Let's Celebrate Google's Biggest Failures - <AUTHOR> http://searchengineland.com/lets-celebrate-googles-biggest-failures-48165 <comment><USER2> Wave, Jaiku, Dodgeball, Answers, Buzz... there is a common theme here. Google is a company run by engineers and their hiring process is designed to find people who can solve problems. It's been said before, but Google is great at panda tasks and horrible at lobster traps. [1]

The successful Google projects are ones that typically solve a serious technical challenge in an elegant way. Sure there were map sites and email services before Google Maps and Gmail, but Google redesigned them to work elegantly so you could save yourself time and effort compared to the other services. The same goes for web search, scholar search, product search, image search, web-based office apps, and application hosting services. Google didn't create these services, they just did them right.

However, building a site like Twitter or FourSquare, there's no real "problem" per se. It's more about community, and that's something that Google just doesn't do well because it's in direct contradiction to their entire mission statement.

Google is great at enabling people to accomplish things. They fail at allowing people to do nothing.

[1] [http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/pandas-and-lobsters-why- goog...](http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/pandas-and-lobsters-why-google- cannot-build-s)

</comment><comment><USER3> Their problem I think is that they throw those products over the fence, generate some initial interest, and then they just forget about them ... as if they're good enough.

Those products weren't good enough, and yet they expect them to succeed without incremental improvements?

How hard was for them to do what Twitter did? Now of course it's too late.

Also ... one reason Google Video failed was because the approval for uploaded videos could have taken weeks, while on Youtube it was near instant. Youtube also has a consumer facing design ... they should realize that the guidelines working for their search engine cannot work for consumer-facing services popular amongst teenagers.

<comment><USER4> I think that is related to their engineering culture. "The product is done when the code is done" instead of "The code is the first step to making a product."

Technical founders should take note of that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a product manager, I'm not sure how I feel about doing SO much testing by throwing code out at people and seeing what sticks to the wall. If feels like a hammer problem ("All I've got at Google are a bunch of engineers, so if I need to see what the market wants, I'll throw engineers at it.").

However (also from the product management perspective), it is always impressive to see a company that effectively kills products. So many companies hold onto lagging products because they are afraid of the negative impacts of killing a product without ever doing the analysis of the negative impacts of keeping the product.

<comment><USER5> i was thinking about the same thing. killing project is extremely tough, although many underestimate this. So I am very impressed on how effectively google does this.

another thing here is money. google is a public company that has to make money. most of these companies they kinda lost (4sqr, twtr, you name it) yet have to prove they really have business model, by making say 1% of what google makes. and its never late for buyback as google is one of most active buyers in SV MA market

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I find it interesting how the attitude is different when a web startup fails and Google fails.

I keep reading here how startups must try out as many different ideas as possible: try an idea, fail early, learn from your mistakes, move on to the next one. It's a normal process. Google, on the other hand, is not allowed to fail. A failed Google project is somehow a "problem".

Google is essentially a huge startup farm. Why is the attitude so different?

<comment><USER7> Wall Street, or more accurately, Google is a public company with shareholders demanding good results consistently. This is a very different game compared to a startup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Google Notebook was actually a good product. I still don't understand why they decided to kill it.

<comment><USER9> Almost certainly it was a matter of traction. This is, after all, one of the main arguments for open source and owning your own code: You can run it as long as you want it, independently of market pressures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> There is a lot to learn; may be more for Google itself than anybody else.

I didn't like the post title, though. Celebrate others' failures?

<comment><USER11> The title is a reference by Google about how they "celebrate" their own failures by calling them out both publicly and internally. Not meant to be mean-spirited / schadenfreude-esque.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> lively!

</comment><comment><USER13> They're just as incompetent as everyone else then, not some sort of angel gods!

I suppose however that the article illustrates a very good approach. Trial and error. Some things will fail, some will work, you do not know until you try and a company so big like google can afford to try. As the article makes it clear there have been plenty - well I can only think of google maps and ok maybe Android whatever that is - successful products.

They really should however focus on their core business which is search and advertising.

<comment><USER14> The core of IBM's business in the late 1970s was mainframes for large businesses. Should they have stayed focused on that, and not on the consumer PC market, or services today?

<comment><USER15> Their original business was typewriters and tabulating equipment. They should have stuck with that :)

<comment><USER16> The typewriter business was an acquisition! (Electromatic was the name of the previously independent typewriter company.) Time clocks and scales were the other original lines besides tabulating.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Blogging With Jekyll, Git and a VPS - <AUTHOR> http://bjorkoy.com/2010/05/blogging-with-jekyll-git-and-slicehost/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bjorkoy+%28Bjorkoy.com%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment> olav- Wow, Hacker News, I'm so proud. :) The post is short on details, so feel free to contact me if you're actually doing this and run into problems.</comment>


Berkshire Hathaway Lost $49.7B in First Quarter Stung by Coronavirus - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett.html <comment><USER3> It's worth re-reading Buffett's 2019 annual letter ([https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2019ltr.pdf](https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2019ltr.pdf) ; first page especially) in this context, as he was already warning against over-reading oscillations in the value of their owned assets.

Now, it would be certainly interesting to know if Berkshire Hathaway would deem this movement to be "other than temporary", and to look at the magnitude of their writedown if so. But remember that they take a very long view - <USER2> anything, we might see them to start deploying assets soon to buy up more temporarily-devalued-but-financially-sound businesses to add to their portfolio.

<comment><USER4> They cannot writedown, those are unrealized loss for stocks they own.</comment></comment>


Ask: Are US companies willing to hire engineers from Mexico with TN visas? - <AUTHOR>

My colleague (from Mexico) and here on a TN visa says the majority of good engineers from Mexico would want to come to the US to work. According to what I've read, a TN visa is much like an H1B from an employer standpoint. <comment><USER2> A TN visa is better for the employer than an H1B. There's no application process, you simply show up at the border with your credentials, an offer letter, a letter of support, and $50 USD. It's not nearly as onerous as an H1B.

That said, a TN visa is worse for you as an employee. You are directly tied to your employer, and must leave the country as soon as you no longer work for the employer. It cannot be transferred, must be renewed every 3 years by exiting and reentering the country, and has no route to a green card.

Personally, as a Canadian engineer, I prefer TN visas since I have no desire to obtain US residency or a green card. My Canadian friends that are down in the Bay Area have been trying to get a green card for nearly 7 years now.

I didn't know that Mexicans were eligible for the visa though? I mean, I know it's tied to NAFTA, but the US & Canada like to exclude Mexico from a lot of those things.

<comment><USER3> I'm also a Canadian working in the US on a TN1 visa. Mexicans can work in the US on a TN2 visa but my understanding is that it's harder to apply for than a TN1. As a Canadian you don't need to do the border crossing to renew your TN. The mail in process is more expensive and takes about 2 months. I'd guess the TN2 process is more like this option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm working in Mexico with US customers, and the mayor point to work for the US market is better profit the salary goes higher that local market with any problem.

I think the US needs more engineers and the actual US schools can't provide enough students also look talent outside is a good way to expand.</comment>


Physics and the Demiurge – The Creator is not Omnipotent - <AUTHOR> http://www.bencollier.info/content/physics-and-demiurge-creator-not-omnipotent <comment><USER2> I had the pleasure of attending a lecture last year given by Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J.[1], held at the Catholic Student Center next door to Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.

The lecture was a shortened presentation of the ideas explained in his recent book _New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy_ [2].

Fr. Spitzer has recorded a number of videos presenting the same or related ideas, which are freely available online[3].

For background on the "Abrahamic" concepts, from a Christian perspective, there is a fine article[4] in the old Catholic Encyclopedia. As it was authored circa 1913, it doesn't take into consideration developments in modern physical cosmology or quantum mechanics, but is still a good resource.

