Ask HN: Recommend some good books for a dev with no design background? - <AUTHOR> I could think of top 10 lists for algorithms, web application security, reversing, design patterns... Things programmers should or might want to know about.
I think to be a more well rounded individual I would like to start reading up on design. Graphic design, UX design, typography, style. Please tell me where to start!
Also: it seems like all the important design communities are by invite only (Forrst for example), which makes it hard to get started from a social-web perspective. This isn't true for the programming community given sites like this, /r/programming, StackOverflow, github and bitbucket, and the multitude of open source projects. Oh well. Just an observation. <comment><USER2> I don't have much for book recommendations, but start off with The Elements of Typographic Style [[http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert- Brin...](http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert- Bringhurst/dp/0881792055/)] and get a feel for creating usable and readable typography in your apps. <http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/> makes a good companion site too.

Graphic design comes down to "the art of organizing" and effectively using five elements: line, shape, space, colour and texture. When searching for fundamental design books I'd look for those that cover how to harness said elements effectively.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability [http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach- Usability/...](http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach- Usability/dp/0789723107)

It's a quick read that will give you tons of "A ha!" moments.

</comment><comment><USER4> Hi, You might find these websites more useful in terms of substance and practicality. uxmovement.com - Usability articles designshack.co.uk - Well- written articles on design www.alistapart.com - Web design

I guess you'll also be interested in the presentation of information and statistics. I recommend Edward Tufte's books. I second the recommendation of Steve Krug's book, probably one of the most practical and well-written guides.

For typography, I found these articles quite good as an introduction: Basics of Typography [http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-rules-for- cre...](http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-rules-for-creating- effective-typography)

If you have Illustrator, you can design some pretty nice text [http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/an-in-depth- guide...](http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/an-in-depth-guide-to- working-with-typography-in-illustrator)

This is a pretty good introduction to some classic fonts: [http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/25-classic- font...](http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/25-classic-fonts-that- will-last-a-whole-design-career)

Have fun! (I'm also picking up skills to be more well-rounded) Ryan =)

</comment><comment><USER5> There are some timeless classics such as [http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_Archite...](http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_Architecture) and [http://openlibrary.org/works/OL1417305W/On_painting_and_On_s...](http://openlibrary.org/works/OL1417305W/On_painting_and_On_sculpture) but some really good contemporary advice about data displays can be found in <http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/> and for an introduction to typography you could do worse than the LaTeX Memoir Class manual <http://www.ctan.org/tex- archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/>.

</comment><comment><USER6> The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice - Outlines the essentials of page layout, emphasizing the four concrete principles of design--proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast

<comment><USER7> I'll second that recommendation. It's such a quick read and yet so incredibly insightful. The same author also wrote a sequel to the book intended specifically for the web. I haven't read her web design book, but if it's anything like the original I'm sure it's a valuable addition to any web designer's library.

In addition, I'd recommend: "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems" by Raskin

and

"User and Task Analysis for Interface Design" by Hackos and Redish

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The internet is pretty awesome, and has a lot of resources too. :P

Some of my favorites: <http://www.viget.com/inspire/>, <http://veerle.duoh.com/>, <http://www.webdesignerwall.com/>, and <http://jontangerine.com/>. Even if these resources don't have tutorials, surround yourself with design and you'll start picking it up.

</comment><comment><USER9> There are many books for Usability, User Experience, etc. but if you are a hard core programmer, I would recommend "Designing Web Interfaces" is good for beginners and "Defensive Design For The Web".

Links: [http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Interfaces-Principles- In...](http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Interfaces-Principles- Interactions/dp/0596516258/)

[http://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Design-Web-improve- messages/...](http://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Design-Web-improve- messages/dp/073571410X)

Enjoy :)

</comment><comment><USER10> The trick is that books are outdated as soon as they are written. There are a number of great books on design, but you can learn just as much if not more by just searching around.

Assuming you mean site design (learn the golden ratio, learn CSS, get good with photoshop) vs. code design (GoF Design Patterns, etc.), smashing mag is pretty good place to start.

<comment><USER3> The principles of great design are pretty timeless and are rooted in psychology, how our brain works and history.

You're right that you can learn a lot by intuition, but it's more likely that you're learning what you prefer, not what good design principles are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I found this enlightening: <http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/>

It's a treatise against interaction as the fundamental paradigm of information software. Presenting your information well means not needing to interact with it much to gain value from it. Lots of pretty examples, also.

</comment><comment><USER12> You could try <http://goo.gl/xbYN> Here is a review: <http://goo.gl/jRCn...in> french...who knows! I have not read it myself, but I trust the one who wrote the review. To sum up: great book for sleek designs!</comment>


I cannae dae it, cap'n Why I had to quit the madness of frontline IT - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/09/why_i_quit_it_sysadmin_overloads/ <comment><USER2> _You want a deeper skills pool? More women in IT? Stop treating your IT staff like garbage. Give them the resources and authority they need to do the jobs to hand.

Otherwise, you'll find that there are plenty of adjacent industries in which we can make use of our skills. Industries that don't cause PTSD and where a good night's sleep is the norm, not the exception._

Here, here!</comment>


U.S. considers order to bar Huawei, ZTE purchases - <AUTHOR> https://reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1OQ09P <comment><USER2> This all circles back to the fact that none of the base station manufacturers have an open source stack that any nation can trust to be reasonably secure.

Instead, carrier networks are a hodgepodge of various vendors equipment, many of which have terrible security histories (looking at you Juniper!). Its reasonable to be suspicious of non-domestic vendors, but the fix isn't to consider Ericsson or Nokia (formerly Alcatel-Lucent) secure, but rather to put this code in the public purview such that non-employees can bugfix, extend and enhance our communications networks.

</comment><comment><USER3> If Huawei and ZTE are shut out from US markets, Ericsson and Nokia divide the US market between the two. Good news for them.

Base stations are not the most critical parts in mobile networks. Using Huawei's base stations would be probably OK. Several countries and operators have inspected and monitored Huawei's hardware and traffic they generate for over ten years and nothing has been found.

Buying operating services and the most critical hardware and software from Huawei is different question.</comment>


Open-source ambient physical display that visualizes weather conditions - <AUTHOR> http://www.tempescope.com/

<comment><USER2> The idea is good, but the implementation is boring. Pair that tech up with a terrarium, and you've got something. Add sunlight and clouds and you could end up with something fairly artistic.

That it mimics the outside weather is gimmicky and misplaced. That's a sidefeature, a checkbox; thats not what really matters. Something that looks cool that people will buy is.

<comment><USER3> > Add sunlight and clouds and you could end up with something fairly artistic.

It does do clouds and sunlight: [https://youtu.be/Euw6ebwXlMI?t=39s](https://youtu.be/Euw6ebwXlMI?t=39s)

The whole point is exactly that it "mimics the outside weather".

<comment><USER4> > reproduce tomorrow's sky in your living room

It sounds more like a time machine for tomorrow's weather.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My first thought was "um, isn't that a window?" :)

<comment><USER6> This window doesn't require an external wall and it can be time-shifted.</comment></comment>


Safari vulnerability in iOS 5.1 allows URL spoofing - <AUTHOR> http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/22/safari_vulnerability_in_ios_51_allows_url_spoofing.html <comment><USER2> Since you're opening a new window from another domain and writing arbitrary HTML into it, I wonder if this vulnerability could be used to bypass cross- domain restrictions...

<comment><USER3> Nope, it's just a spoofing issue, that doesn't affect (as far as I tested) the actual implementation of Same Origin Policy by Safari. I.e., you cannot get access to my-cool-site.com DOM, if you're leveraging this bug.

<comment><USER4> But, my-hacker-site.com could, instead of including an iframe to my-banking- site.com, simply do a server-side proxy of your bank and execute a pretty effective phishing attack.

The advice I've seen re:phishing is usually to check the URL. That doesn't help here.

<comment><USER5> _Check the URL_ is not a solid advice, there are many ways to trick you (e.g. google.com vs goog1e.com). Enter the URL yourself is a better one.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can we use technology to combat white supremacy? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> You don't. The more you try to stamp something out, the more legitimacy you give it.</comment>


Study: People on antidepressants 'more than twice as likely to attempt suicide' - <AUTHOR> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7176689/New-study-finds-rare-risk-suicide-patients-antidepressants.html?ito=facebook_share_fbia-middle&fbclid=IwAR24cG8VyELH9FEm2yC63GkBdQdijkSFRI0VwYvq48yQpVBxho2TphrGZKs <comment><AUTHOR> The actual study: [https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/501215](https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/501215)</comment>


Show HN: Gain feedback from your software project - <AUTHOR> https://www.frontpile.com <comment><USER2> This is not a "Show HN" material. You are merely advertising your services, which is why your previous posts from past few days got repeatedly flagged down.</comment>


CIA medical staff gave specifications on how to torture post-9/11 detainees - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/15/cia-torture-program-september-11-medical-staff-instructions-details <comment><USER2> Are Doctor Licenses still revoked if you violate the Hippocratic oath?

