Ask HN: What is your weirdest secret YouTube addiction? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Hot Wheel car restoration and customization: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsnjDFdtULQ4ILpABYb9UQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsnjDFdtULQ4ILpABYb9UQ)

I have absolutely no interest in doing this myself, but the guy does an incredible job with the cars and videos. Simply relaxing to watch.

Tips from a Shipwright: [https://www.youtube.com/user/TipsfromaShipWright](https://www.youtube.com/user/TipsfromaShipWright)

I have built a wooden boat and would love to do more. He is currently on his second beginning-to-end project. Incredible skill. Fun to watch him work and see the final product. Also well done videos (professionally produced by a sponsor) and just a really pleasing personality.

<comment><AUTHOR> I saw those videos (primitive technology) many times in the past - good stuff indeed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Primitive Technology: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA)

Just a guy in the woods making primitive huts and tools from scratch using only natural material.

<comment><USER4> This ^

The editing in the videos is done well too. I'm amazed at some of the stuff that guy builds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> S I M P S O N W A V E is definitely my weirdest youtube "addiction".

<comment><USER6> the one showing homer aging from a child to adult literally makes me tear up

<comment><USER7> which one is that?

<comment><USER8> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUz8nt522M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUz8nt522M)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think it's that weird, but I love Binging with Babish

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw)

<comment><USER10> He did lose some appeal by showing his face though :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sorting algorithms:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeoCbJPuvSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeoCbJPuvSE) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Ecb43qw98](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Ecb43qw98)

</comment><comment><USER12> B Roll. This is the behind the scenes footage Hollywood studios provide. PR for a film. Usually spliced in when broadcasting a celebrity interview to give "atmosphere".

But I find the mega budget production aspects fascinating. Seeing the million dollar DaVinci Resolve boards. The robotic Oculus camera cranes. As well as the intricate stunt choreography and wire work for Guardians 2. The massive alien ship interior sets for Arrival. The ballroom in Beauty and the Beast.

Another recent good one: Murder on the Orient Express. Istanbul's Sirkeci Rail Station. And a snow bound cliff outside Vincovci. All recreated on London sound stages. And shot in vintage large format Panavision 65mm analog film cameras ;)

Behind The Scenes On Murder on the Orient Express

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH_R2OauWMk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH_R2OauWMk)

</comment><comment><USER13> Videos of agricultural machines at work

<comment><USER14> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vcJLybS8Lg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vcJLybS8Lg)

Without any music I love - thanks!

<comment><USER13> I know!! Music ruins the whole experience!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I am absolutely riveted when watching wet shaving (think old school brush lathering, safety razors, etc.) videos where guys just talk about their day and shave. I am also really into wet shaving - so I guess it isn't weird on that front. My partner initially thought it was weird though.

Two I would highly recommend:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/mfreedberg](https://www.youtube.com/user/mfreedberg)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/ChiCityTimelapse](https://www.youtube.com/user/ChiCityTimelapse)

</comment><comment><USER16> Woodworking videos.

A channel that HN might appreciate is Matthias Wandel: [https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel](https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel)

</comment><comment><USER17> Electronics and/or antique cars repairs, also urban exploration.

For electronics I would recommend Louis Rossmann ([https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos) ), his videos are quite interesting regarding what's really happening in our machines at a lower level and what makes them tick. He also has really good advice (& rants) regarding life and business which is worth watching even if you don't care about the actual repairs themselves.

For old car repairs I watch [https://www.youtube.com/user/mustie1/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/mustie1/videos), what this guy is doing is really quite cool.

Also I do enjoy quite a lot of urban exploring videos (the good ones, not the CLICKBAIT GONE WRONG - usually if the title is in caps I don't even bother).

Other than that the usual pranks, fails (Fail Army), etc. Low quality I know but if I fall back to that this means I've exhausted my backlog of good videos and really don't care about what to watch anymore - I just need to kill time or to have some background noise going.

</comment><comment><USER18> Jeb Gardener (Great hydroponic gardening) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zdi4KM3ewwfYMNo_KnU0A](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zdi4KM3ewwfYMNo_KnU0A)

The Bryan Roper Science Channel (His related channels are also worth looking at) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChqEEMF8NKrAyGw815VKuZw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChqEEMF8NKrAyGw815VKuZw)

CNLohr (Hardware hacking) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG7yIWtVwcENg_ZS- nahg5g](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG7yIWtVwcENg_ZS-nahg5g)

Clickspring (Clock/watch machining?) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR- Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR- Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/videos)

Francis Higgins (Some funny videos, bit hit or miss) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwDf5MzuhJlo7dtSPOlXkXA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwDf5MzuhJlo7dtSPOlXkXA)

DanielFromSL (Trolling in SecondLife and other online games) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNa9i8ifGJRlK2yWgM9DcOA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNa9i8ifGJRlK2yWgM9DcOA)

TheCrafsMan (Home crafts that are soothing to watch) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzsjHlc0WRwZYwlinsmtM4w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzsjHlc0WRwZYwlinsmtM4w)

MichaelCthulu (1Hr+ Long videos of swords being made) - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGca03sbLq7OUnXMdvRHyBQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGca03sbLq7OUnXMdvRHyBQ)

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't know if its weird - but I love watching ships in stormy seas on youtube

<comment><USER20> What's really weird is that I was going to say watching ships in big seas, only to find your response as the first answer! Quite spooky.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Joey's World Tour

a rather obese, but extremely good natured and outgoing youtuber that absolutely stuffs his face during food reviews. Most of the video is him smacking while eating rather disgustingly.

Some of his videos are the literal definition of gluttony.

I love to watch his videos while cutting calories because it immediately makes me lose my appetite.

I feel like such a bad person for doing this but it is rather effective.

<comment><USER21> I didn't think I would see another fan on Hacker News! Woo woo woo woo!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> As of right now: Kpop.

Last week I watched a video called 'Likey' by a Kpop group called Twice because a channel I'm subscribed to was reacting to it, and now I'm hooked.

I thougth I wouldn't like it, but they seem so cute and happy, and I've found that watching their videos is (in my case) a good way to relieve stress after a long day of programming.

<comment><USER23> >I thougth I wouldn't like it, but they seem so cute and happy

It's best not to know how the sausage gets made when it comes to K-pop.

Also good: Blackpink, G-Dragon, 2ne1, f(x), Bang Yongguk

And ReactToTheK has classical music students doing Kpop reactions, adding a bit of technical/music theory analysis.

<comment><USER22> > It's best not to know how the sausage gets made when it comes to K-pop.

Yeah I tough the same after a while, obviously is all an act, nobody can be so cheerful 24/7 but I still enjoy the music videos and the funny compilations hehe.

Thanks for the recommendations! I will check them later :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Old School Runescape videos. Don't even play the game, but it brings me some nostalgia from times playing in 04-07 years.

</comment><comment><USER25> Possibly bobaepapa, two korean sisters that are like too adorable [https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=3s&v=KTCQpjUrCe8](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=3s&v=KTCQpjUrCe8)

</comment><comment><USER26> Bad old movies, may not be always youtube. But the Internet has given me the ability to watch a lot of classic cinema drek.

