorts of technologies is called Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and it is a very active area of research with a lot of great stuff going on. My department does a lot of work in this area; drop me an email if you're interested and I can point you in the direction of some reading.

You are 100% correct that current AAC solutions are often suboptimal, but one of the big challenges facing the field is that individual capabilities (both in terms of cognitive function and motor control) vary _extremely_ widely from user to user, and so there's no such thing as a "one-size fits all" solution. Oh, and head buttons like the one you saw typically use "over-sized arcade buttons" because the user doesn't have the fine motor control needed to operate anything smaller. The idea is to give them as big and easy a target to hit as possible. There are users who, literally, are limited to twitching one of their eyebrows as their sole voluntary muscle motion, and sometimes even that is unreliable (i.e., it only twitches some of the time, or for a short period of time). In such a case, you want the button to be as easy as possible to trigger- think Fitt's law. :-)

Accelerometer-based solutions such as the one described in the article have the potential to be extremely useful; however, in the case of a user who's limited to a head button (or an elbow button, a nose switch, etc. etc.), the physical movements involved could well be too variable and irregular to be usefully decoded. That said, one of the active areas of research within the AAC world is how to build machine learning algorithms into AAC software such that an individual's system adapts over time to their patterns of use, so depending on what's going on with a particular user it might be possible to train something up... but, of course, doing this in any kind of repeatable way often ends up to be a crapshoot, as, again, users vary incredibly widely in terms of which muscles they can control and the extent to which they can do so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sadly, very hard to read on my iPhone because the "mobile layout" magic makes the page erratically jump up and down when I scroll.

</comment><comment><USER10> So why is this specific to android again?</comment>


Progress Bars in Python - <AUTHOR> https://samwilkinson.io/article/2018/12/17/progress-bars-python/ <comment><USER2> I've always just used `sys.stdout.write("\r%i/%i" %(c, n)); sys.stdout.flush()`

That is exactly what this library does: "tqdm does not require any dependencies (not even curses!), just Python and an environment supporting carriage return \r and line feed \n control characters." \-- [https://github.com/tqdm/tqdm](https://github.com/tqdm/tqdm)

Seems unnecessary imo to depend on an external library just to wrap and auto- prettify those 2 stdout commands.

<comment><USER3> Can you provide an example snippet?

<comment><USER2> edit: how the hell does markdown/code-snippet work on hackernews?! Nicely formatted pic of the below text soup:

[https://i.imgur.com/fvEeaJA.png](https://i.imgur.com/fvEeaJA.png)

My library function is:

import sys def writeToTerminal(txt, line_len=79): # line_len is the max num of characters that can fit onto a terminal line without overflowing to a newline

    		# overwrite the line with blank spaces
    		# this takes care of the case where len(txt) is fewer than the [ len(txt) when this function was last called ]
    		sys.stdout.write( "\r" + " "*line_len )
    		sys.stdout.flush()

    		# write the txt, trimming to line_len
    		sys.stdout.write( "\r" + txt.replace("\t", "    ")[:line_len] )
    		sys.stdout.flush()

Example usage:

from time import sleep L = list(range(10)) for c, i in enumerate(L, start=1): writeToTerminal("%i / %i" %(c, len(L))) sleep(1)

<comment><USER4> So it doesn't autodetect the terminal width, and thus _doesn 't_ do the same as the library?

<comment><USER5> it shows a progress indicator, which is _functionally_ the same from a user perspective.

the visual display of this progress indicator is different yes -

This method doesn't need any notion of terminal width because it just prints 'N / N' at the beginning of the current line where the cursor is when called.

<comment><USER2> I tend to side with your opinion (obviously, based on the above code), but detaro does have a point, which is that the progress message will "overflow" onto a new/next line in the console if the message has more characters than will fit on a single of the terminal.

fwiw, line_len=79 is the default on both windows and linux ime. You would only encounter overflow if you (1) shrunk the terminal from its default width and (2) printed a message that was longer than that shrunken width.

If you really needed to have a progress bar that accounted for a shrunken display, it could be accomplished trivially with Python 3.? and less-trivially with Py2.

I could see depending on this library if the application was client facing and needed to be automagically pretty.

Also, one thing to note is that tqdm only fetches the console width when init'ing a progress bar... if you shrink the terminal while a progress bar is still "in progress," you will encounter the same overflow issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm using this for progress bar in python [http://click.palletsprojects.com/en/5.x/utils/](http://click.palletsprojects.com/en/5.x/utils/)</comment>


How Icelandair Opened Up Air Travel in the 1950s - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/40414742/a-plane-crash-a-glacier-and-an-entrepreneur-how-icelandair-opened-up-air-travel-for-everyone <comment><USER2> One of Icelandair's main advantages was the geographic location of Iceland as a natural hub between America and Europe.

