ReMarkable's redesigned e-paper tablet is more powerful and more papery - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/17/remarkables-redesigned-e-paper-tablet-is-more-powerful-and-more-papery/ <comment><USER2> Terrible link, the actual reMarkable website is much better.

It's a very niche device but I've owned mine for nearly two years and am a big advocate. In some ways, the first model was proof of concept. Excellent hardware and writing experience, but the early versions of the software were horrible, and the device itself is very ugly. The software has improved dramatically in the time I've owned it, going from horrible to bad, then to almost acceptable, and now it's decent.

I'm happy to see the company is doing well enough to make a second generation reality. Looks like it will be an overall improved experience, with a magnetic marker, a slick-looking device and overall incremental improvements. I'd like to see some kind of trade up program though, it's expensive (and 50$ more for a marker with one extra sensor is ridiculous) and I can't justify paying that much for an incremental upgrade.

My only concern about the new specs would be the thickness, or rather the sturdiness. The first generation is thick by modern standards, but it's very sturdy. I've dropped the device, I've dropped the bag with it, I've bumped into things with it - not a scratch. Very refreshing in the age of fragile devices. Hopefully the rM2 doesn't sacrifice much sturdiness to be thinner.

<comment><USER3> It looks amazing. My concern is that it's around $500. That's about the price of an iPad and Apple pencil. Is it really worth the asking price?

<comment><USER2> People often compare it to an iPad initially, which completely misses the point in my view. The rM has nothing in common with an iPad, and the word "tablet" in the name makes people think of the completely wrong thing.

The rM is best thought of as a pen and paper notebook, except of effectively infinite size. There are no apps. The UI (the only user-facing program) has minimal features, most of which are there just to mimic what you can do with an actual paper notebook. There are only a few exceptions, like being able to drag your notes/scribbles on the page. The device won't integrate with any 3rd party services, it doesn't have search, etc. If a physical notebook doesn't have it, then the rM probably also doesn't.

That definitely makes the rM a very niche device, but I'm getting great use out of mine, while I never managed to get much good use of an iPad.

<comment><USER4> Does the "convert to text" feature work as nicely and smoothly as advertised in the Remarkable 2 launch video[0]? If yes, then that alone is worth the price for me. I've tried a number of solutions that have claimed to do this over the years and none of them really work.

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWY_bwFMxro&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWY_bwFMxro&feature=youtu.be&t=125)

<comment><USER2> There are, as you might expect, a few caveats.

The conversion relies on some kind of cloud service (possibly Google's Cloud Vision API). So you need to be connected and there are privacy/security implications. And, it's very dependent on your handwriting. I cannot get coherent results with that feature, but my handwriting is as readable as base64-encoded Perl. I've seen it produce impressively good results when other people try it.

The process itself is indeed smooth, select an item in the menu and a few seconds later you have the text, which can then be emailed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One thing that's rarely mentioned about this device, but is the reason I sprung for it, is that the developers left an SSH interface into the device over USB, so you can program custom apps!

People have made some neat stuff, and there's a Rust library for making apps: [https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable)

<comment><USER6> This is what I was looking for and their website fails to mention it on the landing page, at least. Would you know of any Emacs/org-mode extensions for this device? Thank you for sharing!

<comment><USER7> You are my spirit animal.

I just got a polar/readwise/orgmode/Anki setup together and I'd love to use this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Same setup almost! I am a student, just starting to use Anki, been using Polar since it same out, will get Readwise subscription soon. Just want to integrate RM2 pdf highlights with Polar.

Will buy RM2 when pocket permits. It's going to be a tough decision be an iPad and RM2, recently came across Liquidtext iPad app, it's so good.

<comment><USER7> I've been really happy with an x1 yoga so far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I bought the original version but found that some PDF files absolutely destroyed it. Not massive files where each page is a scanned picture, just regular PDFs from academic journals. I'd open one, it would spend 20+ seconds displaying the "working" spinner, then often as not it would _reboot_. Had to return it.

I was also pretty shocked that there was no way to get a list of all annotations you've added to a given PDF; I really wanted a way to read through a book making notes as I went, then get an overview of where I'd made notes. Even a way to bookmark a given page would have been useful.

Fix those two issues and it would have been a great device for me; the page size was juuuust big enough to display pretty much any book at a readable size.

<comment><USER5> I have a remarkable and use it for reading academic paper PDFs all the time. The software has gotten far better over time.

<comment><USER8> I'm very glad it's working well for you, but the software as of January 2020 was unable to properly read PDFs from a particular journal... it may have been Science.

<comment><USER9> There might be something to do here to clean those up and make them more ergonomic for the device. I have de-DRMed most of my kindle books and turned them into PDFs, even some thousand page monsters with graphs and images, etc, and so far all work well on the device. There are a bunch of open source PDF utilities that may be able to help if desired. Cheers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Since the article is unviewable without throwing away your privacy, here is a primary source instead:

[https://remarkable.com/](https://remarkable.com/)

<comment><USER11> I know I'm being too literal, but I got a chuckle when I read:

> reMarkable's virtually instant response and texturized surface make for an > unprecedented writing experience.

There is indeed a precedent for having literally instant response with a texturized surface: pencil and paper.

<comment><USER12> I took it as having an implied "...on an electronic device."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'd just written Remarkable voicing my concerns with the gen 1 tablet.

One concern, the ability to access material off the Web, has been addressed.

Another has not: the Gen 2 tablet still has only 8 GB storage.

On my current, much-despised, Android tablet, I have a 128GB microSD card with over 32 GB of documents, in a range of formats -- the overwhelming majority are PDF and ePub, but also djvu, docx, txt, htmk, chm, ppt, pptx, and other formats.

With the paltry cost of storage, cripling the Remarkable with anything less than 128-256 GB staggers the mind.

I'd also very much like to have an eccessible, full-featured Linux userland, even if only console mode, as this is invaluable to me (the file extension- based counts and storage utilisation come via Termux utilities on the Android tablet). A keyboard (external, Bluetooth), and terminal driver, would be sufficient for this.

<comment><USER14> While I'd love full linux, personally I'd happily settle for just a bluetooth (or even usb) keyboard and a decent "write plain text" app.

My handwriting is terrible, and while I'd love to unplug for reading/writing, I haven't found an acceptable solution for doing so beyond a Chromebook with wifi turned off and/or a "self control" web extension.

EDIT: from elsewhere in this thread, I see [https://github.com/dps/remarkable- keywriter](https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter) which looks interesting. Curious to hear how it plays with the remarkable 2, esp around lag

<comment><USER13> The Linux userland is there. A terminal would expose it.

Utility afforded is immense. Termux on Android, crippled as it is, is the one thing on the platform that does not completely and abjectly suck.

<comment><USER9> Hmm, one can enable an ssh service, as I recall, to get in. There is something there- what kind of userland is it?

<comment><USER13> Debian, or close to it, based on several reports.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13072748](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13072748)

Some (thin) additional details, though no specifics, on the Wiki: [https://remarkablewiki.com/start](https://remarkablewiki.com/start)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm using this $13 "NEWYES 12" LCD Writing Tablet Digital Drawing Tablet Handwriting Pads Portable Electronic Tablet Board ultra-thin Board with pen"

As a better paper, without any distractions, works well!! I have one at work, on my desk, I have one for each kid doing maths with them on it, it's awesome. [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32922602355.html?spm=a2g0o.p...](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32922602355.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.20be35ebRsLe35&algo_pvid=b80b35b5-cffe-4264-a633-c3eb479a3829&algo_expid=b80b35b5-cffe-4264-a633-c3eb479a3829-0&btsid=0ab6f83915844660455648904e3379&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_)

<comment><USER16> I also use one of these as my quick-grab sketch/note pad.