Some examples - Queen Kong, Just Imagine (1930), Space Probe Taurus, Planet of the Vampires

</comment><comment><USER27> Rosanna Pasino... especially the Nerdy Nummies stuff.

When she's a bit too peppy, I have to turn the volume down or off (it sounds like the worst sort of baby talk to me), but the stuff she makes is amazing.

<comment><USER28> My kids are into her and I like it enough to watch with them sometimes. At first I rolled my eyes (mostly at the baby talk), after a few videos I was impressed. Now having watched dozens of them, I'm really amazed at her combination of creativity, artistic skills, attention to detail, and the massive amount of labor she must put into everything from test recipes to social media marketing. I barely cook and am uninterested in pop-culture but she is weirdly an inspiration to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Coding tutorials and product reviews in English by people who who don't normally speak English. So much respect for them too.

</comment><comment><USER30> Shoenice. It's quite a thing to watch someone down a fifth of vodka, whiskey, gin and all assorted forms of liquor within a few seconds. Also, street fights, paparazzi videos and just going down the youtube rabbit hole and seeing where it takes me. Though youtube rabbit hole was a lot more fun before youtube decided to censor everything.

</comment><comment><USER31> Chyrosran's mechanical keyboard reviews and teardowns. YouTube's recommendation algorithm always shows me a new video when it's posted, and it's not wrong. I'm a fan of mechanical kb's (typing this on a Topre Type Heaven), but this particular tuber also has a great voice and presentation.

</comment><comment><USER32> Over the years I went through a few:

\- Batsu games (no-laugh game shows from Japan. Search for it, the first result is a reddit link with list of episodes)

\- Angry Video Game Nerd episodes (I love old school nintendo games)

\- DBZ-Tubers (mostly started watching because of DBZ making a resurgence with DBSuper)

</comment><comment><USER33> A game we played with a friend of mine: the idea is to start with the recommended videos and then continue with all of the random stuff that goes as suggested videos (but never repeating anything you had already watched). We call it "YouTube TV".

</comment><comment><USER34> White noise videos.

Recently I've been listening to this one a lot: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEGmghn_jo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEGmghn_jo) (Airplane jet engine)

</comment><comment><USER23> Japanese TV dumps - usually dumped by sketchy clickfarm channels and then quickly taken down. I don't speak or read Japanese but I still find them entertaining.

</comment><comment><USER35> The Delray Misfits: [https://www.youtube.com/user/DelDrew](https://www.youtube.com/user/DelDrew)

</comment><comment><USER36> Youtube Poops and Shreds. Two art forms of upmost beauty.

<comment><USER37> YouTube Poop feels like it descends spiritually from YTMND to me. YTMND was the best:

[https://everything2.com/user/yadrisil/writeups/You%2527re+th...](https://everything2.com/user/yadrisil/writeups/You%2527re+the+man+now%252C+dog%2521)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> BDSM. Yeah this'll get flagged but its true.

</comment><comment><USER39> Air traffic control audio. I have absolutely nothing to do with aerospace or flying.

</comment><comment><USER40> Rap battles.

<comment><USER41> shuffle-t and marlow?

<comment><USER42> iron solomon, diz, pat stay, qp, qleen paper (other qp) etc.. grind time kotd smack

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> ASMR

</comment><comment><USER43> Creepypasta, battle rap, and ASMR.

</comment><comment><USER44> PSY - GANGNAM STYLE GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) Waveya

</comment><comment><USER45> CNC videos.</comment>


Why being a thinker takes quiet time - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/23/tech/innovation/thinking-time/index.html?c=tech <comment><USER2> Necessary reading material: "Solitude and Leadership" [0], an address by William Deresiewicz to the United States Military Academy that discusses the importance of forming your own ideas through careful reflection. As important to the task of creating something of quality on a computer as to becoming an upstanding military officer.

[0] [http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and- leadership/](http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/)

<comment><USER3> I'm speechless. Best essay I've read in a _long_ time.

I'm posting this just to say _thank you_. I wouldn't have found this if not for your comment.

<comment><USER4> I'm just posting to say thank you (@hdivider) for expressing your opinion here - if not for your exuberant praise I think it unlikely I would have clicked this link in the middle of a comment thread.

I'm very glad that I found your praise and clicked the link. :)

<comment><USER5> Wow! truly great to see so much love between HNers.

As a long time lurker (occasional commenter etc.) I immediately was reminded of this great essay as soon as I saw this current story.

Just in case you folks had not seen, the old discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1476425](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1476425)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2110779](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2110779)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm a legs-up-on-table type of dreamer and thinker when I work. However, after working in corporate environments for many years I'm developing what can only been called a cognitive dissonance about this type of quiet thinking. The issue is that managers have always wanted me to track my time in 15-30 min increments, and there is _never_ an expense category for "quiet thinking and reflection". Thus I've started to feel like a time thief [1] and it weighs on my conscience even though I know, deep down, that my quiet reflections are being used to solve difficult problems.

[1] [http://timewellscheduled.com/time- theft/](http://timewellscheduled.com/time-theft/)

<comment><USER6> File it under Analysis; which is exactly what you are doing.

<comment><USER7> Research and Concept Design can work too, who else has some good buzzwords?

<comment><USER8> Schedule a meeting for "ideating" with several other people who want to think quietly. Rotate whose project gets billed for the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What I HATE is that we now have this "trend" \-- or a bit of press based upon it -- from THE SAME institutions that foisted "veal pen", "collaborative" productivity upon us, for a couple of decades.

From one person who "saved the company", or certainly his department (and more), a couple of times, yet suffered mercilessly under a "cost cutting motivated", one-size-fits-all HR "best practices" promulgated reign of... "abuse", frankly:

FUCK YOU.

I can't read these articles without become incensed, because I sense that behind many of them are the same idiots who made life miserable.

AND... I suspect that "quiet time" will still remain the privilege and province of that minority of employee "who counts".

/rant

<comment><USER9> Sorry for the outburst. I need to take a break for a while.

To those who haven't become so bitter: An object lesson in the need to get out of miserable circumstances, before they get you.

<comment><USER10> As a Product Manager, I'm familiar with being on the other side of an outburst like this. I run a relaxed dev team with regular flexible hours, plenty of work-from-home, scheduled check ins and clear project timelines, with a sprint maybe at most twice a year lasting for 4-5 days maximum, and I still get these outbursts.

Im curious, because sometimes I think regardless of policy, some devs put mental pressure on themselves to the point of outburst and project it on policies or office issues or management. How much of this do you think is the policies you hate, and how much if it is your own internal struggle with what you'd rather be doing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Reminds me of Hammock Driven Development by Rich Hickey: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc)

<comment><USER12> Yes, great talk -- I was just about to post that link. For those who haven't seen it, definitely check it out.

Rich describes his design process and talks about how deep contemplation is a mechanism that transfers an idea from your conscious mind to your unconscious mind (your big brain) where the real horsepower is.

John Cleese also talks about this idea in his lecture on creativity ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg)).

In another talk Rich mentions that he has been able to spend a year in deep contemplation three times in his life: one was for Clojure, one was Datomic, and one other yet-to-be-named project.

