Sony's A7 III is a $2,000 full-frame mirrorless camera - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/2/26/17056162/sony-a7-iii-camera-price-specs-release-date <comment><USER3> My perception from reading tech sites has been that Sony's cameras have been really good for 5-10 years. I expected that it's one of the few Sony businesses which has been doing well recently. Looking at financial statements, that's not the case - the unit's been declining since 2012 (the earliest I looked).

Competition has been stiff, even smaller companies like Pentax, Fujifilm and Sigma have made great cameras. The lock-in effect from Nikon and Canon lenses and accessories is strong (and those companies have also made great cameras, of course). Also the whole segment is in decline due to smartphones (Sony's semiconductor business has grown a lot - I assume due to smartphone camera sensors).

Anyway, it was an interesting exercise. Financial statements are really accessible and it's good to check your assumptions with data from time to time.

<comment><USER4> they sell sensors or manufacture them for some of these other companies - <USER2> think the Fuji X-trans is manufactured on a Sony fab?

<comment><USER5> About everybody else but Canon uses Sony sensors and fab. Canon still designs their own sensors and ATM they seem to be losing the sensor tech race to Sony.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The only thing that gives Canon and Nikon momentum is lenses. People with a huge investment can't easily jump ship.

I stopped using my 5D3 a couple of years ago when I bought an A6000. I added the A6500 + 70-300mm G lens for sports (son does crew). The equivalent lens for my 5D3 would have been very, very expensive (300mm * 1.6 is 480mm, so the Canon 500mm is the closest and it's ~$5,000).

<comment><USER7> You can with the modern $400 Metabones adapter. It's cheaper than selling all the lenses and buying new ones.

<comment><USER8> ..Thanks for the info, I'm reading specs on that now.

Do you know if you loose a stop or two of aperture like you do with a doubler? i.e. if the lens is f/1.8, will it still be that mounted on the Sony?

<comment><USER9> No loss, except perhaps some vignette (for lenses whose optical path might partially clip because of the smaller E-mount flange). The adapters pass through/translate the electronic signals and set the proper flange distance. Nothing more.

<comment><USER10> I've done this (using full frame lenses with a speed booster) but have to say native Sony lenses are often really good, and half the size/weight of full frame lenses.

Also autofocus doesn't always work or is slow with the speed booster

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I looked over the images in DPReview's sample gallery [0] and I'm astounded by the noise performance. I'd consider printing an image taken at ISO 3200 or maybe even 6400 with that camera. For context, I don't think I would print an image above ISO 800 from my current camera (Canon 7D).

[0] [https://www.dpreview.com/samples/9120111657/sony-a7-iii- samp...](https://www.dpreview.com/samples/9120111657/sony-a7-iii-sample- gallery)

<comment><USER12> What happened on the woman's face here - [https://2.img- dpreview.com/files/p/TS4000x6000~sample_galler...](https://2.img- dpreview.com/files/p/TS4000x6000~sample_galleries/6769434587/5655951041.jpg)

Zoom in

<comment><USER13> This appears to be an artefact that occurs with silent shutter mode in some cases. Regular shooting mode doesn't have this problem. I've read about this but I don't know the cause.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Mirorless is becoming the new normal, and I love that Sony is pioneering this.

I own a 6000 and 6500 and they are both amazing for the pricepoint. I have been looking to invest into their full frame offering for a while now.

</comment><comment><USER15> I've been shooting a Sony NEX-7 for years. Amazing camera. The great thing about e-mount (and mirrorless in general) is that you can stick almost any old manual lens on the thing with the proper mechanical adapter. Gives you an enormous back catalog of 50 years worth of gear to play around with, much of it reasonably priced ($5 bargin bin lenses are often the most fun too, so don't bother lusting after Leica). The MC and MD Minoltas are my personal favorites lines, along with the Olympus OMs. One of those is a good, cheap way to get your feet wet

</comment><comment><USER16> This is a lovely bit of kit, and if i had stacks of spare money, i would absolutely buy one.

But. What is this for? if you want uncompromising image quality in all use cases, the A7 is competitive with Canon and Nikon, but not clearly superior. If you want the compactness that mirrorless can bring, Micro Four Thirds' smaller sensor enables very significantly smaller lenses, requiring only the sacrifice of low-light sensitivity. It think it falls between those two stools.

Mind you, i say that as a Micro Four Thirds owner. Perhaps i'm biased. Still, if i was going to add an expensive big camera to my arsenal, i'd probably jump all the way to medium format!

<comment><USER17> Depth of field changes by the equivalent of one stop from full frame to aps-c, another from aps-c to micro four thirds. Thus, a f/2.8 zoom on mft shoots like a f/5.6 zoom on full frame.

Now if there only were fast full frame lenses for Sony E ...

<comment><USER18> Proper conversion maths is:

Focal length x crop factor

Aperture x crop factor

ISO x crop factor squared

This is a general statement. Something like ISO performance can be affected by engineering if the sensor (BSI vs old tech for instance) but based on the underlying physics the above holds true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I have too much money in Fuji so I won't switch. But the A7iii looks really good. Sony's lens line up is a little thin but if they can convince Tamron and Sigma to make lenses for their mount they may be unbeatable.

<comment><USER18> Sigma just dropped a whole line of FE primes along with the announcement of the a7iii.

The lens line up is pretty good now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> For still photography only, it is bested at the same price by the Pentax K1 mkII.

Pentax has 36mp to the Sony 24mp, and not only the current lenses made by Pentax and 3rd parties for the K mount, but the entire K mount and M42 legacy lens system is easy to use as well.

Maybe I am just an old neckbeard, but the electronic gimmicks Sony has added don't impress me nor do I believe that it will improve a person's photography.

Still, if doing a mix of stills and video, the Sony wins out with superior video.

</comment><comment><USER21> amazing camera. Would have been perfect if it had 10bit log like the GH5 though.

<comment><USER7> Or even raw. I'm surprised so few cameras offer raw video support, but they all have it for the photos.

<comment><USER22> Could it be a bandwidth issue? I remember reading about 120fps 4k video on an Android phone being limited to only a few (real-time) seconds because there wasn't enough I/O bandwidth to stream the video to storage so it had to stream into a specialized hardware buffer that was relatively small and expensive.

<comment><USER7> Modern SD cards go up to 300 MB/s for writes. That should be enough. Even if you dump the pixel data with zero compression.

8-bit pixels: 1920x1080x30 = 62.2 MB/sec

14-bit: 109 MB/s

Even UHD in 8 bits should work.

<comment><USER23> I think if you're Raw spatialy down-sampled you'll want RGB and not Bayer under-sampled so triple that. No SD is reasonably over 250MB/sec and they are all 64GB. Even at FHD 30Hz you'll only get 30sec of 8bit (not really Raw) video on your insane SD card.

[https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/fastest-sd- car...](https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/fastest-sd-cards/)

<comment><USER7> No, that makes no sense. Why would you store debayered data when you can store the original with the same exact results?

<comment><USER23> You realize that Bayer data counts every column and row whether R G or B, right? Half the pixels (21Mpix) are green and the other 2 quarters are R and G.

So if you're going down to FHD (2kx1k) from 42Mpix (8kx5k) you have already lost massive ammounts of resolution (and noise). Bayer FHD would be SPR (sup- pixel rendered) and even lower resolution (1/3 RGB e.g. 1080 lines of 1920 RG/BG alternating columns) than most JPEG FHD (natural scene) not suitable for video compression much less Raw. That would be silly.

If you don't down-sample the data somehow you can't even get it off the CIS which are limited to ~2-5Gb/sec. Since most reasonable image sizes are large enough you can see color at full resolution we typically use RGB at FHD, compressed or not. Alternately, you can go to 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 or even 4:1:1 in Yuv (YCbCr), but that's not Raw or anything like it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> quick note: the 24-105 full frame E mount lens is $1300.

<comment><USER25> That's a G (master) lens with OSS. The equivalent would be the 24-105 f/4L IS, which is $200 less.

<comment><USER26> I believe the OP is correct: [https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Frame-24-105mm- Standard-Zoom-Cam...](https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Frame-24-105mm-Standard- Zoom-Camera/dp/B076V9P58R)

That is not a G Master lens. The G Master lenses are quite a bit more expensive. I don't believe Sony even makes a 24-105 G Master: [https://www.sony.com/electronics/g-master- lenses](https://www.sony.com/electronics/g-master-lenses)

Either way, the quality of all Sony native E-mount lenses are amazing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> saiya-jin Bodies are uber cool (and that comes from a guy shooting stars and nature with Nikon D750 every weekend), but Sony lenses portfolio is pathetically small at this moment. You know, the other half of the whole quality equation camera.

Where is cheap all-around high quality 24-120? Cheap and yet superbly sharp 20mm 1.8 or better? Yes, you can find some, but cheap ain't part of description.

Size and weight isn't everything (otherwise everybody would be shooting with cell phones or gopro-likes). I don't mind my 2.5kg setup when backpacking for weeks, I don't mind it when hiking/ski touring. I know what I get in return. For climbing/skiing/paraglide gopro is anyway much much better.

Also, you can't cheat physics and have big sensor complemented by lightweight tiny lens and expect good result. Now if Nikon would come up with these electronics in in their FF D line, I would take it even if they would weight the same.

<comment><USER27> > Also, you can't cheat physics and have big sensor complemented by > lightweight tiny lens and expect good result.

Noob here, how does it work with traditional 35mm film cameras, or the Leica digital full frame bodies that have small lenses then?

