On Being Black in China - patrick-james http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/on-being-black-in-china/277878/ <comment><USER2> This author has an incredibly solipsistic worldview:

      Mao issued another statement of support in April 1968 after
      the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But despite
      these expressions of support, there is scant evidence to
      prove Mao or any other Chinese political leader at the time
      would have been willing to align themselves actively with
      the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, Chinese foreign policy
      in the 1960s mirrored much of that of the West, due in part
      to the Sino-Soviet split and the coming détente with the
      U.S.

      After the deaths of Mao and Zhou Enlai, the era of
      alignment with the developing world and oppressed peoples
      gave way to Deng Xiaoping's pragmatic plan for economic
      development epitomized by his statement, "To get rich is
      glorious." From the 80s to the present, this new mantra has
      fueled a single-minded devotion to the pursuit of wealth,
      leaving little room for concern with past ideals.

The "past ideals" promoted by Mao included the mass murder of tens of millions of Chinese and almost thirty years of terror and poverty, from the Great Leap Forward through the Cultural Revolution. Not even a single mention or nod to this in the paragraph, which would have you believe that a mass murderer who gave lip service to the US civil rights movement is preferable to a man who brought a billion people out of darkness.

One might even call such a view - that all that matters is a person's professed attitude towards a black American - _culturally imperialist_. As the author notes in passing, post-Deng China is substantively doing a lot more for people of African origin via trade than Maoist China ever did. But all that matters are the "past ideals". A modern expression of the modern American religion: thou shalt not be saved through works, only through lip service towards MLK alone.

<comment><USER3> The passage you quote seems fairly neutral to me, and you appear to bring more baggage to the conversation than the author himself.

There was in fact a qualitative change in popular Chinese outlook from Mao to Deng, never mind the damage Mao inflicted on the country. China became more materialistic, less ideological, less idealistic. White people were associated with rich and powerful western nations, so their prestige increased. Black people were associated with poor African nations, so their prestige decreased. This was independent of any preferences for light and delicate features.

And I think this was one of the author's points, that shifts in popular outlook have affected Chinese perceptions of black people. What might once have been an asset (perception of shared suffering under capitalist/imperialist oppression) is now a liability ("we're poor but not as poor as you!").

<comment><USER2>
      never mind the damage Mao inflicted on the country. China
      became more materialistic, less ideological, less
      idealistic.

"Never mind" the damage Mao inflicted? 65 million people died during his reign. Post-Mao China is more realistic, more productive, much wealthier, and much less insane (aka "ideological/idealistic"). It is less likely to foment violent revolution nearby and more interested in profitable stability. It is an improvement on every front that matters.

[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/books/news/m...](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four- years-2081630.html)

      Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years'

      Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China,
      qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history,
      an expert who had unprecedented access to official
      Communist Party archives said yesterday.

      Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival,
      Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found
      that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap
      Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy
      of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing
      "one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known".

      Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history
      from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine,
      compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and
      killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its
      magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved
      or beaten to death in China over these four years; the
      worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55
      million.

      Mr Dikötter is the only author to have delved into the
      Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago.
      He argued that this devastating period of history – which
      has until now remained hidden – has international
      resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust
      as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century....
      It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's
      genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said.

But he said something nice about MLK once. Really, methinks that some "baggage" \- aka knowledge of history - is quite necessary here.

<comment><USER4> > _" Never mind" the damage Mao inflicted? 65 million people died during his > reign._

First, the huge majority of those deaths were due to famine.

Second, it was in a country in great turmoil, civil war, and a revolution (regime change, if you prefer). In places where such things happen -- as opposed to an country with a stable political climate like the US, people die (including by execution).

Someone from a stable country cannot relate, but think of the Civil War and the tons of deaths. Or the French revolution. Those doesn't mean one leader or a handful is the only one to blame, like one does not pin civil war deaths to Lincoln or the confederate leaders. Such are the times.

Countries do not get into such messes by one "bad apple" leader. On the contrary, the leaders represent the general problems in the society in general. Even Hitler was voted by a majority of Germans, which ascribed to the same ideals long before he came to power (and for the "philosophical" parts of nazism, even decades ago, e.g Nietchze, Wagner, Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, and tons of lesser intellectuals).

<comment><USER5> > First, the huge majority of those deaths were due to famine.

Sir, that famine was in large part due to movements commandeered by Mao - <AUTHOR> as the Great Leap Forward which completely decimated Chinese farming and agriculture.

<comment><USER4> Yes, but that does not make it a deliberate policy of killing people. It was what it was thought at the time as necessary to bring China in the modern age. One has to ask if without it China would be what it is today -- or perhaps some broken half-aggrarian society, more third-world than one of the world's economic powers.

Same way, as one has to ask if without Stalin's forced industrialization, USSR would be able to stand to the Nazis (and, if it could not, if Europe could). Besides the tragic human aspect, one has to see these kind of events with an impartial eye, just for their long term effects.

<comment><USER6> but by the time Mao died, China was a broken way-more-than-half-agrarian society, and below a lot of third world countries. Kind of like North Korea today.

The best one can say is, China was a basket case before Mao, he established a strong system of central control and a level of human development ie literacy and medical care, and those paved the way for development after Mao.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I live in China and there is indeed still some racism towards black and even asian people. A black English teacher in China will have a much lower salary then a white person for example (though this is also true of English teachers who are asian). As crazy as it sounds, schools will often prefer to hire a white teacher who is not a native speaker to a black/asian teacher who is a native speaker.

<comment><USER8> You see some of the opposite here in America. For some reason or another, people tend to prefer an Asian-looking kung fu teacher to a Caucasian or African-American one.

The present-day East Asian cultures have become strangely obsessed with image. There was one Taiwanese pop star, I think her name was Jolin or something, she's rumored to have had 3 different plastic surgeries in the last however many years, and come out looking quite different in each one. It's supposedly kind of scandalous now in Korea, when a husband and wife marry and then the kids turn out looking nothing like the parents.

<comment><USER9> > when a husband and wife marry and then the kids turn out looking nothing > like the parents.

Doesn't seem like a bad thing, just means that there should a good market for plastic surgery for the next generation.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I'm not sure what the common 20-something intellectual culture has with plastic surgery. We're all assigned a certain level of genetic prettiness at birth, out of our control (as measured by how people perceive you, facial symmetry, etc.) Isn't plastic surgery a great equalizer?

<comment><USER11> It's not an equalizer if not everyone can afford it, instead it creates an even larger gap between the haves and the have-nots.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12>
        creating a vacuum of knowledge, drawing in stereotypes and prejudice

That's a beautiful turn of phrase.

</comment><comment><USER13> For me living in China as a white American student in the 1980s was to wake up to minority prejudice. That is to be treated different, sometimes better, sometimes worse than native Chinese. Its something I had not felt in the US. An amusing thing was is that I could understand what people would say about me in public because they assumed most foreigners did not understand Chinese. Or to visit a tourist site and read the prices in English ten times higher than in Chinese.

</comment><comment><USER14> Not to minimize the overall message, to be fair, those students would probably would complain about a ethnic Chinese English teacher.

<comment><USER15> Just like how non-Chinese expats in Hong Kong get higher salaries and packages including housing allowance, whereas oversea born Chinese are treated as locals despite being expats.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I grew up on the Canadian Prairie. The only black people in the entire city were part of the professional football team. At school, the few black kids were tall and very athletic. It may be a stereotype but it was real in my city.

<comment><USER17> Are you certain that you knew every black student at your school or just the popular ones? If there are few blacks it makes sense that the ones you'd notice would be tall and athletic as these are qualities that tend to engender popularity for school children. Did you conduct a formal or even semi-formal survey? I've heard similar suggestions to this before and they rarely conform to reality. This sounds more likely to be a case of conformation bias.

<comment><USER18> When you go to a school with very few black people, noticing one is already surprising enough that you won't miss many through confirmation bias.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> See also: "You'll never be Chinese" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4366203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4366203)

</comment><comment><USER20> i'm an american and i'm not white, or black.

at some point you have to just stop giving a shit what other people think of your race/skin color.

</comment><comment><USER21> I've been asking for this for years, but if anybody can come up with a method (website?) for me to figure out how black people are seen in different countries and regions, that would help me a lot. Seems like the only way to tell is to fly somewhere, then find out that your experience there is not going to be like your friend's was.

Racist heatmaps?

<comment><USER22> "how black people are seen" \- i don't think it can be answered by one number on the scale from 1 to 10. For example, Russians are pretty racist, nationalistic chauvinistic, antisemitic ... you name it, basically Equal Opportunity Haters ... and there are a lot of disrespectful jokes about black people as well. On the other side - we drank a lot with the black students we had at our University and at other places and the girls liked them as well.

>then find out that your experience there is not going to be like your friend's was.

yep, he may be a cool guy and you're a party pooper or vise verse :)

<comment><USER23> Reminds me of this old joke:

A CIA spy is on his first day scouting Moscow. Fluent in Russian, he is confident of blending into the crowd. First, he stops at a store to get an apple. The lady there gives him a big smile, "Morning Mr American, how can I help you?" Shocked, he quietly buys an apple. Next stop, an old lady on a park bench. "Morning ma'am, can I have the time please?" "Sure, Mr American, it's 9.15." He's really worried. Is his disguise that thin? He meets a cop and asks directions. Having received the usual "Certainly Mr American, it's the third block on your left," he asks, "Excuse me, how do you know I'm from the US?" "That's easy," replies the policeman, "you're black."