BTW: You can tap into even more horsepower by pairing deep contemplation with a good night's sleep, where you go to sleep still thinking about the problem (Rich touches on this briefly).

Research shows sleep is when the brain prunes itself by separating signal from noise...

"Sleep researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health believe it is more evidence for their theory of 'synaptic homeostasis.' This is the idea that synapses grow stronger when we're awake as we learn and adapt to an ever-changing the environment, that sleep refreshes the brain by bringing synapses back to a lower level of strength. This is important because larger synapses consume a lot of energy, occupy more space and require more supplies, including the proteins examined in this study."

"Sleep — by allowing synaptic downscaling — saves energy, space and material, and clears away unnecessary 'noise' from the previous day, the researchers believe. The fresh brain is then ready to learn again in the morning" ([http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143455.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143455.htm)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm still not sure how HN feels about these, but here's a shameless self-plug for my book on the topic of why and how people need quiet time to work well. It's focused on programmers, but is mostly applicable to everyone really: [http://nightowlsbook.com](http://nightowlsbook.com)

Also Paul Graham's essay about why you need long uninterrupted sessions to do anything serious is a good read on the topic: [http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html)

<comment><USER14> I think it was kind of silly for PG to suggest that a programmer's dislike of meetings is somehow greater than everyone else's. I've worked in several fields, I haven't met anyone that either liked meetings, or felt that they were productive enough to warrant the amount of time that the organization spent on them. I'm pretty sure that we all hate them equally. There is nothing special about programmers that makes them not like meetings more.

That being said, I agree that people involved in intellectually rigorous or highly technical work are probably affected more by any type of interruption than someone working on something more simplistic. So, perhaps the programmer's dislike of meetings is more legitimate, even if it isn't more intense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have spent more than a decade trying to solve a problem. I do day jobs and sometimes I take a few days off to work on _the_ problem - in quiet contemplation. What I have noticed is that it has taken me more than ten years to 'see' a few important details pertinent to the whole.

I think that civilisation only moves on when society can afford a few people the time to think quite deeply about things, experiment with ideas and not have to worry too much about paying the bills. It is a pity that our education system does not inspire people to want to do this, spend as long as it takes working on something of e=mc2 splendour that will benefit the world. We cannot remember which of the ancient Greeks were rich but we do know their great thinkers. In the pecking order of 'fame', being a great thinker rules the roost.

<comment><USER16> Not really disagreeing with you but want to point out that Einstein had a very ordinary clerical job at the time when he figured out relativity. I even think the discussions with one of his colleagues played an important role.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Yes, yes, detach yourself from your smartphone and cable tv and twitter sometimes. But do that on your own time! When you're on company time, let's squeeze 50 of you into this cramped open office plan seating arrangement. But don't worry, we'll add an air hockey table and a couple of pinball machines in there too to increase the company culture!

Oh technology industry, where did you go wrong?

<comment><USER18> I'd love to work somewhere with pinball machines. Sign me up!

<comment><USER19> The pinball machines are right behind you, but you've got a deadline to meet, and the guys from marketing have decided to have a competition before they leave early on a Friday afternoon. Enjoy!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Great read and I definitely agree. When people used to say: "I'm bored" you could suggest they do something productive, my generation never says that because of internet, tv and video games.

<comment><USER21> I say I'm bored all the time.

Just because I have something I could do (productive or not) doesn't mean I'm motivated to do it.

'I'm bored' doesn't mean you have nothing to do, it means you have nothing that is currently interesting to you. Telling me to something you deem productive is just going to make busy and bored, assuming I did it in the first place.

<comment><USER22> Agreed, boredom is such an over used term boredom as acute apathy and/or lack of novelty.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Narrated title. Went to post to a social network and realized the real title is "Why being a thinker means pocketing your smartphone"

<comment><AUTHOR> No. When I submitted the article I copy-pasted the title from CNN into HN. CNN must have updated the article's title since then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> If the article is correct, then ironically, reading this article made me less creative.

But I certainly think there's something to be said for detaching from external stimuli and taking quiet time. Last weekend my phone ran out of batteries early in the afternoon and I was without internet/mobile until I got home late that night. I had all sorts of realizations about my area of work--things that I was looking to answers for externally but hadn't taken the time to process myself.

<comment><USER25> Well, you didn't get an opportunity to be creative while reading the article, but I don't think it made you "less creative". Both engagement and solitude are important - engagement to activate your imagination and solitude to provide the room to imagine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The idea of a lone genius sitting in a room in isolation coming up with a brilliant idea seems to be a myth.

Most idea generation come from interaction with other people and finding different opportunities in putting together two disjoint ideas. This is how college campuses work and this is how tech areas, like Silicon Valley, work.

Yes, you need time to reflect on those ideas and maybe in quiet isolation. But you still need the data gathering.

<comment><USER27> Doesn't the research show that it's most effective to have people reflect, come up with ideas independently and then compare ideas, followed obviously by more reflection?

No one is saying collaboration is bad, just stressing that the reflection part can't be skipped. And in my experience it often is.

<comment><USER28> Yes, exactly. Also pointing to the fact that "this is how college campuses and Silicon Valley work" is not proof of anything, unfortunately. I worked in a huge open office before, as is fashionable at tech companies right now, and it was the ultimate worst. I've read research saying it wasn't just me, either; people are really hindered in overly-collaborative open office environments. Especially introverts-- which many of us are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Reminds me of this little ditty from the 1980's when phones were still decidedly dumb and - would you believe it - still wired. "You occupy your time with such silly things; do you have to go every time the phone rings". Sister Sledge, Reach Your Peak. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5jeYEwbqU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5jeYEwbqU)

</comment><comment><USER30> Why does being a thinker take quiet time? The article never says, as far as I can tell.

<comment><USER31> Well, it surely was lacking in the evidence department.

However, it certainly squares with my experience. Heck, I was up at 430am this morning, standing in my garage and giving an impromptu lecture to my clothes dryer about the math behind Kalman filters and Dempster-Shafer theory, because I had some ideas in my brain burning to get out, and talk out loud imaginary lectures do that for me (YMMV). Kind of hard to get that kind of solitude and privacy in a workplace where you have to measure every 15 minutes of productivity, or work in a open work space, or, you get the idea.

<comment><USER27> Interesting, I find sometimes I have to dictate into a recorder app to get the ideas out best, I suppose those end up being said in a lecture style a lot of the time, but that had never occurred to me.

So you aren't alone in that habit. I find listening to those notes something I don't do quickly enough but the number of times I've listened to an old one and heard myself say "... Have to watch out for X I suppose, anyway..." where X is a problem/bug that showed up later and was hard to track down has convinced me this can be a really useful exercise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Totally agree with the article, but not the title: one does not need to "be a thinker" to think; anyone can think if they try (in silence and isolation).

The best ideas very rarely come from professional "thinkers".

</comment><comment><USER33> I need to sit down and think quietly for myself whenever I design the public portion of a class.

Or any REST api (which is sorta the public portion of a class exposed over HTTP I guess).