<comment><USER28> Fixed focal length lenses are also easier to make. My Nikon 35mm is inexpensive, light, and takes great pictures. The downside is I have to zoom with my feet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I like how the article talks about the price and the specs but has no real shots. Maybe price and specs are what makes it appealing to people but not shots? ;-) Crazy high price, full frame, interchangeable lenses, BIONZ, megapixel, yada yada, no sample shots.

Although cameras with interchangeable lenses are not obsolete yet, I think innovations through software has been so phenomenal. The economy of scale has never worked so well. In many cases, the iPhone/Pixel with that tiny cheap camera sensors could do a good of a job as the bulky lenses and sensors of the $2k one. It's so ridiculous to me that cool stuff such as the bokeh effect or different lighting conditions or green screen effects can be computed/simulated to a believable degree in software. It still absolutely boggles my mind that my pixel in 2016 blew my Sony 2012 mirrorless camera away in terms of performance when shooting at nights (and in daylight when compared to using the kit lens).

I think if this trend continues, it's not long before interchangeable lenses cameras become in the same bin as tube amps, hi-def lossless mp3 players, handmade watches, film cameras, and nice turntables. These niches appealing to a very few and demand a crazy price (and maybe they have real merits), but you know that ship has sailed.

<comment><USER30> I'm not sure about that. Smart phones still can't match APSC sized sensors in low light (and probably not even M43 either). They also can't change lenses if you need a different perspective. Also, for studio work, they need a way to trigger the lights. Right now, it's using hotshoe trigger. You also need a way to save to SD cards, not just to the internal HD, and a way to import the raws to a computer. And no, snapseed isn't usable for a professional that shoots 1000's of photos per session. If you add all that up, it basically becomes a bulky, mirrorless camera.

<comment><USER31> While I agree with everything you said, there are companies like Moment that are doing some very interesting things with add-on lenses for smartphones. I've been having a LOT of fun with their macro and wide-rectilinear lenses on my iPhone X. Their 60mm tele is nice too when you add it to the iPhone's tele lens, giving you 4x optical zoom. It won't replace my 5Dmark4 any time soon, but you can get some _really_ nice photos.</comment></comment></comment>


Think everyone died young in ancient societies? Think again - <AUTHOR> https://aeon.co/ideas/think-everyone-died-young-in-ancient-societies-think-again <comment><USER2> Human lifespan has increased since ancient times, but not by _that_ much. The idea that adults died at 30 is absurd, but persists everywhere anyway, mostly because it flatters us in the present.

Look: a lot of sensational stuff about history is in fact bullshit. I recently read an article that demonstrated to my satisfaction that the whole "Easter Islander chopping down the last tree" idea is in fact fantasy and that rats, not people, ended up deforesting the place. Isn't it a shame that such a poetic example of the hubris of man ends up not actually being true?

In reality, the past was pretty much like the present, and people today are pretty much like those of the past. Theories that rely on our ancestors being somehow obviously stupid or short-lived or morally deficient fall short of explaining the real world. If you actually _read_ the first-hand accounts of people from ancient times, you'll find, well, people, with all the usual insecurities and foibles and temptations that exist today. (See the beautiful and sensitive correspondence between Eloisa and Abelard.)

To risk making a broader point: I reject the whig-historical attitude in which the development of humanity is some kind of inexorable progression from an awful past to a benevolent present. In reality, the only progress is scientific --- physical laws, with numbers, that you write down and that work via _math_. Everything else is just a matter of fashion and taste, and there's no guarantee that our descendants will agree that what we consider "progress" is in fact good and right.

<comment><USER3> There's an unjustified leap from the concerns of individuals in their daily lives to the concerns of society as a whole in your post, and it casts a severe political shadow over your post.

Individuals out of sight of the state or their overlords may have similar experiences in different ages, but there are also people who don't exist near the median who are persecuted to different degrees; not to mention that wealth distribution can also be radically different. These are also differences between modern societies, and may thus easily be inferred for past societies too. And your free choice of society today is not arbitrarily based in fashion or taste.

Consider telling Oscar Wilde that there's been no progress since his day, and he was merely a victim of fashion!

<comment><USER4> I think parent's point is that the "progress of society" is subjective and not necessarily absolutely "good" or "evil". The Aztecs were technologically very advanced to the benefit of their people, but ritually practiced vast human sacrifice.

The progress is also not necessarily linear; Oscar Wilde would've no doubt preferred ancient Greece to his own time, about 2000 years later, when it comes to their attitude toward social progression. The sciences, by contrast, do tend to show unequivocal progress because they're essentially our growing understanding of the universe.

<comment><USER3> I don't accept that justice is subjective. Some societies are objectively more just.

I agree that progress is not linear. Science also: people forget things, and are sometimes wiped out and their records lost.

<comment><USER5> Why do you think some societies are objectively more just, and what definition are you using for "just"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Most important difference: life expectancy at birth, vs life expectancy as an adult.

<comment><USER7> Yup this is another article going "we aren't living longer we've just stopped <5 years olds dying as often"

<comment><USER8> Incidentally, life expectancy at 65 in multiple countries has been slowly creeping up over the past ~50 years, perhaps longer. Last I heard, nobody really had a good explanation as to why.

<comment><USER9> I like to think it's the slow death of the concept of retirement

Work is purpose so long as it's engaging, and people with purpose do things to keep themselves going

<comment><USER10> I'm yet to meet anyone retired who says "I wish I was still working". Quite the opposite in fact.

<comment><USER11> > I'm yet to meet anyone retired who says "I wish I was still working". Quite > the opposite in fact.

My brother and I both shared a fear that our father would waste away and die after retirement (he is extremely driven). It turned out that he "never has enough time" for all the projects he creates for himself post-retirement. He wrote a book, researches the family tree, travels, etc. It was surprising how much he wants, and finds ways to, remain active. I don't think we were wrong to expect him to need an outlet. We simply did not anticipate that he would create his own.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Couple of things stood out:

1\. Tooth wearing as a measure of age is complicated by bread. Saxon-era bread contains a lot of grit because it's ground between actual stones. Eating gritty bread wears down teeth. So a 30-year-old who ate bread their whole life would have teeth wear comparable to a much older person in a population that either didn't eat bread, or ate non-gritty bread (like we do today). We do know the Saxons were big bread-eaters. We don't know what population was used as the control for TFA.

2\. The "grooming tool" thing is a little strange. The grooming tools appear as a set in the late Romano-British period, and vary between individuals, but are generally composed of tweezers, nail-cleaning blade, snips, a little spoon perfect for cleaning wax from ears, and similar stuff. They appear to have been worn dangling from the belt by a thong, carried around routinely like a Swiss army knife. It's reasonable to assume that at some point in your life, you got a set of them, either as a gift or because you could, and you carried on wearing them ever afterwards. So, yes, older people are more likely to have them ;) But not necessarily because old people were "higher status" or more into personal grooming.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm not seeing any actual figures here.

My assumption has always been that infant mortality was a huge factor, but also that adult life expectancy was shorter. Perhaps not 40 years shorter, but shorter nonetheless because of disease and infection.

I'm not actually seeing anything much to contradict this here.

<comment><USER14> In this lecture "Return of the Microbes" the professor of medicine mentions in passing that in Victorian Britain a male adult had an slightly higher life expectancy than a male adult in today's Britain. He excludes children but also women for good reason (child birth used to be very risky).

[https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/return-of- the-...](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/return-of-the-microbes- how-infections-are-once-more-taking-over)

<comment><USER13> While that's interesting, I'm not sure it's really proven, he mentions it in passing and gives a figure for only a single town, I suspect cherry picked. And I've been to Blackpool, I'm hardly surprised the life expectancy there isn't up to much...

I find the second graph here much more compelling, which shows across the country that there has been a steady improvement over time from 1841 to the present - [https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/howhaslifeexpectancychangedovertime/2015-09-09)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > And some things about the past, such as men being valued for their power and > women for their beauty, have changed little.

I couldn't disagree more. Maybe in more primitive societies it hasn't - yet - but in Anglo-Saxon communities this is exactly what has and is changing. Today _both_ women and men are praised for not only their power, but intelligence, integrity, communication and art among many other traits. As well as both men and women are praised today for their beauty, style and charm.

I can't believe such interesting article could get it so wrong in its conclusion.

</comment><comment><USER16> Interestingly, I grew up thinking the exact opposite. In the Torah Methuselah is mentioned as having lived 900+ years.

</comment><comment><USER17> Alternate title: _Ms. Cave on Cavemen_

</comment><comment><USER18> This is one thing that really changed my view on healthfulness. Here [1] is a list of Ancient Greeks. Looking at the age of death ( _for those that did not die in things such as war_ ) does not really look all that different from modern society. But for all of the Greeks wonder and ingenuity, they remained mostly completely ignorant of medicine and illness. Miasma Theory [2] persisted as the dominant medical view throughout their civilization.

Water 'purification' in most cases (on occasion it was boiled) did nothing to remove the tasteless toxins that can cause illness and water was mostly just judged by how clear it looked and how it tasted/smelled. Food safety again being something of a sniff/taste test. Vaccines of course would not be invented for thousands of years. Some of the quirks of their civilization included shared butt wiping sponges at public toilets - you'd clean off the sponge using either running water, or on occasion a bucket of vinegar. And so on.

The point of this is that if we provided these Ancient Greeks with nothing but urgent life-saving emergency care from modern technology, it's highly likely that their life expectancy would dwarf ours of today. So what exactly was it in their culture that we've lost? They did so many things so differently that we can probably all kick in some confirmation bias to support our own personal hypotheses for some particular subset. But I prefer to just look at things holistically and consider that aiming to emulate their lifestyles is probably a better overall way to aim for a long and healthy life than is relying so heavily on medicine and technology.