<comment><USER22> Yep, many years ago a friend who just moved to VA near Langley was a bit surprised seeing first time a couple of black guys in suits shopping in specialized Russian food store and speaking perfect Russian :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


IPhone Firmware 2.0 Unlocked and Jailbroken  - <AUTHOR> http://jbwebdev.com/blog/unlock-and-jailbreak-iphone-firmware-20/

<comment><USER2> So, this version doesn't work for the 3g iphone. What's the point?

<comment><AUTHOR> The point is..there are many consumers out there that own 1st and 2nd gen iPhone that are on T Mobile like myself.</comment></comment>


Learn C the Hard Way: A Clear and Direct Intro To Modern C Programming - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321884922 <comment><USER2> Full-view (non-mobile) Amazon link: [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321884922](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321884922)

</comment><comment><USER3> All you need is K&R, honest.

C is a very simple language. I learned it from K&R in the '80s in an office in a building in a corn field on a back road halfway between Rockford, Il and Belvidire, Il. I went on to hire and assist eight others in acquiring it and then employed them to write, along with myself, a successful machine tool controller of serious sophistication employing a three way tightly coupled Mot 68010 MP system (using bus fault recovery to resolve address collisions) of my design. Not bragging, really, just being dramatic about what you can accomplish starting with just K&R.

<comment><USER4> Your statement assumes that one already has access to a copy of K&R. For those who don't, there's no reason not to start with a cheaper, more recent book.

<comment><USER5> Except that there are so many K&R copies floating around that it's easy to get a cheap second-hand copy. E.g. my local Amazon (.de) sells copies starting at 15 Euro.

K&R is really the definitive C book.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I find the C backlash to the excesses of C++ fascinating.

On the flip side, I wonder how people deal with 'programming in the large' with C - other than 'just be really really careful'

<comment><USER7> > I find the C backlash to the excesses of C++ fascinating.

I whole-heartedly agree. Something that blew my mind back in undergraduate school was tree.h by Niels Provos, [1] which is a complete key/value-type agnostic Red-black Tree [2] in a single header file. Just recently when re- learning C I stumbled upon klib [3] which has a similar take on generic programming by "abusing" the preprocessor.

If I am allowed to side-track, I found "C The Hard Way" to be a good resource when re-learning C. I also had a lot of fun with "Expert C Programming", although it is a bit dated. I highly recommend it once you have a grasp of the language basics. I have heard good things about "21st Century C", but I am still wondering what other good resources there are out there.

[1]: [http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/sys/tree.h?view=mark...](http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/sys/tree.h?view=markup)

[2]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red%E2%80%93black_tree](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red%E2%80%93black_tree)

[3]: [https://github.com/attractivechaos/klib](https://github.com/attractivechaos/klib)

<comment><USER8> You don't always need preprocessor tricks to generate a special purpose red- black tree, you can use an intrusive variant like this: [http://cgit.osmocom.org/libosmocore/tree/include/osmocom/cor...](http://cgit.osmocom.org/libosmocore/tree/include/osmocom/core/linuxrbtree.h). This works together with the container_of macro: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15832301/understanding- co...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15832301/understanding-container-of- macro-in-linux-kernel)

In similar spirit, the linked list variant: [http://cgit.osmocom.org/libosmocore/tree/include/osmocom/cor...](http://cgit.osmocom.org/libosmocore/tree/include/osmocom/core/linuxlist.h), though the macros in sys/queue.h are also useful for linked lists.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For better or worse an alpha copy of the sort of content for the book is here, for people who might want to find out a bit more about what the style/content/etc. is like, before getting the final book:

[http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/](http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/)

<comment><USER10> Such a good read, I wish he'd use line numbers in his code syntax blocks. Its so hard to read and re-reference without them. For those who cant see well it helps a lot, and most modern IDEs/text editors line number for you as well.

<comment><USER11> That's odd, since in Learn Python, he pretty specifically goes out of his way to make sure the student enables line numbers... specifically for these reasons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Always happy to see another Zed Shaw book, especially after seeing how nice and helpful he is to others on HN. If this is anything like Learn Python the Hard Way then you should definitely check it out if you are trying to learn C.

<comment><USER13> Funny how his timing works...

<comment><USER14> Oh come on, seriously? He's a fantastic coder, a great educator and a decent guy in what he does. Sure, he's abrasive and runs people up the wrong way. But let's not read stuff into timing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Excellent. There are relatively few books I'm tempted to pick up in paperback, but this would be on my short list (despite having worked through most of the material available online ~6 months ago).

</comment><comment><USER16> Slightly OT:

Can anyone recommend something similar for Java (Android specifically)? The tutorials I have found so far seem to assume I'm either a complete imbecile or have a CS degree.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is exciting. I've been waiting to see how he filled out the later chapters for a while now, and presumably this means they're done, or at least will be by May. I want to see that tiny virtual machine get built!

</comment><comment><USER18> Hope he publishes somewhere an .epub version of them (all his books).

</comment><comment><USER19> I haven't read any of Zed's book and Amazon doesn't have a decent number of reviews, so I was wondering if someone could provide the shortest "why should I get this book"

thanks

<comment><USER20> read the version he provides freely online and see if you like it: [http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/](http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/)

I learned to write python (and program) through Learn Python the Hard Way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Ordered. Looking forward to this.</comment>


DNSCrypt vs DNS-over-TLS? What's the difference and why TLS is better. - <AUTHOR> https://tenta.com/blog/post/2017/12/dns-over-tls-vs-dnscrypt <comment><USER2> Excellent and informative comparison, thanks!

How do these compare with DNS over QUIC? [https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft- huitema-quic-dnsoquic-02](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-huitema-quic- dnsoquic-02)?</comment>


Mass Customization site (resource) - <AUTHOR> http://www.madeforone.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I was actually just trying to google the <http://www.madebyone.com> site (currently under discussion here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2076163>) and tripped across this (<http://www.madeforone.com>). I thought it might interest a few folks here. (I interests me, so maybe just personal bias.)</comment>


Goldman Sachs Predicted The Exact Number Of Medals That Great Britain Would Win - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-absolutely-nailed-its-prediction-for-great-britains-medal-haul-2012-8

<comment><USER2> The title should have been "Of all the guesses made about medal count, some were correct." Had GS been wrong, this would have been a total non-story (as with all the other guesses: "they guessed about something outside their usual domain, and were wrong. Oh well."), and BI would have needed to find someone else who had guessed (sorry, "predicted") correctly.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why, the ability to look thru form and other sports based statistics is great if your moving into high-frequency-gamberling, no wait I see what they did there.

That said it is known that host countries do better as tehy also said "According to Goldman, home countries outperform their expected haul by 54%"

Makes you wonder when betting shops and banks will end up converging.

But if they were that good and knew there were right based upon some solid maths that they would be able to predict the results then they woud of put there own money were there mouth is. Banks and GS don't do that, they only like to make the predictions and put other peoples money weer there mouths are. Same as a casino in many way, playing the odd's at your expense, only when you win they win and when you lose they win.

</comment><comment><USER4> Meaningless. Goldman Sachs got the prediction for New Zealand completely wrong along with many other countries. WSJ correctly predicted NZ's total number of medals including the exact number of golds. Maybe I should write an article about that?</comment>


PLT Scheme 4.0 released - <AUTHOR> http://blog.plt-scheme.org/2008/06/plt-scheme-version-4.html

<comment><USER2> I have no experience with lisp or scheme, but reading the new tutorial on their website was such a beautiful introduction to programming, and then I looked at the source code for the tutorial and was blown away at the level of simplicity and sophistication they have achieved.

So why have I never heard of PLT Scheme? Why isn't it popular?

<comment><USER3> I think it's probably the premiere Scheme implementation. Arc is built in it (you may have heard only of MzScheme, but that's in the PLT family). I happen to be using it for my startup.

As far as various Schemes go, I'd say it's very popular.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Stumbled upon this while checking out the blog:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQO_kHl39g&fmt=18](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQO_kHl39g&fmt=18)

Very impressive. The features in Dr. Scheme make for an excellent teaching environment, but look like they would work well for a working programmer, also.

</comment><comment><USER5> What do you think about the set-car! thing? Why not just use Erlang instead?

<comment><USER6> Can you elaborate?

<comment><USER5> Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems to me that without set-car!, Scheme becomes more like Erlang in respect to "unchangeable variables" (don't remember the proper term right now).

I had recently evaluated Erlang but found some things very difficult to achieve. For a contrieved problem, how do you program an effective algorithm to calculate prime numbers in Erlang?

So I felt quite good about the destructive operators of Scheme. If they are now wanted anymore, I might reconsider using Erlang.

<comment><USER7> My understanding of the situation is that the PLT people had some optimizations they could do if lists were immutable, and they noticed that there were very few places in their code where they mutated lists. So they decided to just make lists immutable and see who complained. And it turns out few other people were actually mutating lists, so they kept the optimization.