A friend of mine told me about another author, Wolfgang Smith[5], who holds that the conundrums involved in quantum mechanics are owing to "Cartesian hangups", and goes on to argue that an ontology and metaphysics grounded in Aristotle provide a kind of solution. He published a book[6] to promote those ideas, but I've not read it myself so can't comment further.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spitzer_(priest)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spitzer_\(priest\))

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/New-Proofs-Existence-God- Contributions...](http://www.amazon.com/New-Proofs-Existence-God- Contributions/dp/0802863833/)

[3] [http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/spitzer_videos.html](http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/spitzer_videos.html)

[4] [http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Creation](http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Creation)

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

[6] [http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Enigma-Finding-Hidden- Key/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Enigma-Finding-Hidden- Key/dp/089385042X)

</comment><comment><USER3> If you imagined it like a server - you have a huge amount of loading power on the server and don't need compression there because its not needed. However, if that server is to distribute information to lower powered entities (laptops, phones and other web-enabled devices) it would need compression to ease loading on those entities.....

Perhaps the "server" is omnipotent but hands out our reality compressed so that we can at least begin to grasp it....?

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm not entirely sure the wave function _does_ collapse; any Many Worlders on HN?

</comment><comment><USER5> I do have to concede on this.</comment>


A contender for the most effective development program in history - <AUTHOR> http://chrisblattman.com/2015/09/24/is-this-the-most-effective-development-program-in-history/ <comment><USER2> The program sounds great, but, in order to call it the most effective program, it would be nice if he compared it to other projects.

How much does building a well in a village give in return? How much did this program actually give in return? While it spawned more companies than not giving out money, do these additional companies produce more wealth, than was spent on the program?

</comment><comment><USER3> It doesn't have to be either-or. There is room to support entrepreneurship programs and direct cash aid to the poorest and antimalarial nets and civil society programs. The one lesson the past century of international development efforts should have taught us is that there is no single silver bullet. A complex web of measures, not all of them spectacularly successful, may not fit in a blog post or a TED talk, but neither does the world and its complexities.

<comment><USER4> The west has given $23T in aid since the 1970s. The bullet isn't even made from water, let alone silver.

One reason, according to William Easterly in his book "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good" it is because the aid tries to meet the goals of the givers, not the recipients.

This kind of scheme is more of the solution Easterly proposes, just give people money and see what they come up with, rather than creating schemes that attempt to implement a solution dreamed up in a nice office or by Bob Geldof shouting "do something"

[1] [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=63...](http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=638)

<comment><USER5> While it's not perfect(hasn't reached the "perpetual utopia" the author describes as the goal), to suggest that all of the foreign aid going into Africa and other developing regions has done "little good" is simply ignorant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't know what a reasonable cash burn rate is for a Nigerian entrepreneur, but is it possible that $50,000 simply lasts three years? I expect not but can someone put my mind at rest?

<comment><AUTHOR> Average monthly salary of middle class Nigerians is ~500-700 USD[0].

0\. [http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/nigerias-middle-class- how...](http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/nigerias-middle-class-how-we-live- and-what-we-want-from-life/12563/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Counterpoint - Ory Okolloh explains why Africa can't entrepreneur itself out of its basic problems [http://qz.com/502149/video-ory-okolloh-explains-why- africa-c...](http://qz.com/502149/video-ory-okolloh-explains-why-africa-cant- entrepreneur-itself-out-of-its-basic-problems/)

</comment><comment><USER8> > But 7000 people earning $7 a day they might not have earned otherwise—that > is something.

That's actually 17 mil per year, or a little less than the original 60 mil after 3 years. So far it's the typical communist economy: pay people to work, based not on their market value but on some other criteria (ideology? a scoring scheme?).

</comment><comment><USER9> Is the math right?

7000 (new jobs) * $7 (salary per day) * 365 (days per year) = $17,885,000

So that's 18 million dollars. You spent 60 million dollars to create jobs that pull in 18 million dollars per year?

That's optimistically assuming those are full time jobs where the worker spends every single day of the year working AND that those jobs would not be created otherwise.

<comment><USER10> The salaries are spent, and the workers accumulate skills, contacts, etc.

The guy is an expert in his field. Do you think he is going to read your comment and think, "Christ, why didn't I think of that?"

<comment><USER11> > Do you think he is going to read your comment and think, "Christ, why didn't > I think of that?"

He should. He's an expert in statistics. And on paper everything is OK, but in reality 99% of this new "companies" are frauds. See my other top level comment.

Part of the reason why socialist bureaucracies always look great on paper, but fail miserably in reality is there are small lies, big lies, and statistics. And bureaucracies care only about statistics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> How can one not see how much bullshit that is?

The very same program in European Union is called "Innovative Economy Programme" (website of it's Poland implementation):

[http://www.poig.2007-2013.gov.pl/english/Strony/Introduction...](http://www.poig.2007-2013.gov.pl/english/Strony/Introduction.aspx)

It was just one huge fraud-fest. You apply for a grant, making something completely useless, but with enough bullshit, that government minion can't tell. You make it "online" (a website), so it's "innovative". Bullshiting the grant is the hardest part - takes time, and creativity to write a good bullshit story. But! there are whole companies that do it for your, with a lot of experience how to bullshit government. Typical examples of projects are: social website for cat owners, something for e-commerce. Essentially just simple PHP websites with fancy names, and jargon to confuse the government.

You get free money ($50k and more), you buy yourself TV, new PC, HD projector, and all the stuff you want. You put it into company expenses, but use to play games in your free time. You hire a CS student to make the actual website for like $1000. You pay yourself a nice salary for "maintenance" and fake statistics of usage. After 5 years, when the government is off your back, you close the "company".

Or you have your normal company, you open a "fake one" with a grant, and suck all the resources into your normal company, keeping the fake company afloat for just couple of years to close it eventually due to lack of profitability.

It's not even hard to cheat like this, as government does not care. They want the stats to look good, so they can pretend like they're "helping the economy". Last thing they want is the stupidity of such program to be exposed. There are other programs: for mothers returning to workforce, for people with disabilities, etc. etc. And there are all just one big transfer of public money to fraudsters.

So yeah, I'm sure in Nigeria it was sooo much different... and it really boosted the economy. Now, back to email conversation with Nigerian prince that wants to share some inheritance with me...

<comment><USER12> Do you have proof that this type of fraud is occurring? We hear this a lot in the United States about our welfare programs. They find one or two "welfare queens"[1] and claim that the whole system is fraudulent. It turns out that while there are some (sometimes spectacular) bad actors, the majority of recipients are not fraudsters.[2]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Taylor) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud)

<comment><USER11> It's different than "welfare fraud", as there are people who really need welfare, while if there was a business that would be profitable without government grant, it would already exist. So grants like this by definition support fraud or otherwise uneconomical businesses.

Here, have an example, check-out famous: "the world of cats": [http://swiatkotow.pl/](http://swiatkotow.pl/) (see UE logo at the bottom) .

Government page about the grant: [http://www.web.gov.pl/bazy- wiedzy/4_32_135_1353_swiat-kotow-...](http://www.web.gov.pl/bazy- wiedzy/4_32_135_1353_swiat-kotow-platforma-e-uslug-dla-hodowcow-i-wlascicieli- kotow.html) . Total UE grant: 790 600,00 PLN ($210k) .

I was talking personally with people who had projects using this scheme. I know countless examples. There were whole web pages tracking the stupidest and most daring grants.

Obviously, I don't have a proof about Nigerian program, but my Nigerian prince suggests that Nigerians are as clever (if not more) as Polish people, and it will work just as "well".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> That makes Ayn Rand and her followers sad. I for one think it's great if all that is reported is true. Some places in the world need that extra nudge to help them on the right economic track.</comment>


Ask HN: What code-editor do you use? - <AUTHOR>

I have been using Coda for a while and like it but it has its limitations. Just curious what editor is popular among coders today.<p>Extra credit if you also tell me your favorite language. <comment> Sean-Der I used Vim for a really long time, but then got a job at a company that uses Emacs + Slime really saw the light.

Emacs is an amazing program, but really is awful without EVIL/Paredit. I don't really like the commands chaining and actually find it hurts my wrists after a day in Emacs mode. If anyone has any advice on how to maximize emacs I would love to hear them!

<comment><USER2> Please don't ignore wrist pain. If your behavior doesn't change the pain will not get better and can get much worse.

When I used a traditional keyboard layout. I bound the key immediately to the left and right of space as control. Similar to the space-cadet keyboard: [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space- cad...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-cadet.jpg)

This allows you to use the relatively strong thumbs to activate the commonly used ctrl key. I now use a Kinesis advantage pro which similarly allows the thumbs to activate many commonly used keys.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Emacs.