The huge downside is being unable to erase any part of the screen without erasing the entire screen - so by the end of a long brainstorming session I have lots of scribbled out parts and lines directing the eye to follow my flow.

I desperately want something like the remarkable2, but I just can't bring myself to spending $800CDN (for the package) as a replacement for paper or the "Boogie Board"!

<comment><USER17> FYI the new one is on pre-order for 600CAD for the package including taxes and shipping. Tempted to buy one myself.

EDIT: Ok, 719CAD if you want the marker with an eraser and the book-style cover instead of the pouch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Looks like they really upped their production quality with this release! Excite to see their team is still at it.

Also pumped to see them officially releasing a Chrome extension to send to reMarkable. Long overdue. It doesn't look like it's out yet, so here's a link to the unofficial version I made last year (used by over 700 other reMarkable owners):

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to- remarkable...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to- remarkable/mcfkooagiaelmfpkgegmbobdcpcbdbgh)

Open source at [https://github.com/michaelschade/remarklater](https://github.com/michaelschade/remarklater)

</comment><comment><USER19> Anyone have any look developing and running software on this thing?

[https://remarkable.engineering/](https://remarkable.engineering/)

Isn't easy to find from the official site (remarkable.com), and I've yet to find a simple "Hello, world"-example from ReMarkable...

Ed: i see there already are some comments on this topic. I think I just might pre-order an rm2.

<comment><USER20> [https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Can any remarkable owners comment on the reliability/robustness of the document storage? Does it store versions and/or backups?

I made the mistake of buying an equilpen2 at an apple store years ago. I say mistake not because I didn't like the product (I used it for hundreds of pages of notes over the year or two after I bought it and loved that it let me write on regular paper) but because the company gave up on the product and eventually released destructive app updates that deleted all my notes from my local machines.

I was only able to recover my content because I had it synced to dropbox and now I'm paranoid about content creation devices like this potentially losing my content in the future if the company goes belly-up.

<comment><USER5> The cloud sync/storage is pretty rudimentary, no versions or anything like that. But they have an app for desktop/phone so you can download and backup. There are unofficial client libraries for the cloud API as well, so it can be automated.

<comment><USER22> > But they have an app for desktop/phone so you can download and backup.

Can I just... connect a USB cable and transfer files? Why do I want an app at all?

The apparent requirement to transfer files through an app was the reason I didn't get a remarkable 1.

<comment><USER9> I don't recall if it shows up as a USB storage device, but it will expose a webserver to you over USB to which you can put documents. I also wrote a utility to send documents up to their server side APIs, which them gets them automatically sync'd down to the device. Takes about a minute, works very well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > Hold it with your left hand and write with your right. Sorry, lefties.

Well this sucks if it is not leftie friendly as the price and features had me sold.

<comment><USER24> wondering if that's just an assumption by the author -- can you not just rotate it 180°?

<comment><USER25> Has to be that way. Same as Kindle Oasis.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> > " _The new tablet is just 4.7 mm (0.19 in) thick, thinner than the iPad Pro > and Sony's competing Digital Paper tablets, both of which are 5.9 mm._ "

At that thickness, I'd be worried about sturdiness and, in particular, bending, à la the problems with the iPhone 6.

I can stick an iPad Mini or similar tablet into a jacket pocket or backpack and jog a couple of miles to a bus stop daily without concern. Will we be able to do the same with this, I wonder?

<comment><USER27> The problems with the phone is that it's often carried in pants pockets. I don't think something of this size will have the same kind of forces applied to it.

<comment><USER28> Actually, I think that things which get thrown into bags on a regular basis face more stresses than a phone in your pocket.

It could be jostling around with corners of large books, laptops, cables, random containers, etc. It can also have more space to accelerate when you swing your bag around, whereas a phone is held firmly your leg when you run/jump/etc.

Durability in a bag is what separates great electronics manufacturers from decent ones. If I buy something and it doesn't survive bag life for several months, which is quite common, then I write off the manufacturer as a creator of fragile throw-away devices. But I've never had a phone have any sort of problem from pocket stresses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Judging by the technical specifications on [https://remarkable.com/](https://remarkable.com/) it seems not to have a microsd card or much in the way of onboard storage. I wonder if the device can recognize a storage device attached to the usb-c port.

The writing experience, battery life and hackability are very appealing to me, but it also looks like it's not as good a reading device as high end readers, where really good lighting and water resistance are common. It's also slightly big for me. The size would be great for academic pdfs, or reference works but for normal books, or even for normal note taking (rather than sketching) it's a little on the large side. Maybe if it had less bezel, the size could be closer to best of both.

I don't mind it having a high price point, but I hoped that it would compete with high-price point e-readers (kobo forma / kindle oasis) too.

<comment><USER30> You won't find a high end reader (other than Sony?) that is in this size which is quite useful for those reading scientific papers, a bit blind, or who want to use it for sketch/art. It is only slightly larger than a typical hard cover.

<comment><USER29> I think my point for comparison is a moleskine or a paperback. Certainly different use cases.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> This looks very cool, but at the price I'm still kinda stuck using my $0.73 spiral notebooks. I fill them up with my scribblings, then run them through the scanner and archive them. I use colored pens on them, too. It's very, very hard to beat this.

Note to ereader makers: Please, PLEASE make the screen saver show the last page read! I'd throw away my Kindle and buy a new one just to get that. I'd pay extra for it. I will stop complaining about my ereader if you do this.

<comment><USER32> > _Note to ereader makers: Please, PLEASE make the screen saver show the last > page read! I 'd throw away my Kindle and buy a new one just to get that. I'd > pay extra for it. I will stop complaining about my ereader if you do this._

Would this be... not having a screensaver? Or are you thinking of something more specific?

Having typed it out, it's sorta odd that there's a screensaver at all, rather than just always acting like it's up and running. I'd probably love it if ereaders would just show a "booting..." indicator when necessary, and otherwise never have an "off" screen except when serving some critical need (e.g. low battery warning).

<comment><USER33> EInk displays only use power when they're changing what's on the screen, right? They work by giving a static charge to a bubble full of ink, and that charge should remain for a while, even if the screen loses power. So I don't see why screensavers are necessary.

<comment><USER32> You may be able to argue burn-in issues (I'm not sure if any are permanent, but they can definitely last quite a few black/white cycles), but that's about it AFAICT...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Any details on whether they've fixed search? Zoom? Or made it a mountable USB drive so it doesn't require their app or similar janky solutions? The first one really looked nice, but all the reviews were full of practical usability issues and this promo doesn't touch on the topic.

<comment><USER26> It still sounds as if it has the original's killer negative: everything you write is sync'ed to their servers, which is a huge no-no for work use without IT approval, at least at my workplace, or anything regulated by privacy laws like HIPPA. I'd love one of these things if it was able to function purely offline even if I had to sacrifice cloud features.

<comment><USER2> It's a failure of their marketing that they didn't make this clear. The device is capable of working 100% offline. Notes are stored on the device, with cloud sync being optional. File transfer is possible with SSH, or the (poor) app or the equally poor web interface when connecting via USB. You don't have to create an account for the rM cloud, you can use the thing without ever connecting it to the Internet.

<comment><USER34> The marketing sounds like they've stepped up the app/cloud bits with a browser plugin, etc. Do you know for certain the second version still supports the non-cloud snycing? The support site is incompletely updated for the new device; it's not clear at all if they still permit private operation.

