I've never made a public API before.  Feedback on this one? - <AUTHOR> http://www.helpbubble.com/api

<comment><USER2> Don't do this:

      var oldonload = window.onload;

Try to avoid touching the global namespace. At most register one object in it: HelpBubble. Use callbacks for the init, open, close, and clicked events. Look at how jQuery does it.

These are too long:

      HelpBubble.API.setText()
      HelpBubble.API.setMenuStyle()
      HelpBubble.API.setButtonStyle()

I would use:

      HelpBubble.API.text()
      HelpBubble.API.menuStyle()
      HelpBubble.API.setButtonStyle()

Passing it nothing should return the current value (for the latter two it should return objects). Setting it should take either objects or strings.

Also, do you expect to only have one instance of these at a time? If not, your API might not work very well.

<comment><USER3> JQuery does the same.

$("#element").html($("#element").html() + custom_html);

<comment><USER4> Can't you just type $("#element").append(custom_html)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can't give you feedback on your specific API. However, I will say that if you're not already about 80% sure that it's correct, it's probably wrong somehow.

Allow me to explain. An API is a pretty abstract thing. For it to be useful, you need to have a use-case for it. Generally, once you've defined what the problem is that you're solving, you know about 80% of what the API needs to look like. The rest is just a matter of iteration and trial and error.

The best way to get at this is to write an application that uses the API. This should give you a pretty good idea of what kind of interface should be provided. Alternatively, your customers should give you an idea of what they want the API to do. Don't be afraid to ask probing questions if their needs are ambiguous.

<comment><USER6> And if you're 100% sure it's correct, it's probably wrong somehow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not the API, but I went to the homepage and tried out the help bubble. The text went outside the bubble, which made it hard to read and didn't look very nice. This is Firefox 3.6.3 on Windows XP. I also have a custom DPI, but that usually just causes problems in IE.

<comment><USER8> same happened for me on xp, firefox 3.0.19

<comment><USER9> same on Chrome/Vista

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Remove the ".API".

</comment><comment><USER11> Id be interested in putting a bubble on my site, but did not see a Demo. I saw Try it which took me to another page asking me to enter a title, which I did and then I hit ok and it took me to another page but did not preview my test bubble. Is there a Demo for users to try beforehand?

</comment><comment><USER12> This is related more to the HelpBubble itself, but it would be great if the bubble can be moved around the page via drag-and-drop.

</comment><comment><USER13> Neat idea! I noticed some display issues in IE 8.</comment>


Recipe for disaster: The meteoric rise and ongoing demise of Blue Apron - <AUTHOR> https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/recipe-for-disaster-the-meteoric-rise-and-ongoing-demise-of-blue-apron <comment><USER2> From a user's standpoint, the main noticeable change has been the steady decline in the quality and amount of food included in the box (along with increasing simplification of the recipes). In the early days, you'd definitely get your $10 per person worth of ingredients, and the recipes were often quite complex, requiring multiple stages and up to an hour of time to prepare. There was also a clear effort to showcase different cuisines, prep techniques, and unusual ingredients that you wouldn't find in a typical grocery store. I can only speak for the vegetarian recipes, but recently it seems like a typical week is some variation on: a grilled-cheese sandwich, a pasta dish, and a grain bowl. Coupled with the fact that my skills have steadily increased with practice, there was little reason to continue and we finally canceled a few months ago (after a year or two of skipping most weeks). I can imagine an alternate history where they raised prices instead of cutting quality. We might have stayed with them longer, though it probably wouldn't have helped their bottom line any.</comment>


Show HN: Weps – Build your online store with a chatbot - <AUTHOR> http://store.getweps.com/ <comment><USER2> I wonder how long it really takes to build and launch a site using a chatbot...

<comment><USER3> Hey, I built this (haloauto.co) store in 20 min for example (it takes time to add content and images). The structural setup can be done in some 5 min. Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder of Weps ;)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why does everyone use a MacBook Pro despite saying they suck? - <AUTHOR> About to buy a new machine for a dev position and was just curious about the thought process of using a MBP. Any good alternatives? <comment><USER2> There are 8 billion people on this planet. The people that think MacBook Pros suck are likely very often not the same people that use them. And, when they do overlap, it's likely due to technology lock-in (they use Final Cut or whatever) or thinking the other options suck even worse.

I have to second the other person recommending a Lenovo X1 Carbon. I had one for awhile and it was just about the perfect laptop. Surface Pro looks nice too.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been using macbooks full time for 3 years now and I _hate_ them. They are bad hardware for a high price tag.

As a developer they are the perfect middle ground. OSX runs everything I usually run in Linux and I have all the paid for software I'd run on windows (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc).

Prior to switching to mac I just dual booted windows and linux depending on what I needed. Then sketch came out and it was only OSX and I had to make the decision on having a third setup.

Then I realized everything I was doing in my 2 OSes I could do in a single one even though I hated the hardware.

<comment><USER4> Windows Insider Preview with Ubuntu for Windows is what you want now if you really don't care for macOS or Apple hardware.

<comment><USER5> Or the other way around - Windows under kvm on Linux.

<comment><USER3> You ever tried to do photo manipulation, graphic design, or video editing in a virtualized OS? It is miserable. There is a reason I said I was dual booting and not running virtualization :)

<comment><USER5> I use GPU passthrough and run games in Windows under KVM with equal or slightly less (~3-5%) frames. Photo manipulation and graphic design work fine in Photoshop in my setup. Not so sure about video editing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> With OSX, I get to be lazy when it comes to the OS. No wrangling, configuring like I see friends having to do. The environment is mindless and works. And they're pretty. Great screens and resolution. And everyone else had one when I started developing. And I was kind of excited to put a sticker on top of the apple.

Switching to linux is in the same category as Vim for me. Something I should do someday.

<comment><USER7> YMMV, but I configured i3, vim and some other stuff years ago and just copy configs from previous laptop to the next one. New laptop usually works just of the box and it is already configured the way I'm used to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think the people who don't like it are the loudest. It certainly has some drawbacks (like the keyboard, lack of ports), and for some that's a deal- breaker.

Personally, I love my MBP I got late last year — 13", no touchbar. I use the larger, touchbar version for work, and it doesn't really suit me.

The only things that really bother me are the keyboard and sometimes the lack of ports, but honestly the keyboard is still pretty good, and I don't find myself plugging things into my laptop that often.

</comment><comment><USER9> Because I got tired of the blue screens of death, and despite the MBP being way over priced it does one thing very well... it works 99% of the time. Plus it looks cool, if you care about that sort of thing.

<comment><USER10> The downvotes for you are puzzling. At work I compile a large project in VS2017 multiple times per day, and my machine will intermittently bluescreen during the compile. Happens to a number of my coworkers as well. W10 has come a long, long way since the unstable foundations of its forebears, but my personal experience with it still includes more crashes than I can write off as flaky hardware/drivers or mere chance.

<comment><USER11> Agreed, Windows 10 is still a mess. I have constant issues with stability.

My latest fun issue is that my gaming desktop won't install OS updates. It knows there are updates available, but when I tell it to install, the progress bar never progresses. I've tried restarting multiple times, but it makes no difference. I thought maybe I just needed to let it run for a while. It's been running for 3 days now, and the progress bar still hasn't moved.

I guess I'm probably going to have to either reformat the machine, or decide that I don't want OS updates any longer.

<comment><USER10> Yep. I ranted about this in another thread recently so I won't rehash (much), but part of what I dislike about Windows is that its excessive complexity creates a gulf between the quick fix and "welp, time to reformat." And thanks to the need for backward compatibility, I doubt it will ever get better.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> 1) people end up with the MBP because they've been very good for a number of years (maybe latest keyboard excepted, I'm still running on older gens personally).

2) Though there are now more alternatives of comparable quality, it's a lot of work (and some risk) to dig up that model in the product line of XX supplier. And even if you find a good model, it often gets watered down with similarly named low-quality options so you have to get very specific about model, and you have to do that every time you have to re-buy outside of Apple.

That said, if you're doing Linux/unix work, I've been eyeing up the purism Librem laptops should I need a replacement.

<comment><USER13> Wow, thanks for sharing Librem... I had never heard of them but they are now top of my list for a laptop replacement. Linked me friend, he'd never heard of them either, and is now going to get one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The rest of the team uses them, and the company pays.

The new keyboard absolutely sucks.

But what's even worse, is that with kids around etc, it becomes almost inevitable that there will be some kind of liquid spill etc during the 3-4 year ownership, and that costs ~$700 to replace half the machine, v $50 to replace just the keyboard on most other machines.

I had to do it on the 2013 pro (about 1 year after a coffee spill), now I'm looking at having to pay for (beg the boss to pay for) the awful 2016 pro keyboard again (beer this time, and already a couple of keys are unreliable).

</comment><comment><USER15> for me, it's because nothing matches MBPs trackpad. I never feel I need a mouse using a MBP, but on both Windows and Linux notebooks, I really need a mouse and sit down in front of a table to be productive.

<comment><USER16> I just recently started using Surface Book. The trackpad is as good as my old MBP.

<comment><USER11> Is it better on the Surface Book than a regular Surface with a touch cover? Because I have the latter, and it is not even in the same ballpark. I just plug a mouse in when I use my Surface.

<comment><USER16> Yeah, I agree with zeusk. If you are talking about this: [https://goo.gl/hw22Hr](https://goo.gl/hw22Hr) , then Surface Book trackpad is much, much better.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> SO I am typing this on my Personal Surface pro, and I have a Macbook Pro (2012) for work. I also have developed a distaste for Macs and am not afraid to voice my view.