Tried it years ago and absolutely hated it, then last year I saw a screenshot of someone's org-mode setup and thought I'd give it another go. Since then it's become my main editor for coding, project organization, diet tracking and more.

</comment><comment><USER4> I used Emacs for 11 years, but gave it up in 2004 for wily/acme-sac/acme. Now I use Acme (running in hosted Inferno) to edit all text files, mostly shell scripts and notes. My favorite shell dialect is Inferno's sh. My favorite text stream editor is sed (because I can use it in scripts), followed by the sam- like Edit command in Acme.

I have many favorite languages for different tasks, because I don't try to make one language do everything, and it takes less time and effort to make a language do things for which it was designed.

My favorite functional language is Haskell, my favorite systems language is Go (I should do more Limbo programming in Inferno), and my favorite object- oriented language is Ruby.

My favorite production-dependency-management language is my own build tool credo, followed by Plan 9's mk.

My favorite document language is UTF-8, followed by LaTeX if I actually have to make it look pretty.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not ashamed to admit I spend most of my coding time with Notepad++ — I suppose I'm not a "real" programmer. I think I'll most likely switch to Sublime Text eventually though, if nothing else because of its cross OS compatibility; I just have to find some time to test if everything I use on npp is there on Sublime Text aswell.

<comment><USER6> I made the switch from Notepad++ to Sublime Text recently. Sublime Text feels quite a bit more polished and was easier to get it setup to fit my needs. Definitely recommend giving it a try.

<comment><USER5> Out of curiosity: is there anything you miss from npp? Any critical feature that isn't there in Sublime Text?

<comment><USER6> Sorry for the late response. I cant recall anything that I missed from NotePad++. Once I was all set up in ST2 (which was super quick thanks to the package installer), everything felt the similar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I mostly do ASP.NET MVC development, so I use Visual Studio 2010 + 2012 with a bunch of plugins daily. I also bought a bunch of other IDE's on JetBrains' end of of the world sale including Intellij Idea, WebStorm, RubyMine and PyCharm. I have found they are a lot slower than VS 2012. I haven't worked with Eclipse/Netbeans in over a year. Other than that I usually use Notepad++ daily and I really like SublimeText - I've used it on trial, but haven't bought a license yet. I also use Microsoft Management Studio for T-SQL, otherwise one of the aforementioned text editors. A couple of months ago I was hacking away on Ubuntu and found Geany - which is actually pretty good for what you pay for (free). CodeBlocks on windows is not bad either. It might be a good idea to specify language of choice with preferred IDE if that's what you're after :)

<comment><USER8> "I also bought a bunch of other IDE's on JetBrains' end of of the world sale including Intellij Idea, WebStorm, RubyMine and PyCharm"...RubyMine and PyCharm are IntelliJ plugins, check them out before dropping $$ on the license upgrade.

<comment><USER7> Will do, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm using Aptana, a PHP centric variation of Eclipse.

It's great at matching parenthesis, braces and brckets, provides popup tips on commands and functions (including defined) as you code, can customize syntax highlighting, does some proactive error checking and the file manager is good. Doesn't do upload well.

Used to use Quanta Plus - what I miss from that was the better speed, drag and drop tags (drop an image from your tree into your source - instant img tag.) Better PHP example popups, easier color tag editing, nice preview/WYSIWYG editor pane and decent printout (aptana printing is formatted lousy, and sublime is literally non-existent) And better file transport (pre KDE 4)

</comment><comment><USER8> IntelliJ, for almost everything...best $50 I ever spent. Seriously, Java, PHP and even my first Rails project. Missing my favorite MVC framework(CI) for PHP though.

Wait for the sale.

<comment><USER10> Are you anticipating a sale soon? I've been eyeing IntelliJ IDEA for a while, but only expect to use it for hobby projects so I'm having a problem justifying the full cost. I do need some of the features in the Ultimate edition to make it worthwhile, too.

<comment><USER8> Unfortunately I can't gauge that at all. They don't pre-announce, I got my license of IntelliJ last December...I discovered the news here. I think they have a twitter acct which you can subscribe to, and they mention sales on that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Try using Sublime Text. It has really grown with time and the new 3.0 version has a lot of awesome features.. <http://www.sublimetext.com/>

The best part about sublime text are the small add ons. Also, if you know Python, you can write your own add ons right in the editor console itself.

Favourite Language: C but by profession am a web developer so I mostly deal with JS, CSS3, PHP etc.

</comment><comment><USER12> I just converted to Sublime Text 2, using the "Vintage Mode" VI keybindings. I'm still missing a few things, but the "Vintage Ex" package and a handful of custom key overrides have gotten me pretty close to an ideal VI environment. Sublime Text is extremely customizable.

My favorite language is C, but I'm doing mainly web front-end work now.

</comment><comment><USER13> Emacs for everything. I am yet to find a more efficient editor. I guess the same can be be said if you're a seasoned Vim user.

I used Sublime a little recently for some HTML and CSS. It may be a better choice for some HTML and CSS, in some or most cases.

Favourite languages: Used to be C but now Ruby, as paradoxical as that sounds.

</comment><comment><USER14> Textwrangler and vim. I'm looking to move to sublime eventually, but my needs aren't overly complex and I'd rather not spend the effort switching at the moment.

I waste maybe 1-5% of my time on inefficiencies regarding my editor. It's a low priority decision to me.

</comment><comment><USER15> C#: Visual Studio 2012, obviously. Java: Eclipse Everything else: Sublime Text 2. Super powerful, customisable, a lot of packages, relatively quick learning curve. What's not to like!

Favourite language...either Javascript or C# at the moment. Not even kidding.

</comment><comment><USER16> Vim exclusively for HTML/CSS/JS/PHP and learning Python.

Eclipse + Flash Builder for the occasional AS3.

Eclipse for toying with Android dev.

I went Dreamweaver 3 -> BBEdit -> TextMate -> Vim. I. Can't. Look. Back.

</comment><comment><USER17> PyCharm and WebStorm for python and javascript/coffeescript respectively, matlab IDE for matlab, Visual Studio for the one C++ library i sometimes have to touch, Sublime text for just about everything else.

</comment><comment><USER18> I use Sublime Text 2 with Vim bindings (Vintage mode) enabled. I use this at work to write PHP and Go. My favorite language is Golang.

I also routinely use Vim on the server and my local machine.

</comment><comment><USER19> Java, C++ : eclipse

python, javascript, LaTeX : Geany in linux, notepad++ in windows.

I also use gedit to quickly edit files sometimes, but Geany has a lot of extra IDE like stuff.

</comment><comment><USER20> I use vim, TextMate, gedit, Visual Studio, or Eclipse depending on the operating system and language I'm working with.

My favorite language is C#.

</comment><comment><USER21> Vim in the terminal (along with tmux). Been using vim since about 1980. Favorite language currently is ruby, earlier it was C.

</comment><comment><USER22> Netbeans for all java , javascript and J2EE. I had tried EMACS for Clojure but switched to Eclipse with CCW.

</comment><comment><USER23> I've been using Eclipse, Aptana, RubyMine, Espresso, TextWrangler, Notepad++

Now I only use: Vim + Sublime

</comment><comment><USER24> I've spent years with vim but recently started making the migration to Sublime Text

</comment><comment><USER25> On Mac OS: TextWrangler, Xcode, Eclipse On Windows: Notepad++, Eclipse

</comment><comment><USER26> Gedit. Surprisingly good with the right plugins.

</comment><comment><USER27> NetBeans for JavaScript, Eclipse for Java

</comment><comment><USER28> IntelliJ IDEA and Sublime Text

</comment><comment><USER29> Sublime Text 2

Python

</comment><comment><USER30> PyCharm, so Phyton :)

</comment><comment><USER31> vim for coding and eclipse for refactoring

</comment><comment><USER32> vi,vim,gedit

</comment><comment><USER33> espresso

</comment><comment><USER34> MacVim, TextWrangler, Xcode on Mac at home.

N++, IntelliJ and Eclipse on Windows and gedit, gvim on Linux at office.

