Crypt of Civilization  - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypt_of_Civilization <comment><USER2> To give some idea of how long this is supposed to last, 8113 AD is 6102 years in the future. The oldest buildings on the planet are all a good bit less old than 6102 years - they typically start at a maximum of about 3500 BC.

I would suspect that the biggest danger facing such a time capsule is that it is broken into during some time of societal collapse - a sealed strong room is going to look very tempting. For that reason I would suspect that comparable projects in remote locations stand a much better chance of long-term survival:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_the_Long_Now>

<comment><USER3> Are there no buildings older than 6102 years because every building inevitably crumbles or because the buildings that existed 6102 years ago inevitable crumbled?

Agriculture isn't that old and there just wan't any need for permanent buildings before agriculture arrived.

It doesn't seem completely out of the question for the Pyramids to survive another 2,000 years to reach 6,000 years. (Ok, that might be a bad point to make, given that there is nothing inside the pyramids anymore.)

<comment><USER2> "Agriculture isn't that old"

Agriculture is _way_ older than any surviving building, back to about 9000BC:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture>

<comment><USER3> Sure, but considering the scales involved the need for buildings is relatively recent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I always wonder how future civilizations will interpret time capsules like this. "And here, children, we have the primitives sacrificing their possessions to their god 'Kap-sool', ruler of time"

</comment><comment><USER5> It was just at the start of the microfilm boom, so they used microfilm. The quoted lifetime is 500 years, accelerated ageing tests indicate 1000 years. So the books probably wont be readable. The Egyptians did better with papyrus and ink.

<comment><USER6> Well, the chamber is supposedly filled with an inert gas, so the lifetime of the microfilm should be much larger.

<comment><USER5> It is not oxidisation that is the issue. Humidity and temperature are the main issues. Film is metallic silver in gelatine, and lasts ok, but thousands of years is a very long time.

<comment><USER7> They do mention a metallic storage system which should last a vary long time. I suspect the microfilm was there more for publicity than any real expectation that it would work in 8000 years. Still even if you can't directly read them they may degrade in such a fashion that you can reconstruct a useful significant percentage of the original message.

 _A backup metal film system resides in the crypt as well.[1][2]

[1]"The New Georgia Encyclopedia — Crypt of Civilization". Retrieved 2008-06-29. [2]"History of the Crypt of Civilization". Retrieved 2008-06-29._

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Stick a computer on the moon, put a mirror of the Web on it, and let it serve queries over shortwave radio. Then all a fallen civilisation has to do is re- discover radio, to get access to the world's knowledge.

<comment><USER9> How would you power it? How would you protect it from the cycles of heating and cooling every lunar day? How would you protect the circuits from long-term damage, like electromigration?

<comment><USER10> the monolith comment was more spot on than you think. see fullerenes: [http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2011/08/fulle...](http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2011/08/fullerenes- are-long-lasting/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I always like how these are scheduled to be opened at a specific date. If we remember thousands of years from now what the original plan was, we'll probably have records of what was kept inside. If we forget, it won't be opened on schedule.

<comment> steve-howard For that matter, our current system of numbering years hasn't been around that long.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I was expecting a clever system of pictographs or landscape design to lead future generations to the vault. This:

> _We depend upon the laws of the county of DeKalb, the State of Georgia, and > the government of the United States and their heirs, assigns, and > successors, and upon the sense of sportsmanship of posterity for the > continued preservation of this vault until the year 8113, at which time we > direct that it shall be opened by authorities representing the above > governmental agencies and the administration of Oglethorpe University. Until > that time we beg of all persons that this door and the contents of the crypt > within may remain inviolate._

represents a very unrealistic expectation.

</comment><comment><USER13> Should be Crypt of Western or American-defined Civilization, honestly. I always look at these things expecting something more comprehensive, only to find the same narrow slice of human civilization as a whole.

<comment><USER14> Archaeologists are usually interested in object assemblages that belonged in the same context. Thus it would be far more interesting to preserve, say, a complete print shop, than a juxtaposition of dental floss and Donald Duck.

<comment><USER15> Really? I think archaeologists are fascinated by the later excavations at Pompeii because it captures all the little things in daily Roman life so well. A lot of that was not written down at the time ...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> As an alumni of Oglethorpe University, I would bet I'm the only one that reads HN (Anyone Else?).

You pass by the steal doors of the Crypt on the way to the Book Store. It was my observation that students didn't really care about the Crypt itself, but that in order to build it they had to gut the indoor pool.

70+ years later they still don't have a pool nor offer any Computer Science / Computer Engineering classes.

</comment><comment><USER17> A bit incidental, but would there be any risk of a sealed time capsule delivering viruses/bacteria to the future?

<comment><USER18> That's the first thing I thought of as well - immunity to certain basic things might have evolved out by then.

I wonder whether bacteria or viruses could survive that long in those conditions?

<comment><USER19> Some bacteria can hibernate for millions of years in spore form. There was some speculation that the "Curse of the Pharaos" was caused by pathogenic bacteria or fungus-produced toxins, so yes, anyone opening that crypt should better be careful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Only 6000 years? Well, that's nothing next to the Chauvet Cave ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave> ), where they found 35000 years old paintings...

This is actually a weird coincidence to see this on HN tonight, since I watched "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams" ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Forgotten_Dreams> ) _this evening_. Having two hours to spend in Paris before a rendezvous, and seeing the great critics, I thought "Hey, I'm not usually into art / paintings / museums, but let's give this a try...".

The documentary was fascinating. The paintings look so fresh, it's as if they were done yesterday... But they are 30k - 35k years old. This really puts things into perspective...

It's hard to explain, but the effect was kind of similar to watching a Sagan video ( <http://saganseries.com/> ). Instead of marveling at the size of the universe when compared to our tiny planet, I was marveling at how short the recorded history is when compared to the thousand of years of prehistory. I knew about this theoretically, but it never really hit home before...

</comment><comment><USER21> don't forget the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record></comment>


Why do so many Google employees appear to plug their stuff nearly every day? - <AUTHOR> Good or bad or other, Google seems to be the only company that engages in this sort of cheerleading on HN. Does anyone else think this is a strange state of affairs?
If it's a new service announcement, there will be an army of people to answer questions and solve support problems. If it's a story about a competitor, there will be an army of people prodding you to try Google instead.
Even if this isn't an organized part of their media strategy it still smells a bit off, no? <comment><USER2> I suspect most of the big companies do it, and brigade pretty hard. Winning tech infrastructure mindshare is inherently extremely valuable.

I do it for my crappy little library and I know if I had the resources of Google or Facebook... I'd use them.

<comment><USER3> I noticed there was one (or more) Google employees out during the Amazon outage yesterday, didn't hear a peep from Microsoft pushing Azure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think we'd need to do some real analytics on this to see if this is true.

But if it is true: people hawk their stuff or promote their company on HN all the time, including on negative articles about competitors. I have no idea why you think only Google does this, because I've seen it from startups and big tech giants alike.

Google is a huge employer and Googlers could easily be one of the most overrepresented demographics on HN. In that light, it'd be pretty expected.</comment>


Ask HN: A detailed JavaScript frameworks information source - <AUTHOR>

I work with JavaScript closely these days and sometimes I look for new libraries or frameworks that could fulfill my needs so that to not invent a wheel. And sometimes I find almost accidentally solutions that I think I just could overlook because there is not so much buzz around them. For example, I have been looking for some MVC/MVVM solution in JavaScript and accidentally found Spine. It can be that someone else missed a library or a framework just because it's not as hot as jQuery but still can be useful. So, what if there were are resource collecting and sorting info about JavaScript libraries and frameworks with categories, ratings, a way to submit or share opinions. With info about compatibility between this library and that one, what feature this library has that another one doesn't. It's a place where you could come, click "MVC Frameworks" category or "jQuery image gallery plugins" and see all libraries from the category with comparisons, pros and cons etc. I am thinking about beginning creating something like this because I think I could need this and asking you if you think it could be useful and interesting. Any suggestions are appreciated! <comment><USER2> You may want to check out this compilation of JavaScript micro-frameworks <http://microjs.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a good start <http://www.everyjs.com/></comment>


Show HN: A state-of-the-art statistical model of skill and game outcomes - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lucasmaystre/kickscore <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN,

together with colleagues from EPFL I developed a new statistical model that can be used to (a) understand & visualize the skill of sports teams and players, and (b) to predict outcomes of matches. The model is trained on historical data.

In short: it's an extension of the Elo rating system & TrueSkill. The way we improve upon these is by letting the (latent) skill of players & teams change over time in a more flexible way.

I developed it as a Python library, with a (hopefully) easy-to-use API. I'd be happy to get your feedback!

Today I'm presenting the paper we wrote about the model & the inference algorithm at the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) conference in Anchorage, Alaska. It explains all the technical details [1]

[1]: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.07746](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.07746)</comment>


"Smells Like Teen Spirit" Played on HDD and Floppy Drives - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G081hD0nwWE

<comment><AUTHOR> And if you enjoyed that bit, this is positively rockin': [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk84d0s5ANE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk84d0s5ANE) (Beethoven's Moonlight 3rd movement)</comment>


Engineering our way out of fascism - <AUTHOR> http://smarimccarthy.is/blog/2014/05/28/engineering-our-way-out-of-fascism/

<comment><USER2> "Fascism has become the dominant political system of the world". Not "has become", "has always" Do people not study history or psychology? The underlying issue is as old as humanity. You can't engineer yourself out of a human problem. Rather than always trying to tech everything up, people need to consider the downsides to their inventions. Technology has changed, humanity hasn't.

