John Gruber's Post-I/O Thoughts - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2010/05/post_io_thoughts <comment><USER2> Ballmer was not wrong about the iPhone. He said they would get 2-3% of the _total phone market_ , not the smartphone market. He even makes that clear in the part that Gruber quoted: "... 1.3 billion phones ...". That's phones, not smartphones.

According to [http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apple-iphone-smartphone- market...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apple-iphone-smartphone-market-share- surges-rim-slips/34181) in the first quarter of 2010 Apple had 16.1% of smartphones and smartphones were 18.8% of mobile phones. That comes out to almost exactly 3%.

Ballmer also wasn't wrong about Windows Mobile. The "60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent" was not a prediction, it was just what he would prefer.

<comment><USER3> Perhaps Ballmer did get the right answer, after all. But was he asking the right question?

<comment><USER2> Gruber is right about Microsoft failing at phones and that there is not much they can do about it. However, I don't think Ballmer is in denial about that.

It was and is obvious that at some point all phones will be what we call smartphones now. I think Ballmer's point is that even when that happens, the iPhone will not be able to sustain its 16%. It will _still_ have insignificant market share.

Android will not, though. It might get "60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent", and _that's_ the share that Ballmer would have preferred run Windows.

So yes, I think Ballmer asked the right question and got the right answer. He just doesn't have any way to respond to Android.

<comment><USER4> _"I think Ballmer asked the right question and got the right answer. He just doesn't have any way to respond to Android."_

Of course he does: he can give away the new smartphone OS. It's not as if Microsoft has never given away software to win market share.

<comment> clark-kent He would also have to make it open source with no strings attached then pray the community will adopt it.

<comment><USER5> He would also have to include a Webkit browser by default.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> His points on Microsoft are well made. Given the strategic importance of this market it amazes me how badly they've done. Realize they beat Apple to market by around 4 years (depending on how you count the PocketPC/Phone hybrids) and Google by almost 5 .

Now they've tossed the whole thing out and started over with a product that won't be out for another 6 months and in terms of features seems to be equivalent to a first generation iPhone (which is relevant because I really don't think Microsoft is going to create a better user experience so they'd have to compete on features)

It's really kind of sad.

<comment><USER7> In the PC market, Apple competes on quality, Microsoft (with hardware manufacturers) competes on price. This is the world Ballmer imagined for the smartphone market, but when Google knocked the floor out by giving away the OS (or even paying the carrier a cut of the search revenue), there is no place left for Microsoft to position itself.

Unless Windows Mobile is a vastly superior product to Android (and how likely is that?), it'll be left out of the smartphone market unless they can give it away and try to make it up in Bing search revenue.

<comment><USER8> They could just lose money, up to tens of billions, for a decade while working their way up to a solid 3rd place position.

Worked for Xbox.

<comment><USER9> I think it is still too early to say that. Microsoft has yet to recoup the money they invested in the Xbox, and they probably won't anytime soon. And while they are still ahead of Sony in the console race, the PS3 has picked up quite a bit lately. Microsoft could very well finish the race dead last at the end of the current generation, with Sony at the top spot and Nintendo a close second.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Although syncing with a computer may feel retrograde, I'm sure theres a lot of people, including myself, that would rather keep their data due to privacy issues instead of relying on Google or Apple to store it. However, I think most people would prefer cloud syncing since it is so easy for the user.

<comment><USER11> Any type of wireless syncing is good for me, whether that's with the cloud, or with a Mac/PC on my wireless network.

USB syncing is sooo 20th Century

<comment><USER12> It'd better be an N Wifi if I'm going to sync 16GB of music to a new device, and even that's going to take quite a while. Of course, USB 2.0 isn't really up to the task either - but at least it's faster by a significant factor.

<comment><USER11> sure, the initial sync, like an initial time machine backup, would take an age to sync wirelessly...

I'm thinking post that though, walking into my network and syncing latest updates, even without my prompting

<comment><USER12> Agreed, I can't think of any good reason not to allow sync over wifi (or over 3g for that matter, if I'm on a flatrate plan).

<comment><USER13> Because the 3G infrastructure is overloaded as it is without multi-gig downloads?

<comment><USER12> Downloading the initial sync over 3g isn't something I'd do if I could avoid it, but incremental syncs would be just fine. Even adding an album or two wouldn't take -that- long, and if the network can't handle a few downloads now and then it's just plain broken. Besides, everyone over here in Sweden is selling mobile broadband like there's no tomorrow, so their networks should be up to it.

<comment><USER13> Ah how I wish the US had Sweden's net/mobile infrastructure.

Carriers here like to complain that people are downloading too much rather than just upgrading the infrastructure to deal with it. I shudder to think what would happen if people started downloading over the air on a serious scale, it's already pretty bad with normal web surfing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> His footnote is interesting: "Although there's still no decent Android-based equivalent to the iPod Touch."

He's right. Based on price, there is no equivalent.

On features, the equivalent is a Google Nexus One without a SIM card.

Trouble is, that's about to not be available from Google directly. I'm wondering whether we'll be able to buy an N1 without a contract ever again.

Disclosure: I bought an N1 directly from Google and loved the experience of not having to talk to a carrier or any staff member at a generic retail outlet.

<comment><USER15> But the N1 isn't even a very good substitute.

Although people who buy iTouches love all the apps and the ability to browse the web whenever they have WiFi, in the end, they're buying an mp3 player. They're buying it so that they can listen to music.

Not only is the N1 much more expensive, but it also has a much worse music- playing interface. Until someone fixes the Android music player or writes their own (luckily, an app can have all the privileges that the core apps have, so anyone could just write the Awesome Music Player app and put it in the market), the demand for a good Android iTouch competitor won't be there.

But I do think that getting an iTouch-like Android device out there is important. There are only so many people who are willing to pay $30/month for Internet on their phone, but pretty much everyone is willing to pay $200-$300 for a nice mp3 player with no recurring cost. And it's important to get as many Android devices out there as possible so that consumers believe that it's a good option (in many people's minds, popular == good) and app developers see more incentive to write good apps.

<comment><USER16>
        Although people who buy iTouches love all the apps and the ability to browse the web whenever they have WiFi, in the end, they're buying an mp3 player. They're buying it so that they can listen to music.

I don't think you are right.

The touch music player interface is good, but not as good as my old 40GB iPod Video. Man, it has been almost two years now and I still miss the clickwheel.

I got my iPod touch because of the large screen, the wi-fi and the apps. I don't even hear as much music as I've used to because I _really_ hate unblocking the screen to skip songs and change volume.

Clickwheel, I miss you.

<comment><USER17> The headphones on my iPod touch give me the ability to skip forward/backward and change volume.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's not just Microsoft who seem to be out of the game so to speak. What's going on with Nokia? It's taking them forever to come up with a device and/or platform that seems like a credible competitor to Android and iPhone OS.

<comment><USER16> And that makes me somewhat sad. I've been a user of Nokia for 10 years and I allways loved those devices. When I purchased my last phone, 1.5 years ago, I gave them a vote of confidence and got an E71 instead of an iPhone.

I regret it every day. Stupid E71.

<comment><USER19> Yeah, I've also got an E71 instead and don't like it.

I also dislike how Nokia basically left the phone (or the OS) unsupported and they are now targeting the big-screen iPhone-clones. Nice move there.

I suppose it's no need to tell you how broken their Ovi "market" app is...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's funny because John starts with "Google is doing this fine" and "Apple is doing that fine", and "we are all gonna get better smartphones with this kind of rilvalry" and then when you think he is goint to add Microsoft into the rivalry: "Oh, yeah, remember Microsoft? it seems like they don't remember the smartphone market"

</comment><comment><USER20> _Google is upping the ante on the iPhone here, though, by adding cloud-based data backup for Android applications_

How many apps will actually support this feature? It doesn't sound like it's an OS level feature transparent to third party apps. Am I going to have to keep track of which apps support it and which don't?

</comment><comment><USER21> > One area where the iPhone has been far ahead of Android is in terms of > backing up and restoring data. Buy a new iPhone, or install a major OS > update, and when you re-sync with iTunes on your desktop, all your apps and > data are re-installed.

Gruber doesn't seem to get that Android is cloud based: buy a new Android phone, sign in, and your contacts, apps and bookmarks are available immediately, no finding a PC to tether to.

Music and (for some odd reason) text messages are currently excluded though.

<comment><USER22> I think he does, but he acknowledges that _data_ isn't included in the previous cloud based offering.

I was blown away when I first got an N1 (my first android) and signed in on startup and immediately had my contacts, email, calendar, etc wired up.

No computer required. No special software required. It just works.

What Google are doing now is taking that further and making that include data like music, pictures, TXT messages, etc. So now when you replace your android that stuff automatically comes across.