<comment><USER34> [https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/36000670215...](https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/360006702157-Can-I-sync-files-between-my-reMarkable-and-my-phone- or-PC-Mac-)

Found an article in the "remarkable 2" section of the support site. No mention of support for offline/private syncing, which is a real shame. (The "read more" links go to v1 pages and seem to be autogenerated.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I really love the ReMarkable and this was an easy preorder. The only thing I personally disliked was 1. No eraser on the pen and 2. No USB-C support. Both are resolved here

<comment><USER36> You only get an eraser if you pay an extra $50 for the Marker Plus, which is crazy to me.

<comment><USER35> Yeah the prices are a little ridiculous but I can't really complain considering how niche of a product this is and how amazing the reMarkable 1 is

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I was looking for a device to serve as my paper replacement in 2018 and came across the ReMarkable 1 tablet. Shortly after, Apple had announced a new iPad 9.7", now with Pencil support. This put both devices in the same price bracket.

After reading an in-depth review from GoodEReader [1], I concluded that an iPad, although not with an ePaper display, could also function as a regular tablet with access to a ton of apps. This was something that the ReMarkable was not able to do. The ReMarkable tablet does allow you to have SSH access though, as noted by other comments here.

Just my 2c, if you are also looking at this for a paper replacement.

[1] [https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/hands-on- rev...](https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/hands-on-review-of- the-remarkable-writing-tablet)

</comment><comment><USER38> I've had a Remarkable1 for about three months. It's one of the best investments I've made in a long time. Going to preorder this.

Only caveats - I like aftermarket cases more than Remarkable's. I bought one one from Amazon for about 30$.

Also I've been using staedtler's digital pencils, works great!

<comment><USER39> What makes it so good for you? Amazon reviews seem negative to middling.

<comment><USER38> I looked over some of the amazon reviews, and they seem to be talking mostly about issues in older versions (2018) of the software, which I don't have direct experience with, but the software has gotten better, even in the time I've owned it (they just released version 2.x of the SW).

That being said, there is still room for improvement, particularly with reading (vs writing, which this device is very good at).

I mostly use it this to replace stacks of notebooks (my brain thinks better with pen and paper in hand, but with all the digital conveniences in hand. This device is the best that I've tried for writing (and I've tried many, including an ipad pro)

Cons: historically, the price. No blacklight. Clearly the device has been optimized for writing, not reading, although supposedly 3rd party ebook readers like Apollo are good (the device is not locked down and has a hacker community).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> It hurts my heart how conflicted I am about this device. The hardware _is_ there. I love using the original reMarkable tablet _when it works_. But damn there are some stupid software decisions, alongside some absolutely genius ones. (Disclaimer: I've had the original reMarkable tablet for 3 months now) Here's a summary of my experience with it:

\- It's sometimes unstable, and crashes while I draw. Not super often but maybe 4 or 5 times a week. I don't lose any data other than the last ~5-10 strokes.

\- There is a notebook called Quick Sheets that is permanently there, even if I try to remove it's metadata over SSH. It gets generated on boot. No idea why this is here.

\- You can SSH in, and there's a good hacker community around the tablet. A lot of cool open source software is written for it.

\- Putting a file on the device for the first time, after doing the same on a kindle for years, is an adventure to say the least. There is no calibre plugin for it that I've found.

\- I have never been able to use EPUBs properly on this tablet, a lot of my books just crash it. I have to convert them to PDF first on calibre. So highlighting is just markup on the PDF and not really selecting any text, but you can write directly on the book with notes.

\- The first time I opened an EPUB, it took a while (10s) to load. When I tried to change the font of the EPUB on the reMarkable, it just stayed on the loading icon for hours, and I gave up on EPUBs then, and resorted to PDFs.

\- There is no dictionary on the EPUB reader. I miss this feature a lot. And even if there were, I wouldn't be able to use it because I have to convert my EPUBs to PDF.

\- Metadata for EPUBs or PDFs isn't visible, only the raw filenames. So no sorting by author, genre, etc.

\- drawing and marking up is phenomenal, as is reading on such a huge screen. I absolutely love reading and journaling on this tablet.

\- I have never succeeded in exporting my notebooks or marked up PDFs using the built in software after marking up or writing in 100+ pages, I have to use some community written software instead.

\- It's $500 total after pen and cover.

\- There is no backlight.

\- OCR is done in the cloud, and not on the device.

\- The iOS companion app is goofy, a lot of the navigation within the app seems to be done in a hacky way, instead of using the usual iOS SDK components. (They segment screen portions for scrolling on pages and for navigating the app, and it leads to just the most bizarre behavior).

I want to love this tablet. And all we need is a software update. The hardware was almost perfect, and now with USB-C, a magnet on the pen, and an eraser, the hardware is even closer to being perfect (I think the only thing left is a backlight).

<comment><USER41> As someone who is thinking of getting the reMarkable 2, what is some examples of "A lot of cool open source software"?

<comment><USER42> Not the grandparent, from what I've found is there's a lot written for the tablet since it is a Linux device that gives the user root access.

Some examples of the open source stuff can be found on github [1] and their wiki[2].

[1] [https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable) [2] [https://remarkablewiki.com/tips/start](https://remarkablewiki.com/tips/start)

<comment><USER41> That's pretty cool and that it was really locked down was my only concern about it. Happy to see it seems relatively open, so just placed a pre-order. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> While at that price point, many other, more feature complete devices become available, the ePaper devices do have their own niche.

I tried to use iPad Pro as a full-time note-taking device and found that after writing on it for up 3-4 hours during the day, my eyes get very tired by the evening. I tried various things to mitigate it, such as using dark background, changing brightness etc, and nothing seems to help enough to make iPad a notebook replacement.

I absolutely love the functionality offered by iPad-like device such as reading Kindle, browse web, notes taking, PDF annotation, scanner apps etc. I absolutely want to be able to use it as single device to hold all my hand- notes and downloaded or scanned documents. But can't avoid the eye strain.

Devices like reMarkable etc can be used at length if your ask is just to carry around all your notes. I have misplaced all my notes from grad school days. I would love an easy way to be able to write and archive for posterity all my notes.

I personally settled for Onyx Boox Max 3. It is at way higher price point, but is more functional - has Kindle, OReilly apps etc and quite functional note taking app.

I tried the earlier version of reMarkable ran into a limitation that limited its usability for me. It did not allow copying a section of text and pasting it into a new document. I might be mis-remembering, but I think it did not even allow pasting a copied section of a note into a new page in the same notebook. All this severely limited what I could use it for. It was just a paper replacement, and not much more.

Boox Max 3 did not have these limitations. Whats great about iPad-like devices is that you don't even expect that you will run into these corner cases.

I hope this update to reMarkable add such small features that increase the usability. I absolutely hope that these kind of devices succeed. They are a solution to the problem of keeping and carrying with you a separate set of notes on varied topics where no single paper notebook would do justice, and they are usable for very long stretches of time with no more eye strain than with using paper.

<comment><USER44> > Onyx Boox Max 3.

Can you tell me if the Onyx Boox Max 3 works with USB-C to USB-C cables? I had a Onyx Boox Nova and it was noncompliant somehow, I had to only use the USB-C to A cable that came with it. I ended up selling it for that reason -- I didn't want to carry around a single cable just for this device when all my other devices are USB-C.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> This looks interesting, but it's the software that will make or break the experience.

Software aside, this is expensive ($479 when you select the pen with the eraser and the book cover), and the screen is not back-lit, so this won't be usable without other source of light.

Why is it so hard to find an e-ink device that's good for reading books, PDFs, and web content (e.g. Pocket)? So far, everything I've tried has fallen short.