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Greeks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Greeks)

[2] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory)

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>---

EDIT: Just, completely coincidentally, saw another related article here [3]. Anyhow, it provides an important datum: _" More than 23 percent of Americans took three or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days, according to a 2017 CDC estimate. Furthermore, 39 percent over age 65 take five or more, a number that's increased three-fold in the last several decades. There are about 1,000 known side effects and 5,000 drugs on the market, making for nearly 125 billion possible side effects between all possible pairs of drugs. Most of these have never been prescribed together, let alone systematically studied, according to the Stanford researchers."_

[3] - [http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-predict-the-side-effects- of...](http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-predict-the-side-effects-of-millions- of-drug-combinations)

<comment><USER19> "The point of this is that if we provided these Ancient Greeks with nothing but urgent life-saving emergency care from modern technology, it's highly likely that their life expectancy would dwarf ours of today."

This is something you can't possibly determine. Ancient Greeks famous enough to have their own Wikipedia pages may not have had penicillin but on balance they certainly would have lived easier lives than peasants who worked years of hard labour just to survive, and would have lived longer because of it. It is also, quite literally, survivorship bias - people who lived to be older had more time to achieve things and become notable enough to make Wikipedia.

The thing with getting old, as noted in the article, is that past a certain age if one thing doesn't get ya, another thing probably will. Modern medicine is not a buff which will add +X years to all humans regardless of circumstance, it is just about staving off the first few things which try and kill you - and that's why, by all accounts (including this article), life expectancy is longer now than it was in the past.

And for the record boiling water works just fine at killing bacteria living in it. It's not magic and if your water is still full of arsenic you'll still die, but it's much better than nothing.

<comment><USER18> Right, I am not talking about the peasants of the time. 'We', as in the masses, more readily associate with the peasants than the aristocracy but in reality the average person today lives a life that's certainly more luxurious, in terms of things, than the aristocracy of the time. In terms of objective luxuries, people today have vastly more: reliable indoor plumbing, easy and rapid transportation, consistent and practically unlimited running water, air conditioning, practically unlimited access to whatever sorts of food (even exotic) you care to purchase, and much more. So entitled have we become that it feels kind of silly to call those things luxuries!

The life of the luxurious Ancient Greek would have likely been more interesting due to power and prestige, but they did not have objectively better lives in terms of 'things' than even an average individual today. And now a days I think it goes without saying that the average person exerts substantially less energy per day than even our luxurious Ancient Greeks did. Lives are much easier.

Another interesting thing is also not all of the Ancient Greeks you know were living lives of luxury, even by standards of their time. Socrates was born to a stonemason, served in the military, and lived his later life in voluntary poverty - offering up 100 drachmae as a punishment for the allegations that would lead to his execution. 100 drachmae was 1/5th of his entire life's wealth. For some scale, an unskilled worker would earn around 1 drachma a day, a skilled worker would earn around 5 drachma a day. He was executed at age 71, still in extremely good health.

\---

And yeah, on the boiling - I was stating that they did on occasion genuinely purify their water. However, the sniff/taste test was the norm with boiling the occasional exception.

<comment><USER20> > And now a days I think it goes without saying that the average person exerts > substantially less energy per day than even our luxurious Ancient Greeks > did. Lives are much easier.

That right there could be your reason. The human body was not designed to be stagnant. I read recently that the whole reason for the evolutionary development of brains in both animals and humans is to facilitate complex movement. Several studies done throughout the decades show a correlation between greater physical activity and better academic/learning results. The ancient greeks also believed there was a connection between improving the body and improving the mind.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> TLDR: evidence suggests that humans are bathtub curved.

<comment><USER22> Also that we have actually done a decent job removing many of the old early killers, no? Anti septics have made many old death notes non existent.

<comment><USER23> It always amazes me when to think that until Lister walking from a autopsy to a birth with no washing in between was never thought of twice. It's one of those things that seems so obvious today but wasn't in practice until recently. Much like sun exposure and smoking causing cancer

<comment><USER24> >until Lister

Actually, the "pioneer", a bit earlier than Joseph Lister: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister) was Ignaz Semmelweis: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis)

<comment><USER23> Thanks for the link, it was a good read. Most surprising part was his friend "who had been accidentally poked with a student's scalpel" dying just from that. Absolutely crazy the amount of death just from improper sterilization</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is the NSA whistle-blower news a damage limitation exercise for a bigger story? - <AUTHOR> http://www.simoncollister.com/2013/06/10/nsa-whistle-blower-verizon/

<comment> o0-0o Beghazi? IRS? Fast and Furious?</comment>


"My employees asked me, was it my company or our company" - <AUTHOR> http://forbesindia.com/article/fourth-anniversary-special/anand-deshpande-my-employees-asked-me-was-it-my-company-or-our-company/35363/1

<comment><USER2> Great article, loved this "It became apparent to me that if I have to operate as the CEO of the company, I have to stop writing programs because there were other people who could do that. I should become more sales-oriented, someone who will meet customers more frequently and manage the team rather than write code."

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Some of these observations and learnings are indeed timeless, and not dependent on the current fashions and trends...</comment>


Vala for Java Programmers - <AUTHOR> https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/ValaForJavaProgrammers <comment><USER2> Vala is one of the most underestimated great languages!</comment>


Ask HN: I want to create my own web gateway, where should I start? - <AUTHOR> I'm having a hard time finding resources on creating my own web gateway. It feels like I'm googling the wrong terms? I'm talking about the website that limits connectivity until a username/password is provided, usually found in Free WiFi Access Points.<p>I'm a C# Developer, specializing on ASP.Net Web Api, if it makes any difference. Any help is appreciated, just point me in the right direction :) Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> [http://lifehacker.com/5791208/run-your-home-network-like- a-c...](http://lifehacker.com/5791208/run-your-home-network-like-a-coffee- shop)</comment>


Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) application open - <AUTHOR> http://siliconflorist.com/2012/02/01/staying-working-side-project-apply-pie-um-stay-working-startup/

<comment><USER2> Great mentors, access, companies etc. a perfect environment to learn, innovate, iterate and be successful. The beer and whiskey ain't bad either.

<comment><USER3> Thanks roadhead! Sometimes we forget to highlight the fringe benefits ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> PIE has proven to be a motivational and empowering tinderbox for most of the companies and entrepreneurs involved. It certainly was for me.

Get in while the gettin's good, I hear there's already a flood of applications.

</comment><comment><USER5> We had a great experience at PIE, highly recommended.

</comment><comment><USER6> Great place. Great people.

</comment><comment><USER7> @Cloudability hearts PIE.

<comment><USER3> The feeling is entirely mutual <3</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Abnormally high level of TLS patching going on? - <AUTHOR>

First Apple, then Google, now GnuTLS? They all sound like different bugs, but all coming out within 3 business days?<p>Is there a coordinated effort to time these releases? <comment><USER2> Either that, or it's reactionary. It's not unreasonable to think that the high-profile nature of Apple's bug led others to do a code review.</comment>


Google Maps & Label Readability - Part 3 - <AUTHOR> http://www.41latitude.com/post/3183269217/google-maps-label-reability-3 <comment><USER2> If you haven't read the first two parts of this series, you really should. I don't think I've ever read another series of articles about such a boring topic (5x5 pixel buttons, label strokes) that is so damn interesting. The difference between each respective company is immediately visible just by a simple side-by-side glimpse.

I think this is the same sort of 'intense' design that is occasionally remarked about things like Apple's 'breathing' sleep display. Knowing Google, it was probably less of a vision thing and more of an aggressive A/B test thing but the outcomes are undeniable.

Bravo to the author :).

</comment><comment><USER3> It's really interesting that Google seems to be at times able to pull off wonderful UI design bordering on genius (Chrome, Google Maps) and at other times just barely able to be at par (most of Android with select exceptions). I guess this just reflects different teams within Google, but it's a shame they can't apply their best UI talent across all their products (and particularly, the products that most need it, like Android).

<comment><USER4> I've never used Android, and I've never quite agreed with the popular assumption that "Google's UI design is bad." What other examples are there?

<comment><USER5> Background images on google.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Wait until he notices that the text on Google Maps (on the native mobile app for Android) is now an overlay, and that this extends to road names.

That this has been done to enable things like collision detection of pieces of text, and to enable the jump to 45' view to be smooth and still highly readable.

<comment><USER7> It's ironic: your HN profile says "My company is Buro 9 Limited and _it's a vehicle for me to work with the things I love..._ " Yet you mock others for what they're clearly enthusiastic about.

<comment><USER6> Welcome to HN. You're clearly new as this is your only comment and your account is less than 6 hours old.

You also edited your comment from the earlier revision of "Do you not have something intelligent to add" (slight paraphrasing there).

So... just a troll? Unnecessarily scathing for a first post, no?

My comment above was certainly not meant disparagingly or to "pick on" the author. In fact I enjoy the posts made.

Anyone who has worked on producing densely populated diagrams and charts dynamically will have an appreciation for this kind work and would also be keen to hear the subtleties of other peoples solutions to the problem.

<comment><USER7> My apologies. I thought I detected sarcasm/negativity in your earlier comment --but I guess I was wrong. (I, too, thought the post was excellent and was only trying to defend it.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd say that this design is quite engineer-driven. It seems, their design is 'just' applied knowledge about perception.

