Which feature would Paul Graham most like to change on Hacker News? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Which-feature-would-Paul-Graham-most-like-to-change-on-Hacker-News

<comment><USER2> I know what problem I'd most like to solve: the gradual degradation of comments. But I doubt the answer could be expressed as changing a feature.

<comment><USER3> Stop signups and throw out bad users over time. That _will_ stop the problem.

<comment> mkr-hn Everyone seems to have their own idea of what makes a bad user.

<comment><USER4> Maybe, but I think most people would agree in most cases.

"We're sorry, but our editors have voted to prevent you from commenting in the future. Please don't take this personally. It's not that your comments were bad necessarily, it's just that we didn't think they were a good fit for the community."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Somone asked yesterday if _now_ the doubters see the value of Quora. Well, I'm still firmly on the fence, though why would you post a meta-article (as it were) about Hacker News anywhere other than Hacker News?

Why would you dilute the message that way? I don't get it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm not pg but I would love to have more _regular_ (but not artificially supported) posts by the YC class. Perfect place for insights and just general things about their first hand account of the YC process.

<comment><USER6> I'd personally like it if you could visually see who was part of YC quickly (different colour nick for example).

<comment><USER7> they do this? they are orange.

<comment><USER6> I think I might vaguely remember seeing that once, but I haven't seen it in forever. Just went through a few threads too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I want <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2385002> to work as well.</comment>


Yet Another Critique My Startup: Face Detection & Photo Organization - <AUTHOR>

Hey guys,
We finally, sort of, got our app out the door and launched in the wee hours of the morning.
>>> http://ilovephotos.com
Sadly we sort of went the "Hollywood" launch and "released" at Demofall 2008 last week... when our stuff wasn't finished. I can't count on the hands in one elementary school the number of red bulls and cigarettes (non smoker) that I have consumed in the past week or two. Too many.
Anyway, we've put it out in the wild and I would love to hear any sort of feedback you guys might have on the website and our desktop app. SORRY! but our app is OS X only at the moment. We do have plans to go onto other platforms, but for now the rest of the world is stuck using our online lightweight version of the app, which is a flash app on our website.
It's an app created to make organizing and sharing photos easier. We use facial detection (not recognition, we just find faces, or try too =]) to make tagging your photos faster and more fun. Everything is a "visual tag" rather than just a bit of text. A tag doesn't even need to have text associated with it.
We hope to leverage the data on who is in each photo do do a lot of various things. Slideshows become smarter, the most obvious improvement being with a ken burns type of effect the faces in the photo are the focus rather than getting cut off. We can also observe relationships created by photos, etc... some pretty cool stuff. Sharing becomes easier too because you can simply, in a native drag-drop manner, select some photos and drag in some people to share those with, click a button, and the rest is history.
All you mac users out there, give it a shot! I hope you like it! It's certainly beta, it certainly has some problems, but we think it's in a pretty good place right now :)
Direct download for the lazy is -> http://static.ilovephotos.com/download/iLovePhotos.dmg
P.S. It's all Django on the back end :) Nginx servin' it up. <comment><USER2> Slick website. Video is very well done, one of the best "intro videos" i've seen in awhile. Was that made with Screenflow? Curious. Product seems pretty cool, I wonder can I tag other images, not just faces?

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the complement. Yes the intro video is all Screenflow. Amazing piece of software. You're only limited by your imagination. Working on a few other tutorial videos as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice job man :) I'm working on the same project too. But my focus has been on Recognition more. Detection is a good approach to finding faces in photos (and hence faster queries), but you will understand that if you want to be successful in real world, you HAVE to extend your software to do more amazing thing :) So: 1- Extend your system for Linux and Windows platforms as soon as possible. 2- Start to stretch its capabilities to recognize faces too.

Don't worry. You can get it done.

All The Best , Zentux (<http://zentux.blogspot.com>)

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice product. Now, stop smoking and go off the Red Bull binge so you can get your thinking cap on for the next step. Good work. I think it'll gain some traction.

</comment><comment><USER6> Seems very cool, but the 92% of us that aren't Mac users can't really try it yet. (ok, the Mac % is probably higher on HN, but still ...)

</comment><comment><USER7> Love your home page. Very nicely laid out, clean design. You do a great job of presenting all of the major facts in an easily-digestible format. Also, embedding the video right in the page made it much more attractive for me to click. I'm a Mac user, so I'll have to give it a whirl when I get more time. My initial impression is very positive, though.

</comment><comment><USER8> You have to run with it, picasa 3 beta has face recognition backed into it along with googles money!

<comment><USER3> I don't think Picasa 3 desktop software has face recognition. The new version of picasa Web however does. That seems to be the common misconception between the two product updates that launched at the same time. I'm sure recognition is in the google works for the desktop app though.

<comment><USER8> I have picassa 3 and it has a face recognition tab. use it everyday.

<comment><USER3> Ahh, didn't realize that. Thanks for letting me know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I am always thinking about the idea that one can upload a face image, then you present all the images on the web that have the face on them. Wow, that's a face search engine. Can your technology do this?

</comment><comment><USER10> Make the client in something cross platform - you might want to try Scala, which compiles to Java byte code but suck less - an OSX client is a big turnoff, at least for me.

<comment><USER11> Never used Scala. Qt rocks though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Originally when we were talking about building it on other platforms, Qt was the main consideration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Zuckerburg et al. might be interested in something like this.

<comment><USER13> Seriously, make this into a free facebook app so fb users don't have to manually tag faces.. then sell your desktop app.. PROFIT!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I love the idea, but it didn't recognize that many of the faces in my photos.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, it's not the greatest technology but we're working real hard to improve it and have made great strides already.

One of our biggest interface components is our tagger where you can get through your photos pretty quick adding and manipulating boxes on faces.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> <http://www.riya.com/></comment>


Why government websites suck so much, according to Obama's White House Webmaster - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/957197/why-government-websites-suck-so-much-according-to-obamas-white-house-webmaster/ <comment><AUTHOR> If governments started producing things, even as simple as websites, that had great user experiences and were actually really useful, then that could dramatically change people's perception of government. That, in turn, would lead people to support funding programs that are often deemed "wasteful."

Of course, those who are philosophically opposed to government doing anything will oppose making it useful. Just as efforts to make filing taxes automatic failed.

<comment><USER2> Government, almost by definition, can't do anything effectively.

<comment><USER3> That's patently untrue and quite ridiculous.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> An interesting perusal: [https://www.itdashboard.gov](https://www.itdashboard.gov)</comment>


Back To The Roots - From Used Coffee Grounds to Oyster Mushrooms - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/video/grow-your-own-mushrooms-in-used-coffee-grounds/866C279A-1CFF-41CC-B73A-7798C6761C67.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Link to their site: <http://www.backtotheroots.com/></comment>


Gitlist.io – Get Daily Best Repos and Gits Around the Globe - <AUTHOR> http://gitlist.io <comment><USER2> Nice. Very similar to [https://githunt.io](https://githunt.io)

Btw, I had an issue logging-in with my username after signing up. It wouldn't let me, I had to use my email instead.

Edit: When I submitted a new "git", I found the "Add a new git" input confusing, also, I tried to add a few hashtags, space-separated, but it did not work, it added one big hashtag... I hope this is useful feedback.</comment>


Are open offices actually more effective? - <AUTHOR> http://www.rexsoftware.com/open-offices-actually-effective/ <comment><USER2> Betteridge's Law strikes again!</comment>


GM culture: a problem that cash can't fix? - <AUTHOR> http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKN0134491720090301?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

<comment><USER2> I worked for GM (I was salaried if you care) and I agree that the culture of entitlement that the executives have is deeply bred into them. The people causing the problems are the top 3-4 layers of (mis)management, and in the case of a bankruptcy petition, they'll be the ones handed lavish sums to stay on board.

I think the company can turn around and become not just profitable, but innovative. However, it will take a large bloodbath just to get rid of the deadwood at the top of GM that got GM there.</comment>


Hi, we want to introduce a new kind of "Cloud Storage",please kindly advise - <AUTHOR> ShareCB allow user to keep important files in dashboard format
https://www.sharecb.com/
Our service focus on solving these below.
Complexity of folder: each person organize their folder differently. You have to navigate through others' folders, sub-folders, sub-sub-folders… in order to find a file
Poor display of files/folder: when you look into others' folder you would see a bunch of files/folders
Too many files: people usually save many version of file e.g. V1.0, V1.1, V2.0 Revise_V1 etc.
Our goal is to create a tool that solve all these problems and allow organization to store their find in the format that any given person can understand and follow through
Solutions: You can access your file within 2-click Simple UI
No Folder
Easy and visualized platform
Key Features
Create group ( We call it "sharespace")
Drag-and-Drop file to upload ( The files uploaded call "Activity")
Can add description on file
Can share/comment/reply
Auto send email ( After the activity is created in sharespace, it will automatically send email to people in sharespace. It includes all file,image and text, you can assume that it's same like a usual email that we are using. So, they don't have to create a new email and finish every process in sending and storing file in ShareCB ) <<<<< This feature doesn't finish yet
https://www.sharecb.com/ <comment><USER2> I don't see a pricing page. What's the plan there?

