Ask HN: How important is the bezzeless screen? - <AUTHOR> I was just mulling this over as I type this post on a Dell XPS 15 9560.
Samsung just recently announced their latest phone, the Galaxy S8. One of the touted features of this fancy schmancy phone is a nearly bezel-less screen. Dell's XPS line also features a similar engineering feat.
Ideally, we'd like a bezel-less screen to obtain that ever-so-slick design. As far as functionality is concerned, the bezel has done a marvelous job through the ages. What's the obbsession with the removal of the bezel? Is there something deeper about the bezel-less screen? Do we want to escape the feeling of being boxed in? What's life like after bezels? Won't the next bezel-less frontier for the screen be life, the universe, and everything? <comment><USER2> I don't get the drive to eliminate bezels. I mean, big bezels are a waste of space. On a laptop they may serve an engineering purpose, but no user purpose. But for handheld devices at least, it's nice to have enough bezel to be able to hold your device without worrying about activating touch response.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Ugh...forgot to fix the title. Mod help? Should be: "How important is the bezel-less screen?"</comment>


Rustic modern tiny house shows another clever way to do the stairs - <AUTHOR> https://www.treehugger.com/tiny-houses/clever-stairs-tiny-houses-by-darla.html <comment><AUTHOR> Compact living can make sense, but horribly unsafe stairs to navigate in the middle of the night for a pee, less so. At least these are sane...</comment>


AT&T loses nearly 1M TV customers after raising DirecTV prices - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/att-loses-nearly-1-million-tv-customers-after-raising-directv-prices/ <comment><USER2> " _...When the Department of Justice tried to stop the merger with Time Warner, AT &T told a judge in a May 2018 court filing that the merger "will enable the merged company to reduce prices." Instead, AT&T raised prices for DirecTV Now multiple times. DirecTV Now currently offers two plans that cost $50 or $70 a month, and the service charges extra for premium networks. AT&T also raised prices for its DirecTV satellite and U-verse TV services in January while simultaneously making it more expensive for customers to cancel TV or Internet service. ..._"

This should be illegal. I don't mean fines, either. An executive somewhere cooked up a plan to lie to regulators, lie to shareholders, lie to their customer base, and lie to the general public. The only way to make large companies stop acting like they're above the law is to throw some millionaire executives in jail. A regular jail, none of that "bookcase in your cell" shit. Even if the plan didn't come from them. They steer the ship in times of prosperity; they sink with the ship when it goes off course and gets a hole.

<comment><USER3> I don't think jail is the solution to this or many other problems that we imprison people for on a regular basis. I understand the anger at watching someone lie and get away with it, but fines and clawbacks are a great fit for those types of crimes. We really don't want to pay for someone to go to jail and we don't want the possibility that they'll become a repeat offender-which seems more likely if you remove they from family and society.

<comment><USER2> We're not talking about a stolen candy bar. Slap the perps wrist and they get the point.

Executives will make a dishonest decision knowing the consequences. Then they'll make $100m off the decision, get fined $20m by Uncle Sam, get a $20m golden parachute, and then do it all over again next week. Because it made financial sense to break the law at that time.

Fining a billion dollar company because an individual decided to lie is a consequence-less punishment in the same way that stealing a $1 cheeseburger from McDonalds corporate is a victimless crime.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> TV is rubbish these days. Not only the last mile delivery but all the content is so watered down it will rot your brain.

My two favorite networks Discovery and the History channel are dead.

I cut the cord in 2008 over shady billing practices from Comcast. I pay Xfinity for internet because I have to. Never again will I pay for TV.

<comment><USER5> It's stunning how difficult it is to watch Cable TV after watching streaming services for a while.

It's hard to believe there was a time that people consumed this many commercials, and didn't think anything of it.

<comment><USER6> There might actually be more commercials now than in the past. I remember hearing that TV shows were being sped up by ~10% or so, and that allows for additional time for ads.

I also think that ads are one of those things that you accept until having experienced an ad-free alternative.

<comment><USER7> Yep, some shows are sped up: [https://lifehacker.com/network-television- stations-speed-up-...](https://lifehacker.com/network-television-stations- speed-up-tv-shows-to-fit-in-1797131517)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Anecdotally, our household dropped Dish Network satellite service to go 100% over-the-network. We got Roku boxes and plugged them in to the home router.

We picked DirecTV Now as the TV channels provider. Yes, they subsequently raised prices, but we were grandfathered in under the previous plan. It was acceptable.

The thing that made us drop it was the slideshow-style insert ads promoting The Last O.G., Teen Titans Go, and one of two other shows on AT&T's own- content channel, accompanied by obnoxious, loud "music". AT&T basically _annoyed_ us into dropping their online television service. All my "told you so" thoughts were of no comfort. I knew AT&T was going to AT&T, and said so, but nobody listened to me, and so they all got to see firsthand why I hate AT&T so much.

So we decided to switch to Sling. It took all of ten minutes. AT&T has operated forever on the "no consumer choice" business model as a telecom. If it keeps pulling the same anti-consumer nonsense in a low-friction competitive market, it will die the ultra-slow death of a company that can still barely succeed just because it's too big to fail.

And to be honest, we are watching less and less of the broadcast channels, in favor of commercial-free services. The AT&T ad starkly highlighted the sheer number of advertisements that were entering our home via television, because they were all replaced with the most annoying reminder ever conceived. Netflix has no ads. The good tier of Hulu has no ads. Then you can switch over to the television channels and get the same content, only when the channel pushes it, with 1/3 ads.

</comment><comment><USER9> TV is dead in the same way CD sales were dead.

 _Anecdotally_ (yes, just me) - I've built a "whole piracy stack on my NAS" \- Sonarr, Radarr, Deluge, NZBGet, Plex, Pushbullet, with paid services for omgwtfnzbs, usenet and oznzb (I bought plex lifetime) - oh and a homerun-HD plugged into a new aerial I just had fitted to my house (pirates don't seem to care about my local UK TV).

I also pay for netflix, amazon prime, semi-premium-cable (that also provides my internet) and pay my UK TV license.