<comment><USER3> You don't have to take the oath to be a doctor in the US. Also, have you ever read it? Abortion is a no-no</comment></comment>


PID Loops and the Art of Keeping Systems Stable - <AUTHOR> https://www.infoq.com/presentations/pid-loops/ <comment><USER2> With so much excitement around ML these days, it is fun to see someone excited about a more established field like controls.

It can definitely be applied to just about everything... and I have long argued explains the financials crisis the most succinctly.

\- People sold debt (sometimes many times) and were paid a commission regardless of whether the debt was repaid. This was an 'open loop' system and fundamentally unstable.</comment>


Making It Big In Software: Google's Peter Norvig - <AUTHOR> http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/utility_ondemand/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DMDTK3VEZUHLNQE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN?articleID=224900261&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev= <comment><USER2> "I'm also proud that I had a small part to play in ... Remote Agent, the first AI program ever to control a spacecraft. I didn't specify or write any of the software myself..."

He did fix a bug in it, though -- in a way. :-) That is, back then I noticed a mistake in the unification code which he'd previously pointed out as a common one: <http://norvig.com/unify-bug.pdf>

(That particular bit of the code was by HN user 'lisper', incidentally.)

</comment><comment><USER3> "I'm very pragmatic and try to measure the impact I've had by multiplying the number of people I've done something for by the average impact on them."

I think, deep down, this is why any of us get up and go to work every day. He's truly lucky to be able to help hundreds of millions of people- this is much more rewarding than any paycheck he gets from Google.

<comment><USER4> This reminded me of the following comment from Steve Jobs:

"You know, I've been thinking about it. How many people are going to be using the Macintosh? A million? No, more than that. In a few years, I bet five million people will be booting up their Macintoshes at least once a day."

"Well, let's say you can shave 10 seconds off of the boot time. Multiply that by five million users and thats 50 million seconds, every single day. Over a year, that's probably dozens of lifetimes. So if you make it boot ten seconds faster, you've saved a dozen lives. That's really worth it, don't you think?"

[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Saving_Lives.tx):

<comment><USER5> Whereas Facebook is trying to waste the time of the most people.

<comment><USER6> Computers are for spreadsheets, not for talking with friends!

<comment><USER7> What about forums?

<comment><USER6> Not allowed! Computers are serious business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "People get out of balance when they see their value as being able to respond quickly. If I see myself as a machine for answering email, then my work life would never stop because my email never stops. If instead I see my value as separating the important from the unimportant and making good decisions on the important..."

Good stuff...

</comment><comment><USER9> I was a bit disappointed by the interview. It's very short, shallow and the selection of questions is very predictable. There is a much better interview with Peter Norvig in Coders at Work. <http://www.codersatwork.com/peter- norvig.html>

</comment><comment><USER10> Making it Big in Software is a career guide for geeks - and a damn good one. If you've been in the business for less than 15 years it's a great read, and can really change your professional life for the better.

The Norvig interview was just one of 17 interviews with major personalities. These interviews are only about 1/3 of the book. The chapter content (the other 2/3rd of the book) provides great insights on everything from technical skills, to people and project management, how to get faster promotions, successful project proposals, and even how to launch a successful startup.

Lots of good stories, cold hard metrics and practical advice. Clearly some serious time went into writing this. Have a look at the Amazon.com reviews.

Here's the list of people interviewed in the book. A nice mix of CEOs/techies, young/old, men/women, free software versus commercial software leaders, academics/entrepreneurs. Really big names. 1\. Steve Wozniak, Inventor, Apple computer 2\. John Schwarz, CEO, Business Objects 3\. James Gosling, Inventor, Java programming language 4\. Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products and User Experience 5\. Jon Bentley, Author, Programming Pearls 6\. Marc Benioff, CEO and founder, Salesforce.com 7\. Grady Booch, IBM Fellow and co-founder Rational Software 8\. Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor, C++ programming language 9\. David Vaskevitch, Microsoft CTO 10\. Linus Torvalds, Creator, Linux operating system kernel 11\. Richard Stallman, Founder, Free software movement 12\. Peter Norvig, Google's Director of Research 13\. Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Fellow and Windows Architect 14\. Tom Malloy, Adobe Chief Software Architect 15\. Diane Greene, Co-founder and past CEO of VMware 16\. Robert Kahn, Co-inventor, the Internet 17\. Ray Tomlinson, Inventor, email

Also some nice quotes from James Hamilton Distinguised Engineer and VP at Amazon.com, and Alan Kay, coinventor of SmallTalk, OOP, and a major contributor to modern GUIs and dynamic interpretted languages.

An impresisve book and a fun and useful read.

</comment><comment><USER11> Does anyone know the "Making it Big in Software" book? Is it any good?

<comment><USER12> I checked the reviews and the TOC at Amazon. It looks like the book could be a career changer for some people (depending on how you read it and what you get out of it).

I probably won't buy it since I've already decided what matters for me in the long run. But for some who's still looking for guidance or clarification, could be worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> single page

[http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml...](http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=224900261)

</comment><comment><USER14> Don't bother downloading the PDF with the book-chapter. The article is identical.

</comment><comment><USER15> Norvig's pet peeve: 'Programmers and product managers who can't think about their product from the user's point of view. As Alan Cooper puts it, "The inmates are running the asylum."'

Indeed.

<comment><USER16> I doubt that Norvig would endorse Cooper's even more insane idea for fixing the problem, though, which is to create a ruling class of "designers" to stand between programmers and users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> And here is the new 2010 book the interview is from. Best career guide for geeks avaiable IMHO:

<http://bit.ly/b08auR>

</comment><comment><USER17> This "interview" is as interesting as the back of a cereal box.

What a waste of a good opportunity</comment>


Dennis Ritchie, High School Guidance Counselor - <AUTHOR> http://www.codypowell.com/taods/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-high-school-guidance-counselor.html

<comment><USER2> Another data point of an accomplished man being down to earth. I almost find this just a step beyond the call of duty.

Scenario: Imagine that you are looking for a job to the next hot small start- up. Send an email pretending that you are a high school student looking for a word of guidance. See if they will have the time to respond the same way dmr did. Judge

<comment><USER3> Start ups may not have a lot of time to respond to that sort of thing. When you are living off Ramen and praying that you don't lose money this year, you tend to be pretty busy.

<comment><USER4> I think you can still find a couple minutes to respond to someone reaching out for help once in a while. It doesn't mean it's your responsibility to shoulder all the burden of helping everyone asking, but it is worth doing it sometimes because even if you don't realize it, other people did it for you, many times.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am mentoring a cousin and younger brothers of some of my friends who want to study CS or consider a career in this field. If they ask questions about how to prepare for a CS major, or eventually getting a job at companies, I tell them what I wish I had known when I was 17. I didn't have such a person to turn to when I was college age and was wondering whether this was the right career for me, given there are so many interesting options.

It only takes a few tens of minutes of my time to reply to their emails, but the type of mentorship, upbringing, or just sheer luck you had while growing up may not be available to someone else. Sometimes, it just takes a few words to help set their course.

While I am nowhere as accomplished as dmr, it's empowering to know that someone ten years younger would still love to be in my position, and that a few kind words can give them the encouragement to keep going.</comment>


I made a robot to cut my hair with scissors [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBrbdU_y0s <comment><USER2> Meta point: I think that this channel illustrates well the transition from personal blogs to youtube videos.

If you go to his projects blog, [https://shane.engineer/](https://shane.engineer/) you could see very detailed blog posts in the past that go deeply into the engineering, including code snippets. However, he only really go traction when starting to publish youtube videos, specifically youtube video with a clickbait subject (such as a self aiming basketball hoop).

What YouTube provides is a highly competitive environment that provides creators with constant feedback. This allowed him to identify and his niche as he uploaded more videos. With YouTube, the exposure these projects receive is orders of magnitude higher, while empowering its creators to be self sustainable with ads (and sponsors, patreon, and merch) revenue.

At the end of the day, I think it's a positive change, as it allows more people to create high quality content independently, and in a rewarding way (vs volunteering).

<comment><USER3> It sucks for people aren't videogenic though.

<comment><USER4> There are tons of DIY video that didn't really feature the person's face, or isn't really necessary.

<comment><USER5> Binging with Babish didn't even show his face until he was popular: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw)

He basically popularized a whole genre of "here are my rolled-up sleeved forearms doing things" video framing.

<comment><USER6> He has some really nice looking forearms though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This guy is a legend. Awesome videos. A few of them seem productizable in a way most DIY-er videos don't, albeit in a limited run capacity.

He made a iPad lidar to "braille" converter that was really impressive, and I'm hopeful someone picks up the work.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Au47gnXs0w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Au47gnXs0w)

<comment><USER8> Each of these projects is something I think I could probably figure out how to make in a year (but not really - I simply couldn't do the hardware side with my toolset).

Then I look at his youtube videos and see he is putting out one of these videos each week.

The level of productivity is insane.

For example, in the basketball 2.0, he mentioned doing the 1.0 version a few weeks before. Then in a few weeks, he is doing something equivalent to Mark Rober's dart board (that took Mark 2 years with help) - while creating other videos.

How is this possible?

<comment><USER9> He has a very particular set of skills; skills he has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make his projects a nightmare for people like you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In the beginning I was afraid he was going to lose his ears... vacuum contraption reminds me of Flowbee on a 3d arm.