For an alternative, [https://www.zoho.com/docs/](https://www.zoho.com/docs/) provides all of these features as well, I believe. With integrated document/spreadsheet/presentation editor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, thank for your comment

1\. Because our product just finish 2 week ago, so we don't finalize our pricing yet.

2\. Our feature is similar to google drive, zoho-doc, and etc. We accept that for the features, we cannot reach the competitors.

3\. Our product focus on visualization and easy to use, we try to build a good UX/UI that most of people can understand instantly after they come to use at first time. We hope our product can be the best place for sharing important file without messy folder and sub-folder.</comment></comment>


Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't as Bad as This One (Bank runs in Second Life) - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120104351064608025.html

<comment><USER2> So they're aborting the first possible experiment in libertarianism. What a shame, I wanted to see what would happen next.

</comment><comment><USER3> See? Libertarianism works! All those idiots who deposited into non-FDIC banks had their money redistributed to the cleverer, more deserving folks who figured out a way to take advantage of them.</comment>


Suggest HN: Let's have comments for job ads - <AUTHOR>

Many times you see a job ad from a company associated with HN linked on the frontpage or behind. Wouldn't it benefit everyone if you could actually discuss what's linked, just like every other link?
I know some people see the critics here in a hard way but if you take the feedback to you (in some cases), it would probably help you, as a company.
And as a person who is looking for job, it would be worthy and helpful to read about what other people have for experience or thoughts about a company. Happy employee - happy employer
What's your thoughts about this? <comment><USER2> The comments are disabled on those posts because the likelihood of positive discussion about said companies is low.

</comment><comment><USER3> The appropriate way to suggest changes to HN is the feature request link at the bottom of the page.</comment>


LeapSecond – A web site dedicated to precise Time and Frequency - <AUTHOR> http://www.leapsecond.com/ <comment><USER2> Cool, but now I am looking up the cost of a "Kvarz Active Hydrogen master"

When the Apple Watch first came out they made a lot about hoe precise it is. I wonder if that sounds still true, they've kind of dropped it from the marketing.

<comment><USER3> I think a significant portion of that precision came from synchronizing with network time, did it not? Or did it run unusually precise even when disconnected from the network?

<comment><USER4> This _almost_ seemed driven more by a desire to make sure the animated watch faces stay beautifully in sync when customers view the Apple Watches together in stores, which is a pretty cool little trick, that the watch itself is accurate is nearly a side benefit... I recall various Apple exec interviews at the original launch drawing attention to this.

<comment><USER5> You can get accuracy well under 100 ms using ordinary NTP over the public internet, and I assume that since the Apple Watch has GPS that this is also used to synchronize the watches.

All you need is an ordinary crystal oscillator and a GPS receiver, stitch it together with a little software and all your watches in the store are synchronized.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder why phones don't use GPS to sync clocks? Or do they? Hmm...

<comment><USER3> Phones usually just use network time, because the GPS is an expensive component to spin up.

<comment><USER7> Can you explain 'spin up'?

Do you mean that its Power/battery intense?

<comment><USER3> Yup. The GPS drains battery.

<comment><USER8> But when GPS is going for another purpose phones could grab the time. Don't know if they do.

<comment><USER9> Initial GPS signal acquisition is power intensive, but if it is already tracking, then there should be no incremental cost to read the time information.

GPS time tends to be very precise as well. In the NTP world, (simplifying greatly) GPS can serve as a reliable "stratum 0" time source which feeds stratum 1 servers, which go on to feed the rest of the NTP network.

<comment><USER10> Building accurate NTP stratum 0 GPS time source is somewhat nontrivial endeavour. Which explains why most of stratum 1 NTP timeservers (typically GPS based) give wrong time (with error on the order of 500ms).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


TFT-LCD Production Process Explained - <AUTHOR> http://lgdnewsroom.com/products-solutions/next-generation-display/4473

<comment><USER2> I became suspicious when TFT was spelled out as Thin Film _Translator_ and sure enough the whole piece turned out to be somewhat mumbo jumbo.

</comment><comment><USER3> Impressive feat.</comment>


Graph Your Inbox - Visualize your Gmail data over time - <AUTHOR> http://www.graphyourinbox.com

<comment><USER2> Pretty cool, three small things: [1] Is it possible to have it on the side of your inbox? [2] Instant version running on every subject in the current email you are reading / writing? [3] Export the graph via email or save as PNG or better an Excel graph?</comment>


It's only a matter of time before a drone takes down a passenger plane - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612656/its-only-a-matter-of-time-before-a-drone-takes-down-a-passenger-plane/ <comment><USER2> > The good news is that the vast majority of people with the necessary > technical skills are not willing to commit mass murder.

This is the key point of the article. The truth is, you could build a drone capable of taking down an aircraft, or delivering explosives, or similarly nefarious thing even 10 years ago.

I looked into AeroQuad around 2009. The site seems to be dead now, but it was a community around building DIY drones. Everything needed to build a fully autonomous, remotely controlled (through mobile networking, so could be operated from anywhere in the world) drone was there already.</comment>


The Bowling Pin strategy - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/

<comment><USER2> I had a friend who used to install peep holes on doors. He would go door to door and try to sell his peep hole installation service.

Usually, he would get 2-3% of the houses he knocked on to buy his services. He would install the peep holes in 15 minutes and be off.

He later managed to get this 2-3% to 20%. What he did was revisited the houses that had refused his offer during the first time - and told them: so and so of your neighbour installed it. Would you want to install it too?

He later on bumped that 20% to an insane 90%! How? Got endorsement letters from the local fire houses. And from the homeowner's association.

The strategy teachers may call this the Bowling Pin strategy. He simply called it "saturating an area." And getting approvals from the influentials.

<comment><USER3> This sounds like a great strategy of using local customer and authoritative references to increase social proof to close sales.

However, the "bowling pin/alley" strategy mentioned in the articles applies in the slightly different context of a disruptive product. A peep hole is not a disruptive product.

<comment><USER4> "This sounds like a great strategy of using local customer and authoritative references to increase social proof to close sales."

Isn't that just what Facebook did? Got one notable school to adopt it, and then used that as social proof of its value to expand?

"A peep hole is not a disruptive product."

It is if you're a door-to-door salesperson. Big difference if people feel they can quietly ignore you after peeping out the hole, versus having to make some sort of contact and then trying to turn you away.

<comment><USER3> > [A peep hole] is [a disruptive product] if you're a door-to-door salesperson

Geoff Moore's theories apply to disruptive or discontinuous products that force _customers_ to make a significant change in behavior. A peep hole may force door-to-door salespeople to make significant changes in behavior, but the customer doesn't make a significant change in behavior. The "disruption" or "discontinuity" refers to the changes in behavior of the consumer.

<comment><USER5> Did you read the post you were responding to? How the consumer changes behavior was clearly explained.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you like this you should read "Crossing the Chasm" and "Inside the Tornado" - they go into greater depths of how to find a niche, how to pivot and how the general market forces work.

<comment><USER3> A summary of Crossing the Chasm (a great book):

* All products are first adopted by Innovators, then Early Adopters, the Early Majority, the Late Majority, and finally Laggards. You may be an Early Adopter in one market (e.g. gadgets) but a Laggard in another (e.g. fashion).

* Disruptive products may do well with Innovators and Early Adopters, but the Early Majority is not willing to deal with a product that they don't understand (because it's not like another product they know).

* Happily, the Early Majority finds out about new products from the Early Adopters. So if you're building a disruptive product, you need to first make a critical mass of Early Adopters willing to recommend you to the Early Majority.

* To do this, he suggests that you make a "whole product" that addresses 100% of the needs of a particular niche (a "bowling pin"). The users in that niche will endure the pains of early-adoption in order to have 100% of their needs met (versus a generalized product that only meets, say, 80% of your needs). You will thus get happy Early Adopters in one niche.

* Then, you add the features you need to create a whole product for the next niche. As you succeed in each niche, you are not only improving your product, but you are collecting customer references in each niche. Eventually, if you have great customer references in a lot of niches, you can "cross the chasm" faced by all disruptive products by having enough overall customer references that the Early Majority will hear about and try your product.

* So, using this approach gives you two advantages. First, you have explicitly considered a bunch of niches and added features to make your product satisfy customer needs deeply. Second, you have a critical mass of customer references to "cross the chasm" to the mass market.