<comment><USER46> I got Mobiscribe from Amazon for around 250. Smaller screen, but has warm backlit eink screen. Decent ereader for ePubs, very good responsive notetaking. It comes with a note-folio & pen for $250

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> I can't view this site on mobile, I get redirected to some "guce advertising" that's blocked on my phone.

</comment><comment><USER48> Years ago I tried an early adopter's unit. While I was impressed by the "feel", ultimately the lack of color was the deal-breaker for me, as I love using colors in note-taking + PDF annotation. Ended up sticking to my Surface Pro 4 (2015) with the latest Surface Slim Pen. I pretty much only use my Surface the same way as I would use a hypothetical ReMarkable with even only RGBK colors, and considering the Surface is a $1k+ device fully loaded, such a "colored ReMarkable" would be a steal for me. Kinda disappointed it does not exist...

Colors, please!

</comment><comment> java-man I don't understand the fascination with super-thin devices. Can you hold it for any extended period of time without much strain? Will it slip and shatter when the palms get slightly moist?

<comment><USER49> It weights about 400g, so about what a paper pad does I guess? In any case, it has a textured surface, and assuming it's similar to the reMarkable 1 it is not slippery.

<comment> java-man a paper pad does not weigh 400g

<comment><USER49> I just measured the A4 one I got, for which the reMarkable would be a replacement, and it is 391g. So pretty close in my view.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Oh god, I love my reMarkable 1 so much that I'm having a hard time not impulse-buying this one. It's like having a superweapon on you if your work is to sling ideas and concepts.

</comment><comment><USER51> I'd love to give this another go, however, my experience with the first remarkable are reMarkably poor, and the new revision supposedly has the same display hardware

\- the display is not very sharp, has poor contrast, and no active illumination

\- also, despite there being no display illumination, reading in the sun was not possible, as it immediately resulted in the display bulging notably from the absorbed sun/heat.

\- seriously buggy software

Let me know, if you have information that the new revision has improved on those aspects.

</comment><comment><USER52> I bought one of these for my fiance for Christmas, and she loves it. She uses it to take notes during meetings, and then convert them to text and import into OneNote. It seems to work fantastically for that.

I was a little leery, after my experience buying a similar e-ink tablet years ago through indiegogo, which took forever to get delivered, shipped with a painfully obsolete version of Android, and bricked itself in short order, but this seems like a very solid product.

</comment><comment> m-p-3 I know it would probably go against what they're aiming for (distraction-free, no social media), but it would be an instant-buy for me if I could have an email client (IMAP, Exchange), calendar (CalDAV, Exchange), RSS feeds (along with popular services like Feedly, Inoreader or your own server) and why not a service like Instapaper/Pocket/Wallabag builtin.

Being able to do work-related stuff other than taking notes would be easier to justify the premium price.

<comment><USER53> [https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable)

There's a script to upload files from Instapaper on, not sure how well it works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> What's their portability story? I don't want my personal knowledge store to be locked into a platform, particularly one that's not guaranteed to last. PDF exports don't cut it, my notes are living documents.

I'm really sad that nobody has adequately addressed interoperability in the digital inking space; I'd gladly switch to an iPad or reMarkable, but so far I'm still the neckbeard inking in Xournal on an old Thinkpad.

<comment><USER55> Not great, you can only officially export PDF, PNG, or SVG, though their cloud management does seem to work really well and as I understand, files are stored locally on each device once synced.

That said, it runs linux so you could conceivably backup the files yourself. You can ssh into your tablet, run sftp, w/e. But they are in some proprietary .lines format.

There's a wiki with more details (the file format stuff is further down): [https://remarkablewiki.com/tech/filesystem](https://remarkablewiki.com/tech/filesystem)

It may be possilbe you could hack it to run xournal, but I've no idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> When looking at e-paper tablets in the past I found that the ReMarkable does not support using an external SD-card. If you google around you'll find many e-ink tablets using the same screen and stylus technology (as in they literally use the same parts from Wacom) that run slightly modified Android and do have an sd-card slot. If anyone else is interested in buying an e-ink tablet you should look into those.

</comment><comment><USER57> I bought the original one during the initial sale, I think I paid something around $300 for it. Loved it and used it as my main reading/note taking device. I got an iPad Pro (12.9) last year and I've stopped using the remarkable, but will prob get the newer version. I find it much easier on the eyes and better to read using the remarkable. It was a great piece of hw before, the new one looks even better.

</comment><comment><USER58> Has anyone used this product? and how does it compare to like an IPad Pro?

I have an IPad Pro, but I'm not in love with the writing experience or reading an eBook.

<comment><USER38> I have an ipad pro and a remarkable, and I use the remarkable a lot more. I mostly note take/doodle though. The writing experience is way better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> I so badly wanted the first one. This one looks even better. However, with twins on the way probably still not in the cards, but damn I can dream.

</comment><comment><USER60> I've been wanting a ReMarkable since the preorder. If I could afford it I'd buy one in a heartbeat - and the v2 looks like an fantastic improvement.

Came close to buying one last year, but went for an iPad Air instead as they are cheaper and more versatile.

While I'd still love an e-ink display, I found a screen protector for the iPad that has a paper-like texture and makes it significantly nicer to draw on.

</comment><comment><USER61> What is the main reason that make these devices so expensive? Is it low demand? complex technology? or something to do with patents?

<comment><USER62> Niche market, there are barely any competitors. I believe Sony has a competing device for business, costs around 1k$

Onyx also has one, it's a bit cheaper than the remarkable.

All of these devices have major flaws and upsides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> I really liked Remarkable hardware, but I ended up returning it. The Software and general workflow to send and manage documents was cumbersome. Simple things like sharing meeting notes with colleagues shouldn't be that complicated.

It's one of those cases where the hardware is amazing but the software is just too painful to use (and I really wanted to like it)

</comment><comment><USER64> Would love to see a bigger (13.3-inch) version. Many PDF books are Letter or A4 size by default and I don't like having to read them with (smaller) scaled fonts. Otherwise I would go for it as its software seems to be more complete than that of Sony's Digital Paper, which I've been using for a couple of years already.

</comment><comment><USER65> I am the kind of person who takes notes and write on paper daily, for pleasure, and I have no problem managing or carrying paper notebooks. Does anyone know were could I personally try reMarkable 2 in Germany or Europe?

Does anyone know on whether it is possible to read kindle _purchased_ books or converted ebooks? What about custom software?

<comment><USER65> Now that I read almost everything online: \- You can't read Kindle books directly on the reMarkable (DRM not supported) \- It has support for ePub and PDF \- It runs a Linux accessible by SSH and hacker friendly (check awesome remarkable on github)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The hardware on the first one was very good compared to others at the time, but some software features I'd like to have was missing. So I tested a friend's one, but never ended up buying one myself. But from the looks of it they have added and worked on much of that software the last years. Looks very compelling now.

</comment><comment><USER66> Do they have any ergonomics for left handed people? All the photos show users holding the device with their right hand.

<comment><USER67> It's in the FAQ section here: [https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2](https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2)

Answer: Yes!

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> Is it possible to keep documents entirely local and guarantee that ReMarkable doesn't have access to data? From what I recall, their Terms of Service leave this possibility open.

This made ReMarkable a non-starter for many companies that have policies around where internal data may be stored.

<comment><USER69> Yes. The USB interface works well on the reMarkable 1, you just plug it in and go to [http://10.11.99.1](http://10.11.99.1) in a browser. The cloud service is the default, but it is optional [1]:

> _Our cloud service is a service we provide to our customers. You are more > than welcome to use your reMarkable offline and store your documents in > local storage if you prefer._

Aside: I have setup (via SSH) rclone to sync files to my own cloud storage, but that's not something that is officially supported.