What would be lovely is that instead of just sync, whether we could manage the older devices. i.e: Get a new mobile, sync it, declare the old mobile to be wiped and have the old mobile hear that and purge itself.

This helps on the security side, as you could remotely wipe a stolen device. But it also helps with re-selling used phones safe in the knowledge that your data is intact and you're not leaving any on the device.

I think it's the next obvious gap filler in the cloud-owning-the-data space. We can move and sync, now clean up behind us.

Well, that and the fact that if data is persisted across all devices that you eventually will exceed the storage capacity of the device itself. But I'm guessing that network speed will keep pace with this and by the time we're at that crunch point Google will be able to serve that stuff on-demand and just use the phone as a local cache rather than as the persistent storage itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Gruber's thoughts can be summed up as: Google vs Apple, bring it on, but where's Microsoft? While he isn't wrong, it's not exactly much more than some common sense.

I also think he _seriously_ underestimates Microsoft.

<comment><USER24> Microsoft will be 3.5 years late to the _smartphone_ party when windows phone 7 series will eventually be released. People would have already made their choice between iPhone and Android.

<comment><USER25> Apple will be 5 years late to the _smartphone_ party when the iPhone will eventually be released. People would have already made their choice between Blackberry and Nokia.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Gruber's comments on Microsoft are so dead on...

<comment><USER26> It's shocking how irrelevant they are in most of the things that are getting a lot of press these days. It's hard for me to imagine the scenario where Windows ever becomes a big player on mobile.

I wonder where they'd be if they'd have been broken up by the US government a decade ago.

<comment><USER27> I remember the early 2000s. I devoutly _hoped_ that Linux would get widely used in some way, even if it never really took off on the desktop. I wanted open source to be fairly common and well-accepted, and not just something that weird people wrote and talked about on Slashdot. And hacker-friendly open- source Linux-based smartphones would be great, but that was just too implausibly awesome to even hope for. I wanted pleasant languages like Python to get serious commercial use.

Now, all those things have happened or are happening. Want to get on board with cloud hosting in any way? The standard options involve Linux VM images. Languages like Ruby and Python are mainstream and well-supported. Android is disrupting the smartphone market, and has the kind of widespread commercial backing I never would have thought possible for an open, Linux-based thing. Microsoft is no longer an unstoppable leviathan; they've stopped being scary.

Occasionally I'll reflect on all this and chortle happily. I wasn't optimistic enough back in the early 2000s, and that's surprising.

<comment><USER28> What is really funny is that we never really hit the year of Linux on the desktop. I mean, this has been speculation for years... Will this be the year that Linux really starts to make in roads in the Desktop market? For the most part, the answer has always been no. Redhat and Novell/Suse have all but left the desktop (commercially, not counting Fedora). Ubuntu has all but taken over the desktop Linux market. Overall, Linux Desktop experience has increased substantially since 2000, but it has never really caught up with Windows (now 7) and the Mac. (I actually think that the Mac has hurt Linux adoption on the Desktop more than Windows.

So, I too find it quite humorous that Linux is poised to be a, if not _the_ major player in the next generation of computing - the portable/dedicated devices. But what I find more amusing is that it hasn't been the success of Linux on the desktop that has made this possible, it has been the decline in the importance of the desktop.

So, 2010 may finally be the year of Linux, but it still won't be the year of Linux on the desktop. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

<comment><USER29> It's amusing, but not a very surprising outlook for the tech industry; platform shifts are opportunities for competitors to break in.

Linux came a little bit too late to make inroads on the desktop vs. the incumbent DOS/Windows platform of the early 90's - if it, and the GNU tools, had reached the 1991 level of development in the mid-80s when the PC clones first took hold, that story might have been a different one - but in the real world, it still devastated the competition on servers when the Web started its massive post-1994 growth.

Now we're hitting the juncture where, again, a new platform category is poised for growth; recall how netbooks started as Linux boxes, and only ended up running Windows after a combination of effort(Win7), strongarming(subsidies and licensing agreements), and initial advantages(the desktop ecosystem, which is largely netbook-compatible) from Microsoft. This time around, those tactics can't work.

It might actually work out that the desktop still shifts towards Linux in the end; the "bottom-up" nature of progress in tech means that people are going to want a desktop that does everything their mobile environment does (plus desktop things). Hence, desktops will start running Android or a compatible variant...which would naturally work out to mean you'd be running Linux, even if it isn't today's Linux environments.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> The interesting things here are (1) that microsoft isn't even mentioned as one of the protagonists in the main battle (that's clearly apple vs google, (2) that google has done to microsoft what microsoft did to netscape, give away the product the other party hopes to sell.

</comment><comment><USER31> In other news, Microsoft sues software as a service company Salesforce.

[http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/18/microsoft-sues- salesforce-c...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/18/microsoft-sues-salesforce- claims-infringement-on-nine-patents/)

</comment><comment><USER32> It appears to me the biggest news from google I/O was the release of flash on android, just a couple weeks after Steve Jobs says it wasn't practical. Google just didn't demo it and give a release date several months away, but they delivered it (with reports of folks getting 2.2 pushed already). Seems like Apple needs to reconsider their position on Flash... already.

<comment><USER33> Flash could run at 100% native app speeds with no battery hit and Apple still wouldn't support it. Why? It's not part of their overall plan to give Adobe power over the platform.

So no, Apple doesn't need to (and won't) reconsider their position on Flash.

<comment><USER32> Why couldn't Apple let flash play in the browser but just not allow flash apps into the Appstore? I think users wouldn't mind that.

<comment><USER34> Then people would build Flash apps and just run it in browser and bypass App Store all together. If that happens, not only does Apple give the control to Adobe (and have to rely on Adobe to support iPhone Flash plugin, which is absolutely not what Apple wants), it also loses the benefits of charging 30% of the revenue if the apps would have been sold in App Store.

It's worst situation for Apple.

<comment><USER32> I know Apple doesn't want to support a flash plugin and was burned by Adobe in the past, but with Android supporting flash now Steve Jobs has less excuses to tell users why they can't view flash on websites. Most users won't understand why they're Android friends can access flash sites, but they can't. Apple could work with Adobe to get a flash plugin on the iPhone, they just don't want to.

Also, people can make flash apps in the browser and that's fine. It wouldn't hurt AppStore sales, cause native apps would be better.

<comment><USER35> Apple will create more excuses... I'm thinking security issues will be the next focus.

Flash could (and probably would) hurt AppStore sales. It probably wouldn't be significant but some developers would choose to use or keep using Flash rather than creating a native App.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> _Take the current URL from your PC web browser and push it to your device, over the air. If it's a web page, it'll open in the Android web browser; if it's a Google Maps URL, it'll open in the Android Maps app._

Meaning that now, not only can spyware pop up porn on my parents' home computer, it can also push porn to my kid sister's cell phone? Ditto for apps... I imagine spyware is a thing of the past for most Googlers, but it certainly isn't for the majority of users.

<comment><USER35> Isn't there going to be security with this feature? I don't think any app/website can send remote commands without having your credentials. If spyware has your kid sister's Google credentials, pop-ups are the last of her worries.

<comment><USER36> Do you seriously think most GMail accounts are never used on a computer which has spyware installed? You must be joking...

<comment><USER35> A program that keylogs your machine and grabs your passwords is a virus. You're right they are fairly common but once again a "popup" on your phone from a virus is the least of your worries.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I'm not sure Apple is ahead on backup & restore with the iPhone / iPad.

You shouldn't need a desktop (with an OS that runs iTunes) in the first place. I read that the first thing you need to do with iPad is to connect it to iTunes.

<comment><USER38> What Gruber was getting at is that Apple has a far better syncing strategy since Android wipes everything between updates and Apple neatly brings all your data with you.

That said, the cloud-based syncing that Android will eventually ship looks like the "right" solution. I doubt anyone at Apple considers USB syncing to be the end game, though; I'd be shocked if they didn't have some sort of over- the-air syncing in the pipeline. The question in my mind is will they fix this in 2010 or will they fix this a few years from now. People won't want to stay tethered that much longer.

As a sidenote- syncing over USB makes sense for the iPhone, in some respects, but the iPad lends itself to be a standalone computer. Tying that to another centralized hub is a hassle, and that's where an Android-esque cloud sync would be great.

<comment><USER39> _> >since Android wipes everything between updates_

My G1 upgraded from 1.0 > 1.1 > 1.5 > 1.6 without wiping.

My Droid upgraded from 2.0 > 2.1 (and will > 2.2 soon) without wiping.