This same hub strategy would also be successfully employed much later by airlines from the Gulf states like Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar.

</comment><comment> tuna-piano One interesting thing - the DC-3 plane variety mentioned in the article is still in regular commercial service today.

The DC-3 is literally 80+ years old, but hundreds are still in service - including regular passenger commercial service in Canada. It is the only cargo plane to have an enemy kill in WW2, when a Japanese Kamakazee ran into the DC-3 and broke off the DC-3's wing. The Kamakazee crashed, but thh DC-3 flew on.

[http://archive.jsonline.com/business/96701784.html](http://archive.jsonline.com/business/96701784.html)

[http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/travel/aviation-douglas- dc-3/](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/travel/aviation-douglas-dc-3/)

<comment><USER3> That exact anecdote is in the friendly article, with better spelling.

<comment> tuna-piano Ha, whoops. I read the article, then remembered I had read about it previously. Then I read a few more things, and must have forgotten which stories were in the original article.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: BeforeShutdown – a macOS menubar todo app with reminders on system off - <AUTHOR> https://beforeshutdown.app/ <comment><USER2> Congrats on launching! I'm curious - do you find people actually power down their laptops? I generally slam the lid shut and shove it in my bag.

<comment><AUTHOR> App will notify on sleep as well i.e. when you close the laptop lid.

Give it a try with 100% discount code 'master-shifu'

Dev here. Thanks.

<comment><USER3> If I've closed the lid, isn't it already too late to be useful?

<comment><AUTHOR> You close the lid.. . You get the email.... If the task was really important... You open the lid again ...

And trust me one will open the lid when one sees their manager's face in front or may be some situation of losing money or etc

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> For all the comments asking about powering off.

App will notify on sleep as well i.e. when you close the laptop lid.

Give it a try with 100% discount code 'master-shifu'

Dev here. Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER4> I turn my Mac off like 2x annually.

<comment><AUTHOR> App will notify on sleep as well i.e. when you close the laptop lid.

Give it a try with 100% discount code 'master-shifu'

Dev here. Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nobody I know shuts down...

<comment><USER6> Same.

I can't remember the last time I purposely shut down my MacBook without a reason (Finder locks up or some other Catalina bug)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Can you share where my to-do list data is stored? In your cloud or locally on my machine and you never see it. Thanks! The idea is interesting overall.

<comment><AUTHOR> Its all local. No cloud storage. The only time your tasks text leave your system is when sending email and at that time too it is never stored.

Even i have not configured any sort storage or database for this application. Just one email service in cloud.</comment></comment>


I was rejected by ThemeForest so I did this... - <AUTHOR> http://themesc.com/ <comment><USER2> Some feedback:

      - tabs should be reversed. They make no sense as is.
      - the orange down arrow top right needs to go or change. Looks like it's pointing at the tab for a reason. Nothing about the design suggests that I should interact with it to slide down a contact form, etc.
      - maybe ditch the cents on the prices, they just make the numbers look bigger.
      - you have "Terms" mixed in with side-projects in your footer; perhaps differentiate them?
      - the site is called "themeESC" in the footer, but "themEsc" in the domain and branding.
      - not sure about the gradient on the logo text. It's the only place you've used a gradient in the design (ignoring shadows).
      - the pulldown has a shadow, but the logo/mark don't.
      - if the site is about themes, put that tab before and far more prominent than 'Products'
      - sandwiches might bring a point of difference, but this section is just a load of wank (sorry to be blunt):

"I am fervently altruistic in my desire to serve up fun, intuitive and elegant products that bring the humanity back to online interaction."

You really need to rework that paragraph!

Hope this helps.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. Quite a few people have suggested rethinking the arrow. I agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just some feedback, the color of your tabs should be reversed. The active tab should match the color of the page.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure if you know this but you can get a second opinion from another reviewer or even request a group review (all the reviewers take a look and come to a group decision).

<comment><USER5> Yep, you can indeed ask for another reviewer. Just leave a note when you submit.

<comment><AUTHOR> So, resubmit it and ask for a group review? I'd be curious if anyone has heard of an initial decision being reversed?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm not a web developer, so I can't really offer any feedback, but I'll say this:

I love the designs. They're quirky, and different. Too many WP themes these days are templates of templates. At least these have some personality.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I appreciate the kind words.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> why so many webdesigners put irrelevant information in their website like "I love sandwiches"? Is this some trend?