Maybe 80-90%+ of what I take from "the piracy stack" is available on the "plethora of stuff I pay for". The problem is (as with the early days of music downloads) there's no decent way of wrangling that together into a nice UI to consume from.

This is silly.

When I realized this was _silly_ , was when I found myself deliberately switching from plex to netflix to watch a show, for the sole reason that "I wanted netflix to know I was watching it and to bump up the viewer count, so they didn't cancel it".

Which reminds me.. I'd be fascinated to know if there was a Netflix stat of "existing subscribers that watch a show from episode 2 onwards"

Which further reminds me that if anybody ever wishes to sell Helm/K8/docker to the masses, this is the perfect ingress.

<comment><USER10> > I've built a "whole piracy stack on my NAS" \- Sonarr, Radarr, Deluge, > NZBGet, Plex, Pushbullet, with paid services for omgwtfnzbs, usenet and > oznzb (I bought plex lifetime) - oh and a homerun-HD plugged into a new > aerial I just had fitted to my house (pirates don't seem to care about my > local UK TV).

99.999% of the people would rather just overpay for cable than deal with that, so it's a far cry from a killer.

<comment><USER9> I realize I missed the explanation (piracy stack over the legit options I have).

I log and just say "I want to watch this". Similar to how you'd have previously used a Tivo that sat over all your potential TV channels. I turn on my PC in the morning and get some push-bullet notifications of new episodes, I load up Plex on my TV and see them all sat there in a single "Here's what's new" place.

I guess it's similar to what Android/Apple TV are trying to do - but it's better.

<comment><USER10> You have to account for some cost of your own time. And none of that is something that my wife and kids would want to deal with, especially if I am not home. I am willing to pay Hulu and Netflix for the convenience and so are most people which is how they stay in business. If everyone did what you did, I suspect there'd be an actual crack down on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> DirecTV, Comcast, and Netflix are all losing customers. Are there winners in this space or are people finding other things to do with their time?

<comment><USER12> Netflix is not losing customers. They have never had a quarter where they lost customers.

<comment><USER13> They lost US customers in Q2, which is probably what OP is referring to.

<comment><USER12> If that's what he was referring to, he should have said US customers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Ah, yes, quite interesting result here: monopoly business practices after reducing competition in favor of existing monopoly. People who predicted this? Anyone who has ever bought cable or phone service... FTC and FCC should be up their ass with a fine-tooth comb, scraping out all the shits who are abusing this scale, and throwing them in jail, but alas... they ain't.

It's so literally insane to me that Ma Bell, AT&T, is allowed to acquire anything. It's like 2 horcruxes short of a full-blown Voldemort at this point.

</comment><comment><USER15> I just signed up with AT&T for fiber internet. I'm one of the lucky ones. $73 a month including taxes for 1000 meg up and down. Unfortunately it's like pick your poison, do you pay Comcast or AT&T. I've got a dish on my house, I'll never use it. I'd take it down if it wasn't so high up.

<comment><USER16> In civilized countries people get 1Gb for $20. Then there's the question of why do you need that sort of bandwidth when a 4K video stream only needs 10Mb.

<comment><USER17> 4K video stream at 10Mb (mega-bits) would have nutso artifacts. It would look worse than 1080p or 1440p at the same bitrate. _Minimum_ I have seen passable- quality 4K is like 3-4MB/s so around 30Mb. That still looks pretty bad, even on HEVC.

Maybe you mean 10MB/s (80Mb)?

<comment><USER18> 4K streams on sites like Netflix, YouTube, iTunes are all under or around 15 Mbit/s (and yeah, they look like crap, but when nobody is offering a higher bitrate stream, then that's still all the bandwidth you need)

> _It would look worse than 1080p or 1440p at the same bitrate_

Good news then, the 1080p streams are even lower bitrate (4-5 Mbit)

<comment><USER17> I went to confirm this, I get around 15-18mbps on youtube 4k, so yea no kidding. Quality is pretty impressive (for the bitrate..) with vp9, but blocking is still visible.

Thank you for the info.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> These mergers are always about making more money, lower costs.

Does anyone honestly believe they won't leverage their more consolidated position every last time?

Of course the prices went up. They thought they had a fairly captive audience. And that was more true years ago when the impact of a switch was higher.

Today?

Great. They got what they deserved.

</comment><comment><USER20> Not surprised with cord-cutting. I don't watch much TV personally, I rather watch Youtube videos more than the corporate ran tv. For example, the travel channel seems to just have back to back episodes all day of ghost hunting. If I wanted to say travel somewhere, just type it into YouTube and tons of videos and information to help plan.

My family watches a lot more TV than me though. Last year we switched from Dish to DirecTV. Before Dish, we just had cable.

I noticed going from Cable to Dish their quality of boxes and hardware was so much superior. The guide seemed laggy and slow on cable, while Dish seems awesome. I believe it's because Dish makes their hardware and software themselves, while the local cable company just buys CableLabs compatible equipment running on slow Motorola boxes running Java slapping their logo on the menu but otherwise I don't think the cable company really has much control over the user experience and just relabelling other people's products. I know the boot screen had a huge Java logo, and from my experience running Java based apps on the computer is slow too. We've also switched out boxes and had Scientific Atlanta and Cisco boxes. So haven't been impressed with cable. I'm thinking maybe the cable is more of a commodity now, while satellite has to be more custom. Only 2 satellite companies, multiple cable companies. One's dealing with stuff in space, while the other is dealing with wires buried underground. So I think there's more innovation in the satellite space because it's more complicated. I think everyone can agree it's cool to say there television comes from outer space! Maybe the aliens are watching Honey Boo Boo and judging us all based on that single television show. Probably thinking we're all weirdos and they are the superior species.

But to save money we switched to DirecTV, I think they might make their own stuff too but their software quality seems worse than Dish but better than Cable. I know lately half the time it doesn't even record what's scheduled. It's been slightly over a year and my folks are thinking of switching back to cable though. They merged with another cable company, so hoping maybe new subscribers get something newer than before. I think if money wasn't a big deal, I'd rather just pay the extra money and get Dish. So I think i'd rate cable as worse, DirecTV as next best and Dish as the best top of the line, but that's just my personal experience. Maybe cable systems are better in other areas of the country.