Here is an illustration: [http://faculty.msb.edu/homak/homahelpsite/webhelp/Crossing_t...](http://faculty.msb.edu/homak/homahelpsite/webhelp/Crossing_the_Chasm_- _Bowling_Alley.htm)

<comment><USER7> Thanks for this excellent summary of the book. I'm involved in product development for a company and was taking some of the management claims on face value without really understanding "how" the product is going to sell!!! Shame on me!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> startups that want to disrupt big guys can also use this strategy, find a niche that is overshot by the incumbents, offer them a good enough product, but improve the performance on other dimensions that big guys overlook, then pivot. I think this works for both disruptive product in existing market and new product in new market</comment>


Vegetarians are 'less healthy than meat-eaters', scientists say - workhere-io http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/vegetarians-are-less-healthy-and-have-a-lower-quality-of-life-than-meateaters-scientists-say-9236340.html

<comment><AUTHOR> This study seems to not have been performed as rigorously as you'd expect: [http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/04/04/stud...](http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/04/04/study_finds_vegetarians_have_poorer_health_lower_quality_of_life_108583.html)

To quote the relevant part: "All of the data, including diet information, is self-reported. Thus, we have no idea precisely what vegetarians or the various meat-consuming groups were actually eating. The data is also cross-sectional. "Therefore, no statements can be made whether the poorer health in vegetarians in our study is caused by their dietary habit or if they consume this form of diet due to their poorer health status," the authors admit. Moreover, the study was based in Austria, and the Austrian diet and lifestyle significantly differs from the American diet and lifestyle.

Even if the study wasn't severely limited, it wouldn't be enough to overturn prior evidence. In a 2009 review, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals in the U.S., declared that "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases." More recently, a 2012 review published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, found that vegetarian diets have not shown any adverse effects on health. "

</comment><comment><USER2> I have a hard time drawing the conclusion that eating a vegetarian diet directly decreases quality of life.

        Participants who ate less meat also had poorer health practices, such as avoiding
        attending doctors appointments for preventative check-ups and measures such as
        vaccines, the authors found.

Perhaps this means that vegetarians, on average, overestimate the benefits of vegetarianism, and thus decrease their health by taking fewer vaccines.

</comment><comment><USER3> The conclusion section goes onto to link this to lower-quality of life as well. Still a bit skeptical of the findings... I always see articles regarding this with very differing opinions. Relevant article: [http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:d...](http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088278&representation=PDF)

</comment><comment><USER4> First thing that popped into my mind after diving into the details of the study: correlation does not equal causation. Excuse me while I wheel my fridge to the curb because everyone I've ever known who's had cancer or a heart- attack also has a fridge.

</comment><comment><USER5> Major point: "{vegetarians} appeared to carry elevated risks of cancer, allergies and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety". Maybe its not causal - those things could drive a person to try a different diet.

</comment><comment><USER6> How representative are the Austrians vegetarians of vegetarians in general?

This result seems pretty specific to a region (which is essentially what the study says at the end).

</comment><comment><USER7> Did it factor in the effects on the body of ingesting all the added steroids, antibiotics, and hormones?

</comment><comment><USER8> Another example of poor reporting of a poorly designed study. People will read this and come away thinking a vegetarian diet was shown to be less healthy. Yet the exact same study and data could have been written up as "People with health issues more likely to choose a vegetarian diet" which would invert the implied causal relationship.

<comment><USER6> From the report:

 _Potential limitations of our results are due to the fact that the survey was based on cross-sectional data. Therefore, no statements can be made whether the poorer health in vegetarians in our study is caused by their dietary habit or if they consume this form of diet due to their poorer health status. We cannot state whether a causal relationship exists, but describe ascertained associations. Moreover, we cannot give any information regarding the long-term consequences of consuming a special diet nor concerning mortality rates._</comment></comment>


Please Don't Use These Photos in Your 4th of July Marketing - <AUTHOR> http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ridiculous-july-4th-stock-photography

<comment><USER2> I would use them just because they were different/interesting and would get attention.</comment>


Spare Time Project: HiveSpun.com online art collaboration - <AUTHOR> http://www.hivespun.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Posted a much earlier version of this a while back, made some decent progress on it since then, but still a ways to go. Let me know what you think!</comment>


An Invitation to Applied Category Theory - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.05316 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16676614](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16676614)</comment>


Pixar in a Box – Khan Academy - <AUTHOR> http://pixarinabox.org <comment><USER2> Hey HN! My name is Brit Cruise and I'm the lead content developer on the Khan Academy side of this equation (working alongside Tony DeRose from Pixar...plus a village of others), if you have any specific questions about this project I'll be happy to answer as best I can.

<comment><USER3> Not a comment about this specifically, but I'm a big fan of your other courses on Khan Academy. They changed the way I think about the world. I can't overstate how grateful I am that you created them.

Everyone should check out these lessons:

Journey into cryptography: [https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer- science/crypt...](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer- science/cryptography)

Journey into information theory: [https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer- science/infor...](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer- science/informationtheory)

<comment><USER4> I can't believe you just posted this. I had a 5 hour drive this morning and listened to nearly all the cryptography lectures during it.

<comment><USER5> Hey. Is there a way to extract the audio so I can listen to it from my phone? The links above point to flash content that I can't access on mobile

<comment><USER6> This service is neat: [http://huffduff-video.snarfed.org/](http://huffduff- video.snarfed.org/)

It extracts the audio then "huff-duffs" it; i.e., puts it into an RSS feed you can consume with your podcatcher of choice. Check it out, it's great.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I brought a computer graphics textbook into my high-school math class and asked my teacher if he could help me figure it out. His response was that I needed to pay attention to the current lesson plan, and would need to get through trig, then calculus before we could approach the book.

What's amazing about this video series is that they have actually captured the elements that _can_ be taught to kids of various ages and skill levels. Man how I wish there were a resource like this when I was younger.

<comment><USER8> You are younger than you will be two years from now.

<comment><USER9> Not relevant to what happened to him in high school.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Love this. So important to show kids that there really are applications for the stuff they are learning in math classes, and computer graphics are such a direct way to see that connection. As a kid, I think the main reasons I cared about things like equations of motion or trigonometric functions were because I was using them to do stuff like animate bouncing balls.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think the name "Pixar in a Box" sounds like a neat play on words on the term "Particle in a Box" from quantum mechanics. Sometimes, it's called an "infinite potential well".

So the title appears to come from the suggestion that there'a a well of infinite potential in terms of creative usages of math in computer animation. Or at least that's what I read into it.

</comment><comment><USER12> It's interesting that the Rendering chapter only covers ray tracing, while most classic Pixar movies were actually mainly rendered using the Reyes algorithm, which is a form of rasterization.

<comment><USER13> Isn't Reyes essentially a speed hack [1]? As so, is it particularly relevant to learn about today in introductory material?

[1] by which i mean, inferior estimation of BSDF on/in model, but much much faster.

<comment><USER14> The REYES algorithm is an algorithm that can very quickly produce batches of shading points (with the required information to shade them such as the viewing direction). It's not really a hack and you can still use path tracing (with BSDFs) to correctly shade these points. In fact this is what Pixar did for Monster's University; they used the REYES algorithm to determine shading points visible from the camera and then shaded those using BSDFs and path tracing. The problem with this is that you basically have to store the scene twice: once for rasterization and once for ray tracing.

<comment><USER13> Isn't that complimentary to what I said though? You could presumably get the same result by just path tracing the whole thing, so all you've gained is speed at the cost memory. I didn't mean speed hack in a pejorative way.

I understand why you might want to do this in practice, but it still doesn't seem to be that important to teach as an introduction.

<comment><USER15> The difference between Reyes and path tracing is this:

\- Reyes batches camera-visible geometry into grids of micropolygons and microvoxels. These micro-elements are then shaded using any method you please (which, in the case of Pixar movies since Monsters University, has been raytraced physically based illumination). The micropolygons are projected to the image plane and stochastically sampled, much more akin to traditional rasterization. There is no raytracing for camera-visible geometry, and all projections must be linear.

This style of doing things was to exploit locality in screen space. It assumes that the image can be broken into "buckets", and the information outside the bucket can be destroyed when the bucket is finished. This used to be true when RenderMan was first designed, but now that everybody is raytracing their illumination, it is less of a useful optimization.

This also means that shading happens at discrete times. Usually everything is shaded at the shutter-open instant, so specular highlights will be smeared in an unphysical way, because their motion is not properly correlated with the geometry motion.

I should also point out that Renderman keeps an internal radiosity cache in Reyes mode, which is basically just stored colors of illuminated geometry. This cache is queried by raytracing when computing indirect illumination, and a cache of the whole scene is kept for each bounce. Pixar only uses one or two bounces in Reyes mode due to the heavy memory cost. Note that view-dependent indirect illumination is not possible with this scheme-- Second bounces (and deeper) are always diffuse only. (It is possible to avoid this, but it tends to be slow because Reyes makes all kinds of generally-untrue assumptions about its ability to batch shading which fall apart in second+ bounce shading).