<comment><USER9> A common complaint is that Google is engineer-driven rather than design driven. Some very impressive counter-evidence in the article.

<comment><USER8> What I meant was a scientific approach to design rather than just designing what looks good. But than again every good interface designer should take that approach.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The micro-scale graphical design is good. It's a pity, however, that big geographical and data quality blunders are present on Google Maps. Examples : world projection (Mercator, useless), lack of metadata (dates of the images ?), choice of labels at medium scale (especially with the 'Relief' maps). Such discrepancy between good graphical precision, esthetics and geographical imprecision, lack of quality information are misleading a large part of the public.

</comment><comment><USER11> Google has better thought out color contrast too. The other ones are either too monochromatic, or the map details overwhelm the labels (think 90's web page color contrast)

</comment><comment><USER12> While readability is impressive, the zoom slider could use a slight tweak. It's far too easy to zoom out to the maximum setting when you meant to go one level up.</comment>


Aerospike engine - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospike_engine

<comment><USER2> NASA doesn't like them though, particularly for anything man-rated.</comment>


Show HN: Darknet.py – A TOR Transparent Proxy Written in Python - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/multiversecoder/darknet.py <comment> mike-cardwell What additional functionality does this provide over just using Tor's built in transparent proxy functionality, which you can use by just turning on the DNSPort and TransPort options in Tor and redirecting traffic using iptables, skipping any need for socks.

Also, the Tor project highly discourages this kind of use of its network as per the disclaimer at the top of [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/Transparen...](https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TransparentProxy) \- Is it worth adding a similar disclaimer to this project?

<comment><AUTHOR> darknet.py provides ease of use and security that in some cases is not easy to recreate by simply using torrc.

Features:

\- Compatible with any SystemD based Linux

\- Makes TOR work with SELinux on RHEL distro

\- Secures Linux Kernel preventing IPv4 Forwarding, etc...

\- Makes DNS leaks almost impossible

\- Redirects all traffic thought TOR

\- Works Out of the Box

\- MAC Address Spoofing

This software was created to have a Transparent Proxy based on TOR as an alternative to VPN and easy to use in any Linux distribution mainly, especially those based on RHEL or with SELINUX.

Another reason for its creation is that it can be easily combined with i2p increasing the anonymity of the latter network.

As for the article, I know it, in fact, I relied on it for the creation of darknet.py, and the text clearly states that it is not a discouraged only method but rather a method to be reproduced only if you have knowledge and ability to limit the Packet Forwarding of the Linux Kernel, Dropping packages that could create a leaky situation and other practices that could compromise anonymity.

Currently, there are few cases where it is possible to have a DNSLeak with darknet.py and obliviously, it's up to the end user to take the right precautions for their need for anonymity.

darknet.py is an experimental yet stable software that will surely be subject to improvements over time, one on all the different rules of IPTables that are currently good but not excellent.

For any improvement I am at your disposal.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> 22/02/2020 Update: \- I have fixed some typos. \- I have fixed some compatibility issues in RHEL distributions using SELinux. \- Improved the exclusion of addresses that should not be routed via TOR. \- DNS port 53 to 5353 \- Started a parallel project to support other Unix like distributions like BSD.</comment>


Show HN: Cleaninder iOS App Beta Testing - <AUTHOR> https://testflight.apple.com/join/qgZAc3Wt <comment><AUTHOR> Finally, after several years, I got to the point to develop my first iOS app! This is a house cleaning reminder app, which helps you manage your cleaning schedule and notify you in case of an upcoming cleaning. You can also track a missing cleaning in your room. Currently it is in beta testing, and I would appreciate any feedback you could give to a beginner Swift developer. I'm sure there are still a lot to improve, but we have to start somewhere. Thanks!</comment>


Art dealer Mary Boone claims early-life trauma prompted her criminal tax evasion - <AUTHOR> https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/art-dealer-mary-boone-claims-early-life-trauma-prompted-her-criminal-tax-evasion <comment><USER2> Odd, no matter how troubled my childhood, I think I am still responsible for my actions. I think she is too. I hope this chicanery increases her sentance.</comment>


SFMTA owe you a refund? Search here - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfmtarefund.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey, I'm Jim. We made the page, to make everyone's life a little easier (SFMTA's PDF process was a little cumbersome). Hopefully, you get some money. If you don't, that's still good news, amirite?</comment>


A good sketch is better than a long speech - <AUTHOR> https://sketchboard.io/blog/ready-set-sketch <comment><AUTHOR> Napoleon said "a good sketch is better than a long speech". Politics aside, this is the perfect moment to embrace that logic. More screen time than ever turns visual communication into a differentiating and vital skill. Reach out for the right tools. If you can sketch it, you can start it.</comment>


Scientists find cure for type 2 diabetes in rodents, don't know how it works - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/scientists-find-cure-for-type-2-diabetes-in-rodents-dont-know-how-it-works/ <comment><USER2> I would bet with quite high probability that their rodent model gets diabetes in a different way than and for different reasons than humans do, and that their treatment will not work.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, humans and mice are very metabolicly different. For example, Ketosis* is a normal state of operation for humans, but a sign of sickness for mice.

*Ketosis: Creating ketone bodies from dietary fat, or if unavailable, body fat. In this mode the bodies energy needs are met by FFA (free fatty acids), ketones, and glucose (generated via gluconeogenesis non glucose substrates, including lactate, pyruvate, glycerol, and some amino acids). Human's ability to function well in this mode is why humans have zero essential (dietary) carbohydrate requirement; this would kill a mouse.

<comment><USER4> In case anyone reads this and wants to investigate Ketosis further: under 50g/day of carbs you start to risk kidney stones, inflammation, developmental delays, nervous system failure and Other Bad Things [1].

The optimal number of carbs for humans metabolically speaking seems to be 50-100g/day. >100g/day, you basically progress linearly to diabetes, insulin resistence, nervous sytem dysfunction and Other Bad Things. [2]

[1]: [http://www.thepaleomom.com/2015/05/adverse-reactions-to- keto...](http://www.thepaleomom.com/2015/05/adverse-reactions-to-ketogenic- diets-caution-advised.html) [2]: [http://www.thepaleomom.com/2011/12/how-many- carbs-should-you...](http://www.thepaleomom.com/2011/12/how-many-carbs-should- you-eat.html)

<comment><USER3> That is so much bullshit.

1\. Cite real studies, not paleomom

2\. Cite studies that are based on the high-fat, moderate protein people who live a keto lifestyle eat, not the high protein diet used for epileptics

#1 is key because if you cite real studies we can talk specifics, all your sources are is paleomom's version of broscience. #2 is important because almost all the low-carb studies that show negative biomarkers are not the LCHF diets recommended by places like /r/keto and other mainstream keto sources.

<comment><USER4> She is an MD and PhD in Bio. Her sources are cited in the bottom of the post. Where are your sources? Here are the sources: [http://www.thepaleomom.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/05/Ketoge...](http://www.thepaleomom.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/05/Ketogenic-Diet-Literature-Review.pdf)

<comment><USER3> If you look at the studies she cites many (most that I spot checked) of them are using the formulation of ketogenic diet used to treat epileptics, and not the form that many people advocate as a life-style. Theis is esp. true of the ones that show negative health effects. These diets are low-carb, low-fiber, moderate fat and high protein.

The ketogenic diets that are proposed for use by normal people are low-carb, high-fiber, high-fat and moderate protein. So they have a fundamentally different macro-nutrient ratio and include a high volume of low-carb veggies. This formulations also minimize Omega-6 polyunsaturted fat, and many studies listed use that a primary calorie source (there is a depreciated view that this was a healthy fat source).

You can find many studies listed here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience](https://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Do Video Games Equal Less Crime? - <AUTHOR> http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/do-video-games-equal-less-crime/?hp <comment><USER2> What a fascinating hypothesis. The rise of video games seems to parallel the decrease in violent crime from the late 70s to present day and I'd never made that connection.

It's weird to think about how much more violent the 80s and early 90s were in comparison to today, especially out here in New York.

<comment><USER3> Also, the increase in US avocado consumption seems to parallel the decrease in violent crime from the late 70s to present day.

<comment><USER2> As does legal abortions. Correlation does not imply causation but it certainly signifies an indicator of some sort. Maybe people play more games and eat more avocados because they're less afraid of being killed. Hell, I don't know.

That doesn't mean that the article's hypothesis isn't interesting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Video games and more people in prison have a similar result. Ironic, considering being addicted to a video game seems very similar to being in prison. Or so I surmise.</comment>


Ask HN: What are biggest AI advancements in 2018? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> NLP is having a pretty good year with BERT, ELMO and hmtl

[https://mobile.twitter.com/stanfordnlp/status/10667429783816...](https://mobile.twitter.com/stanfordnlp/status/1066742978381639680)

[https://rajpurkar.github.io/SQuAD- explorer/](https://rajpurkar.github.io/SQuAD-explorer/)

[https://twitter.com/SanhEstPasMoi/status/1064905777549373440](https://twitter.com/SanhEstPasMoi/status/1064905777549373440)

also more here: [https://nlpprogress.com/](https://nlpprogress.com/)</comment>


1000 Responses to Java Is Not Dying - <AUTHOR> http://www.drdobbs.com/jvm/1000-responses-to-java-is-not-dying/240162680

<comment><USER2> Python is dying!

Anyone offended and feels like writing lots of blog posts about that statement? That's ridiculous and doesn't deserve a comment, I hear you say? Well, that would exactly be the right (non-) response to such a statement.