Simply Mac OS has become shitty in comparison. The Windows XP of the modern era. It's got some cool tricks, but the OS is stale, and almost has to be. Windows and Linux can be innovative because they have more too lose (Like Macs in 2001).

Mac OS's deepest flaw (in my view) is simply terrible window management even compared to earlier versions I have used. If you are a mac head I'm sure it all makes perfect sense, but as someone who aims to switch comfortably between OSs (to the point that I favor OS neutral apps as much as possible) the radical difference in philosophy for Macs is simply Jarring.

But that personal issue aside, the system over relies on security through obscurity. This means that because Mac OS is only used for at most 10% of laptop/desktops, and not servers (Linux) or 90% of laptop/desktops (Windows) they are an incredibly small target for hackers, and are thusly "Secure" despite regularly ranking at the bottom of security reviews. You can see this in the basic security flaws in every new OS release.

Lastly the biggest issue is exposure. The more people there are using something, the more problems there will be. every new person is another chance to find a flaw. Dell, HP, and every computer manufacturer has experienced this.

Now all that said why did I pick a Macbook Pro, and why would I recommend anyone buy one? Simply support, unix, and build quality. Macs get a lot of developer support, meaning that you have access to really great tools. This is the same reason to choose windows for the best MS Office support or what not. My Co-Worker has a hackintosh just so he can run music editing software when he is not gaming (which of course he runs windows for).

Unix is also a killer feature. You get the great native Posix shell (which LSS on Windows, and just Linux also provides), which makes it easy to develop on and for the Linux/unix systems I rely on at work.

The build Quality is also great. Windows PCs are finally rivaling Macs, but Macs just are well made and hold up well to age.

<comment><USER18> But the problem with the Mac is that the OS has become actively worse in recent years. They could have literally not updated it at all in the last decade or so and the system would be better than it is today.

The same is true for the hardware. A Macbook of 5 years ago is a better machine than the current ones (except for things like CPU speed etc, of course).

Note that this is of course not limited to Apple. Windows 8 was also quantifiably a worse operating system than Windows 7. GNOME has gone through the same quality degradation on multiple occasions as well.

<comment><USER19> > Windows 8 was also quantifiably a worse operating system than Windows 7

But not Windows 10 or arguably even 8.1 whereas the stability of macOS has been downhill since 10.8

\- From my 2017 mbp running 10.12 because 10.13 is so much buggier and I can't go down any further than .12

<comment><USER18> I specifically talked about the difference between Windows 7 and 8, because that's one case where I don't think anyone could disagree.

I personally feel that 7 is still a better system than 10, but I acknowledge that other people could make a valid argument for the opposite.

My 2011 Macbook Air is still on 10.8. Partially because it has a 64 GB SSD with not enough free space to upgrade, but also because there is absolutely nothing in newer versions that would make it better, and plenty of things that makes it worse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Honestly the linux subsystem for windows 10 is good enough for me. I see less and less of a need for an osx box for development if you're just looking for a unix subsystem.

FWIW I use a Dell XPS 13 and a Surface Pro and both work perfectly well. Install Ubuntu from the app store, get Mobaxterm and run gnome-terminal. You're set at that point.

<comment><USER21> I find it "just" good enough, if I limit my development requirements. It won't run the latest CockroachDB for example (bug filed). Running anything under Docker that has significant internet I/O leads to having to restart Docker several times a day - this seems to be due to excessive caching (or a memory leak) in the necessary VPN technique Docker uses to interact with the Windows networking. This bug seems to alternate between existence and non-existence - maybe it's a dual development track issue at Docker. Running tmux has odd interactions regarding copy/paste that I still find irritating, but I simply live with. So, what I do is use it as a proper ssh terminal, do and keep my work on other proper servers, and live with the tmux idiosyncrasies. That's _just_ good enough for me, and lets me use a large-screen Yoga, which I like, and keep Windows, which work occasionally requires, without messing with VMs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I have no desire to get a MacBook Pro. They are overpriced, you have to carry around dongles for everything and I would rather have real function keys than the touch bar. I actually like both my work and home Dell 2n1s better.

On the other hand, I'm slowly moving away from being a "windows developer". I'm still using .Net but it's .Net Core. As I start seeing how great the "Windows Tax" is as far as system resources and cost when it comes to running hosted servers, Docker, serverless functions, etc. it makes no sense to stay on Windows, but I really don't feel like mucking with Linux on my personal computer. I've owned Macs in the past and having both commercial software, and a real Unix operating system would be ideal and of course I could do iOS development.

So the question is, do you need a laptop? For $100 more you can get a 27 inch 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM a 2TB fusion drive. You get a faster computer, twice as much RAM. A better keyboard, a more performant GPU and USB 3 ports.

</comment><comment><USER23> Who says they suck? They very much DO NOT suck. Every time I use a PC laptop, I am reminded why I use Bootcamp or a VM for Windows on an MBP.

However, I need a new laptop and I really don't want the Touch Bar MBPs. :( I don't know anyone that likes them.

<comment><USER24> > _I don 't know anyone that likes them._

Keep in mind that you're probably not hearing from folks who like them. I use one all day at work and like it fine, even though I like the keyboard of my 2013 MBP better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The Razer Blade is a surprisingly capable, beautiful alternative.

I will say that the primary driver is more being on MacOS, which is a nice middle ground for ease of use for our developer team that's primarily working in things like Ruby on Rails and React, and also really great for movie editing for our marketing folks.

We're all still holding hope that the next MBP fixes the keyboard issues. Personally I'm still jamming on a 2011 MBA that's probably the single most reliable, functional piece of hardware I've ever owned. It's the definitive workhorse. It's a shame the quality hasn't kept pace across the other lines and new models.

</comment><comment><USER26> I think a certain, very vocal group of people violently reacted to the 2016 re-design's keyboard and switch to USB-C. But I also think that most users are still pretty happy with their Macs most of the time - they just don't post blog posts about that.

I understand the complaints about keyboard failures due to dust getting under keys, but my personal experience with a 2016 model has been fine. I had to blow it out once with compressed air after 1.5 years and it worked again fine after that. It took two minutes and wasn't a big deal to me.

I don't understand the violent hate of the switch to USB-C. I find it super convenient that my phone (Samsung S8), laptop and Nintendo Switch all charge from the same power cable. And getting a couple of thin USB-C end-cap convertors on Amazon to plug in older USB devices cost me less than $10. It just hasn't been a negative at all for me.

Beyond that, Macs in general are a great compromise for developers who want to write code that runs primarily on Linux servers but who don't want to run Linux as a laptop OS (which can be a pain in the ass on laptops due to unpredictable battery drain, unreliable suspend/restore, no native support for software like Photoshop/Lightroom, less polished UI, whatever your reasons).

Windows has gotten a lot better in that regard, but a lot of Unix-native stuff still sucks to install and run on Windows. Docker on Windows is a dog, installing various native extensions for Python is a real pain in Windows, etc.

There's lots of little paper cuts using Windows in a Linux environment because Windows is just so different than Linux. For example, you can write and test a Docker file on a Windows machine that won't rebuild cleanly on a Linux server because on Windows you don't have to chmod +x your Docker entrypoint script, but on Linux the Docker image won't start after a rebuild because the entrypoint script will get installed with your local file permissions (which aren't set to +x by default). That's just one tiny example, but that's the kind of thing that illustrates why people building code primarily for for Linux servers might not prefer using Windows on their personal machine.

<comment><USER19> I have a 2017 13" touch-bar at home and a 2016 15" touch-bar at work.

The work machine works fine and is mostly docked so I don't care about the ports either.

My personal macbook however was a totally different story:

\- While usb-c only ports were annoying, it was much improved by the usb-c to usb-a converter included with my Samsung S8 (oh, the irony).

\- The keyboard, however, was a totally different experience. I've had two replacements - one where some keys started failing (as in they'd either get stuck down or up randomly) and another one where the touchbar started acting really weird (no wakeups, hangs etc..) which was just as bad because they moved escape key to "touch" bar. Go figure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Because they don't suck?

I think people are mostly complaining about the direction the last update took, such as the touchbar which seems more targeted at less experienced computer users and lack of RAM options beyond 16gb, etc.

</comment><comment><USER28> I have been a Mac user for less than 5 years now, and have used 4 Macs ranging from 2012 to 2017 models. I don't think they suck.

For most purposes, even dev ones, they are very nice. Stable, reliable, performant. They might not be the top-of-the-line laptops but they are awesome at getting things done - as long as you don't want to impose your own requirements on it (OS, storage, RAM, etc.)

I do have to agree that they are damn expensive though. I cringe at the thought of replacing my old one and am NOT doing that unless its imperative. :|

</comment><comment><USER29> I like my MBP, but if I got a different job and was picking a laptop, I'd first figure out what the rest of the team is using. At my current job, the whole team I'm on (and most of the company) use Macs, so bringing new people into projects is easy because pretty much everyone has the same setup.

If everyone here used Windows, I'd probably begrudgingly switch.

</comment><comment><USER30> Because of Terminal. It means most software you would use on a web server will install easily with the help of HomeBrew etc...

I've seen developers waste an entire week trying to get basic things like docker to run on Windows...

I'm sure things have gotten better in Windows land, but now that I already have my Macbook, the impetus for change is just not there...

<comment><USER31> I have read a fair bit about Python being a mess on Macs recently, and a few years ago Java was apparently a mess. I don't use a mac so I wouldn't know, but is it really just a case of installing things easily on a Mac?

<comment><USER32> If it's available on Homebrew and up to date(!), then most of the time it's two or three commands to install. However, when homebrew doesn't do the job 100%, then you are likely better off trying to build from source rather than play around with how homebrew works to "fix" its install

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I don't own a MBP, but I use one for work, so this is mostly geared toward a work environment.