[1] [https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/36000264829...](https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/360002648297-Connecting-to-the-reMarkable-cloud)

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> What's the drawing latency like? High latency is what keeps me from switching away from paper.

<comment><USER71> 50ms was the 1st model, 20ms for this.

</comment></comment><comment> a-saleh Damn! It is beautiful. If I were to become a manager, where my greatest contribution will be sending the best damn meeting-minutes I can, I am buying this.

But I already have Onyx Boox for my note-scribbling-on-e-ink needs, and if push comes to shove, I can run termux from there :D

<comment><USER72> Which model of Onyx Boox do you have? Can you give a brief pro/con? I've never heard of the company but man their devices are tempting...

<comment><USER73> The devices are conceptually great: just an android tablet with e-ink. The software is kind of low-quality. They're fun to use, and good for reducing eye strain while doing things that you'd typically do on a phone, laptop, or tablet, without limitations.

But... the devices are absolutely the most fragile electronics I've touched in 20 years. I've had _two_ break on me in as many months, babying them and being incredibly careful.

The first one developed a line of stuck pixels within the first week of use. It happened while I was using it, which was surreal to watch. They replaced it, but I had to pay shipping, which wasn't cool.

The second locked up a few days ago. I rebooted it, thinking it'd be OK, but discovered that the capacitive touchscreen was not recognized. I'm not the only one. You can see dozens of people complaining about this here: [http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/boox-note-pro- capacitive...](http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/boox-note-pro-capacitive- touchscreen-not-working/1852). Now I have to use the pen, which doesn't work everywhere in the interface (e.g. for reading PDFs, it's impossible to turn pages) _and_ the device locks up after ten minutes. So I'll be sending this one back too, because I'm outside of the limits for a full refund. Maybe the third one will last more than a month.

Their design and quality control are horrific. The high price of the device only makes sense from the perspective of them having to replace everyone's device three or four times.

I hope e-ink screen having android devices become commonplace and onyx gets competed out of existence.

<comment> a-saleh damn! I am glad I didn't run into the hardware problems

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER74> What I don't understand is why the display is not vertically symmetrical. Then the software could eventually be made to allow 180 degree rotation of the interface. This way the device could be used by both left-handed and right- handed people equally.

</comment><comment><USER75> This seems great and the price is much more achievable now. I personally can't read PDF books from a normal screen. I need paper.

I own a Kindle DX but the screen is not big enough and the software is showing its age.

The fact that you can even use a pencil I this device is a big plus.

<comment><USER9> I replaced my pool of failing Kindle DXes with the RM1. Wrote some tools to automate DeDRMing my Kindle books so I have them on the RM1 now.

Very similar reading experience. The RM1 is faster than the DX, but the software is slightly less reader friendly (harder to get to table of contents, go to specific pages, etc). I didn't use zoom on the DX, don't know if RM1 has it or how usable it is.

The ability to notate on PDFs on the RM1 is very valuable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> This is great but how many tablets do I really need to get rid of paper? At least two, because typically I will be reading and taking notes simultaneously, and often times more than two, because I may need to check multiple sources.

</comment><comment><USER77> What is the security of these things? I'd really like a good encrypted notebook, but tbh I would want iOS like security (hardware enclave, so I can use a short PIN and still have moderate security).

Also, is it too much to expect colour?

<comment><USER78> For doctors to be able to use this they need encrypted at rest. I think this would be an amazing device for them but without encrypted storage it is a non- starter.

I reached out to the manufacturer to find out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> The price point is now low enough that I'm down to preorder. I could use pen and paper (as I do) forever and probably not spend $400 but the price is low enough for a gadget that would be fun and novel for now.

</comment><comment><USER80> > Note and file syncing between reMarkable tablet and reMarkable apps for > MacOS, Windows 7 and newer, iOS, and Android

I would very much like to order it, but it doesn't support linux :( Please, please add linux support!

<comment><USER81> Actually, it has a webapp which you can acess via your browser over the wireless or USB connection ip, which allows you a rudimentary upload/download :

[https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/36000266133...](https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en- us/articles/360002661337-Transferring-files-using-a-USB-cable)

That said, there are whole lot of sync tools that users have created which work very well with Linux (for example, I personally use remarkablefs, which is a Fuse based filesystem to mount your remarkable)

[https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable/blob/master...](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome- reMarkable/blob/master/README.md#device-tools)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> The speed improvements are impressive. Wonder though if there is any physical change in the display? It seems to be identical, was hoping they could bring something with a whiter background.

<comment><USER30> Also wonder about security of the pen if used with the book folio. Exactly how strong is that magnetic attachment?

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> I guess that using safari online on remarkable is not possible or at least difficult with exporting chapter by chapter. Any recommendation for 10 inch e-ink which works with safari online?

</comment><comment><USER83> Is it worth it to buy just for reading purposes? I have a Kindle but a want bigger screen to read PDFs and web pages.

Also, any integration with the Android app store?

<comment><USER12> It is perfectly serviceable for reading, though it may lack some of the reading oriented features of other eink devices. I love the large size for some of my documents, which are unpleasant to read on smaller devices.

<comment><USER84> What you re missing?

<comment><USER12> Based on other comments here, it seems that the Remarkable is missing several features that some people enjoy in their eReaders. The only one I can cite definitively is the lack of backlight. I can't speak to other allegedly missing features because I haven't investigated the issue. I am satisfied with the features I do use when I want to read certain docs on the large remarkable screen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER85> For me the competition to this is the Rocketbook.

You write or draw with real pens and still can scan and digitize the things you write.

And in price the Rocketbook wins hands down.

</comment><comment><USER86> BTW I bought Kobo Forma with a 8in screen and its great for tech books which don't work in a regular sized kindle. Cheaper than Remarkable.

</comment><comment><USER87> So can I use other cloud providers to sync? Say OneDrive, GDrive, Dropbox or Box?

How can I import pdf files & export them to a cloud solution?

</comment><comment><USER88> I'd wish they did a hackable A4 version

</comment><comment><USER89> I'm very interested but am curious what the ebook consumption experience is like. Can any gen 1 owner comment?

<comment><USER69> It's rather basic (i.e. not great), and only supports DRM-less epub and pdf.

<comment><USER53> Have you tried the non-stock software? There's a port of Plato in one of the repos listed above.

<comment><USER69> No, sorry. But there's two Youtube videos of Plato in the original Reddit announcement:

[https://youtu.be/JHdsqD4xxik](https://youtu.be/JHdsqD4xxik) [https://youtu.be/a2mqXTGGTDE](https://youtu.be/a2mqXTGGTDE)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER90> > Unfortunately I use Firefox, but I can make an exception for this.

Unfortunate attitude that perpetuates (browser) lock-in.

<comment><USER38> Personally, I just use this to print stuff from whatever app and send it to the remarkable: [https://github.com/juruen/rmapi/blob/master/docs/tutorial- pr...](https://github.com/juruen/rmapi/blob/master/docs/tutorial-print- macosx.md)

Works well, I'm guessing for other platforms, similar things exist using remarkable's api.

</comment></comment><comment><USER91> I wonder how well the older model will be supported. Interesting device but uses closed software and formats.

</comment><comment><USER92> [https://archive.md/YjZUI](https://archive.md/YjZUI)

</comment><comment><USER93> Does anyone know if this tablet is programmable? If so I would probably want one!