I think it's impressive feat of engineering. I'm sure he can really perfect it collaborating with a stylist.

<comment><USER11> For those fellow readers who do not know the Flowbee, here it is:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY)

Quote: "This ingenious device lets you give yourself and family perfect haircuts everytime!"

<comment><USER12> If anyone else suddenly had a flashback of Wayne's World where the Flowbee was parodied, here's the clip you're looking for: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LrJDt- fPQI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LrJDt-fPQI)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Clearly inferior to Simone Giertz' revolutionary hair cutting drone: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQSh1MWIdVU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQSh1MWIdVU)

Looks like it is a tad more practical (and functional), though...

</comment><comment><USER14> Just watched this last night with my wife. Was cracking up the whole time. The combination of cheesy humor and engineering chops is fantastic. I also enjoyed the one he did about making a basketball back board that ensures you always make the shot. Good stuff.

<comment><USER15> I think you'd enjoy michael reeves. Altough that guy is a bit out of his mind.

[https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelReeves/videos](https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelReeves/videos)

<comment><USER16> Thought I was done with OP videos for the evening, but now this guy...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I had been thinking about rather than a robot, the thing I really need is actually just a camera and remote arms I control, that can help me cut the back of my head more accurately.

If I could see the back of my head in front of me in a way that's not reversed in the mirror, and use my own hands as normal but they do the work back there, all problems would be solved...

I don't need a smart robot, I just need an improved angle of using my own hands!

<comment><USER18> I've been cutting my own hair for some time now, and I have to say that after a while you develop a certain level of proprioception for where the buzzer is at. I don't even look at the mirror for most of the time I'm cutting, only to check if I did it right. And almost always I know the instant I cut too much (because I get the same kind of cringe feeling you get right when you throw a basketball and know instantly that you missed).

Then again, I have a "good enough" attitude for haircuts - but people are genuinely surprised when I tell them I cut my own hair. I think this is because I've gotten better at cutting my own head of hair than what a random barber would be capable of.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I actually think this isn't that far from a legit product. It is just an early prototype, the approach seems to be totally working, current problems pretty easy to fix, so it kind of makes me surprised cheap robotic barbershops aren't a thing yet.

(Attempts into jokes and acting in this video are painfully lame, though, it is much better when he just focuses on description of the actual project.)

<comment><USER20> It's extremely far from a usable product.

The fact he couldn't cut his own hair, means he can't cut different hair, or different styles, or different textures or head shapes. No testing completed either.

This is really nothing more than a YouTube video.

Source- Design Engineer

<comment><USER21> Exactly how the first iPhone prototype was.... But you need to see past that, see the vision. I see robot haircutters everywhere in 10 years.

<comment><USER20> Everyone forgets about Blackberry...

Also I believe you are describing a general Apple quality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> One more way coronavirus lockdown is a threat to a whole lot of trades. Once it is over, not only will a whole lot of people have figured out that it isn't all that hard to cut your own hair or your spouse/family member's hair, but we'll have figured out how to have robots do it.

Same goes for a whole lot of other things. Education is probably going to take the biggest hit. I'm ok with this overall, but it's going to hurt a lot for some people.

<comment><USER23> You sound like someone who hasn't cared about a child while trying to keep a full-time job. I bet many parents would support giving childcare/education professionals a raise after having to do the job themselves for a few months...

<comment><USER22> I actually am one of those parents. Childcare and education are actually two different things. They tend to be combined into one in schools, but that isn't the only approach.

There is also college education, which is a bit different. I could see many people choosing to simply pay for an institution to give them tests to prove they actually learned the material, while the actual learning is done independently. If you against this, well, you sound like someone who had their college paid for by their parents.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I always thought that a hair cutting robot should use that static electricity trick to make your hair stand up straight, then it would be a matter of having your head immobilized, and then the problem is way easier to solve in a safe way.

</comment><comment><USER25> Maybe a dumb question, but I just don't see - from a pure haircutting perspective, how is the scissor approach better than a flowbee? i.e., why not just have regular electric clippers inside the vacuum channel?

<comment><USER26> Because that mames it mire difficult and fun, I guess :)

<comment><USER25> that's a perfectly valid answer, but it raises the additional question of why actual cheap haircut shops use scissors and fingers instead of a flowbee-style piece of equipment, too. :-)

<comment><USER27> Based on the very limited reading I've done about it:

1.) It only really works for certain styles, lengths, and types of hair

2.) Cheap haircut shops are presumably mostly competing with home haircuts so if you start doing 5 minute haircuts with some gadget, your customers may start going "hmm" and go off and buy the gadget to use at home.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Let's hope it goes better than this:

[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic- business/](https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-business/)

</comment><comment><USER29> Pretty innovative first release that has major potential longer term as the product gets refined with possible industry disruption factor. Kudos to the creator!

</comment><comment><USER30> This guy makes me feel like an inferior mind

</comment><comment><USER31> His channel is fantastic, be sure to check his other videos.

<comment><AUTHOR> I like his way of thinking: don't create new parts for your prototype all the time when they don't work but just fix them quickly so they will work (with tape, nails, glue and what not). And only when the prototype works create new parts that look good.

First iterate, then make it look good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> That was an awesome video, I've been wanting to make something similar since I have been cutting my own hair. I am super envious of his workshop! Some of his designs are super neat like that "hair finger grabber". I love how its a cam mechanism.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Around 10:25 the time-lapse.

</comment><comment><USER33> As someone with an afro, this is nightmare fuel.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is very cool actually. How often have we asked the barber to style our hair a particular way and then been disappointed.

<comment><USER35> This way you can be consistently disappointed! Jokes aside, the complexity of this kinds of applications is not easy to grasp until you see stuff like this

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Woah, that's one serious home laboratory.

</comment><comment><USER37> He should team up with Debbie Sterling, who built a hair washing robot,

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAF1CaCykwQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAF1CaCykwQ)

and start a salon.

</comment><comment><USER38> You could turn it into a startup

There's definitely some reliable way to detect tissue (like ears) between the blades (capacitance?) so that a robot never cuts someone's ears off

<comment><USER39> SawStop does so with its table saws - instead of losing a finger or worse, they barely nick you (I've seen at least one report of it triggering and not even drawing blood).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow, amazing work - the skillset includes everything from machining parts (Using a plasma cutter) to custom 3D software (for simulating and debugging).

</comment><comment><USER40> This is the second experiment/invention video of yours I've come across over the past year and equally enjoyable - keep up the great work!

</comment><comment><USER41> > _There is just something deeply satisfying about a mullet_

For anyone that has never had a mullet, I wholeheartedly agree. Gotta do it once in your life!

</comment><comment><USER42> This made my day. Great video. incredible project, and funny too.

Spoiler - he gets a robotically perfect mullet because the scissors can reach the lower neck line.

<comment><USER43> I wish he kept the Mullet. It truly was art.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> This guy is totally insane. And his wife is a saint.

</comment><comment><USER45> very nice work

</comment><comment><USER46> Robot: "Did you do anything fun this weekend?"

Dude: "It was really sad, my dog died"

Robot: "Oh well, cool"

</comment><comment><USER47> This is so cool!

</comment><comment><USER47> This is super cool!

</comment><comment><USER48> Never run with scissors!

</comment><comment><USER49> mmh, it could be much much easier: why not using an air vacuum to have the hair perpendicular to the skull? :)

<comment><USER50> Or use electrostatic energy to pull the hair away before cutting. But I think vacuuming would work best.

<comment><USER51> It does use a vacuum.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> Is nobody else going to comment on the disgraceful number of adverts? I got a couple of minutes in, and mid sentence a couple of unskippable ads interject, so I skip forwards bit and a couple more, again, miss sentence. It's annoying and I just gave up all interest in what might otherwise have been an interesting video.

<comment><USER53> Maybe everyone else is using an adblocker?

I used Firefox uBlock Origin and didn't get any ads.

<comment><USER52> Interesting point. I also use uBlock Origin (what sane person doesn't these days?) but I also browse HN primarily on mobile and the video opened in the app, where of course uBlock doesn't work. I even have a PiHole, also doesn't work for YouTube.

I think it's the first time I've ever seen a YouTube video linked on HN.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> That's absurd.

The energy it takes to make such a machine, to maintain it, etc. is probably so much more than what it takes to have a human doing it. Plus the fact that the human will actually talk to me.

I can understand that humanity looks forward to more automation. But in this case, it seems we loose so much. Plus the fact that, as with many manual/creative skills, a robot is nowhere close being able to work as good as a human.

Just one more example of people who wrongly assimilate "innovation" to "progress".

<comment><USER55> Except that in many places you can't go to a human to cut your hair, because of COVID-19.</comment></comment>


Offer HN : MVP for 200$ - <AUTHOR>

	I started playing with rails 2 weeks ago.I think I can get an MVP working in rails.The MVP will cost you 200$.It should not have a lot of features just the most important ones.I will not do any graphic design just frontend work with a css framework.You will not have to pay anything upfront. Emails : email@example.com email@example.com <comment><USER2> It would help I you added a link with some previous work (portfolio) from you, projects that you participated or an open source project of some kind that you contributed or started perhaps (if any).