I was "that one jackass who uses Linux instead of OSX" at a previous company. At my current job, I use a MBP like everyone else.

I don't think the MBP sucks; for me, an external keyboard and Bluetooth mouse solve almost all the annoyances. I find that things work a little more smoothly when I'm using the same operating environment as everyone else. Getting help when things don't work is easier, too. I have confidence that things like screen sharing will work and not cause me grief. If there's an app that my company wants to use, I just download and run it without checking if there's a Linux version.

The bottom line is that it's a lot of little conveniences that add up, with little downside.

</comment><comment><USER34> My 2012 MBP is still going strong and I see no need to replace it. That never happend to me with Windows laptops that I used for a decade before that.

I love the trackpad of MBPs. The aesthetics and physical build are good. The OS hardly ever gets in my way. The UI has been stable and usable and improving over the last 6 years of use. Apple's hardware service has been great (had video card issue a couple of years ago - $200 flat rate fix got me new motherboard, new screen with top cover, new video card). It has all the ports I need. Magsafe connector is genious. The display is crystal clear and high res.

I have had a genuinely good experience with my 2012 MBP. Barring bad hardware luck and missteps by Apple like the touch bar, people complaining about MBPs are being nitpicky.

</comment><comment><USER35> In my opinion there is no alternative. In the new MacBook pro the keyboard feels great. I have access to UNIX terminal and access MS office Apps. More over Apple commitment (so far) to privacy keeps you safe.

</comment><comment><USER36> Because, like monarchy, they are still the least worst option when considering both the OS and hardware combined, for most people.

The issues with the latest macbooks are real and severe, but running windows or linux, even on nice hardware like an X1, remains a sufficiently annoying and disruptive change to stop people. We can all hope that eventually this will change, but as of right now I don't see a forcing function.

<comment><USER37> > Because, like monarchy, they are still the least worst option

Traditionally, that description is applied to _democracy_...

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I got mine in 2015 and I love it. I'll have to replace the touchpad cable later today, but I'm pretty sure it'll survive.

This 2015 model comes with MagSafe, USB-A, and a physical Escape key: all features you won't find on the newest model.

I won't be buying another Mac. But I do love this one.

Next laptop will probably be some Dell XPS, Lenovo X1, or Surface Pro. It'll depend on what I'll need at work.

<comment><USER39> The only thing I miss from my 2015 MBP is the MagSafe charger. Hardware wise, everything else now is better I think, even the touch bar which actually means there's some utility for me in that space of the keyboard – I never used the Fn-keys and a software Esc key doesn't bother me one bit.

Now the software though... so, many, bugs!

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> 1\. Homebrew 2\. iTerm 3\. Cmd + R for recovery mode 4\. A multi touch trackpad. Move quickly between workspaces. 5\. Fast! I have 500GB with 16GB RAM. Yes its expensive for I get, but I had bad times relying on windows laptop. 6\. Save and restore Application states after reboot! 7\. VIM! I love vim. 8\. Blend of linux and Xwindows.

This things are top of my list. I use windows PC just for gaming. :)

</comment><comment><USER41> An additional reason: When they came out, the latest updates on the (other) existing machines had been looooong ago.

I had been very happy with a succession of MacBook Airs, and when my machine died end of 2016, I wanted to get a new laptop running macOS, and they were basically all years old - except the shiny new MBP, which I got (despite saying they suck, for the price at any rate).

</comment><comment><USER42> The one I bought 6 years ago is finally beginning to fade, so I am replacing it with a new one that is the 2015 model with the non-touch-dealie keyboard.

Most of my friends who rail against macbook pro are about the keyboard issues. This model has the older style keyboard and none of the issues.

</comment><comment><USER43> I have been looking at the Lenovo X1 Carbon or a Surface Pro to replace my aging MacBook Air.

<comment><USER44> My main machine for the past few years has been Lenovo X1 Carbon from a few gens ago - have had a great experience. Dual boots windows and Ubuntu without issue, battery life is great, performance is great with 16G/SSD/i7, feels well built and keyboard is as good as any that I've had on a Thinkpad. The only thing I miss from the MBP is the trackpad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> If you can get used a TrackPoint (the nub thing on ThinkPads) or similar on another brand it's probably a better alternative to a MBP. I did as of a few years ago and would never go back to the imprecise and slow navigation with a trackpad.

</comment><comment><USER46> I have thinkpads of various kinds for work and home and run linux mostly. MBPs do suck.

</comment><comment><USER7> Company where I work decided it is simpler to buy macbooks for everyone than handle each request separately.

Would never buy it with my own money, but it kind of works although I still could not get macvim to read my font settings from .vimrc

</comment><comment><USER47> Lenovo X1 Carbon user here. Never touched any Apple product in my entire life.

<comment><USER43> Do you have the touch screen? If so, thoughts?

<comment><USER47> Yeah, I do. Just wanted to try it a couple of years ago. Honestly -- not worth it (on Linux HiDPI is not there where I wanted it to be, plus with my love of bitmap fonts, it can be hard), especially in a heavily shortcut-powered WM (I use Fluxbox and bspwm occasionally). But that's just me.

My next workhorse will still be X1 nextgen, but with regular 1080p resolution and matte screen. Much much better. Like my Zenbook at home -- which is ideal for me, but less powerful for work-related tasks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Moreanecdata:spacekeydoesn'twork.IlovethenewMBP</sarcasm>

</comment><comment><USER48> Why is there much more discussion about apple laptops than thinkpads? I feel linux on thinkpad would the most efficient combination for people who call themselves 'hackers'

<comment><USER49> Thinkpads are no longer the high quality machines they once were...

Apple should devote more effort to the MBP lineup (in particular a higher end machine with up to 64 GB of ECC RAM like Dell and HP offer), but the MBPs hit a sweet spot for development in many ways.

You can always run Linux in a VM if you really need to do something with Linux...

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Overpriced, and macOS is not hackable, no touch screen, not much apps as windows.

ChromeOS with Linux apps support + Android for mobile / desktop (like samsung dex dock) will kill them all !!!

</comment><comment><USER51> High price, but really good hardware. Battery life is amazing, the screen is amazing. Its not 4k, but high enough DPI. Plus computers with 4k screen have crappy battery life.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'd complain a lot less if there was a vendor selling an alternative Linux/Unix solution with a comparable quality of hardware/software integration.

</comment><comment><USER53> I think it comes down to a few adages... You can please all of the people some of the time, you can please some of the people all of the time...

and

trackpad size is like salt, you can have too much.

</comment><comment><USER54> Because for the people you describe, they love MBP's and no other option comes close for what they prefer, but with love comes wanting it to be more perfect.

</comment><comment><USER55> I am still using my 2008 MacBook Pro, upgraded with SSD. It's on its third replacement battery, but I only get 3-4 hours use, if even that.

My next laptop will be a Surface.

</comment><comment><USER56> You get unix that JustWorks© a GREAT touchpad, mostly good battery life, the OS and HW quality has gotten worse, but they're still solid mahines

</comment><comment><USER57> It's like what Churchill said about democracy: "it's the worst system of governance, with the exception of any other system that was ever used"

</comment><comment> jtxiii-be The plural of an anecdote is not data. People who don't have any problem with the MBP don't complainte about it.

<comment><USER58> > The plural of an anecdote is not data

Well of course it is. Data isn't some magically objective set of golden truth, it's just a collection of recorded observations.

If the only observations are negative, it's still data. Data doesn't self- testify as to its holisticity or accuracy.

I could compile daily records of my personal experiences commuting on the bus. That's still data even without the driver's perspective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> when the touchbar macs with only usb c ports came out I went to the used market and bought the best used macbook pro I could find that still had hdmi, thunderbolt and USB.

I love my macbook, but mainly I love having a *nix based operating system. Windows is starting to get it and so in the next iteration of hardware I might switch over.

<comment><USER22> Apple still sells the 2015 MacBook Pro new.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> because companies will only provide mbps

</comment><comment><USER61> I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro from the Apple Refurb store - very happy with it: USB ports and good keyboard.

</comment><comment><USER62> I don't — I use a laptop from Zareason. It runs Debian, and I'm happy with it.

</comment><comment><USER63> What's the alternative? Linux? Windows? Take the top 10 most valuable Tech companies in the world. Their dev folks use Macs and probably MBP's. Do you really think you need something better than that? Again, it does not exist... doesn't stop us from making a lot of money shipping code.

</comment><comment><USER64> Same reason I wear Nike's despite them being uncomfortable. Brand ego

</comment><comment><USER65> obviously their money is already spent, and exchanging mbp for a proper laptop is not always worth it

and there are always people that just don't know better

and mbp ca. 2015 is pretty usable and not terribly expensive

</comment><comment><USER66> Real hackers plug in an ergodox anyway, so keyboard is a non-issue

</comment><comment><USER67> the main problem for people complaining about the new macbooks pro is the keyboard. just buy a silicone keyboard cover protection and it's working great!

<comment><USER68> This is my biggest gripe with the new MBP's - and I never thought of this. Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> system76 laptops are really nice and you know the hardware works in Linux. Google them. I've used one for five years and love it.

</comment><comment><USER70> PC architecture is trash, and the overall consumer market for PC hardware is a race-to-the bottom.

That being said, as PC hardware goes, MacBook Pro is at least tolerable.

</comment><comment><USER71> I will continue to jump through hoops in order to get the integrated experience of macOS. There is a huge gap between developing on Windows and Mac.