</comment><comment><USER3> >Nuclear weapons have been used to murder around 260.000 people over the course of human history. The people who committed that crime have never been held to account

Plus a lot of Nazis were murdered, what a joke. Who the fuck is stupid enough to up vote this shit?</comment>


LLVM 3.0 Released - <AUTHOR> http://llvm.org/releases/3.0/docs/ReleaseNotes.html <comment><USER3> As an avid reader of HN I'm surprised it's the first time I hear of many of these many (LLVM backed) projects. Some that stood out to me:

\- The VMKit project is an implementation of a Java Virtual Machine (Java VM or JVM) that uses LLVM for static and just-in-time compilation.

Am I reading this right? A faster Java that doesn't require a virtual machine? Does this mean faster Java, Scala, Clojure, or even Ruby, and deployed anywhere that LLVM can build for (which means pretty much _everywhere_ )? Sounds too good to be true.

\- LanguageKit is a framework for implementing dynamic languages sharing an object model with Objective-C.

\- Eero is a fully header-and-binary-compatible dialect of Objective-C 2.0

Has anyone tried Eero? It looks interesting (and seems to be compatible with Objective-C code): <http://eerolanguage.org/from-objective-c-to-eero>. One thing I didn't get from the documentation is does Eero still require header files?

<comment><USER4> Don't assume that VMKit is faster than OpenJDK; LLVM is powerful but it's not magic awesome sauce (see Unladen Swallow). Also see GCJ.

<comment><USER3> _Precompilation: by compiling ahead of time a small subset of Java's core library, the startup performance have been highly optimized to the point that running a 'Hello World' program takes less than 30 milliseconds._

Sounds faster than the Java I know.

<comment><USER5> ... on startup. That doesn't mean it outcompetes Hotspot over the lifetime of the application.

<comment><USER6> That startup time is probably the biggest turnoff for people seeking to write lightweight scripts in JVM languages. If your script's runtime is 100ms after a 5 second startup, it doesn't particularly matter if the machine code version runs at half speed.

<comment><USER7> Of course, precompilation is usually a big turnoff for those same people.

<comment><USER8> but it is precompilation of the core library, not the whole app, so presumably it could be done only once for the system and cached somewhere. (maybe like .Nets global assembly cache, which caches jitted dlls)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Off topic suggestion: When you have a home page for a project, if the name is an acronym, you should _spell out the acronym_ in the first paragraph, if not the first sentence or the title.

From <http://llvm.org/> I looked at Overview, Features, Documentation and FAQ, and did not find the definition of LLVM. I ultimately had to go to Wikipedia.

<comment><USER10> edit: LLVM once stood for "Low level virtual machine", but that is no longer the meaning. The early name comes from Chris Lattner's research paper describing an "ideal machine language", an intermediate language for compilers which is a little like an Assembly -type language for a virtual machine with infinite registers.

The first sentence on the front page of llvm.org pretty much sums it up: "The LLVM Project is a collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies."

It may not be the clearest LLVM description out there, but that's pretty much what it is. If the description had more detail, it would not fit in one sentence.

The hard thing about describing LLVM is that it's a huge complicated project in a domain that's outside even many professional programmers' domain.

I tend to say that LLVM is (to me) a "compiler infrastructure", because I use it to build compiler back ends. However, LLVM is so much more than that, as the project includes loosely coupled tools ranging from complete compilers (clang) to debuggers (lldb) to byte code and binary format introspection utilities (llvm's binutils counterparts). So a "compiler infrastructure" or any other dumbed down explanation wouldn't do it justice. That's why the first sentence on the front page is actually pretty good.

<comment><USER11> LLVM actually still is a virtual machine, since it contains mechanisms for executing code written in LLVM IR. There are two execution paths - <USER2> interpreter and a JIT compiler. I guess this makes it a VM after all, although the acronym is no longer descriptive because the VM part is a tiny fraction of what LLVM includes and can do. As you said, its super-tool for creating compilers, especially compiler back-ends.

<comment><USER12> The LLVM interpreter is less than ideal as an actual interpreter rather than something for doing constant folding and that kind of thing; the instructions are too low-level for it to be really fast. For example, bit widths of integers are represented in the abstraction; that adds overhead to even the simplest of arithmetic operations.

<comment><USER11> I don't think the interpreter was intended to be really fast. It's pretty good for debugging and platform-independent execution. For speed there's the JIT.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why a small town in Washington is printing its own currency during the pandemic - zenit-mf-1 https://thehustle.co/covid19-local-currency-tenino-washington/ <comment><AUTHOR> It's an interesting economic phenomenon, trying to keep your generated economic output of labor local. Always seems to be done by relatively isolated sub-communities (socially or geographically), where, let's call it, artisan shopowners seem to be the beneficiaries. Usually not where there's a whole lot of meaningful industrial activity to begin with...

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

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

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

</comment><comment> zenit-mf-1 Extract from the article "But why print the money on wood? Why not just give residents $300 worth of federal dollars?

The answer is simple: By creating its own local currency, Tenino keeps the money in the community. As Fournier puts it, "Amazon will not be accepting wooden dollars."

"The money stays in the city. It doesn't go out to Walmart and Costco and all those places," says Joyce Worrell, who has run the antique shop Iron Works Boutiques for the past decade.

<comment><USER2> [deleted in shame]

<comment><USER3> The article is very clear about this. The store can take the currency to the town government and redeem it for USD. They can then use that USD for restocking.

The goal isn't some circulating currency: it's just a stimulus that has to be spent locally.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how well something like this will do compared to Ithaca hours [0] where one unit of currency is equal to an hour's worth of work. It's been around for a long time, but they don't give free money to people like they do with this local currency in WA…

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

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm curious if anyone has opinions about the legality of this? Why can a town do this but cryptocurrencies have to be so cautious about the way they present themselves to the market?

<comment><USER6> I think the reason is that there is no interfacing between federal money and their currency, it's the equivalent of bartering only with the agileness of currency notes instead of cows, lamb and sheep. To your question, if cryptocurrencies stayed in cryptocurrencies with no interfacing to fiat, it would be the same with no government having any ability to govern it aside form outright banning by force.

<comment><USER7> There is interfacing, the town government directly exchanges the wood money for US money twice a month.... The real argument would be these are essentially redemption tokens with equal value to US money, you can't speculate or invest in them because they will only ever be worth the same amount in US money.

<comment><USER8> You _could_ speculate on them based on the value of what you can buy in town. Maybe they're worth more if a business would only accept fake fiat over dollars, or worth less because you can only spend this currency in this one geographic location.

Like osmosis, if there is a value gradient, you can arbitrage it given a means to exchange that value.

<comment><USER9> This isn't too far from Olympia. I wonder if there are some opportunities to buy things cheaper for cash than with the script dollars. I guess they address that by letting businesses exchange them back for the same. Still that's a tiny bit of overhead and there's a tiny chance making them less than equal to dollars because of the exchange. It's really a great idea for a small town.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Similar to what some are doing in Korea: issue gift cards that can only be used in local markets to local people: in that way one can ensure the money goes to local business rather than imported goods/internet shopping/whatever.

Another policy in Korea (which is more direct and bigger in scale) is: issuing people money directly via online banking (about a few hundred dollars per person, maybe more depending on your wage status), but put constraints on credit/check card usage such that the money can only be used in certain businesses (mostly shops and local restaurants).

</comment><comment><USER11> Slightly related. Auroville [1] in South India has tried its own monetary system (Aurocard). But over time that didn't catch up much. There are some businesses that will accept only the Aurocard and not any other form of payment (like government issued currency notes or bank issued cards).

[1]: [https://www.auroville.org](https://www.auroville.org)

</comment><comment><USER12> Semi related, in Pismo Beach (California), shop owners used clamshells as proof-of-purchase / an alternative currency during the Great Depression

[https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1066284](https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1066284)

</comment><comment><USER13> Very sparse on details.

What gives these wooden dollars any value? Why would I, as a local business owner, accept them?

How do I pay for supplies and stock I get from outside the community, if all I have are these wooden dollars and no federal dollars?

<comment><USER14> The article has this information.

> The spending comes with a few restrictions: Residents can't use the money to > buy cigarettes, lottery tickets, or alcohol. The currency is designed for > the essentials, including food, gas, and daycare. Almost every business in > town accepts the wooden notes, and twice a month, they can submit redemption > requests to the city to turn the notes into cash.

<comment><USER13> Thanks, I missed that.