I know I heard people do that, switch back and forth every year or so for the promotions too.

We only have cable for internet and home phone now which works good enough. Back when we lived an hour away with the same company I'd frequently have outages, had the guy come out and adjust the strength he said but the new place seems so much better. He installed an additional jack to separate the TV and modem and said the jack for the modem has a special high-speed data signal, not sure if true or not. My stepdad got cable at his place after not having it for years and was visiting and mentioned about them recommending a separate jack but he told me there's some ordinance against that in that city, unsure if true or not as seems odd to regulate how many cable jacks allowed in a room. I feel like it probably also depends on the community and area too with what installer you get. The old place was a poorer larger city, where the new place is more rural wealthier area popularity with retired people so I doubt they are as busy with calls so maybe can spend more time to set up things the best.

I'm interested in full time RVing, so I figured I'd get rooftop Dish dome and get a Verizon hotspot as there are some unlimited plans the RV community recommends. Verizon is the best nationwide network, because law enforcement and emergency personal use them, as they got grants to expand their network I've heard which benefits everyone else too.

So not sure how much that would change my internet quality, but something feels better about that. If something messes up, just switch out the hardware as it's wireless. No one has to come out and mess with wiring and other stuff. So I feel a more consistent experience, as I feel like the cable at the old place was screwed up. Probably using the same wiring as when the house was built, while this new area is newer to having cable as many residents had satellite before cable was here. Also probably newer equipment too used on the backend here since newer build-out. After getting cable set up here, never had to see the cable guy again. While at the old house they'd come out monthly sometimes weekly to adjust things. So aggravated. I called one time in the middle of the night staying up on the computer and got hung up on, I don't know if a mistake on their end or maybe the woman thought I was drunk because I was tired. It's like I already knew the routine. Unplug the router, unplug the modem, wait 30 seconds, etc. So sure maybe had a bit of a attitude but felt like no one listened to me or knew what they were doing and didn't have any control.

One thing interesting about Satellite though, watching on-demand stuff still uses your internet, connected via the Wi-Fi. I think it'd be cool if storming bad, they could seamlessly switch over getting the same bits over the internet instead of from the satellites. I kinda feel like the cable companies hate the idea of people using their internet for TV instead of actually paying them for TV. just seems so ironic you are helping your competitor deliver video, which is why net neutrality is a great thing. I rather ISPs be dumb pipes or more like highways just to move around the bits.

Only internet choices here is cable, DSL from local phone company.. or I guess in theory if had a regular landline instead a VOIP based one(which Cable phone systems are built around, but use their private backbone instead of the public routes) you could still use dial up. Satellite Internet is a option too, but the latency is what kills you. Play a game and your movements has to be sent up to the satellite, down to a ground station hopping around the internet like normal and then beamed back up to the satellite beamed back down to the ground to your house. But i know there's some projects and companies working on improving this space, I'd love if some day great satellite internet comparable to cable so no longer tied to a local provider, and also be useful for RVers too.

I know in Florida they actually tax satellite more than cable too, which there's been court battles over. The theory is they don't have as much local infrastructure so they pay less taxes, so they should be taxed more to make up for it than cable. Probably mostly employees at the HQ, installer contractors across the country and a ground station or two somewhere, while cable has employees and equipment all over the place so they pay for all the permits to run the wires, franchised fees, etc.

<comment><USER21> Half of this wall of text is just the poster saying they like Dish for the hardware.

<comment><USER20> Well I like whatever I find best, I know I probably sound like a shill for them but I don't work there, own any stocks, etc.

Also when traveling in a RV, Dish has a dedicated site for RVers. I'm in a few groups on FB and this is a complaint people have about DirecTV because when you move around people complain about local channels. They are spot beamed, so you have to call up the 1800 number and change your address. People would mention they'd give them a address of a random house from the white pages, while telling them to keep the billing address the same as their mail forwarder in the state of their domicile but agents would get confused and schedule a move instead. While with Dish, just go online and change your zip code. It's a niche market though, many people see RVs are a vacation, while some people full time so it's a concept that's hard for people to understand if not familiar with it.

But one of my points was also competition. I feel like satellite industry can be more competitive since I don't think the local cities have much control over them, and not much stuff to build out. Like for example Verizon was rolling out FIOS but stopped. Google Fiber seems to have similar problems of rolling out, for example look at the case in Louisville. Some cities even wanted to offer their own fiber networks but the cable companies sued them saying they wasn't allowed. So legal problems of permitting and stuff, then you have to actually just digging trenches and running cables. Even cities that offer Fiber, it's more of a street by street thing if it's available or not instead of city wide.

I know SpaceX is working on internet. There's another company offering satellite internet too that's supposed to be comparable to cable but they use spot beaming too for load balancing. So not useful for RVers or even smart cars that need internet access on the go. However having Satellite Radio in the car, going under bridges, parking garages, tunnels, even some area under the powerlines at a intersection it goes out so that's also a flaw... I'm not sure what's Tesla plans are for that area, as I think Elon being involved in both companies is related but haven't been keeping up with the news.

But imagine if you had high quality satellite internet, no towers to build and you'd just need to send out contractors to install it on peoples houses, RVs, or whatever. Some people are probably capable enough to just do it themselves after you mail the kit, I know most people just lease satellite TV hardware but you can actually buy it straight out like if using it in a RV. Would expand options with limited areas. Just have to build the satellites and get approval to launch it, build out some ground stations and ready to roll. There's even a federal law limiting how much local city governments can regulate satellites called OTARD. Some cities even still have ordinances that ban satellite tv, even though it's been overruled already. HOA's do the same. Cities lose money when people have satellite, HOA's think they are ugly. There are proposals to expand OTARD to cover 5G too as some cities aren't supporting the 5G rollout. It's shame the cable industry is a protected monopoly.

I'm a major tech geek, which probably a lot of people are on HN. So things like satellites, cruise ships that are entire floating cities, rvs fascinate me. I know some people are obsessed with elevators or trains. So just wanted to disclose that, as don't want to sound like an advertisement for Dish.