</comment><comment><USER34> Totally agree with this.</comment>


Ask HN: Will you switch to Rails again if truffle ruby is shipped this year? - <AUTHOR> This year or maybe the next truffle ruby will be shipped. It already has a 9x performance boost over MRI and they are working really hard to ship c extensions support and lower startup times. So will you switch back to Rails for projects that need high performance backends.will rails gain the momentum again it had in 2009-10 <comment><USER2> JVM Ruby? Nope. If I need a high performance backend, I'd use Swift Perfect or Vapor before I'd use a JVM Ruby (some folks might prefer Rust/Go/etc, but it's the same idea.) You can even use Helix to write Ruby extensions in Rust if that's your thing. If I don't need a high performance (whatever that means) backend I'll stick with standard MRI.

Honestly the "performance" of Rails is rarely because of the Ruby speed but because of bad code choices (such as n+1 queries or just plan writing inefficient methods (retrieving entire objects when pluck might do, for example.)

If "high performance" is needed for specific parts of the application (such as processing and parsing large files,) then I'd just write a Swift microservice. I'd keep the ease of use of Rails overall but "outsource" the inneficient parts, assuming it would benefit the user experience.

My point: Ruby itself isn't really the bottleneck in most Rails codebases and JRuby and it's variants, in my past experience is just too painful to contemplate -- and rarely as necessary as people seem to think.

Just my opinion of course; I have been known to be wrong. ;)</comment>


Beginner Board Games for Adults for 2019 - <AUTHOR> https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/board-games-for-adults/ <comment><USER2> I own all of these games except patchwork, and they are always the games I lean towards when playing board games with people who have only ever experienced games like Monopoly or Risk. They all provide gentle introductions to newer style game mechanics which the more complicated games tend to have in some form.

The only game I'd add to their list Azul. It is beginner friendly, but has come out more and more often when we play board games. It's just so easy to setup and get into and it provides enough strategic depth to keep the game play interesting without it bogging down with minutia which, while sometimes enjoyable, leads to more mental fatigue. This game just flows round after round.</comment>


Show HN: Quizzity – a geographical quiz built on top of a Leaflet map - <AUTHOR> http://david-peter.de/quizzity

<comment><USER2> On the iPad, what happens to the city names after the initial launch of the game?

How do I know what I'm looking for?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for reporting this. The game works on my Android tablet (Chrome mobile), but it is not really optimized for mobile, yet (dialog and city panel are not responsive). I will try to find someone with an iPad and look into this.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is a bug in Safari on iOS8, not displaying certain CSS transitions (see [https://github.com/daneden/animate.css/issues/298](https://github.com/daneden/animate.css/issues/298)). It should work now. Thanks again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This would be perfect for map quizzes in school!

You should enable custom quizzes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the feedback! Custom quizzes would be really nice to have and they are probably quite easy to add. In fact, I already have the tools to generate custom city collections:

[https://github.com/sharkdp/quizzity/tree/master/geodata](https://github.com/sharkdp/quizzity/tree/master/geodata) (see cities-EU.json, for example).

Contributions are always welcome, of course.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> very cool</comment>


Ask HN: What technologies you are going to learn in 2019? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Thinking it may be time to look at some Azure stuff for me, seems fairly in demand these days

</comment><comment><USER3> starting to learn React native for a mobile app.</comment>


Three Questions About Each Bug You Find - <AUTHOR> http://www.multicians.org/thvv/threeq.html <comment><USER2> This is like the "5 Whys" approach that Toyota developed: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys>

<comment><USER3> Interesting. I was under the impression the "5 Whys" were a convention created by the Six Sigma process... Instead they merely adopted it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As the old adage goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", and it's especially pertinent when it comes to software bugs. The first two questions are OK, but to any experienced coder they are automatically considered part of fixing the bug and not afterthoughts. The third question, "What should I do to prevent bugs like this?", is especially important because once you learn to identify where and how bugs can occur you can markedly decrease their occurrence, which makes everyone involved happier.

</comment><comment><USER5> I found this article and some others from the same guy eight or nine years ago. I lost the links and had tried very hard to find them again without any luck. The name got confused with Don van Vliet in my mind. In particular I loved this piece: <http://www.multicians.org/andre.html> because something very similar happened to me at the time. Thank you very much to prakash for bringing it back to me :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> Number 3 is especially relevant. It gives weight to the adage that "Success is learning to improve with each failure."

Whenever I make a mistake, especially a big one, I like to stop and think, "is this mistake a result of process. Is there an improvement or a best practice I could follow?"

</comment><comment><USER7> Simplistic for an experienced developer. But this is the approach I find myself taking when I'm working with an inexperienced programmer or intern. It helps to ask "why" over and over.</comment>


Mark Your Territory - <AUTHOR> http://dwig.lmc.gatech.edu/projects/Quitmeyer/myt/main.php Check into Foursquare by peeing in a location using the "Mark Your Territory"  app. <comment><AUTHOR> Check into Foursquare by peeing in a location using the "Mark Your Territory" app.

</comment><comment><USER2> Only slightly disgusted.

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, at least we'll know where to send the tickets.</comment>


The great startup idea that I can't reveal (yet) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.foundrs.com/2009/03/11/the-great-startup-idea-that-i-cant-reveal-yet/

<comment><USER2> Just another refrain of a trite startup buzz theory.

No, your ideas don't matter if they're not good ideas to begin with. A community for software developers _isn't_ a good idea, and neither were any of the others mentioned.

Keeping your idea semi-secret makes sense when it has no/weak competitors, not when it's a Web 2.0 social search engine.

</comment><comment><USER3> Pretty trite. I think everybody understands that NDAs are uncool with the cool.

And it's true that the NDA can look pretty stupid when you're some random hacker guy who hasn't done anything and you seem to be taking yourself incredibly seriously with these contracts and agreements of secrecy.

But so what? If you think you're idea is good enough for an NDA, then ask for one. If you're wrong, you'll find out soon enough. But if you're right... the NDA just might work out for you.

<comment><USER4> Can I ride the wave of coolness if I say "trite" too? lmao.

My adjective is either "obvious" or "old" ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fear of people stealing your idea is only one of many reasons not to tell people your startup idea.

</comment><comment><USER6> although it seems accepted as universal truth here that VCs never sign NDAs, they do sign mine and i know of other founders who do get them signed as well.

the stated reason why I insist on NDAs is that i do not want to start the patent filing clock until I have decided to. the unstated reason is that I don't want to get zucked by some other founder their associates are friendly with. it's a real risk.

you say it's only execution that should matter, and this may even be true, but i would much prefer those being able to execute parts of my business better to work for me rather than compete.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm not very familiar with the space yet, but despite a weak attempt to argue something along the lines of "nobody cares about your idea," this ultimately reads to me like "Don't ask for an NDA, because it would inconvenience me if I decided I wanted to build my own business based on your idea."

<comment><USER8> That's a legitimate concern though. People have unoriginal broad ideas ("I want to sell stuff through app/website") and supply over-reaching NDAs ("_everything_ mentioned is covered, with no expiration date"). Even if such is ultimately not enforceable, it could still be a major legal pain, if during your lifetime you get to work on a project that also implements some type of "selling stuff online" (see Lodsys' troll patents and legal pursuits).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> My friend Bob heard about a company trying out new toasters that makes the test customers sign an NDA before using the toaster.