<comment><USER72> Yes, there is a huge gap. Windows has way better development tools and the OS is leaps ahead of the Mac OS.

<comment><USER34> That depends on your tools and platforms of choice. For most open source stuff, Windows has less support than Linux and macOS because it usually requires tweaks (build tools, libs, etc).

<comment><USER32> I usually see this as a purposeful choice of open source teams and developers. It's not like you CAN'T create an easy and thorough build process for Windows machines. Even if you ignore turning it into a VS solution, batch files can do the job, but nobody is willing to do the extra work because they personally don't use Windows so it won't benefit them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER73> Buy the older ones (2014-ish) from ebay

</comment><comment><USER65> obviously they don't have any money for a proper laptop after buying such an expensive device

</comment><comment><USER74> Alienware R15

</comment><comment><USER75> macOS

</comment><comment><USER76> trackpad

</comment><comment><USER72> The only reason I have one: You need it to build and test iOS apps. If you're working with mobile apps, you can't afford to ignore iOS.

Other than that - can't stand Apple, iOS or Macs.

</comment><comment><USER77> Mediocre hardware and specs at an ultra premium price. What's not to like?</comment>


Study: Babies can learn better from TV than books - <AUTHOR> http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/experimenting-babies/201309/babies-can-learn-better-tv-books

<comment><USER2> A case of bad being better than worse?

Babies are all about sensory input, and need a great deal of hands-on (and mouth-on) contact for learning. TV at least has a lot of dynamic visual & audio stimulation, while admittedly books are static and visual-only ... and both place the content beyond a flat smooth surface.</comment>


New Scientist: Top 10 ways to make better decisions - <AUTHOR> http://www.fabricegrinda.com/?p=196 <comment><AUTHOR> I like number 10 "Ask someone else".

I would add number 11: Flip a coin. Works for me :)</comment>


A beginners guide to train travel in the USA - <AUTHOR> https://www.seat61.com/UnitedStates.htm <comment><USER2> Actual (and better) title: "A beginner's guide to Train travel in the USA"</comment>


Reddit starts listing trending subreddits to drive users to smaller communities - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/10/reddit-starts-listing-trending-subreddits-to-get-more-users-into-its-smaller-communities/

<comment><AUTHOR> First experiment of its kind I've seen without an overwhelmingly negative response from the Reddit community [1]

Well done. Now, how close are they from targeted ads?

[1] [http://www.reddit.com/r/trendingsubreddits/comments/22pwe7/t...](http://www.reddit.com/r/trendingsubreddits/comments/22pwe7/trending_subreddits_for_20140410_roddlysatisfying/)</comment>


Ask HN: Why is multi-seat out of the box is taking forever to arrive in Linux? - <AUTHOR> Multi-seat software for Windows like Aster for Windows 10 etc. do a good job of catering multiple users from a single machine using multiple displays, display cards / heads and USBs. Am I wrong in thinking that Linux should provide out of the box multi-seat with minimal configuration so as to minimise initial investment on hardware, recurring energy cost, maintenance cost and the environmental fingerprint making it attractive for IT managers and school administration. This will also provide the much needed push to Linux on Desktop, especially in developing countries. How can we influence to make this a priority? <comment><USER3> It's not taking forever. It already happened years ago and was effectively abandoned. Once upon time, back before the X11 server became so dependent on kernel facilities, it was relatively easy to setup a multi-seat box.

And don't forget--X11 is a networked protocol. It's still easy to run X apps from a server to be displayed on a local dumb client. But much like the evolution of the X server itself, the GUI and toolkit projects (Gnome, KDE, Wayland/Weston, etc) have neither the time nor inclination to invest in this use case. And so there's been a slow, two decade-long regression in this regard. And it's only going to get worse.

<comment><AUTHOR> Any ideas how can I influence the development. I know at least a dozen IT and school people who want this and I might be able to mobilize even more.

People who want to see Linux on the desktop may be more interested to see this happen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What do you think is missing at the moment? Ubuntu has a simple setup page, so you don't need extra software [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultiseatTeam/Instructions](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultiseatTeam/Instructions)

There's also a number of companies selling desktop terminals you can connect to anything running NX. (Or some other server)

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it should be a no-brainer e.g. Aster for Windows 7 and 10. It is plug and play with a simple GUI configuration step. The instructions you have mentioned are more than three years old.

Unless it is easily available, it is not going to be used. As soon as you get into desktop terminals, there is dependency on an outside vendor which then becomes a vendor lock.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure why being more than 3 years old is an issue - the functionality was supported for longer than that time. The setup is close to trivial - <USER2> you're aware of the multi seat configuration, you should be able to follow the simple 6 steps. I mean, you started from "I need a custom-built computer with N video cards and enough hubs for 2N USB ports", so we're not exactly talking beginners here.

<comment><AUTHOR> People used to Windows are just like beginners for Linux. It is difficult to empathise with a beginner but there are just too many versions, different for single card, multiple cards, X, gdm, xephyr etc., making it abstruse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why bother with multi-seat when you can get a decent SoC computer like a Raspberry Pi Zero W for $5? If multi-seat is an option for you, you probably aren't doing anything highly CPU or GPU intensive anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually, want to use multi-cores which are so prevalent today - you can run Netbeans IDE for Java / PHP / JavaScript on them with good memory which I don't thinks SoCs can handle. I need much more CPU than SoCs but will be happy with a single / two core(s). Four to six developers would then be able to use a single machine with decent RAM with dramatically reduced maintenance.</comment></comment>


How do you stay motivated when you see your idea executed by someone else? - <AUTHOR>

I often think of an imagined solution to an imagined problem and promptly get madly excited about it. The first thing I usually do at this point is check domain name availability. The second thing I do is look for websites/apps that already implement this solution.
I explore the websites and find places where I can improve the UX, add features, etc., but my excitement vanishes the moment I see a moderately well-executed solution. My thinking goes like this: even if I do start working on this and get somewhere, they'd always have an edge over me since they've already learned so much about this space and (gasp) have real users, so I don't stand a chance.
Am I simply lacking in coming up with ideas/solutions, or is this a barrier I should somehow break through? What do you do in similar situations? <comment><USER2> Here's what I do in similar situations (inspired by 4SE).

1\. I identify the customer value derived from my product/idea.

2\. Understand and identify market type: a) Existing market: People know about the product, the problem it is solving. b) New market: Even if there are other players out there, it's still not commonly understood by customer why it matters

3\. How to position yourself. a) Existing market, you need a something different... this is what I ask myself: * Can I provide the same value for cheaper? * Can I provide more value for similar price? * Can I focus on a a subset of the market (e.g. niche), and adapt better to it?

b) New market: The challenge for new markets is not so much how 'good' the product is, but rather how good you are are explaning to customers why you matter. So I ask myself: * Can I make it simpler/more understandable? * Can I get better market adoption through my own techniques?

If I don't answer "yes" to any of those questions, I either rethink to idea so it fits one of those cases, or move on. Hope this helps :)

</comment><comment><USER3> When I started my current company a few years ago, there were a few competitors in the space. Currently, the space is mostly dominated by us and another new entrant and we have expanded the market beyond what it encompassed before.

There are many reasons behind this outcome. The other new entrant and us definitely have better products. However, in addition, some incumbents just didn't innovate as fast while others just lost focus. There are also companies that ran out of money.

Both Dropbox and Hipmunk demonstrated how it is possible to enter a competitive space and win.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, the truth is we rarely come up with original ideas.

In the end what you want to do is realize your vision, because after all, that's what makes your product unique.

You simply have to come up with better marketing tactics than the other guy. Sometimes consumer curiousity is enough to get your foot in the door.

If it really looks that bad, you could always look for a niche in the market :), be it location, specifics or users - remember consumers are more important than the competition.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have lots of ideas. They're mostly things I want. Seeing one implemented successfully elsewhere means that I'm having good ideas and that I can solve the problem by simply throwing money at it and move on to something else.

Or, I can straight up compete with them and let them do the hard work of explaining to people what the heck we're both doing. The most successful company is rarely the first one out the gate.

</comment><comment><USER6> Figure out how well they're doing. Did you find 10 apps doing the same? Or just 1? Are they growing? Do they have lots of customers? (ie. read their blog, their jobs page etc.)

If the market is growing, figure out how, with a less mature product (at first), you could capture a part of that. If it's not growing, they've un- validated the idea for you :)

</comment><comment><USER7> It's impossible to do anything if you have to look for a completely novel idea.

I like the lean startup concept. Keep the costs low and just forge ahead. Once you've started on the idea, you'll learn a lot more about the field, and be able to innovate in areas that you previously never dreamt of.

Just get going : )

</comment><comment><USER8> I think this is a symptom of lack of domain knowledge. If you knew the problem in the domain extremely well and was confident, I think one would want to forge ahead, and start building it because he/she knows exactly what users want.

</comment><comment><USER9> If only the best birds sang in the forest. It would be pretty quiet.

<comment><USER10> And they would have nothing pushing them to be the best birds, so it would be pretty unpleasant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Related anecdote:

When we first started, the niche for our first retail site was already dominated by several existing companies. Like idiots who didn't know any better, we went ahead anyway.

Fast forward a few years: We now _own_ several of the aforementioned companies.