Also feel like when starting a business, doing as much as you can possibly do yourself can let you have higher control of the quality of your product. Think Apple, they make the iPhone and MacBook and you can send SMS from your Mac using the modem in your phone. While say you are a huge hardware maker, you could sell Laptops with Windows on them and phones with Android but you don't have much control to integrate them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> "Increase prices"

"More profit"

"A million people end their subscriptions"

Wha??

<comment><USER19> Then increase prices more! (while offering sweet "come back plz" promos to suck a few back in the family.

Maybe some of the smarter bears will set calendar notices for the promo end dates. I did that for years to stay on the lower price tier. Worked, but it was a 6 month hassle.

Today, I'm Internet only. Stream some things, but mostly don't care. Too many other interesting things out there.</comment></comment>


Depth data viewer for Google Camera  - <AUTHOR> http://www.clicktorelease.com/code/depth-player/

<comment><USER2> This is really cool - now imagine what Google can do with project ATAP! [1]

If anyone knows anyone remotely involved with ATAP, can you please get them to get in contact with me. Google have inadvertently created a solution to the following scenario:

"Yes, place XYZ is completely wheelchair accessible" "Oh, we forgot about ABC (step, bathroom, camber, terrain)"

Scan an area with ATAP and send it to me - I'll be able to tell whether it's really accessible or not.

1: [https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango](https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango)

<comment><USER3> Is added depth information really a game-changer? People have already used 2D, photosphere-style images to do what you're suggesting for streets and places visible on StreetView. [1] I understand that more information is going to be helpful, but are there many scenarios that significantly benefit from a depth map to judge accessibility?

Combining crowdsourcing and google street view to identify street-level accessibility problems: [http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2470744](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2470744)

<comment><USER4> >Is added depth information really a game-changer?

it is if you want to automate it instead of relying on meatbags.

Your link, just like many other research projects (LA pool database for example) rely on wetware looking at pictures. Depth maps let computers do all the work. You get (well, will get with tango) Quake style maps from simple video clips.

<comment><USER3> Sure, of course. I was just responding to the context voltagex_ brought up, about sending him depth enhanced photos to look at.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So the technique to take the photo is very similar to the Seene app on iPhone that takes 3D photos. So the same technology could be potentially used for lens blur? Seene website: [http://seene.co](http://seene.co)

<comment><USER6> Other way round. People are using the lens blur feature from the new Google Android camera app and figuring out other uses for the depth data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> By taking pictures of different angles a point cloud can be generated from the depth data which can be triangulated into a 3D model.

I own a 3D printer and hope 3D scanning apps will soon be available.

On the other hand, this demo is showing 3D generation by just filming the object: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOmzjImsVc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOmzjImsVc)

I wonder why this didn't take off.

<comment><USER8> > I wonder why this didn't take off.

I think mainly because there isn't much of a usecase for most people.

We use Structure from Motion techniques a lot here where I work (Research Institute) to construct 3D models of buildings and land from UAV imagery.

The current methodologies are great for this use, but they lack the accuracy you'd want to model an object on your desk for 3D printing. That's not to say you can't do it - there's just often a lot of work to be done on the mesh afterwards to make it work.

Autodesk make a pretty good app called 123D catch [0], which uploads your images to their servers for processing.

Alternatively VisualSFM[1] is what I mostly use, I get great results but I don't know how good it is with small things.

[0] [http://www.123dapp.com/catch](http://www.123dapp.com/catch) [1] [http://ccwu.me/vsfm/](http://ccwu.me/vsfm/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is absolutely phenomenal, really cool!

Can't remember where I read that images to 3D is hard, but this application really gives a good visualization of that problem. It's not the obvious parts that are difficult, but the relatively flat surfaces that are a little distant that cause the big issues.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is amazing! I wonder how well distance accuracy would compare to something like the structure.io sensor attachment (same as in project ATAP). I wonder if there are other applications to this more coarse/less accurate depth information.

</comment><comment><USER11> I wonder how the new Lens Blur feature compares with light-field cameras, like the Lystro:

[http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5625264/lytro-changed- phot...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5625264/lytro-changed-photography- meet-the-new-illum-camera)

It seems like cool technology - it'd be a shame for it to fall by the wayside because people think software can achieve the same (although if I'm wrong, and it can, please correct me).

<comment><USER3> I have a Lytro and Nexus 5, and the biggest immediate difference in the user experience is that the Lytro captures all of the data in a single exposure. The Google Camera lens blur feature gets its depth data from having the photo- taker take a photo, then move the camera up (several inches to a couple feet, it seems, depending on subject distance). So if the subject is moving or you have unsteady hands, the capture will be cancelled.

But at least my phone is always with me…</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why don't we indicate internal vs. external links? - <AUTHOR> Hypertext is great - but how come we don't (in general) indicate whether links are internal or external? Sure, you can mouseover a link and check the status bar at the bottom - but that's not very obvious for your average user.
Why not visually indicate whether a link is internal / external with a glyph (::after) or a separate color (maybe orange instead of standard blue?)
Is anyone out there doing something like this? Do you think it'd improve the web experience? <comment><USER2> Some sites do that (wikis being a common example), I personally never found it all that useful.

What benefit do you see from such an indicator?

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe it's a change in functionality? (new tab vs. new window) or perhaps it affects people's behavior (oh, this is another page on this site - so i won't be leaving / going somewhere else with potentially harmful info)

i don't have a concrete use case yet - but it seems like in a world rife with phishing / bad news / SEO blackhats - knowing if a link is external / internal could be useful.</comment></comment>


Get Rails 3.1beta1 on Heroku - <AUTHOR> http://gduplessy.com/2011/05/07/get-rails-31beta1-on-heroku.html <comment><AUTHOR> Just updated it, included a change in session_store.rb that heroku doesn't like too much.</comment>


Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains-- of his technology. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/business/yourmoney/24every.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> If you're wondering whether to read this, or if the article is as banal as the headline suggests: it's the latter.

</comment><comment><USER3> Reading this, I wondered what kind of idiot could convince the New York Times to publish such stuffy, cliche drivel. Then I got to the bottom:

"Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist."