That may seem crazy but I assure you almost nobody out there knows what those toasters do. And the people who do know aren't talking.

<comment><USER10> At a guess, they toast bread.</comment></comment>


Clickbait headlines beginning to dominate Hacker News - <AUTHOR> Yes, I just did that. Because I think it's true. I always wanted to be believe we were better than that. Let's do our best to promote articles where the title matches the content.<p>If I had one post on here that took traction, I wish it would be this one. Happy hunting. <comment><USER2> Do you have specific examples?

This thread title is not an example of clickbait.</comment>


Using files is fraught with peril - <AUTHOR> https://danluu.com/deconstruct-files/ <comment><USER2> Why alter the article's title? Original is fine: "Files are fraught with peril"</comment>


Estimote (YC S13) Creator Talks About Building An "OS For The Physical World" - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/16/estimote-creator-talks-about-building-an-os-for-the-physical-world

<comment><USER2> I have posted this Techcrunch link already. Just with the slash at the end :)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6053424](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6053424)</comment>


CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police - <AUTHOR> https://trisquel.info/en/forum/arrested-filming-ceo-thinkpenguin-inc-arrested-filming-police-faces-year-prison <comment><USER2> Seems like the guy calls himself a "copchaser" and is used to actuallly chase police officers, annoyingly record their action and make sure to insult them while teaching them a lesson about how to do their job. And he calls all that "standing his ground".

I am sure police officers can be jerks or even completely criminals, but this guy really seems to be crossing the line of common sense.

Source: the YT channel himself posted [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnVXppkmzBKfTOwe- KqAJQ/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnVXppkmzBKfTOwe-KqAJQ/videos)

<comment><USER3> And why shouldn't they? Police departments and city officials across the US routinely lie, obsfucate and remove any sense of accountability for police officers who commit crimes or make mistakes.

Look at the case of the murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. The lying and stonewalling is a common occurrence. It's not just a few bad apples, it's a bad system that promotes escalation and grants power without accountability.

It took the prosecuting attorney 15 months to charge the Chicago cop (Van Dyke) with first degree murder. And this was long after the family resigned to believe their son was at fault. It took a whistleblower to come forward to start a long figh for the truth.

After the courts forced the police to release the videotape to the family, whereas the City Council immediately votes to give the family $5 million with the agreement to keep the tape private before they even filed a lawsuit. It took someone else getting the video for it to become public and the cop to be charged.

Being annoying or insulting to governmet employees isn't a crime.

<comment><USER4> > And why shouldn't they?

This is a leading question, which is to say it's not a question that can be answered in a rational way. If one desires removal of choice in the conversation, they may answer it irrationally.

> Look at the case of the murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

The use of a separate case of an individual having choice removed, or individuals in a group removing choice for an individual, applied to the officers involved in this video (and conversation here) is illogical. Just because someone of the group "law enforcement" acts irrationally one place does not mean all will act that way everywhere else.

> Being annoying or insulting to government employees isn't a crime.

When Alex Jones presents his words as truths it is also not a crime. However, while holding the separate goal of being "controversial" and "in your face", the dissonance that is created by such actions is palatable, and akin to a crime of logic or truth. If one attempts to disrupt the arrival of a truth in a given situation, they seek to create additional work for the aggregate to determine truth.

In this case, the officer wanted to know why someone was shining a flashlight (changing colors no less) around in the general vicinity of the stop. The reply was along the lines of "no concern of yours", when in fact it WAS a concern of the officer. In essence, the individuals filming were actively removing choice from the officer to be concerned, speaking for his actions (by implying he was or was going to run plates) and in general acting in a way that would _encourage_ the future event of confrontation. In other words, they are acting in an irrational way to cause further irrationality to occur, when none existed.

I've been kicking around a framework for detecting and describing these types of logical "arguments" which are all verbally spoken or written. In the case of comments on HackerNews, I regularly point out the dissonance in the argument, and attempt to show how these arguments can spread if the irrationality is intended to disrupt, as is done with leading questions that blame using biased arguments.

<comment><USER5> Even if that behavior is questionable, there is at least merit in raising the argument of parity. If it is unreasonable for this man to behave like that, then why is it reasonable for men vested with the authority to enforce the law for the peace of society?

If we can succeed in proving that this man's behavior is contradictory with what we want for society, then it should follow that the same applies to the police force.

<comment><USER4> Chris acted irrationally and had the right to do so. However, by his intent to spread irrationality by removing the officer's choice, the officers were eventually _baited into acting irrationally_ which then led to the arrest. If they knew more about these types of removal of choice, and how they may spread by their very presence, it may have had a different and more desirable outcome for all involved.

Detecting trolls is important, in other words.

Stating it is reasonable that an individual has a right to choose irrationality removes the leading portion of your question which itself is a removal of choice by those who attempt to answer it. Applying rational thinking to answering it reveals an important question to ask ourselves:

> Why is it reasonable for men vested with the authority to enforce the law > for the peace of society?

I _think_ it is somewhat rational for individuals of a group to elect a sub- group to make choice for the individuals. In the case of law, which is _suppose_ to be a rational instantiation of future choice for the group, it is the peacekeepers that are responsible for making choice of who is removing choice from other individuals or the group, as a whole.

However, irrational laws and expectations do creep into the group from time to time. Benjamin Franklin once spoke to this by stating, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

A corollary to this insight would be: "Those who would give up temporary Rationality, to purchase a little temporary Liberty, deserve neither Rationality nor Liberty."

Edit: Safety equated to Rationality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here are the most recent videos in the playlist linked in that post. Parts one and two of a 'confrontation' with Officer Hans Chapman.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw)

Basically, a couple of guys looking to provoke a reaction, and a cop who interacts with them respectfully and is primarily concerned for everyone's safety.

I wonder how similar the scenario described in the post was to the videos in that playlist...

<comment><USER7> > Basically, a couple of guys looking to provoke a reaction, and a cop who > interacts with them respectfully and is primarily concerned for everyone's > safety.

yep

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y&t=45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y&t=45)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y&t=90](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsXYG9b9Y&t=90)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw&t=10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw&t=10)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw&t=73](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWkefVqO9vw&t=73)

These guys are a couple of attention seeking jerks.

<comment><USER8> I recall a detailed blog post of some guy who claim he was arrested for trying to "help" while a cop was managing a scene outside a bar. I wish I could find the link. Some people can't help but try to inject themselves into a commotion (especially when they've had a few), and can't grasp that they just become another variable for the police to worry about. This particular guy then got belligerent when asked to simply leave and go about his business.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In my county they opened fire on someone filming the police recently. Turns out having video evidence is the ONLY way a policeman can be wrong.

<comment><USER10> Source?

<comment><USER9> Guy videotaping from his garage.

[0] [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/dad-im-shot- man-...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/dad-im-shot-man-with- phone-camera-shot-by-police-on-his-own-property/)

<comment><USER11> To be fair, it probably looked like a gun from a distance.