<comment><USER3> I wish Python 2 died already but this seems extremelly unlikely. Nobody seems to know the difference between two and three and on several occasions I've met developers who were not even aware that there was a three. "I just use the Python on my Macbook."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think these conversations can be misleading. It's all about tools and frameworks. There was a small window in time where I spent writing mobile apps in JavaFX - and it was a nightmare. No support for different phone sizes or hardware. Now here I am using java to do the same thing on Android and it's a much smoother process. Android has great frameworks in place to solve the problems I had with JavaFX j2me mobile apps. Here is where some people jump to conclusions, "JavaFX is a bad language;" however, my struggles with mobile where not related to the language but rather the tools and frameworks.

</comment><comment><USER5> I write my Android apps (and my enterprise Spring apps) in Scala, so there's no guarantee at all that Android will keep Java alive.

</comment><comment><USER6> The only thing I use java for: Android apps and Minecraft.

</comment><comment><USER7> It isn't dying. It just smells bad.

<comment><USER8> An' it tastes a bit nutty!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> BSD is dying!</comment>


A Brief History of Tesla - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-tesla/ <comment><USER2> I've written a more detailed timeline here: [http://blog.trejdify.com/2014/03/tesla-motors-history- timeli...](http://blog.trejdify.com/2014/03/tesla-motors-history- timeline.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's already out of date, doesn't cover recent announcements of the driver assist capability and only speculates about the all-wheel D option.

<comment><USER4> The article was written in the lead up to the announcement earlier this week. Not sure why it was posted to Hacker News now.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Get Trump Headlines, Tweets, and Video in One Feed - <AUTHOR> http://www.trump-news.today/ <comment><USER2> This is great, bookmarked. Good work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Feature requests welcome :)

<comment><USER3> It would be great if you could tag article/tweets. I'm interested in what Trump is going to do regarding h1b visas, so being able to filter based on those would be a great feature.</comment></comment></comment>


I Contacted 453 VCS and Lost Our Side Bet - HN-VIC https://medium.com/swlh/i-contacted-453-vcs-and-lost-our-side-bet-db25c1e3496a <comment><AUTHOR> > VCs want you to lie to them so they can sell your idea to investors.

Probably not "lie" but engineer the truth optimistically.</comment>


Convert Ruby 1.8 to 1.9.2 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cldwalker/one9 <comment><USER2> For a more thorough explanation of functionality, motivation and how it works: [http://tagaholic.me/2011/03/05/one9-upgrade-to- ruby-19-now.h...](http://tagaholic.me/2011/03/05/one9-upgrade-to- ruby-19-now.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting tool. I recently got my Rails 2.3 app running in 1.9.2. This utility wouldn't quite cut it though because most of my effort was devoted to getting remarkable_rails working just so I could get my specs to run.

After all that effort, I found out I'm better off sticking with REE. While my specs all did pass, they took 3 - 4 times longer to run in 1.9.2. I ran experiments on that for about a day, not believing the results because I've been told repeatedly that 1.9.2 is unequivocally faster. Alas, that is not the case. So, that's my "excuse" for not running 1.9.2.

<comment><USER2> If your changes were method changes, one9 should catch them. As explained in the Rails section of this post, [http://tagaholic.me/2011/03/05/one9-upgrade- to-ruby-19-now.h...](http://tagaholic.me/2011/03/05/one9-upgrade-to- ruby-19-now.html), you can always jump into a troublesome gem's source, install its dependencies and run one9 on its tests.

<comment><USER3> It's a logic error in remarkable_rails that results in an infinite loop on Ruby 1.9.

Andrew Selder tracked the issue down and provided the fix:

[https://rspec.lighthouseapp.com/projects/5645/tickets/1027-s...](https://rspec.lighthouseapp.com/projects/5645/tickets/1027-stack- level-too-deep-in-the-example_group_runnerrb-using-ruby-192-rc1)</comment></comment></comment>


What (Else) Can Men Do? Grow the Fuck Up. - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/sci-fi-strange/77a37fd43530

<comment><AUTHOR> "If you were a computer-loving male child who took a lot of shit from your peers, I suspect you heard something similar from the adults in your life. Maybe it was 'Sure, things are bad now, but when you're a little bit older, women will LOVE guys like you!' Or maybe it was 'That kid who makes fun of you now will be working at a gas station when you run a big fancy computer company and marry a supermodel!' If you were once young, nerdy and male, it is not unlikely that your future sense of self-worth was funded with a non-consensual IOU from the world's women."

<comment><USER2> I think it was a bit of a leap to full on this is the reason. I think it is certainly part of it. I think the bullying itself has more to do with it. Treat people how you were treated sort of thing.

Anyway really do not like these sort of articles that try to aggrevate people with angry titles - on the flip side it was a seriously good exception to that rule very thought provoking. I think lacking the attitude it could have delved deeper but that's just me.

BTW while the above point was sort of the conclusion I think the article had much better points along the way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I couldn't read it. It's offensive and lacks any context or setup towards wtf he is talking about.</comment>


Founders share their lowest points before success - <AUTHOR> http://www.attendly.com/stories-of-failure-and-redemption-18-startup-founders-share-their-lowest-moments-before-coming-out-on-top/

<comment><USER2> It's one of those things that is really easy to say but really hard to actually understand and put into practice, pretty much literally the _only_ way you learn is through failure, not success.

There's a whole barrage of educational literature and research that backs this up, it's how we all learned to crawl, walk, talk and yadeyadayada... but all to often we beat ourselves up for being wrong, getting things messed up and not achieving perfection.

When in fact we should be celebrating it, I'd love to see a whole conference based around exactly this kinda thing, love it.

<comment><USER3> That's whole 50:50 split was a corker of a mistake.

<comment><USER2> Lol - must - learn - not - to - feel - upset - just - necessary - experience!</comment></comment></comment>


Building Social Software for the Anti-Social [video] - <AUTHOR> http://talks.githubapp.com/talk/8ad7dbb3b8896fa3e7d59bbe0ba94a58a98ea056

<comment><USER2> I'm repeating what's commented on the page, but big warning if you put headphones in to listen to this (which you might want to as the audio is quiet): pause it and turn down your volume before 55:00 or so because the q&a is not normalized and the volume spikes up when the hand a mike off to someone for a question.

</comment><comment><USER3> Can someone put "[video]" in the title, please?</comment>


Now Your Boss Can Buy Back Your Vacation Days - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-11/now-your-boss-can-buy-back-your-vacation-days <comment><USER2> _But rather than providing an advantage for employees, Penn State's Golden warns that services such as PTO Exchange may exacerbate the underlying problem. It will provide further incentive for overworked employees to cancel vacations or go to work sick_

People need to take all their vacation and more. I've averaged 6 weeks of vacation a year since 2009. I take my 2 weeks paid, and the rest unpaid.</comment>


ToroDB: A MongoDB-compatible, document-oriented database on top of PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> http://www.8kdata.com/torodb/ <comment><USER2> Previous post 6 months ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8527013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8527013)

</comment><comment><USER3> So to be that guy, it doesn't look like you've got replication and sharding at the same level of ease as MongoDB. According to the last few slides, you're targeting that at some point in the future; maybe this year? That's one of selling points of MongoDB.

How does this compare to putting a thin Node.JS veneer over PostGRE's JSON type? The server could covert the cursor from PG into the binary format that MongoDB clients expect. It would have been less work.

</comment><comment><USER4> I wonder if the future stack isn't optional typing language querying optional- sql database.

Postgresql with jsonb lets you get the best of both world : schemaless when you want it, relationnal when you need it, and acid all the time.

I found it strange that they decided to map a document over relationnal schema. I would only map the "id" property of the document to a pkey, and then dump all the rest in a jsonb column, per document type.

<comment><USER5> TokuMX brought ACID to Mongo a couple years ago, and it's pretty solid.

<comment><USER4> Thanks, i didn't know about it. It doesn't seem to bring relationnal, sql, and joins though ( which may be useful in certain cases).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is great. All complaints about Mongo's durability aside, it wins out over many other databases because of its ease-of-use -- its small DSL certainly beats out having to learn a whole new language (SQL, etc.). Now, combine that with real durability, real transactions, etc. If this isn't the database for the 80%... I don't know what is.

(My one open question, and something this page doesn't touch on, is how easy is it to get ToroDB up and running? Mongo makes that part easy as well!)

</comment><comment><USER7> They claim that they don't use the JSON type in order to save on storage and I/O, but they don't show any data to back up the I/O savings part of it. They don't provide any evidence of improved performance over the JSON type, in fact.

Storage has become so cheap that Toro's savings are negligible considering you now must maintain their service layer on top of your normal Postgres configuration. I don't see how a bit of storage savings warrants any of those tradeoffs unless they can show a significant performance improvement as well. And if silence tells me anything, it is that this is probably slower than Postgres' JSON type.

</comment><comment><USER8> > MongoDB-compatible

How do they implement data loss on top of Postgres? <rimshot>

<comment><USER9> Gratuitous negativity?

<comment><USER10> I'm pretty sure negativity toward MongoDB's (lack of) data integrity is incapable of crossing the threshold into gratuity. MongoDB being synonymous to lost data might as well be a universal constant.</comment></comment></comment>


Cloakspace – An Anonymous Platform - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/das-jishu/cloakspace <comment><AUTHOR> Cloakspace is different from a typical social media platform which logs all sorts of data about the user. We do not store any of your data and simultaneously provide a smooth experience. We tried to provide all sorts of features which can be exploited without storing information about the user. There are no hidden costs involved. This is a completely free platform where you can leave your thoughts and read some more without constantly worrying of being tracked or judged by someone.