Ah, it all makes sense now.</comment>


Shackleton's Medical Kit (2012) - <AUTHOR> https://granta.com/shackletons-medical-kit/ <comment><USER2> Shackleton's ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914 is an amazing story of perseverance and resourcefulness. If you haven't read up on it, I highly recommend Alfred Lansing's _Endurance_ , or Shackleton's own _South_ (which is in the public domain, and can be found as an eBook for free, even on Amazon).

Why there hasn't been a major motion picture about it, I'll never know.

<comment><USER3> This is my favorite audio book. I had a long drive to a friend's wedding so I picked up an audio book to listen to, Lansing's _Endurance_. I recommend it over the hardcover book, which is the way I consume most non-fiction, because of it incredible suspense.

Not knowing who will survive and who will perish and will they be able to persevere under the most extreme circumstances makes the audio presentation one of the most compelling tales of adventure I've ever heard. The book is great, but it includes pictures of the ill-fated expedition and so subtlety foretells aspects of the outcome. I recommend listening to it first, then buying the book.

For real life adventure lovers I also recommend _Into Thin Air_ about climbing Everest and the movie, _Mountains of the Moon_ about the explorer/translator Richard Burton [1].

[1] [https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/06/historical- badass-...](https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/06/historical-badass- explorer-sir-richard-francis-burton/)

<comment><USER4> I found when reading the book, it also really helped to have a polar projection map out. It made it easier to follow what was going on.

It's one beef I have with some audiobooks. Sometimes it really helps to have maps or other graphics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Shackletons boat jouney by Frank A Worsley [1] is the single best book I've ever read. If you like reading about Antarctica, adventure, survival etc, I believe it's as good as it gets.

Edit - the author was on the trip next to Shackleton the whole time.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Shackletons-Journey-Frank-Arthur- Wors...](https://www.amazon.com/Shackletons-Journey-Frank-Arthur- Worsley/dp/0393318648)

</comment><comment><USER6> Currently writing a game heavily inspired by this story. Best non fiction read of my life.</comment>


Ask HN: strategies to design? - <AUTHOR>

One of the things I'm bad at is design, so I tend to just keep it really simple most of the time. Sometimes I look at the templates that are out there, and some of them look great, but I don't know, it doesn't feel totally right to use them.
What do you use when you have a new project that you want some design elements, some nice look for, if you're not a good designer? What strategies do you use? I don't particularly want to spend a lot of time on it. One strategy I've used is to just reuse the basic shell of a previous project.
Is there no other way to get it right than to spend a lot of time on it?
Any designers that can do good work? <comment><USER2> Hire a good designer, that's the main thing.

If you don't actually need good design, but just want something to not look god awful, the basic idea is to use colors that complement each other. I like to use <http://colorschemedesigner.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an awesome link, thanks. Still a little baffled about what to do with these colors, but that tool is nice.</comment></comment>


What is the best mechanism for managing database updates, schema changes, etc.? - <AUTHOR>

At my current company, we have several scrum teams. Each sprint, they usually have a story or two that require database changes (postgres).
All of our update scripts are numbered. Our current system is to have a manual process for claiming update scripts (wiki page update, jira tickets, then emails to QA/OPS/Dev). This informs QA that they need to run an update script when they switch a testing server to that story's feature branch, and Ops makes note to run the script when a production release occurs.
The problem is, once a QA server has the script run, it's a pain to remove it. If the server is repurposed to a different branch, the script really shouldn't be applied anymore. If a story is not completed by the end of the sprint, you have a server with an unneeded schema change applied.
The whole process is also fraught with errors because of so many manual steps.
Sure, we could always reset the server's database to a backup, but this causes problems too in regards to historical data.
Basically, what is the best mechanism for dealing with DB schema and migrations in 2015?
I have a really good idea for an open source project to make this much better, but I want to see what is out there right now. My googles haven't turned up much. <comment><USER2> Your google-fu is weak.

Liquibase.</comment>


Ask HN: Test my app, fluin.com - <AUTHOR>

What is this (http://fluin.com)? In a nutshell, it's a realtime threaded conversational web app. I'm a college student who just spent his ENTIRE winter break building Fluin Now that the spring semester has started, I'm looking for feedback so I can better the app on my free time and summer break. -Thanks <comment><USER2> Also posted 8 days ago (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2069672>), 7 days ago (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2073845>), around seven hours ago (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2099369>) and a bit over an hour ago (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2100038>). All of those posts are dead, for some reason, along with most of the recent comments by "fluin," the account which posted them (except for the one seven hours ago, which was posted by "MoForce," the user posting this thread). Times are, of course, relative to when I'm posting this.

</comment><comment><USER3> "In a nutshell, it's a realtime threaded conversational web app."

This means nothing to the Average Joe/Jane. Hell, it doesn't mean much to me. Maybe work on a better introductory line, use analogies and offer use cases/examples?

</comment><comment><USER4> 1) login vs register are confusing (I assumed it had two login windows, until I looked at the button difference)

2) clicking on any message causes new window, terrible. No way to click back, but to close a window.

3) opened messaged -> tried to reply -> no indication that it is waiting to post the reply (maybe disable the 'send' button and rename to 'sending, please wait')

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice. What's the Minus Delta forum for? Trolls trolling trolls?

<comment><AUTHOR> Precisely

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> clickable: <http://fluin.com></comment>


Webcam hackers could be watching you, watchdog warns - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/webcam-hackers-watching-you-watchdog-warns

<comment><USER2> The first time I heard about this was around 2005. It's amazing that it's taken this long to become news.

<comment><USER3> Well, hackers have been finding ways to view others' webcams since webcams have been a thing, but this article is about the Insecam website in particular [although it's not mentioned by name].

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess they didn't want people going to the site, so they left the name out.