\- Path tracing fires rays for camera-visible geometry. In most path tracers, including RenderMan RIS, each ray hit generates a new shading exec. This means that time-jittering for camera motion blur also trivially produces time- jittered shading, so (among other things) moving specular highlights will be correct, and view-dependent indirect illumination is possible. Because of this live-shading aspect there is no radiosity cache, and so much deeper levels of indirect illumination bounces can be used (compare 8 bounces to Reyes' typical 2, for example).

Also, because camera-visible geometry is raytraced, it is possible to do interesting things like nonlinear projections.

<comment><USER16> All good points. I'd also add:

* Discarding data when finishing a bucket means that you have to produce final-quality pixels before moving on. Path tracing allows the renderer to produce an initial, crude pass over the pixels and then refine from there. This leads to quicker initial feedback and makes interactivity possible.

* Object instancing is much more practical with ray tracing.

* Before hybrid REYES/ray tracing, you'd have to bake out shadow maps and other passes before you could get to the beauty render. Even with ray tracing you might still be baking point clouds for GI. With path tracing you can do it all with one render pass.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wonderful initiative -- wish this was around when I was in school.

Any projects in the works to tie this into Khan Academy's CS offerings? I work at a school which is about to pilot a programming class with 3d animation, but I found the content which you guys have put up to be far more engaging. If there were an accompanying suite where students could code and render an entire scene (especially if some Pixar assets were included!) it would absolutely be incredible and a great resource, and I certainly wouldn't hesitate one second to transition our course into it.

<comment><USER18> I'm Pamela, the programming teacher for KA. We're thinking about adding highly guided coding challenges to the PIAB content in the future, to entice students to go deeper into programming. Alternately, we could add advanced coding challenges that have a higher prereq. We haven't quite figured out the approach yet (and that applies generally to introducing programming to other areas of KA). Feel free to email email@example.com with your thoughts. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It's odd that people in the comments seem to think this is for kids. It surely isn't intended to be for children, right?

Great lessons.

<comment><USER14> I think this is aimed at middle/high school students. It probably can be interesting for adults, but I'd really recommend picking up a book such as Fundamentals of Computer Graphics by Shirley and Marschner [1].

[1] [https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~srm/fcg3/](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~srm/fcg3/)

<comment><USER19> Yeah it seems to be aimed at teens, but this is so far beyond most excellent high school students. They're dropping in terms and concepts which you don't touch on until the final years in an undergrad, with a focus on graphics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Nice! I was just thinking about using CG as an enticement to teach linear algebra. Basically, turn the curriculum upside down: here's how you rotate an object ... a point is a vector .... here's a matrix ...

That's how I learned it.

</comment><comment><USER21> Khan Academy got me through calc III and diff Eq

</comment><comment><USER22> Love Khanacademy, I wish I can bookmark course like this for later viewing, could not figure out how to do that yet. I'm a coach there but like to bookmark course for myself once a while.

<comment><USER23> Start watching some content and it'll appear on your homepage next time you visit :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> FYI the image formatting is off on mobile chrome. [http://imgur.com/0dyvQJP](http://imgur.com/0dyvQJP)</comment>


Guy Just Found a Faster Way to Multiply - <AUTHOR> https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a29514208/faster-way-multiply/ <comment><USER2> _"Harvey picks the example of 314 multiplied by 159"_

Nice way to pick an example :-) I guess his second example would be 271 multiplied by 828.

Paper at [https://hal.archives- ouvertes.fr/hal-02070778/document](https://hal.archives- ouvertes.fr/hal-02070778/document)</comment>


The Grace Hopper Movie: 2015 Production Fund - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-grace-hopper-movie-2015-production-fund <comment><USER2> "...70% of the software we use today, she had a hand in..." Other than the weird grammar syntax, what the hell is that statement supposed to mean?

A Grace Hooper doc would be great, would even make a good biopic, but something about how lazy the Indigogo video was thrown together (I could produce something of similar quality in an afternoon) leads me to expect the worst of the result.

Wouldn't touch this campaign with a ten foot pole. Where is the appeal from the doc makers? Where is the video where they outline all the previous docs they successfully made?

Nope.

<comment><AUTHOR> Aren't they seeking funding to further their research and fill the void in their production skills?</comment></comment>


GrooveShark AMA on Reddit - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/c2udg/iama_grooveshark_developer_ama/

<comment><USER2> The Reddit comment thread has a few insights, but everything seems largely skeptical. What are the legal ramifications, if any, of using Grooveshark?

<comment><USER3> None.

They struck a deal with EMI very early in the game and the other labels followed suit.

Source: [http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200943/4665/Grooves...](http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200943/4665/Grooveshark- and-EMI-join-forces-in-streaming-deal)

<comment><USER4> Where's the source for the other labels doing a deal? The source you linked only talks about EMI, and a cursory glance around the web doesn't find anything to corroborate other labels doing any deals.

<comment><USER5> From the AMA:

        As far as I understand, basically the same way YouTube and
        Vimeo are: DMCA safe harbor laws, plus paying streaming
        royalty boards etc. We're also trying to get direct deals
        with all the majors too, but those negotiations take a looong
        time. It was a couple years just to get EMI signed.

So it looks like they only have an EMI deal right now but other labels are in progress.

<comment><USER4> So the legal ramifications of using GrooveShark are still unknown for the most part, contrary to what iamdave said.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm glad to see such a good service finally start to get all the recognition it deserves. I switched to grooveshark from pandora about a year ago and have not looked back. By far the best music service available.

</comment><comment><USER7> Yes, there are a few of us sharks lurking around here on the interwebs...</comment>


The Thirty-Hour Week (1936) - <AUTHOR> https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1936011700 <comment><USER2> I won't speak for other countries, but in The US leisure and general livability are commodities now, not a part of life. The talk about shorter work weeks feel to me like they're rooted in growing fears that these commodities are pricing out many in the "professionals class." This isn't meant with snark, but it's an uncomfortable conversation for everyone. As we stand today there are plenty of people, fully employed, who don't even have a savings let alone time for leisure. I don't think we working professionals will ever see anything meaningful change in working time until we can have the larger conversation about why we work, why we value it, and who should benefit from it.

<comment><USER3> Nothing will simply come. It will come, when you try and get it. Are you in a union?

<comment><USER4> I'd offer a (friendly) counter point. Trusting in the benevolence of a union is very similar to trusting in the benevolence of your employer to watch your back. Both employers and unions ultimately devolve into parochialism. Both ultimately are interested in preserving their existing power structures and NOT in helping the worker. I'd say that the best way to "try and get it" is to make your skills valuable enough where you have more work offered than you you have time for in the day. At that point, raise prices!

<comment><USER5> "The floggings will continue until morale improves."

Unions brought us the weekend and labor rights. Rugged individualism and hustle did not.

<comment><USER6> Religion brought us the weekend, and ordinary politics ("vote for me because...") brought us labor rights. Unions brought us dues and a bunch of people standing around waiting for an electrician to plug in a power cord.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I love that this topic has been getting attention lately. I'm a huge proponent of the 30 hour week/4 day week.

I've been working on a job board just for this: [https://jobs.30hourjobs.com](https://jobs.30hourjobs.com)

Please let me know what you think!

<comment><USER6> I have verified that yes, 30 hours is acceptable where I work. It's been done, along with 32, and possibly shorter. Most of the benefits are pro-rated, but we'd still cover the health insurance fully. You could still work more and get paid for those extra hours, but the benefits would be according to how many hours you signed up to work.

Examples: If you sign up for 30 hours but work 50 hours, you get 75% benefits and 125% pay. If you sign up for 32 hours but work 38 hours, you get 80% benefits and 95% pay.

The job post in the "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2019)" item today: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20088647](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20088647)

<comment><USER7> Hey souprock, thanks for sharing!

Please do post that job on the above linked job board (it's free)! It should get you at least a few good eyeballs and the community of people who care about the thirty hour week will appreciate it as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Honestly... my company is wasting a lot of money renting out this building for our offices. We could all EASILY be working from home and while I can't say for certain I am fairly confident all of us could get the same amount of work done in half the time. I get 90% of my work done before lunch and the other 10% done the first hour after getting back from lunch...

Personally, if they allowed me to work from home, I believe I would get a heck of a lot more done. Currently I know I have to work roughly 40 hours then as soon as the day is over I forget about work. However, if I was simply expected to get the same work done regardless of my hours I would work a few hours every weekend. I would stay up late when a problem interests me... concepts like this seem to evade employers. If I wasn't more productive (pretty sure I would be) I would at least be just as productive and a heck of a lot more comfortable in life.