PLT Scheme still has other mutable data structures that can be used instead of lists, though; I don't know if this is the case for Erlang.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow, they made the site much cleaner as well.</comment>


Students Were Advised to Claim to Be Minorities in College-Admissions Scandal - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/students-were-advised-to-claim-to-be-minorities-in-college-admissions-scandal-11558171800 <comment><USER2> Good. Affirmative action is a farce - it is literally racist to Asian Americans. The more people abuse the system, the more likely it is to be abolished.

<comment><USER3> Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait to HN? We ban accounts that do that, and you've been doing a lot of it lately. The idea of HN is intellectual curiosity and thoughtful conversation, and those things can't coexist with political battle.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><USER2> Flamebait? Flamebait to me is telling my friends and family that they aren't good enough just because they're Asian. I'm just responding to an article that somebody posted with my personal opinion based on my lived experiences.

If you don't want political commentary, maybe you shouldn't let people post political articles? I see articles here every other day stoking the ancient fears of yellow peril, saying China is dystopian, full of liars/thieves, etc.

Where is your outrage at any of this?

I guess it's ok if it doesn't offend you personally? You're content living in your bubble where everyone pretends that everything is ok and if someone who doesn't look like you or has different life experiences, their opinion is invalid?

I'm sure you'll ban me after this because you hate it when minorities complain. Why can't they just stay on the plantation?

<comment><USER3> I've posted plenty of comments chiding HN users for posting antagonistically against China and Chinese people and accounts expressing Chinese perspectives. They're easy to find if you want to. So from my point of view, your indignation here is quite misplaced.

I don't want to ban you, but if you keep blatantly breaking the site guidelines, what choice will we have? I'd much prefer it if you would take the spirit of this site to heart, and use it as intended from now on.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><USER2> Thank you for addressing that point. I appreciate the work you are doing on that front.

However, you still haven't addressed the fact that if somebody speaks out about racism in the form of "affirmative" action, it's apparently flamebait?

I wasn't even the one who posted the article, I'm just responding to what I see.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure what you're asking exactly, but when it comes to a social issue like affirmative action, one which is large and complex and has people with good-faith views on many sides, yes, it can often be flamebait when someone makes reductionist comments using inflammatory words like "racism" to dismiss large aspects of the thing. People don't do that when they're looking for thoughtful conversation. They do it when they're in battle mode because they have strong feelings on the topic, usually hurt and angry feelings. Those feelings are important and based in real experience. But if they're allowed to drive expression in uncontained ways, all we get are sharp words fired like weapons between opposing sides. Those discussions have a lot of energy in them but do not have a lot of information in them, and that means they're not interesting in the sense that we use the term (see [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)), and that makes them off topic here.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


First Light – Bringing DOOM to Stadia [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdz4b5psrhE&t=5m <comment><USER2> Stadia is a seriously huge win for Linux gaming in general. Especially with how things like Vulkan are playing out [1], I really think we're finally going to get that pipeline for Linux towards mainstream gaming that everyone has always dreamed of.

Steam was important for starting the momentum, and now hopefully Stadia will be able to finish things off!

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/b30m3g/googles_stadi...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/b30m3g/googles_stadia_uses_linux_and_is_based_on_vulkan/eiwcd6l)

<comment><USER3> Stadia is just an opportunity to convert pay-once gaming to pay Google $x/month for decades for the same thing. There is nothing wrong with pay-once gaming except for greedy companies wishing it would be pay again-and-again- and-again, eyeing that 200 hours you spent in your favorite game and wondering how they can 'fix' that you didn't pay for 200 hours of entertainment. The more gaming cuts into tv and other entertainment the more important it is to change how we pay for games.

Linux compatibility being required probably won't mean as much as DRM-free efforts to distribute games, open source efforts to create compatibility across platforms, and proprietary efforts like Steam's. It's more like, there is enough linux compatibility now for Google to bother.

I think Steam's approach is much more interesting, in that you own the hardware and you own the games and you stream from your device to your device without third parties mining your data.

Nvidia's approach is the most versatile, you own the games on a multitude of marketplaces, and only pay to use the VMs, and can sign into the marketplaces on your own hardware too.

In both Steam and Nvidia's offerings you will still have your favorite games in 3 years, while you will have paid Google enough for a low-end gaming PC and a hundred games but have nothing except another bill to pay to continue access assuming Google continue service.

<comment><USER4> I didn't play doom 4 -- which I'm pretty sure I would have loved -- because the price of entry would have been a $1.5k gaming pc, and I couldn't justify spending that much money for one game. There's zero may my mbp would have run it.

<comment><USER3> New gaming rigs start way cheaper, especially AMD ones, but you raise an interesting point.

On nVidia's streaming service you get some GPU and some CPU but not enough for eg, Total War: Warhammer 2, so they disallow streaming it. It is likely such resource-intensive games will not show up on these services.

eGPUs are also a thing and probably plug right into your MBP, making it more like $400 for many years vs $400 for 20 - 30 months of Stadia.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let them release it now for normal desktop Linux.

<comment><USER6> > [...] because we already had Linux support

୧༼ಠ益ಠ༽୨

<comment><USER5> That's Bethesda for you.</comment></comment></comment>


Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists - <AUTHOR> https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists <comment><USER2> This is a great resource if you're in the U.S., thank you! Be sure to look up your local native plant societies if you need more help, they're a great resource and can often find you cheap seeds or young plants. In Georgia we have the Georgia Native Plant Society ([https://gnps.org/](https://gnps.org/)) and in Texas the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center can help you ([https://www.wildflower.org/](https://www.wildflower.org/)). Find and support your local native plant people!

</comment><comment><USER3> I had native plants in the gardens of my house I listed for sale (before things ground to a halt, alas). The real estate agents wanted then all replaced by "more attractive" plants that need more water. Sigh.

<comment><USER4> You don't have to follow their `advice`, and most who want such plants would plant the ones they want anyhow and those who like native plants would be a plus point sales wise. So you may find the effort and expense would not yield much of a return and may be detrimental profit wise.

Saying that as I'm not aware of anybody who was put off a house sale as they didn't like the plants, though aware of many who would landscape/redo the garden to their taste irrespective of what's there and the only thing that may have merit would be a tree or bushes that would factor in some buyers, not the plants. Unless of course it's something like knotweed.

Did you consult with other agents?

<comment><USER3> Yes interviewed several. The thing about the Californian plants is that they are very low water users, but as a result the plants look patchy and so, to those with a European or Asian conception of what "plants" should look like, can appear a bit bedraggled. It's all about people imagining themselves in the house.

<comment><USER5> FWIW, adding some hardscaping (rocks, boulders, cement pavers) and vertical changes (dry creek, small hills with dirt from the dry creek) made my xeriscape look 100x more interesting. There's a sweat equity cost and hardscaping can get expensive quickly, but your payoff is likely a big increase in curb appeal.

<comment><USER6> _xeriscape_ ... great word! In Australia local government in some areas are pushing 'rain gardens' and 'swales'. Some even pay out lump sum subsidies, to reduce sudden stormwater runoff.

<comment><USER5> Australia has some incredible shrubs and trees that are wonderful additions to a xeriscape. I've got a yard with mostly native southwest US plants & cacti but I sprinkled in a couple exotics from down under.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very pleasant to see, elegant and informative

Extra point for writing Symphyotrichum instead Aster. This means that there is a serious taxonomic work in the background (and they cared to update the scientific names and include the modern changes based in DNA studies).

The title could benefit of an "in North America"

</comment><comment><USER8> Gorgeous PDFs! Very informative and easy to read too.

I wish there was a similar thing for my country far away. If there is, I'm missing it. Most books about 'native' plants are about wild flowers, and most books about garden plants don't say what is native and are full of types which clearly aren't.

And yeah, I've planted a lot of buddleia, which I've since learned is an invasive species where I am.

</comment><comment><USER6> If you are in to plants, I can strongly recommend installing the [http://inaturalist.org/](http://inaturalist.org/) app. Great community any ML based identifications, providing open citizen science data to researchers and objective collated data such as range, seasonality, etc. per species.

Australia: Shots of ants pollinating a native tea tree I took recently: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40225415](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40225415) \+ somewhat dated but broad scientific review of Australian pollinators: [https://moscow.sci- hub.tw/3455/c6d90a9c9485aa772e97f4c6932cc...](https://moscow.sci- hub.tw/3455/c6d90a9c9485aa772e97f4c6932cc084/armstrong1979.pdf) \+ upcoming April 12-19 wild pollinator count event [https://wildpollinatorcount.com/](https://wildpollinatorcount.com/)

</comment><comment><USER9> I've had a lot of fun this year keeping mason bees (native bees). They're solitary and extremely docile (I've messed with their comb homes a lot and they've never minded). They're also extremely good pollinators, much better than honey bees.

After an unsuccessful attempt to use a mason bee hive from Costco, I ripped it out and inserted 3D printed equivalents, which they seem to be more interested in. It's also fun that I get to disassemble the nest and double my brood for next year.

As for the garden, it's hard to determine causation, but I've noticed a much better yield on my stone fruits.

I highly recommend mason bees in your garden next year. They're easy, low maintenance, and kids can get into keeping them.