<comment><AUTHOR> my github is : github.com/toutouastro but I don't have anything in ruby just python and php stuff. I doing this to build a portfolio.Like I said I will not take any upfront fees.you will only have to pay me only after I show you the MVP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can you provide an example of something you've done with Rails?

</comment><comment><USER4> Sounds pretty interesting. Can you list some basic features the mvp would have. eg. Login, register, photo upload, post, like, comment, etc, etc.</comment>


Decimal expansion of 1/89 is Fibonacci sequence added together in a simple way. - <AUTHOR> http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~rminer/1over89/

<comment><USER2> I'm embarrassed to say that I have a degree in math but don't really follow the given proof. Can anyone explain it?

<comment><USER3> I'm not a math expert, but I like trying to follow these proofs as a puzzle. Here's my handwavy, intuitive take:

1) Setup a matrix to advance fibonacci numbers

Define a matrix A so that

A times (Fib1, Fib2) = (Fib2, Fib3)

That is, A "advances" the Fibonacci relationship when you put two numbers in (Fib1, Fib2 and Fib3 are also multiplied by the appropriate power of 10 to make them at the right decimal place). You can see this when we multiply it out:

A * (Fib1, Fib2) = (Fib2, Fib1 + Fib2) = (Fib2, Fib3)

Since Fib1 + Fib2 = Fib3 [again, at the right power of 10; writing all the 10^(i+1) bookkeeping obscures the reasoning IMO).

2) Define the sequence we want

We really want the sequence Fib1 + Fib2 + Fib3, where each Fib number is advanced the appropriate number of decimals above.

We can do (.01, .001) [starting with the first numbers 1 and 1 in the right spots: .01 and .001, with .0002 coming next).

This means we take (.01, .001) and use itself (multiply by identity matrix I), then take (.01, .001) and advance it once (multiply by A), then take (.01, .001) and advance it 2 steps (multiply by A^2) and so on:

Initial * Identity + Initial * A + Initial * A^2 + ...

(I + A + A^2) * Initial = (Fib1 + Fib2 + Fib3 + ..., Fib2 + Fib3 + Fib4...)

We only want the first element of this result: the sequence starting at Fib1.

3) Rewrite the sequence

I + A + A^2 looks like a geometric series which (handwavy) has the same properties as regular series:

1 + r + r^2 ... = (1-r)^-1

so the series can be rewritten as (I - A)^-1

If we do the appropriate calculations, we get

I - A = (1 0, 0 1) - (0 1, .01 .1) = (1 -1, -.01, .9)

which we can invert to get

1/(.9 - .99) * (.9 1,.01 1) = 1/(89/100) * (.9 1,.01 1) = 1/89 * (90 100, 1 100)

This last matrix is the SUM of doing all the operations: I + A + A^2 + A^3, etc.

We seed it with the first two fibonacci numbers, in the positions we want: (.01, .001) and off it goes!

1/89 * (90 100, 1 100) * (.01, .001) = (1/89, 11/89)

We only want the the first element (1/89) which is the sequence starting Fib1 + Fib2 + Fib3...

Phew. There's probably some typos in there, but that's how I intuitively understood their argument. It helped to actually work through the matrix math to see what was happening.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Also works with 1/9899 in base 100.

<comment><USER5> And in base b, it's 1/( b (b-1) -1 ).

<comment><USER4> Yes. I was too lazy to type that. :o) Anyway, it also works with polynomials (and even better there):

x / (1-x-x^2) = 0 + x + x^2 + 2 x^2 + 3 x^3 + 5 x^4 + ...

(FYI: Look up "Generating Functions" in "Concrete Math" or on the Web. A lot of operations on sequences e.g. adding them, multiplying by a scalar, convoluting them, splicing, taking every n-th element, can be done efficiently and elegantly on their generating function.)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Power_series>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a pity that they totally ruin their proof with an incorrect statement of the thing being proved. But start with a correct statement and it's a 5 minute job to prove this using basic arithmetic.

I'd type up the proof but typing math on the iPhone is impossible.

</comment><comment><USER7> I don't understand why this is interesting. Would adding any other infinite series using that same "fashion" not result in a sum which converges to some number? why is 1/89 special? Is it that the reciprocal of the infinite decimal expansion is an int?

<comment><USER4> Basically, yes. But 1/89 is a nifty example.</comment></comment>


Rails Without Webpacker - <AUTHOR> https://www.firehydrant.io/blog/rails-without-webpacker/ <comment><USER2> Yup. About to do exactly this. Thanks for being my guide.</comment>


The rise of 400G in the data center - <AUTHOR> https://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/07/the-rise-of-400g-in-the-data-center.html <comment><USER2> It is pretty amazing how fast datacenter hardware has had to innovate to keep up with customer demands and competition. It has not even been 10 years and the speed and capacity capability growth are amazing.

I would not be surprised to see in the next 5 to 10 years 10Gb fiber switches and cards as the regular entry level switch with 1Gb going the way of fast ethernet switches. Then on the high end 1Tbs or 5Tbs 54 port switches with 50Tb stacking interfaces on the backend as storage capacities keep going up per drive.</comment>


How to Delete Facebook and Instagram from Your Life Forever - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/technology/personaltech/how-to-delete-facebook-instagram-account.html <comment><USER2> Many people on Hacker News saw my earlier post on trying to delete Facebook:

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/facebook-activated- my...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/facebook-activated-my-dormant- account-and-it-wont-let-me-deactivate-it)

I have an interesting follow-up: they have rejected every ID that I have sent them. I took a photo of my passport and sent that to them, and then they rejected it. Same with my drivers license.

I'm left in limbo: I want to delete my Facebook account, but they insist that I first have to send them an ID, and they reject all the IDs I send them. They reject that ID with a form letter, so I'm not clear why exactly the ID is being rejected.

<comment><USER3> Why would anyone, trying to preserve their privacy and limit PII collection, send a passport page to a company like Facebook? It feels like a variation on the Nigerian prince scam where they keep asking for more info to see how far you will go.

<comment><USER4> Except there were no Nigerians [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation- now/2017/12/30/ni...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation- now/2017/12/30/nigerian-prince-email-scammer-louisiana/992073001/)

<comment><USER5> No one ever said there were.

You may be surprised to learn that he wasn't a prince, either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> While I'm no longer a Facebook user myself, I do understand that deleting the two largest social networks from your life can seem daunting and detrimental.

If you find deleting those accounts too drastic, I highly recommend simply deleting the apps, and moving to browser-only consumption _and browsing those sites in private mode_.

It doesn't cut off your social networks, and if you want to check them, you'll have to login every time. Simply having to do that will naturally wean you off the networks, with the huge added benefit of not being tracked all the time!

<comment><USER7> If you do this just make sure you don't have any of their apps left on your phone, this includes WhatsApp (in fact the only reason FB bought them is to use it as a backdoor against privacy-conscious people who might uninstall the main FB apps or deny them permissions like contacts/location).

<comment><USER8> Funny thing. I had basically no problem deleting my facebook. Everyone I still actually wanted to keep in contact I have their numbers (and quite a few I moved to Signal). But some people are EXTREMELY persistent about WhatsApp. Only 2 people on Facebook told me that messanger was the "only" way to contact them. Of my friends that use WhatsApp 90% of them just won't move.

Maybe things will change when Facebook actually starts monetizing the app.

<comment><USER7> > Maybe things will change when Facebook actually starts monetizing the app.

I feel like Facebook is happy with the status quo, leaving WA ad-free in order to have a persistent backdoor in people's lives so they can use it to "improve" ads on their other platforms.

WA seems too valuable to burn with ads and stuff.

<comment><USER9> > WA seems too valuable to burn with ads and stuff.

Burn? They keep cramming Facebook and Instagram with more and more ads and both of those platforms are still going from strength to strength.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One missing step is to completely block all Facebook IPs (their entire ASN actually) at the network level to make sure none of their toxic sludge reaches your network, and spyware embedded in other apps (like FB's "free" analytics products) can't continue to stalk you either.

I wish ISPs provided a "pest control" button that automatically blocks this kind of vermin at the network level.

<comment><USER10> It would be nice if ISP's offered the option - and they certainly easily could - but you can do it yourself if you want:

[https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)

I just set one up on Friday. I bought the $75 Raspberry Pi Canakit (has everything you need except a USB mouse and keyboard that you need to temporarily plug into it while you set it up) and had it up and running in less than an hour for my entire house.

It makes a noticeable difference, notably on page load performance especially on my iPhone, which has always had a sorry adblocking situation.

Looking at the stats at [http://pi.hole/admin](http://pi.hole/admin) (the internal URL admin page) it's blocked 5,151 requests out of 27,168 (~20%) in just two days.

Next step is to set one up in the cloud as a VPN/DNS server so I can route my outside-of-home traffic through one as well.

<comment><USER11> you mention that your iPhone has a poor adblock story - Mozilla's focus seems to do a great job for me (when enabled as a content filter for safari), and was one of the primary reasons I personally moved to using iOS.. did you give that a go?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I deleted my IG a few days ago. I needed my degree in CS to manage it.

First, you can't delete IG from the app, only on the web. But, to log into the web site you need a password, which you probably don't have since you probably signed up with FB Connect. So then you have to go through the "forgotten password" route, log into your email to click a link to actually create a password. Then you can log into the IG web site to delete your account. When you finally do that, you keep seeing these dark patterns to reactivate your account. It took me about half an hour.