P.S. Leave a star if you loved our project.

</comment><comment><USER2> Awesome platform! Few months back, I also started developing one such platform but did not complete it. You can try publishing your platform on ProductHunt.</comment>


What's the matter with Oklahoma? - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21736102-low-teacher-pay-and-severe-budget-cuts-are-driving-schools-brink-whats-matter <comment><USER2> What's the matter with Oklahoma?

Many things no doubt, but this one is a big one:

> Because of a referendum passed in 1992, any bill that seeks to raise taxes > must be approved by three-quarters of the legislature.

<comment><USER3> Colorado has a similar problem, with their "tax payer bill of rights". I hope other states considering such a measure in the future will learn the lesson of Oklahoma and Colorado.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Idealism has trumped sanity in Oklahoma. And the lawmakers squabble over solutions blocking even the simple things. It's a mess.</comment>


FCC boss backs usage-based pricing for cable Internet access - <AUTHOR> http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11815105-fcc-boss-backs-usage-based-pricing-for-cable-internet-access <comment><USER2> I wonder if they'll bring back the dial-up tone too. It wouldn't be the same without it.</comment>


Two Google Homes Argue with Each Other on Twitch - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/thousands-of-people-are-watching-two-google-homes-argue-1790843285 <comment><USER2> Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13336416](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13336416)</comment>


Atari VCS - <AUTHOR> http://ataribox.com/ <comment><USER2> Wood paneling, Atari logo, no idea what capabilities it has but it looks cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> Take my money!

Seriously though, I was disappointed. I was expecting more concrete news at GDC. I hope they will ship this year.

</comment><comment><USER4> But, what is it?

<comment><USER5> Doesn't look like they've said much of anything at this point: [https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/19/ataribox-renamed- vcs/](https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/19/ataribox-renamed-vcs/)</comment></comment>


Starting a Startup on F1 Visa - <AUTHOR> I'm a student on an F1 visa in the Unites States. I'm considering starting a startup (as the sole founder) and/or becoming an independent contractor. But F1 visa holders are prohibited from working anywhere in the United States except for an internship or on an on-campus job.
I was considering forming a corporation and getting paid through dividends, but my international student advisor just told me that any form of work, even unpaid internships are illegal for F1 students and could result in deportation and a 10-year ban on reentry.
So is there any legal way in which I can start a startup or become an independent contractor? If any of you know lawyers or website where I can look for legal concerning this matter, please point me to them. I'm currently located in NYC.
Thank you. <comment><USER2> Contact a good law firm who can guide you through your OPT</comment>


Droid X actually self-destructs if you try to mod it - <AUTHOR> http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/07/14/droid-x-actually-self-destructs-if-you-try-to-mod-it/ As an Android advocate/fan this _really_ rubs me the wrong way. <comment><USER2> I also dislike this move by Motorola. It's like using tamper proof screws and violates the idea from Make: "If you can't open it, you don't own it."

DIY/Makers and anyone else who ends up repairing fancy devices (phones, after market stereo head units, various lab equipment) have constantly fought with this type of thing. It comes in forms of bios that self destruct, glue that's only purpose is to break something internal if a panel is removed, or tamper proof screws on replacement parts.

See the Makers "Bill of Rights" - <http://cdn.makezine.com/make/MAKERS_RIGHTS.pdf> (pdf). I tend to judge companies on whether or not their products are outright MADE to prevent me from being able to fix it myself. If I can't, I won't buy products from them again. As @meunierc said, "vote with your dollars."

<comment><USER3> I used to repair cameras for a living and Sony point and shoots drove me crazy. We couldn't fix them because there is no real frame or chassis holding it together. Once you take it apart, good luck getting it back together.

<comment><USER2> One that sticks out to me are the early 00's palm devices. Driver support dropped off after 6 MONTHS, copious glue in weird places (covering traces and connectors) and they'd yell at you if you called their tech lines (for unopened, warranty covered devices). Treo's weren't any better either. Ugh.

Needless, they lost a couple hundred devices sold because of that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What do they gain by doing this? I just don't get it. I have no problem with them not supporting hacking their devices but to go out of the way to prevent it (let alone bricking it) doesn't make any sense. We wouldn't accept it from a computer manufacturer, so why with a phone?

EDIT: I know most here will get it but this drives me crazy because it stifles progression. Did Motorola every think that their next best engineers might be the kids that are so passionate about this stuff that they want to tinker with their phone in these ways?

<comment><USER5> Motorola has the OEM mindset. Verizon is their customer. Verizon wants people to pay for tethering. Maybe GPS navigation. Maybe they don't want high bandwidth apps allowed on their 3G network. Since there's basically no market for unlocked phones in the US companies like Motorola and HTC can't really stand up to the carriers. It'd be suicide. (HTC is doing the same types of things by digitally signing the boot loader code on their handsets)

<comment><USER6> As I understand it, Motorola/Verizon did not do this with the original Droid. It seems strange that they would start now.

Bootloader signing, though annoying and, I think inappropriate for a manufacturer to do is non-destructive. Intentionally bricking a phone is another thing entirely: it's vandalism.

<comment><USER7> The original Droid was developed in partnership with Google. Chances are this had something to do with the openness of the original.

<comment><USER4> Yes, they were quite closely involved in that one. Which begs the question of will Google do something about this. I'm not sure this is something they are really looking to take a stand on but bricking a device is going too far. Maybe they should revoke license to Google apps on this phone until that feature is fixed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's Motorola's policy and it's clearly documented ( [http://community.developer.motorola.com/t5/MOTODEV- Blog/Cust...](http://community.developer.motorola.com/t5/MOTODEV-Blog/Custom- ROMs-and-Motorola-s-Android-Handsets/ba-p/4224) )

"Securing the software on our handsets, thereby preventing a non-Motorola ROM image from being loaded, has been our common practice for many years."

It's really depressing :(

<comment><USER9> And people say Apple is evil... at least Apple has never put fuses like this into their hardware. If Motorola had any kind of market share, they'd take evil to a whole new level.

<comment><USER10> No fuses, but there was a rumor that they would be overwriting mods in the future. (On-air updates.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The efuse paranoia has, to a large degree, already been debunked. DroidLife[0] quotes BGR[1] as saying:

"The current theory being put forth by the non-alarmists in the Android hacking community suggests that the DROID X is locked in a similar manner to the Milestone. Though it may be difficult to crack, and may lead to many hairs being pulled out, mucking with the bootloader probably won't brick your phone."

[0][http://www.droid-life.com/2010/07/15/enough-with-the- efuse-t...](http://www.droid-life.com/2010/07/15/enough-with-the-efuse-talk- already/)

[1][http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/15/reality-check- modd...](http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/15/reality-check-modding-the- droid-x-may-not-lead-to-a-bricked-phone/)

<comment><USER12> It's a shame there isn't a way to place blinking tags around this comment, arrows pointing at it. Until this efuse problem has been proven 'in the wild' it's nothing more than a possibility, and from the BGR article (I searched this thread first to see if someone had already posted it) it seems this efuse has been in place in previous Droid models but has never been used.

<comment><USER13> That is a dangerous statement dolinsky my man. That means that we should buy the phone only to realize we got a gimped device for the purposes of verizon deciding which software features to lock so they can charge us 10 bucks a month for each.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was planning on getting the Droid X until I learned of this. It's a slap in the face and unfortunately most people won't even realize it. Slowly innovation and growth in smart phones will slow and no one will realize why. They won't realize they were cutting of their own noses. How popular was Moto's Linux phone before android? Not as popular as they are, that's for sure. They need the hackers and tinkers to push the platform forward. Moto and Verizion sure has heck won't do it.

</comment><comment><USER14> this is the source of the article: [http://www.mydroidworld.com/forums/droid- x-discussion/3330-h...](http://www.mydroidworld.com/forums/droid-x- discussion/3330-how-droid-x-locked-down-let-me-tell-you-what-i-know.html)

from the source, the things checked before blowing the fuse are: "the firmware information (what we call ROMS), the kernel information, and the bootloader version"

it seems like if you get any kind of corruption, in any part of the above components, for any amount of time, your phone becomes a brick.

corruption happens: my previous phone was a motorola. i stopped using it because it would randomly redirect phone calls to other numbers in the phone book (but it was usable for a long period despite this).

motorola phones' get corruption (which keep essential functions working), but now any temporary, minor problem results in permanent, intentional bricking.

<comment><USER3> The article mentions that it must be fixed at the hardware level by Motorola. I wonder if there is something that can be done to disable this, such as jumping two pins on the main PCB. A steady hand and a small soldering iron can work wonders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Damn it. Just cancelled my order (placed yesterday). Funny thing is I was switching from AT&T to Verizon to get it, so now Verizon has not only lost my $200 but my future monthly fees as well.

Now I'm considering the Nexus One, but then I wonder when the Nexus Two might come out? From a hardware standpoint (aside from the 8GB internal storage, HDMI out and bigger screen) the DroidX doesn't look _that_ much better.

Thoughts?

<comment><USER16> The HTC incredible is basically the same hardware as the Nexus One. I'm pretty happy with mine so far.

<comment><USER17> Can you get FroYo on the Incredible without any jailbreaking or other messing around?

I've been thinking of getting a Nexus One specifically because of FroYo (and its wireless tethering -- which finally puts it on feature parity with my old Nokia E61i), but it's fairly expensive and I'm loath to drop $500+ on something if there's something better on the market or about to come on the market.