<comment><USER38> Ah; I stand corrected... I misread what Gruber wrote. Looks like Android handles updates fine, but there's no way to cross-load data between _devices_. So buying the latest and greatest hardware leaves you in the cold, at least until Froyo.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Fairphone 2 production and delivery countdown - <AUTHOR> https://www.fairphone.com/2015/12/16/fairphone-2-production-delivery-countdown/ <comment><USER2> this company uses volunteers to the work normally done by paid employees, then after a few months gets rid of them (I know one such volunteer). Considering the point of this company is to produce a phone which is 'fair' it is obligatory to point out this disregard for dutch law and normal business ethics.</comment>


The End of the DreamHost vs. DOJ privacy case - <AUTHOR> http://www.dreamhost.com/blog/the-end-of-the-road/ <comment><USER3> Is this really a win for DreamHost (and other internet service providers)?

> DreamHost has been deputized to redact sensitive information

If DH was deputized to do this on behalf of the government, what limits are there to deputizing DH to do something else, possibly more nefarious, on behalf of the government? Why can't the DoJ now "deputize" Apple to produce the iOS with the backdoor?

Also important, who pays for the employee time for this? What about the opportunity cost of moving an employee off of her main duties onto this other duty that has no revenue benefit? Did this ruling just create an unfunded mandate for private businesses?

> We see this as an absolute victory not just for DreamHost, but for online > service providers throughout America and for internet users around the > world.

I think this statement requires far more analysis before it can be made.

EDIT: Oh good, Orin Kerr has started tweeting about this. I'd trust his judgment on the legal matters more than my armchair lawyering. [https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/917923510462435328](https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/917923510462435328)

<comment><USER4> they could have appealed again. what is the cost of their legal team?

complying with laws and regulations is a cost of doing business in the any country

<comment><USER3> I think lawyer time is quantifiable so that's one thing.

But the cost of moving a developer over to satisfy the DoJ's request is practically unquantifiable. Say DH has a dev team of 10. One of them moves over to implement the DoJ search protocol and develop redaction scripts. Do the other 9 now work this person's workload?

Or does DH bring in a new developer? Now DH has to train this person up. We all know, as programmers, that a new developer to a team induces a temporary drag on performance.

Anyways, I think Apple covered this hypothetical in their response brief to the FBI request.

<comment><USER5> Again, this just sounds like the cost of doing business. You're not always going to be able to have everyone working on the ideal goals. Sometimes a developer will have to be working with auditors (be they from the private or public sector) or lawyers on something other than their typical project.

I also don't think a search protocol would be a part of this request, as much as a dump of redacted data.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not having experience with disruptj20: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisruptJ20](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisruptJ20)

DisruptJ20 (also Disrupt J20), a Washington, D.C.-based political organization founded in July 2016 and publicly launched on November 11 of the same year, stated its initial aim as protesting and disrupting events of the presidential inauguration of the 45th U.S. President, Donald Trump, which occurred on January 20, 2017. The protests organized and encouraged by the DisruptJ20 group were a part of a wider array of protests initiated by a variety of individuals and groups, in Washington, DC and nationwide; from a more extensive initial plan, deployments by DisruptJ20 at the inauguration eventually included efforts, at least, to blockade one bridge, and to attempt to shut down security checkpoints.

\---

I don't care either way about disruptj20, but I appreciate DreamHost's efforts, and the intervention by the court to curtail the overly broad demand for information.

<comment><USER7> Can anyone point out how blockading a bridge could possibly lead to political change?

The only scenario that seems obvious is if the police overreact and shoot some of the protesters. That would cause a massive public outcry and bring their cause to the front and center stage.

What are some other ways that blocking a bridge could be productive?

<comment><USER8> It's a protest. Protests work. For example, this paper used rainfall as a source of exogenous variation to measure the effect of the Tea Party protests.

[https://academic.oup.com/qje/article- abstract/128/4/1633/184...](https://academic.oup.com/qje/article- abstract/128/4/1633/1849540/Do-Political-Protests-Matter-Evidence-from-the- Tea?redirectedFrom=fulltext)

 _Can protests cause political change, or are they merely symptoms of underlying shifts in policy preferences? We address this question by studying the Tea Party movement in the United States, which rose to prominence through coordinated rallies across the country on Tax Day, April 15, 2009. We exploit variation in rainfall on the day of these rallies as an exogenous source of variation in attendance. We show that good weather at this initial, coordinating event had significant consequences for the subsequent local strength of the movement, increased public support for Tea Party positions, and led to more Republican votes in the 2010 midterm elections. Policy making was also affected, as incumbents responded to large protests in their district by voting more conservatively in Congress. Our estimates suggest significant multiplier effects: an additional protester increased the number of Republican votes by a factor well above 1. Together our results show that protests can build political movements that ultimately affect policy making and that they do so by influencing political views rather than solely through the revelation of existing political preferences._

<comment><USER9> You're conflating a protest with a protest that involves breaking the law and risking peoples lives (blocking a road interferes with emergency services).

<comment><USER10> Oh come on. You're suggesting that what their protesting _against_ doesn't break the law and risk lives? I'm not a masssive supporter of the protests, but people's right to protest is important, without silly limits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wow, I didn't expect to read that and see anything positive. Good job, Dreamhost. Maybe I should get rid of my Digital Ocean account and migrate over.

<comment><USER12> I'd suggest reading some of the complaints about their service and support. They have had a whole litany of complaints that span years of operation.

In their defense, I've read that they have improved significantly - but they had a pretty poor reputation to begin with.

While its great to support a company that fights for your rights, it's also prudent to ensure the company meets your service needs.

So, I'd suggest reading sites like WebHostingTalk, and similar. Then, after reading, I'd suggest interacting with them to answer questions and measure things like initial response time. And, of course, basing your judgement on that and not just reviews or willingness to fight for your rights.

<comment><USER13> I've had a few servers (and previously shared hosting) at DH over the last 20 years. While they have had their fair share of major downtime, it has been on par with Rackspace, AWS, etc., who have all had day+ events in the last.

I have heard reports of some shared servers being worse than others, but generally I've only seen reasonable performance at a low price.

That said, I also use Digital Ocean, AWS, and Rackspace still for various projects. Really, they're all pretty great.

<comment><USER12> Most of the complaints I've seen have revolved around their shared hosting environment and some support complaints. I figure it worth mentioning. I do know there are far fewer complaints AND that they are still in business, so they can't be too bad, can they?

But, yeah, at one point their shared hosting services had quite a reputation and they had lots of complaints (reasonable or not) concerning getting terminated for unreasonable resource usage when hosters felt they were in the right.

I had a personal site with them for a few months and had some downtime that put it below my acceptability level. They were pleasant enough to work with and refunded the remainder of my money without any compliant. I don't recall the exact figure but it was in the 95% uptime range.

Caveat emptor, I suppose. Refunding and moving was easy enough. I'm in the market for hosting, again. So, maybe I'll give them another shot.

<comment><USER14> I've been with them since 2007 and they did have some bad years, and just last year I was getting quite a bit of downtime due to someone attaching the shared server I was on. I asked to be moved to a different server and have had like 99% uptime since. So while there are issues now and then these days, support does help you if you ask. Plus for what I pay, I think it's great value.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Would you defend the Daily Stormer?

[http://fightthefuture.org/article/the-new-era-of- corporate-c...](http://fightthefuture.org/article/the-new-era-of-corporate- censorship/)

Unpopular thoughts of the past century are accepted norms today.

<comment><USER16> Censorship is a blight on society, no matter the target.

 _The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one 's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. — H. L. Mencken, US editor (1880-1956)_

<comment><USER17> > Censorship

I, personally, think it's still debatable as to whether the DailyStormer issues qualify as censorship.

Matthew Prince, CEO of CloudFlare, brought this topic up when they dropped DailyStormer. There's no easy answer on how to deal with it. Is there strong demand for a vertical monopoly in content hosting which will host any kind of offensive content? Are legislators close to passing laws denying the right to host a website for distasteful speech?

I would argue that censorship is an _active_ action and that what happened to the Daily Stormer is mostly a _passive_ action.

Analogy: This is not like burning a book. It's more like every book publisher passing on publishing the book before it's printed. Would you risk your reputation as a book publisher just because "I don't want to censor the author" despite not liking the content, not knowing if there was any paying market for the book, and despite the negative press + potential boycotts of your company? If you won't, how can you expect anyone else to do different in similar circumstances?

The slippery slope argument is a valid concern, but is there a moral panic spreading concerning things that are equally distasteful? Last I checked, the Westboro Baptist Church is still on the internet with both a website and a Twitter account. And they were used by the FBI to train agents to withstand hateful speech while maintaining their composure.

Note: Granted, Google Domains not allowing them to transfer their domain seems very icky, but I can see how there is no good policy for that situation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This tiny court decision is a huge win. One that gives me hope for the future of our democracy on a day when I was tending to despair for it.