It seems to me they've clearly tried to make deleting your IG account technically possible but as difficult as possible for the average user. I'm almost surprised they don't require you to send something by snail mail it's so difficult.

<comment><USER13> Going through the process when someone else signs up using your email is also not a walk in the park, even though they have "not your account?" link at the bottom of their Welcome email.

This happened to me at different times on FB and IG, and it was such a drawn- out hassle that I just went the other route, signing in with my own email, saying I forgot password, getting a new one, then deleting accounts that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I deleted (not deactivated, deleted) my account 90 days ago. It was stated that in 30days my account would be deleted.

I tested it today, went to facebook and was able to log in. My account still had pictures that I manually deleted prior to deleting my account

Not cool.

Will try again in 31 days..

<comment><USER15> On a whim I tried to access my Facebook account, which I deleted approx. two months ago.

It's still there and when I logged in it was as if nothing had changed... Take two...

<comment><USER16> I wonder if it is possible to find a legal action...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is so wild, I'm thinking back to 2005-2007 when people were doing everything possible to get on Facebook. Waiting for Facebook to open up to their school or network so they could sign up and start updating their profile. Now there are so many attacks on the company politically, technically, and socially that I wonder if Facebook will be able to recover its trust with the community?

<comment><USER2> That cycle sums up all of my emotions about the Internet, from wild-eyed optimism and hopeful idealism circa 2000, to the modern reality where I feel heart broken, disillusioned, and disgusted with the way it all turned out.

<comment><USER18> IRC is still the same. Better, even.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> One thing to consider when deleting your FB account is that someone can then create a new profile with your name and pics and start adding your friends etc. Most will believe it's you and accept. It's a goldmine for personal information gathering for social engineering attacks.

<comment><USER20> Being on FB doesn't prevent that.

<comment><USER21> I believe you should be able to report the impersonator although I don't know whether or not it actually works.

<comment><USER19> You can only report it if the legit account still exists.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I actually use neither but I waste just as much time online on other sites, youtube, HN, news sites.

sometimes I wonder if it would be better for me to actually use Facebook and Instagram MORE, just like everyone else.

For many, it has become the norm in how one shows interest in other people.

Anyway, I tried browser plugins and they're surprisingly effective for me. But I always manage other means to distract myself with, that is ultimately non- productive and unfulfilling.

I clearly have problems. lol.

<comment><USER23> I definitely hurt my social life a lot by leaving Facebook. I don't try to hide it by saying "only real friends that will send me mail or call me matter!" because as someone in their mid 20s/college, a lot of serendipitous social stuff happens on Facebook (maybe now IG). Some people I've met even give you their IG username rather than their phone if they just met you.

It is entirely normal to have friends you aren't super close with but still want in your life. A lot can be reached through iMessage/SMS but a ton of stuff happens on social networks nowadays.

<comment><USER24> > It is entirely normal to have friends you aren't super close with but still > want in your life. A lot can be reached through iMessage/SMS but a ton of > stuff happens on social networks nowadays.

I am in a similar position, and have no social media. To echo some of your points, when I first left FB there were some events that I missed out on that I would consider high importance to me. At first, I was shocked, I tried to hide it with the "real friends with mail me!" excuse, but I was still "disappointed" (for lack of a better word)

I'm lucky enough where a observant extrovert in my social circle noticed my preferences, and now they email/text me about most events. I try to keep in touch with the rest of my friends over phone, and people i'm not super close with over email. I don't do the best job, but I don't miss FB

<comment><USER25> I did that for a while, but it's also feels kind of shitty to be the one friend everyone has to go out of their way to invite to everything.

I know it's a chicken and egg situation but I eventually rejoined Facebook to not be the hassle.

I don't use any of their apps though, and I only check fb a few times a week to see what events are happening, and if someone messages me it'll have to wait until I'm on the desktop version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I've found that the most effective strategy was to unfollow (not unfriend) everyone except close friends and family. Now my Facebook feed only has people I care about and takes me max 5 min a day before it's the same content.

</comment><comment> murph-almighty I've been taking a slightly different approach after the breach. For context:

1) I was one of the lucky 1 million who had their token compromised but their account "wasn't accessed".

2) I've had this account since middle school, so there's a lot of interactions there that are at best use a lot of txtspeak and at worst are a reflection of values I no longer hold.

3) Most of my family is on FB, and a lot of my communications with my friends are at least partly reliant on the existence of FB.

I made the decision to pull all my data as this author suggested, and try to systematically remove content that was outdated or just looked bad, regardless of whatever content filter I had applied to it. In effect, this breach ruined my trust in the individual filtering that I had applied in the past for a number of my posts.

With that said, removing posts one by one is a HUGE pain because it forces you through a "Are you sure" dialog for EVERY POST YOU WANT TO DELETE. Comments were less evil- there was no dialog but I would have vastly preferred a "checkbox then delete" type of experience- bonus points if they let you check off by month to trim down on clicking.

I intended this to be a weekend project and I've already realized this "audit" is going to take much more time than I intended.

</comment><comment><USER27> The 30 day grace period is a dark pattern. It's user-hostile and relies on Facebook's addictiveness to get you back on Facebook. Just like with quitting any drug, quitting Facebook causes powerful withdrawal symptoms and for some it might be almost impossible to go the full thirty days resisting the urge to log back in.

So here's a solution:

Change your Facebook password to something you will not remember, like a random sequence of 20 characters. Copy this string. Click "delete Facebook". Paste the string when it prompts for your pw. Now copy something else, overwriting your clipboard. If you use an advanced clipboard system manually delete all clipboard items. Reboot your computer.

Now you won't be able to log in even if you want to, and Facebook will be safely gone from your life in thirty days.

<comment><USER28> Would you not be able to simply request a password reset?

<comment><USER27> Probably you'll be able to reset your password. In my case I deleted my phone number associated with my account to make recovery as difficult as possible.

I should say it's not a complete solution, just another line of defense against the urge to log back in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> To be real, how do you keep in touch with your friends and family? I live 2100km away from them. God damnit, I wish to get rid of this cancer, but I just can't.

<comment><USER30> I call every once in a while. People I don't feel comfortable calling I probably shouldn't be stalking on Facebook anyway. And having even a 30 minute phone conversation every six months with an old friend will do amazing wonders for that relationship that years of vapid Facebook shadowing won't.

(And if the above makes me seem old, I'm young-ish: 28.)

<comment><USER18> I find that fb stuff sometimes doesn't translate well into real life relationships when I don't interact with the person often. For ongoing friends it's just another source of smalltalk, but if I don't see them often I don't know if I can make fun of that one facebook affirmation gif.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I really wish there was a good alternative for Instagram. I use it a lot to post my pictures, mostly as a journal to look at old memories. For browsing pictures and sharing with people it still has a relatively uncluttered interface. Lately they added a lot of cruft like IGTV that I would disable if I could but I haven't found a better app so far. Maybe Flickr?

<comment><USER32> There is, it's called a blog. See [https://ownyourgram.com/](https://ownyourgram.com/) .

<comment><USER31> A site with a unchanged bootstrap Stylesheet is hardly what I would could a good looking interface or alternative unfortunately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Call me old fashioned, but if you don't like the services, just stop using them.

I have a facebook account - I haven't posted there in 5-6 years. What data are they going to harvest from me that would be at all useful or relevant? I guess they can find the fake email address I signed up with 15 years ago if that's useful for them.

<comment><USER18> You may not have posted in a long time, but have you logged in?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> What about Whatsapp?

<comment><USER35> This.

WhatsApp is much worse. Here in Europe we use it like TOO MUCH. We just can't switch to Signal, we need it to text/chat friends, people we don't know yet, businesses, etc.

<comment><USER36> Why do you think WhatsApp usage is worse than IG and FB? (honestly asking).

While I've no doubts that people at FB are actively thinking about ways to monetize it, right now the product doesn't seem to contain any of the toxic crap from IG/FB (ie: algorithmic timelines, attention-grabing dark patterns, promoted content, etc).

I'm wondering if it's somehow already there and I simply haven't noticed :(

<comment><USER37> Because WhatsApp is part of Facebook and I don't trust Facebook. It's that simple. People act like they are different companies. You can't use WhatsApp and then be intellectually honest when you criticize Facebook. They are one and the same. The goal with #deleteFacebook isn't to stop using Facebook, but to diminish the power and nastiness of Facebook the company. You can't do that if you are using WhatsApp: you are feeding the same beast.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> In a current western world state I think it is impossible to avoid your PII collected and sold (or as they call it - "bartered"). Every single company is probably doing it, starting with FAANG and down to the tiniest startups. Therefore deleting two profiles (already populated btw) out of hundreds will do nothing to your privacy. You will still continue to use Google or Twitter or Apple or any cell/broadband operator or whatever else, and they will still continue to sell/exchange your info, or just use it themselves.

</comment><comment><USER39> Without a cast-iron guarantee that your shadow profile is also gone, deleting your FB just removes what minimal handle you had on their file on you. I stopped using FB a year ago, but I just walked away. If GDPR has teeth I want there to be no ambiguity about which account I am referring to.