It was at the end of a section that started with "Fournier isn't your cookie- cutter politician. A firefighter since the age of 18, ..." so I assumed the whole section was going to be a backstory on the person and skipped it.</comment></comment></comment>


Windows 8: The Most Confused OS Launch Ever - <AUTHOR> http://www.drdobbs.com/windows/windows-8-the-most-confused-os-launch-ev/240009572 <comment><USER2> I'm a Mac/Linux guy so I really don't care that much about Windows. However, I am a "let's just roll with it kind of person," so if you do like Windows why not just give Microsoft a chance? They are taking a bold step forward. How about giving it a chance? Even if it's a "failure", it'll still be bigger than my two favorite OS's in a matter of ... weeks ...or months?

<comment><USER3> It's like this for every major product launch - gives the techbloggers something to talk about. Give it a few weeks and they will be bemoaning the next IOS / Android / Ubuntu release. I put this kind of thing into the "Bad News Sells" category. See <http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/NewsInterest1986-2007.pdf>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the journalist here is confused for no good reason. Perhaps because he likes to make his own definitions of things. Windows 8 is the new release of Windows. It will be delivered in two builds: ARM and x86. The former being more limited and called Windows RT. They share the Metro UI but not very much of the traditional desktop UI. There. That's it. It's not really confusing at all.

<comment><USER5> But... it's not called Metro anymore.

And Windows RT and WinRT are different things.

And there's new tablet offerings of Windows 8 that will _be_ Windows 8 (not just look like them with the Metr... Modern UI) in a few months. If I didn't know that, I'd be pissed in a few months. If I _do_ know that, I'll probably wait to see what the options and pricing are in a few months.

Even for those 'in the know', there's a lot of confusion and decision making.

EDIT: I say this as someone who has fond memories of MS from many years ago, became an antiMS bigot for a bit, and now just would like to see them succeed. Not as a huge fanboy so much, but as someone who likes to see a marketplace of good options/ideas. MS has often botched good tech seemingly because of internal politics, and that's sad to see.

<comment><USER6> You don't need to wait a few months to get "real" x86 Windows 8 tablets. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba are all releasing x86 Windows 8 tablets and/or convertibles this week.

So you'll need to wait if you specifically want the Microsoft Surface Pro, but you'll have other choices starting on Friday. In fact there will be more x86 devices than ARM devices shipping with Windows 8 this week.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It feels like this linkbait title was upvoted by haters without reading the article. Complete FUD before Windows 8 has even officially launched.

<comment><USER8> Remember the Windows 7 launch party? Their marketing department has some issues if nothing else, and I think that's most of what the complaints ultimately focus on. They seem to have thoroughly blurred the lines between the tablet OS and Windows 8 leading up to launch, possibly just through incompetence in their presentation.

<comment><USER9> As long as the guy at best buy can explain the difference between Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT, it doesn't matter.

The uninformed consumer will go to others for guidance. As long as the CSR's are informed there won't be a problem.

<comment><USER10> It will matter. As the unofficial family tech guy, I promise you, it will end up mattering to the uninformed person who thinks they know something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I agree with the statement about confusion here, though of course only the future will tell how successful it is. Of particular note to me is that on Amazon, you can now preorder Windows 8 [1]. The options are "Windows 8 Pro", "System Builder 32/64-bit", "System Builder Professional 32/64-bit", and "Windows 8 Pro Pack". So is Pro 32-bit or 64-bit? The "Pro Pack" says it upgrades from "Windows 8" to "Windows 8 Pro" -- where is "Windows 8" available?

Thinking that this was just because Amazon hadn't yet gotten the full list of items, I went to the windows site [2], expecting to find the usual matrix of options and features, but found nothing -- just a link to a blog post that talks about pricing scheduling for updates for Windows 8 Pro, with no indication of what the "Pro" means or what the alternatives are.

So, yes, confusing.

[1] <http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000843871>

[2] <http://windows.microsoft.com>

</comment><comment><USER12> Pfft. This is humbug. He's just conflated the NYT article and his view on Visual Studio. Watch the W8 ads; they're all pretty great.

</comment><comment><USER13> When apple does something new it's a "breakthrough" and "innovation". When Microsoft does it's "confusing". Surely the launch(es) are more complicated than most MS launches, but that is because this a bold _complex_ move. It's a humongous achievement if MS can make it big in the mobile world.</comment>


Loading Scripts in the Critical Path: A Commerce Case Study - <AUTHOR> http://bites.goodeggs.com/posts/mobile-page-load/

<comment><USER2> Great insights into speeding up mobile web load time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great article!</comment>


Google Is Tops for Software Engineer Salaries  - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2012/10/18/google-tops-software-engineer-salaries/

<comment><USER2> _Finally, if you're looking to maximize your paycheck, consider moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where the average salary is $107,798, the highest in the nation. You might also want to avoid Minneapolis, where the average is just $75,032, the lowest in the nation._

Adjusted for cost of living, $107,798 in San Francisco is equivalent to $71,100 in Minneapolis:

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%24107%2C797+in+san+fra...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%24107%2C797+in+san+francisco+vs.+minneapolis)

<comment><USER3> Wait, this dumbass page just divides the salary by the cost of living ratio? This is idiotic. It would only make sense if you spent all you salary on "livings", trying to maximize the monthly number of "livings" you get.

What matters is the amount of cash you're left with after you pay the actual cost of living. In this model, 20k/y raise is a 20k/y raise wherever you live, assuming you've already got the monthly balance positive. Of course it's still not the perfect metric but still much better than this bullshit.

<comment><USER4> CNN has a cost of living calculator that seems to take grocery , housing, utility, transportation, and healthcare factors into account.

[http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.htm...](http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html)

107,798 in SF would be 73,278 in Minneapolis

<comment><USER5> Still missing the point. Consider the common case of earning and saving in NY and retiring to FL.

One has to distinguish cost of living for a non-saver from cost-of-living for a saver.

<comment><USER4> And I'll assert that _it just doesn't matter for this discussion_.

Look, as someone said elsewhere, this is an impossible problem. You have too many factors to figure out. Have a family? Want to own a house instead of rent? Do you need a car? What lifestyle do you maintain?

The point here is that we're trying to assess what it would cost to maintain _a similar standard of living in two different cities_. Food. Transportation costs. Housing. Rents. Healthcare. Forget 52" TVs and trips to Paris for the time being.

<comment><USER6>
      >> what it would cost to maintain a similar standard of living in two different cities.

What is would cost to maintain a similar standard of living, when spending all of your money where you live. (like most families with kids :) )

Someone who saves $20k/year or spends large amounts on travel would have a much higher standard of living in SF than Minneapolis.

<comment><USER4> Try the algebra from the other end.

"I have a wife and two kids. I want to own a 3 bedroom house with a yard. I need a car, and I drive 15,000 miles a year. We eat <x> number of meals at home each week, and <y> at restaurants. We do <z> things as a family including movies. This takes up 80% of our net income."

Okay, now what would that cost in Minneapolis, and what would that cost in San Francisco? That's all we're trying to ask.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I thought I was hearing a lot of chatter in the past few years that Google's salaries weren't that great and that the benefits/environment are really what made it worthwhile (e.g. if you attempted to negotiate they would come back with a calculation about the value of the free food).

Has this changed or was I misinformed? A bump of $13k in a single year does, of course, seem quite significant.

<comment><USER5> The food thing was a myth spread on HN.

<comment><USER7> Really? This blog post is a lie?

<http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/01/21/notfree/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find this extremely hard to believe. Aside from the obvious fact that glassdoor's data set can hardly be judged to be a fairly conducted survey, I simply don't buy that the average software engineer salary in, say, trading firms, is less than $128k.

<comment><USER9> I think in trading firms, you would not be defined as a "software engineer", but rather "quantitative analyst". Often times, quants require other advanced mathematics degrees as well, thus creating a distinction between quant, and software engineer. Also, this article seemed to focus only on tech firms anyway.

<comment><USER10> Nope, software engineers and quantitative analyst are two different positions. The first one is building an infrastructure (market data feeds listeners, caches,...) for second one (which builds model based on that infrastructure). Been there, seen that...

<comment><USER9> Good point. And now that I think of it that way, It wouldn't surprise me that the software engineers in finance are not making google money. I guess I thought the parent was surprised because he was thinking quants.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Isn't there a catch in job position names? I heard that the term Software Engineer is used broadly in Google. Thus a higly-paid Manager in IBM is Software Engineer in Google...

<comment><USER12> I worked for DEKA for a while, they had a bit over 200 employees who were, on paper, engineers. I wrote software for them for a while and all the programmers were called Software Engineers. I'm a little surprised that the 2 HR people weren't called Social Engineers :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Google Is Tops for Software Engineer Salaries" - I'd hope so, compared to traditional corporations like GM for instance; they have similar operating income BUT, Google have roughly a quarter less employees. They need to be paying high salaries to attract top talent, as an incumbent operator, but their contribution to the larger economic picture is less than impressive, (Unless tax avoidance impresses you).

</comment><comment><USER14> After many years of reading these surveys, I've started to avoid them. It's not very helpful. Sure, it may tell you if you are drastically underpaid. What it won't tell you is the opportunities of the particular job, whether you will be happy working there, or how much you'll be making in X years because you chose one opportunity over another. All it can really do is make you bitter or smug.

</comment><comment><USER15> this is clearly only one side of the coin. The money is not normalized: What if a google engineer has to work 15h for this salary?

<comment><USER16> Also, what about variance?