</comment><comment><USER15> It's interesting how DreamHost picks and chooses which opinions it defends:

[http://fightthefuture.org/article/the-new-era-of- corporate-c...](http://fightthefuture.org/article/the-new-era-of-corporate- censorship/)

</comment><comment><USER19> > _Under this order, we now have the ability to redact all identifying > information and protect the identities of users who interacted with > disruptj20.org before handing over any data to the court. Chief Judge Morin > acknowledged that the government "does not have the right to rummage through > the information contained on DreamHost's website" to "discover the identity > of . . . individuals not participating in alleged criminal activity."_

That's interesting. Days before he left office, President Obama gave the NSA permission to share _raw_ internet data with 16 other agencies (because of course he did...). That data should _mostly_ include American citizens' information.

So I wonder if the EFF or ACLU can sue the White House/DoJ over expanding those rules, considering judges seem to not like such mass surveillance, as exemplified in this case.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets- more...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets-more- latitude-to-share-intercepted-communications.html)

</comment><comment><USER20> Happy to see the law work it out this way. Good of Dreamhost to stand up for privacy.

Unfortunately disrupt J20 is a violent group that promotes assault and anarchy against conservatives, so it's important that law enforcement officials are able to continue their investigation in some other way.

Members of this group were arrested and convicted in a plot to attack the inauguration ball using acid in the ventilation system and other alleged tactics.

<comment><USER21> This is indisputably true, so I have no idea why you are downvoted. Or rather, I _have_ an idea, but it's not a pleasant one.

There's nothing contradictory in applauding Dreamhost's attitude and victory, while at the same time seing the disrupters for exactly what they are.

<comment><USER22> The comment above you directly disputes it.

How is it indisputable? Please don't forget your citations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is amazing. Thank you, Dreamhost, for defending your customers' rights.

</comment><comment><USER24> Good news.

But now, sadly, we need a service (i.e. Chrome extension?) that rates the depth of the pockets (and the size of "the stones") of the company hosting a site we're about to visit.

That aside, it there was smart and kbown way to picking hosting that's - <USER2> or less - beyond the reach of such things? Would AWS have been as upstanding as DH?

<comment><USER24> Can someone explain the reason for a down vote?

If hosting now matters, why is awareness of such things a negative?

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Not gonna lie, this headline scared me ;)

Good work Dreamhost, proud to be a customer!

<comment><USER26> The headline scared me too.

To be honest, a part of me was expecting a complete company shutdown if not a mandatory compliance order.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> It's great to see Dreamhost standing up for the right of their customer's website visitors. They don't have any financial incentive, but they still made it right. Makes me feel secure to know where they'd be ready to go for their own customers if you ever got targeted by an unlawful request.

</comment><comment><USER28> The title sounds like they're shutting down. The article has a positive result though.

</comment><comment><USER29> > We are now required to hand over a drastically reduced amount of data to the > government and will redact any identifying information from every scrap of > it that relates to non-subscribers.

Does anyone know what they mean by "non-subscribers"?

<comment><USER30> It means anyone who isn't paying for the hosting of the website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I have been using DreamHost for a decently long time. I signed up right around their infamous "billing issue" around 8-9 years ago; I naively -- and luckily -- ignored the huge red flag that was and bought in long and ard. This current development has only solidified my enjoyment of using them as my hosting service.

I am very glad they came out on top here and, to be honest, given recent events mu heart was sinking when I read the title but was uplifted when I read the content.

</comment><comment><USER31> This is a big deal. Thank you.

</comment><comment><USER32> What is disruptj20.org? I'm afraid to visit it.

<comment><USER33> Disrupt J20 was a website put together for organized resistance to Donald Trump's administration. This case is specifically tied to an overturned trash can and mass marches that were held on inauguration day in DC.

Some background on the case: [https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/18/trumps_doj_demands_pe...](https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/18/trumps_doj_demands_personal_info_on)

From Nate Cardozo, senior staff attorney at the EFF:

"The government asserts that there were crimes committed on January 20th. You know, there was some petty vandalism or whatever. The government is claiming, of course, felony rioting, which is another thing altogether.

So, the government's theory of the case, laughable as it is, is that everyone who visited J20—DisruptJ20.org did so in order to plan a crime."

230 people that participated that day were mass-arrested and 194 are potentially facing 75 years in prison. [http://defendj20resistance.org/](http://defendj20resistance.org/)

<comment><USER34> You left out any mention of this video series, or the claims & counter claims regarding it -

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZSfhd1X_8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZSfhd1X_8)

<comment><USER35> James O'Keefe has a history of editing footage to make misleading or false claims. Nothing he says should be believed.

Just look at the amount of times he has settled claims for misrepresenting individuals and organizations: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Keefe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Keefe)

<comment><USER34> > Just look at the amount of times he has settled claims for misrepresenting > individuals and organizations

There appear to have been two settlements, one to Izzy Santa and one to Juan Carlos Vera. In the ACORN videos, the guy was playing along with them and reported the contact to the cops. As for the CNN thing, I honestly don't know what was going on there, because the settlement was paid to one of Veritas' own employees and the whole thing is crazy.

I understand that there were claims that this video was like the ACORN video, incidentally. We'll know if that's what really happened or not once the police finish their investigation and the evidence comes out at trial.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Proud to be a DH customer today. Awesome news!

<comment><USER26> Same here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> This makes me proud to have worked for Dreamhost. Great job friends!

</comment><comment><USER38> That is impressive! More incentive to become a Dreamhost customer.

</comment><comment><USER39> As I was reading "The end of the Dreamhost[...]". I started to feel very happy until I realized this is not their end but something else :(

</comment><comment><USER40> Integrity....how weird.

<comment><USER41> Now if only Cloudflare could follow suit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Amazing results and glad they stood up. Looking into signing up!

</comment><comment><USER43> I thought DH was going under when I saw that headline! Much happier result.

<comment><USER44> Yeah, me too. Terrible till.

<comment><USER44> *title

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Can we have the title edited so it doesn't sound like a going-out-of-business post?

I'd suggest "The End of the DreamHost vs. DOJ privacy case".

<comment><AUTHOR> Updated to be more accurate and keeping still the initial blog title. Thanks for the suggestion.

<comment><USER46> That still has the unwanted connotation so I've adopted cperciva's suggestion.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Shall I share my product ideas to the startup I work for - <AUTHOR> I have been working (contracting) remotely happily for a startup company for a couple of years. It looks like their funding is good and they will get enough cash to pay me for another year at least. This is a really small shop, I am more or less the only developer there (we have external contractors on demand).
However while working for them I had a few ideas of product not directly related to their line of work but inspired by work I did for them.
I was refining these product ideas in my head in case funding went short and was in need of a plan B.
I am keen to pursue these ideas but am wondering what the best course of action is. My main problem is that I am a family man and my after work time is very limited + the pay is attractive/needed.
I can see 3 course of action:
1. Do not tell them about it, and try to work on the product on my own time. Risk: I dont have enough time and nothing gets produced. Advantages: I don't burn any bridges and have possibly a passive income generating product.
2. Leave the company and work on these products for a while until my savings are gone and/or I have validated that there is a need for them. Risk: my stress level go too high and my family suffers. Advantages: I work on things that excite me.
3. Talk to them about it and offer them to pay me while I develop and ship some of these MVP and we analyse the result in a few month. Risk: they now know that the startup I work for is not my commitment 100%. Risk2: if it there is revenue/value for these products then I have given it away a little bit to this company.
I guess I was wondering about the option 3: how realistic does it sound to people working in startups. If someone at Airbnb came in and said "hey lets build this cool car sharing product to disrupt the taxi industry", what would the CEO/founder most likely say? Is there value in the company for side projects? <comment><USER2> Do not share your ideas unless you own a significant portion of the startup and believe the idea would help toward the primary offering you are working toward. If you are hired help with 1-2% stake in the venture, keep your ideas to yourself.

Option 1 is the least likely to burn a bridge over an idea that may not work out. Option 1 also offers the most retention of your IP and highest likelihood you will profit from your idea and execution. Make sure not to work on your idea on their time or equipment.

</comment><comment><USER3> You're a contractor I would go with option 1.

Make sure you own 100% of the IP, don't work on it with their time/materials or reuse their code, etc.

Option 1: if it's a good idea own it and the profits. If you have limited time think about contracting out part of the work. If it's B2B and something that can generate revenue quickly this will be easier. If it's an idea that will require lots of time/effort/resources to be profitable you might reconsider partnering with your company/founders but I would do this after your contract it up.

Option 2: contracting is paying the bills keep working with them. If your runway with them is 1 year that gives you time to get your idea off the ground, save and plan to work on it full time in a year if it's generating revenue.

Option 3, this could work but you don't own a significant percentage of the company so you're giving away your idea/profits. Sounds easier to own 100% on your own, especially at first.