Favourite language: Python (which I am learning). BTW I work with Java and C/C++(little) on Android platform.</comment>


Lodash - Drop-in replacement for Underscore.js with upto 8x perf improvements - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/bestiejs/lodash

<comment><USER2> awesome. anyone who has had the time to dig into the source want to elaborate on this?:

" Lo-Dash's performance is gained by avoiding native methods, instead opting for simplified non-ES5 compliant methods optimized for common usage, and by leveraging function compilation to reduce the number of overall function calls. "

also, any chance of contributing the improvements back to underscore or is this different enough that that's not a possibility?

<comment><USER3> @stephenhandley The readme has a link to a screencast that explains it a bit more.

<comment><USER2> oh awesome will check that thanks @jdd</comment></comment></comment>


New Facebook Redesign - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/facebook/status/1123322299418124289 <comment><USER2> Facebook announcing a focus on privacy in public while also asking for users email passwords on sign up is why I have little faith in anything they say or do.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Even if Facebook was the most trustworthy tech company on the planet, asking people for their passwords from another service would still be a _terrible_ precedent to set.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's based on React, Relay & GraphQL but will PHP still power the back-end?</comment>


The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed Is Good (To a point) - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/201935?from=rss <comment><USER4> What Gordon Gekko actually said:

 _The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA._

<comment><USER5> And remember that Gordon Gekko was Oliver Stone's foil for Carl Fox (the father of the main character) who was meant to embody the evil of the 80s takeover era. This speech was based on a University of California speech given by Ivan Boesky, in which he said: "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."

<comment><USER4> Gekko was the embodiment of capitalism itself and therefore _amoral_ , not evil.

 _The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!_

<comment><USER5> I disagree. There is a huge difference between insider trading and buying a company to sell off pieces of it and make the remainder more efficient through reorganization, even if the reorganization includes layoffs. In the former case, you are abusing your access to information that others do not have in order to make a profit at their expense, and this is why it is illegal. In the latter case, you are making a positive contribution to the wealth of the stockholders of a company, even though this might cause hardship to some of the employees who will have salary/benefits cut or even lose their jobs. Gekko embodies both of these behaviors (as did some of the participants in 80s takeovers), but I don't believe that insider trading properly represents capitalism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A good piece. I have a serious question for people smarter than me about the following:

\--

"Then there was the 1997 East Asian crisis, during the depths of which Paul Krugman wrote in a Fortune cover essay, "Never in the course of economic events—not even in the early years of the Depression—has so large a part of the world economy experienced so devastating a fall from grace." He went on to argue that if Asian countries did not adopt his radical strategy—currency controls—"we could be looking at the kind of slump that 60 years ago devastated societies, destabilized governments, and eventually led to war." Only one Asian country instituted currency controls, and partial ones at that. All rebounded within two years."

\--

How'd Krugman ever get accepted as an economist? He seems to be a massive doomcrier who is consistently wrong, and uses a lot of anecdotes and very few hard numbers. Which works great for Gladwell, but not so good for economics (heck, I dropped economics as my major because I didn't want to deal with econometrics - but I still have a healthy respect for it).

There's some tremendously intelligent economists that I disagree with their overall message, but very much respect their contributions. If you take the time to read and decipher Marx, Gramasci, and Keynes, they said some really brilliant things. Very, very smart people.

But Krugman? The guy seems totally bankrupt. And I've tried to read his stuff, and I keep seeing anecdotes, doomcrying, and him just being provably wrong often without being verifiably correct ever. Can someone point me to some smart reading material of his, not babysitter scrip anecdote nonsense? I'd like to learn from the guy if he has made some good contributions, or get to the bottom of why he gets respect if not. Always been curious about this one.

<comment><USER7> there is a selection effect going on in the higher levels of economic analysis whereby those who tell politicians the narratives they need to justify power grabbing are the ones promoted into the public sphere. most economists will decry such shameless behavior (but who is to say how much of this is jealousy). the other economists you mention are guilty of the same thing. Keynes in particular just bases entire chapters of his General Theory on trivially fallacious theses. Marx isn't even wrong, he's just exploring a world that isn't related to reality (there is no working model of the labor theory of value that makes predictions).

<comment><USER6> > there is a selection effect going on in the higher levels of economic > analysis whereby those who tell politicians the narratives they need to > justify power grabbing are the ones promoted into the public sphere.

That makes sense, good point nazgulnarsil. Thanks.

> Keynes in particular just bases entire chapters of his General Theory on > trivially fallacious theses. Marx isn't even wrong, he's just exploring a > world that isn't related to reality

Definitely true - but both of them made observations that were true and correct, which lends a bit of credibility to their work. Keynes for instance, "workers resist a reduction in monetary wages, [but] it is not their practice to withdraw their labor whenever there is a rise in the price of wage goods" (General Theory, p9). Which is true and correct - laborers don't notice gradual inflation, so governments can use it to lower wages and increase tax revenues under a progressive tax system (wages gradually rise, tax brackets remain fixed, therefore a greater percentage of GDP goes to tax revenues without an official tax increase).

These aren't good reasons to do what he advocates, but Keynes at least has some correct observations. Really insightful ones actually, if you listen to people who violently disagree with Keynesian economics, many of them have the utmost respect for him. (Friedman is the first one to come to mind, who always spoke well of Keynes).

But bringing it back around - Krugman... I haven't seen _anything_ intelligent from him, ever. Not a single observation of the way the world works or implication that seems correct. He seems like a two-bit fearmonger, and he doesn't back off when he's proven wrong. I'd like to be wrong though, if there's any admirers of him that have links to good work by him. It doesn't have to be popular economics either - a link to a good academic paper would work too, if there is one. I really cling to a hope that it's not possible for an economist to get mainstream recognition just by partisan sucking up - <USER2> really hope so, as economics has such huge implications for society.

<comment><USER7> Krugman's contributions aren't widely discussed because they are in the realm of quantitative economic analysis. Heavy in math and not prone to simple explanations. Most of quant econ revolves around trying to use mathematical techniques to derive a more accurate model of what's going on with large scale scale economic aggregates (GDP and CPI are the most well known due to the media).

Of course the critique of the entire field is that it is blatant curve fitting, descriptive rather than prescriptive.

P.S. The nobel prize in economics was not one of the prizes originally enumerated by Alfred Nobel.

<comment><USER8> Krugman was very influential in the development of a theory of international trade not involving perfect competition. Whatever you think about economics in general, it seems to be a pretty clear step towards more closely modeling reality.

<comment><USER7> the problem is that it is impossible to audit said models. unlike real science the social sciences can't isolate variables in order to test predictive power.

<comment><USER9> Like e.g. palaeontology, economists can't do experiments. You must remember that about economy.

I've read a bit too much criticism of economy as a science using the same argument you see from creationists against palaeontology. (That is, assumptions that all researchers are idiots and/or in a conspiracy against the creationists/left wing extremists.)

<comment><USER7> well pure paleontology is abduction is a sense. but the thing about paleontology is that it is based on biology in which we can do experiments.

<comment><USER9> Economy is arguably based on cognitive psychology and game theory. (A bit less strictly, but it should even out with all the lacking environmental parameters in paleontology...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Any exchange between two actors can be in one of four categories:

1) voluntary in-kind exchange ( Christmas presents, buying each other rounds of drinks)

2) coercive in-kind exchange ( corvee, slavery, conscription, bound serfdom)

3) voluntary monetary exchange ( buying food at the super market )

4) coercive monetary exchange ( taxes )

#1 is great, but unfortunately is does not scale. It works very well among family, friends, and small communities, but it quickly breaks down in larger economies.

Of the remainder, #3 seems obviously the superior way to engage in transactions. And #3 is free market capitalism. Capitalism is not good because greed is good. Capitalism is good because it forces greedy people to actual produce something of value and exchange it, rather than just taking it from others.

The financial crisis is not an example of #3 but of #4. The "too big too fail" and "lender of last resort" policies have been in place for decades. They allowed banks to take huge risk, and then when the risks failed, the government uses its coercive powers to tax the public and bail out the financial system, thus encouraging even more risk taking.

</comment><comment><USER7> us free marketers have already lost...capitalism, greed, these are terms invented by anti-free market ideologues. the free market existed before the term capitalism was coined by Marx, what is greed but self-interest? those who pretend to be concerned with something other than their own welfare are in denial at best, and manipulative liars at worst.