<comment><USER17> You can get this off Glassdoor's main website... but only if you post your own salary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Just looking at the sample set in this article you need to factor the headquarters or location of most of these engineers. An IBM employee in white plains ny making 95k makes relatively more than zynga guy in sf making 104k.

</comment><comment><USER19> why on earth would you sort that list by company name and not by salary?

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder how those salaries compare to our companies north of the border in Canada. Also, yes Mashable, that is strikingly similar to how I look while working : [http://8.mshcdn.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/programmer.jp...](http://8.mshcdn.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/programmer.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER21> Are IBM salaries so low because of the "the cost difference is too great" between H1B and domestic employees as posted yesterday? [http://cis.org/miano/ibm-cost-difference-too-great- business-...](http://cis.org/miano/ibm-cost-difference-too-great-business-not- look-h-1b-workers)

<comment><USER22> Heh, ironically, IBM H1B and Google H1B salaries differ substantially <http://www.garamchai.com/TopH1b.htm>

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> It would be nice to have salaries of software engineers per country (from France those numbers are huge)

</comment><comment><USER24> And in other news, water is wet.

Salary postings are link bait for the most part.

</comment><comment><USER25> How would this be different if they had used "senior software engineer"?

</comment><comment><USER26> hilarious compared to Software Engineering Salaries in Europe... id like to hear if there are any European Software Engineers (not PMs or any leading role) that earn more than 70k EUR pa.

<comment><USER27> Sure there are. I'll be starting at Google Switzerland the coming month with a considerably larger base salary. I'm nothing fancy at that, a fresh university grad with only a year of real programming experience.

<comment><USER28> CH doesn't count I think, non engineering roles in Zurich are already very well paid when converted to EUR (e.g 60k CHF for construction workers).

<comment><USER29> Isn't minimum wage like 20 euros an hour in .ch? That's a lot higher than the US :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Hardware companies pay the lowest? Not much in embedded, eh?

</comment><comment><USER31> Stop working for salary.

<comment><USER32> While you're at it, stop eating for sustenance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Is Base Salary the "starting salary" for a new hire, or is that the "base salary" across all employees across the company?

edit: I ask because my starting salary at MS is surprising close to the number they have listed as "base salary". I can't tell if base pay growth is small there or if this information is simply inaccurate.

<comment><USER22> Latter.

<comment><USER34> Indeed, glassdoor is bad (estimates low), at least at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook. I saw it on two fronts; as a manager, the salary ranges are fixed for each of the title/pay grads.

As a hiring manager, human resources also paid for Serious Surveys (i.e., not just relying on the people who enter their info into a random website) of salaries for comparable jobs at other places. Of course, that was probably superfluous, as the HR and recruiting people swap between the big tech firms pretty frequently (seemingly moreso than engineers), so for the cost of a trip to the cafeteria starbucks, you could usually get info on comparable salaries from a recent transfer.</comment></comment></comment>


How FarmLogs Is Building Software to Power the Future of Farming - <AUTHOR> http://stackshare.io/posts/how-farmlogs-is-building-software-to-power-the-future-of-farming

<comment><USER2> When people start talking about crazy sci-fi scenarios about "the machines taking over", and I try to ponder realistic ways something like that could actually happen, my speculative journey currently leads me to the future of farming automation.

Maybe in 20 years Farmlogs 2035 will be powering fully automated farming that will be beyond our current imagination in efficiency. Application of machine learning and evolutionary programming will lead to it doing things with seeds and crop planting patterns and watering frequency that will be outside of our ability to comprehend.

Because of this amazing improvement in efficiency, we will need much less land to support the population. Fields would lie fallow and be turned into condos. It is at this point that we will be past the point of no return. Further into the future, if Farmlogs AI 2075 just decides that it has other plans than feeding humans... or even if there was some weird "bug" that caused a severe downturn in crop yields for a year. We would have to scramble to grow enough food without the incomprehensible techniques used by the machines.

Ok... getting back to work now.

<comment><USER3> I don't think that is at all a likely scenario. What I would want to see is a policy that they won't sell or share the data they collect. If they have one I haven't been able to find it.

Farm equipment companies and chemical manufacturers have tried to offer this service before and failed. Partially it was way too early, but the main thing was farmers didn't trust them with all their data.

I think FarmLogs has the potential to be another YC unicorn if they stick it out and aren't acquired. Trust me if John Deere or Monsanto were to acquire them all hell would break loose.

<comment><USER4> All Hell wouldn't break loose, because FarmLogs isn't unique. Deere and Monsanto each have their own "cloud-based" farm management products: Deere with myjohndeere.com, and Monsanto with the Climate Corp umbrella (including Precision Planting, FieldScripts, etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't get what is so impressive about what is essentially an accounting app. it's a well done technology but some people get so carried away by this farm tech stuff... a CRUD app is not going to make farms more productive... I've seen that farmlogs is using satellite NDVI data now to predict yields etc.... I've done a data science project and found the the NDVI has minimal correlation to yield. part of we thinks that this is a group of CS people pretending to be ag engineers. ..

<comment><USER6> I think that was the point of the podcast. It started as a typical and shitty CakePHP / Backbone CRUD app like everything else. You don't need much to get started.

There's a lot more in there now, but it's still built around boring record keeping software. I wouldn't even say accounting software.

We're ingesting shitloads of geospatial data specific to each field from government and third party sources, from weather data like historical rainfall and temperature, to in season and historical satellite imagery, to sensor readings from their own combines or smartphones.

This is going to help farmers understand their fields and how their crops are growing better and soon allow us to provide agronomic services like variable rate prescriptions. We're not predicting yield from NDVI. There is a correlation there, but like you said it's moderate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Australian startup AgWorld has been building such software for a while now.

[http://www.agworld.co/](http://www.agworld.co/)

<comment><USER8> I think there's about a dozen startups in Australia doing something similar. Sort of makes me wonder why Farm Logs is getting so much press coverage recently - I can only suppose that being in the US and having done YC is a huge boost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is what climate corp ([http://www.climate.com/](http://www.climate.com/)) does as well, correct?</comment>


Armok Vision – A Dwarf Fortress Unity3D frontend - <AUTHOR> https://www.patreon.com/japamala?ty=h <comment><USER2> Assuming this guy's legit, has a good demo/working code, this seems like it's just begging for an angel investor to make a move here. He's saying he can work on the game for $230 a _month_. Someone with a marketing/business background and some money to spend could conceivably fund this guy perpetually and work on some sort of monetization.

<comment><USER3> 'This Guy' here. This comment made me create an account and clear some things up. 1\. It's not a full game, just a mod for Dwarf Fortress, and will never be monetized. All releases have been, and willbe, free. 2\. I work on it anyway. The 230 a month is just the point where it beats out my day job in terms of monthly income. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't plan on quitting that job, even if that milestone is reached, if for no other reason than the fact that I need to regularly leave the house to avoid going stir crazy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome job. Sometimes I think why am I not doing something like too. I am fan of DF and always wondered if there would be some visual 3d interface to the game.

</comment><comment><USER5> What a cool interface, I love DF and I would love to see what this guy can do. Ill throw him a few bucks on the github and screenshots alone.</comment>


Show HN: Sourcegraph extension API alpha - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph-extension-api <comment><AUTHOR> Sourcegraph CEO here. The first extension is Codecov: [https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph- codecov#readme](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph-codecov#readme). It overlays test coverage info on code files on GitHub (with green/yellow/red line background colors). It also adds a command palette to GitHub (like the VS Code command palette) that exposes more actions related to viewing code coverage.

This extension API is in alpha. Feedback appreciated, especially hearing about what extensions you would want to use or build.

<comment><USER2> Looks like a good time to jump in :) I've always been interested in playing around with sourcegraph, been saving for a little home server upgrade to run some projects!</comment></comment>


Apache Apollo ActiveMQ - <AUTHOR> http://activemq.apache.org/apollo/ <comment><USER2> The ActiveMQ brand has a number of distinct products.

Apollo started off as an attempt to rewrite ActiveMQ with non-blocking IO. Instead it became a separate project. Here's some history [1].

Artemis is rebranded HornetQ (from JBoss) being merged with some of the original ActiveMQ [2].

The 'original' ActiveMQ also still exists.

[1] [https://activemq.apache.org/apollo/documentation/architectur...](https://activemq.apache.org/apollo/documentation/architecture.html)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HornetQ&oldid=706...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HornetQ&oldid=706723067#HornetQ_Apache_donation_and_Apache_Artemis_1.0.0_release)</comment>


Core iOS apps being replaced, one at a time - <AUTHOR> http://bijansabet.com/post/23605148243/core-ios-apps-being-replaced-one-at-a-time <comment><USER2> Are you certain this isn't just you?

I've heard of exactly one of the dozen-odd apps you listed, and that one only because it's been on the frontpage of HN so often. I don't have a copy of it though.

I think that people who customize their iPhones to this level just assume that it's normal to do so. Among people I know who have them, there's a sharp divide between the small percent who have seven pages of apps and most people I know who have maybe 3 or 4 apps installed.

<comment><USER3> What he said.

The vast, vast majority of 'regular' iPhone users have never, and will never hear of the apps described in this post. For them, the default apps are just fine.