Thanks for mentioning it though, I didn't know what the site was.</comment></comment></comment>


The bizarre story of the L.A. dad who exposed the college admissions scandal - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-morrie-tobin-college-admissions-scandal-20190331-story.html <comment><USER2> Universities should just adopt congestion pricing like nyc. Have some exceptions for need based financial aid, but otherwise jack up the price to what the market will bare. I think they are headed in that direction as tuition rates have been outpacing inflation long enough.</comment>


10 Marketing Resources Every App Should Provide - <AUTHOR> http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/design-roundups/10-marketing-resources-every-app-should-provide/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+webappstorm+%28Web+AppStorm%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> +1 for short description of what your app/website does on the front page:

"If you don't tell people what to say about your app, they'll come up with it themselves and sometimes it's inaccurate or crappy."

I temporarily fell victim to not telling visitors what my site was about and (un)surprisingly they did not understand it from the interface. This happened early on when I was sharing it with people; probably what happened is that they arrived at the site and promptly left because they could not figure out what it did.</comment>


Verizon's new strategy for undermining privacy and net neutrality - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/verizon-asks-fcc-to-preempt-any-state-privacy-or-net-neutrality-law/ <comment><USER2> The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 may have some relevance here.</comment>


Police in Texas arrest Muslim teenager for DIY clock - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34266389 <comment><USER2> If police really thought this was a bomb, why didn't they evacuate the school and call the bomb squad? Their motives are suspect.

<comment><AUTHOR> And it's worrying that the police can't differentiate a device with no explosives from one with wire going into a block of goo.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why isn't anyone using Openresty - <AUTHOR> It is based on set of modules and Nginx, as well as LuaJIT. It is insanely fast, and according to http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r5 It is constantly one of the top performing frameworks.<p>Why isn't anyone using it? Are there pitfalls that i am not aware of? <comment><USER2> I plan to in some upcoming projects, because I'm a Lua nut, but here's why people might not use it:

* Lua syntax can get annoying and is pretty low level (no list comprehensions)(I switched to moonscript[1])

* Lua has no libraries or established support community compared to eg. python. You have to do a lot yourself.

* Performance isn't the most important concern for most people.

* Openresty isn't really a "framework", it's pretty barebones. (Lapis[2] looks like it should help)

[1]: <http://moonscript.org/>

[2]: <http://leafo.net/lapis/>

<comment><USER3> I dream about something like SailsJS[1] written on Openresty. Only if I had some more time...

[1]: <http://sailsjs.org/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What turned me off (at least the last time I looked) was the project setup. Or the lack thereof, as it seemed like the whole "application" was intrinsically mixed in to the nginx _configuration_. It seemed more like a way to write nginx plugins than your usual webapps. If I'd see a way to do a more WSGI/Plack/Rack-like setup, I'd probably look again. Performance seems very nice, and while not my favorite language, it's certainly more sane than Javascript...

</comment><comment><USER5> Probably because no one heard of it (I sure haven't) and because Lua is just one of those love-or-hate languages that not everyone can use. I couldn't use Lua or Go, for example, if my life depended on it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Well, I am.</comment>


An technical interview question I would ask at Twitter - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/spullara/interviewcode

<comment><USER2> Quick Ruby solution, [https://gist.github.com/jamesdaniels/ebe2a09c21fbe6343c73](https://gist.github.com/jamesdaniels/ebe2a09c21fbe6343c73) about 3x slower than your Rust in MRI (only 1.5x in JRuby) but good enough for a Rails developer :P Heh

<comment><USER3> Someone has opened a PR with Rust optimizations: [https://github.com/spullara/interviewcode/pull/1](https://github.com/spullara/interviewcode/pull/1)

<comment><USER4> That would be me. Someone alerted me to the "30% worse than java" benchmark results, so I did some experimenting. It was my first attempt to optimize a bit of Rust, so I would love any feedback.

<comment><USER3> I saw the same, went to go look into it myself, and noticed your PR when I went to fork it :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to Incorporate in California and Stay on the Budget? - <AUTHOR> http://live.prokhorenko.us/2009/04/how-to-incorporate-startup-in-ca-and.html

<comment><USER2> This is really useful information for me; I'm probably just going to go and do the paperwork by-hand, mostly because I'd like the experience of doing so.

Also, I'm fairly certain that S-Corps can waive their first year minimum tax (the $800), although they have to pay in their second year of operation.

Anybody else done the corporate dance in California?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, you don't have to pay first year franchise tax, but this doesn't make a big difference, unless you're planning to have a company for one year only. Some friends of mine took more then two year to get on revenue (not profit), but $800 is really something you're liable for whatever happens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is the first detailed account I've read of how one would incorporate in the US (though I'm aware it's state-specific). Suddenly the red tape and costs associated with incorporating in the UK seem less terrifying in comparison.

<comment><USER2> California is also one of the worse states to incorporate in. I've set up an LLC in Utah (where my sister lives), and it took a few hours to go from 'zip' to 'Utah LLC'. Everything was do-able online, and I even got all my federal tax information (EIN).</comment></comment>


Meet new friends for activities like sports, gym, fitness and table games. Cool? - <AUTHOR> http://www.smacktive.com Smacktive.com lets you meet new, like-minded people doing activities you have in common based on deep rooted likes and interests. Seems like eharmony without the dating component.  Thoughts? Have you registered? Doesnt work on mobile yet but the web version is cool. <comment><AUTHOR> The key to this site is that we match you up based on deep rooted interests and not just the activity itself. Then you can put each activity onto your calendar, see the weather that day/time and much more. Appreciate the feedback @Jane</comment>


Crackr.com - A little Web 2.0 satire - <AUTHOR> http://www.humblenarrator.com/2007/11/12/viral-web-20-beta-facebook-app-platform-syndicates-mashed-up-user-generated-content-tag-feed-through-aggregated-social-networking-ajax-widget-while-executive-thought-leadership-seeks-monetization-syn/

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's an entry from my comedy blog's archives that I thought some people here might enjoy... loosely based on a founder I used to work for :)...</comment>


The Great CEO Within: How to build a category-killing company from the ground up - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/mobilebasic <comment><USER2> This is the same guide by Matt Mochary (an excellent executive coach) that was posted last week. It seems to have been retitled.

Original thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17446839](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17446839)

</comment><comment><USER3> Second google doc book I see trending on HN within a week. I was kinda annoyed by the first one, so I printed it as PDF and then converted it to an ePub. Typeset is not perfect, but I prefer it over an google doc because I can read it now cross-devices offline in my favorite ebook reader.