<comment><USER7> Hey David, that's really inspiring. What do you think differentiated you from the rest of them when you first started?</comment></comment>


Listen to Do Things That Don't Scale - <AUTHOR> https://play.ht/#/articles/c8cab8a7c3b84c5db4e50c7cfacee0d7 <comment><USER2> The computer generated voice makes the audio unlistenable _for me_.</comment>


Jetty gets 'SPDY' - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/news/2012/03/jetty-spdy <comment><USER2> Now added to the small list of SPDY enabled sites as I find them:

<https://www.webtide.com/> <https://twitter.com> <https://spdytest.com> <https://spdy-twitlog.indutny.com> <https://www.codecentric.de> (and of course google.com, gmail and youtube.com)

Of course the number will explode in a few months but fun to know the handful in the "early days".

ps. SPDY indicator for Firefox 11+ [https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/spdy-indicato...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/spdy-indicator/)

<comment><USER3> Why will it explode in a few months?

<comment><USER4> Because right now you have to intentionally "hack" your server to include it, once it's part of some standard components, it will be used automatically, or at least will be easy enough to add. I think nginx is working on including it in the default setup.

<comment><USER5> And just in time they announced on Twitter "Early prototype of nginx/SPDY works in the lab" <https://twitter.com/#!/nginxorg/status/182176707275534336>

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the replies. Last time I looked there was an experimental apache mod that looked dead, and not much else. Glad to see activity again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a bonus, the "npn-boot" jar to extend the Java SSL implementation with the necessary next_protocol_negotiation extension support also allows access to the server_name extension. This should mean that you could implement server SNI support in Java, which allows SSL virtual hosting for supported clients.</comment>


OCaml-TLS: ASN.1 and notation embedding - <AUTHOR> http://openmirage.org/blog/introducing-asn1

<comment><USER2> If you like this, you will probably be interested in this:

 _Everything you Never Wanted to Know about PKI but were Forced to Find Out_ , by Peter Gutmann: [http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/pkitutorial.pdf](http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/pkitutorial.pdf)

Also, this, by the same person: _X.509 Style Guide_

[http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/x509guide.txt](http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/x509guide.txt)

<comment><USER3> Second link was hanging, for me. For convenience:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20131205072701/http://www.cs.auck...](http://web.archive.org/web/20131205072701/http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/x509guide.txt)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The reason that ASN.1 has all those wacky representations of stings is that it was designed to allow interoperation between many different devices IBM's ebcdic and Telex being two that come to mind.

Takes me back to debugging OSI stacks for BT using a 409 and the days when I used to quote my phone number (and my telex number) on my CV as an x121 address ( form 1 variant 3 )

<comment><AUTHOR> A lot of those devices are probably still around and being happily used in production.

I wonder for how many years in the future people will still have to fire up their HaskOCamlCoqda 10.4 ASN.1 library to deserialize EBCDIC over an ancient (gasp, wired!) serial port...

<comment><USER4> I wonder if they have put in the extra code for handling invalid code ICL famously used zero indexing on one bit of x.400 that mandated "must start from 1" (and you wonder why the UK doesn't have a mainframe maker anymore).

and don't get me started on the bodged stack from sprint which blindly ignored the spec!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I also had a lot of fun with ASN.1 a few years ago when I was writing an SMS message codec for an anti-spam/fraud system. Its actually a really flexible system and though it has its issues, it also has some really good design decisions. I always found it to be quite interesting, at least.

I do have some less than fond memories staring and BER encoded SMS messages in Wireshark, however...

</comment><comment><USER6> " _ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation, version one) is a way to describe on-the- wire representation of messages._ "

Well, technically, no. ASN.1 is a way to _define_ messages and multiple representations for them.

It would be possible, I believe, to describe an Internet Protocol message and there might exist an encoding that would allow you to read and write IP packets, but the first is likely not easy and the second is definitely not standard.

Here's a description of the fun I had a while back attempting to talk to an Active Directory server using AD's variant of LDAP (which is an import from the ISO OSI stack and uses ASN.1):

[http://maniagnosis.crsr.net/2009/09/authenticating- against-a...](http://maniagnosis.crsr.net/2009/09/authenticating-against- active-directory.html)

<comment><USER7> I think, where the author wrote "ASN.1", they meant to say "DER".

<comment><USER6> _Exactly!_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In vein of general ASN.1 trivia in other comments, how many people rememer the ASN.1 doom of 2002?

Almost everything running SNMP had remote pre-auth vulns and on multiple levels - on the ASN.1 encoding side plus on the levels above that. And most of the SNMP managed gear was things like routers and switches and printers that were a nightmare to upgrade, or even exhaustively enumerate in your network.

[https://www.cert.org/historical/advisories/CA-2002-03.cfm](https://www.cert.org/historical/advisories/CA-2002-03.cfm)

<comment><AUTHOR> watching the error path cleanups in libasn1 in LibreSSL is scary indeed. It's a very complex API indeed, compared to something like the PolarSSL implementation. Undoubtedly more such bugs lurking that will affect routers, printers and other embedded gear for decades to come.</comment></comment>


Apple Killing Web Apps - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/awebdeveloper/apples-killing-web-apps-fe161ee049be <comment><USER2> I don't have a problem with this specific thing. Both Apple and Google are doing things like adding links to apps. This obviously won't please the die- hard web fanatics, but I think that this is a positive development. Something has to be done to avoid the Electron performance disaster that has befallen the desktop, and the only solution I can see is to go native.

Having said that, not being able to install apps from outside the App Store is a major problem. It's not healthy for our society, in the long-term, for the App Store and Google Play stores to be limiting the content as they do.

Solution? Let's campaign for openness in native apps! This way, we're not caught in the position of telling users that they have to put up with inferior UX and low battery life in exchange for freedom from central control.

</comment><comment><USER3> So you published two articles on the same day about the same topic! I think it's more effective to put them together in one piece and thoroughly cover the topic. The chance of someone actually reading a series on these type of subjects is very slim.

I just saw the other one and I noticed that both are from the same author. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24325355](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24325355)</comment>


Show HN: CodeOut, a real time multiplayer coding game - <AUTHOR> http://www.staticshowdown.com/app/teams/b609d7b3d62870cf8ba3cb620fcdb34d/entry

<comment><AUTHOR> This past weekend, Erik Isaksen, Adi Chikara and I built this app for the Static Showdown hackathon with AngularJS and Firebase. The idea is that anyone can issue a challenge, invite their friends, and compete in real time to solve a randomly selected programming problem. Spectators can watch a challenge and see the contenders working in real time, right in the browser. We're calling it CodeOut.

While there are a few obvious missing features that we didn't have time to complete inside 48 hours, like code evaluation and scoring, the basic idea is up and running (bugs and all). You can see it in action here: [http://ss14-team-144.divshot.io/](http://ss14-team-144.divshot.io/). Erik also made this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gurIfcMZq14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gurIfcMZq14)

HN, we'd love your feedback and support to win "Crowd Favorite". If you like this app, please help us out by tweeting: [https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F...](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.staticshowdown.com%2Fapp%2Fteams%2Fb609d7b3d62870cf8ba3cb620fcdb34d%2Fentry&text=Check%20out%20CodeOut!%20by%20ACE&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Fss14-team-144.divshot.io&via=staticshowdown)

</comment><comment><USER2> It was a great time and it's a project we really enjoyed working on and will continue working on.</comment>


How Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-ev-oil-crisis/ <comment><USER2> There are few routes more prone to vast error than extrapolating exponential growth far into the future. It may well be the case that electric cars will prove a vastly important technology, but I can't help but laugh at the graph extrapolating into 2040, with actual data just one point on the graph all way to the left.

<comment><USER3> I sure hope that their estimates are wrong. Only 35% of _new_ cars being electric by 2040 sounds depressingly little...

<comment><USER4> Wait until you find out that the electricity will come from coal. We haven't solved the clean electricity problem either. Even at _only_ 35%, they're going to need a lot to of electricity.

"There's another side to this EV equation: Where will all this electricity come from? By 2040, electric cars will draw 1,900 terawatt-hours of electricity, according to BNEF. That's equivalent to 10 percent of humanity's electricity produced last year."

<comment><USER5> The extra electricity required is often estimated to be much less then you'd expect.

One reason is that refining crude oil uses electricity. Some people (such as Elon Musk) even claim that the electricity used to refine gasoline is so great, that it roughly equals the amount of electricity that an electric car would require to go the same distance as a gasoline powered car. In other words, no extra electricity is required.

A short video on the topic: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpX-9OyEr4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpX-9OyEr4)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If the world really does move away from oil in wholesale, this will be good for the environment but terrible for the middle east. It will likely trigger the biggest mass migration that the world has ever seen.

<comment><USER7> How hard would it be to convert their economies to plastics manufacturing as Dutch disease wanes?

<comment><USER6> I do not know, what I do know is their economies at this time rely heavily on oil exports and importing everything else. Places like Dubai only function because of tax free status propped up by oil. It would take a lot of plastic, and we are talking about multiple countries as well in the same situation.

[http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/151022160934-cheap...](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/151022160934-cheap- oil-middle-east-780x439.png)

If oil prices dont recover in the next 1 - 2 years we will likely see massive policy changes in the oil producing countries, which are likely to be very unpopular.

<comment><USER8> "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." \- Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who made Dubai into a trade hub.

Oil states that passed peak oil haven't done well afterward. Egypt peaked in 1992[1], and came apart politically on the way down. Libya peaked in 2008.[2] (Much of that was a war, but they never came back.) Saudi Arabia doesn't seem to be near peak output yet, but they're well below peak revenue. This is a real threat to the country's stability, which is purchased with big handouts. This was a story on YC about two days ago.

[1] [http://crudeoilpeak.info/egypt](http://crudeoilpeak.info/egypt) [2] [http://crudeoilpeak.info/libya-peak-oil](http://crudeoilpeak.info/libya-peak- oil)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Where's all the power going to come from to power these EVs? The grid won't be able to support the growth of EV's without some major investments.