That's not to disparage the choice, just to recognise that regular users don't care about this kind of thing one bit.

<comment><USER4> That would imply the App Store is completely useless and not a huge factor for the continuous success of iOS devices. I think you can see how wrong you are.

The thing is, not everyone will customize _all_ apps, but everyone _will_ customize at least _one_ app, be it a better todo list, a better IM, a better picture-taking app, or a better recipe database. Which is why the appstore is so popular.

EDIT: clearly the "regular users" I know are different from everybody else. The North of England must be a hive of phone-geeks living in some sort of bubble.

<comment><USER3> That's not what I've implied at all.

Everyone will customise their _experience_ of the device, by adding what they like from the store.

My point is that, more often than not, these users won't replace core apps like Mail or Calendar - these apps work just fine for most people and there's no incentive to change.

<comment><USER4> There is no incentive... until there is. The default camera app doesn't zoom. The default music player won't create playlists (edit -- sorry, it does; what I meant is that there is no queuing to the now-playing like in old iPods). The default todo app won't do cloud sync (well, it does now, but it wasn't the case before). And so on -- as soon as your usage of a particular app increases over a certain threshold, you'll encounter a corner case and head for the appstore to get a better app. So a photographer will have five picture-related apps and never touch the default one, while using the default mail client; a lifehacker will have fifteen hyper-specialized ToDo apps and never touch the default one, while using the default camera app.

<comment><USER5> I don't mean to be nitpicky, but you can zoom in the default camera app with the pinching gesture. And the only todo app for the iPhone has had iCloud support from day one, since it was first released with iOS5.

<comment><USER4> You cannot zoom when recording video, afaik.

Also, iCloud was announced in June 2011; plenty of todo apps had cloud sync well before that, when Apple simply didn't provide the service.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You can replace the built-in apps with different ones but this can go only go so far as to change the icons you tap on dashboard. The lack of unified way for apps to interact with each other is seriously crippling the platform's capabilities.

As I use both an iPad and Android phone on daily basis, I'm find this especially lacking in tablet setting. An app wants to open a web page in standalone browser? They will always do that in Safari. Sending an email? Only through the default app. About the only 3rd party application that I can consistently use from more than one place is probably Read It Later (called Pocket now) - and that's only because apps' developers took time specifically to integrate with it.

And that's basically how it works on iOS now: for application X to interact with Y, it must specifically account for Y. Any similar replacement app Y' or Y'' will not be supported unless handled separately. It's easy to see how this model doesn't scale to diversity.

<comment><USER7> The really crippling constraint on iOS is the keyboard. After using Swype on Android for a while it is _excruciatingly_ slow and tedious pecking out text one letter at a time on an iPhone.

I'm using an iPhone these days because that's the platform I develop for and I don't really miss the flexibility of the Android intents much generally but the chilling effect Apple's control can have on innovation is really glaringly obvious in the keyboard.

<comment><USER8> I think you're missing Xion's point and taking the opportunity to complain about a pet peeve you have with the platform.

Personally, I couldn't agree more with what he's saying. Users of other platforms (like Android) have had the ability for apps to interoperate (with intents, for example) since the very beginning, and IOS is dramatically behind in this regard.

<comment><USER7> My point is that, having used both, I don't miss the interoperability that Android offers via intents. It sounds good on paper but in practice it just gave me meaningless choices. But the ability to upgrade the keyboard was _huge_.

<comment><USER9> Just like for you upgrading the keyboard was huge, for me upgrading the browser was huge.

The fact that the platform encourages this sort of thing is key.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I can't say that these are my big pain points. Intents are elegant, but apps are a comfortable model. Just as everyone has been conditioned by the modern web to "open webpage X to do action X", you "open app X to do action X". The workflow isn't as elegant, but in blurring the line between the app and the document I'd argue that they've done most users a favor. You'd be amazed at how few people are aware of the "open with" dialogue in Windows.

More than intents and access, I think apps need more memory and the ability to do some background processing. I keep going back to Safari because the fine third party alternatives seem to fall out of memory much more easily.

My biggest pain point with iOS is waiting for web enabled apps to load data. I'd like to see the top 5 pictures on my Instagram feed and the top 10 or so Facebook updates the instant I click the app icon. I'd like Dropbox and Kindle to refresh my document list whenever it changes. I'd like cloud-enabled notes apps to sync/update before I open the app. Of course, this requires some management (user controls,bandwidth limits, battery level, etc.), but nothing Apple can't handle.

</comment><comment><USER11> It's going to be interesting in the long term how the battle between consistency and flexibility/innovation plays out.

In general people seem to be happier using the software that they know everyone else is using even if they hate it (case in point, pretty much every version of Windows).

On the other hand when a "killer app" comes along that is a big enough step forward to make everybody pay attention, this is more likely to happen on the most "open" platform.

Apple has done well so far because a significant enough of these "killer apps" have been developed by them in house.

Take web browsers for instance, even though HN will argue the merits of various browsers endlessly from an end user point of view they are usually all so similar as to make no difference.

However with iphone you are essentially locked to safari (or other browsers which are essentially safari skins).

What would happen if a third party developed a completely new browser that revolutionized mobile browsing?

If that were not available on iPhone due to apple's policies then what would happen to their market share?

<comment><USER12> _If that were not available on iPhone due to apple's policies then what would happen to their market share?_

Then they'd allow it (if they couldn't co-opt it).

Apple's interest in Safari and restrictions on the App Store / customizability extend only to allowing them to make hardware that many people want to buy. There's never going to come a day that something so great that everybody has to have it _and_ that runs afoul of the App Store policies comes along and Apple decides to ride a sinking ship of App Store protectionism into meaninglessness. Policies will adapt as they need to in order to continue selling their platform.

<comment><USER11> That's what is interesting though, will it mean that over time Apple will eventually have to start dropping their various restrictions one by one. Or does it mean as you suggested that they will just try and co-opt all the good stuff that everybody else is doing into their own software/devices which could lead to them spending large amounts of manpower essentially running on a treadmill.

<comment><USER12> History doesn't show them to have had to drop many restrictions; I don't see why that would suddenly change. I've always thought that it's hard to come up with a killer app that would run afoul of the guidelines _that's not outside what Apple's trying to make their devices good at_. I think the record bears this out. I don't think that's because Apple is co-opting so much stuff, it's because their guidelines allow what the overwhelming majority of useful apps need in order to be useful to the overwhelming majority of people. (Because most people want devices that are good at what Apple tries to make their devices good at.)

It's easy to come up with an idea for something cool that requires access to capabilities that aren't permissible in the App Store (constantly running in the background, access to execute downloaded/arbitrary code) and it'd be a _horrible_ shame for there not to exist devices that can do those things out- of-the-box, but the fact that they've so far been forced to bend very few of the rules implies that there's proportionately very little demand for such things.

<comment><USER13> That's some pretty twisted logic there. By that logic, if Microsoft had banned other browsers from appearing on Windows then because no other browser ever shipped for Windows that would be proof there was no demand for other browsers? Really, that's your logic?

The fact that useful alternatives with possibly better interfaces and/or better features (not just more but better) is something we'll never know if there is a demand for because Apple bans them before we get a chance to know.

Maybe a Hypercard for iOS would take off but apps that make apps are banned. Maybe an Amazon music store or a Google Play music store or a beatport music store would take off but apps that sell music are banned. Maybe a browser that is faster, or more secure or provided more features would take off but we'll never know because they're banned.

We really only have 2 data points. Windows and OSX. As far as I know on both OSes the browser provided by the OS provider is used by fewer users than other browsers. I don't know what the numbers are on OSX but even if Safari has the highest percentage (doubtful) if Firefox+Chrome+Others have a higher percentage than Safari that would still mean more people are picking something other than Apple's offering.

<comment><USER12> My point was not that there's no demand whatsoever nor that no disallowed apps might ever take off if they were to be allowed, but simply that Apple doesn't feel significant pressure from their customers to reduce their restrictions and I don't see that changing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I use all the default iOS and Mac apps (except for Safari - I prefer Chrome).

I've found that Apple eventually incorporates the best features of these alternative apps into their core apps anyhow.

</comment><comment><USER15> This is _exactly_ the design of Android that makes so many people dislike it. the Intents API does literally _everything_ that you mention. It is effectively somewhat annoying in certain situations, but I think it's probably going to win.

edit: typo

<comment><USER12> In what ways is it annoying? (I don't have day-to-day usage experience with an Android device.)

<comment><USER16> it's a little too agressive. for example, i set it so firefox automatically handles all web links, and that means it is impossible to use the stock browser anymore. opening the browser and loading the homepage triggers an intent to load a webpage, so android opens firefox and loads the homepage there.

also, it can get a little annoying to constantly be asked what app you want to use to do things, but this annoyance goes as you click the "don't ask me again" checkbox for more and more intents.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My own usage barely strays from the default apps that Apple includes. If anything, I'd argue that Apple has done a great job with updating and keeping those relevant to what I need from my phone.

</comment><comment><USER18> Well that's an easy fix: If you're clamoring for this kind of customization freedom, go get yourself an Android device.

</comment><comment><USER19> This is what ultimately led me to replace my iPhone4 with a Galaxy Nexus last week. I'm sure I'm not alone.