<comment><USER94> For the original one at least, yes. The official stuff is at [https://remarkable.engineering/](https://remarkable.engineering/) and there are a few Rust projects built around libremarkable [https://github.com/canselcik/libremarkable](https://github.com/canselcik/libremarkable)

</comment></comment><comment><USER78> Does anybody know if the devices storage is encrypted at rest?

</comment><comment><USER95> Is there a way to get Google Play Books on this thing? Kindle?

</comment><comment><USER96> Nice and intriguing but unfortunately this is still priced as a premium product.

Obviously the company making it has its reasons for pricing but a product like this needs to be priced as an accessible consumer electronics product (ie $50-$100).

<comment><USER97> I've been keeping an eye on largish-format epaper tablets for a while (I'm an avocational organist and singer, and would love to have my whole music library with me at all times). ReMarkable is actually on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I think it comes down to low volume and target users (professionals who wouldn't balk at paying this much for a business tool). Basically, a typical vertical market.

<comment><USER96> Hopefully they'll consider the functionally minded customer soon.

I would be happy with a cheapish form factor option, it doesn't have to be the slick looking product that is the only option currently available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER98> Is there a way to set up a self hosted sync server yet?

</comment><comment><USER99> tested it for 1 minute at that "beta" store. must have been the old version of course.

it's terrible. the response time makes it very awful.

</comment><comment><USER100> This article falsely claims the device cannot be used by left-handed people. There is a left-handed mode in the settings.

</comment><comment><USER101> How does this compare with the ipad and the apple pencil? Is it worth it to get even when you already own an ipad and an apple pencil?

</comment><comment><USER102> the only thing i want is a device i can write on that has a refresh rate (or whatever) that's near realtime (so that I don't get the cognitive dissonance from the lag in the line appearing). does such a device exist? i've tried surface and ipad and etc. all of them still have quite noticeable lag when writing.

<comment><USER12> > _does such a device exist?_

That is the goal of this device. The original Remarkable was superior to the surface and the iPad, and according to their marketing the next one will be twice as fast.

<comment><USER102> you can see very clearly in the demo video that there is still a very noticeable lag

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER103> why so many posts to hacker News about this today? Seems and feels like guerrilla marketing.

<comment><USER12> > _why so many posts to hacker News about this today? Seems and feels like > guerrilla marketing._

Are you accusing the people who posted these links of being employees of Remarkable? If so, you could just look at their comment histories to see if it seems likely before posting a general accusation.

I am fascinated by this product. It is far more interesting to me than much of what Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, or Amazon have done in a tablet form factor in many years. I'm not surprised that others may have a similar level of interest.

<comment><USER103> I am not and did not accuse anyone. I simply noticed many links to many resources about same product in a short period of time. You can make your own judgement call on that. Are press releases standard - of course. I would ague that guerrilla marketing is standard ops for many new products/services and it should not be perceived in a negative way. Its a tool, i was simply curious if this was the case. In addition i'm fascinated at guerrilla marketing operations and am curious if they in fact are, how are they are engaged, paid etc.....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Literally unviewable and it is not consent if there is no option to say "no".

Ianal but this website is probably violating GDPR:

[https://gdpr-info.eu/issues/consent/](https://gdpr-info.eu/issues/consent/)

</comment><comment><USER104> People don't jerk off to magazines anymore.

<comment><USER105> As much as I appreciate the Silicon Valley reference, I don't think that this is a place for it...

</comment></comment><comment><USER106> Good god, the scroll hijacking on that site is dreadful. Makes it impossible to scroll comfortably on mobile.

That being said I've always admired the Remarkable tablets.

</comment><comment><USER107> This is essentially an advertisement. There's no need to read, unless you are looking to buy a $400 convenience replacement for a $1 pad of paper plus a scanner.</comment>


California's Criminal Cops - <AUTHOR> https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias-criminal-cops-convicted-but-stay-on-the-job/ <comment><USER2> One thing weird to me about the gun debate is that it always seems to exclude police -- on duty or off, current or former -- and nobody questions that in the slightest.

For instance, California has a handgun roster. If a citizen buys a handgun, it needs to be on a special list. The last time a model was added was 2013 [1]. Supposedly it's to make sure pistols are safe. But if you are a police officer, go ahead and buy a 2019 model! In fact, go ahead and buy a 2019 model, and then sell it for 2X to a normal citizen, if you want. A good side business!

How does any part of that make sense?

I guess the theory is that officers are well-trained and responsible, but where is the evidence of that? And why can't anyone else take the same magical steps to show their worthiness?

[1] Due largely to the "microstamping" requirememt, which is impractical to meet, but required for new models (some very minor variants are still allowed without microstamping). See [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstamping](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstamping)

<comment><USER3> Many gun control advocates see removing guns from private hands as a first step towards disarming the police. This is often couched in terms of a comparison with British policing: the argument is that British police are not as afraid, so don't engage in excessive force as often, because there aren't guns around that could be used to kill them.

However, most American police and sheriff's departments tend to support gun ownership. Maybe because they are as aware as anyone of the saying: "When seconds count, police are only minutes away.".

<comment><USER4> _" the argument is that British police are not as afraid, so don't engage in excessive force as often, because there aren't guns around that could be used to kill them"_

From what I've read, this has been changing in recent years, with British police getting more and more armed, apparently in response to terrorists and organized crime being better armed.

So the US and British police are converging, but perhaps not in the way that gun control advocates might have hoped.

<comment><USER5> They are not converging, not even close, please don't spread misinformation.

In 12 months up to March 2018, there were 18,746 armed police operations in the UK. Weapons were fired on 12 occasions. In comparison, 1,147 people were shot dead by police in the US in 2017.

Since 1990, a total of 70 people were fatally shot in the UK.

12 occasions of guns used vs 1,147 people shot by the police during the same time frame. 70 people killed in 30 years vs 1,147 in 1 year.

So please, UK and US police are not converging, do not spread misinformation.

<comment><USER6> Using raw numbers without adjusting for population is spreading misinformation. America's population is ~5x greater.

Using numbers from 1990 is also meaningless for addressing the claim that gun use by UK police is increasing, as low numbers could just represent it being low in past.

<comment><USER7> Just looking at the 2017 numbers, a 5x population difference cannot account for a nearly 100x difference between uses of armed force vs people being killed by the police.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In which countries are law officers accountable for their crimes? I can't name any.

Two weeks ago in France, 2 policemen were sentenced for beating up students. This kind of conviction is extremely rare, but they were caught on CCTV beating up "for fun" two students that were walking back home. It was probably a racist beating, since they first attacked the colored guy. Their sentences were symbolic. Both are still policemen, and one of them has been promoted. [https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/prison-avec-sursis- pour-d...](https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/prison-avec-sursis-pour-des- policiers-qui-avaient-agresse-des-etudiants-20191014) (in French)

De facto, policemen are above the law. And of course, many of them abuse that system. Yet most people don't care. They want law and order, even if the law is not the same for everyone, and even if the order is not just, and sometimes criminal.

<comment><USER9> Policemen are above the law because that's how the system was created. At least in the US, police departments were primarily created by the elites to protect the elites from immigrant masses. When the elites were all mostly anglo-saxon protestant, we didn't have a need for police. But when cities started attracting immigrants - particularly german and irish, the elites needed a forceful mechanism by which to suppress and control these people. Of course when the germans and irish moved up the social ladder and the new arrivals were italians and blacks, the germans and irish suppressed and controlled these people. Now in a "post-race" age, police exist primarily to serve and protect the rich elites against the less wealthy masses.

The idea of police existing to protect you ( Protect and Serve nonsense ) is just PR/marketing. Just like "Don't be evil".