Listen to StartupsForTheRestofUs.com also checkout [http://www.microconf.com/past-videos/](http://www.microconf.com/past- videos/).

Good luck in 2017!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for taking the time to answer.

Another problem I can see with option 1 is that I'd have to be quite careful talking about the potential product (so no blog posts under my name, no facebook posts etc.

I'd have to create some persona, which is not a big deal but it adds up some challenges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Having done the latter, I would make sure that if you do go that route that you are prepared to _partner_ with your employer(s). I learned the hard way that I wasn't prepared for how much our ideas/motivations would differ. In the end, I burned out and sold them the entire IP.

<comment><AUTHOR> How would you suggest a partnership agreement could look like. At the moment I am a contractor, but they are in the process of offering me 2% of the company (still not signed or anything).

Your case is very interesing to me, what would you have done differently looking back?

<comment><USER4> It's _your idea_ and they're offering _you_ 2%? Or am I just misunderstanding? I got 40% of net profits over all time, as long as I was actively working on maintaining the software, in return for the ability to develop the app on company time over 6 mo + marketing efforts.

What the agreement looks like is up to you; the contracts that were offered to me had ridiculous clauses that were heavily in their favor, mostly because they were 'stock' contracts which they (ellegedly) didn't even read for them themselves. (I know.)

When I sold them the IP out of frustration, I had still not signed a contract that I was happy with. (One version of our founders agreement had me _owing them $40,000 in initial contributions_ — if I were to sign that, I could have royally screwed my family.)

All I'm saying is that a business partnership is more than just a few meetings and agreements. You need to agree with how they do business. If it doesn't align with what you want for your product, you may want to take a step back and evaluate whether it is a good decision to get into bed with them.

Let me know if you have any additional questions!

Edit: If I were to do it differently, I would have done everything by myself. It would have taken longer, yes, but I would still be working on a product of which I had a huge passion for. It sucks that it didn't work out how I thought it would.

<comment><USER5> I don't think he's told them about his ideas yet (otherwise there wouldn't be much of a point to this Ask HN).

I think he's saying that his employer (the startup company) is in the process of offering him 2% of the startup company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Some startups are the result of successful side projects, i.e. Unsplash. But if you have no equity</comment>


The Hippocratic License: An Ethical License for Open Source Projects - <AUTHOR> https://firstdonoharm.dev <comment><USER2> It's a proprietary license and a super vague and broad one at that. At least Microsoft won't yank my usage rights if I pay them enough.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As far as I can see, this is basically MIT with an added condition.

 _> The software may not be used by individuals, corporations, governments, or other groups for systems or activities that actively and knowingly endanger, harm, or otherwise threaten the physical, mental, economic, or general well- being of underprivileged individuals or groups._

<comment><USER3> > of underprivileged individuals or groups

Because screw the rest.</comment></comment>


Perfect Scrollbar (jQuery) - <AUTHOR> https://www.lewagon.com/assets/favicon-c0c819634501299356a790fa055716b0f704c8bd5cf129dafb165604dbee28ff.png <comment><USER2> The link is broken, it points to a PNG file of a bus.</comment>


#Lighten Up – the colour of skin, in cartoons - <AUTHOR> https://thenib.com/lighten-up-4f7f96ca8a7e

<comment><USER2> Maybe this is common, part of a larger picture, but the story is presented as a more isolated incident and I will treat it as such. There was no racism in her words to "lighten the skin tone" \- only a misunderstanding of _who_ the character is.

The editors own response: "I was told she was Latina and white."

The author's believes: "Mexican father and African-American mother"

Obviously the author would create a darker skin tone if the character is half- black. But why retain that same darker skin tone if the character is half- white?

The author then cites 3 examples of "Latina skin tones" and ignores the "and white" part of the editor's statement about the character. He should have clarified with the editor "by Latina do you mean Mexican? Or Dominican? Brazilian? Latina is like saying "Asian". It's too broad." That's a failure on the editor's part for lack of specificity.

I question his choice of darkness for Dominicans, they are not that toned unless they have also have African roots. I feel he only did that to try and stress "darker skin tones" to justify his usage of a "darker latina".

The editor and author both have different viewpoints on this specific characters ethnicity. The author believes she is hispanic and black, the editor believes she is latina (probably hispanic) and white. Due to the "characters changing over the years". So now the issue of lightening up the skin comes down to who's view on the character is the "right" view.

If the editor is _wrong_ and the character is hispanic+african - then don't lighten the character. If the editor is _right_ and the character is hispanic+caucasian then it might make sense to lighten the character.

No racism. Simply a misunderstanding of "who" this character is.</comment>


SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower - <AUTHOR> http://www.econrates.com/reality/schul.html <comment><USER2> Same pilot, different anecdote, "how slow can it go?"

[http://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2010/01/slowest- blackbird...](http://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2010/01/slowest- blackbird.html)

<comment><USER3> The Blackbird is full of amazing stories. Skunkworks - Ben Rich's memoirs [1] is full of ridiculous stories, both of making the SR-71 as well as stories from pilots (as well as a lot of other projects).

Not every thing in there can be taken at face value (his rant against the paint locker on the Sea Shadow for example... it's really the 'toxic solvents and chemicals locker'), but still full of gold.

For example, they had into all sorts of problems wielding titanium for the first time. Chlorine would wreck all sorts of havoc on the plates they used, which they discovered when someone drew on a plate with a ball-point pen. And then they completely ripped their hair out when the municipality increased the chlorination in the water they were using to clean the plates.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir- Lockheed/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir- Lockheed/dp/0316743003)

<comment><USER4> I second the recommendation for Ben Rich's book. It's a great history lesson and explanations behind the thinking of some of the greatest aerospace hackers & out-of-box thinkers.

I thought the passage about "600 mph birds" was particularly humorous because that was the first thing my young hacker mind thought of during a training section on the radar cross-section of the aircraft I was working on. It went something like this:

Instructor: "So the radar cross section is reduced considerably to approximately the size of a small bird"

Me: "So why don't they just look for a small bird going 600 mph?"

Instructor: "..."

Some years after, an F-117 was shot down during the Kosovo War, reportedly using this method (I had nothing to do with it :). I think this was probably a big learning lesson in regard to stealth technology.

And no disrespect to my instructor, he was a professional and a god of his domain.

<comment><USER5> >Some years after, an F-117 was shot down during the Kosovo War, reportedly using this method (I had nothing to do with it :). I think this was probably a big learning lesson in regard to stealth technology.

It was a bit more complicated than that ;-)

The full account how they managed to shot down a "stealth" F-117A with some modifications to cold war era Russian missiles, microwave ovens as radar decoys and in-promptu installed landlines can be read here: <http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=6376>

<comment><USER4> Of course it was a bit more complicated than that, that's why I recommend the book :)

I can believe the rabbit story in that link. ECM radiation is nasty.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thank you again, <http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/> , for making my web browsing experience safe from the onslaught of backgrounds and fonts.

<comment><USER7> This is AMAZING. I didn't mind the maroon on beige as much as some, but I hate the crammed feel of a blogspot page, and it does an amazing job of freeing that content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I know this has been posted many times before, but I love it every time.

</comment><comment><USER9> In reference to the uniform voice of center controllers--the "Houston Center" voice, Tom Wolfe tells a related story about pilots in "The Right Stuff." He asserts that all of the test pilots of the era copied the slow, calm, and always subtly positive delivery of Chuck Yeager as the pre-eminent pilot of the day. Other pilots in turn copied the test pilots and so Yeager's voice floated down and became the mold for all American aviation radio communication.

I'd guess that the author is correct in that the controllers copied the delivery of the voice of the space program from Houston, but those controllers were usually former test pilots or members of the military flight programs themselves, so we're probably still thinking of the same unflappable voice.

<comment><USER10> Here's good audio of that voice. Listen to Capt Sullenberger calmly tell the tower "we're going to be in the Hudson"

[http://www.exosphere3d.com/pubwww/pages/project_gallery/cact...](http://www.exosphere3d.com/pubwww/pages/project_gallery/cactus_1549_hudson_river.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Comic Sans MS, maroon on a beige background, this is what Readability was made for.

<comment><USER12> IMHO, I thought this was one of those occasions when the content and its delivery trumped presentation.

<comment><USER13> The content is why I googled for the Readability bookmarklet instead of just closing the browser tab.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I like the metaphor of being "ahead of the jet." as a term for mastery. I know that feeling exactly sometimes.

<comment><USER14> There is a plane called a Beech Bonanza that is nicknamed "The doctor killer."

It gets this name because it's a single engine plane, which attracts wealthy hobbyist pilots (like doctors) but it's _fast_. Much much faster than what these hobbyist pilots are used to. This causes "the plane to get in front of them", and for them to crash.