<comment><USER20> Not alone, but in a small minority of consumers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> How easy would it be for apple to allow apps to register themselves with the ability to open certain files/handle certain situations and then present that in the system menu for those who want to tinker with that?

        default web browser    >
        default music          >
        etc.

<comment><USER22> That already exists:

[http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/FileMa...](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/DocumentInteraction_TopicsForIOS/Articles/RegisteringtheFileTypesYourAppSupports.html)

<comment><USER23> That's not what he meant. All mailto: links will open in the mail app. All <http://> links will open in Safari. You want to take a picture from your twitter app? You want to share to twitter from the camera app? You have to use Apple's implementation, you can't push it through your favorite twitter app.

<comment><USER22> But it's sort of what you meant. I see "Open in Dropbox" and "Open in Camera+" quite frequently. Here's more on how that works: [http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2012/01/tip-missing- apps-i...](http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2012/01/tip-missing-apps-in-open- in-menu.html)

The URL style technique is supported as well, you can send data to another app by using it's URL scheme.

It's not a perfect implementation (you can't change the defaults like mail://), but I believe that's intentional.

<comment><USER21> Looks like this is a run-time version of what I posted. Thanks

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Its been said but I would like to point out that this type of customization is trivial on android. The ability to customize many parts of my phone is one of the reasons enjoy using the platform. I have recently seen online communities springing up with non-coders showing off their individualized android phones.

</comment><comment><USER25> Hmm... some of the apps mentioned have costs, some require logins, some don't integrate well with other apps, some don't exactly rock the design department. While each of them has something to love, I don't know how much real scale this "replacement" process is. B/c to get some of these great features, I have to give up confidence that it's "Apple vetted and integrated". For a techie, it's a relief to have a non-apple capability, but I wonder about the average consumer, who likes the "free, integrated, no accounts/logins required, apple- ly cute" aspects of default apps.

If anything, I expect to see things go the other way: Apple will replace google maps with it's own maps, and any other app that we really love a lot will have an Apple analog: integrated deeply but controlled by them. Siri was but the first step, I fear.

<comment><USER26> Actually, I do not think so. Apple would have nothing to gain from integrating own Apps further and/or producing more of them.

However, they have something to gain if the mail app is not good enough for powerusers and all of them buy Sparrow instead. That saves them a whole lot of developer/maintenance time and gets them 30% of every e.g. Sparrow sold. While that may not be Apples main incentive, it is definitely something I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The only default app I have "replaced" is the calculator app. I use calctimate. <http://www.skypaw.com/apps/calctimate/> However, that app isn't important and never is triggered to launch by other apps (like mail or safari). Plus, I only use it maybe once a month.

Also, you can set default clients if you jailbreak. However, I just think everything is so much smoother and faster when you use the default apps Apple provides.

<comment><USER28> Digits is my tool of choice, great design and function.

[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digits-calculator-for- ipad/id...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digits-calculator-for- ipad/id364500115?mt=8)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> The default apps work fine for me... I use "notes" and sync it with my google account using the default mail app. The only 3rd party app I use a lot is "WhatsApp" - and that's just to text some friends around the globe.

I then have a few games and some useful server monitoring apps... as well as some comics. 3-4 pages of 3rd party apps maybe? But none of them replace the defaults for me...

</comment><comment><USER30> I wouldn't count on it any time soon. Currently those apps are going to be the ones you get because the iPad /iPhone is still somewhat of a specialty device. I don't think we'll see it iOS 6 but possibly in later versions of the operating system. As the platform becomes even more mature and people begin to use it more as a primary device I can see Apple letting you swap out default apps.

</comment><comment><USER31> You missed Groups replacing Contacts :)

<http://groups.qbix.com></comment>


After 6 years at AWS, Simone Brunozzi has joined VMware - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/scottherson/status/438383380934443008

<comment><USER2> Hi there, this is Simone. Let me know if you have questions.</comment>


Why do some people avoid news? - <AUTHOR> https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/06/why-do-some-people-avoid-news-because-they-dont-trust-us-or-because-they-dont-think-we-add-value-to-their-lives/ <comment><USER2> "News is Bad for You" (2013)

It misleads, is irrelevant, has no explanatory power, is toxic, increases cognitive errors, and inhibits thinking. It distracts and disrupts.

[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad- ro...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli)

Neil Postman's _Amusing Ourselves to Death_ is also highly recommended:

[http://neilpostman.org/#what-did-he-say](http://neilpostman.org/#what-did-he- say)</comment>


Ask HN: Why was this Gitlab link flagged and disappeared from front page? - <AUTHOR> A few hours after the news of Microsoft acquiring GitHub. This discussion showed up on the front page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17223286 But only few minutes after I looked at it. It was gone and it says flagged. Why? The blog post was clearly on the unfavorable side for Gitlab (see most comments). So what is happening really? Am I missing something? <comment><USER2> Enough (I don't know what the ratio of upvotes vs flags is) users flagged it. Based on comments I'd say most saw it as a lame press release both in timing and how it was worded. With big news (the main github discussion thread has 1200+ comments) that can happen. There's no agenda by HN admins to suppress an angle. More upvotes from other users cancel out the flag.

In the next couple of days I'm sure there will be more articles, press releases and lots of (medium.com|blog) thought pieces coming out addressing gitlab's position. Like [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17225725](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17225725)

You have 450 karma right now. I think the flagging featured gets enabled at 500, can't remember.

</comment><comment><USER3> If it matters, ask the moderators using the |contact| link.</comment>


I made a debugger that draws the state machine of the program - <AUTHOR> http://i.imgur.com/PINcCUy.gif <comment><USER2> That is absolutely awesome. I used to have something like this: a pair of very fast dacs hooked up to the 16 address lines of my computer and another dac hooked up to the databus. It allowed me to look straight into the memory of the machine as the processor was accessing it, quite a powerful tool. Yours is nicer though (and with todays memory size I'd hate to think about the quantity of data that passes in a split second across the bus of a modern pc).

<comment><USER3> That reminds me of the old story of people having a audio speaker connected to the address but of their mainframe so they could detect error conditions by the sounds being made.

<comment><USER4> As I recall, it was a radio that was tuned to the Kilohertz band. This was before the FCC was so careful about computers emitting radio waves. A computer that has a clock cycle measured in Kilohertz can emit radio waves in the Kilohertz band.

This makes "music" of a sort, especially when the program running does many things repetitiously. In the early days of computing, multiplication was implemented as repeated addition. Memory access also had a particular pattern of repetitive circuitry.

This provided a base repetition that humans recognize. When code was stuck in a loop, or repeatedly accessed the same range of memory locations, the operators could hear the pattern and know something was wrong.

<comment><USER5> That reminds me of the time I was poking (literally POKE'ing) around with my TRS-80 Color Computer. I (somehow) had changed it to one of the graphics modes and then set the base address to the start of RAM.

So on the screen you could sort of see the BASIC stack, other important system variables, and even a squashed representation of the text console. So when it was sitting idle you'd see one kind of pattern, and running programs produced other kinds of patterns.

Fun times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's one for Python. [http://pythontutor.com/](http://pythontutor.com/) It shows the variables, and allows you to step forward and backward. Great for explaining programming to new people who haven't grokked computing yet.

<comment><USER7> Apple Swift and Unreal Engine Blueprint both have amazing state visualization tools built in. See: [https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/images/Engine/Blueprint...](https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/images/Engine/Blueprints/UserGuide/Debugging/debugging_editor.jpg)

I think a deep visual debugging tools are going to be 'built in' in future in much the same way that HTTP primitives were recently with node and string manipulation was with Python 2.

<comment><USER8> There used to be an IDE called "Together" that supported bi-directional transformation between source code and diagrams.

Although it sounded like a really cool idea, it didn't take off. Seems text is best (maybe because it supports incompatible hierarchies better).

<comment><USER9> Text probably serves better because code is often too complex to visualize in some cases, and in others to comprehend generated visualized code.

Think about algorithm that switches values by using temporary variable for example. By looking at text, it's pretty simple to construct the flow follow the values traveling from one variable to other. But if you put it in 2D graphical interface, it becomes very problematic and hard to follow. I would imagine it would be easier if there was like a movie where value would move from one box symbolizing variable to other. But that would make it difficult to edit.

Another way would be to visually represent only change, but then it would be same as textual representation, only more redundant.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually I can think of a simple way to visualize that.

The debugger actually displays what I call a folded lattice, meaning that execution starts at the top and goes down, so representing what your talking about would simply look like ">" with lines. It would need some representation of data flow, however, which it currently doesn't have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, if anyone's interested, I need some help porting it to different platforms. If you can swim in the clusterfuck of x86 for a bit to port it to ward that would be awesome, or even getting working with gdb this could be an actual tool.

<comment><AUTHOR> might as well attach a src link here too: [https://github.com/r0nk/ward](https://github.com/r0nk/ward)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> source: [https://github.com/r0nk/ward](https://github.com/r0nk/ward)

<comment><USER10> I'm slightly saddened that Github doesn't recognize Brainfuck files.