<comment><USER9> > Personally, if they allowed me to work from home, I would get a heck of a > lot more done.

I pretty much felt the way you did, until I had kids. Now the problem if I work at home is a toddler who constantly visits the home office with the goal in mind of sitting on dad's lap and watching Peppa Pig on his computer.

I know also a lot of people also psychologically feel more motivated and disciplined having a separate place for work outside the home. (Just look at how many college kids go to the library to study.)

So, I think even in the fully remote world, you'd still have to have an office like solution for a not insignificant percentage of workers.

<comment><USER10> You're absolutely right about needing an office like solution for a lot of people, but that doesn't necessarily mean your organisation's office. Co- working spaces allow you to have an office closer to you, often allow fairly flexible pricing based on your specific needs, and you have choice on which office environment you want. I only hope that it becomes more normal for companies to shrink their central offices and subsidise remote employees using those spaces instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Where I work I get 6 weeks of vacation and 10 floating holidays. It's actually pretty difficult to use up that much vacation if you try to take it in big chunks, and I am sort of averse to travel (because a former job I had required so much that now I am sick of it even for personal "fun"). So now I take almost every Friday off or Monday. If you work it out with holidays you basically work 4 days a week. Since I have been doing this for several years now I have found that I am actually a lot more productive than when I work 5 days a week and take several weeks in a row off. For me, the 4 day work week makes me happier and I get more done.

<comment><USER12> Why did you go with Mon/Fri instead of Wednesday?

<comment><USER13> Everyone goes on about Wednesdays but I honestly find Monday the absolute best day to take off. If you are working on personal projects, it gives you three full days to spin up to top speed.

Fridays just feel like the weekend started a bit early (due to the rhythm of office life I think), and Wednesdays doesn't give you the same runway for personal projects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A lifetime ago (1978) when I got into the Plumbers Union, (as I was teaching myself to be a racer, and future world champion; before I realized I could not learn a new racetrack, and get into a rhythm in 8 laps like say a Senna could --which really was why I walked away from that), we worked 35 Hour weeks. 8am-3:30pm: Plus we had two breaks; morning coffee and a soda at 2pm, and we also usually took 45 minutes for lunch, instead of the unpaid 30 minutes the contract stipulated.

Oh and the Electricians--shit they really lived large: they would barbeque every Friday... and Inside the building in the winter. They could give a fuck less if the job super didn't want then too.

The work got done, and I have to tell you there was no substitute for Union Trades; the apprenticeship programs were second to none and guys gave a shit about the product they produced.

<comment><USER15> I don't think anybody can drive like Senna could. Do you still race from time to time?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> We just need to get back down to the 40 hour week. With time and a half for overtime.

<comment><USER17> My angle is that software developers do not meet the requirements for exempt workers in spirit; namely, creative and self-directed solutions (perhaps distinct from software engineers). Work for a new/rebooted development org could be structured this way. It'd probably look like a deplorable plan on paper to money people.

<comment><USER18> I'm confused. I simply don't work over 40 hours a week (average), don't want to lower my per-hour salary. Increased compensation for overtime would be the only thing to make me work over 40 hours, I think that's fair. Genuine question: why can't you go home early?

<comment><USER19> Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer; everything in this comment is my opinion and/or based on things that I have found on the internet or vaguely remembered from legal notices posted around my workplace. EDIT: Also this is only about things in the USA--I do not know how it works elsewhere.

Short answer: You can't go home early because if you don't put in the time your employer requires of you they can fire you!

Longer answer: The 40 hour work week is set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). All that the FLSA says is that depending on what kind of work you do, your employer may or may not be required to compensate you for overtime. _Your employer is allowed to set your work hour requirements_ , but if you are considered "non-exempt" from the FLSA, then if you work more than 40 hours your employer is required to provide time-and-a-half compensation for the extra hours worked. Many positions in tech are, I think, generally "exempt" from the FLSA's overtime rule (software dev types, at least--I'm less sure about ops/IT services folks) and therefore _employers are not required by law to compensate software developers for overtime_.

The FLSA does not address whether or not an employer _can_ require you to work more or less or exactly 40 hours per week; it's all about what obligations they take on if you are non-exempt and they _do_ require you to work more than 40 hours per week.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> In the context of sharing jobs in the great depression.

There was a shanty town in central park.

Bit like now, in SF?

<comment><USER21> To be fair, even though HN would have you believe SF is the center of the universe, it's an edge case, in many ways. The Great Depression had a far greater impact than just NYC.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> My theory is that 90% of people don't do more than 20 hours worth of work per week anyways. We just all got used to be very inefficient at what we do.

<comment><USER23> I have recently gone down to work 60%.

Yet my output isn't very different from what I used to produce, so your theory seems to match my experience.

<comment><USER24> How did you manage this? I currently work 80%, but I don't see a super-viable pathway to go down to 60%. You work three days a week or what? (Mostly four days a week in my case, with some additional days taken as holiday).

<comment><USER23> I work 5 hours per day, with 4 hours on Fridays. We did it so I can work on a side-project (writing a book) and so our boy don't have too long days at kindergarten.

We do live in a small village where our cost of living is quite low. I also work remotely and keep a fairly good salary comparatively, so it all works out well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> 30 hrs a week was a way to deal with mass unemployment, which the US is not currently facing.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20130327020843/http://eh.net/enc...](https://web.archive.org/web/20130327020843/http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/whaples.work.hours.us)

<comment><USER26> Only if you get less done. I feel that for a lot of jobs we could work 30 hours and get no less done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I think this, with ability to not commute to work would be ideal work time for knowledge workers.

</comment><comment><USER21> What % of the US work force owned personal transportation in 1936?

<comment><USER28> I'm a bit confused - are you saying the debt load has increased because of that transportation? Because I'll be honest with you, next to my mortgage I don't even think about my 10 year old, completely paid off, car.

<comment><USER21> Not addressing debt. Addressing the fact that the work day is far longer when it takes longer to get to work, so a six hour workday comparison from 1936 isn't an apples-to-apples comparison.

<comment><USER28> Are you talking rural or urban environments? By that point in time the streetcar was popular, and public transportation was plentiful. You used to live near to where you worked - cars enabled us to not live close. I can't find any actual statistics, but given the awareness of our commuting times, I think commutes have gotten worse.

<comment><USER29> Back before cars, when, if you didn't live in a very dense metropolis, your commute to work was almost certainly done using an open-air conveyance such as horses or feet or donkey carts?

Yeah, I can't imagine many people would choose a 45 minute each way commute. Not unless they lived in some magical place where temperatures never drop below 15 degrees and rain only falls on weekends.

<comment><USER30> > Back before cars, when, if you didn't live in a very dense metropolis, your > commute to work was almost certainly done using an open-air conveyance such > as horses or feet or donkey carts?

> Yeah, I can't imagine many people would choose a 45 minute each way commute. > Not unless they lived in some magical place where temperatures never drop > below 15 degrees and rain only falls on weekends.

How many people actively choose their commutes today? I know many people who had moved somewhere for a job, bought a house with their spouse, and subsequently changed jobs. Once you start adding things that can tie you to a place (high-school age children, elderly parents to care for, mortgage, etc) it becomes harder to uproot yourself for the sake of one's commute.

<comment><USER31> It's easy to forget how much of an echo chamber HN can be. It seems like everyone here is a single, young, successful city dweller. It's easy to let that totally skew your world view if you don't pay attention to it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


To start a company or join one? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Experience is good. ( _"I still think 23 is a better age than 21."_ )

But the best way to gain experience would be pursuing a startup. ( _"But the best way to get experience if you're 21 is to start a startup. So, paradoxically, if you're too inexperienced to start a startup, what you should do is start one."_ )

So from my view, it isn't so much that there's a bias towards first timers, it's that there _isn't_ a bias _against_ first timers.

[Quotes from Paul's newest: <http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html]>

<comment><USER3> Great point. I told my parents when I was 21, "I could make more money working at McDonald's than what I'm doing right now. The point is, everybody who has a small business or sold a startup, no matter what age they are right now, they started their quest for independence when they were 18, or 25. And, the only way to get experience at anything is to do it."

The great thing about software is how few Americans are doing it. There are many bright programmers in Asia but unfortunately their economies, political barriers, and upbringing preclude them from starting their own businesses. This is even true in places like England and France.

And, of those who are in America or are born in the US, very few even want to start a company, with the amount of money some companies pay (and the catered lunches, and all that jazz.)

So, there are very few of us who understand that it is our duty in life to start our own businesses, figure out the logistics, and then hire all these smart people around the world who deserve to work for great and smart people like us. It is not a choice to create a new startup. It is our duty, because 99% of American programmers are either too content with their life or only dedicate 2 hours a day to creating something (plus have no understanding of what exactly they are trying to accomplish so they give up early), and the other programmers in other countries have no hope of ever starting a business, no matter how good their grades are, or how smart and ambitious they are.