</comment><comment><USER40> Does anyone have advice on how to export the saved links from Facebook? It is not included in the archive that they let you download. I have way too may saved links over the past few years. They are the only thing that is stopping me from deleting the account.

</comment><comment><USER41> At what point will posts like these begin to be called, in reddit parlance, "shitposts"? I can't count how many of these identical articles I've read in the past 6 months. Give it a rest

</comment><comment><USER42> I've personally deleted NYT from "My Life Forever" \- couldn't be better off

</comment><comment><USER43> Anyone find it weird they put Evernote in the trash?</comment>


The History of Python - <AUTHOR> http://python-history.blogspot.com/ Python is 19 years old and Guido Van Rossum is starting a new blog on the history of the language.  Here is the from his regular blog that announces it. http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2009/01/history-of-python-introduction.html <comment><USER2> "The ABC group wanted to isolate the user, as completely as possible, from the _big, bad world of computers_...ABC should be the only tool they ever needed. This desire also caused the ABC group to create a complete integrated editing environment, unique to ABC"

The problem with this design choice, is that it isolates you from the rest of the software ecosystem. This is why PHP became part of the LAMP stack and why Smalltalk became isolated and esoteric. In this sense, Perl, Ruby, and Python all made a beneficial choice to be good citizens in the Unix-like space.

</comment><comment><USER3> See also Guido's introductory announcement for this post. [http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2009/01/history-of-python- in...](http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2009/01/history-of-python- introduction.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> One of the comments is good. Basically, it asks, why the need for semicolons at all?

<comment><USER5> Probably to make it easier for programmers who end lines with them as a knee jerk reaction. After a stint of java or javascript, I find myself doing it too.

<comment><USER6> And you can put two or more commands on one line.

<comment><USER7> Yeah. Often it's bad style, but IMHO if you just need to do something like:

        x = 0; y = []; z = None

Then it is actually clearer to group them together, it means more "real code" on screen at a time.

<comment><USER6> I do not know whether that was a good example to show the benefits of the semicolon:

        x, y, z = 0, [], None

<comment><USER3> While the semicolon is only a convenience it has some common use cases. For example shoot-and-forget invokations of third party modules:

      import sys; sys.exit()
      import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
      import cgitb; cgitb.enable()
      import psyco; psyco.full()
      import pygtk; pygtk.require('2.0')

And of course it's pretty useful in environments where one-liner are easier to handle:

      $ python -c "import mymod; mymod.test()"

<comment><USER7> Now that I look in my code I actually have:

        import matplotlib; matplotlib.use('Agg'); from matplotlib import pyplot</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Project to research effects on brain of bilingualism - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8452843.stm

<comment><USER2> I've always imagined the effect would be like mixing paint. English + German + Golf + Math = #04DE04</comment>


Show HN: Dendron – open-source, local first, anti-roam note-taking tool - <AUTHOR> https://dendron.so <comment><AUTHOR> [Dendron]([https://dendron.so](https://dendron.so)) is meant to be the fastest way for people to create, reference, and collaborate on knowledge. It is based on a [hierarchal first approach to note taking]([https://www.kevinslin.com/notes/3dd58f62-fee5-4f93-b9f1-b0f0...](https://www.kevinslin.com/notes/3dd58f62-fee5-4f93-b9f1-b0f0f59a9b64.html)).

Hierarchy first means that Dendron helps you effortlessly create, manage, and reference your notes through flexible hierarchies. I call it anti-roam because instead of having every note be everywhere, every note is exactly in one well defined place (which you can change over time).

You can read about our principles [here](https:/dendron.so/notes/7fcebd7d-6411-4c9d-8baf-65629dc018a1.html)

I use Dendron to manage a corpus of 20k+ markdown notes. When I need to lookup information inside Dendron, I know I can either __find it in a few seconds __, or if I don 't, to know for certain that it is __not there __. This is an incredibly empowering feeling of control in an age of information overload and it is an ability I want to give to every person in the world.

<comment><USER2> how does it compare to Athens?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How is this different from Foam([https://github.com/foambubble/foam](https://github.com/foambubble/foam))

<comment><USER4> I was racking my brain trying to figure out why this was giving me déjà vu. I figured it had been posted before then renamed but seems like a totally separate project doing effectively the same thing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I still have a hard time understanding why there needs to be a markdown preview window occupying space. When you go back to your notes will you read the rendered version or just read the markdown? Maybe I am looking for wysiwyg.

</comment><comment><USER6> How's the vim emulation in VSCode? I always miss being able to use vim in these sorts of knowledge management systems. I'm using Obsidian right now, which has ok, very basic vi emulation, but would love something that lets me use more advanced vim-fu.

<comment><USER7> have you ever tried vim-wiki (or vim-wiki + vim-zettel, if thats your thing)? its been a godsend for me

<comment><USER6> I jus discovered vim-wiki a week ago, so it's on my todo list. I'm on pat leave right now, so not really doing any hard core knowledge management for another couple weeks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Maha-pudma I like hierarchical note taking. I use Zim-wiki which is plain text and actually working with folders and text files. I wonder how this compares, I don't use vscode though.</comment>


ThinkPad 25 - <AUTHOR> https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-series/ThinkPad-25/p/22TP2TTTP25 <comment><AUTHOR> Been waiting to buy this. Only one model with 16GB of RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, U-series i7 and FHD touch screen. I'd go with more RAM, but would love to have that keyboard. Not available from the German store yet.

</comment><comment><USER2> It's currently out of stock in US.

I love X1 Carbon and it's on sale 30% off w/ coupon [https://imgur.com/XqJeZej](https://imgur.com/XqJeZej)</comment>


Remember Webvan? So Does Amazon - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/01/remember-webvan-so-does-amazon/ <comment><USER2> A better comparison would be with Fresh Direct, not Webvan.

It looks like Amazon is focusing on a large yet concentrated local market (Seattle).

As FD has demonstrated here in NYC, an efficient, local service _can_ work.

<comment><USER3> I'm betting (and hoping) they'll expand to more cities if the Seattle operation succeeds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't believe people thought WebVan would make money because computer scientists know how to solve a travelling salesman problem.

The asynchronous delivery is important -- cold storage for goods. I don't want to wait for a delivery.</comment>


UrbanKisaan – Vertical Farming Company in India (YC W20) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@urbankisaanfarms/urbankisaan-a-vertical-farming-company-in-india-a231ee5a0edb <comment><USER2> How do you maintain uninterrupted power?

Why vertical farming in India when the weather is conducive to intensive covered hoophouse farming year round?

What is being grown? Lettuce is not an Indian staple and is neither calorie intensive or nutrient intensive. What other vegetables or herbs can they grow vertically?</comment>


Ask HN: What makes a programming language "fast" or more suitable for a task? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> The features it has and their suitability for the task.</comment>


Second Paris Hackers Meetup - <AUTHOR> http://blog.medusis.com/second-paris-hackers-meetup

<comment><USER2> I'm afraid you'll have to resubmit this at some later point... :/</comment>


VISA Looking for an Ethereum Engineer, Wants "8+ Years' Experience" - <AUTHOR> http://bitsonline.com/visa-ethereum-engineer-experience/ <comment><USER2> They are getting serious about crypto finally it seems.</comment>


Collection of patterns and modules for responsive emails - ben-gy http://responsiveemailpatterns.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great start. It would be nice if instead of just having "Loren Ipsum" samples, have some real-life (production) samples to see how it would actually look. Also, it would be great if we could have conversion metrics per pattern, per industrial category (biz, tech, travel, etc...)</comment>


Buttonjoy – Wifi buttons that donate to charity, send email, log data, and more - <AUTHOR> https://buttonjoy.com/charity <comment><USER2> I built the ACLU Dash button you referenced as an inspiration ([https://medium.com/@nathanpryor/the-aclu-dash- button-16719e4...](https://medium.com/@nathanpryor/the-aclu-dash- button-16719e446363)). I'm thrilled to see someone has run with it, and so quickly too! I'll send folks your way now when they ask me to build them one. ;)

Thinking of the speed bumps I saw ahead, and wondering how you're dealing with them...

I'm guessing the mechanism isn't the same form scraping, filling, and submitting I used. Are the donations passed on individually with each button press or do you aggregate and send funds daily or weekly?

Do you label the buttons? If so, are you working in partnership with these charities to use the logos/name/etc?

</comment><comment><USER3> Why a button instead of setting up a recurring donation to ACLU/charity of choice, etc? What would be cool is if your guests can hook it up to their own bank account or venmo? The hard part is remembering to do the donation when you're ready at a computer and have your cc info handy.</comment>


What if Microsoft bought HP's PC business? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2011/08/22/what-if-microsoft-bought-hewlett-packards-pc-business/

<comment><USER2> What the mainframe and PC markets in the past have shown us: When the market is new, and innovation is happening fast, vertical integration rakes in the cash. When the market matures and begins to compete on cost, commodity operating systems will take the majority market share.

So, if you want to make a buck now in the tablet market, making your own hardware is the way to go. If you want to be one of the big players ten years down the line, licensing your software to hardware manufacturers is the way to go.

Guess which goal is more important to Microsoft?