</comment><comment><USER10> Not to be "that guy" but I have to point out that, while this is great, the primary threat to pollinators is our modern mass agriculture.

<comment><USER11> Replacing monoculture, pesticide ridden lawns with more natural coverings(especially in places where no one is even using the lawn for recreation) is a good first step. Then at least the cities and suburbs can be a haven. It also gets people thinking about this kind of stuff and can lead to pressure for more sustainable agriculture.

<comment><USER10> Oh absolutely! Have you heard of "Integral Urban House"?

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

<comment><USER12> This sounds like it's related to permaculture. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture)

<comment><USER10> This particular thing was (I think) a parallel evolution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Very cool! The numbering in the bloom periods for California [0] is missing 17-20: it goes "16, 21, 22, 23 … 24". The pictures look to be numbered correctly though.

[0]: [https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/17-045_02_Xer...](https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/17-045_02_XercesSoc_Pollinator- Plants_California_web-3page.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER14> Here's another resource from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which includes a couple places not found in the linked site: [https://www.fws.gov/pollinators/](https://www.fws.gov/pollinators/)

</comment><comment><USER15> Only talks about North America.

<comment><USER16> There are links to sites for several other countries

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is well put together. The PDF has a single page ordered by bloom time within the season. For each plant, it lists the water requirements and rough height: this quickly lets me know whether a plant will fit in a particular location in my yard. Otherwise I go looking for plants, find what seems to be nice then after digging up the details find out it doesn't match the location.

These PDFs are sorted by US region but for those outside the US, this may still be useful if your local climate happens to be close to one of the 10 listed here.

<comment><USER18> > These PDFs are sorted by US region but for those outside the US, this may > still be useful if your local climate happens to be close to one of the 10 > listed here.

Possibly, but seems like it would still be best to determine what's native for your region, not just plant something because it can survive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Looking for similar resources for Europe in general and Scandinavia in particular. Anyone know of something similar?

<comment><USER7> Salix can be a start. You have several dwarf or small species. Salix lanata for example.

Rhododendron tomentosum also

Describe your location. What kind of garden do you want to create?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> There are some links for other countries under "Additional Resources" at the bottom of the page.

</comment><comment><USER21> Most countries have online flora's and at lasses like [https://www.ala.org.au/](https://www.ala.org.au/) (Atlas of live Australia). What is often missing is nice presentations and use case specific applications like this.

</comment><comment><USER22> Does North America have that many pollinator insects in terms of population? We have some butterflies and some solitary bees. We don't have the honey bee. What would normally be pollinating these plants, all I see is honey bees and some butterflies.

<comment><USER23> I'm not sure about number of pollinator insects in terms of population, but in the southeast for example, the southeastern blueberry bee ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habropoda_laboriosa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habropoda_laboriosa)) pollinates blueberries through buzz pollination. I believe even commercial blueberry operations rely on this pollinator, as blueberries are native to North America and those bees are its primary pollinators.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Hope they include milkweed on the lists for endangered Monarchs.

[https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/how-to-start-monarch- butt...](https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/how-to-start-monarch-butterfly- garden/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Anything that flowers produces pollen right - so hmm.

However, I always like to have a patch of wild flowers (localy sourced previous year for seed) in along with chives and lavander. Look nice and just before the lockdown I went out and sowed some in a few spots along with some sunflowers.

Logic being that they will bloom around the time everybody really down from the lockdown and help chirp up people, also good for nature and birds love sunflower seed. Which is one thing I feed them regularly with my window feeder and been a joy over the past few weeks and months ahead.

You can make a window bird feeder with some perspex or even cut and glue up some milk containers - few suction cups and tada, simple and effective little bird feeder and they do use them and who needs 4k/8k.. when you have real life out a window comming to you. Highly recommended.

<comment><USER25> > Anything that flowers produces pollen right - so hmm.

Technically, that may be right but is beyond the point. Very often, for alien species the local pollinators will not recognize the plant as such and thus ignore it. A prime example for this is Forsythia that a lot of people in my area plant because its one of the first flowering trees in the year. However, from an ecological standpoint it is worthless and for some insects even suspected to be toxic.

Another problem are breeds where the blossom is filled with extra petals. While this may look nice to us, it makes the pollen and nectar inaccessible to many insects. As they are still drawn to the flower but cannot reach it, its also net negative for those critters.

<comment><USER4> Fascinating, I did not know that, do now - thank you.

I use local wildflower seed harvested from walks the previous year, though mostly from previous years sowings now as got some momentum going.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It really bugs me when people put stuff on the Internet like this, an International network of often English speaking people many of whom don't live in the USA. It happens all the time. "Series X to be releaesd next month", "Hardware y to be releaesd on Monday", as if they have suddenly forgotten that there's an _entire rest of the world_ who may be reading this.

<comment><USER27> It gets worse - "X to be released this fall". When exactly?

<comment><USER12> Are there many places outside the US that use 'fall' over 'autumn'?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> They have California, Florida, and the rest are just regional pamphlets.

<comment><USER11> California is big enough and isolated enough by mountains to be considered a distinct region. Florida is different enough to be considered distinct from the rest of the south. Nature doesn't care about state borders. Regional pamphlets make sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists _in the USA_ , there FTFY.</comment>


In a weird sneaker-net way we have implemented a human DNS - <AUTHOR> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/12/03/wikileaksOnTheRun.html <comment><USER2> In Soviet Russia ... no wait, seriously ... in Soviet Russia, when they tried to control copy machines and fax machines, people used typewriters, pen and ink, and good old sneaker net to create and distribute their samizdat.

<comment><USER3> This works both ways. When everyone can see the communiques, the communiques go offline.

<comment><USER4> That's exactly what Assange wants to do - make it more inconvenient for people in power to collude in secret.

What's really working both ways here is the samizdat analogy. Wikileaks is the next logical step after samizdat in the fight against tyranny.

<comment><USER3> Depends on how much you trust them, really. What you call collusion is, for them, co-operation. There were a lot of powerful internal voices in the security industry against the kind of online information-sharing that makes a leak like this possible.

The reason they were overruled was because 9/11 in particular showed how badly joined up the information services were. Now the pendulum will swing the other way again, inevitably.

I'm not yet convinced this a great outcome. Shouldn't diplomatic staff be able to send back accurate assessments of political figures in countries where the US has interests? If internal comms are sanitised for potential public exposure, who benefits?

The "taking on tyranny" rhetoric surrounding wikileaks is overheated, too. Assange is taking on the softest Western governments; the ones who will go after him with arrest warrants. Were he _actually_ to take on tyranny he knows he'd end up in a London clinic with radiation poisoning.

<comment><USER4> "Shouldn't diplomatic staff be able to send back accurate assessments of political figures in countries where the US has interests? If internal comms are sanitised for potential public exposure, who benefits?"

Why do you think Wikileaks is only about the US? Right now the cables leaked out are from the US, but the point is to do this to every government. Everyone opposed to statism and nationalism benefits.

"Were he actually to take on tyranny he knows he'd end up in a London clinic with radiation poisoning."

Except Litvinenko wasn't interested in revealing state secrets, but in making schemes with Russian oligarchs. Which is probably why he's the only Soviet or Russian defector to have died under suspicious circumstances since 1959.

<comment><USER3> "Why do you think Wikileaks is only about the US? Right now the cables leaked out are from the US, but the point is to do this to every government. Everyone opposed to statism and nationalism benefits."

I think a dog only barks because that's all I've heard it do. I think you're choosing a "point" that chimes with your hopes, not the facts.

Your "benefits" too need made more explicit. I'm opposed to nationalism and don't see any short or long-term benefits for me, here. Doing actions contrary to the welfare of a national state doesn't automatically amount to a benefit for anti-nationalists.

On the contrary, there are serious questions to be asked about what this will do to things that actively help nations to work together, such as diplomatic backchannels. Severing those is no more laudable, and far more potentially lethal, than when TC posted Twitter's internal emails.

As for 1959, your answer's a little fine in its splitting of the hair -- the KGB went after plenty in its time, including assisting in the bizarre murder of Markov, and the "suicide" of Shevchenko's wife. There were also the many sentenced to death that had to be hidden by the CIA. Lets not start on the Stasi, either.

If your point was that tyrannies don't murder their citizens for treason, you'll have a tough sell. That's why actually taking them on is a lot harder than taking on a government that -- as the cables are showing -- is actually relatively close to plain-speaking in its dealing with other nations. A lot of the embarrassment has come from second-hand revelations about what _other_ countries have been lying about.

<comment><USER4> "Doing actions contrary to the welfare of a national state doesn't automatically amount to a benefit for anti-nationalists."

I don't know if you've seen this already, but this summarizes Assange's views well: [http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange- an...](http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-and-the- computer-conspiracy-%E2%80%9Cto-destroy-this-invisible-government%E2%80%9D/)

"I'm opposed to nationalism and don't see any short or long-term benefits for me, here."

I see a lot of potential benefits for people currently being murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"On the contrary, there are serious questions to be asked about what this will do to things that actively help nations to work together, such as diplomatic backchannels."