It is our duty to create startups that solve some problem and help people, and give people jobs.

Also, remember that you may think you're getting 100% of the experience working for a startup or running a part-time business, but unless you make it your only source of income, you are not really giving it 100%. This also means you are not receiving 100% of the experience someone else (like a competitor) is getting out of their full-time effort.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> YC seems to mostly invest in founders right out of school - many on their first startup.

I've thought about this route - but I'd guess I'll learn more by working at a successful small startup for a few years first. What does everyone think?

Is there a bias @ YC towards first timers?

<comment><USER3> You ask about founding a startup, joining one, and whether YC cares if you have some startups under your belt.

You have already created a few businesses yourself, at least two of which are active and very likely more profitable right now than most YC companies are at this point. It's very likely that very few founders of YC companies have any business experience what-so-ever.

I think you are way too impressed by what some MIT guys are doing (in general) and should have more confidence in your own abilities. I would suggest to treat life like an adventure and go for whatever startup idea you have as soon as possible.

What would you be your goal? To save up some money? In that case, it would be better to work at a startup than as employee number twelve-hundred. In reality, you should leverage your business experience and customer-relations skills to create your own startup as the next thing you do in life.

I will try to move to San Francisco as soon as I can. I think you (or I) will gain a lot of experience networking with other startups on their own level while in the Silicon Valley, without having to necessarily work for any of them. Remember, as soon as you become employee #5 at one of startups (big or small), you are no longer a co-founder and nobody will see you on the same level.

What are you waiting for?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Create a custom macOS app from a group of websites - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/hkgumbs/multi <comment><USER2> I'm into this. I've wanted to build something like this before, too, but never finished it.

This feels closer to how app building _should_ work. If I have a web app, it _should_ be simple to give it an icon, with notifications.

And if I want to build that, I _shouldn 't_ have to figure out all of XCode. I should be able to just quickly make a webview with native controls.

And I _shouldn 't_ need to download all of electron. An OSX webview should only need a few kb as a standalone app.

<comment><USER3> Please, no. Your application belongs on the web. I can already tell when applications are written with middleware, cross-platform tools, electron, etc. because they _always_ run like trash. They offer no benefit over a website and only open up your machine to new attack vectors. I know I'll catch flack for this, but we shouldn't lower the bar to entry here. Native app development is not significantly more difficult than web and it's drastically better for the end user.

<comment><USER2> It sounds like you didn't read the blog post: [https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi](https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi)

The problem this solves is that web apps don't have (1) cmd-tab icons or (2) decent notifications. And it does that _without_ using "cross-platform tools" or "electron". That's why it's cool.

<comment><USER4> The web _is_ a cross-platform tool. It's fine for what it is, but it can't provide an experience that feels native, or runs nearly as fast as native.

<comment><USER5> PWA is coming.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> See also the blog post: [https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi](https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi)

The swift-only, programmatic approach without Xcode or the typical app framework is very cool! Assembling those parts seems like a great learning experience.

(More interesting to me than the actual functionality)

<comment><USER7> A couple of nitpicks about the process:

> NSMakeRect/NSMakePoint

Generally I prefer the actual constructors.

> NSWindow.BackingStoreType.buffered/NSApplication.ActivationPolicy.regular

You can just use .buffered/.regular.

> let _ = NSApplication.shared

Just _ = NSApplication.shared works: [https://github.com/saagarjha/DarkNight/blob/0e3aef8559b634ce...](https://github.com/saagarjha/DarkNight/blob/0e3aef8559b634cea28c08559d8e338bc21eb419/DarkNight/main.swift#L13)

> Rizwan Sattar wrote a neat workaround that monkey-patches NSBundle, which > I've translated to Swift 4 below

Don't do this, it will stop working (crash!) once you update your Swift version and the compiler is smart enough to start making direct calls. As far as I am aware, this is the correct way to do it: [https://github.com/saagarjha/DetailsViewer/blob/master/Detai...](https://github.com/saagarjha/DetailsViewer/blob/master/DetailsViewer/Swizzler.swift)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, these are nice clean ups! I added a note in the blog post that points to your Swizzler example. The final version of Multi didn't end up needing that NSBundle monkey-patch though since it was a "proper app" with an Info.plist file.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, an actual Info.plist is much better :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sounds similar to the old Fluid website wrapper for MacOS X ( [https://fluidapp.com/](https://fluidapp.com/) )

<comment><USER9> I love fluid apps!

One thing I've always wanted is a Chrome plugin to redirect links into a dedicated fluid application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is really cool! The inspiration behind creating this reminds me of another app too: [https://getstack.app](https://getstack.app)

</comment><comment><USER11> This is pretty neat :) I read the blog post[0] about it too, and I definitely feel your multiple chat app pains. I'm curious to hear more about why you avoided Xcode and ViewControllers. In general I know many people dislike Xcode, but I've been doing iOS dev for a while now so I guess I'm used to it (it's a love have situation for me at times)

[0] [https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi](https://kofi.sexy/blog/multi)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Honestly my reasoning for avoiding XCode is fairly thin—I just hadn't used it before and didn't have it installed when I started. I imagine if I took the time to learn it, it would be fine. But I do also feel a bit weird about how developing for certain platforms requires you to use a specific IDE. I thought that was part of the goal of Swift (vs ObjC), but I may be just reflecting my own biases :)

<comment><USER12> Recently I wrote a script in Swift, on macOS. It can be developed and run without Xcode, in plain vi if you so wish. It's pretty great, and I liked it a lot.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, that was exactly my workflow as well! And for building CLIs it's quite nice. Once I started using AppKit though, it felt like I kept running into things that weren't quite finished.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm probably missing something... what's the positive of using this instead of just opening a few browser tabs?

edit: oh I see... single notifications and simple switcher. OK, seems reasonable enough

</comment><comment><USER14> pretty slick. For web apps, I've been using this as a zsh alias to launch whatsapp and a few other similar sites without any toolbars (etc)

        /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --app=https://web.whatsapp.com --kiosk

</comment><comment><USER15> Those with Mac development experience. What's the earliest way to make a screenshot app?

<comment><USER7> Depends on what you're trying to screenshot, but CGWindowListCreateImage is probably the function that you want in most cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The iOS image recognition, done on-device as I understand it, is one of the coolest things that it seems no one talks about.

<comment><USER17> Where does that fit into this macOS app?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Vitrue VIDA, use your webcam to assess your workspace setup - <AUTHOR> https://www.vitruevida.com/#/producthunt <comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone, I'm Alex the CTO of Vitrue Health.

Pre-Covid we were developing tools for physiotherapists, elite sports professionals and orthopaedic surgeons.

As Covid kicked in we turned our expertise towards everyone who was working at home. Our whole team was suddenly hunched over kitchen tables, sitting in dark rooms or lying on sofas - and starting to feel associated aches, pains and mental health wobbles.

We know there are millions of teams like us, that's why we're launching VIDA, a tool to remotely assess the quality of desk workers workspace setups today!

We've set up a free assessment link just for today for HackerNews. You can try it here: [https://www.vitruevida.com/#/producthunt](https://www.vitruevida.com/#/producthunt)

Or check out our website to read more about what we do: [https://www.vitrueremote.com/](https://www.vitrueremote.com/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Great work, Alex and team!</comment>


A Burger, an Order of Fries, and Your Credit Card Number - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/verizon_s_data_breach_investigations_report_reveals_that_restaurants_are_the_easiest_target_for_hackers_.html

<comment><USER2> We had a rash of credit/debit card skimming locally as a result of crooks coming into stores in the mall and replacing the store's point-of-sale card reader terminal with one of their own which was rigged to skim before passing on the information to the register, according to the local news.

Normally, I'd distrust the news when it comes to anything vaguely technical but it got me wondering if the POS terminal does anything to guarantee that its credit card reader is still "authentic" (hopefully, it at least used some kind of good faith challenge-response mechanism, even if it could be easily spoofed by a potential attacker).

Physically swapping them out - both to put the rigged reader in, and to remove it once it's "full" - also seems pretty risky. It was probably something like this story instead where the register itself was targeted remotely.

<comment><USER3> From what I know about them when helping install them in a new retail store where i was working a few years ago, there's quite a few of them that act like nothing more than a keyboard. the fancier ones with a display still hook up over usb and i don't think they use a challenge response (I honestly don't know there, i don't know the software for them). Even once I got them in if i was skimming I wouldn't even bother removing them ever. Instead I'd use something like the little XBee modules or some other wireless device to read them and just walk in and act like a regular shopper leaving the retrieval thing in my pocket the whole time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Related _All about Skimmers_ from Krebs on security:

<http://krebsonsecurity.com/all-about-skimmers/>

</comment><comment><USER5> Having someone steal a Credit Card number is vary safe at worst your out 50$ and need to wait a few days to get another one in the mail. It's checks I worry about, you can easily drain a bank account with the 2 numbers on the bottom of them and you don't get your money back when that happens.