I suspect in most countries, these same pattern holds.

<comment><USER10> >At least in the US, police departments were primarily created by the elites to protect the elites from immigrant masses.

They were created first and foremost for slaves, not immigrant masses. History gets too sanitized for my liking in this country and we miss important lessons because of it.

<comment><USER10> "The Texas Rangers are the earliest form of state law enforcement in the United States, first organized by Stephen F. Austin in 1823. The original ranger force consisted of ten men charged with protecting settlers from Native American attacks." ...and slaves escaping to Mexico...

The down voters are why sanitizing history is a bad idea. It also allows the criminal past of many families/institutions to be swept under the rug.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_police_(United_States)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_police_\(United_States\))

[https://www.history.com/news/underground-railroad-mexico- esc...](https://www.history.com/news/underground-railroad-mexico-escaped- slaves)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is only tangentially related, but This American Life did an episode about a month ago about how difficult it is to reform an institution. Specifically it was about fire fighters in Amsterdam:

[https://www.thisamericanlife.org/684/burn-it- down/prologue-a...](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/684/burn-it- down/prologue-and-act-one-3)

[https://www.thisamericanlife.org/684/transcript](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/684/transcript)

This was just one department in one city, and it was mostly just bad behavior ("macho, frat house culture"), nothing criminal. The effort failed.

</comment><comment><USER12> > They encountered numerous hurdles including poor record keeping, > uncooperative clerks and hundreds of destroyed files.

Well this is terrible... I'd have expected courts to do things by the book.

<comment><USER13> Give "Making a Murderer" on Netflix a watch.

It's a real eye opener if you thought that courts do things by the book imho.

<comment><USER14> I did watch that but the documentary seemed very biased toward the defense.

Like... Avery's dna was found in the victim's car, and the victim's charred bones were found in Avery's fire pit. But the show plays these off and makes it seem like a police conspiracy.

<comment><USER15> > Like... Avery's dna was found in the victim's car,

Yeah, smeared blood that looked like it came from a q tip. And a vial of his blood in the evidence locker was found punctured by a syringe with no record as to when or why.

Not surprised that was looked at suspiciously.

<comment><USER16> apparently the syringe punctures are just how they work.

[https://onmilwaukee.com/movies/articles/makingamudererbloodv...](https://onmilwaukee.com/movies/articles/makingamudererbloodvial.html)

> two national experts – including the chair of the committee that writes the > industry standards on drawing blood samples – told OnMilwaukee that such > blood vials are supposed to have holes pierced in their rubber stoppers. > According to the experts, that's how the blood gets into the vial.

<comment><USER13> There were undocumented broken seals surrounding the vial as well iirc, however.

<comment><USER17> How do you know this if they were undocumented?

<comment><USER18> I believe GP means the reasons the vial was punctured were undocumented, not that the punctures were undocumented (as you said, it wouldn't make sense if that were the case).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Stepping back, societies often struggle with managing the behavior of the instruments of public order. There seems to be an inherent tension between tasking people with dealing with society's "undesirables" and bad behavior and also having them behave as model citizens themselves.

An interesting read is, "The Faithful Executioner" about 16th century Nuremberg. The book is heavily based on contemporary sources. The town archers, who are responsible for law enforcement, often cause trouble through drunkenness, excessive violence, and general bad behavior, and are rarely held accountable except for the most egregious offenses. An interesting parallel that points to that broader tension.

</comment><comment><USER20> > They drove drunk, cheated on time cards, brutalized family members, even > killed others with their recklessness on the road. But thanks to some of the > weakest laws in the country for punishing police misconduct, the Golden > State does nothing to stop these officers from enforcing the law.

Honestly I dont like the American enthusiasm for restricting employment of criminals that have served their time. If someone had a DUI or cheated on time cards in their past I have no problem with them being a cop. Brutalizing family members sounds more serious but I'd like to find out more before judging someone on a brief description.

<comment><USER21> Why are cops getting special privilege that normal citizens aren't? I'm not a fan of the criminal justice and reform system either. But police should be held to a higher standard, not lower one.

<comment><USER22> Because the system was messed up by mistake or design that they are effectively a bloc of power instead of being properly subordinate to its citizens. "Law and Order", "Tough On Crime", and other DA election scare tactics have resulted in them having too much electoral power to be accountable - which media coverage also shares blame in. And this is before stupid human tricks of those completely unprivileged by the existing system judging those who are higher up to a lower standard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Previous discussion, before the list was released and looked into: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19257434](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19257434)

</comment><comment><USER23> What do you know, the most common offenses are alcohol related. People that cant control their own drug use are the front-line warriors in the war on drugs arresting people for not abusing the same drugs they abuse. I know things have obviously gotten better in regards to prohibition in California, but there is still no excuse for people being caged, harrassed, and lightly abused for taking a substance to try and feel better in this shitstorm of pain and suffering that we call life. As long as people arent hurting anyone other than themselves, then no reason to cage them and ruin their ability to get jobs and progress out of the hole that our drug laws put them in.

Idk i just thought that it was incredibly telling that the group of people that continuously arrest others for drugs putting them in situations where they are unable to find employment, do not suffer from the same penalties when they get caught abusing the drug that they say is OK (and is arguably one of the most destructive of all drugs).

It truly sucks to hate and fear the group of people that are supposed to help and protect you in emergency. Even now that I am a professional, long removed from my days of risky behavior like fearing the police while leaving a rave with personal amounts of drugs, they still prove they dont care about helping and are more concerned about their bonuses from finding drugs. The last time I called police because my roommate was drunk and yelling and threatening me, they saw a single syringe cap on the bathroom floor from where my roommate had thrown the bathroom trash can. They got aggressive and started threatening and looking around the apartment and in open rooms without express permission. I work in a biochemistry lab and use syringes, mostlyneedl3less everyday at work, had accidentally thrown some minor trash in my pocket and emptied it out while changing clothing in the bathroom. But this apparently was probable cause enough to be an asshole and search around mildly and forget about the actual reason i called

<comment><USER3> California cops are definitely not on the front lines of the drug wars. Many departments have standing orders to ignore all but the largest quantities of drugs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> "When I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on." -George Orwell

Saw this on front page of reddit today: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/dua2bh/hong_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/dua2bh/hong_kong_cop_pours_water_to_put_out_candles/)

</comment><comment><USER25> What I am left wondering is how many are kicked off a police force in another state and then get hired on in California? This report only looked at officers California records.

I know there are cases where doctors lose their medical license and there's a handful of states where they can move and regain a license. Is the same true for police officers?

<comment><USER26> Happens all the time

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/police- fired-rehired/)

[https://www.news5cleveland.com/despite-crimes-misconduct- fir...](https://www.news5cleveland.com/despite-crimes-misconduct-fired-police- officers-often-end-up-back-on-the-streets)

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/officer-fired-twice-from-one- po...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/officer-fired-twice-from-one-police- department-became-chief-of-another/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> One would presume past convictions would greatly increase the potential liability of any officer behavior involved lawsuits. Perhaps some of these municipalities will suddenly find their insurance policies dropped.

<comment><USER28> The simple solution is to have officers carry their own liability insurance, similar to other professionals. Bad officers would become uninsurable.

<comment><USER10> Absolutely and if their insurance doesn't cover the damage they've done, the liability should overflow into their pensions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> > One thing that is clear: Many of the officers on the state's secret > convictions list who are still working today likely wouldn't be cops in > other states.

That's not how it always works. The officers pled to misdemeanors because they knew they could keep their jobs with a misdemeanor. In other states they would plea to a non-criminal charge instead, or manage to not get convicted at all.