<comment><USER15> In fairness, the other part of the killer reputation has to do with apparent design instabilities as a result of the V-tail on the x35 models. Both these and the x36 models really are beautiful planes.

Another airplane with the killer epithet because of its on average high power to wisdom of pilot ratio is the Piper Malibu and its later brother the Mirage. Again, a beautiful, fast, well-designed plane that gets out in front of you if you let it.

Growing up, my father flew thousands of hours in both of these planes with me in the right seat, and he was always careful to warn me about having respect for the plane's power lest it get away from you. In a way, I think he was reminding himself as much as me.

<comment><USER16> Would you please explain what is meant by "get out in front of you"? I have very limited flying experience and am not familiar with what this means, in pilot terms: i.e. what would you experience as a pilot, and what would be happening to the airplane. Google didn't help in this matter.

<comment><USER17> The aircraft is flying faster than it is taking you to process the changes that are occurring during the flight.

There are a number of things you need to process as you fly, from radios to maps to situational awareness. For less experienced pilots, or when you have passengers than are pointing out all sorts of shit, this can take time. During all this time the aircraft is moving and the condition is changing.

You need to not only know where you are now, but where you will be in the future. If you lose this, you find the aircraft getting to places faster than you can prepare for, and that can be nasty.

To relate, it's very similar to driving a car for the first time. There seems to be so much more to check, from mirrors to gauges to the road. The reaction for new drivers is to slow down to give yourself time to catch up.

Another analogy would be sports. If you play a team sport with those that have played for years, you can find yourself reacting to things after they have happened. This isn't because you don't know what to do, but more so because by the time you've figured it out and acted, the event has already occurred.

<comment><USER18> Or for a geekier analogy, it's like StarCraft. When you first play, your APM is low, so you build things slowly, collect fewer minerals, and produce fewer troops. Then your opponent shows up on your doorstep with a much bigger force, micros them well, and before you can even control your dudes, they're all gone. And then you're like "Hey, what happened to my base? AAAAH I'm dead. GG."

As you gain experience, you can spend much less cognitive attention paying attention to what's going on in the game. So actions become reflexes, and suddenly you're catching up. And then you run up against an opponent who's like you were a couple months ago, and pwnage commences.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Submitted 7 months ago on a more readable, seemingly more original site.

<http://www.vfp62.com/SR-71.html>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1247709> (good amount of discussion)

<comment><USER20> this is one of those stories that is re-submitted every 6 months or so and everybody goes 'oooooooohhhhhhhh' and sends it to the top.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The SR-71 flight manual is (mostly) online, if anyone is interested: <http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/>

</comment><comment><USER22> Great story! Those SR-71s were amazing machines in the air. On the ground was a different story. I remember reading about how they leaked all sorts of fluids on the ground because the body was designed to expand at the higher altitudes and speeds. Amazing engineering.

</comment><comment><USER23> stolen from [http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/423988-concorde- question-3.ht...](http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/423988-concorde- question-3.html#post5884568) Ancient tale.

There's this SR-71 Blackbird stooging around Cuba on a top-secret mission, at FL500+ and Mach 2+.... when they get a call requesting them to change heading "because of traffic at your altitude". Traffic at THEIR altitude ?? Anyway, they comply, and shortly, yes, there's an Air France Concorde out of Caracas (Air France flew there in the early days) slowly sailing across their flight path.

Just imagine... two guys in bonedomes and full pressure suits, in a cramped cockpit, watching something like a hundred people in shirt sleeves or summer dresses, sipping their champagne and maybe just starting on their smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres, flying at their altitude and nearly their speed....

</comment><comment><USER24> There is a similar one of an SR71 tooling around over Cuba at god-knows-what 1000s of feet being asked to move to make way for another airplane. A Concorde goes past, with people in shirt sleeves happily sipping their champagne.

</comment><comment><USER25> The SR-71 Blackbird went from LA to DC in around an hour. Imagine if (when) a passenger jet could go that fast -- it would transform our country.

Pop over to the East Coast for the day, head home in time for dinner.

<comment><USER20> People aren't willing to pay extra for speed, which makes the planes uneconomical. And now with wifi, internet and an entire office on a plane, there is even less emphasis on getting there faster.

<comment><USER26> Civilian aircraft are also not allowed to go supersonic over the continental US, which killed the Concorde for domestic routes among other reasons...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> man thats so bad ass

<comment><USER27> hey? whyd you down vote me?

<comment><USER28> Your were probably down voted because your comment added nothing to the discussion and those types of comments are generally discouraged on HN.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request.

"Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground."</comment>


Ask HN: Can you code on a Chromebook? - <AUTHOR>

The battery life on a Chromebook Pixel sounds really intriguing.  But I'm not sure that I'd be able to give up Sublime Text and the rest of the amenities of my MacBook Pro and OS X.<p>Have you tried programming with a Chromebook?  How did it go and what did you use? <comment><USER2> Absolutely. I current have the Acer 720p (4g RAM) w/ Codestarter's Ubuntu ([https://github.com/codestarterorg/ubuntu-chromebook- installe...](https://github.com/codestarterorg/ubuntu-chromebook-installer)).

I added my own ~230 GB SSD because the default SSD is a bit small for programming.

Great form-factor. Great Battery. Perfect for leisurely coding. Definitely one of the best computers/laptops I've used.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you use crouton [1] to manage chroots, you can easily run Sublime and everything else in Linux land. You should be aware of what developer mode is on Chrome OS, though, and all of the negatives that comes with it. The xiwi crouton target allows you to connect to the chroot in a popup window. You can also now launch individual applications giving an integrated experience, including copy/paste.

I ordered the LS pixel, and it was by far the nicest computer I've ever used. I used IntelliJ IDEA in a popup window with zero lag for Java development. After enabling a kernel flag, VirtualBox worked too (with several networking caveats), and thereby Docker.

Ultimately I returned it and got the entry level MBP retina for the same price. Relying on crouton for functionality, meant small stuff would break here or there, much like running Arch Linux. For example, the home, end, page up/page down shortcuts broke in xiwi windows after an update. VirtualBox would cold cut the power to the machine if I enabled bridged networking. 64 GB is exactly half the minimum hd space I need. Developer mode is not a first class citizen within the OS, so I was constantly fighting the machine to get a stable work environment. Etc.

I really really miss it though. Especially the touch screen. It felt like using my future computer today. I needed a dev machine that I could rely on, and my current situation could not justify a $1300 toy. The ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and I am certain I will eventually be using something very much like the Pixel within a couple years. Hope that helps.

[1] [https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton](https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton)

</comment><comment><USER4> I used one for a few weeks when I got a free Cr-48 during the trial program. It was never my only device, though my main machine at the time was a netbook. :)

It's possible, depending what you're building. Be prepared to make a lot of adjustments to the way you work, though. Spend a few weeks to a month using ONLY Chrome on your Macbook, then if you don't run into any hiccups, and the Pixel still seems attractive to you, make the plunge!

I didn't use any WebIDE or anything like that, because I don't think there were any available at the time. Rather, I used SSH and did all my work on a remote machine.

</comment><comment><USER5> I was going to buy a cheapish chromebook to go on holiday with, because I'm not going to take my MB Air abroad. Especially on the off chance I may get rained in or bored enough to do a spot of programming. So I had a budget of £200ish to do this with.

I ended up buying a lowish spec Lenovo 50-30 (celeron) instead. Turns out it's rather heavier (but still quite slim) and it's 15". Allegedly 4 hours battery life too. Only problem ... windows 8.1 Should be okay when I install my dev environment up on it though.</comment>


Show HN: GeoStripper for Android - remove GPS EXIF data from your shared photos - <AUTHOR>