<comment><USER8> It was used to show some personality among the corporate copy, but it is trend-driven now

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its odd that you have to go back to the homepage to see the demo. On the details page for each theme, clicking on the image should take you to the 'Demo' site. I clicked a few times before realising i had to go back to the home page. You could also add the 'View Demo' button...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I whipped this site up in a day (today) so I'll go back and tweak. However the "detail" page is actually the sort of "add to cart" page. The intension was to shorten the funnel and have people at the checkout page as fast as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Are you planning to do do anything other than Wordpress ?

if yes, then may I suggest Drupal. Drupal 7 is already gearing up to be an amazing framework and it is a seriously untapped market. I have lost count of the number of times people have asked on IRC about a Thesis like theme framework for Drupal (Acquia is not quite it).

Another popular request is an admin theme for Drupal that is geared towards people used to Wordpress (me included).

<comment><AUTHOR> I've worked only very lightly in Drupal but I'd certainly consider it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I quite like it. I'm not a design guru so I'm fairly inarticulate when it comes to suggestions, but I would suggest that your sign-up thing at the top (that drops down) should be changed so your sign-up is on page. I imagine most people will miss it, and it is disproportionately large when you click on it.

Screw themeforest, best of luck with the themes!

</comment><comment><USER12> Why did ThemeForest say they rejected you?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't actually understand why they rejected it. they already accepted the HTML version and it's doing relatively well here [http://themeforest.net/item/candyshoppe-web-apps-products- an...](http://themeforest.net/item/candyshoppe-web-apps-products-and- services/107580)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Do you serve up themes that aren't based on Wordpress? Otherwise, it makes more sense to just mention Wordpress in one place instead of tagging everything with it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, i might roll out the HTML versions of these themes for people who don't necessarily need WordPress and would rather build their own back end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Errr. I can see why they rejected you. Your spacing is so bad i,e, Yo don't know how to balance and space your elements.

And armature use of colours and gradients.

<comment><USER15> I do not think that is a fair comment, nor is it constructively phrased. These themes are equal in quality to loads of the ThemeForest templates. While not perfect, I am not sure they should have been rejected.

OP... a big gap in the ThemeForest market is decent admin templates, which are suitable for use in a SaaS app. There are some templates on there already, but they leave a lot to be desired. I think there is a lot of money to be made with themes that include:

* Landing page

* Signup/registration form

* Login form

* Standard admin template features (forms, tables, page layout examples etc)

At the moment my only option is trying to find two themes (for front and back end) that mesh reasonably well together.

Also, an "AskHN: What do you want in a web app theme" could throw up some useful info.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I agree re: admin themes/ templates. I also like the "AskHN: What do you want in a web app theme" bit. I should do that asap.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Feedback: Great job not taking no for an answer, showing perseverance, and taking the initiative to setup your own storefront. Well done!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I figure this is as good a reason for me to step out on my own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Nice work but if you want to compete with Themeforest you need to solicite other contributors

<comment><AUTHOR> Idea wasn't really to compete with them. Just to strike out on my own. Just needed some fuel, is all.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The coupon code "SINGLEPAGERS" (case-insensitive) will take 10% off each theme.</comment>


The terrifying, flesh-eating drug krokodil has reportedly surfaced in the US - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/27/4775564/super-addictive-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-reported-in-the-us

<comment><USER2> This smells bad, because it seems so similar to something from 80s cyberpunk. A drug that comes from Russia, made from mostly easy-to-obtain precursors (except maybe the cocaine), has more kick than heroin, and it rots junkies from within. It's a perfect cyberpunk throwaway drug! Anyone remember "greenies" from Richard Kadrey's "Metrophage" ([http://www.amazon.com/Metrophage-Ace-Science-Fiction- Special...](http://www.amazon.com/Metrophage-Ace-Science-Fiction- Special/dp/0441528139))?

I expect that mainstream media will try to whip up a moral panic ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic)) over "krokodil", complete with horrifying billboards of "krok" addicts rotting all over each other, and admonitions to never smoke "krok", not even once! and other warnings about backing away from the "krok" pipe. This meth thing has gone on long enough for almost everyone to determine that it's not as bad as the Moral Panicers protrayed, and that having to sign for sudafed is a ginormous nuisance. FDA and DEA and BATF gotta come up with another boogie man to get even more funding. Heck, even "terrorism" is drying up as a magic word to get more funds.</comment>


On-call during Covid-shutdown doesn't have to be stressful (zenduty.com) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.zenduty.com/blog/2019/11/29/Surviving-On-Call <comment><AUTHOR> How to have a less stressful on-call experience during tough times</comment>