This would require more coal and gas plants, which is not helping the environment any.

<comment><USER10> This is addressed in the article:

> The good news is electricity is getting cleaner. Since 2013, the world has > been adding more electricity-generating capacity from wind and solar than > from coal, natural gas, and oil combined.

with a link to: [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil- fue...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil-fuels-just- lost-the-race-against-renewables)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Electric cars /= no more burning oil.

It's hard to find numbers, but the oil burnt to move passenger cars is nowhere near the entirety of oil consumption, even if looking only at transportation. Cars are not trucks. An electric replacement of the diesel semi-trailer remains a long way off. Cars are also not ships (big consumers) aircraft or trains (smaller consumers). Getting to the point that we are no longer burning oil for purposes of transportation is far harder than everyone getting a tesla.

Has anyone seen a practical attempt at an electric long-haul truck, container ship, or other large diesel engine?

<comment><USER12> Big ships are often electric, granted they don't run on battery's. However, big ships are really efficient, we use significantly more fuel on trucks than ships.

EX: 28 feet/gallon sounds bad but * that by 14,770 containers and that's the equivalent of an 18 wheeler truck getting 78MPG. (Actual 18 wheeler get ~5-7 MPG which is not bad considering the load.)

[http://www.instructables.com/community/Fuel-economy-of- the-w...](http://www.instructables.com/community/Fuel-economy-of-the-worlds- longest-in-service-shi/)

<comment><USER11> True. There are a great many diesel-electric drives out there (mining trucks). I'm more concerned with the energy density. The batteries needed to power a container ship crossing an ocean would be monumental.

Ships are very very fuel efficient, by far the most efficient means of moving goods over distance. But they are also a large percentage of oil consumers (20% ?). So even though they are very efficient, they need to be addressed and their emissions somehow reduced.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hopefully all the growth won't come from a few players like the combustion engine automotive industry. Just putting a battery on a car won't help the environment, we need to rethink mobility as a circular economy. We need to use existing facilities, we need to fight planned obsolescence with standard components and modular design to foster a distributed manufacturing ecosystem. More players, more competition, more innovation, lower prices, less pollution. [http://www.investmentbank.barclays.com/our- insights/disrupti...](http://www.investmentbank.barclays.com/our- insights/disruptive-mobility.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> The autonomous angle is also the wild-card along with the vehicle ownership notions. If our norms of vehicle ownership change, we can actually end up with significantly more BEVs and PHEVs. Remember GM highlighted Lyft when they were show casing Bolt EV. The S curve is not that far off, even with cheap oil.

<comment><USER15> Autonomous and shared vehicles works more in favor of electrical than combustion engine:

1\. Autocharging is a trivial feature to implement. Charging times and range matter less.

2\. In Uber/Lyft you don't chose car, but your provider does. Assuming electrical cars will have better economy there is less legacy/nostalgia barriers.

<comment><USER16> Additionally, as the proportion of time utilized goes up (as it usually does for shared vehicles like taxis and Uber/Lyft), the cost of fuel and maintenance becomes more important relative to the initial price of the car, making the economics even better for electrics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I am pro electric cars as I am to have a Tesla one day. Never liked cars until electric cars came around the block.

</comment><comment><USER18> Can't wait for electric cars to takeover the entire automobile market.

</comment><comment><USER19> the oil not used in petrol cars will be used to make electricity for the electric cars... so demand for oil will go up..

<comment><USER16> a) according to the IEA as cited by Wikipedia, oil only accounts for 5.5% of global electricity generation. The proportion is even smaller in most developed countries listed, where I would expect new car technologies to take off first.

b) even that electricity is generated more efficiently than energy in a car engine - power plants generally don't have to make compromises in order to reduce weight.

<comment><USER19> a) part a) is before.. so irrelevant a) part b) is guess.. so no better than anything I have said

b) incorrect.. as burning a fuel to directly produce mechanical energy that is used as mechanical energy is more efficient than.. burning fuel to produce mechanical energy to drive a generator to make electricity, to store it, to retrieve it, and then drive an electrical motor, to produce mechanical energy to use.</comment></comment></comment>


Android Hardening project has been renamed to GrapheneOS - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/DanielMicay/status/1111344135452004352 <comment><USER2> So like Graphene it can do everything except get out of the lab? :)

Just kidding, been slightly following the better-Android OSes and it's a good idea.</comment>


Show HN: notetoweb.com Convert your Evernote notes to a website - <AUTHOR> https://notetoweb.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hello,

Ive just released a project Ive been working on, Id really appreciate feedback.

Thanks.

<comment><USER2> Looks interesting! I'd love to see a link to a demo.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, there are now a few demos at [https://blog.notetoweb.com](https://blog.notetoweb.com).</comment></comment></comment>


Librem 5 vs. Android – Which boots faster? - <AUTHOR> https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-vs-android-which-boots-faster/ <comment><USER2> boot up speed is critical in an emergency when a phone is needed, but the sleeping phone wakes up to tell you !battery is dead! so crucial time is lost swapping battery or plugging in then how much more time booting up? My primary desire for a mobile phone is to be able to access its features rapidly, if im using mobile, i cant wait till i get home or find a public phone [where ever those are nowadays]</comment>


Tiers of answers to half-baked questions - <AUTHOR> https://blog.plover.com/2020/04/24#half-baked <comment><USER2> That's what a good Ph.D advisor does. However, Stackoverflow does not have that many people who can play that role. So, it ends up in the range of answers described there.</comment>


Rich Kids Shatter Silicon Valley's Golden Meritocracy Image - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/04/rich-kids-shatter-silicon-valleys-golden-meritocracy-image/50784/

<comment><USER2> I may have misread this, but I'm confused about the point of the article. It seems like the article is reporting that 'the nerds of Silicon Valley are all upset' that rich people are getting rewarded for success in a meritocracy.

So, if that's the point of the article (and I missed a sarcastic twist somewhere - very possible), I have two problems with it.

First, where are these meetings I've been missing where all the nerds of Silicon Valley get together and decide what they like and what they don't like? I for one did not vote on the Meritocracy Referendum - was this my mistake, or were other nerds disenfranchised in that regional election?

Second, isn't that exactly what meritocracy entails? The key is that at any generation, in a true meritocracy absolutely anyone with a good idea (or work ethic, etc.) will be rewarded and elevate themselves. But beyond that, the general social flow will be that reward begets affluence, affluence begets smarter or more upwardly-mobile children (I'll say 'better', meaning better in a sense valued by the meritocracy), better children do better in the meritocracy, and the system repeats.

Put it another way - the youngest generation of rich entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are the children of successful hackers (or at least some of them are). Is this surprising anyone?</comment>


Show HN: Create font in your own handwriting style - <AUTHOR> https://copymonkey.xyz/ <comment><USER2> I did this in high school (albeit in a much simpler way) by writing every letter on the keyboard on a sheet of paper, scanning it, and using a free program to make a font out of each character.

I calibrated my MS Word settings so that I could print directly onto a sheet of notebook paper, saving me from having to hand-write a bunch of drafts in English class.

<comment><USER3> How could your teachers not notice that you were clearly using printer ink instead of pen ink or graphite? The materials are pretty easily distinguishable in how they dry and smear.

<comment><USER2> Either they were too busy shuffling through other papers to care, or they didn't care because I was their best student.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Screw my handwriting. Go straight to EWD font and skip the intermediate steps. [https://joshldavis.com/2013/05/20/the-path-to-dijkstras- hand...](https://joshldavis.com/2013/05/20/the-path-to-dijkstras-handwriting/)

<comment><USER5> It's a bit ironic linking to that font in a blog post based on the topic of how improving your handwriting can be done through time and practice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Doesn't make sense. My handwriting looks completely different when done with a pen on paper, as it is, when done with the mouse on the screen.

This app needs an upload functionality, where I can upload scans of my handwriting.

<comment><USER7> Haven't tried it yet, but I assume one can get better results using a drawing tablet.

<comment><USER8> Used the pen with my galaxy note and the results aren't bad, but barely legible for the most part

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I absolutely love this idea, but was surprised to see a digital input for handwriting style. I was expecting something along the lines of "take an image of your handwriting and upload it".

Where does the machine learning fit in? First guess is connection between letters but ill have to wait till I'm not at a keyboard to test this out.

<comment><USER10> You take picture of your handwriting and upload it, for this site: [https://www.calligraphr.com/](https://www.calligraphr.com/)

They used to be myscriptfont.com and didn't have those premium features though. Don't know if it is better or worse.

<comment><USER11> I've used this to create a font for an app and it works well, given the effort it asks of you (not much!). It gives you a grid to print and then scrawl each letter. I brought the grid into my iPad, wrote over the top with an Apple Pencil, and then uploaded that. Here's what the grid with my handwriting looks like:

[https://imgur.com/a/urulzby](https://imgur.com/a/urulzby)

<comment><USER12> I found it actually quite hard to write exactly between the lines. I used an iPad, like you. When I upload the resulting PDF, it doesn't look great because the letters not on the same horizontal line. I tried to correct them and ran the procedure a second time, but it's going to take, in my estimation, at least an hour to get them just right. Not much for such a great tool, though.

But in general, I find it a bit hard to neatly write on the iPad. It doesn't matter much, I just use it to keep track of notes while programming and designing software. And I can read it myself just fine.

I think it's because the Pencil (version 1) feels more slippery than pen/paper while writing.

The advantage of writing on the iPad though: no more paper.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I work in a Museum, and I would LOVE to be able to upload the letters of J.F.K. or Abraham Lincoln to create a fonts based on historic personages.

</comment><comment><USER14> My handwriting is illegible (except by me for two weeks at most), I don't want to make a font that's just as impossible to read.