If we only ever debate on their terms we can not hope to avoid the stupid Randian take on liberty and markets that dominates most people's thoughts about capitalism.

<comment><USER11> "those who pretend to be concerned with something other than their own welfare are in denial at best, and manipulative liars at worst."

<http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Typical_mind_fallacy>

You are not me.

<comment><USER7> my statement wasn't based on anecdotal evidence.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There's a big problem here. When people like this use the word "capitalism" to mean the massive, ultra-financialized, state corporatist economy we have today, they confuse many into thinking this has something to do with free markets based on voluntary exchange.

So people who are understandably annoyed that Wall Streeters make millions without contributing very much, if anything, are unnecessarily encouraged to support state socialist policies. In reality, it is the lack of free markets which caused such problems in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER13> "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." - <USER3> Smith

</comment><comment><USER14> As Marx summarised it, capitalism is characterised by a pattern of cyclical booms and crashes, generally crashing deeper each time.

He was not, actually, positing that it would eventually collapse but that it may survive its cycles so long as there are enough "willing" people to take the brunt of the crashes and least of the booms at the bottom rungs of society.

Of course, he probably had less of an idea about the resource problems we will be facing in the near- to mid future, complicating capitalism's crash- recovery.

Personally, I think it will take at least two more of these before there is anywhere near enough support for abandoning capitalism.

</comment><comment><USER15> I think Greed seeds and stimulates Passion to some extent.

</comment><comment><USER16> We are self-interested creatures. We are selfish. Evolutionary psychology will go as far as to say that altruism is selfish. The question is, assuming that each for his own self is a natural state of being, is it a good thing?

If we all act for our own interest, then there is competition and I suppose the more adapted will win, which as it happens is the foundation of evolution. So to speak of checking our own moral compass is empty rhetorics because morality as such does not even exist. Only jusgments as to what is right to do for my own interest and what consequences there are.

Therefore, supposing that morality does not exist, the only way to enforce this "moral compass" is by legislation or culture. The culture in such places is greed and perhaps rightly so as if someone makes money, that money will go somewhere surely, hence making more money, etcetera. If the culture is greed therefore, the only way is imposing a code of conduct supervised by some governing body and or imposing legislation and or, there are ups and downs in life, why should we expect the economy to be up always and never go down.

I think the system is fine, I would have liked to see the banks fail to be honest. If they did not do their job properly they should be out of a job. Otherwise we are just feeding an artificial creature which does not adhere to the laws of evolution and by association competition, perhaps to the detriment of us all.</comment>


One Million Stars - <AUTHOR> http://osr.org/oms/ <comment><USER2> How can there be parallax shifts in the "home" position as I rotate the sky?

And then I realized that this is a promotional tool for the Online Star Registry, one of several novel sites which will "name" a star for you in exchange for money.

It is not meant for scientific or educational purposes, so realism need not be foremost.

<comment><USER2> Er, "novelty" not "novel".</comment></comment>


The new dot com bubble is here: it's called online advertising - <AUTHOR> https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-here-its-called-online-advertising/12900091600-2b19da85 <comment> tony-allan Great article! But I am blown away by the quality of this well-designed website.</comment>


mdBook – A utility to create modern online books from Markdown files - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook <comment><USER3> For me the testament as to the quality of this product is to look at the Rust doc ecosystem. Anyone who has read the Rust docs knows how well done the presentation of the material is

Here is one example...

[https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/)

</comment><comment><USER4> So far the biggest missing feature is the export to PDF[1]. With projects like crowbook[2] and Tectonic (TeX engine) oxidation[3] it can be a perfect solution for creating modern documents without the legacy churn.

[1] [https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook/issues/815](https://github.com/rust- lang/mdBook/issues/815)

[2] [https://github.com/lise-henry/crowbook/](https://github.com/lise- henry/crowbook/)

[3] [https://github.com/crlf0710/tectonic/tree/oxidize](https://github.com/crlf0710/tectonic/tree/oxidize)

<comment><USER5> Does this plugin work? [https://crates.io/crates/mdbook- latex](https://crates.io/crates/mdbook-latex)

The features list looks like there's some gaps, but probably worth checking out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I live in a very rural town with poor internet and kept wanting a good way to make an offline ebook from these mdbook sites (to them turn to mobi with calibre for my kindle).

For a while I struggled using a recursive wget on the `print` page and using calibre's `ebook-convert`.

Last week I finally found [mdbook-epub][0] which seems to do a fine job! The standalone binary choked on some codeblocks, but using it as a plugin worked great.

[0]: [https://github.com/Michael-F-Bryan/mdbook- epub/blob/master/R...](https://github.com/Michael-F-Bryan/mdbook- epub/blob/master/README.md)

</comment><comment><USER5> mdbook is one of the tools I have grown to use and love so much. One of the things I love about it is that the toolchain for building and using it is just the Rust standard toolchain, which means no crazy dependency hell to manage. By comparison I've found Jekyll to be a long-term annoyance to keep up-to- date, I'm probably using it wrong. I know.

Anyway, beyond that, it's one of the few Rust tools that I've gotten decent adoption of at work, due to its simple nature.

Just wanted to say nice work to everyone who's contributed to the project.

<comment><USER7> For using it on Win/Mac/Linux you don't even need the Rust standard toolchain; just download the standalone executable. No runtime, no npm, sheer bliss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> From a theoretical perspective, it would be nicer to have a "programming" language for writing modern, online books than to have a Markdown compiler for the same purpose, because Markdown is not a programming language. Markdown has no authoritative definition. It's more like a family of similar HTML macro collections.

<comment><USER9> I recently switched from Markdown to AsciiDoc. It is much better in my opinion. The syntax is similar enough to MD that just having the adoc cheatsheet bookmarked is enough to switch. But it's more structured, much more fully featured, just two big implementations (AsciiDoc and AsciiDoctor) which are largely compatible. There's only one way to mark the language of a code block, only one way to make lists, only one way to make footnotes, etc. Also it actually has first-class support for things like footnotes and admonitions[0] etc.

It is a syntactic sugar layer on the DocBook XML format which is apparently used to make actual books. But AsciiDoctor compiles it to everything from DocBook XML to HTML to Markdown to ePub to PDF.

Another thing I like is that AsciiDoctor actually comes with a good default stylesheet. If you just turn MD into HTML you get ugly garbage and need to figure out how to put CSS into the HTML etc. AsciiDoctor has a good default theme as well as a number of other themes available[1], and by default will embed the CSS into the HTML so you just have one file to distribute. It even shows anchor links to the headings when you hover over them.

[0]: [https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers- guide/#admonit...](https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers- guide/#admonitions)

[1]: this made it easier for me to add the themes, and includes more beyond the ones bundled with adoc: [https://github.com/darshandsoni/asciidoctor- skins](https://github.com/darshandsoni/asciidoctor-skins)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is there any comparison of mdBook to AsciiDoc? It seems the SUMMARY.md page of mdBook is critical to promote markdown effectively into a "book" presentation, something that feels more like on addon specification to markdown that is already handled in asciidoc? What advantage does mdBook give you then?

<comment><USER11> It is sort of comparing apples to oranges. AsciiDoc is a markup language for documentation. mdBook is a tool that uses the Markdown markup language, and adds a bit of structure so that you get something that appears coherent.

> What advantage does mdBook give you then?

If you prefer Markdown to Asciidoc, then mdBook would be a better fit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is it still connecting to Google Fonts?

Open Issue:

Remove Google surveillance #847

[https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook/issues/847](https://github.com/rust- lang/mdBook/issues/847)

<comment><USER11> By default, yes. Anyone can fix that in their books in the meantime by generating the theme and then deleting some lines.

It is tough to get contributors and maintainers of projects like this, and this issue in particular has been bombed by folks who don't even use Rust and are acting like the sky is falling. It's incredibly demotivating.

<comment><USER13> I wish people in general could get used to the idea that not everything is designed with them in mind, and they might not be the intended audience.

If privacy is your number one priority and you absolutely can't have Google "spying" on you, then a lot of software and websites probably just aren't for you.

Instead, they bombard people who are doing great things for free, making them make little changes to please them instead of great changes that could please most people.