Nations working together towards what? The whole point is that nations work together for the benefit of those governing them. The only reason you and I aren't property of god-kings at this point in history is because in the past people have resisted tribal/nationalist/statist power.

"As for 1959, your answer's a little fine in its splitting of the hair -- the KGB went after plenty in its time, including assisting in the bizarre murder of Markov, and the "suicide" of Shevchenko's wife. There were also the many sentenced to death that had to be hidden by the CIA. Lets not start on the Stasi, either."

Do you think Africa is a country? How is it splitting hairs to be aware that "Eastern Europe" isn't a single place?

"If your point was that tyrannies don't murder their citizens for treason, you'll have a tough sell."

Every country punishes its citizens for treason. Assange isn't a citizen of the United States. Bradley Manning is.

<comment><USER3> "I see a lot of potential benefits for people currently being murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan."

1\. Expose internal documents. 2\. ???? 3\. Fewer people being murdered in Iraq.

Going to need to spell out 2 here, because nothing wikileaks has done so far has done anything to stop those deaths, and isn't likely to. Assange's, yours and Winer's stances all assume that the states involved won't change their methods in response to informational insecurity, and will instead continue business as usual. This is a strange assumption.

"Do you think Africa is a country? How is it splitting hairs to be aware that "Eastern Europe" isn't a single place?"

It was you who took my allusion to Litvinenko and turned into it something exclusively exclusively about Russia. My point was, and remains, that tyrannies murder to protect themselves, and high-minded rhetoric about bringing them down comes to naught when you just pick on the soft targets.

<comment><USER4> "Assange's, yours and Winer's stances all assume that the states involved won't change their methods in response to informational insecurity, and will instead continue business as usual. This is a strange assumption."

Please read Assange's manifesto, I posted the link for a reason. The whole point of Wikileaks is to force states to "change their methods in response to informational insecurity" and make their functioning less efficient. Armed revolution isn't popular these days, and this is a bloodless, scalable, and morally unassailable (well, for normal people's morals, anyway) way to attack the functioning of a government.

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

Also, I just learned about this: [http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/03/wikileaks-cables- rev.ht...](http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/03/wikileaks-cables-rev.html)

Let's see what the outcome will be.

<comment><USER3> I read the manifesto; it's troubling for people who, like me, are in support of the general principle of greater transparency but don't support an ideological reading of the US as an authoritarian conspiracy.

As for "morally unassailable", that's a ridiculous assertion. HN can't even decide whether or not TechCrunch was right to publish the Twitter emails; this is at a much more morally complicated level. The potential to put people in harm's way is being used by politicians as a stick to beat WikiLeaks, but nonetheless there's something to it.

When Amnesty International says you're putting people in danger, there's more than just hype to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, they can always just twitter their current IP...

And if their servers are shut down, create checksummed files released into the bittorrent cloud.

Eventually this will either end sanely, or in another Great Firewall.

<comment><USER6> Twitter would make a fine DNS actually.

<comment><USER7> History of unreliability, check. Centralized, check. Business model that has nothing to do with replacing DNS, check. Will probably give in to the US government without a fight, ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think there is some lack of technical knowledge with the people who are running wikileaks as they are still using the same free dns service with a new domain rather than switching to another dns that might be able to handle their traffic (DDOS) with a known domain name.

(everydns.net is the dns service they are using)

<comment><USER9> Since moving a host to another IP address practically requires temporarily setting a low TTL (which may have been what actually caused the DDoS), creating an entirely new domain with a high TTL is a reasonable (albeit desperate) attempt to reduce the load on the authoritative nameserver. I doubt it's a lack of technical knowledge as much as it is lack of resources in what amounts to a perfect storm (hot potato content, inherent DNS weakness, scalability during surge of popularity, etc.).

<comment><USER8> I was coupling it with the fact that they used the same dns service that previously dropped them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Amazon cuts them off, then says the Lieberman call had nothing to do with it. We have no reason to doubt Amazon. It's consistent with their philosophy of not taking sides in political battles."

Seriously? Is there some memo addressing this self-evident truth that I missed? What Amazon did was politically expedient. That doesn't mean they didn't take sides.

<comment><USER11> "We have no reason to doubt Amazon" != "It is clearly obvious that their stated motivation is true." It's a claim that there isn't a lot of evidence for the claim that Amazon has bowed to politics in the past, which is not the same as saying that they didn't this time. I do not have enough evidence to judge the claim myself, I'm just observing what you're reading the text as is not what it says.

I would also point out that large service hosts also have a vested interest in resisting government intrusions, because it's bad for Amazon to have a reputation of trashing your service every time some government somewhere burbles something to them. Exactly how "expedient" this is overall is actually a tricky thing to judge and the evidence isn't all one-sided. Again, I don't have enough information to judge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> What I don't understand is EveryDNS's claim that the DDoS was affecting them. Why would the bots be making repeated DNS requests? It seems like an efficient bot would cache the IP in order to speed up the flood.

<comment><USER7> Is the DoS targeted against WikiLeaks or EveryDNS? Attackers have been known to target DNS servers instead of HTTP servers if that's the weakest point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Saying that a torrent can't be DDoS'd is wrong. The tracker can be DDoS's and DHT doesn't seem (at least to me) to be as good at distribution as using a tracker.

<comment><USER14> I'm sure that there are at least 10 - 20 _different_ trackers, though, that are tracking this torrent. If they all disappear, more will pop up.

<comment><USER15> the problem with official cablegate torrents is that there are very few trackers in them and DHT is reportedly disabled. Not sure why they did it this way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> At the end a respondant mentions a torrent offering the wikileaks information. Anyone got a link to it? I am having trouble finding it.

<comment><USER16> Found it: [http://www.alivetorrents.com/torrent/9087183/wikileaks- cable...](http://www.alivetorrents.com/torrent/9087183/wikileaks- cablegate-20101203-mirror)

<comment><USER17> size: 8.50mb

I doubt that's all of it.

<comment><USER16> No, it's about 0.25% of it by number of cables released, to be precise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> <http://bit.ly/WiKiLeaks>

</comment><comment><USER18> <http://goo.gl/fGrjo></comment>


"Uh-oh. I didn't know conversation had rules." - <AUTHOR> http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/conversation/ <comment><USER3> Anyone who is really interested in this concept should pick up "Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships" by Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron.

Dr. Grandin is herself autistic, and asserts that people along the autism- Asperger's spectrum need to learn the rules explicitly, like actors learning their lines in a play.

<comment><USER4> Learning the rules is the easy part. The hard part is training yourself to do them consistently. It takes some mental energy and effort.

For example, I've learned that eye contact is important, and have trained myself to do it subconsciously, but when I'm tired or have just given blood, I stop doing it.

<comment><USER3> Absolutely. Even though she has worked hard to study and understand the rules, Dr. Grandin has explicitly given up on the idea of ever being in a romantic relationship, as it's just too much work for her.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Other kinds of conversational rules, perhaps of more interest to linguists, programmers, philosophers, etc.:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicature>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gricean_maxim>

<comment><USER6> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicature>

Hey, that's really, really fantastic and useful. I can't believe I've never seen it before.

Are you in linguistics? Care to recommend some more reading, articles, essays?

<comment><USER5> I took some philosophy classes in college, where I learned about the concept. If you want to read more, the best place to start would be the references and external links provided in the Wikipedia articles. Also try googling for papers by Grice.

<comment><USER6> I'm skimming and bookmarking some Grice right now. Exciting stuff. Thank you :)

<comment> saint-loup Just to add few links basically in the same field:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Searle#Speech_acts>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relevance_theory>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I realized a few months ago that I was talking too much in conversations, and not listening nearly enough. So for the last few months, I've decided to talk a lot less, and spend a lot more time just listening to people. In one on one conversation, I mostly just ask the other guy about the things he's talking about, to lead him into deeper (perhaps more interesting) areas.

This is a great way to talk about interesting things.

<comment><USER8> I have a similar project of self-improvement going on, but I find the problem much subtler than what you describe.

First off, yeah, with the people I most value, I talk too much and don't listen enough. Mea culpa, must improve.

On the other hand, perhaps I just need to level up my skill at asking guiding questions, and perhaps I just need to widen my interests, but I frequently have trouble being interested in what people want to talk about. In particular, I often find people want to tell stories about a particular experience they have, for the purpose of complaining about other people, refusing to generalize the experience, and refusing empathize with the person they're complaining about. That's boring!

Perhaps relatedly, I've recently been thinking that maybe I should put a little more work into consciously deciding if a conversant is interesting to me, and then choosing to pursue a boorish strategy or a collaborative strategy appropriately (perhaps erring on the side of collaborative). I've definitely had some totally boring people recently exclaim how fun I am to talk to and how much they'd like to hang out more in the future. Oops. It's probably imprudent, though, to attempt this strategy in groups with more than one other person present.

<comment><USER7> Yeah; I like to assume that the fault always rests on me. Perhaps it's not always true, but I think that's the fastest way to improve. As for what you specifically mention, I would try to find a deeper cause of complaints. I ask stuff like "does this happen often?" or "do you find that other people are like these people? Why?"

I think that there are always ways to (gradually!) steer a conversation to what you both find mutually interesting. It is an art, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Would the alien ever learn to distinguish good dancers from poor dancers?