</comment><comment><USER3> Microsoft has always been a software company. I doubt this happening - Microsoft doesn't need Webos and they are interested in Nokia more; they are closely working with Nokia.</comment>


Ask HN: Can you reccommend a good online card processing service for the UK? - <AUTHOR>

I'm building a site for selling audio downloads.  I expect a low volume of sales, initially and therefore prefer to pay per-transaction.  I'm planning to use the Active Mercant rubygem.<p>So far, nochex looks like an option that would work.  I've looked into Paypal express, but they're not native to the UK, and they charge extra for currency conversion and cross border fees. <comment><AUTHOR> OK I stand corrected, I think Paypal.co.uk does take UK payments. - <USER2> hoping to hear your experiences.

</comment><comment><USER3> Feel free to check out FastSpring</comment>


Show HN: Multiplayer, JavaScript Coding Game – Kebab Restaurant - <AUTHOR> https://codeyourrestaurant.com <comment><USER2> Would be better if this didn't require a login to try it out.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can register with a fake email, there is nothing you need confirm.</comment></comment>


Introduction to CSJ (file format) - <AUTHOR> http://www.kirit.com/Introduction%20to%20CSJ <comment><USER2> My take is that comma separated JSON could come in handy

(1) when dealing with huge data volumes when streaming is needed or memory restrictions apply or

(2) when CSV does not work because there is no common standards on how to deal with special characters, empty lines and the like.

But then, in case (2) I could also just use JSON if the set is not too big. So, that really leaves (1) as the most important use case. Or did I get this wrong?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope, that's pretty much exactly it. It's the one thing JSON struggles with and this seems a good aT to deal with it and in a way that's still quite user friendly</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you back-up your work? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> ARQ to Amazon Glacier for my system configuration ARQ to Amazon S3 for the files that change more often Tarsnap to S3 for my servers.

The main advantage for all of the above is I always get to keep my secret key secret.

</comment><comment><USER3> Never</comment>


AMD GPU hijacked to sneak and transmit PC data over radio waves - <AUTHOR> https://www.techradar.com/news/amd-gpu-turned-into-zombie-by-security-boffins-to-siphon-data-from-air-gapped-pc <comment><USER2> I've always been curious how practical this method of extraction "really" is given an actual "target pc".

The NSA likely has technologies that allow them to "observe" signals without even having to use malware to transmit them via mosfets in a GPU. A security researcher Michael Ossman (developer of the Hack RF) was able to develop tech to read data from a VGA cable at distance, I'd be terrified to see what the NSA / DARPA has developed relative to this technique.

[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bmjpj3/michael-ossmann- an...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bmjpj3/michael-ossmann-and-the-nsa- playset)</comment>


Sex Workers Are at the Forefront of the Fight Against Big Tech - <AUTHOR> https://observer.com/2019/11/sex-workers-mass-surveillance-big-tech/ <comment><USER2> I've always felt like there's a real missed opportunity for progress by tying the pro-choice movement with a movement to legalize sex work. People should be the masters of their own bodies.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does "big tech" mean anything anymore? The world is technologized. Sex work is marginalized and criminalized quite thoroughly, for better or for worse, with and without "big" or "tech".</comment>


Learning versus Attitude - <AUTHOR> http://pastie.org/273248 <comment><USER2> Having just learned Cocoa, I can tell you that you are not stupid, the design of Cocoa is stupid.

Design patterns are stupid, hence baking them into a language is stupid. And Interface Builder is very stupid.

Fortunately Objective-C isn't as stupid as C++, so once you've covered most of what makes Apple's design stupid, you can trowel over the gaps in logic with cement and forget about them.

Most platform and language designs are stupid. Sometimes I think it's an emergent case of a desire to ensure job security. Other times I just think the designers were stupid.

Programmers, who supposedly like to question authority, have a really hard time questioning the sanctity of the platforms they work on. I think many would be surprised to learn that their platforms have serious design flaws. Of course you should initialize Function A first using unrelated Function B. How else would you do it?

Part of the reason designers make bad designs is because they have to respect a history of bad designs. People are used to XML. Consequently, it's used in plists.

The antidote for worrying about whether you are stupid is to identify and express why the design of something you're working with is stupid. The next step is to realize that, whatever it is, it's there, and you have to deal with it. That's work, and that's programming as it is today.

<comment><USER3> Can you tell me why the design of Cocoa is stupid? I'm not disagreeing with you - going through the hoops required to play more than 5s of sound on the iPhone is a pretty crap way to spend an evening.

Interface Builder is flawed - but perhaps I haven't used it enough to appreciate its strengths.

<comment><USER2> Sure. Here's the execution tree necessary to "Hello World" in Cocoa---at least as given in the Apple tutorial I followed. It's possible to cut it down, but only after you've digested all of the material Apple lays in front of you.

      main()
      |
      -> UIApplicationMain()
        |
        -> Info.plist (Never referenced by name!)
           |
           -> MainWindow.xib (Interface Builder. Contains no code!)
              |
              -> HelloWorldAppDelegate .h/.m (Not clearly indicated)
                |
                -> didFinishLaunching()
                  |
                  -> IBOutlet UIWindow *window
                  |
                  -> *myViewController
                  |
                  -> ControllerView (IB Nib, needs dragged connection)
                  |
                  -> Etc.
                  |
                  -> HelloWorld ?

<comment><USER4> Ok, that was easy. Now, why design patterns in general are stupid? Do you mean that all|some|few of them are stupid, or that the very idea of having design patterns is stupid?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I couldn't get ten hours of sleep if I tried, even after a day of physical labor. Six is a good haul on the average night for me.

<comment><USER6> I'm the opposite. I could easily sleep twelve hours a day, but life conspires against me, so I get 7. I heartily endorse well-restedness for learning.

<comment><USER7> 12 hours is half a day(or night), if given a chance you would have slept half of your life. ;)</comment></comment></comment>


Gödel, Escher, Bach - <AUTHOR> http://www.hn-books.com/Books/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach.htm <comment><USER2> If your background includes experience dealing with logic, you enjoy wordplay (puns, double entendre, etc.), and you're decent at math then you should have no problem sailing through this book at a steady pace. Someone _without_ such a background will likely have a harder time with it, but if that's not you do yourself a favor and pick it up and just start reading. You just might be surprised at how non-daunting it really is.

I had to share this as people might get put off by all the claims about how it's so hard. It's really not. It requires patience, logical thinking, a good grasp of language, a "plastic" mind, and no pre-conceptions of what it should be saying. I suspect many here will find it to be a thoroughly enjoyable page- turner that they'll be unable to put down.

<comment><USER3> > I suspect many here will find it to be a thoroughly enjoyable page-turner > that they'll be unable to put down.

This was not my experience at all. The first few times I tried to read this book, I blocked out a few significant chunks of time to get through it. That never worked. As soon as I set it down (a couple hundred pages in) I wouldn't pick it up again.

However, I recently succeeded in finishing it. It took me nine months of reading a few pages in bed each night. The book was enjoyable to fall asleep to. GEB was fun and thought provoking, it taught me something about mathematics and made me think about the nature of consciousness, but it was by no means a page turner.

I'd definitely recommend reading it though. And you were spot on with this analysis:

> You just might be surprised at how non-daunting it really is [...] It > requires patience, logical thinking, a good grasp of language.

I'd also add that it helps you _develop_ patience, logical thinking, and a good grasp of language =).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Probably worth pointing out that there is a coordinated reading going on over at reddit, starting tomorrow. <http://reddit.com/r/GEB>

<comment><USER5> For other busy people, it's also worth pointing out that the schedule is very slow and focused on understanding. For instance, we are taking the introduction one section per day. The guy running it at Reddit created a nice Google calendar for the "course." Needless to say I am psyched for this.

<comment><USER6> [https://www.google.com/calendar/b/0/embed?src=OXM5YnM0cjgzaX...](https://www.google.com/calendar/b/0/embed?src=OXM5YnM0cjgzaXFpbHUzNzY4bmdwcXU0NzhAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&gsessionid=JkxvltcDC26ejSX4FTXv6w)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not to sound like a fanboy, but GEB is one of the few books (outliers being another) that really made my critical thinking skills about the world, society, and my place in it change. I literally feel like it expanded my mind, or at least my capacity for critical thinking and awareness of such.

</comment><comment><USER8> Probably the antithesis, also worth reading:

Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason:

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/986428.Computer_Power_and...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/986428.Computer_Power_and_Human_Reason)

<comment><USER9> The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose is the other anti-thesis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Awesome book. Read it in high school ~1985; so meme-dense I could only absorb about 3 pages at a time ... all 832 pages, with great enthusiasm. Just what I needed at a formative time. A geek must-read.

<comment><USER11> My friend, Rich, brought a copy to AP Calc. I was at the Waldenbooks in the mall, that afternoon picking up a copy...later traded it for _The Complete Works of Shakespeare_ at university. Picked up another copy, which I still have, about twenty years ago to fill the obvious hole in my library.

It's one of those books that people should be familiar enough with to be able to talk about, even if they haven't read it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > _"So how do you join up a philosopher, a pencil artist, and a composer and > get something useful out of it"_

Into an eternal golden braid, of course.