I'd be less critical of them if they were submitting PRs instead of just bug reports.

<comment><USER14> >I'd be less critical of them if they were submitting PRs instead of just bug reports.

So, exactly what the author of that issue did on the same day they made the issue.

<comment><USER13> So, they _did_ submit a PR (which is great!), but it wasn't acceptable to the maintainer. Other things were suggested, but none of the PRs met the requirements, and so none were accepted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I use softcover for this:

* [https://github.com/softcover/softcover](https://github.com/softcover/softcover)

One of the things that I like about Softcover is that it will also build .mobi and .epub formats, so I can give developers (via our MDM system) copies of runbooks, and then revoke those copies once they leave our employer.

<comment><USER16> That's a really neat concept, thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is there a link to sample books rendered using this tool? Did I miss it in the README?

<comment><AUTHOR> Right in the beginning of readme! :) [https://github.com/rust- lang/mdBook#what-does-it-look-like](https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook#what- does-it-look-like)

There is also a collection of mdbooks by other people [https://github.com/softprops/awesome- mdbook](https://github.com/softprops/awesome-mdbook)

And a shameless plug, I'm using mdbook to publish my org-mode notes [https://beepb00p.xyz/exobrain/](https://beepb00p.xyz/exobrain/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I've been using mdBook for awhile to keep a personal journal and also separately to keep a work log.

I really like being able to keep notes in Markdown tracked in git and at the same time being able to view and search through those notes in the form of a nice looking web book.

<comment><USER19> That's really interesting, do you mind sharing how you set it up for notes and a work log?

<comment><USER18> I leave it in standard configuration, but fill in Summary.md by adding new content to the top. That way when I open it I see the most recent notes first.

I have a shell script that opens vscode and starts mdbook. For my journal the script also checks to see if there's an entry for today. If there isn't, it will add one to the top of Summary.md, which then creates a new file for me to write in for that day. In the meantime mdbook has opened up the book for me to look at that side.

When I open the book I see what I wrote more recently and can also go back to documents from the past.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> What's my best option if I want to write an online book in this style but from an IPad? It seems like I'm stuck using something like Ulysses and the setting up a tool chain on a VPS or something... anyone have any tips?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure what's Ulysses, but you could probably set a Github action for it? This way it would be rebuilt and deployed on pushing into your git repository (hopefully it's possible to work with git from an ipad?)

[https://github.com/peaceiris/actions- mdbook](https://github.com/peaceiris/actions-mdbook)

<comment><USER21> It is possible to work with git from an iPad. I've set up a similar workflow (not for mdBook but for gitbook) a long time ago. I used Working Copy and Textastic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This looks really nice on mobile and the default typography is great. I've been looking for something like this for a while to publish a few short non- technical books I've been working on.

I'll definitely give it a try!

</comment><comment><USER23> Are there any plans to add more interactive features, or is the expected use more static? e.g.

      - <USER2>
      - Variants (like language selection)

If it already has these, awesome!

</comment><comment><USER24> ack, no. online websites, files and webpages. going by the strict definition of a book none of those online things are books though.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Create book from markdown files. Like Gitbook but implemented in Rust"

Now that's one hell of a good reason to use it. It's reimplements existing functionality in Rust!

<comment><AUTHOR> Perhaps the readme should emphasise it, but the gitbook public repository was abandoned by the company who open sourced it.

<comment><USER11> I actually did not know this until this comment.

mdbook was originally created because we liked the UX of gitbook, but didn't want to introduce a Node dependency into building Rust.

<comment><USER25> That would certainly be useful information to provide in the readme. I'd never heard of gitbook or mdbook before this.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Turning the Nintendo Switch into Android's Best Gaming Hardware - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08/android-on-the-nintendo-switch-a-hardware-hacking-extravaganza/ <comment><USER2> I installed Ubuntu on the Switch using some of these methods.

The best part is that one MicroSD card can store Nintendo games and another MicroSD card can store a complete Ubuntu install. Switching between Ubuntu and the native Nintendo OS just requires a card swap and reboot.

Ubuntu even works in docked mode with a monitor and peripherals, so this hack adds the capabilities of an entire GNU/Linux computer to the console.

</comment><comment><USER3> This only works on units manufactured before Nintendo fixed some of the SoC vulnerabilities. Finding older unpatched units is becoming increasingly difficult.

<comment><USER4> If one happens to have an ipatched Switch with firmware 4.1.0 or lower, it's exploitable. I haven't looked into it much, but running Android on it then might be possible.</comment></comment>


India Passes Japan To Become Third Largest Global Smartphone Market - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/26/india-third-in-smartphone-world/

<comment><USER2> I have visited the article in hopes of finding two data points:

\- How big is the Japan smartphone market broken down to person and in total units and value?

\- What's the difference of India/Japan per person?

ps. Found none, just relative percentages that I can't make much sense of without knowing the volumes :(</comment>


Ask HN: Basilisks and AI Development? - <AUTHOR> It's becoming clear that "deep learning" and all the other modern AI techniques won't live up to their hype. That means the question becomes "Why does anyone continue to invest in AI?" My question is: Is Big Tech trying to create Roko's Basilisk to avoid being retroactively punished for not helping bring about Roko's Basilisk? <comment><USER2> _It 's becoming clear that "deep learning" and all the other modern AI techniques won't live up to their hype._

How so? I don't see DL failing to live up to anything said about it by actual Deep Learning researchers. If anything, DL has been a stunning success. And I say this as somebody who is very much in the Gary Marcus camp of believing that hybrid systems (that include elements of what we might call GOFAI, like symbolic reasoning, etc.) are going to be required to get to "strong" AI or AGI.

 _That means the question becomes "Why does anyone continue to invest in AI?"_

I've argued this before, but I'll reiterate my position this: we don't _need_ "strong AI" or AGI to do amazing, useful, and valuable things. We continue to invest in AI because it continues to get better and create more value. Same reason you invest in anything, really.

 _Is Big Tech trying to create Roko 's Basilisk ..._

I doubt it. It's not even generally accepted that the argument for Roko's Basilisk is compelling enough to consider the idea a Real Thing. I seriously doubt many (if any) people involved in AI lose even a microsecond of sleep thinking about this.</comment>


Whats lacking in CS Degrees nowadays (Part 1) - <AUTHOR> http://theshyam.com/2009/07/whats-lacking-in-cs-degrees-nowadays-part-1/ <comment><USER2> Ten years of experience?</comment>


Ask HN:  I'm building an API.  Suggestions? - <AUTHOR>

Double edged question:  1)  What is a good way to solicit advice for potential consumers of an API you might be building?  2)  What endpoints should I support?
I'm building an API for FollowUp.cc, a service that lets you forward emails out to email addresses like 2days@, march10th@, etc... and sends you the email back at that time.  At the moment, I'm adding the basics: creating reminders, finding all your reminders, finding old reminders, et al.  I'd like to eventually add new functionality as well, like the "send this email later" feature Boomerang supports.
We're eventually going to have an API contest, but I first wanted to see if anybody out there has any suggestions on interesting features or endpoints to support. <comment><USER2> for help on APIS, go on API Craft Google Group or on APIscene.com</comment>


Show HN: Vacancy.io An easy way for companies to create job pages - <AUTHOR> https://vacancy.io

<comment><USER2> Some unsolicited (and minor) advice:

\- The CTA buttons could use some improvement. I'm hardly an expert on these matters but I imagine "Start finding great candidates" would perform much better than "Company? Sign up". Thankfully, this is fairly trivial to test.

\- Banner nav seems to disappear on mobile.

\- Spellcheck your damn copy! Mispelling your own name (Vacany) is a grave sin.

\- I'm not the target market for such things, but I imagine your value proposition needs to be more extensive than the monthly price. Is there a pricing info page I'm not seeing?

\- I might be alone in this, but "email@example.com" is a much less professional contact address than, say, "firstname.lastname@example.com".

</comment><comment><USER3> I realize it's hard to bootstrap a startup from nothing, but all of the example pages on your site have "There are no open job vacancies at this time" so I'm not getting a good sense of what I'll ultimately see there or what a potential customer might get from you. I'm sure you know this, but your site needs a lot of additional content.</comment>


INFOGRAPHIC: Why JavaScript is the Future of Programming - <AUTHOR> http://www.codeconquest.com/infographic-why-javascript-is-the-future-of-programming/

<comment><AUTHOR> Please share with your friends.