<comment><USER6> Debit cards are particularly dangerous, as they are as vulnerable as credit cards but do not offer the same protections.

<comment><USER7> This depends on your country. For example, in the UK, the Payment Services Regulation 2009 makes no difference between credit and debit cards with respect to a payer's liability. In either case, your liability is limited to 50 pounds (unless you acted grossly negligent, intentionally, or fraudulently), regardless of the type of card used.

This is largely a consequence of article 60 and 61 of EU directive 2007/64/EC [1] (some countries have been lagging behind in implementing the directive, though, so don't expect it to be the law everywhere in Europe).

[1] [http://eur- lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2...](http://eur- lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:319:0001:01:EN:HTML)

<comment><USER8> I think the parent was talking about the US, where liability depends on how fast you report the theft of your card or notice fraudulent transactions in your statement. If you don't catch these quick enough then your liability is unlimited.

<http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre04.shtm>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Honest question: if a hacker is talented enough to create software to steal thousands of dollars, are they not talented enough to make multiples more legally?

<comment><USER10> Possibly not if they're in a country with a weaker economy, lower cost (and/or standard) of living, and no way to get a work visa someplace else?</comment></comment>


How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html

<comment><USER2> Two of my three "least similar" were places (very near where) I've lived, and two of my three "most similar" were places I've never even come close to.

Funny enough, the city apparently #1 most similar to my speech pattern is Overland Park, Kansas, which is hilarious as I doubt I've ever been within 400 miles of there.

</comment><comment><USER3> As a Londoner, I'm apparently based on the West Coast.

<comment><USER4> As someone from Europe, so am I.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wait.. "cot" and "caught" have different pronunciations?

<comment><USER6> I can imagine people from the south of England pronouncing them differently, so in more southern American accents I wouldn't be surprised to hear "cot" as a very quick, almost glottal sound, and "caught" with a long drawn out vowel.

As a Scot, I naturally pronounce them both identically. I'm just amazed there are people for whom "Mary", "Merry" and "Marry" are the same, nevermind utterly different!

Of course this test is not going to tell me anything useful... :)

edit: Sadly "gutties" was not an option for gym shoes, "ginger" was not an option for carbonated beverages. I'm either from Miami or Boston, and definitely not from Detroit. But really I'm from Glasgow :)

<comment><USER7> I am from Glasgow as well, but I pronounce them differently. Pretty much how you describe them in your fist sentence.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I went through the questions and when I first saw the results I was impressed, but then I realized the "most similar" covered about 75% of the u.s. For my results it basically just made the confederate states least similar and everywhere else dark blue. Guess I'm a Yankee.

<comment><USER9> I got 'San Jose/Fremont, CA' & 'Richmond, VA' guess I'm All American.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why doesn't English have a plural you like German? Do the other Germanic languages have plural you?

<comment><USER10> "You" is plural. According to [1] "you" and "ye" were plural (and "thou" (nominative), "thee" (accusative), "thy" (gen) and "thine" (gen) were singular). Fascinating!

[1] [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22194/did- englis...](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22194/did-english-ever- have-a-you-plural)</comment></comment>


HTML 5 drops open source video codec - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62055739,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw <comment><USER2> If both Mozilla and Google (alongside H.264, but still) are willing to support Ogg, why didn't they just go with Ogg? Since Firefox has the largest market share of the <video>-supporting browsers and Google is running YouTube, there should be enough Ogg support for it to win. Why is Apple's opinion even relevant? Safari's market share certainly isn't large enough to make a big difference.

Moreover, the efficiency concerns regarding Ogg will be solved in the future, so that shouldn't be a concern in the long run (which is what this standard is for).

<comment><USER3> "Safari's market share certainly isn't large enough to make a big difference."

Sigh.

Please read this:

[http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/05/13/cluster...](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/05/13/cluster_effects.html)

If you're too busy to read it, a good summary applied to this situation would be that small-market browsers do indeed matter if they're being used by the sorts of critical early-adopter/well-connected people who make or break your service through their social connections. And remember that Safari is on every single iPhone out there, and so is the mobile browser used by lots and lots of those people.

<comment><USER2> " _small-market browsers do indeed matter if they're being used by the sorts of critical early-adopter/well-connected people who make or break your service through their social connections. And remember that Safari is on every single iPhone out there, and so is the mobile browser used by lots and lots of those people._ "

I still don't feel that this even comes close to matching the massive impact that Firefox has. It is also popular among early adopters, and were Ogg to be made the standard and implemented on YouTube as the sole <video> codec, I think it would be possible to force Apple's hand on the issue.

<comment><USER3> "I still don't feel that this even comes close to matching the massive impact that Firefox has."

The question is not "is X bigger than Y". You have to stop thinking in those terms if you want a successful service built on social networking effects. You simply _cannot_ afford to lock people out, period.

"were Ogg to be made the standard and implemented on YouTube as the sole <video> codec, I think it would be possible to force Apple's hand on the issue."

No, it wouldn't, because YouTube is run by people smart enough to realize that punishing millions of users to try to stick it to one of your business partners is not a good plan. And even if they went Theora-only (which they're not going to do), they'd have to provide a fallback for IE, which would probably end up extended to Safari as well.

<comment><USER4> ubernostrum: "And even if they went Theora-only (which they're not going to do), they'd have to provide a fallback for IE, which would probably end up extended to Safari as well."

I'm not bothered about the actual format shipped, let the market sort that out. What I want is to be able to publish a webpage with a video and know that all standards compliant browsers will play that media.

Safari doesn't have to only use Ogg Theora, YouTube doesn't have to stop using flash.

Keeping the openness of the web means allowing content creators a path to create content unencumbered by license disputes IMO. They should go back and specify it for HTML5 standard compliance and let Safari fail compliance.

<comment><USER3> "What I want is to be able to publish a webpage with a video and know that all standards compliant browsers will play that media."

Your proposed remedy does not accomplish this. Putting language in the spec and "letting" browsers "fail compliance" leaves you in the same situation as not putting language in the spec.

<comment><USER4> Well all compliant browsers will play the media, by definition, so the remedy is effective. Safari wouldn't fail compliance they'd suddenly find the time to implement Ogg Theora as a fall back and if they've any sense the chip manufacturers would be falling over themselves to offer an optimised stack to court Apple.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, it's that they gave up on picking a codec in the standard, not that they abandoned Ogg for something else

</comment><comment><USER6> It's not clear why Apple would refuse to support Ogg -- hardware support seems a silly reason from Apple, who manufacture their own hardware, and the "patent landscape" for the open-source Ogg seems even less likely. Do they still cling to a dream of Quicktime becoming the web standard, after the <video> tag kills Flash?

The only people who should be pleased with this announcement are Adobe. Moving away from Flash will be an uphill struggle, and this makes it just a little bit harder.

<comment><USER7> I like the idea that anyone who has any hardware capability, or even significant hardware capability, can just whip up an Ogg chipset and roll it out to millions of installed devices. Hey, why doesn't Centrino 2 support Ogg? Intel must be clinging to some krazy dreams.

<comment><USER6> The mass adoption of all elements of HTML 5 is 5 years off; far longer than Apple's hardware product cycle. If Apple wanted to start supporting Ogg, they could build it into their hardware in that timeframe.

Also, it's not like their hardware can't support it right now; Ogg video in Firefox 3.5 runs just fine on my Mac.

<comment><USER3> Please write on the blackboard 100 times: "HTML5 has to be something that works well on mobile devices, not just on desktop/laptop machines."

And right now that's going a long way toward killing Theora; mobile devices need a power-efficient hardware decoder to do video, and if they don't get one for Theora they're not going to run everybody's battery life into the ground by using software decoding.

<comment><USER8> Well, HTML5 is not going to be adopted by tomorrow. The adoption will take longer than the mobile devices lifespan.

It means, that if TI/Qualcomm/etc start developing Theora DSPs this year, they will be on the market and in the devices before HTML5 goes mainstream.

Standardizing on Theora is pretty good incentive to have it hardware accelerated.

<comment><USER9> Well, Safari supports it today including on the iPhone as of verison 3.0. If YouTube rolls out HTML5 support in the next six months, that covers what, a third of all the video on the web (on YouTube itself and embedded on blogs)?

<comment><USER8> Safari supports HTML5 video element, but not HTML5 per se. It is not finished yet.

Interestingly, when YouTube supported only Sorenson, Apple didn't care for that and went on ignoring YouTube. Why it is suddenly a problem?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> See also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=688995>

</comment><comment> onreact-com All those greedy bastards just want to push their own codecs, especially Apple the king of proprietary media solutions. That's their business model.