See also: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law)

</comment><comment><USER30> Cops should lose their jobs if they commit crime. But, recklessness, drinking and domestic violence are common symptoms of PTSD. Police see a lot of bad stuff. Maybe the police department should look after their people better before their officer's conduct gets out of hand.

</comment><comment><USER31> amazing how investigative reporting is so rare that they felt comfortable dedicating the whole article to heralding that they even did actual research to begin with

they went to places where the records were supposed to be instead of merely googling and being content with the poor information? Two pages to describe that experience coming right up

<comment><AUTHOR> My mistake, it looks like I linked to the About page and not the story page: [https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias- criminal-...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias-criminal- cops-convicted-but-stay-on-the-job/)

<comment><USER32> Changed now from [https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias- criminal-...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias-criminal- cops-about-the-project/).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I've got a neighbor that's a cop.

And a nephew who is a detective.

And the gym I work out at is crawling with cops. There's a judge and some school police, too.

All of them are very good people. I think the few bad apples get a lot of press.

<comment><USER34> _All of them are very good people._

Just how "good" are they if the "blue wall of silence" is rule #1 in terms of ignoring what you call "bad apples" and what civilians call criminal misconduct?

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

<comment><USER33> You don't know these people, do you?

I am not aware of any bad behavior from any of them, and I am first-hand witness to good deeds done by them.

Do you have any first-hand knowledge of police misbehaving? I mean people you actually know?

<comment><USER34> Do you have any comments about the specifics of the Mercury News article? Are they making stuff up for clicks? You personally haven't seen your neighbors misbehaving, but it's not like they're just going to brag about it to you, are they?

 _Do you have any first-hand knowledge of police misbehaving?_

You mean other than the time I got pulled over in some shithole town in NJ because that's just what the local police did there to raise revenue?

The Interstate used to end right at that point, it went down to a normal 4-lane road. The local pigs would have a car working that area, pulling people over. When they finished writing a ticket for one car, they'd get back on the road, going the other direction (they only worked about a 1 mile stretch). Within 30 seconds their lights would be flashing and they'd pull another car over.

I used to commute that stretch of road daily, so I saw this happen constantly. Constantly. Constantly. For years and years. Finally they finished the Interstate and bypassed the town.

This was the early 1980s. That's what used to happen in the open in NJ. Far worse were other shithole towns in NJ that had a reputation for having police control the stoplights as you went thru town. They'd flip the light red, pull you over, arrest you, take you to court right then. "What you got there now, Seth", said the judge to the arresting police officer. That one I heard second hand, from a friend of mine, a person I "actually knew". Nothing an on-the- spot fine payment couldn't take care of.

Simple petty graft. Done out in the open. For years. Just off an Interstate.

Experiences like that give the entire justice system a bad name. Everyone knows what's going on, nobody does anything about it, even if they're not personally profiting from the corruption.

It's that pesky blue wall of silence, elaborated in detail at the link: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence)

I lived in NYC in 1970. Was the stuff documented by the Knapp Commission made up? Was all of that stuff contemporaneously reported on TV and in the newspapers made up for ratings and circulation? Did I have to _personally_ experience it before I was allowed to believe it?

Unfortunately, one bad interaction with police negates 100 good interactions. Just like one bad meal at a restaurant can negate the 100 good meals you've previously had there. That's simple human nature.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds has had several drunk driving convictions. Why should police be held to a higher standard than the Governor?

<comment><USER36> There is a very good argument to be made that disallowing people with convictions from running for office would allow the police force to be weaponised against political opponents.</comment></comment>


How to suck face over the Internet - <AUTHOR> https://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/050511-kissing-internet.html

<comment><USER2> This is substantially more sanitary than I believed when I first read the article's title.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is going to BLOW up into some amazing technology. Just you wait.</comment>


Erlang 16B Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.erlang.org/news/43 <comment><USER2> Also can get pre-built CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian packages here:

[https://www.erlang-solutions.com/downloads/download- erlang-o...](https://www.erlang-solutions.com/downloads/download-erlang-otp)

(Courtesy of Erlang Solutions).

Readme of all the changes:

<http://erlang.org/download/otp_src_R16B.readme>

</comment><comment><USER3> The last few days I have been digging into the functional world, because I can't ignore it anymore. Lots of developers I respect say it will make you a better programmer, and you can even use it for building real things (like websites), not just calculate a fibonacci in fewer lines. I'm so lost, I thought there was only 2 or 3 languages, but there are a lot. I figured I should just read some code and pick based on my feelings, but most of it is unreadable for me right now. Some use the java VM, others are native. Some people say you should use their language, some others say you should use them all.

Does anyone have some advice?

<comment><USER4> If the goal is to learn to think functionally, you should concentrate your attention on one or a couple of the big old ones and avoid the Java hybrids until you're more comfortable.

Choosing which one is a matter of personal preference. Erlang is the best choice if you're interested in concurrency and distributed programming. It's also in a sweet spot where variables are bound once, which forces you to change the way you think. I consider this more important than purity for learning.

Haskell is probably the biggest paradigm shift. I use it a lot and love it. It really does change the way you think, but it is also the steepest learning curve.

Of all the Lisps, Scheme is the simplest and tends to be used functionally more often than Common Lisp. There is an incredible wealth of resources for people learning Scheme, but especially The Little Schemer and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP). I have never made much progress in my copy of SICP, but I got a lot out of the Little Schemer. I said to avoid JVM languages but Clojure is the most modern Lisp, and incorporates a lot of modern functional programming idioms, so it can sometimes have a Haskellish flavor, and it doesn't make circumventing FP all that easy. It's probably the best Lisp of today.

Standard ML and OCaml are both good if it looks to you like Haskell goes too far but in the right direction. OCaml is considered more pragmatic; it's also more widely available and benefits from being a single-implementation language. Standard ML is arguably a more beautiful language, but it suffers from low library availability. Both will encourage functional-style programming, but both provide a fair number of escape hatches. For example, they're not pure and they both have "refs" that let you circumvent variables- as-bindings. But they encourage the style.

I tried many times with Lisp and eventually concluded it just wasn't for me, and Haskell is a better fit. I personally recommend looking at Erlang, Clojure and Haskell, and just throwing yourself into whichever one of them looks "cool" to you. If the language feels unpleasant to you, there's no point in trying to force yourself to go further, but if it seems fun to you, you'll make progress without as much effort.

<comment><USER5> Have you tried (and if so, do you like) F# ? <http://fsharp.org/>

<comment><USER4> I have a positive opinion of it but I haven't used it myself. I would imagine it deserves the same caveat as JVM hybrids do: having an easy escape hatch may ease the learning curve, but it can also extend the time it takes to become proficient.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Joe Armstrong: I came up with Erlang, because it didn't exist <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5247531>

</comment><comment><USER7> I love Erlang. As someone said it is a complete platform. It is like a programming language, middleware, system monitoring software, database all rolled into one. Plus it was originally designed to create telephone switches. Bulletproof reliability was the primary concern.

</comment><comment><USER8> FWIW, In Erlang Land, the "A" release (eg: 16A) is the "beta" and the "B" release is the "finished" release.

So 16B is the complete, ready for production version of 16.

Next release will be 17A, or 16B2 if there are bug patches required.

Also, it may seem weird that a "programming language" is having an update each year. (how many times a decade is C++ updated?) But this is because erlang is really a complete platform. The language is just part of it, but OTP, the platform is a hidden gem that gives erlangers super powers.

This also means, each year, your code gets better as the platform itself gets better.</comment>