The police were in the neighborhood confronting somebody with a machine gun - not smart to take an action _that looks like pointing a gun_ in a type of situation where one side has decided they need _machine guns_.

It's not to excuse the behavior of the police..., but if you're pointing something at the police from across the street, it's hard to see the profile of said object...

<comment><USER12> I think it's fair, if you're going to use deadly force, to first find out with a much, much greater degree of certainty, that there actually is a weapon, and if so that they actually are in danger. Too many cowardly and scared police shooting at shadows and noises.

"It's not to excuse the behavior of the police.."

And yes, your comment is excusing the behavior of the police. Just saying that you didn't just excuse their behavior doesn't mean that you didn't just do exactly that.

<comment><USER13> Taking time to raise level of certainty will, with high probability, give the other guy time to shoot you.

This is one untypical case that makes the news, so you're thinking about optimizing decision making for this case; all the cases where police actually get shot don't.

<comment><USER14> If soldiers can do it in combat zones, LEO can do it in our city streets.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Filming police isn't against the law in the US, so that wasn't the charge as the clickbait title states. If the guy wanted to be forthright he could have listed the complaint(s) that are on his summons instead of making up a different scenario. This guy's obviously looking for trouble; filiming police for no good reason; getting himself arrested for no good reason; then going online and being deceptive about it to get support for himself by stirring up more trouble. It's no wonder he's such a frustrated person.

<comment><USER16> He did. He says it was disorderly conduct, and that it will likely be changed anyway. The whole point is that the disorderly conduct charge was "trumped up" because he was filming them. I don't really see the title as click bait at all. I'm not saying we're hearing the whole story here, either, but I think it's a little extreme to call this click bait. And if it bothers you so much, why didn't you explain the charges in your comment?

<comment><USER17> > it's a little extreme to call this click bait

Headline: CEO of ThinkPenguin is arrested for filming police

Reality: CEO of ThinkPenguin is arrested for disorderly conduct

It's like saying Al Capone was arrested for having too much money. I mean, I guess. In a manner of speaking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This sounds very much like one side of the story.

"I was essentially arrested for filming a police checkpoint in Manchester, New Hampshire"

I don't want to defend the police, but that sounds like there is a lot of information missing here. Why was he filming the police? What did other people do at/to/near the checkpoint? Was he alone or part of a group or even a mob?

<comment><USER19> > Why was he filming the police?

Why would this be relevant?

> What did other people do at/to/near the checkpoint?

Same as above: Why would this be relevant?

> Was he alone or part of a group or even a mob?

Could be relevant.

<comment><USER20> > Why would this be relevant?

Read other posts here about this person being a "cop chaser".

<comment> vertex-four His reasons for filming the police are still irrelevant. His methods of doing so are relevant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Seems incredibly ill-advised to be publicly discussing what is sure to result in legal action. Even as one-sided as this is, the best he can do is incriminate himself. The other side will wait until due process requires them to disclose their case. At best he's trying to rally opinion (why?), at worst he's just seeking attention, and either way he's just making things worse on himself.

As a CEO he just associated his company with poor decision making.

If this guy has a lawyer, he should consider listening to them.

But IANAL, so who knows.

<comment><USER22> Or maybe he thinks the issue is important and the imperative to discuss it outweighs personal legal risk and association of his company with "poor" decision making. (Given the content at ThinkPenguin's site, I'm not sure that the target market agrees with you about "poor", btw).

I don't know anything about this issue, to be clear. But the fact that you personally don't like to see stories about police misconduct doesn't seem like a very good reason for finger-wagging at those who experience it.

<comment><USER21> Good point about ThinkPenguin's target demographic. I think you're right—I presumed too much about his business without looking first.

(Sorry I upset you, btw.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Interesting how the prevailing mood on HN is very much pro-cop. Kind of surprising for a hacker forum.

You don't really see what a system is made of until you stress it: filming police is one way to stress the LEO system. It's an unfortunate reality that it often does not produce good results.

<comment><USER24> I think this is generally because of the audience here – I know there's a solid international contingency, but the US one is likely biased by privilege and hasn't experienced police corruption/harassment first hand like lots of less privileged people have, so they assume bad cops are an outlier and not part of an institution which props them up.

I was definitely one of those people until recently, and it unfortunately took an incident I was directly involved in to change my mind, now when I hear someone else's story about police harassment/abuse, I put the burden on the police to explain why it was justified, not on the victim as to why it wasn't. It took a long time for me to have this POV, I expect it will take others who haven't had first-hand experience with bad law enforcement a long time too :/

<comment><USER6> Have you watched the linked videos?

I have gone on at length about the issues with our militarized police agencies in other threads. We have turned cops into soldiers, and soldiers need an enemy, which fosters an 'us vs them' attitude. It is a major issue (one of several) that certainly needs to be addressed.

These 'CopChaser' folks are only looking to antagonize. Rather than improving the situation, they are feeding in to the "us vs them" mindset (despite that, in most of their interactions, they are the ones who come away looking like jerks (while patting themselves on the back the whole time)).

<comment><USER24> Yep, I agree, going out of one's way to antagonize the police is not helping with making police more transparent or accountable.

I was really just responding to the parent realizing the generally pro-LE attitude, which I do think extends beyond this thread, for the reasons I stated, in part.

I didn't mean it as a way of excusing the OP of the videos.

At the same time, if the OP didn't do anything illegal, they shouldn't have been arrested, even if it's "annoying." If this kind of thing interferes with the police, there should be some legal precedent set before you get thrown in jail for it (maybe there is, if so, hooray!)

edit: the shade of your text is getting lighter, to be clear – I upvoted your comment, it was completely reasonable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> He's part of "New England Cop Chasers." Their YouTube channel is here: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnVXppkmzBKfTOwe- KqAJQ/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnVXppkmzBKfTOwe-KqAJQ/videos)

</comment><comment><USER26> Snapshot since site is overloaded: [http://archive.is/g0Kes](http://archive.is/g0Kes)

</comment><comment><USER27> So has anybody written an app for streaming video directly into cloud storage?

<comment><USER28> The ACLU maintains a list of such applications:

[https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps-record-police- conduct](https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps-record-police-conduct)

<comment><USER29> I have my state's version of the "Mobile Justice" app, but I worry that it doesn't really stream into the cloud in real time, so a badged thug could erase the evidence by destroying the phone before it got a chance to upload after the recording was complete. We'll need a true streaming upload app once the pigs figure this out.

<comment><USER27> Nagging question - why would this need to be state-specific?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I've seen this stuff before. Police doing their job on the street trying to keep order in potentially volatile situations and some fool with a camera insinuating himself into the mess who wants to start an ad-hoc high-school forensics debate about police power. Bad idea.

<comment><USER31> If the "fool" is obviously in the wrong, it's in the officers' best interests _not_ to escalate the situation, or let their egos get involved, and subsequently shoot themselves in the foot.

Much better to deal with it as calmly and professionally as possible. The worst thing you can do around a heckler is react. ;)

<comment><USER6> Go watch the first couple videos in the YouTube playlist in this blog post.