<comment><USER4> This is the same one (unless I missed a different one)

<comment><USER3> You're right :/ same one ... got intrigued by the different sounding title

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Step one: Publish a book on Google Docs, the most stable book publishing platform on the internet.

</comment><comment><USER6> How can we download this file?

<comment><USER7> Go a level up from the provided link i.e. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl- dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8) and choose Fil->SaveAs to download in desired format.

<comment><USER8> Can it be done without logging in?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How does one build apps like Brackets and Popcorntime?  - <AUTHOR>

Hello everyone!
After ready about Popcorntime app, I've got interested in building desktop applications that are based on javascript and nodejs(?). But reading the code didn't really give away any tips on how to start.
I don't really know where to start, So I would like to get some pointers where to look, what to read, what to watch etc.
Are there any frameworks? How is the window built? How does the app communicate with the OS?
Examples:
https://github.com/popcorn-time/popcorn-app https://github.com/adobe/brackets
Thank you. <comment><USER2> Intro: [https://speakerdeck.com/zcbenz/node-webkit-app-runtime- based...](https://speakerdeck.com/zcbenz/node-webkit-app-runtime-based-on- chromium-and-node-dot-js)

Code: [https://github.com/rogerwang/node- webkit](https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment>


The C Conference - <AUTHOR> http://www.cconf.org/ <comment><USER2> I messed up the pricing windows and it has gone into late registration pricing. I will fix that up. The ticket pricing will start at $225 for early bird.

In the mean time please participate in the reverse cfp. <http://www.cconf.org/pfc/>

<comment><USER3> I really want to give a talk about using libuv. It isn't a perfect library, but it is really one of the first to build a portable API for high performance event loops. (libev is great, and on *nix libuv uses it internally, but on Windows it doesn't use IO Completion ports)

<https://github.com/joyent/libuv>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> CCAN looks really promising. I really wish it would take off. IMO every language should have it's own PyPI/CPAN/Gems implementation.

Having dependency management tool for that will also be incredibly useful. (Is there anything like pip for C modules?)

<comment><USER5> The closest thing to PIP for C libraries is probably your distributions package manager, if you're on Linux. That can even get you the source code, I think.</comment></comment>


How to Build a Billion-Year Library on the Moon - <AUTHOR> https://thenewstack.io/how-to-build-a-billion-year-library-on-the-moon/ <comment><USER2> Dunno why the time capsule uses such flowery language in its address to our distant descendants. Behold we are the people of the light we are one human family! Now excuse us, just gotta finish clubbing each other to death to some death metal music see you in a few million years.

</comment><comment><USER3> Bury it in Tycho crater, with a very large magnet.</comment>


Report exposes flaw in iVote system used in NSW election - <AUTHOR> https://about.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2019/november/flaws-exposed-in-ivote-system-used-in-nsw-election-report <comment><USER2> > This finding underscores the importance of making source code widely > available for full public scrutiny before, rather than after an election.

And you are of course sure, when you cast your vote into a black box, that the correct source is running, that the compiler was not compromised [1], that the hardware can be trusted... And suppose you had a team of experts certify with certainty (Somehow! Currently impossible, as far as I know. Especially versus adversaries that include global superpowers such as the US, Russia, and China) one year ago that the machines were working as specified... is that still true? Or were they replaced with identical looking, compromised machines?

Having the source code available is laughably inadequate.

[1] [https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/hh/thompson/trust.html](https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/hh/thompson/trust.html)</comment>


Sonos stops support for older devices - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-ending-software-updates-for-older-devices-announces-upgrade-program/ <comment><USER2> Most comments: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22108223](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22108223)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> So will it be enough to disable automatic updates to prevent Sonos from cripple my system?</comment>


How Visa Protects Your Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/visa-secret-security-center

<comment><USER2> "This is Visa's OCE, or Operations Center East, the biggest, newest, and most advanced of its U.S. data centers. It is a data-security heaven--and Visa's acknowledgment that hackers are increasingly savvy, that data is an ever- desirable black-market commodity, and that the best way to keep Visa (and its 150 million daily transactions) safe is to ensconce its network inside a heavily fortified castle that instantly responds to threats. The OCE's 130 workers have two jobs: Keep hackers out and keep the network up, no matter what. That's why rule No. 1 for visitors is: Never reveal its location. "On the eastern seaboard" is as specific as Visa will allow."

uhh, right. two articles from the 90s put it in mclean, va: [http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940101...](http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940101/A_NEWS/301018211)

[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19931218&...](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19931218&id=Z14zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mAcGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4684,3600394)

<comment><USER3> according to this profile, it may have move to herndon.

[http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=59159289&authTyp...](http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=59159289&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=UZgy&locale=en_US&srchid=43074055-cfe0-4618-adde-c9071e62c95b-0&srchindex=4&srchtotal=57&goback=%2Efps_PBCK_visa+oce_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&pvs=ps&trk=pp_profile_name_link)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> That's cool. But after just returning from a month long road trip across USA (I'm from Slovenia), I'm simply baffled by the lack of security when I'm paying with my Visa card. In 97% of times I just swiped my card and the transaction was done. 1% of the time the cashier bothered to check my ID, 1% of the time I had to sign the check, and in 1% of the time I had to enter my PIN number. What the hell? I'm surprised any of you yanks still have any money left, considering how easy one can take all your money, if one comes into possession of your card.

Here you always have to at least sign the card (and the cashier checks the signature against the one on the card), but in most cases you have to enter your PIN number. And I live in fricking Slovenia who was, just 5 minutes ago, a part of a communist union ...

Anybody has an explanation for this lack of security in the states?

<comment><USER5> > I'm surprised any of you yanks still have any money left, considering how > easy one can take all your money, if one comes into possession of your card.

In most cases, at least for Americans, if your credit card gets stolen, you aren't responsible for any of the fraudulent charges. I've had a credit card number stolen several times (about half travelling outside the US and half while in the US). I never lost a dime to any of the fraudulent charges, just several minutes of my time telling the credit card company.