He could hack the problem like this: instead of figuring out which type of dancing is impressive directly, just watch reactions. People react to what they think is good dancing, so by watching people he can learn what's considered good dancing.

<comment><USER10> But people also react to what is _bad_ dancing; you'd have to know what reactions are favorable, and what reactions indicate displeasure. This would be hard for aliens, who wouldn't know what facial expressions mean.

<comment><USER11> Perhaps a reality TV show about dancing with stars that think they can dance would be better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wish that both CS and MBA programs taught students to listen more. One of the few similarities I find between programmers/engineers and MBAs is the need to completely dominate a conversation. A few seminars on active listening would help everyone :)

<comment><USER13> You may have sampling bias - you tend to hear more the ones that completely dominate conversations. This doesn't immediately mean they are really the majority.

Personally, I wish my CS program taught me to speak more at a conversation setting (as opposed to "raise your hand to speak" classroom). I spent the first 3 years of my career unable to get a word in at meetings.

<comment><USER14> No offense, but that doesn't really seem like the job of your CS program. No doubt a communications course would have helped, though engineers tend to look down on that major.

<comment><USER13> Of course it isn't! I was just riffing off the idea in the parent comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you haven't already read How to Win Friends and Influence People, you definitely should.

<comment><USER16> One of my bosses made a difficult coworker take a Dale Carnegie class. Afterward he said that it "changed his life." I thought it made him even creepier with the constant fake smile, eye contact and repetition of people's first name in conversation.

<comment><USER17> I agree. To me it sounds rather aggressive if people keep repeating my name while they already have my attention.

<comment><USER18> I meet up to about 20 children a day (sometimes a lot more, often a lot of adults too, but more often more children) that I don't know and need to communicate with. The kids are generally 4-10 years old but, as I said, it can be all ages.

I find that the children respond far better if I use their names when talking with them - but this is short snippets of talk (maybe 30s) with longer (20+min) gaps between. I always introduce my self by given-name and am surprised by how many of them remember me months later.

Partly I use their names as an attempt to remember them, partly to ease any discomfort or reluctance they have communicating with me and partly because I find it awkward starting a conversation or getting someone's attention without using their name.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I would agree that there are few people with even minimal conversational skills. It is fantastic though when you run in to someone who really knows how to have a good conversation! I've only run in to one or two of these conversation super stars in my lifetime though.

I'd be really interested in a book that outlines the rules for a relationship... It would be nice to have something authoritative to point to when disagreements crop up.

<comment><USER20> An authoritative source would need to cover all possible contexts (not to mention the problem of actually being right), which would make it infinite in length....

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This article seems too simplistic and an immature viewpoint to me.

1\. People do note if you are interested or not. Speaking all the time mostly equals to being self-centered. Making questions all the time can certainly please a self-centered person, but not those who note subtleties: getting a disinterested or a stock question is the same repelling as domineering.

2\. People are adaptive and notice patterns. A good way to be boring is to do the same pattern in conversations. Try to seduct a girl by just making questions to her. (Where do you live; Are you stydiyng or working; etc.) That doesn't work.

3\. Those who follow such too simple rule can easily be abused: a lot of people complain to others and search for those who'd just listen. They can never get enough, and what's worse they don't value you.

You have to be able to tell some words of support, but also, to not become a moral drainage to someone, you need to LEAD. This is a complicated thing, so I don't extend it here.

5\. Making questions takes skill. Questions may be stupid, irritating, insulting or nerdy and boring. There's no boolean choice, to speak or to make questions, as it is presented in the article.

6\. A good story teller is better than a good question maker. This also takes skill and the sense of what's a good place to which story.

For talks as an entertainment, which is my primary concern here, the difficulty is in INVOLVING THE interlocutor's PERSONALITY. Consider 2 questions one might ask:

(a) Do you think Paris Hilton's recent behavior is acceptable? (b) What would you do if you were Paris Hilton? (her father, brother, etc)

The second one lets the inerlocutor imagine oneself in an interesting situation and involves the personality. This thing is rare, I do value it high; too many talks happen in the upper atmosphere without involving you, and too many people don't get it and don't try to involve others, thinking that just smiling or being joyful, or flattery is the key. Though, this also takes skill, and I suppose that if you try too hard, people can get bored even of being _tried_ to involve: we all are good at noticing patterns.

</comment><comment><USER22> For me, a big part of it isn't so much learning the rules, but unlearning the non-rules. In hindsight, a lot of the rules really aren't that complex, and can be easily picked up through observation.

The problem is that some people have overly sensitive radars, so we tend to pick up the noise along with the signal. On top of that we have a questioning nature, and we don't like to follow a rule based on its face value, we end up lingering in doubts on the universality of the rule, or its moral justifications. Other times we hold a rule in contempt, seeing it as cliche. All these get in the way when a social exchange demands you to apply the rules swiftly without thinking.

</comment><comment><USER23> I don't particularly agree with his definition of good dancing. Sounds to me like his pinnacle of dance is just "fitting in". Good dancing IMO is about enjoying yourself, effectively translating the sound into movement and/or letting yourself go.

</comment><comment><USER24> Keyword here is active listening: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening>

<comment><USER25> Key concept is that if people want to submit themselves to a one-way stream of communication, they have TV and the internet for that. If a conversation isn't two-way, you're alienating someone.

<comment><USER26> A proper conversation should be an exchange of gifts. Your words are a gift to them, and theirs to you. Never give yourself a gift.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> It's interesting to consider that entire societies have been built around these concepts. Usually when I see the Implicature thing that has been mentioned here, I often question whether the exact opposite (or something else all together) should be considered first; from there, you can think about whether everyone might be right.

Similarly, with those maxims about communication it's as if everyone is striving for a genuine meaning. However, if you take things to their limit there is nihilism everywhere.

The aliens, asper people, and 3/4's of everyone could just be unaware but also just rejecting the conventional notions of conversation.

</comment><comment><USER28> "I HAVE observed few obvious subjects to have been so seldom, or, at least, so slightly handled as this; and, indeed, I know few so difficult to be treated as it ought, nor yet upon which there seemeth so much to be said." - <USER2> Swift, Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation.

<http://www.bartleby.com/27/8.html>

</comment><comment><USER29> Uh-oh, if 3/4 of people can't conversate, couldn't it just be that people aren't meant to do that?

<comment><USER30> I know I'm going against the grain here, but I've always been suspicious of people who claim that humans are a "social animal." Thing is, the concept is a continuum, yet most people who say it mean it in a context like ants, bees and bonobo apes, when I happen to believe that the social behavior of lions and wolves is more apt. (Humans are best off in small family clusters, with significant periods of time in their life alone or paired off.) Humans have engaged in antisocial and asocial activities (monasteries, homesteads, and hermitage) for all of recorded history, and I resent those today who seem to delight in trying to make other gregarious like themselves.

<comment><USER31> Monasteries and homesteads have never attracted a significant proportion of the population, and they're not all that solitary, either.

Humans are a social animal, and if you're not convinced of that, study the psychological effects of feral children and solitary confinement.

<comment><USER30> Read what I wrote more closely. I didn't say "no contacts," I said "few." Being social doesn't imply packing our "monkeyspheres" to the 100 person maximum that the social butterflies seem to want to subject everybody to.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Images and Sketch files of popular devices - <AUTHOR> http://facebook.github.io/design/devices <comment><USER2> I hope it's fine to post this link, but I have some simple, free sketch sheets of phones, tablets and web browsers. These are designed for printing out and sketching on paper. They are in SVG so you can create your own sketch sheets. The files are CC licenced.

[http://www.interfacesketch.com](http://www.interfacesketch.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> Very handy, but this page could do with a proper CC licence rather than the vague "feel free but don't" statement. I'm currently on mobile & the links don't appear to be working properly, so please correct me if there actually is a licence and I just can't see it.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, all I could find was this disclaimer.

      While Facebook has redrawn and shares these assets for the benefit of the design community, Facebook does not own any of the underlying product or user interface designs. By accessing these assets, you agree to obtain all necessary permissions from the underlying rights holders and/or adhere to any applicable brand use guidelines before using them. Facebook disclaims all express or implied warranties with respect to these assets, including non-infringement of intellectual property rights.

And this text at the end of the copy.

      Feel free to use these files in any private or public space. Please do not repackage and redistribute these as your own.

Needs an actual copyleft license on there somewhere before I use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The source files are exclusively Sketch, and Photoshop/PSD is absent. The UI design community has been shifting for more than a year, Apple started releasing UI templates in Sketch in addition to Photoshop in 2015 — Google even earlier.

Illustrator is still highly relevant for its strength, vector based work, while Sketch has surpassed Photoshop for UI.

The momentum is only increasing, even with bugs and issues found in Sketch. It's obvious the interface design community desires better tools. I wonder if Adobe Comet stands a chance with disruption we're seeing?

<comment><USER6> OS X only. What a pity. Also, has anyone reverse-engineered the file format yet?

<comment><USER7> It's just XML IIRC.

<comment><USER8> So is SVG! Hell even docx is just XML!

<comment><USER9> It's a bit like saying "it's just ones and zeros".