<comment><USER11> Of course it does:

[https://github.com/r0nk/ward/blob/master/hello.bf](https://github.com/r0nk/ward/blob/master/hello.bf)

[https://github.com/github/linguist/blob/master/lib/linguist/...](https://github.com/github/linguist/blob/master/lib/linguist/languages.yml#L327-L332)

Just not in Ace (their code editor).

It doesn't count it in language statistics, though.

<comment><USER12> Hmm, this looks like a different issue. Brainfuck _is_ recognized in the stats, if you head to search: [https://github.com/r0nk/ward/search?l=makefile](https://github.com/r0nk/ward/search?l=makefile)

It's not showing up in the color bar, though. Loggin' dat issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> IIUC, you could probably use KLEE to ease the pain of capturing the state.

[http://klee.github.io/](http://klee.github.io/)

</comment><comment><USER14> I would have been more interested by the source code and some explanations...

<comment><USER15> shameles plug for my little project - the pooh programming language:

[http://mosermichael.github.io/cstuff/all/pooh- lan/2012/12/11...](http://mosermichael.github.io/cstuff/all/pooh- lan/2012/12/11/pooh-intro.html)

here you can get an execution trace of the program: each expression is displayed as it evaluates:

[http://mosermichael.github.io/cstuff/docs/html/pooh/example/...](http://mosermichael.github.io/cstuff/docs/html/pooh/example/02-fact.p.html)

(they used to have something like that in some scheme interpreters, i used this featue a lot at the time)

<comment><AUTHOR> hey the projects open source, if you can add your language to ward then it might help your language have a unique IDE, It'll have something other (excluding bf) languages don't have.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Shameless self-plug: Me and a friend developed a Java debugger [1] that visualizes (Java) programs with UML class and sequence diagrams [2]. It isn't actively developed anymore, but the demo version [3] (along with Help -> Tutorial) can still be used to give it a try.

It was quite an involved & fun project as we used Java VM Tool Interface directly instead of using JDI and the layout algorithms for the diagrams are quite fancy too :)

[1] [http://www.jbixbe.com](http://www.jbixbe.com) [2] [http://www.jbixbe.com/VisualTour.html](http://www.jbixbe.com/VisualTour.html) [3] [http://www.jbixbe.com/download/jar/jbixbe.jar](http://www.jbixbe.com/download/jar/jbixbe.jar)

</comment><comment><USER17> That's useful, exactly the tool missing in my BrainFuck toolkit.

+1

</comment><comment><USER18> All right, I'll be the first one to admit that I don't know what the hell I'm looking at. Would some sort of explanation, or at the very least some source code, be too much to ask?

</comment><comment><USER19> Its interesting that its dynamic. Idea to think about would be snapshotting dot files for graphviz. Then you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with the graphviz output.

My databases at work snapshot out their schemas to graphviz to create diagrams of all the FK relationships automatically every day, which I find helpful, and more or less inspired this idea.

</comment><comment><USER20> I would love to have a visual representation of all the possible branches that can be taken in a body of C code, with an easy way to ask the program to tell me what are all the conditions that must be met for this branch to execute.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah that was the idea, I'm posting it around to see if I can get a few folks interested in porting it to different languages. Maintaining everything is hard on a one man teenage team.

</comment></comment><comment> c-qjv0xfi What is the widget in the top right corner? What WM are you using?

<comment><AUTHOR> WM cwm, the widget is just my conky setup, here are my dotfiles: [https://github.com/r0nk/configs](https://github.com/r0nk/configs)

<comment><USER21> Are you using OpenBSD, or one of the Linux ports (Neukirchen?)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Arch linux

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> How did you get your terminal to look like that?

<comment><USER23> The font looks like Terminus. The background transparency effect and hidden scrollbars can be set-up with most terminals, this one is probably urxvt. As for the borderless/undecorated window, that's probably done via the Window Manager. DWM[0] for example doesn't paint window decorations but there's usually a way to set this up in Gnome/Unity/KDE/etc as well.

[0] [http://dwm.suckless.org](http://dwm.suckless.org)

<comment><USER22> Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> also, here are my dot files: [https://github.com/r0nk/configs](https://github.com/r0nk/configs)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> what wallpaper is that

<comment><USER25> Looks like a screen cap from the BioShock game

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_%28series%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_%28series%29)

<comment><USER26> It's concept art from the creation of BioShock 1

[http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/File:1959.jpg](http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/File:1959.jpg)</comment></comment></comment>


Older mothers are better mothers, study suggests - <AUTHOR> http://exactlyscience.com/archives/11629.html <comment><USER2> Blogspam of

[http://bss.au.dk/en/about-aarhus- bss/news/show/artikel/boern...](http://bss.au.dk/en/about-aarhus- bss/news/show/artikel/boern-af-aeldre-moedre-trives-bedre/)</comment>


Academic publishing is a scam - <AUTHOR> http://carcaddar.blogspot.com/2011/01/academic-publishing-is-scam.html

<comment><USER2> Well, it's certainly true that the academic publishing system is leeching a surprising amount of money from both subscribers and authors. What the post doesn't say is why anybody still puts up with it.

The problem is that academic promotion is based largely on publication record, and publication in prestigious (and expensive) journals counts for more. So anyone who had a good paper and published it in an as-yet no-name journal would be throwing away a valuable career chit. And that, in turn, makes it hard for new journals to get established --- particularly if they're established with the idea of stopping the money-suck, which leaves them with very little cash for promotion, or to attract the kind of "big names" that would lend credibility.</comment>


Amazon wants Trump to testify in battle over $10B Pentagon contract - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/10/tech/amazon-trump-defense-contract/index.html <comment><USER2> This actually seems very fair. We have an adversarial legal system: checks and balances in it are based on people zealously defending their rights and privileges. Trump has at least given the appearance of anti-Bezos bias in his tweets about the Washington Post. If a President, any president, wants to appear to favor (or disfavor) some entity, that president needs to be able to at least articulate what they were thinking at the time of the announcement of favoritism (or disfavoritism). Otherwise the USA will end up with a merchantilist system, which is inefficient economically.

<comment><USER3> > Otherwise the USA will end up with a merchantilist system, which is > inefficient economically.

At the largest level, organizationally, it's rare (to put it mildly) for a corporation or government to be economically efficient. Mercantilism is what the US has had for over 100 years via the Fed. This doesn't mean that the entire US system is managed that way, nor will it be.

<comment><USER2> So we should write off possibly blatant high-level interference in DoD acquisitions because our firms are already inefficient and we have de facto mercantilism already? Great. I'm all in. When do we publicly acknowledge that mercantilism? The first consequence of acknowledging mercantilism is that middle school economics learning changes to reflect that, so the voting public isn't deluded about monopolies, why large corporations are large, and why we buy from corporations with our tax money.

<comment><USER3> > So we should write off possibly blatant high-level interference in DoD > acquisitions because our firms are already inefficient and we have de facto > mercantilism already?

Claiming that there is an upcoming decision (or crisis) point when the status quo is being observed, comes off as sensationalist. It's misguided concern.

> When do we publicly acknowledge that mercantilism?

The context is already embedded in history. The internal (very public) challenges to the Fed have led to some scary outcomes. Putting the conspiracy talk aside, it's not like there aren't jokes in the media (from movies like Spies Like Us to Men In Black) acknowledging the known waste - [https://www.city-journal.org/html/americas-missing- money-157...](https://www.city-journal.org/html/americas-missing- money-15725.html)

Not sure what more can be done. It's like the marijuana ban or racism. It will take a few generations to sort it out or it will never be sorted fully. Either way, awareness is not the problem.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Task priority score for software development - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/task_priority_score
We work on projects where we want to prioritize tasks, issues, incidents, etc. We want to use a shared language that is easy to understand for software developers and also for business executives.
The link above is our work in progress, on a simple way to rank tasks using clear language and clear examples.
The scores are simple: P0 is emergency, P1 is must have, P2 is should have, etc.
We use this for agile development, scrum teams, kanban boards, and XP product management.
I'm seeking feedback please for areas to improve, adjust, add, and constructive criticism. I'm especially seeking feedback from high-performing startup.
Thank you! <comment><USER2> One gigantic missing component is a time estimation. A short time estimate on an important feature could change something from "should have" to "must have". However, estimating time for development projects can get be difficult.

This is why Atlassian pushes the idea of "story points", which is a rough estimate of complexity without real units. This works okay, but you need to have some kind of basis for story points. We went with (using the fibonacci sequence):

\- 1 - half a day or less \- 2 - about a day \- 3 - more than a day, less than 2 \- 5 - 2-3 days \- 8 - about a week \- 13 - more than a week, probably less than 2

Etc. This gives our business types something they understand, while providing enough flexibility that developers feel comfortable.

Business types need to know the scale of a project as well as its importance, since those two are very much connected.</comment>


Measuring Your Own Pupillary Distance - <AUTHOR> http://www.daniellivingston.com/2012/06/measuring-your-own-pupillary-distance.html <comment><USER2> From the article:

 _I tried it out. Eight times. With eight different photographs. It measured me from a 61mm to 65mm PD. So call it accurate within ±4mm. How bad can that be?_

I'm no mathematician but shouldn't that be ±2mm? And if so, then the following paragraph (where he says that glasses should be within 2mm to be usable) confirms that this method would suffice?