<comment><USER15> Could it be used as a source of entropy for cryptographic purposes?

<comment><USER16> I've often described my "signature" as "more of a one-time pad than a signature".

I honestly find it shocking that anything in the modern world still considers a signature as any form of authentication whatsoever. (Nobody _actually_ compares the signatures, and yet somehow people see signing as meaningful.)

<comment><USER17> When you sign for a credit card it's so the company can show you the signature if you think it might be fraud (forgot but recognize your signature)

They're also useful for acknowledgements in paper work.

They aren't for authenticating that you're you, they're just extra information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Awesome! Direct GitHub link: [https://github.com/swechhachoudhary/Handwriting- synthesis](https://github.com/swechhachoudhary/Handwriting-synthesis)

</comment><comment><USER19> A bit off-topic...is there any project to create one's own OCR engine customized to one's own handwriting?

</comment><comment><USER20> I've tried Microsoft Font Maker in the past to create my own font with a Surface Pro. [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-font- maker/9n920...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-font- maker/9n9209f8s3vc)

Curious to see if this one works better!

</comment><comment><USER21> Unsurprisingly much like all ML things this (presumably) only works well if you're close to the training set. Even writing out pangrams the generated text only looks a little like my handwriting.

I specifically wrote double-decker As and Gs yet the the generated data has single story ones.

</comment><comment><USER22> This is an awesome idea and a great learning project! It could be a cool tool for illustrating how different pieces of machine learning work together.

</comment><comment><USER23> I noticed that it seemed to entirely ignore that I use small caps instead of lowercase in my (non-cursive) handwriting. Pretty neat, though.

</comment><comment><USER24> Why would I want a font that nobody but me can read?

<comment><USER25> You just gave me an idea.. a font that starts out normal, but every day is updated to be slightly more deformed, until nobody but me can read it.

<comment><USER23> Sounds like my signature in a nutshell. Started out quite legible back in, what, middle school? Now it's basically a scribble.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This reminds me that I can't recall the last time I wrote something by hand.

I don't even have a pen now on my desk.

</comment><comment><USER27> Would like a tool like this that finds ligatures too. I combine certain letters when writing.

</comment><comment> d--b The font that was generated is much nicer than mine. In fact it's _very_ different

</comment><comment><USER28> I wonder what impact the commoditization of this will have on forgies and fraud.

</comment><comment><USER29> Doesn't seem to work with a pen input unfortunately.

</comment><comment><USER30> This is pretty dope</comment>


Amazon offers Texas 5,000 jobs in trade for sales-tax exemption - <AUTHOR> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015383772_amazontexas22.html <comment><USER2> "Finally, it wants the Texas comptroller's office to set up a website where its customers can send sales tax owed on Amazon purchases to the state. Historically, voluntary sales-tax payments haven't been reliable."

I thought that part of the story was a joke. _"Historically, voluntary sales- tax payments haven't been reliable."_ has got to be an understatement.

Has anyone here ever voluntarily paid sales taxes?

<comment><USER3> When I ran a business in Texas, I generally did. There were occasions where I bought parts intended to resell them, but ended up with them stuck in one of the desktop or development machines...so, I probably cheated a little bit, but not much.

But, I was under the impression individuals were not legally obligated to pay sales tax on goods from out of state, but this article makes it sound like they are. So, I never paid on individual purchases during the 15 or so years I lived in Texas.

<comment><USER4> Not that I'm some kind of tax expert, but AFAIK, "sales and use tax" is levied on categories of goods and services, regardless of where they're purchased.

There's only an obligation to COLLECT the tax by retailers with a presence in the state, but all residents of the state have to pay the tax on all purchases.

When it's collected by the retailer it's called sales tax, when it's not it's called use tax and you have to send it in yourself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Today corporations are negotiating directly with states. As equals. Not long ago, cities and counties were about the most they could swing. It won't be long until it becomes countries.

That used to strike me as extremely dystopian. Now I'm not even sure that would be so bad.

<comment><USER6> Some corporations already negotiate at national levels. GE probably does all the time with the same leverage amazon has at a state level.

<comment><USER7> Same goes for GM, large banks, etc. and those are only the ones we read about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The idea that it is valid to insert arbitrary and tangential (if not completely unrelated) laws into bills is something about the American system that baffles me.

<comment><USER9> It's nuts, do other countries have a solution to this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> While it's common practice for a city government to give tax breaks for large corporations in exchange for bringing a large number of jobs (almost like a "thank you" for bolstering the local economy), the sales-tax exemption is new to me. I had to reread the beginning of the article before it really hit me.

<comment><USER11> Keep in mind that they're already sale-tax exempt in Texas. They don't have any locations in Texas, therefore they don't have to charge sales tax.

They _want_ to open a facility in Texas, but they don't want to have to start charging sales tax. Doesn't hurt to ask.

<comment><USER12> Actually, they have had a facility in Texas for some time that they were planning on expanding. Last year, the comptroller demanded they pay back something on the order of $600M in back taxes and penalties.

<comment><USER11> oh, then it doesn't make any sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This appears to be a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. If Texas can do this for Amazon may I also request it for _my_ Texas corporation? Can I get a better deal than Amazon's? Do we now all haggle with the state about how much tax we pay?

</comment><comment><USER14> I could go the rest of my life without buying a book. There's enough information and entertainment on the Internet and among my friends.

If corporations and states require me, the consumer, to keep track of their bookkeeping for them, indeed make it dangerous to purchase something online when I don't have the time, inclination or ability to find out where each vendor's presence happens to be, I might just opt out entirely. It's the safe thing to do.</comment>


The Largest Organism on Earth - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus

<comment><USER2> I thought it was the Pando grove of aspen that is claimed to share a common root system, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29>, it's bigger by volume and weight than the Malheur honey mushroom colony.

Both claimants have the problem of it not really being possible to determine if they are merely clonal colonies with disconnections between the clones or if they are genuinely continuously connected across the whole colony.

I came across this on Wikipedia a couple of years ago I think, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms> is a good read.

</comment><comment><USER3> Paul Stamets discussed this- along with other mind blowing fungi facts- in his talk, "Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world"(2008).

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mus...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html).

<comment><AUTHOR> Very Cool, I saw this before but it was inspiring to watch again. I think that his ideas could spawn a number of startups.</comment></comment>


Malevolent Ventures – Request for Startups - <AUTHOR>

At Malevolent Ventures we love to fund smart passionate entrepreneurs who are building products to make the world a slightly worse place.  We are putting out a request for startups to apply to our program with their best ethically challenged ideas.
For instance, the last team we funded recently launched their mobile app, iObject.  Remember all the times you've been at a wedding and found yourself thinking this couple aren't right for each other.  With iObject, you just press a button and someone shows up within minutes to object to the union.  Think of it as Uber for sadness.
Now it's your turn.  Share with us your best ethically challenged (but still commercially viable) startup idea and you may even be invited to be mentored by our general partner, Bill Z. Bob <comment><USER2> WitchHammer.io

When you are in the mood for righteous indignation head over to WitchHammer to find people popular on social networks who have said things you wouldn't like. Filter the potential witches ("whiches" in the local lingo) by their popularity (the number of friends, followers or subscribers they have), the known witch friends they have, the ideologies they have defied, their state and employer. Vote on a witch to initiate a hunt. See the trending hunts. Earn karma by hunting witches with a connected social network account (a point for every message directed at the witch and for each upvote your message gets on WitchHammer). Became the top hunter of the week to have your profile featured!

Monetization strategy: sponsored hunts.

</comment><comment><USER3> Oh, there's clearly a way to productize a particularly obnoxious (and increasingly common) behavior among ethically-challenged ticket buyers, telling them what (high-quality) seats are unlikely to be occupied at a given event.

Say, for example, there is a set of front-row seats for an NBA playoff game currently unsold. The seller may have them listed on Stubhub, or NBAtickets.com (AKA TicketExchange/Ticketsnow), or on Ticket Network, or any combination of those or other resale sites.

With all Stubhub instant-fulfillment listings and TicketExchange listings, the details of the seats are listed _right down to the seat numbers_.

So, an aggregating mobile app could scan the primary sites to harvest unsold listing details as the event approaches (or, in the case of Stubhub, most events for which they don't control ticketing stay up for up to an _hour after_ the start time) and tell the user that those seats are unsold (and therefore unlikely to be legitimately occupied).

Sadly, this is going on right now - there are third party sites which are scanning prime unsold seats and taking existing valid cheap-seat tickets and _editing the section and row details_ to match the unsold listing,then selling those cheap seats as the better seats. I have experienced this firsthand with my own Sharks club seats.

This fraud problem (and other extensions of this tactic that the reader can easily guess) is exploding and will continue to do so as long as idiot venues stick with PDF (or other user-editable) ticketing and lax seat piracy enforcement.

</comment><comment><USER4> A service that connects with your bank account and phone, so whenever you make a purchase it sends you a push notification telling you how many sick kids or animals that money could've helped.

You could then choose whether to send that amount to a charity and feel less guilty or choose not to and be berated and feel more guilty about it. The service could take a small percentage of the money that is donated to charity.

Basically guilting people into sending money to charity, and making money off that guilt. It does still help people, but it does it in a way that could be considered "ethically-challenged".

</comment><comment><USER5> > this couple ISN'T right for each other. the verb should be in the singular > when its subject is a collective noun.

... a sophisticated mobile app, uSuck, which can provide grammar-nazi responses to well meaning posts.