<comment><USER10> Not really. XML parsers are readily available for every mainstream programming language. DOCX is a public standard as well. Unlike "ones and zeros", XML's structure is transparent.

<comment><USER11> Have you ever tried to parse DOCX/XMLX/PPTX anti-XML pattern? A XML- serialization of their old OLE based formats.

SVG, OpenDocument, ... are real XML based formats.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Could this be considered an example of Facebook commoditizing their complement? In other words, if Facebook can encourage cross-platform or multi- platform software in general, does it make it harder for hardware companies to differentiate themselves with platform-specific features that compete with Facebook (e.g. iMessage or Xbox Live)?

I suppose this would also go for Flux/React/GraphQL and, to a lesser extent, Open Compute.

</comment><comment><USER13> Thanks for sharing, this is pretty amazing.

</comment><comment><USER14> Really useful. Thanks!</comment>


Show HN: Fdir – Faster Node.js glob alternative - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/thecodrr/fdir <comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone,

I recently created fdir mostly out of curiosity about how fast a program written in Node.js could be. It so happened that I (accidentally) created the fastest directory crawler in the NodeJS environment. fdir can easily crawl around 1 million files in under 1 second. 1 million files distributed in about 100k directories. (your mileage may vary depending on hardware).

It's also < 1kb in size (gzipped). Supports all node versions (> 6).

Feel free to give it a run and ask me any questions (if any) :D

Blog post: [https://dev.to/thecodrr/how-i-wrote-the-fastest-directory- cr...](https://dev.to/thecodrr/how-i-wrote-the-fastest-directory-crawler- ever-3p9c)

Take care, thecodrr

<comment><USER2> I don't like it when a software description includes claims like "fast", "lightweight", "secure", "simple".

That is not an intrinsic trait of your software, just an aspirational thing.

<comment><USER3> All projects make trade-offs on values, and I'm happy to see what values the author would like to identify their project with. Unless the project is already done and in maintenance mode, yes, it's aspirational.

<comment><USER2> It is also irresponsible and misleading to say it. It is self-promoting in a way that is against the best interest of the user.

We are engineers not snake oil salesmen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This here looks wrong: [https://github.com/thecodrr/fdir/blob/master/index.js#L86](https://github.com/thecodrr/fdir/blob/master/index.js#L86) It's calling a blocking method from async in Node <10

Another thing I noticed, it looks you only handle `dirent.isDirectory()`, but not `dirent.isSymbolicLink()` (meaning the library won't find files in symlinked folders, e.g. lerna node_modules)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, thanks for taking the interest.

Yes, that sync method call is intentional (for now) +. I have been meaning to add separate lstat call for async/sync for < node 10 without impacting performance. So that will change. Thanks for pointing that out.

Handling symlinks is work in progress. (it will be exposed as an option that you can enable/disable because symlinks resolution is expensive and not everyone wants that).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This has absolutely nothing to do with globbing. The title is very misleading – I was super excited to see a new glob library.

<comment><AUTHOR> How so? You can easily extend the searchFn to do the glob matching of files for you. I wanted to keep it dependency free. So I fail to see how fdir has "absolutely nothing to do with globbing"? Care to explain?

<comment><USER4> Not parent, but I think their argument is that this lib doesn't implement a glob interface so calling it a glob alternative is misleading, i.e. one cannot easily replace a globbing library with this if they expose the glob DSL as an interface. It's more accurate to say that your lib is a recursive-readdir alternative.

<comment><AUTHOR> In that case, fair enough. But no reason to be dishearted, we can always make "fdir-glob" that has globbing built in :D but you are right, not an easy* alternative but still an alternative.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I took it for a ride

They all list all files recursively in a sync fashion, from the node_modules dir (like in the benchmark), excluding dirs, and print a total count.

Here are the results calculated with hyperfine ([https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine](https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine)):

        hyperfine "bash test.sh" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: bash test.sh
        Time (mean ± σ):       7.5 ms ±   0.5 ms    [User: 4.5 ms, System: 4.2 ms]
        Range (min … max):     6.9 ms …  10.5 ms    332 runs

        hyperfine "perl test.pl" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: perl test.pl
        Time (mean ± σ):      25.6 ms ±   1.2 ms    [User: 16.8 ms, System: 8.8 ms]
        Range (min … max):    24.0 ms …  30.8 ms    97 runs

        hyperfine "python3.7 test.py" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: python3.7 test.py
        Time (mean ± σ):      43.4 ms ±   1.4 ms    [User: 32.6 ms, System: 10.9 ms]
        Range (min … max):    40.9 ms …  46.8 ms    66 runs

        hyperfine "ruby test.rb" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: ruby test.rb
        Time (mean ± σ):      66.5 ms ±   2.0 ms    [User: 52.1 ms, System: 14.4 ms]
        Range (min … max):    63.2 ms …  70.3 ms    42 runs

        hyperfine "node test.js" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: node test.js
        Time (mean ± σ):      83.7 ms ±   4.0 ms    [User: 74.7 ms, System: 15.6 ms]
        Range (min … max):    79.4 ms …  95.3 ms    36 runs

Here are the results of an hello world with each runtime for comparison:

        hyperfine "bash test.sh" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: bash test.sh
        Time (mean ± σ):       1.2 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 1.1 ms, System: 0.3 ms]
        Range (min … max):     0.9 ms …   3.8 ms    1521 runs

        hyperfine "perl test.pl" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: perl test.pl
        Time (mean ± σ):       1.3 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 1.3 ms, System: 0.3 ms]
        Range (min … max):     1.0 ms …   5.3 ms    1103 runs

        hyperfine "python3.7 test.py" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: python3.7 test.py
        Time (mean ± σ):      19.5 ms ±   0.9 ms    [User: 16.2 ms, System: 3.4 ms]
        Range (min … max):    18.3 ms …  23.7 ms    144 runs

        hyperfine "ruby test.rb" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: ruby test.rb
        Time (mean ± σ):      55.2 ms ±   2.2 ms    [User: 47.2 ms, System: 8.1 ms]
        Range (min … max):    52.2 ms …  61.9 ms    51 runs

        hyperfine "node test.js" --warmup 5
        Benchmark #1: node test.js
        Time (mean ± σ):      55.4 ms ±   1.8 ms    [User: 49.5 ms, System: 7.0 ms]
        Range (min … max):    53.0 ms …  60.0 ms    53 runs

Now, my machine is not setup for a clean benchmark. The disk cache is warmed up. Hyperthreading is on. Other softwares are running.

Plus the scripts all found a slightly different number of files :) I suspect they all treat symlinks/dotted dirs differently, and I didn't take the time to normalize. Although I don't think this makes up for the difference.

Still the result is a bit interesting. The non JS tests are not using any 3rd party libs. Ruby and Node seems to have the same cost for VM startup.

I'm quite surprised that node is last frankly, especially on a uber optimized code. I'm expecting V8 code to be blazing fast as it's Google made and C++.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, thanks for taking the interest and the time to audit and benchmark.

You can get a rough idea of VM startup time by running a simple hello world program.

fdir is supposed to compete against nodejs alternatives so I am not surprised it comes last. Maybe the next goal should be to optimize it against other cross language platforms.

V8 does a lot of optimizations but there is still overhead. A native solution in bash has little to no overhead so no wonder it's the fastest.

Anyway, thanks again. This benchmark was insightful (also humbling).

<comment><USER6> Gonna add test with hello world to see vm startup time.

<comment><AUTHOR> If we subtract the vm time from total time that should (very roughly) be the time taken for fdir to crawl the directory.

So basically:

83ms - 55ms = 28ms

Not bad, not bad. :D the scale remains the same tho so not that beneficial.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a replacement for walk, not glob.</comment>


Ask HN: Did you order an iPad? Why or why not? - <AUTHOR>

Hey, it's the weekend and I didn't see this posted here yet.<p>I am holding off. Normally I would splurge, but I can't really afford it right now.  Maybe this summer. <comment><USER2> Ordered one for work and will order the 3G version myself (need a couple of weeks to build back up the personal budget). Looking at it, I will probably add the Dock and a wireless keyboard. I am not too keen on their case and will probably just by a third part sleeve to protect it in my bag.

The big question for me is what to do about my "actual" computer. I am no longer sure I am going to buy a portable. I might actually buy and iMac or Power Mac. I am really looking at my traveling habits and if I can get by with the iPad.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder what it will be like using a keyboard without a mouse. Will there be keyboard shortcuts in mail so that you can burn through email without touching the screen? And then, at what point do you just end up with a laptop again.

I am trusting apple that this thing is meant to be used hands on.

<comment><USER2> I get the feeling that someone will do a text editor that uses the keyboard only and if it has a built in e-mail, etc.

side note: I wonder how emacs would fair in the "no interpreted code"? Probably doesn't matter as anyone who would want to run it on an iPad probably would be a developer and could load it themselves.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not yet, maybe not ever. Until I come across a really compelling use case for one I probably won't buy one.

I also think that with stuff like this it is _much_ better to let other people find out that first releases of pieces of hardware can have all kinds of issues.

If at all, then by the time the hype has worn off and I have had a chance to play with one for a bit, and after I've seen what the use is of a device like that.