The cop is calm and professional, despite the antagonizing behavior of the "CopChasers".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> You can almost tell by the attempt to write "legalese" that this guy was looking for trouble. Every other sentence is "clearly this", "clearly that"... no, it's really not so clear.

</comment><comment><USER33> > I was _essentially_ arrested for filming a police checkpoint ... (my video > was seized, _but experienced correspondents bring back up, as I did_ , we > had several people apart from the nearly 20 activists protesting the > checkpoint with video cameras)

Emphasis mine. What happened _exactly_? There's more context gone unmentioned and he knows it. All one-sided stories sound open-and-shut.

</comment><comment><USER20> > You can legally get as close as a foot to an officer provided there is no > interference. So for instance one can get a few feet from a scene as a > member of the press where an officer is ticketing somebody for an offence.

Does the person being ticketed have no rights in this situation? I think I'd be pretty upset at the reporter if they got all up in my business like this.

<comment><USER34> In a public space, no. You have no right to restrict others from observing or recording.

It is not "your" business, according to the law. It's an event occurring in public and is everybody's business.

<comment><USER20> I guess it begs the question, is this a decent thing to do to someone?

I don't think so. Let people sort their business out themselves.

<comment><USER34> Whether or not it's decent isn't at issue. The issue is the arrest.

There's quite a bit of indecent, perfectly legal activity which will often result in illegal abuse of authority. For example: Standing on a street corner yelling "cops are pigs, fuck the police" is both somewhat indecent and entirely legal and well protected by the first amendment.

Engage in such behavior and there are good odds you will become the subject of an illegal abuse of power.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Ah, the old "contempt of cop" charge. If taxpayers knew or cared how much money is wasted by police acting macho and lording it over citizens even to the extent of violating the law to do so, there might be some actual change in this area.

<comment><USER20> No they wouldn't. They see headlines occasionally about the cost overruns of the military (F35!) contracts and they don't do anything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> There are very few details in this forum post, just some nonspecific mentions of an individual recording a police checkpoint of some kind. What type of checkpoint? Why did this person feel it necessary to record the police? Why did a confrontation start? What were the circumstances of the escalation?

In general, if you interfere with the police (even if you disagree with whatever it is they're doing) you can expect some trouble. I will be the first to acknowledge that sometimes the police (especially small town cops) can get a little too full of their own authority and take it too far.

On the other hand, their job is to keep the community safe, and save for the very worst cops (which are in the minority), they take the job seriously. There is (and should be) a pretty high bar to harassing or interfering with the police.

<comment><USER37> > save for the very worst cops (which are in the minority)

This is debatable at best.

<comment><USER36> Try talking to some. You'll be surprised that most are actually pretty good people trying to make a difference in a very difficult job. They see nothing but the worst of humanity day in and day out.

<comment><USER38> There are no good people, only good systems. The German people didn't turn into monsters in 1938 and become decent people at the end of 1945, they were just participants in a broken system. The Rwandans didn't suddenly become the worst people in the world for a few months in 1994. Perfectly decent people are capable of utterly abhorrent things if their environment is sufficiently toxic.

US police officers aren't bad people, they're just poorly trained and held to very low standards of accountability. They do bad things because they're operating in a system that incentivises them to do bad things.

<comment><USER37> > "There are no good people, only good systems."

Nice quote. Can you recommend some reading on this topic?

<comment><USER38> _The Lucifer Effect_ by Philip Zimbardo is a satisfactory primer.

[https://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good- Peo...](https://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good- People/dp/0812974441/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I just bought a wireless card from ThinkPenguin a couple weeks ago. Very pleased with the transaction.

</comment><comment><USER40> There are innocent people losing their lives in confrontations with cops (including the good cops who get killed just doing their job) and this guy is creating drama and looking for more attention from it. Just look at how long his posts are and at how he is begging for attention from everyone (the media, the tech community, etc). His altercation with the law (a misdemeanor at the most) doesn't warrant all of this extra drama he's creating. And what the hell does he want strangers to do about it (stop their busy lives, filled with real problems, to fight his battles and stroke his balls so he can feel validated about this self-inflicted wound?). The term "get a life" was creates specifically for these moments and types of people.</comment>


Oracle and Google keep wrangling over Lindholm draft email - <AUTHOR> http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-over.html#

<comment><USER2> Seeking confidential legal advice can be protected and the act of describing legal solutions doesn't constitute a proof of misbehaving by itself.(cf. Hydraflow Inc. versus Endine Inc.)

Concerning the source: <http://lwn.net/Articles/437672/></comment>


VP8: The Savior Codec - <AUTHOR> http://multimedia.cx/eggs/vp8-the-savior-codec/ <comment><USER3> This article rightly points out that we don't know much about VP8 first-hand. But we can infer a lot.

First, VP6 is a pretty decent codec, widely available for comparison. Not as good as H.264, but better than Theora and (IMO) MPEG-4 ASP. Even if Google was only releasing VP6, that would be pretty compelling. It's reasonable to expect that VP7 and VP8 are incremental improvements over VP6. No one knows exactly how much, but if a free VP6 would be exciting, then a free VP6+ would be even more exciting.

Second, Google didn't pay $120M based on On2's marketing website. They obviously evaluated On2's tech first-hand and decided that it was worth buying.

<comment><USER4> I think VP6 could be the key. If I was in charge of codec strategy at Google I'd be investigating at least these two things in parallel:

1\. Will Adobe join us in introducing a brand new video codec (whether it's VP7, VP8, or something new based on them) to Flash, and if not...

2\. What is the theoretical maximum quality you can wring out of VP6 without breaking backwards compatibility with the installed Flash base if you throw unlimited cash at it.

They can start up a skunkworks to build the next big codec to challange H.26_5_ if they want, but the need to do something soon if H.264 isn't going to become entrenched.

Some people will say VP6 is crap and that only better quality can win, but you'll note they only say that when something they like wins. For example, Apple fans point to the quality of iPods and iPhones as why they're successful, but point to idiot consumers, network effects and dodgy dealings to explain why Mac OS has a similar global marketshare to the perennial joke that is desktop linux.

Similarly apparently H.264 _won_ because it's some kind of design-by-committe miracle baby, yet AAC isn't a stand out technically and coasts along on the coattails of it's video codec partners. And it's still not ousted it's inferior older brother mp3 in general usage, even with Apple's help.

Installed base matters. If Google make a video announcement that doesn't involve Adobe, I'll be very disappointed.

<comment><USER5> I guess I don't really see why such an announcement has to be made in conjunction with Adobe. YouTube already keeps several different versions of a video encoded at different settings and with different codecs. If they were to release VP8, I assume that they would just keep VP8 copies for HTML 5 and other copies for other players and/or user settings.

While it would be nice to see Flash Player integrate VP8, Adobe's cooperation doesn't seem critical to me.

<comment><USER4> It's not about Youtube though. If Google only cared about Youtube then they'd be going with H.264 as the licence fee cap disadvantages both smaller video sites, and people who want to self-host.