</comment><comment><USER6> A small, battery-powered wireless router that runs on 4G. It broadcasts a configurable SSID which defaults to "Starbucks Customer Wi-Fi", and prompts users to "download secure browsing certificate", which actually downloads a (known-to-the-router) SSL cert, allowing for MitM attacks against users browsing HTTPS websites in coffee-shops. In case actually snooping the web traffic and exploiting it is too much work, the router can also replace all ads and e-commerce links with those that would pay the owner of the router. Finally, in a surprise twist, a small percentage of all injected ads and affiliate links actually benefit the company selling the routers, rather than the owner.

EDIT: I think I know what I'm doing this weekend.

</comment><comment><USER7> pron.io

A p2p service offering the latest HD series and movies that are not camcord- quality.

Sometimes directly from motion-picture studios servers.

While you watch/download/stream, this powerful, mobile, responsive, native app turns your smart device into a DDoS and bitcoin-mining botnet.

It will also offer ancillary services like upvotes, likes, retweets by hijacking your legit social-media accounts.

Raising a seed round to hire 2 devs and a marketing guy.

Startup currently in 'stealth' but you can read all about us on: angellist, crunchbase, HN and reddit (cause those are stealth too).

Contact me: email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER8> Surveillance. Mass surveillance. Really lucrative.

</comment><comment><USER9> iObject actually does not sound malevolent at all. Quite the opposite actually.

Reminds me of [http://somebodyapp.com/](http://somebodyapp.com/)

</comment><comment><USER10> >within minutes

That doesn't sound commercially viable at all.</comment>


Lambda the Ultimate on "Coders at Work" - <AUTHOR> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3613

<comment><USER2> I've always found Knuth's views curious. Is it just that he's from a different generation, or am I too much of an amateur to understand his wisdom? I don't know.

A couple of days ago he gave me a copy of his paper on Leaper graphs (On dead trees.. quaint :-) His office is a few doors from mine.) Along with a charming note about rewards for finding bugs. Anyway, Leaper graphs are the graphs that describe the moves of a generalized Knight on generalized chessboard. So I researched this some more, and found that Knuth was the first to enumerate all the Knight's tours that are invariant under 180° rotation.

At this point I'm thinking, this sounds like it could be an ICFP problem, and a language like Haskell would be ideally suited for it. Nope, turns out he wrote the program in his C variant. <http://sunburn.stanford.edu/~knuth/programs/sham.w> I'm amazed you can write that in C and have it turn out as short as it was. It also looks like it has goto's.

I really don't know what to take away from it.

<comment><USER3> The chessboard has rotational symmetry: if you turn it 180 degrees it is the same. Would not all tours be invariant under 180 degree rotation?

EDIT: Sorry, I understand now. If the knight's tour ends directly opposite it's starting position, it is invariant under 180 degree rotation.

<comment><USER2> This might help: <http://www.mathpuzzle.com/leapers.htm>

As you can see from those examples, a symmetric tour is a rather regular- looking object; a random tour has an extremely low probability of being symmetric.

<comment><USER3> Ah, thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> having sources of important systems widely (and publicly!) available as "common goods" would be a very good idea for people to learn and read what has been done in the past and how they did it.

it is admittedly very difficult to effectively grasp what has been done more than 25 years ago (even from research papers), i.e., it is hard to deduce from the papers only how APL was implemented or what boyer-moore implemented (heck, douglas comer even has a joke on "critizing" theoretical work by mentioning work by hartmanis)

EDIT: on further reflection, i think that without such an archive, there is no way around "those who do not understand history, are doomed to repeat it." which is particularly sad, since in computer science we do not face many physical problems from conservation science...

<comment><USER5> This is the main reason for so many people being busy with re-inventing the wheel.

To some extent that's the programmers mentality of 'I can do that better', but plenty of times it actually isn't better and the 'oldies' got it solved quite nicely.

The one thing that came by recently where I thought that there actually was something new happening was the thread on improving on quicksort (I can't seem to find the thread :( ).

Another instance that comes to mind is the ever improving compression ratio of lossless compressors, just when you thought the lemon was really empty someone comes up with something extremely clever.

<comment><USER6> > _This is the main reason for so many people being busy with re-inventing the > wheel._

I don't know about other people, but I'm reinventing the wheel to learn better.

An algorithm you reinvented only to discover a better version later will stick to your head. And it's also fun doing it.

Also, a library or a tool you "reinvent" is many times better for your needs considering that assembling software pieces is not actually like putting together Lego blocks (although corporates are still trying).

Quicksort reinvention is also useful, because that standard qsort you've got laying around there might not behave as you expect (like glib's qsort that uses merge-sort instead) or it might not be optimized for your datasets (because you know, depending on the partitioning function you might end up in the worst-case scenario quite a lot).

<comment><USER5> > I don't know about other people, but I'm reinventing the wheel to learn > better.

That's an excellent reason for doing so. But the GGPs point was I think people reinventing the wheel simply because they are not aware of what was done in the past.

> An algorithm you reinvented only to discover a better version later will > stick to your head. And it's also fun doing it.

That's very true. I played around with clustering for a while, then decided to get serious about it which means downloading and studying all the papers that I can find in open access journals or on websites of the authors. That way you get the best of both worlds, first you gain the experience of doing it yourself and appreciating the problems of that particular domain, then you get to see how others dealt with those problems.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Play Fishbowl at your next virtual hangout (free, open source) - <AUTHOR> https://fishbowl-game.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hola HN, author here!

I wanted to build a free, online version of a favorite party game I used to play with friends, in person... so we could continue being social, at a distance!

The first version was created and tested in ~3 weeks. Check out the source here: [https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl](https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl). It's built with Typescript, React, Material UI, Apollo GraphQL, Hasura, Express, and Postgres. And it's deployed on Render.

Thanks to a bunch of folks! The amazing Hasura community on Discord, friends for consultation on some React and deployment options, and even more friends (and friends of friends) for alpha and beta testing! More features to come soon :)

Would love any feedback or to discuss anything about the game or tech. Stay safe, and sane!

<comment><USER2> Can you describe the "party game"?

<comment><USER3> Literally the only two things on the submitted website are a picture of a fish and concise instructions on how to play the game.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is great. For demo purposes, maybe it could be nice to be able to join a game with strangers? Accumulate each four next people and then put them in a game together.

At work, we switched from zoom to [https://team.video](https://team.video), and one really cool thing about it is that you can play a collaborative word game while you wait for the meeting to get started. A small thing, but those first few minutes go from being totally frustrating to a nice little reprieve.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

That's an interesting idea - It has crossed my mind, but I haven't yet fully explored the idea of playing with strangers likely due to my own bias playing with closer groups of friends (often with inside jokes).

Maybe even a speed round or trial round that you can play by yourself before you ask your group to play together.

Are there any features of Fishbowl you might see for work friends or in a professional setting? (and thanks for the tip on team.video)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How is the game mechanics different from the Monikers?

[http://www.monikersgame.com/](http://www.monikersgame.com/)

Edit: Nevermind. Monikers is a version of the fishbowl game.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that's right - was thinking about adding "packs" like Pokemon or Celebrities, etc. to make it even easier to play! But submitting your own words or phrases makes it personal, and dynamic (different every occasion)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there a name for the "genre" of games like this? Party games played on a mobile phone in a browser using a short code to group up.

Other examples include the Jack Box party game collection and Spyfall.

<comment><USER7> Not that I know of, but I've always thought there was a cool project opportunity for a Mario Party-esque platform of minigames with room-code join- by-phone controllers.

Sony has the "PlayLink" platform on PS4 but it didn't seem to get much headway. The only game I saw any awareness of in my circles was "That's You". Looked neat enough but mostly drew Jackbox comparisons.

<comment><AUTHOR> Mario Party games would be amazing!! Similar also to n64 Pokemon Stadium mini games, which I still play once in a while today :p Great ideas for some future projects...

I'm not aware of a name to the genre, but shelter in place might give proper birth to it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't like "You need to enable JavaScript to run this app" with nothing else visible. Even if JavaScript is disabled, I should still want to be able to read the documentation, and if source code is available, to access the source code. Even if nothing else works when JavaScript is disabled, which can make sense sometimes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! Will add this to the set of issues I'm tracking. You are correct in that nothing will work when JS is disabled for this app.

Regards to the source, it can all be found here: [https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl](https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl).

</comment></comment><comment> sid-s The perfect party game for quarantime and beyond!

</comment><comment><USER9> Great job shipping and thanks for open sourcing!

</comment><comment><USER10> Anyone want to try it out? Join this lobby: OQUG (I've no idea how to play or what it is)

</comment><comment><USER11> Pumped to see this come to life! Enjoyed the initial tests and it looks great!

</comment><comment><USER12> this will be good for isolation lolz.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is great</comment>


Why cash transfers to the poor are not the next big thing - <AUTHOR> http://chrisblattman.com/2013/06/27/why-cash-transfers-to-the-poor-are-not-the-next-big-thing/

<comment><USER2> Note that this should be read as a companion piece to this HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5768570](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5768570).</comment>


Common Sense for the 21st Century (2019) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.rogerhallam.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Common-Sense-for-the-21st-Century_by-Roger-Hallam-Download-version.pdf <comment><USER2> I prefer David Deutsch's optimistic approach to our problems: use science to find solutions. Rebellion is beyond the pale. We don't need rebels; we need scientists and more good science.

"The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World" by David Deutsch

[https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations- Trans...](https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform- World/dp/0143121359)?</comment>


Forrst Introduces Promoted Posts - <AUTHOR> http://forrst.com/purchases

<comment><USER2> Indeed, they are getting turned on tomorrow. This link is behind a login though. I'll comment with the blog post once it's up tomorrow morning.</comment>