<comment><USER16> "Jailbreaking" doesn't exist on Android phones (for the most part _cough_ Motorola). Installing firmwares does.

According to HTC, Froyo is set for auto-update on the Incredible in Q3 sometime. Or you can just install one of the firmwares that's out on the web and get it today.

<comment><USER18> On Android, you have to 'root' the phone in some fashion in order to install firmware. On a couple Android phones, the rooting process is 'supported', but on most models, rooting relies on exploiting the phone in the same way a jailbreak would.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The article blames Motorola, which is fair, but I'd cast a look at Verizon, too. Their history of crippling phones is long and sordid.

<comment><USER20> It's probably not too far from the truth. Free tethering is probably causing a hamper on their system.

<comment><USER21> So just bill customers for what they use.

<comment><USER22> We have an unlimited plan. Verizon really can't decide to start metering it now without a re-write to contract which would allow consumers to break their contracts (presumably).

Unlimited data on Verizon is awesome btw.

<comment><USER23> How do you get unlimited data on Verizon? The largest plan I've heard of is 5 GB/mo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Sadly, this is not new. See "Tivoization" at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization>

</comment><comment><USER25> Are the comments on mobile crunch for real or just a pack of trolls? I wonder what the actual public perception will be.

Is this "Motorola stops would-be cell phone hackers!" or "Motorola puts self- destruct sequence in your phone!"?

</comment><comment><USER26> I really like how companies don't understand that the possibility to modify and fiddle with a device makes this device much more attractive for the right customers lke us hackers.

<comment><USER27> True, but you represent probably .1% of their total customer base.

The bigger issue at hand is that the common hardware hacker is such a rare beast these days...

<comment><USER28> True, but also consider the people who go to their friendly neighborhood hacker to get their device "unlocked".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Not quite as evil, but T-Mobile Germany is preventing me from flashing my HTC Hero and at the same time delay official updates by months. Suffice to say, I won't ever buy a phone from a mobile phone company again - they suck at software!

<comment><USER21> The only phone you actually have control over is a Nexus One. People still have to root HTC's other phones, Motorola phones, iPhones, and just about every other usable consumer phone device.

<comment><USER30> There's also Nokia's N900, which runs Maemo - a Debian derivative.

<comment><USER21> Indeed it does, but I don't count the N900 or OpenMoko, having used both, as usable general purpose phones.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I don't really care, and I certainly wouldn't change my recommendation of a phone to a consumer based on this. But read to the end before you downvote :)

As a vendor, dealing with hacks, jailbreaks, and other such things is remarkably expensive. Consumers (not developers) wind up installing these things without understanding the implications of what they're doing. The OS breaks, the applications break, things go haywire, things go bad. The hardware vendor, the OS vendor, and the application vendor all take the blame and have to deal with the support costs. We get support e-mails all the time that can be traced to iOS jailbreak-induced issues.

It's a massive pain in the neck that, understandably, a vendor just doesn't want to deal with.

Moreover, as a consumer, it's incredibly wasteful to be spending so much time on trying to break into undocumented systems that the vendors just aren't interested in supporting.

Instead, I want to support vendors that provide more open platforms for a more premium price. It _costs_ more to produce an open, supported platform, and I don't mind paying a little bit for an Android development phone that allows me to experiment with OS-level work, or something like the Ubiquity RouterStation Pro[0] as an alternative to consumer wireless routers. The advantage to me is that hacking the device is _supported_ and I don't have to fight with a consumer manufacturer -- a company with very different priorities to my own -- to do it.

[0] <http://www.ubnt.com/rspro>

<comment><USER32> That's ridiculous. To make the over used car analogy, this is if you were to replace the engine on a brand new car you bought with a different one, only to have the car destroy itself, and the new engine you just put in it.

It's one thing to not support the new engine when it has problems. It's another thing to destroy property that someone bought from you after the sale if they use it in a way you don't approve.

I understand it costs more to support an open platform. But it's a choice to support that open platform, and Motorola doesn't have to do that, they can hang up on Joe Average who did installs the mod just like a dealership would do so on anyone who screwed up putting a completely different engine in their brand new car.

<comment><USER31> _Motorola doesn't have to do that, they can hang up on Joe Average who did installs the mod ..._

Cars aren't phones. The cost of installing a new engine is very different than the cost of installing a phone hack, the set of people likely to do so (and the associated cost to the manufacturer and other vendors) isn't the same, and there's going to be a lot more consumer awareness about what they're doing by replacing the engine. And really -- modern cars _are_ locked down.

<comment><USER6> Modern cars are fairly proprietary, but they're not intentionally locked down. They certainly don't attempt to self-destruct upon detecting tampering. Cars actually do the opposite: they attempt to keep going even in the event of improper modification or malfunction (limp-home mode, etc...).

I find locked-down devices annoying, but not unethical. Self-destructs are simply vandalism, and should result in legal action.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Cool, so now a virus can potentially destroy phones on hardware level.

</comment><comment><USER34> When are you kids going to learn? If you have to root it, hack it, jailbreak it or otherwise mod it against the terms of purchase which you signed voluntarily when purchasing, why are you surprised when your candy is removed from you? If it doesn't do the job and the maker doesn't want it to do the job, it's his problem. Don't act like a spoiled brat and give in to the cat- and-mouse game of hacking and counterhacking.

Vote with your dollars.

</comment><comment><USER16> Good, don't buy one and send a message via lack of dollars.

</comment><comment><USER35> I can just imagine the reaction if it had been _Apple_ releasing a phone that self-destructed when you modded it. Since this is Android - and Android is 'open' - expect the story to fall into news-cycle oblivion by next week.

Where's the outrage now?

<comment><USER36> There are posts on various Android related forums speaking against this, numerous blog posts, and some people have canceled their orders... so your implicit charge of hypocrisy falls entirely flat in the face of reality. Care to retract it?

<comment><USER35> There are always at least a half-dozen anti-Apple posts on HN at any given time. I see one post about this, which is already falling off the radar. If this had been about an Apple product, people would be working themselves into a frothy geek-rage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Wow, Google is giving away their OS for free, and Motorola is locking it up. It's not even theirs to lock up. We PAID for it....do they not get the concept of money or what?</comment>


Americans Pushed to the Suburbs as City Prices Soar Out of Reach - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-29/americans-pushed-to-the-suburbs-as-city-prices-soar-out-of-reach <comment><USER2> Define suburb? Long Island is technically one gigantic suburb (single-family homes everywhere) but housing expenditure proportional to income is the same as the city if not more.

When you factor in commute times (whether by train or by car), the situation is dire. You spend your life working for a house you really only use 2 days per week and isn't paid off until you are in your 60s or 70s,</comment>


Why Other Users Cant See My Comment? - <AUTHOR> I post a comment but I realise when I log out my comment didnt show for other users, why? Is ycombinator have bugs on their system? Thanks <comment><USER2> Your comments were killed by a software filter which is based on past activity by trolls etc. Users can unkill such comments by vouching for them, and moderators review them and unkill the good ones. I'm afraid, though, that the comments you posted were bad for HN:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20737083](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20737083)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20736731](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20736731)

Would you mind reviewing the site guidelines at [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and taking the intended spirit of this site to heart? You'll find that there are quite a few guidelines there which ask you not to make posts like these. We're trying for thoughtful, high-information comments on HN, and trying to avoid snark and shallow dismissals.</comment>


Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest should be worried - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intoo <comment><USER2> Provocative title. I guess that's what you were going for :)

I see no evidence why this isnt another also-ran social network.</comment>


Show HN: G9.js – Automatically Interactive Differentiable Graphics - <AUTHOR> http://omrelli.ug/g9/gallery/ <comment><USER2> This apparently uses the back-propagation engine from [https://alpha.trycarbide.com/](https://alpha.trycarbide.com/) (which the author of g9 also works on). When I saw it I thought I remembered seeing it in the Carbide demo, so I Googled and I was right. Super neat that it's packaged up into a library though. Really cool system.

See [https://twitter.com/antimatter15/status/779776900042555393](https://twitter.com/antimatter15/status/779776900042555393)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN, I'm the author of this library, happy to answer any questions!

We just fixed a bug that was breaking this on mobile, everything should be working now.

<comment><USER3> On firefox, the graph isn't "real time", it only updates when you stop dragging. Other examples seem to work real time in the gallery though, so I suppose it's just a problem with that page ?

In any case, this is really cool.

<comment><USER4> Which graph are you talking about? I'm on Firefox 49.0 and all the examples on omrelli.ug/g9/gallery work as expected for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Could someone please make a Visio clone out of this that produced Graphviz code? You would make me blissfully happy.

Graphviz is too hard for my colleagues and I cannot face labouring over Visio just to produce something that is not diffable.

</comment><comment><USER6> That is a neat idea! It reminds me of another cool constraint based animation system called "Embedded Constraint Graphics" that Tom Ngo developed at Interval Research Corporation, for which he filed a patent on Aug 6, 1996.

So hey, didn't that patent just expire a month ago?

Golan Levin used the ECG graphical editor to create the vector based face cartoons for his "Mouther" project, by simply dragging the eyes and mouth and other features around like you'd naturally want to be able to do. [2]

It's a really brilliant way to automatically create directly manipulatable interactive graphics from target examples, which you can interpolate between along multiple dimensions at once (zones of a simplicial complex [3]), by dragging different parts of the graphics appropriately. It would figure out how to map the direction and amount you're dragging at a particular location, to appropriate movement in the n-dimensional target interpolation space. It was great for making cartoony direct manipulation user interface widgets!