<comment><USER2> There is no need to ask people to share with their friends. If the content is valuable, it will get shared.</comment></comment>


Inside Snapchat's Entertainment Empire - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3051612/innovation-agents/media-tech-and-advertising-to-snapchat-i-aint-afraid-of-no-ghost <comment><USER2> I'm 24 (which is still weird to say) and so solidly in the target demographic and I'm constantly amazed by Snapchat. Both the app and the company. I literally checked out snapchats discover feature for the first time yesterday. I had no idea what to expect and honestly I loved it. I couldn't see that ever being the main way I consume media but it was enjoyable and relevant, so who konws. The ESPN story for example started with Mike Golic just ranting on the ridiculousness of a star player getting ejected from an MLB playoff game for arguing with a ref. I had literally had that exact same conversation with people a couple of hours earlier. This is obviously a huge coincidence but the focus on up todate relevant material is what allows this serendipitous interaction. And this has been my experience with Snapchat since the very beginning. I question why I would ever use a feature up until the point I finally try it and realize, damn this is cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> As someone directly inside Snapchat's apparently largest demographic, I honestly can remember voluntarily watching one of the live stories twice, both times because they were related to my hometown. I've never once touched anything in the Discover section, because to be brutally honest, it's exactly what I try to escape. I'm a college student, and beyond even missing cable TV, I now actively dislike it when it's present in the environment. Maybe all my friends are the outliers in the demographic here, but I strongly doubt that any of them would want to watch the Discover content voluntarily either. Snapchat as an entertainment app is foreign to me--I'm using it to communicate with my friends, not with strangers' experiences. I'm already saturated by that content and traditional television content through other avenues.

</crotchety>

<comment><USER4> I felt the same way. Last night I watched a few pieces of content on discover and actually enjoyed it - one thing I noticed was that a lot of it was quick entertainment and two was timely and useful. For instance they had a 30 second comedy blurb with good ideas for autumn/halloween themed snacks.

I can see quick - cool series based on this that are addictive - the Snapchat quick dinner or quick art project of the day kind of thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This seems interesting. One way forward for Twitter/Periscope would be to build this type of storytelling but also allow you to archive view them in some more permanent fashion. Snapchat is basically becoming TV on your phone. By TV I mean pushed streamed content. Yahoo should do the same.

<comment><USER6> I thought the whole appeal was it's gossamer nature

<comment><USER5> That is one aspect. Another is the real time event/video aspect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The mafia should hire this guy to pump penny stocks.</comment>


Open art collection metadata - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/artsmia/collection

<comment><AUTHOR> I cannot get over that an art museum has examples for parsing their metadata with jq.

      Or maybe you want to use markov chains to make fake
      descriptions of objects in official museum-speak…

        $ find objects -name "*.json" | xargs cat \
          | jq -r '.description, .title, .text' \
          | grep -v '^$' \
          > descriptions.txt
        $ dadadodo -c 1 descriptions.txt

        Black lines of concentric diamonds (beard architectural
        African symbols in the foot; body and black plum
        blossom petals).

</comment><comment><USER2> The Cooper Hewitt (NYC) and Tate (UK) have done this too.

[https://github.com/cooperhewitt/collection](https://github.com/cooperhewitt/collection) [https://github.com/tategallery/collection](https://github.com/tategallery/collection)</comment>


Ask HN: Lab notebooks? - <AUTHOR>

Are lab notebooks worthwhile for scientists? What about computer scientists? What about programmers? Should they be hand written as rice.edu suggests? http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/notebook/notebook_examples.html <comment><USER2> I'm speaking as a programmer and a sysadmin.

Lab notebook as it is may not be that useful, because it gives mostly constrained note fields set. But if we extend it to a notebook with a sheets of paper that are blank, barring possibly a distinguished header field, well, I use one every day.

Sysadmin could use several types of worksheets, with fields and checkboxes designed to aid in particular tasks, but those would be exactly that: sheets, not whole notebooks.</comment>


Eken M001, 7" Android tablet for $100 - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Eken-Android-Google-Tablet-iPad,10274.html

<comment><USER2> Beware. That resolution might mean that the screen was produced for landscape viewing. If that's true, it will be quite horrible to use in portrait. It will show slightly different colors to each of your eyes which will make the screen seem slightly semitransparent and silvery. I have this problem with a Sandisk Sansa mp3 player I have.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good point, I guess the orientation of the subpixels could make things weird.

They show both portrait and landscape mode in the video and it doesn't look like there's a problem though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _Internet and network connectivity is achieved through the device's docking station (Ethernet 10/100 and 802.11b/g)._

No free-range internet? That's disappointing.

<comment><AUTHOR> The WIFI is on-board. Ethernet,usb,etc are supposed to be provided through a docking station (which I haven't seen anywhere). If you view the video included in the article, they mention this as well as point out the WIFI led on the device.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Found a good website that sells all these new tablets/UMPCs/MIDs coming out of China: <http://www.merimobiles.com/Computer_products_s/176.htm>

There are 6 devices with wifi and touchscreens for less than $200.

This website has videos and ifnormation on a lot of new devices: <http://www.shanzai.com/>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> You can buy it for $130 plus free shipping at: [http://www.pandawill.com/mini- ipad-notebook-7-inch-wifi-grav...](http://www.pandawill.com/mini-ipad- notebook-7-inch-wifi-gravity-sensor-white_p35416.html)

It comes with Android 1.6 but there's a comment on the above website saying it can be upgraded. You can also find it for less than $100 on sites like alibaba.com and dhgate.com but you will have to buy more than one unit.

<comment><USER4> Make sure you check out how to import it so that you won't end up paying a large amount of duty if you order stuff like this from abroad.

<comment><AUTHOR> At my current location in Europe, low cost items usually pass through customs without a lot of extra tax, although sometimes it comes down to luck. Should be 20%-25% total if they decide to tax it.

On a sidenote, the seller I linked to is flexible about what price they stick on your package. You don't want to overdo it though, otherwise you might end up paying even more tax than normal.

<comment><USER4> I got slapped with a hefty charge a few weeks ago just because some HN'er sent me a usb stick in the mail (insured). Beware!

<comment><AUTHOR> Tax for just a USB stick sent by a friend? Ouch. I'm curious , what was the origin/destination of the package?

<comment><USER4> Origin USA, destination Netherlands.

<comment><USER2> I don't know about Netherlands, but in Spain you can contest any customs tax. They send you a printed form to fill if you want to contest it in the same envelope where they send you the invoice for the tax. Things can't be very different there.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What's your ideal development setup? - <AUTHOR> Hey Hackers, I'm in a position where I can get any computer/monitor/keyboard/etc... but don't know what is considered the best hardware these days.
For context I'll be writing a lot of Node.js / Golang code while going between the office and home. I'd also like to do typical stuff like browsing HN and watching netflix.
What would you prefer for your development work space? Feel free to include any extras such as desks, chairs, plants, etc... <comment><USER2> If you're going to switch between the office and home you'll probably benefit from a laptop instead of trying to keep 2 machines in sync. If you're a Mac person that would be a MacBook Pro; if not, equivalent hardware running Windows or Linux. Of course make sure it has lots of RAM (at least 16GB) and a large, fast SSD, and at least a 4 core i7 processor.

For your office workstation, you'll probably want:

* Dedicated keyboard: either a mechanical keyboard ([http://lifehacker.com/how-to-choose-the-best-mechanical-keyb...](http://lifehacker.com/how-to-choose-the-best-mechanical-keyboard-and-why-you-511140347)) or a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard ([https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/keyboar...](https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/keyboards/sculpt-ergonomic-desktop/l5v-00001)). Mine is a CM Storm QuickFire TK ([http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-TK-Mechanical/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-TK-Mechanical/dp/B00A378L4C)).

* A wireless mouse of your choice (I usually click on them and get the one with the lowest, less annoying click noise -- My current one is a Logitech M280). Or a touch mouse from Apple or Microsoft if you're into that.