I've never owned a PDA because I thought I didn't need one, use my cell phone to make voice calls with and as a camera, very rarely to browse the web.

I love technology but I can't get excited because of hype alone, I need to see it, play with it, think of stuff I can do with it that I can't do in another way.

I have a little 3G netbook that gives me as much or more functionality than what I can imagine I could do with an ipad.

</comment><comment><USER4> My electronics priorities are:

1) new laptop

2) smartphone

3) iPad? The desire to own an iPad is a bit more of a luxury than a necessity at this moment.

</comment><comment><USER5> There are plenty of reasons why people should or shouldn't grab an iPad. If you have come to rely on MobileMe, which means you probably have a MacBook, iMac, and iPhone. Then an iPad would be great. I for one am more of a Google fanboy. I own a Droid Eris, I don't use Microsoft Office or iWork, I use Google Docs. I use Google Calendar, Reader and everything else Google. Therefore, there isn't any reason to buy an iPad. An Archos internet tablet is probably more suitable for me.

</comment><comment><USER6> No. Have better uses for my money. Don't see what value it offers me.

</comment><comment><USER7> I almost ordered one, and still really want one, but got cold feet when I failed to find evidence of a way to get my own (read: not through Apple's eBook store) eBooks on and off the thing without iTunes - I'm a Linux user.

Unless someone on HN happens to know whether it's possible to use the iPad's WiFi to move data or eBooks in particular?

I thought the iPad's web browser might work, but if Apple decides to restrict its download mechanism or not have the downloaded books show up in the eBook reader, that might be a problem.

I'm probably worrying too much, but I'd hate to end up with a ~$800 device (3G) I can't really use much for the primary purpose for which I wanted it in the first place.

<comment><USER2> I think your kinda outa luck with iTunes. It seems iTunes is listed in the requirements. I wonder if iTunes works enough under WINE to use for syncing. It is stated on Apple's website that third-party ePub books could be synced to the iPad.

<comment><USER7> I don't use it currently, but according to AppDB it has a spotty compatibility history, so I'm not sure.

I'm hesitant to rely on the "iTunes under WINE" method for fear of future updates breaking compatibility. I could dual boot, but that pushes the hassle to reward ratio a little too far for me personally.

I guess I'll take a wait and see on the iPad. Oh, well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I bought two - a fully loaded 3g one for myself and a wifi one "for my mom," which coincidentally, will not leave my possession until the 3g one arrives.

In the meantime, I'll be working on an app for it.

<comment><USER9> Make sure you also spend some money on a security detail for your mom, specially when traveling in the geek parts of town.

<comment><USER8> I might put a tracking device on it. If someone steals it, I'll find him/her and try to recruit as a cofounder.

<comment><USER10> What kind of company are you cofounding exactly where your ideal partner steals iPads ....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> At 8:48 AM I placed my order. I want to be able to tell others in the future, that I was one of the first to partake on the shift from laptops to tablets. There's no doubt that this or some other device like it, will replace laptops in the same way that the former replaced desktops.

The vision for computing that originated over 40 years ago may finally have a chance to come to fruition with these types of devices. The iPad will initiate this movement. Only time will tell.

<comment><USER3> > I want to be able to tell others in the future, that I was one of the first > to partake on the shift from laptops to tablets.

You'd be partaking in the shift from laptops to tablets (assuming that will happen as radically as that) if you worked on developing a tablet or something like that.

Ordering a consumer device is nothing to tell your grandchildren about.

Personal achievement is.

<comment><USER11> > Ordering a consumer device is nothing to tell your grandchildren about.

While my personal achievements are aplenty, I would beg to differ. Au contraire. I can easily make the case that personal devices make a great impact on society as a whole. While the mere purchase of the device is nothing to brag about, recognizing its potential in history is. Refresh your Marshal Macluhan Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man or wait to buy it as an iBook. Or you can simply ask anyone who purchased one of the first Sony Walkmans, an Atari 2400 or even a Toyota Prius (not a gadget) if they felt that the deep in their minds, things were just not the same anymore.

Is the purchase an achievement? Probably not. A snapshot in time that deserves recognition? Absolutely.

<comment><USER3> You are purchasing a consumer device that will be made in the hundreds of thousands. That alone means that you are not 'special' in any way doing this.

The 'first' were the people that bought newtons back in the day.

The ipad, while (probably) executed very well does not break new ground beyond being a slick re-implementation of a number of ideas in a single package.

And it's a step backward in many ways when compared to a 'real' computer, it is basically your personal window in to the stuff that apple permits you to install.

Be the first to jailbreak the thing, program it to allow the making of voice calls or to put linux on it. That would merit remembering.

The people that built it can brag about that, those that buy it are merely early adopters of a second wave of devices like this. (or actually, a third if you count the amazon devices too).

Those who bought the first Sony walkmans do not go around telling people they did so, neither do those that bought an atari or a Toyota, at least not that I know of.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but if your achievements are plentiful then why not talk about those instead. This seems a really minor item on the list of things that a person could do in their lives. Just about as interesting as being one of the first people to buy a laptop or some model computer.

Just imagine, remember kids, one day, long ago, granddad bought an ipad. Versus, one day, long ago, granddad built a house or travelled the world or did a million of other really interesting things. Sure, plenty of people travel the world, and plenty of people build houses. But those are real experiences, this is just exchanging cash for a device that you haven't even tried yet.

Anyway, it seems that I'm not capable of getting my point across so I'll leave it at that.

<comment><USER12> Actually, we build our own reality. So in the life of the OP him buying the iPad is more significant an event than SJ conceiving it or Apple making it.

Besides his grandkids would be far more interested in what he did and chose.

We are the stars of the movie of our lives. Unless we choose to make someone else the hero.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> No. I don't need one and I'm not going to develop for the platform.

Same reason I didn't get an iPhone or Droid.

I am pretty low-tech for a geek/programmer. Still, I'm nowhere near as low- tech as this dude: <http://jason.rohrer.usesthis.com/> It is pretty impressive what he is able to accomplish.

</comment><comment><USER14> Originally ordered a 16GB 3G one but I pre-ordered a 16GB WiFi version in case I don't want to wait another couple of weeks for my first order to ship and I finally convince myself that I'll likely only use the 3G less than a handful of times over the year I have the iPad before I upgrade to the next one.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm waiting for a similar (cheaper) device that runs android. I wont commit to apples tyranny.

</comment><comment><USER16> I ordered one. For those of you who are interested in participating in an iPad Community, I have one here:

<http://www.ipadforums.net>

</comment><comment><USER17> I debated it, but instead I'm going to use the same money to buy a sony ereader and get an iphone when my contract runs up in a little bit here.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nope, because I just ordered a Nexus One instead :)

</comment><comment><USER19> Sometimes I think Apple's product sales numbers are being maintained by the people that bought AAPL stock in the last few years.

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be neat if there was that sort of financial perpetual-motion. Oh wait, that would be like the financial services industry in the US for the past 10 years. It always comes crashing down eventually.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'll wait to see if it turns out to be nothing more than a locked-down appliance,

</comment><comment><USER21> haven't ordered one myself, but my boss stated that he ordered three of them. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that I'll be getting one of the ones he ordered so I can evaluate it for our clients.

</comment><comment><USER22> No, have an iPhone and no need/want of an ebook/reader/netbook thing</comment>


Yahoo Prepares For A Black Monday - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/04/yahoo-prepares-for-a-black-monday/ <comment><USER2> >> Yahoo won't need their search marketing employees any more, possibly 2,000 employees.

They have 2,000 people on the payroll just for search marketing, and Panama is the best they can come up with?

Ouch.

</comment><comment><USER3> yahoo needs a CEO with balls, that is willing to go for it, and just cut the fat on that company. It seems to be a place that has been for long overtaken by midle management, and the coorporate b.s. that comes with it, while the good talent has left already.

I am trying to think any great product developed in house in the last year. Maybe Yahoo Answers, is decent, but what else?

<comment><USER4> They do some good open source stuff. Hadoop comes to mind.

<comment><USER5> You are right they are doing amazing open source stuff and innovation on the open source front. That ultimately helps the community. Although it is not building any value for shareholders. At the end of the day Yahoo is a public company and they need to add more revenue streams and have more profitable strategies/products.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> microsoft thinks yahoo is worth $33 with msft execs, yahoo thinks they're worth $37 with their own execs, the general public thinks they're worth... uh... well before the msft news broke, around $19. either yahoo execs have huge egos and think they're worth 2x as much, or the rest of the world is dumber than the yahoo execs. there's a lot of smart people out there (i.e. all the analysts) and there is no way the yahoo execs are 2x as smart as everybody else.

maybe yahoo has something up their sleeves. like a new social network or something. but then again, they've had very little innovation come out of there in the last few years, so i'd put my bets at $20-22 / share when the market closes on monday.

<comment><USER7> > maybe yahoo has something up their sleeves. like a new social network or > something

Hahaahaaha... OMG you are a blast. A new social network? And that would help them how? Is that what they really need? Please stop drinking the koolaid. Oh, and they do have Yahoo Profiles, kinda of a social network.

<comment><USER8> They have a ton of social networks. Yahoo Answers, Flickr, etc... Or would those be classified as "communities"?</comment></comment></comment>