[Utilitarian applications left as an exercise for the reader]

</comment><comment><USER12> I picked this up last week and have been slowly reading through it. It's a great mental exercise in bending your perceptions as well as seeing new abstractions or patterns you hadn't before. Something about that makes it harder than your average writing to read through, despite the fact it isn't loaded with a grandiose lexicon inspired from a linguistic perspicacity, per se.

</comment><comment><USER13> From the review: "It's almost like reading an Aesop's fable before the "real" chapter begins"

The dialogue form of presenting arguments is traditional in philosophy.

<http://plato-dialogues.org/plato.htm>

<comment><USER14> _> traditional in philosophy._

It's use in GEB is a tribute to Lewis Carroll's discussion of Zeno's Paradox, _What the Tortoise Said to Achilles._ This is itself a homage to the platonic dialogues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I hate to gripe, but it's kind of disappointing that I can't get my hands on an ereader/Kindle edition.

<comment><USER4> Have to disagree. Given the nature of the book, preserving the format and illustrations are VERY important. It wouldn't translate at all. In fact, the author feels so strongly about that they he has insisted the original 1979 typset he prepared be used for all subsequent editions, to exactly preserve the formatting.

<comment><USER16> Not having read the book, may I ask why is the formatting (not the illustrations, that's kind of obvious) so important?

<comment><USER4> Well, for one there are a fair number of equations, which ebook readers are going to struggle with. Plus there are "structural puns" which depend on lines aligning and breaking in a certain fashion.

Here's an example page from Amazon's preview:

[http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8082/screenshot20120118at14...](http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8082/screenshot20120118at147.png)

Note the musical extract, the heavy use of blockquotes, etc. It's pretty much a worse case for an ereader.

PS: I'll admit I'm a bit late to this party, as I just bought my copy for the Reddit readthrough, and it's the first actual dead-tree book I've bought since my Kindle. I too was annoyed at first by the lack of a ereader version, but after reading the first few pages of the intro I couldn't imagine reading it any other way. This is a VERY dense book where I often find myself flipping back a page or two to reference earlier material.

<comment><USER14> Here's another good example of the funky typesetting: (the pencil marks obviously arent in the original)

[http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx9yp5KRO1qznraho1_500.pn...](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx9yp5KRO1qznraho1_500.png)

It's also a great example of the mindbending trick-prose hosftadter gleefully employs through the book.

EDIT: Here's another: [http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksjw79NLay1qznraho1_500.pn...](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksjw79NLay1qznraho1_500.png)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Nice review made me want to go back and read it again

</comment><comment><USER18> I'mma let you finish. But I just gotta say that Gauss was the best mathematician of all time. OF ALL TIME!

<comment><USER12> I know that site's down, but hacker news isn't reddit.</comment></comment>


Finding mentors - <AUTHOR> http://www.jlee.biz/finding-a-mentor/

<comment><USER2> My advise as a fellow entrepreneur and programmer... Get a job if you need to pay rent but never stop trying! Start another startup! But this time try to do it better. I think its worth it even if you fail again.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I am trying again and will not stop.</comment></comment>


Nexus 6p abruptly shutting down? battery issues? Call Google support - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/5klw6y/problems_with_your_battery_including_random/ <comment><AUTHOR> As noted in the reddit thread, call Google and be persistent; they should replace the device even if the warranty has expired. Make sure to reference the reddit thread as well as the post, by Orrin, on the official nexus forum.

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/nexus/SeB67voFk...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/nexus/SeB67voFk38/Zusf- SQdEgAJ;context-place=forum/nexus/categories)</comment>


Show HN: #Hashtag #all #your #texts - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hashtag!/id741401935?l=it&ls=1&mt=8 <comment><USER2> don't you want to only hash the relevant keywords instead of every word? if everyone used this app, it would make the hashtag not useful anymore, right? or am i missing something?

<comment><AUTHOR> You are definitely missing something. :D

Have you ever noticed (dumb) people that hashtag everthing they write?

This is an app for them. :D</comment></comment>


A Brief Introduction to Semantic Dictionary Encoding - <AUTHOR> http://hokstad.com/semantic-dictionary-encoding <comment><USER2> In case anyone else was curious to read the actual paper:

[https://oberoncore.ru/_media/library/franz_m.code- generation...](https://oberoncore.ru/_media/library/franz_m.code- generation_on-the-fly_a_key_to_portable_software.en.pdf)</comment>


Show HN: Add ages to Wikipedia years for biography entries - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wiki-age/gbdnhkbifahdipaaepiolmmihjdbmegc?hl=en&gl=US <comment><AUTHOR> Started my self-taught programming journey about two weeks ago and thought this would be a fun/manageable/somewhat useful project. Appends years found in Wikipedia entries with how old the subject was at the time. Would love to hear what y'all think!</comment>


Ios Pythonista is now featured on Python.org - <AUTHOR> https://www.python.org/download/other/ <comment><USER2> Pythonista is pretty handy for a lot of things Workflow can't (or would be nightmarish to) do, especially with the included PIL - I use it for some custom image stitching (striping N images into 1, for example), fetching URL information and punting it to Buffer, and various other random little jobs.</comment>


Now, Everyone Can Be Stupid for 15 Minutes of Fame -- WSJ on Guy Kawasaki - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupjournal.com/ecommerce/ecommerce/20070517-gomes.html <comment><USER2> Kawasaki gets to be stupid for more than 15 minutes.

I hope he's enjoying making a fool out of himself while mocking everyone who's working on web companies.

It's an act that's going to wear thin, fast.

</comment><comment><USER3> man, talk about jumping the shark...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I don't think "everybody can be stupid for 15 minutes of fame" applies, as few poor or rich people are going to throw out 12 grand on a startup that is all hype, where the growth is supposed to come from tons of publicity, not by improving the product. (As that would increase the cost beyond 12 grand, and he wouldn't be able to brag about it any more.) They call him an entrepreneurism expert, forgetting that he's a VC.

The writer then says that Kawasaki can pay that amount in a few speeches, or write a book about the failed experience that will make way more than that expense. I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound like something everybody can do. :)</comment>


Severe cyber attack on Verint: attackers demand a ransom of millions of dollars - <AUTHOR> https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=iw&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.themarker.com%2Ftechnation%2F1.7136457&sandbox=1 <comment><AUTHOR> Note: this is a Google Translate version of the original Hebrew text.</comment>


Amazon's best seller isn't a Kindle device; it's a Chromecast - <AUTHOR> http://phandroid.com/2013/10/10/chromecast-amazon-best-seller/

<comment><USER2> Chromecast has some issues - an occasional glitch in sending Youtube videos. But nothing that isn't fixed by a quick refresh of a page.

Overall I've been very happy with it, for Netflix and Youtube it's very convenient. Tabcast less so.

Now also Hulu on board.

This article gives me hope that Amazon will add their streaming video to it as well.</comment>


IVote: Members of European Parliament needs to have iPad, iPhone, and iCloud - <AUTHOR> https://european-pirateparty.eu/remote-voting-in-the-european-parliament/ <comment><USER2> Not surprising since the EU was created for the US benefit in the first place : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Committee_on_United_E...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Committee_on_United_Europe)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow! This is hard to believe. What were the alternatives that lost to ivote?

<comment><USER4> Huawei + Xiaomi RedMe + Baidu.</comment></comment>


Transceivers: The Device Between the NIC and the Network - <AUTHOR> http://dtrace.org/blogs/rm/2019/09/12/transceivers-the-device-between-the-nic-and-the-network/ <comment><USER2> THis brings back the horror of trying rationalise SFPs during an office move.

A bunch of new kit, some new fibre, and my boss forgetting the difference between LC and SC connectors.

Add to that, our supplier trying to palm off knockoff SFPs (SFPs are normally hardware locked to a specific vendor, despite them being made at the same OEM. This allows them to add a markup of >$300)

In the end I found an OEM SFP that worked with all our kit, and all our fibre and replaced them all with that. Anything shorter than 2 meters was swapped for a twinax (A coax cable with inbuilt SFPs) because they are more tolerant to being poked through things.

<comment><USER3> I seem to remember when I was at a small ISP helping plan fiber optic networks, that fiberstore.com had a promotion going on where if you bought enough of their gear and made good reviews, they'd send you a free SFP reprogrammer which would somehow allow you to change vendor-locks on existing SFPs to let you take say a Cisco branded SFP and use it in an HP Aruba switch.

It seems silly to me how there's all these standards for the transceivers, but vendors still lock people in with hardware codes, etc.

<comment><USER4> Cisco recently purchased a fairly large fiber optics firm, so these days could be limited if they opt to implement greater integration between their devices and the optics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Before Ethernet was common, BNC coaxial cables were used on some NICs as well"

Yes, at that time Ethernet was coaxial as well, the 10Base2

<comment><USER6> For fun, look up "vampire taps" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_tap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_tap)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This brought back memories of the easy to accidentally detach transceivers for old Macintosh computers and LaserWriter printers.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Attachment_Unit_Interfac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Attachment_Unit_Interface)</comment>


Human Password Manager v0.1 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/nheeren/humanpass/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> The salt is nasty to remember, the position of the salt is nasty to remember... just use the "XKCD scheme" or Diceware and get on with your life.</comment>