<comment><USER3> Also from the article, his actual PD is 69mm...

<comment><USER2> OK, I'll admit I didn't get that far.

But that means the method was accurate ±8mm?

Still not ±4mm...

(Unless I don't understand the ± notation)

<comment><USER4> 1 face probably isn't enough to characterize the accuracy of the method.

<comment><USER2> Well that kind of invalidates the entire article then! ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't think PD is part of your _optometrist_ 's prescription; it wasn't on the prescription they gave me when I walked out the door. I can't remember who measured it but I copied it down from my _optician_ 's order when I ordered some glasses. They're both in the same office (which is pretty common) at Berkeley School of Optometry.

My PD is L 32.5 R 31.5. The ruler technique is neither this accurate nor does it distinguish left from right. Yeah, I'm a little lopsided.

I keep this information now in a Google Doc along with my eye size, bridge size, temple length and current frames. Since I'm a nerd, I read up on lens materials and now I use Trivex single vision aspherics for readers and drivers. I'm a lot more knowledgable now about my available choices. These are some of the Trivex single vision choices:

[http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision- Lense...](http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision- Lenses-s/147.htm)

If you have major astigmatism problems you really must educate yourself on the choices. There are free form lenses with much more complicated computer driven prescriptions+lenses customized to the individual. Also, you can get free form lenses tailored to computer use.

[http://seikoeyewear.com/lenses/progressive-lenses/seiko- indi...](http://seikoeyewear.com/lenses/progressive-lenses/seiko-individual- lenses/)

[http://seikoeyewear.com/news/seiko- pcwide](http://seikoeyewear.com/news/seiko-pcwide)

Another thing is that if you ask your optometrist for a prescription for readers, they'll usually set the focal distance to something like a foot. Well, I'm typing on my laptop and it's about 3 feet away. This is intermediate or tool distance and a prescription for that is a massive quality of life improvement.

If you spend some time on an online site like www.framesdirect.com, you can educate yourself quite a bit on the available choices. When you walk into an optician's office, they really only have a certain amount of time to work with you since they have to make a nickel; so you usually spend a lot of time on frames. I haven't even ordered online yet but educating yourself before you walk into a brick and mortar optician's office will make you a little annoying but then you'll get a better result.

<comment><USER6> Isn't Trivex optically worse and more expensive than the standard CR-39 and just insignificantly less thick? I have a -4.00 prescription, and I didn't think Trivex was worth it, because I don't need shatter protection.

Also, interestingly, in Mexico PD is part of the prescription.

<comment><USER5> Not optically worse.

CR39 has lower index of refraction (1.498 vs 1.54) and so it is heavier. It has worse chromatic aberration (Abbe 58 vs Trivex 45). So it's really only good for light prescriptions.

Trivex is also easily drillable making rimless easy, rimless->lighter; PC tends to crack easily.

But yes Trivex is a little more expensive than CR39 but in my experience a lot better. If your lenses last 2 years, lenses are not where you should save money.

[http://www.mastereyeassociates.com/eyeglass-lens- materials](http://www.mastereyeassociates.com/eyeglass-lens-materials)

<comment><USER7> CR39 has better chromatic aberration. Higher Abbe number means less aberration. CR39 has the lowest chromatic aberration of any material commonly used to make glasses.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I got that backwards. Point is that CR39 is not exactly better optically. Trivex is significantly better chromatically than PC, 1.60, ... In addition, Trivex acts as a UV cutoff filter.

What I couldn't figure out is whether a CR39 lens' comparative thickness (prism length) vs a thinner Trivex lens degrades its chromatic aberration advantage in practice.

[http://eclecticeyewearaustin.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/05/...](http://eclecticeyewearaustin.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/05/Lens-thickness.jpg)

<comment><USER8> Generally, you would expect lenses with a higher refractive index to be thinner.

However, due to the selling point of Trivex being "shatter proof" it has a greater centre thickness (to pass safety lens regulations), and thus the edge thickness is also comparable to CR-39.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If there really are "30 other ways" the online vendors can ruin my glasses, I'd much rather read a detailed post about those specific reasons than hear more vague complaints about their industry getting disrupted by online sales.

<comment><USER10> While I used to use Zenni glasses online and had some success with them, I really should have known better and shouldn't have taken a risk like that (though obviously it's not gonna do super permanent damage if any since I didn't wear it too long).

I wouldn't be surprised if their lenses were not the correct power, and if their cylindrical prescription is on the wrong axes, etc. I don't trust some random sweat shop in China doing this (don't quote me on this but I am pretty sure the operations is done in China).

Since the frame market is monopolized by some sleazy business, I wish I could just buy a decent frame from Zenni and give it to a qualified local optician who can fit a nice lens in it.

<comment><USER9> > I wish I could just buy a decent frame from Zenni and give it to a qualified > local optician who can fit a nice lens in it.

Why can't you? I know opticians who will put modern lenses into antique frames, so I have to imagine they can do it for modern frames even more readily.

<comment><USER10> Oops. I just didn't know that was a possibility.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > want to buy glasses online, without the expense of an optician's expertise. > Ok, fine. I'm a professional optician and I have reasons to hate that people > do this.

Well maybe you should offer some frames priced under $400 and people would buy them from you instead.

</comment><comment><USER12> I once tried to measure my own pupillary distance using the ruler-mirror method.

I failed and the glasses I ordered were unusable. In the end I brought them in to my optician's office where they precisely measured not only my PD but a couple of other metrics that I think described the frame/lens position on my face.

I sent all those measurements to the vendor ([https://www.warbyparker.com](https://www.warbyparker.com)) and the second glasses were perfect.

These other self-measure methods look better than the ruler-mirror method that I did, but if I ever buy glasses online again, I'm going to take the trial frames straight to the optician's for proper measurements.

<comment><USER13> I tried the method in the article and got a pair of sunglasses online from FramesDirect that were incorrectly made. I'm not convinced that it works.

My optician has a tool that measures my PD correctly every time. Unfortunately they are reluctant to give me the PD measurements for fear of losing my business.

So we meet half-way. I find frames online and I get the optician to put lenses in them.

<comment><USER14> It's your prescription. It's your health data. Don't take no for an answer. I'm almost positive that they are legally required to give you that data. Asserting your rights is not a bad thing.

To add to this, I get my prescription from the doctor, but I still buy glasses from them. They will open up on a Saturday for me. I've ordered what I consider to be disposable glasses online.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > There is only one reason you would your want your own PD measurement: your > want to buy glasses online, without the expense of an optician's expertise. > Ok, fine.

Fair enough, the article is from 2012.

Today, there is another legitimate use for knowing your IPD - VR headsets!

An incorrect IPD setting as explained in this article can over time teach double-vision and other problematic things you do not want. In VR, given the things aren't used for such large durations as normal eyeglasses the more likely effects are discomfort / headaches and (unique to VR) an improper appearance of world-scale. It's still worth getting it right!

</comment><comment><USER16> Is PD actually defined as the distance between your "vision-rays" at the surface of your eyeballs, or at the plane of the (manufactured) lenses?

I've been meaning to order glasses online (eg Zenni) forever, but haven't gotten around to it. My theory is that ordering online will allow me to go with several pairs of much cheaper CR-39 and then not care as much if they get scratched, rather than ending up with an expensive proprietary plastic and then wanting to pile on the upsell of scratch resistance, etc. The chromatic aberration of polycarb is horrendous.

</comment><comment><USER17> Why not just have your optometrist provide pupiliary distance as part of the prescription as they are required by law?

Prescription absolutely requires the PD. I told my doctor I needed to order special safety impact glasses through my employer. I need to buy them through my employer for their insurance purposes, and my doctor's response: "Oh, I'll need to add the PD otherwise they can't make the glasses correctly."

</comment><comment><USER18> What about this:

Look squarely in the bathroom mirror. Hold your head firmly against something to prevent movement.

Close your right eye. Use a fine tipped dry erase maker to make a dot over your left eye's pupil. Then close your left eye and make a dot over your right pupil. Measure the distance between the dots.

?

</comment><comment><USER19> I just have my wife do it :-) (she's former optician, and calls the ruler she uses a "PD stick")

</comment><comment><USER20> Since it's not part of a prescription, my opthalmologist just gave it to me over the phone.</comment>


Show HN: A simple todo list manager - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/thewhitetulip/Tasks <comment><USER2> I wish we would write Go apps following that lovely pattern, but without opening a DOS box, ie like a Windows app.

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks good - nice and simple and self hosted, could you add support for multiple lists? That'd be awesome.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! I am lost at what you mean by multiple lists?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'd love feedback about the app

<comment><USER4> Setting it up now, a demo would be sweet!

Setup was easy. Basic functionality seems to be good.

Attaching a file to a task causes issues though: [https://github.com/thewhitetulip/Tasks/issues/8](https://github.com/thewhitetulip/Tasks/issues/8)

<comment><AUTHOR> That is embarrassing, I fixed the issue. How do I setup a demo? I have never set up a demo apart from a basic HTML on github.io. Could you please provide me some pointers?

<comment><USER4> Heroku! I can assist if you like, email is in profile.</comment></comment></comment></comment>