<comment><USER11> Yes, this is like a soap opera where everyone has their own obvious interests in mind but are still willing to put on a charade.

I'm a Linux user and I'm getting pretty tired of not having an open source codec standard for the browser. Mozilla (and Opera) has my full support in this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Ian Hickson should continue supporting Ogg Theora as the only free solution. It leaves a lot to be desired from his decision to drop the ball right now when firefox 3.5 just released, knowing that more than 100 million users support Theora.

Ian, you're on my watch list, I don't want to ever know you were bribed by greedy bastards or criminal monopolists.

It just takes a million dollars to buy a soul.</comment>


Before Silicon Valley got nasty, the Pirates of Analog Alley fought it out - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/before-silicon-valley-got-nasty-the-pirates-of-analog-alley-fought-it-out/ <comment><USER2> Ugh silicon does not mean digital! It is beyond common to find analog circuits made with silicon transistors, diodes, etc.</comment>


Ask HN: What ressources would you recommend to start coding? - <AUTHOR> I am 50 years old and I want to start coding. What ressources would you recommend so I can learn how to code and which platform/language would you think I should learn? <comment><USER2> I'd either choose the web or one of the mobile platforms - iOS or Android.

Once you pick, there's not much of a choice: JavaScript for the web, Swift for iOS, Java for Android.

Besides the language you will also need to learn the basics of programming. YouTube and Khan Academy have tons of tutorials on both. You can also download a free book, if that's easier.

<comment><USER3> Use Kotlin for Android not Java

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://www.freecodecamp.org/](https://www.freecodecamp.org/)

</comment><comment><USER5> You can try web with JavaScript, vuejs, express or use Golang for serverside, cli tools.

Go will introduce you to more theory than JavaScript.</comment>


Mark Cuban's tips for eventual winner of the $1.4B (or more) Powerball jackpot - <AUTHOR> http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/01/mark-cubans-tips-for-eventual-winner-of-the-1-4-billion-or-more-powerball-jackpot.html/ <comment><USER2> Cuban "It's OK to spend 2 dollars for entertainment value," he said via email. "If you have 10 dollars go to a Mavs game."

Based on prices, my $10 won't cover parking, much less seeing a game. So we spent the $10 on Powerball and talked about how we would open up Makerspaces in a 3 hour radius from Philly. Lots of 10,000 sqft spaces we can outfit and keep running with $670 million in after tax dollars.

We decided to build metal, wood, fabric, electronic and music "pods". Each space would have primary pod (ie metal) that are decked out, with two smaller pods. Group them in 15 mile clusters, so that you are "close" to all types of of the spaces. So you might have a metal one in your town, but 15 miles from a wood and electronics primary pods.

It was a fun time, always good to have dreams. We got our $10 worth.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like top-notch facilities. They'd still be finite though, so how would you decide who gets to use them in order to maximize, say, societal benefit? (Edit: I say top-notch, because you'd presumably simultaneously want universal access and the best talent to work on it?)

<comment><USER2> I don't think that will be a problem to start. We talked that we would still need to advertise to get people in.

Since I don't have a clue who could "maximize societal benefit" it would be first come first serve. For the last decade I've been working with Middle and High School students I've been blown away by their creativity. And then there is that 70 year old woman that makes those great metal sculptures. How do you choose?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Don't take the lump sum"? Yeah the pittance return the government will give you is a lot better use for that money...</comment>


The Humanities Marketplace as a Circle of Hell - <AUTHOR> https://berthamasonsattic.wordpress.com/2018/10/12/i-applied-to-200-jobs-and-all-i-got-was-this-moderate-severe-depression/?src=longreads <comment><USER2>
      Okay, fam, I know how
      to use Excel. I can
      answer a multi-line
      phone. I can greet
      customers. Please.
      Just put me to work.

This is the software development technical interview cycle in a nutshell, except replace " _Excel_ " with almost any technology you want. SQL, NoSQL, C, Lisp, whatever.

In most cases, the technical interviewer demands that you paint the Mona Lisa in ten minutes, only to offer a stern frown and furrowed brow when ten minutes gets perhaps a stick figure or a smiley face.

The truth, however, has two competing versions.

From the interviewer's perspective, they've asked for something perfectly reasonable. They've been looking at the same challenge problem for weeks or months, they have the answer, they've watched ten people fail in ten different ways, and the ones that had the answer still couldn't perfectly refine the problem's follow-up questions. Surely Cindarella exists, and we will know it's her, when the glass slipper fits.

From the candidate's perspective, cartwheels and backflips are well understood to be possible for some people to perform, but even being asked to use a hula hoop is slightly degrading. Nevermind that none of us will actually ever perform backflips or hula hoops in production. It's mostly jumping jacks and push ups, so why the all elite high performance tests?

The truth though is that first impressions and introductions are a class of human activity, and as a singleton event in the history of interaction between two parties, they happen once and only once, and unfold according to their own rules. First dates, roommates, a new doctor, buying a puppy. All of these things have a certain pattern of realization, exposition and gut instinct to follow through on.

The ritual is actually an arbitrary dousing rod disconnected from the subliminal conceptual formulation of whether the two parties actually like each other on a superficial level, regardless of talent, skill or capability.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thank you for writing this, I enjoyed reading it very much.

You seem like a thoughtful, sensitive person, I believe I have a somewhat similar personality so I can relate.

Silly question but have you tried an employment agency? Considered immigration? Fairly certain you'd live a very decent life teaching English to foreign students in Australia.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, if she would name the bookstore, I'd be happy not to visit it next time I'm in Corvallis.

More seriously, yes, I see the appeal of staying in the university world, or anyway in a university town. Unfortunately, the appeal of the life means that there are always plenty of people willing to take entry-level jobs there for poor wages. As for the bookstore, I'm sorry about the wages--and sorrier about the customers--but the difference between a high school senior and a published Ph.D. is probably not substantial when the job is shelving books, running the register, answering questions.</comment>


Modafinil enhances cognition and is deemed safe by health experts - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/485020/the-worlds-first-true-smart-drug-enhances-cognition-and-is-deemed-safe-by-health-experts/ <comment><USER2> Link to journal article: [http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924...](http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X\(15\)00249-7/abstract?cc=y=)

"What's lacking is long-term data—important because study of other promising enhancers has shown that the effect may not last over time."

This article fails to link to answer any of my key questions: What definition of cognition? How does it compare against caffeine in these same tests?

</comment><comment><USER3> Slightly off-topic.

The journal article is tagged with "nootropic". Modafinil is not a nootropic, but a smart drug. There is a subtle but important difference between the two. Both types of drugs enhance your cognitive performance, but a nootropic _must be_ neuroprotective. Piracetam, the first nootropic synthesized in 1964 is used nowadays to treat cognitive decline [1]

I am not saying that modafinil will fry your brain, but definitively it is not designed to protect it.

In my personal experience, Modafinil works pretty well in _low_ doses. 25mg-50mg every 2-3 days lifts my mood and increase my work output significantly. The recommended dosage (200mg) is a crash and burn for me.

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16007238](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16007238)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd hesitate to call anything that has a chance of giving me Stevens–Johnson syndrome "safe".

This reminds me of those commercials for medications that will help you with a runny nose, but have possible side effects of kidney, liver, and respiratory failure, depression, and death.

A big fat "no thanks!" from me.

<comment><USER5> SJS is triggered by paracetamol & Acetaminophen [1] & antibiotics, among other drugs. It appears that one needs a complex set of conditions, which can occur with many drugs (including Modnafil & commonly used pain relievers, etc.).

Note that I am not endorsing (or challenging) the use of the drug to enhance cognition. I just want to understand what evidence there is suggesting a higher rate of incidence with modnafil as compared to sulpha drugs & analgesics.

Literature survey in Pubmed reveals fairly few reports [e.g: 2], describing only a handful of cases.

If the argument is: the risk of SJS is not worth the likely benefits in improved cognition, I understand. But I am not convinced if there is compelling evidence linking modnafil with SJS.

[edit: reorganized paragraphs; deleted unsubstantiated reference to allergies] [1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24527413](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24527413) [2] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4386138/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4386138/)</comment></comment>


CryptoKitties Sales Stats - <AUTHOR> https://kittysales.herokuapp.com/ <comment><USER2> how is current value calculated?</comment>


Google Docs on Firefox now also works offline - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnet.com/news/google-docs-firefox-edge-browser-web-app-offline/ <comment><USER2> Am I the only one who has never had Google Docs offline never work on any device or on any browser? Every time I've ever needed it, I get the "No Internet connection" error.

<comment><AUTHOR> On Chrome with the preinstalled Google Apps it works for me

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> If I'm reading the article right, Google Docs _will_ support offline editing in Firefox but does not today, as the HN headline suggests, support it.

</comment><comment><USER4> Service workers 4 life</comment>