GeoStripper is an open-source Android  App that solves a problem I have: when I share photos online, I don't always want to share where a particular photo was taken. If your smartphone camera app records your GPS location when you take a picture and stores it in EXIF metadata, whenever you upload or SMS or otherwise share that photo, this geo-location information can be used without your knowledge.
The app is available from Android Market at
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.greenantlabs.geostripper
I am looking for any and all feedback, no matter how small.
More information:
When you upload your photos to Facebook we know that they DO strip EXIF GPS data out of photos they place in your albums. What we don't know is whether they actually store that geo-location information elsewhere once its removed from the photos. Other services such as Twitter, etc may not even strip the geo data and thus make your location available to anyone who has access to your posted photos (sometimes the whole world).
The idea was that I do not want people to change their use of their favorite message/sharing/social applications, so  GeoStripper is a man-in-the-middle application that will strip Geo tags in real time before sharing your photos (but will leave the original photos untouched). This is only possible on Android where you can substitute default behavior based on 'Intents'. GeoStripper responds to 'Pick a Photo' intent.
When you want to share a photo via SMS or some internet application, you need to select the photo first. Since GeoStripper now responds to that 'Intent', an option to choose between "Select a Picture" applications and GeoStripper will be amongst those choices (At this point you can set it to be a default choice)
When you run GeoStripper for the first time, you will be presented with an Introduction screen which briefly explains how it works and then you will proceed to the Configuration screen.
Configuration screen currently provides a single option -- to choose a Gallery application that will be used by GeoStripper next time you launch it. It will be populated by system's default app, but you are free to choose other ones if you have them installed.
From now on the only way to get into the Configuration screen is to launch GeoStripper as a standalone application (from the App Drawer).
If you choose GeoStripper when trying to select a photo from another application, it will take you directly the Gallery application that you selected in the GeoStripper Configuration screen. At this point, when you select a photo, a temporary copy of the photo is created with Geo data removed and is then passed back to the target application for you to share/sms/etc.
This rather simple application was written over the course of few weeks whenever time allowed. The source code(with some basic unit tests) is available at
https://github.com/GreenAntLabs/GeoStripper <comment><AUTHOR> Linkifying:

[http://market.android.com/details?id=com.greenantlabs.geostr...](http://market.android.com/details?id=com.greenantlabs.geostripper)

<https://github.com/GreenAntLabs/GeoStripper>

</comment><comment><USER2> Very interesting. Can you build an app (Android or other) that will read RFID data from a chip in a name tag and dump that data into the an IPTC field?</comment>


C# finally gets default parameters - <AUTHOR> http://www.devcurry.com/2009/08/two-new-features-of-c-40.html

<comment><USER2> When C# was first conceived, it was to be the system language of the .NET platform. It had to, through a pit of success, produce APIs which could be consumed by any CLS compliant language (any language which compiles to MSIL and has a some minimum feature set). Microsoft expected (perhaps naively) developers to use VB.net for application development. Over time, C# has become the primary language choice of the .NET ecosystem. With that change, C# started adding a significant number of non-CLS compliant features.

As a static and strongly typed language, overloading is a very clean solution for implementing default arguments. Haskell, for example, uses the same mechanism. VB, on the other hand, can use late binding. This is an essential feature of VB for COM interop.

Optional and named parameters are being added to C# with support for the "dynamic" type and interop with COM (primarily Office), IronRuby, IronPython, and the HTML DOM via Silverlight. If C# were to stand on its own, I don't think they would have ever added this feature.

EDIT: Also, the actual title of this post is "Two New Features of C# 4.0". Please don't editorialize the headline :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> _Please don't editorialize the headline_

Mea culpa. :)

<comment><USER2> No worries. The original title was pretty non-descriptive. I'd have gone with: "Two New Features of C# 4.0 (optional and named parameters)"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> dynamic scripting languages are my friends, but i've been writing a handful of programs in C#/WPF lately and i really don't have any complaints. having experience with all sorts of esoteric languages, i was afraid C# would feel "limited." but that didn't turn out to be the case, probably thanks to the recently-added lambdas and syntatic sugaries

and in terms of the whole environment, it's like MS is bending over backwards to make it comfy for the programmer... don't mind if i do

</comment><comment><USER4> Wow, I thought these would never come !

Now I just have to wait for C# 4.0 to make it to mono, and for the guys from Unity to upgrade it (which might take forever, they still use something like mono 1.2.5 I think). And at last I'll be able to use this...

For those who don't know Unity: <http://unity3d.com/>, it's a very small, yet very impressive 3D engine that runs in the browser.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not comfortable with the direction C# is going. It's trying to be and do too many things at once, and it's making itself muddy.

<comment><USER6> What is interesting is that C# has become the antithesis of Java. Java is now muddled in the JSR process and takes a long time to develop new features. C# is driven by MS and features have been evolving at a fast rate.

This is quite different from the beginnings of C# when it was basically a Java clone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This works in C#:

       public static void SomeMethod([Optional, DefaultParameterValue(false)] bool param)

</comment><comment><USER8> Now they need to add keyword arguments.

<comment><USER9> Seems like they have:

      name = SomeMethod("Suprotim", age: 20);</comment></comment>


Trump, Obama and the Assault on Political Correctness - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/opinion/trump-obama-and-the-assault-on-political-correctness.html <comment><USER2> I know that what you can do in a poll is limited, but frankly any answer to this question will tell me almost nothing:

> _Please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement: A big > problem this country has is being politically correct._

I would ask anyone who agrees with this statement, what concrete problems does it actually cause? Is it depressing wages for the middle class - is PC culture to blame for increasing disparity in wealth and income? Is PC culture shipping jobs overseas? Is PC culture shooting unarmed men in the streets? Is it spying on us and reading our emails?

There are aspects of political correctness that irritate the hell out of me, as well, but it's almost always very abstract. Rarely does it encroach on my personal life at all. As near as I can tell it is mostly restricted to college campuses, and the gulf between academia and real life is a much larger leap to make than most people realize, I think. PC culture has no chance of co-opting the broader American culture to any significant degree. I have a single friend who has gone all-in on PC lately, and yes frankly talking to him sometimes can be a real pain in my ass. But he's still my friend because he's still a decent person, he can still be reasoned with, and he often makes good points.

On the other hand I have several people in my life who years ago doubled down on the _opposite_ of PC culture - right-wing arealism, and I can tell you that these people are orders of magnitude more insufferable than the most ardent Social Justice Warrior I can imagine. They ruin Thanksgivings. They tell racist, or sexist, or otherwise bigoted jokes and get incredibly upset if you don't laugh or, heaven forfend, you insist they cut that shit out. They repeat outrageous lies they read about on the Internet or heard on talk radio or occasionally cable news, and it is absolutely impossible to reason with them about any of it because they have been basically brainwashed beyond all reason at this point.

Frankly I think all the bloviating we see about "PC culture" these days serves mainly to draw attention away from the fact that much of the right wing in America has become completely disconnected from reality, to the point of it being a mental health issue. Why is no one talking about that?

<comment><USER3> I'll give it a shot. Political correctness stops us from having honest conversations about real problems. It's why educators have to tip toe around basic science topics like evolution. It's why people like Sam Harris are put into the "bigot" box instead of us having frank discussions about militant Islam on the evening news. Political correctness is why the educated people in news can't speak honestly to how stupid climate change denial is. It's why we can't talk about real problems that seem to be unique to some minority groups.

And when these problems don't get talked about, they don't get solved. And unless people go out of their way, they simply can't be truly informed about the issues. Hell, they can't even learn that there's more to be informed ABOUT.

<comment><USER2> You seem to be suggesting that political correctness and right-wing arealism are two sides of the same coin. I can buy that. However, and maybe this is just my personal experience, but I've found that it's a _much_ bigger impediment to clear thinking on the right, than on the left. Would you agree? If so (and because I'm pretty sure I'm brushing up now against my daily post limit on HN of 5-6 posts), why do you think we hear so much more about "political correctness" than the horror show that is right-wing media?

<comment><USER3> I disagree. It's the left that won't let us speak honestly about problems in some minority cultures or militant Islam. The left also won't let any real discussion of men's rights or potential problems with 3rd wave feminism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This article smacks of lefty bias. I'm not sure this is even newsworthy.

<comment><USER5> Well, it is an opinion...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's true. I'm not a Trump fan per se--but I trust an honest moron far more than a dishonest one who says all the right things.

</comment><comment><USER7> Political correctness has no place in a free society. It's fascism, pure and simple.</comment>


Ask HN: What does HN think of our idea for expectant first time parents? - <AUTHOR> There's no shortage of information about pregnancy out there, but it's scattered and of varying quality. My wife and I recently had a baby and both of us are in healthcare, but good, high quality information was surprisingly difficult to come by especially in one concentrated, trustworthy source. It got to the point of me looking up obstetrics textbooks to have specific questions answered.
For the pregnant and new parents in the group - What do you think of an online subscription service where pregnant women and first time parents can access videos from leading OB's, midwives, anesthesiologists, and nurses on pregnancy, what changes during pregnancy, what to expect during delivery, how an epidural is done and the science behind it, what happens during a c-section, drugs used during labor, etc.
There are definitely books out there, but especially when you have full time jobs it's hard to read a lot of good quality books. Throw in the time to do research on what books to trust, and we were frustrated. Not everyone has the time, inclination, or ability to read an obstetrics textbook to get the "Correct" answer (which by the way there are several "major" textbooks and they actually vary amongst themselves in the details of certain things)
This would be a subscription service (because after the baby is born or you're on to the next baby, you don't really necessarily need the info). Our goal is that if you keep up with the content by the end of your pregnancy you should have a great understnading of what's happening, and feel very comfortable with the pregnancy and the whole delivery process.
What do you think of this idea? It would take a lot of work and effort to ensure complete peer-review of the information and getting access to true experts, in addition to translating accurately to the layperson, and having a well designed website. Honest feedback and criticism appreciated! <comment><USER2> _Not everyone has the time, inclination, or ability to read an obstetrics textbook to get the "Correct" answer (which by the way there are several "major" textbooks and they actually vary amongst themselves in the details of certain things)_

How would you address that in your content? We would get lots of info from our doctors, nurses, and techs and then on the car ride home my wife (a graduate of biology, nursing, and medicine) would say "that's not how I learned it!"</comment>


Creating Dynamic Components with Angular 2 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rangle.io/dynamically-creating-components-with-angular-2/ <comment><AUTHOR> Is it just me, or this is a the very least completely ridiculous?</comment>


We're changing our name. Help us choose a new one. - <AUTHOR> http://ooomf.com/blog/news/changing-name-choose-one/

<comment><USER2> The leading choice (I won't spoil it; its visible after voting) is obviously the best fit here, because it can mean both a noun and a verb in senses that fit the usage.