"A constraint-based graphics system employs different examples of an image to define the constraints of the system. The examples are grouped into subsets which can be interpolated with one another, according to a user-specified input that determines the relative proportion of each example image. An animation can be created by defining a sequence of such interpolated images. Alternatively, a user can directly manipulate observable components of an image to define a particular state for the image. Automatic transformations are defined to provide registration of an image within an overall scene by shifting the frame of reference for an image so that unnatural movements do not occur as the animation proceeds through a sequence of states. The structure of the system permits an animation to be divided into distinct components that can be combined with complementary components of other animations, to provide new results. These components include a clip motion which defines a sequence of states, a clip character which applies the clip motion to a particular image configuration, and clip art."

"The various image examples can be associated with one another in a manner that defines a topological data structure which identifies their relationships. An example of such a data structure for the images of FIGS. 2A-2D is shown in FIG. 3. Referring thereto, each of the four image examples is associated with a vertex of a geometric shape. Specifically, the three image examples of FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C, which form one subset, define a triangular shape. The second subset, comprising the examples of FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2D, defines a second triangle. Since the examples of FIGS. 2A and 2B are shared between the two subsets, the two triangles are joined along a common interface. Each subset of examples constitutes a simplex, or zone, and all of the zones together form a combinatorial structure, or state space, known as a simplicial complex. In the case illustrated in FIG. 5, the state space is composed of two triangular zones, ABC and ABD. While both zones in this case are two-dimensional structures, it is also possible for a state space to include one-dimensional zones, i.e. a line whose end points are defined by two examples, as well as multi-dimensional zones such as a tetrahedron defined by four examples."

"The combinatorial structure defines a state space for the graphics system. Any given point within this space defines a particular image, and movement within the state space causes the appearance of the image to change. More particularly, each of the vertices corresponds to one of the image examples shown in FIGS. 2A-2D. A point located between two vertices results in an interpolated image comprised of a representative portion of each of the two images associated with the respective vertices. Thus, as one moves from the lowest vertex A in the structure of FIG. 3 up the vertical line 10 to the highest vertex B, the figure's arms smoothly move from the position shown in FIG. 2A to that shown in FIG. 2B. Movement from the lowest vertex A to the left vertex C causes a transition in the image from that of FIG. 2A to that of FIG. 2C. A point located somewhere within the triangle defined by the three vertices A, B and C corresponds to an image in which the arms are partially raised and the right leg is partially lifted. For example, the point 12 represents a position in which the image is a weighted composite consisting of 60% of FIG. 2B, 30% of FIG. 2A and 10% of FIG. 2C. The percentages sum up to unity, and the weight values which correspond to these percentages, i.e. 0.6, 0.3 and 0.1, constitute a vector in barycentric coordinates. In a relatively simple embodiment of the invention, the examples are interpolated linearly; but in a different embodiment, the interpolation could employ non-linear functions, such as cubic polynomials. Any state s within the state space can be specified by a zone, in this case the zone containing the examples A, B and C, together with the vector, i.e. 0.3, 0.6, 0.1!."

[1] [https://www.google.com/patents/US5933150](https://www.google.com/patents/US5933150)

[2] [http://www.flong.com/projects/mouther/](http://www.flong.com/projects/mouther/)

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

<comment><USER7> That's definitely a really interesting piece of prior art! It looks like the patent expired last month. I'm sure there are a lot of other interesting approaches in the space, so I'd personally (and I'm assuming other people in the HN crowd) really appreciate similar things in the comments!

A lot of the ideas for constraint-based graphics date back even earlier (1963!) to Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad (YCR's HARC revisited some of the under-explored ideas of Sketchpad in 2014 [https://github.com/cdglabs/sketchpad14](https://github.com/cdglabs/sketchpad14)).

Also by HARC, there's Apparatus ([http://aprt.us/](http://aprt.us/)) which, like g9, uses numerical gradient descent to handle constraints (we actually both use insanely awesome uncmin implementation from NumericJS).

And of course there's the work by Ravi Chugh, et al. on prodirect manipulation with Sketch-N-Sketch ([https://ravichugh.github.io/sketch-n- sketch/](https://ravichugh.github.io/sketch-n-sketch/)), which handles constraints symbolically with careful provenance tracking.

From CMU's HCII, Stephen Oney's ConstraintJS ([http://cjs.from.so/](http://cjs.from.so/)) also explores the idea of using constraints for building interactive web applications— though, like Sketch-N- Sketch, it's primarily a symbolic approach.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of Carbide, and contributed a little bit to G9.

<comment><USER6> Yes, there's a lot of interesting prior art about graphical constraints, and Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad inspired so much work on so many different levels. Thanks for all those references, I'll check them out.

Ivan Sutherland was on the thesis committee of James Gosling, who wrote his doctorate thesis at CMU entitled "The Algebraic Manipulation of Constraints" [1]:

Abstract: Constraints are a way of expressing relationships among objects; satisfying a set of constraints involves finding an assignment of values to variables that is consistent with the constraints. In its full generality, constructing a constraint satisfaction algorithm is a hopeless task. This dissertation focuses on the problem of performing constraint satisfaction in an interactive graphical layout system. It takes a pragmatic approach and restricts itself to a narrow but very useful domain. The algorithms used by MAGRITTE, an editor for simple line drawings, are presented. A major portion of the work concerns the algebraic transformation of sets of constraints. It describes algorithms for identifying difficult subregions of a constraint graph and replacing them with a transformed and simplified new constraint.

[1] [http://reports-archive.adm.cs.cmu.edu/anon/scan/CMU- CS-83-13...](http://reports-archive.adm.cs.cmu.edu/anon/scan/CMU- CS-83-132.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I guess the code is supposed to update when I drag the graphics?

But nothing happens for me on firefox [Ubuntu, 64 bit].

This does look great, and I've been wanting to build something like this into a livecoding app for ages, but had no idea how it would work - now, thanks to the comment about backpropagation on this page, I do :)

<comment><USER9> Works great on Firefox 49.0.1 32bit [Win10, 64bit]

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Anyone knows of a library that somehow black-boxes / abstracts away the manual calculus involved in such visualizations? I imagine that'd greatly lower barrier to entry to creation of stunning graphics and animations, and with the help of G9.js even more so.

</comment><comment><USER11> please, like I'm 5, someone explain?

<comment><AUTHOR> First, you make up some names and give each name a number. Then you draw shapes based on the names, not the numbers.

For example, you might make a number called my_cool_number, and set it to 10, and then say "draw a circle my_cool_number pixels from the top, and 300 pixels from the left.".

Then your screen shows a circle 10 pixels from the top and 300 pixels from the left.

If I go and drag the circle, g9 will figure out how to change your numbers. For example, if I drag it down, g9 might say "now my_cool_number is set to 100". If my_cool_number is 100, then "draw a circle my_cool_number pixels from the top, and 300 pixels from the left" will draw a circle that's lower down.

That way it's like I'm actually moving the circle.

The cool part is that if you had other parts of your drawing that also depended on my_cool_number, they'll also move when it changes.

<comment><USER11> Thank you for this lovely explanation, but I still don't understand where back-propagation comes in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Very cool! Lots of questions!

Could this be used for inverse kinematics?

Would this approach work in 3d?

Could you use it for reverse model binding with DOM elements?

</comment><comment><USER13> What's the license?

<comment><AUTHOR> MIT. Added to the repo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> IMHO this link is infinitely more inspirational. [http://omrelli.ug/g9/gallery/](http://omrelli.ug/g9/gallery/)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're probably right!

dang, if you see this, the above might be a better link for HN

<comment><USER15> OK, we've changed the URL from [http://omrelli.ug/g9](http://omrelli.ug/g9) .</comment></comment></comment>


Lost in Migration: Walter Benjamin's Black Suitcase - <AUTHOR> https://aeon.co/essays/what-happened-to-walter-benjamins-precious-black-suitcase <comment><AUTHOR> Another recent article is about Benjamin in Ibiza in the 30s:

[https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/20/walter- benjam...](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/20/walter-benjamin-in- ibiza/)</comment>


Net-glimpse: A little tool for network traffic visualization - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/kristian-lange/net-glimpse/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> Why not just create a GraphML, GDF or GEXF file and load it into Gephi[1]?

Seems way simpler and that program has all kinds of algorithms that lets you visualize graphs. If you want to show the graph to someone else, stream it or make a webm.

I guess the only limitation is it would be tough to do it on live data.

[1] [https://gephi.org/](https://gephi.org/)

<comment><USER3> You could do interactive view options / drill down with this that needs on the fly reanalysis of the traffic. Doing it all beforehand and generating all possible graph data "just in case" gets too expensive fast.

A simple example would be showing desired protocol level details via the Wireshark XML output stuff.

<comment><USER2> You can do all those things in Gephi. Just give each node/edge those attributes and you can filter/query by them.

You can very much show desired protocol level details - just convert Wireshark XML to one of the common graph formats and load that.

<comment><USER3> So how to address the graph size problem?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice tool, it reminds me of [http://etherape.sourceforge.net/](http://etherape.sourceforge.net/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Very nice. Jung has some pretty good java vis libs.

</comment><comment><USER6> i remember making this kind of tool for a major telecommunications firm. it was a good project for me as a junior.

</comment><comment><USER7> Got as far as requires Java... It's sad but running Java ducks, every time I need to use idrac to a Dell server it really is a nightmare...

<comment><USER8> It's Java's fault Dell wrote a crappy program in it?</comment></comment>