Youtube is important because they can encourage large numbers of ordinary folks to adopt whatever solution they use, and as a large-scale example to show that whetever technology they use is feasible at that scale. But if they free a codec then the point is for all the other websites to adopt it, and for that Flash would be an invaluable partner.

Adobe says that they get near 100% update rates within a year so any new codec will get out there fast. Faster if Youtube prompts people to click the updater. Not that users of Google Chrome will need to worry, as Google has conveniently decided recently to bundle Flash and auto-update it for them without intervention.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's very frustrating to be able to edit 1080p video and play it back easily on my 64bit Linux machine but have Flash stutter many low res videos all over the web. I can't wait until the day when Flash, Adobe and Microsoft all have their formats destroyed. So I can send a document, video or audio to someone without having to think about the format - ditto for embedding it in the web.

<comment><USER7> When you say "format", do you mean file container or video codec? Most people mean codec. In that case, Flash (and Adobe) doesn't have a format to destroy.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's work in this area over the past 13 years with the WMV family of codecs has been extraordinary, coaxing more quality from a given bitrate needing less CPU to play back than any other commercially viable codec. That's why WMV codecs work on so many consumer devices, even phones. VC1 is remarkably good, only just recently challenged by H.264 encoding's most recent optimizations.

Meanwhile, if you meant file container, Microsoft's recent player technologies such as Silverlight support H.264 in .mp4 containers, as do recent Flash Player versions.

With all Windows machines supporting .WMV container and VC-1 codec, Macs still shipping with a Windows Media Player or able to play it in any QT app using Flip4Mac, Linux players supporting it "out of the box", and both Sony PS3 and MSFT Xbox playing it, not to mention most every consumer device and set top box -- if you want to send someone a video that just works, then .WMV using WMV3 or VC1 has been a decent bet.

Your newer best bet for sending a file is .mp4 with H.264/AAC, which is played by Flash Player 9 Update, Silverlight, QuickTime, VLC, etc., and more recent Windows systems.

For embedding in the web, stats say Flash is your best bet, but those stats apply to VP6 codec which looks terrible and most people don't know how to play locally and doesn't work for HD.

So your best bet for embedding is .MP4 with H.264/AAC with an HTML5 tag, and inside that tag a Silverlight player embed, and inside that tag a Flash player embed, and inside that a download link for the .mp4 file.

<comment><USER8> _needing less CPU to play back than any other commercially viable codec._

What do you expect from a codec that's closer to the previous MPEG-4 ASP generation (e.g. Divx, Xvid) than H.264?

 _VC1 is remarkably good, only just recently challenged by H.264 encoding's most recent optimizations._

Recently challenged when? Only right after Blu-ray was introduced VC-1 was somewhat better than H.264 because the VC-1 encoder implementation was better than any of the "pro encoders" that the studios used.

<http://mirror05.x264.nl/Dark/website/compare.html> also and there are plenty of PSNR/SSIM measurements online which show H.264 is vastly better than VC-1.

 _not to mention most every consumer device and set top box_

iPods, iPhones? Also I have never seen a real-world VC-1 deployment on an STB. Virtual all of said consumer devices also play H.264 video.

It was only Microsoft's lobbying that led to VC-1 getting accepted in Blu-ray and (on paper but not in reality) in DVB. Even Microsoft have pretty much given up on it; H.264 is in Silverlight, IE9 and Expression Encoder 3 has its own H.264 encoder.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "What I'd heard from ex-on2 folks was that there is some philosophical disagreement about how to optimize [encoder] tuning, and the tune for PSNR camp mostly won out." Apparently around the time of VP6, On2 went the full- retard route and optimized purely for PSNR, completely ignoring visual considerations. This explains quite well why VP7 looked so blurry and ugly." \-- <http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=292>

</comment><comment><USER10> "Flash's only use is as a naive video player" - ok, well you better tell the millions of people playing web-based games out there as they didn't know that...

<comment><USER11> He knows that; it was sarcasm.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'd wait until the release of Googles VP8 encoder and independent comparisons until declaring VP8 superior to h264 encoded by x264.

</comment><comment><USER13> The author really nails the ridiculous nature of the VP8 claims in this article. The same article could be applied to the Theora vs H.264 tests - <USER2> performed with completely suboptimal procedures and tools on the H.264 side.

<comment><USER5> The author's only claims about the claims made by On2 seem to be that the tech is still closeted so there's no way to verify On2's claims. That doesn't sound like they used "suboptimal procedures" to me -- there's no accusation of that, merely a desire to see something so that meaningful independent evaluation can be performed.

<comment><USER13> Oh, that wasn't what I implied. If you had read all of what I wrote you would've seen that I referred to the _THEORA_ vs H.264 tests being performed suboptimally for H.264.

<comment><USER5> I did read all of what you wrote. It's like two sentences.

I know that you mentioned Theora, but you imply that the same case is applicable with VP8. You said "The same article could be applied to the Theora v. H264 tests...", i.e., Theora and VP8 both demonstrate an advantage due to unfair testing and not real-world improvements. Nobody knows that because nobody has been able to test VP8 independently thus far.

Your post implies that the author claimed the test results were not representative of the codec's true performance. The author made no such implication; he only noted that there is no unbiased verification or corroboration of those results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It is meaningless if Steve Jobs don't like it anyway.

</comment><comment><USER15> The situation surrounding the open-sourcing of Theora (née VP3) is remarkable similar to what would happen if something similar happens with VP8: _neither codec was ever licensed to a customer_.

The quality of the code released in the VP3 dump was abysmal, and while the Xiph people cleaned it up structurally, they didn't fix any of its warts, and they introduced new ones with their awful container format. Hopefully Google won't repeat that history.

</comment><comment><USER16> "Pictured: All the proof you need that VP8 is superior to H.264"

I'm really tired of the increasing desperation from people who are now willing to hang their hopes on _anything_ that is not H.264. It's almost like it's dogma at this point: H.264 must not be allowed to succeed because _______.

 _That is not all we need to see._ VP8 may be a better choice than H.264, it may be a worse choice. We're not even sure Google _will_ open the codec yet (I've only seen "inside sources confirm", did I miss an announcement?) so let's not get premature. And PSNR graphs are not the golden standard of video quality, the video is. It's possible to have artifacts that psnr graphs may not represent well, but that make the codec a poor choice.

<comment><USER17> Keep reading.</comment></comment>


What to do when pypi goes down - <AUTHOR> http://jacobian.org/writing/when-pypi-goes-down/

<comment><USER2> Helpful, and I'm definitely a fan of pypi when doing development, but depending on services like that to do installations on production machines is unwise.

It's a better idea to maintain a private repository of dependencies for production installs.

<comment><USER3> Indeed - relying on someone else's infrastructure for production installs is always a risky business. Even once PyPI's infrastructure gets better (there'll soon be multiple mirrors, automatic fallover, etc.), it's probably still going to be a good idea to run a local mirror.

There's a pretty easy way to do that these days: pep381client: <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep381client>. This'll create a directory structure that you can serve from any web server and will act enough like PyPI to serve as a local mirror. Then you can point to your mirror and _know_ it'll be there when you need it. You'll need about 15GB of disk space to mirror all the files from PyPI.</comment></comment>