However, it's still going to have pronunciation and spelling issues. It sounds like some other words (especially if you are a listener and aren't sure if you maybe heard an "ah" sound just at the beginning before the word). And even though everyone knows how to spell the word, they don't know that this is the spelling you went with. But once they learn, it is easy to remember, so that's good.</comment>


Tesco enters the tablet fray with Hudl - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24203271

<comment><USER2> I don't really understand why this is being considered technology news. This isn't Tesco entering into the technology sector.

This is just a classic case of a retailer maximising their profits in a particular sector.

It doesn't matter what it is, if it's popular and profit margins, they'll sell it. This is no different.

<comment><USER3> >I don't really understand why this is being considered technology news

Tesco have been hiring a lot of Silverlight and similar discipline developers. They have been working on their own TV streaming service like Netflix, but this one is free. It is supported by advertisements.

For those not from the UK Tesco has a very popular loyalty card system called ClubCard. They where pioneers of it in the UK market IIRC. They know what a lot of people shop for, when they shop for it, and often can guess very accurately what will be a conversion to a sale, and what won't. They do this at the moment with vouchers.

But now they have the streaming TV. They can charge (or they hope!) more for an advert than a competitor. It doesn't matter that Google knows you searched for xxxx or that in an email your friend mentioned that you liked yyyy. Tesco know what you actually bought.

They can measure the effect of showing the same person 10 impressions, and if it results in a conversion. Google and their ilk can not say if it worked. Did more people buy your nice brand of soup because of that slick new advert? Or was it just because the weather was a bit gray that week? Tesco will be able to tie up those exposed to adverts and those who then convert.

They can get a beachhead in your digital life, when for many they already control most of their physical.

This isn't just about selling a tablet, it is about moving advertising in a way we've never seen before in the digital world.

I am very impressed by them for doing this. Rather than re-act to the _digital world_ by using their _physical world_ tactics, or buy just buying some trendy startup. They've taken the best bits of both creating a platform to allow them to fully exploit it.

However, I absolutely hate targeted advertisements, so they won't be getting me near their damned ecosystem (or ClubCard!)

<comment><USER4> The free TV streaming service has been live for some time - www.clubcardtv.com . There's an Android app of course for the Hudl

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From Engadget: Hudl features a 7-inch (1,440 x 900 resolution) display for watching those Blinkbox titles in 720p, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, stock Android 4.2.2, a microSD slot for supplementing the 16GB of internal storage and, according to Tesco, a battery that'll last around 9 hours on a full charge. Some of the specs, such as dual WiFi antennae and stereo speakers on the rear

<comment><USER6> Can't see how much RAM it's got anywhere.

<comment><USER7> Some more techy info here e.g. it's made by Archos, Rockchip RK3188 processor, Mali400 graphics and benchmarks but still no mention of RAM

[http://www.modaco.com/page/news/_/android/tesco-unveil- the-%...](http://www.modaco.com/page/news/_/android/tesco-unveil- the-%C2%A3119-hudl-a-low-cost-archos-built-tablet-r1243)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> An interesting direction for Tesco, I wonder how they'll do.

I'm certainly not going to buy one, not after the fiasco with their password security ([http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/07/lessons-in-website- security-...](http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/07/lessons-in-website-security- anti.html)).

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd really want to see the moment when management makes these decisions. I'd like to understand their thought process, business rationale and expectations. A food retailer going into tech.

<comment><USER10> Have you been into a Tesco lately? Hardly just a food retailer.

Hell, here in Southampton they have a dedicated "HomePlus" (home wares, electrical and electronic) store near the city centre.

<comment><USER11> Also, the second largest retailer in Korea

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeplus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeplus)

<comment><USER10> You know, what happens in Korea continues to surprise me, and I'm not even talking about the crazy North.

Last week it was the discovery that they have problems with fundamentalist christians trying to take evolution out of school books (I had no idea Christianity was a major religion over there) and now I find out that Tesco are a major player in their retail market too. How odd!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Think Huddle are going to have something to say about the name...

<comment><USER13> I was thinking the tech startup Hudl would have a bigger issue: [http://www.hudl.com/](http://www.hudl.com/)

<comment><USER14> /concurs</comment></comment></comment>


How to tell if your transportation project is a boondoggle - <AUTHOR> http://www.newgeography.com/content/005646-is-your-transportation-project-a-boondoggle <comment><USER2> Buses are transient and routes change over the years. Streetcars, due to rails, give a sense of permanence to an area to encourage development. San Francisco is a great example with expansion of the N-Judah. You can see development along Cole Valley, UCSF, Inner Sunset, etc precisely because the rail tracks were planted there.

OTOH, the 405 expansion project in Los Angeles was a boondoggle. $1.1 Billion and Five Years Later, the 405 Congestion Relief Project Is a Fail: [http://www.laweekly.com/news/11-billion-and-five-years- later...](http://www.laweekly.com/news/11-billion-and-five-years-later- the-405-congestion-relief-project-is-a-fail-5415772)

</comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like the author just doesn't believe that good public transit matters. He works for the Cato Institute and wrote books about "the futility of government planning"? Yeah, it shows - this article is basically just "how to tell if your transportation project is ideologically correct according to a strictly Randian worldview", and that world sounds like a pretty depressing place to live.</comment>


An Israeli spacecraft is gearing up for a 2019 Moon mission - <AUTHOR> http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/spaceil-lander-feature.html <comment><USER2> Just to clear something up, a small detail is slightly misrepresented in the fine article. NASA asked SpaceIL to include a laser retroreflector for use for future lunar navigation. Every gram counts on a craft like this, and SpaceIL is providing NASA a service by bringing the LRA down with it. The article frames the relationship as NASA doing SpaceIL a favor by giving them the LRA, which is a paperweight today and will continue to be so until suborbital lunar navigation becomes commonplace. I.e., not in the mission timeframe.

Note that NASA is in fact being very generous towards SpaceIL, by providing time on the DSN and other assets. I'm just clearing up the bit about the LRA.

<comment> OpenBSD-reich Over thirty billion dollars per year in aid with no strings attached. They owe us, it's the least they can do!

<comment><USER3> 3 per year, not 30.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–United_States_relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–United_States_relations)

<comment><USER4> Israel defends itself, though, unlike Japan, S. Korea, or Germany. The tens of thousands of troops in those countries are not counted as foreign aid. But having them there, their guns and equipment, food,etc, is a lot more than direct aid to Israel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Love to see the XPrize teams pushing on; also Astrobotic [1] and Moon Express [2].

[1] [https://www.astrobotic.com/](https://www.astrobotic.com/)

[2] [http://www.moonexpress.com/](http://www.moonexpress.com/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Amazing that a private entity in a tiny country can scrape up the resources to go to the freaking moon on mission of inspiration. Can't wait to see them land it.

<comment><USER7> If you invest well in education, create quality human resources, and then give them resources they can do anything.

In fact its mostly small countries who do big things. Greece under Alexander the great.

And more recently England. It was like a small Island and pretty much ruled the whole world.

<comment><USER8> Or better yet, live in persecution that makes it harder to succeed with manual agricultural labour but easier through crafts and trade, build your culture and religion about literacy and education, and remain a tight ethno-religious group with social pressure (both from within and outside) to inter-marry.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> No info in the article as per my eye on the probable date of launch.

<comment><USER10> "Early in 2019" according to [1].

[1][https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-rideshare- commerci...](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-rideshare-commercial- lunar-lander-2019/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> wtf people are looking on the moon, beside some pride?

</comment><comment><USER8> Strange mission purpose: all you have to do to get motivated for a STEM career is to open yad2 and check out Tel Aviv rent rates.</comment>