* A large monitor or 3. There's a lot of options and it ultimately comes to personal taste. For working you'll want an IPS panel (not TN). You may want a large 4k monitor, or 2x27" 4k monitors, or perhaps a single 34" monitor to avoid context-switching (like a Dell U3415W that I currently use: [http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=hk&l...](http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=hk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=hkbsd1&sku=210-AEBV)).

* A good headphone for conferences, like the Microsoft LifeChat LX-6000 ([https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/business/lifecha...](https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/business/lifechat-lx-6000-for-business/7xf-00001)).

* You need a chair that can be adjusted, and a desk that is solid enough. You don't necessarily need to spend a crazy amount of money for good results. See [http://lifehacker.com/5409915/top-10-ergonomic-upgrades-for-...](http://lifehacker.com/5409915/top-10-ergonomic-upgrades-for-your-workspace) and [http://lifehacker.com/5755870/how-to-ergonomically-optimize-...](http://lifehacker.com/5755870/how-to-ergonomically-optimize-your-workspace)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is exactly what I was hoping for.

I'll go with your setup because it's pretty much exactly what I had in mind and similar to my previous setup besides the mechanical keyboard and headphones.

Thanks for the very detailed help and providing links!

<comment><USER3> Somebody I work with has 2x27 inch 4k monitors and when they are in 4k mode you can't even read code because the text is so small.

I would recommend getting 2x22 inch monitors. I work better with 22 inch monitors because my eyes don't have to dart around the screen all time time to keep track of things. Different strokes, but I personally think 27 inch monitors for coding is ridiculous and anti-productive.

<comment><USER2> Of course you can always increase the font size. And OS X has better support for 4k than Windows; on Linux it's still pretty bad.

Since I run Linux, this was one of the factors for choosing a 34" display at 3440 x 1440 with a "normal" pixel density of 110 DPI.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


One billion people worldwide stop breathing while they sleep - <AUTHOR> https://mosaicscience.com/story/sleep-apnea-apnoea-snoring-heart-disease-breathing/ <comment><USER2> If you are tired at all during the day, get an at home sleep study as soon as you can. Treatment makes a world of difference.

I wasn't diagnosed until I was older, but I suspect it started mildly in my 20s after a long bout of tonsillitis.

Furthermore, don't take snoring as the only sign of apnea. People assume if you don't snore or struggle then you don't have apnea.

I never snored, I just stopped breathing for whatever reason. I got married and my spouse noticed it. I couldn't believe it.</comment>


My laptop was stolen, I have an IP, now what? - <AUTHOR>

My laptop was stolen and I've been monitoring via remote desktop. They still have not logged any personal information, but I can see them browsing the internet. My remote desktop software gives me their IP address. Is that enough for the police to pin point their location? I tried www.infosniper.net but I only get a zip code, not really a precise location. Any other ideas or should I just wait until they log in to email or Facebook? Time is of the essence. At some point they'll figure out what those pesky "remote desktop activity" notifications mean.<p>Laptop doesn't have a web cam. :( <comment><USER2> Sorry about your laptop man. This guy had a simular problem and was able to resolve it when the robber uploaded some pics. Might be a good read on how he worked with the police.

[http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/31/how-tracking-down-my- sto...](http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/31/how-tracking-down-my-stolen- computer-triggered-a-drug-bust/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think you file a police report and tell them that you have the IP address. They can subpoena necessary information.

</comment><comment><USER4> Find a private investigator that specializes in this. When you find out an exact location, have the private investigator call the police in the area. Try to get pics of the laptop, and pics (ideally identity) of the person if you can in the meantime. Look for patterns in IP addresses to anticipate next moves.

</comment><comment><USER5> There are many stories of this. The more you know the easier it would be. The IP should be enough to locate where the person uses the pc. But check how often the same IP is used for a pattern. You also don't want to send the police, and the person is stealing wifi from a neighbor.

</comment><comment><USER6> Police will likely be clueless.

You might file a civil suit against John Doe for fraud.

Then you might subpoena the ISP to tell you who is using the IP.

Then maybe go the police with the evidence from your civil case.

</comment><comment><USER7> Google the ip, thats how I tracked down a hacker that hacked into my previous work computers. But I think the Google maps location tip by mouseroot is very good.

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe you can sneakily install Prey to make things easier? <http://preyproject.com/>

</comment><comment><USER9> Try and have the stolen computer pull up google maps and pinpoint where it is via gps. or similair

<comment><USER10> Not many computers have GPS capabilities.

<comment><USER11> No, but they do have Wi-Fi and most people's wi-fi access point-based geolocation databases are pretty good. I'd be surprised if it didn't present a reasonably accurate location (assuming the victim could get that info). It's very likely the thief lives in a population-dense area and is near at least one access point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Do you want it back? If you don't then burn it to the ground: shell in, use dd to wipe the disk.

<comment><USER4> I'd put that on a delay if you can so that it gives some time to recover it.

<comment><USER12> If you recover the laptop re-install the software.

I will allow that if you _think_ you can recover it, then tracking your opponent is the best bet.

Maybe put DD on a deadman switch: if you don't check in every X hours _poof_. Now if they discover you can login ... they get a dead piece of hardware for their efforts.

<comment><USER4> Don't know if this interests you, but many years ago I was at a gym, I put the laptop in a locker and later came back and it was gone. Someone must have seen me key in the temp PIN.

I reported what had happened and with a staff member, and so we then went through every locker (I didn't know how it'd help, seemed futile) but as it happened, someone had moved the laptop to another locker. To this day I regret not leaving some note in it, like "Yoohoo, you're now on film" and bustin his ass.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: jumpstart - Energize yourself in 10 minutes. 100% Caffeine Free - <AUTHOR> http://www.getjumpstart.me/

<comment><USER2> A meaningless splash screen and a short list of vague claims leaves me with little idea what I'm looking at and no desire to share my email address.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. Will try and add more clarity.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: A stackexchange site vs. a subreddit, which do you prefer to use? - <AUTHOR> Example: bitcoin.stackexchange.com vs /r/bitcoin <comment><USER2> They serve fairly different purposes, so it highly depends. In general, I find reddit to meme/joke infested (a few subreddits moderate this out, but the vast majority doesn't or doesn't keep up), but it's obviously the more appropriate format for non-questions or questions requiring discussion.

There is a lot to be said for a traditional forum.

</comment><comment><USER3> I prefer a subreddit because stackexchange usually has too many silly rules that attract the "bureaucrats at heart". These people are more about malicious compliance and less about topic at hand.

</comment><comment><USER4> I prefer a newsgroup/Google Group over either of those.</comment>


Ask HN: Best compact news sources outside tech news? - <AUTHOR>

I often lose track of news outside the technology spectrum. What is the single best source of news on the Internet which offers it in a comprehensive, compact, and perhaps even in an aggregated form for all major events around the globe.
After some research, the following are the best bets:
1. Evening Edition: http://evening-edition.com
2. Sub-Reddit World News: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews
3. NYTimes: http://global.nytimes.com
However, I still feel unsatisfied, as these aren't comprehensive enough.
If you have anything to add, please do us geeks a favour, and let us know.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I think this a tough thing to find. "Compact" is dependent really on what you want as news. You are bound to miss somethings as all of the worlds news is too much for any one person to read.

That being said Google News isn't bad. <http://news.google.com/>

It isn't pretty but I wouldn't be surprised if there are better readers out there.

</comment><comment><USER3> Gawker has an uncanny ability to find unusual angles to many major stories, and also finds enough offbeat/entertaining news to provide a mental break from work and HN.

<comment><AUTHOR> Dave Pell's Next Draft is the best place to find interesting news. It's a newsletter: <http://nextdraft.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> <http://hubski.com> is a smogasbord. It depends on who you follow.

Full disclosure: it's mine.</comment>


Ask HN: special email address for startup's accounts? - <AUTHOR>

What email address do you use to sign up for your startup's hosting, registrar, twitter, etc account?<p>Do you use a founder's email, a special email address, or what? <comment><USER2> doesn't really matter - since all of these services allow you to change the e-mail addresss in the future. i'd use whatever is most convenient, probably a general catchall @yourdomain.com</comment>


EU spymasters lobby for change in encryption law - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/08fe566e-679e-11e6-ae5b-a7cc5dd5a28c.html <comment><USER2> Can't seem to get around this paywall at all</comment>