<comment><USER6> CWIZO never mentioned a credit card. He only referred to a "VISA card", which in my experience is usually a debit card in Europe. (My limited perspective has taught me that VISA cards are debit and Mastercard is credit. Then I came back to the US and my situation is the opposite. Go figure.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This really doesn't sound like Visa protecting my data. It sounds more like Visa having enough horsepower and backups so that they can keep their company continuously running.

Not that that's a bad thing, but I really don't believe they care about protecting our data. From personal experience, they seem to let any type of fraud occur on your credit card, and then if you protest, then they _might_ reverse the charges. And then they issue you a new credit card number. They would prefer to fix the problem before, putting the onus on us to determine if fraud occurred, rather than actually prevent the fraud and protect our data.

<comment><USER8> Even when fraud occurs they are not interested in going after the source unless that dollar amounts are high enough. I know this from personal experience on an e-commerce site. We detected blatant fraud happening, and the banks/card companies/processors don't care because the scale is too small. (lots of ~$100 purchases on many, many credit cards all to the same two or 3 addresses)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Meanwhile, outside their data centre, they do very little to ensure customer card security and enforce heavy-handed policies that put most of the risk on merchants and downstream processors.

\--- obDisclosure: I am a merchant who has been defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars and have no love for the credit card companies.

<comment><USER3> Instead of ranting about it here, I thought it might be more appropriate to enumerate my primary concerns in a post to my blog - <http://www.byte.org/2011/10/28/the-visa-shakedown/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> here it is - you can see the bend and pool. [http://maps.google.cl/maps?q=45005+Russell+Branch+Pkwy,+Ashb...](http://maps.google.cl/maps?q=45005+Russell+Branch+Pkwy,+Ashburn,+VA+20147&ll=39.050654,-77.446444&spn=0.001262,0.001725&hnear=45005+Russell+Branch+Pkwy,+Ashburn,+Virginia+20147,+United+States&gl=cl&t=h&z=19&vpsrc=6)

(from looking at job ads)

<comment><USER10> That is hilarious. Thank you for putting this extreme hubris in its place!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> the mantraps and hand scanners sound insane to I guess all normal people, but in my experience that is a pretty standard level of security. I have a few 1U servers co-located and I have to pass through multiple mantraps with palm readers to access them.

<comment><USER12> Agreed. Was reading through their "measures" and pretty much everything is standard process/equipment for your typical medium to high end data center. Man traps, batteries, generators, water cooling, avoid corrosion (uhh duh).

The only things I think they have I haven't seen before:

1) The concrete barrier and hair pin turn. Most data centers don't fear James Bond.

2) The air lifted mailroom.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does anyone know if the Fire Code specifies that "mantraps" have to open in a fire alarm?

You should have to have an open path out in that type of a situation.</comment>


Switch to Neovim today - <AUTHOR> http://afshinm.name/neovim/ <comment><USER2> I would switch... but on Windows Vim is stable, Neovim is beta (alpha even?).

It is advancing but I think it's 2 years away from a solid release.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, I see. To be honest, I haven't used Vim / Neovim on Windows and I don't have any idea but on unix, it seems to be stable-ish.</comment></comment>


Engadget's Samsung Galaxy S III review - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review/

<comment><USER3> I don't like replacing my gadgets all the time. My first, and only, smartphone is an original Galaxy. I hate it. I especially hated it when I got it, now I just...endure it.

However, when it dies, I'm definitely not buying a Samsung product, and probably not buying Android. I cannot scream the word "brand" loud enough. There's so much choice available, that when your customers feel ripped off, they'll go elsewhere.

GPS has never worked. Updates were very slow to be available. Using their official tool my phone bricked when an update finally was available. Until I put cyanogenmod on it, it stuttered and apps crashed. Even when it was still relatively new, there were apps that it couldn't run (Lionheart). My carrier put a porn-buying app on it (yes, I hold Samsung and Google at least partially responsible for that).

Brand, brand, brand, brand, brand. The fact that, 2 years later, I still get upset when I see the words "Samsung" or "Galaxy S", tell you something about consumer behavior...it isn't just me...US car manufacturers went through it too.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like you've got a faulty handset - my first reaction to non-functional GPS would be to take the phone back?

<comment><USER5> Right. When I first tested it.. it kind of worked. It was probably slow then too, but I didn't have much to compare with at the time. As I started using it more regularly later on it became more clear it was slow and that sometimes it didn't work at all. There was tons of talk about this on various forums... there was some fixes released and I always assumed this would get fixed in an later update. But time and updates went by and it never got good. Then it was too late to return the phone. If they even would have accepted a "sometimes very slow GPS" as a return-argument in the first place.

<comment><USER6> I agree. I still feel bitter about the GPS and I swore to 'punish' Samsung by boycotting them in future.

However - when I broke my phone, the Galaxy S II was by far the most suitable phone for me short of switching to iOS which I didn't want to do for a few different reasons.

'Punishing' Samsung was less than rational and so I took a chance on them again. And I've been extremely happy with it. It's way way better than the Galaxy S and I have no real complaints about it. So - Samsung screwed me on the GPS last time. I'll have to let them off - or rather - <USER2> anthropomorphising a large corporation in ways that don't really make much sense...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is it a Nexus line device? Is it running stock Android?

No to both? -- Do not buy.

Why is it so difficult for hardware manufacturers to refrain from putting their poor attempts to improve stock android on their devices. Do they not realize they'd actually be able to more effectively differentiate themselves if they just left it stock?

<comment><USER8> There are modifications and modifications. Some of them are almost useless (Samsung hubs, their own store, etc.), while others are pretty good actually (UI).

I know many people don't like it, but I actually prefer their UI to the stock Android one. I haven't actually heard anyone saying why exactly they don't like the Samsung version though.

<comment><USER6> Yeah. I've switching from stock Android to Touchwiz versions and Touchwiz really isn't that bad. Better in some ways. You can always use a ICS-style launcher such as Nova or Apex.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> cool feature: "Smart stay. The screen refuses to timeout when you're looking at it, based on face recognition via the front-facing camera. There's nothing worse than a screen that switches off just as you're starting to make sense of the content it's showing you, and this feature nips that problem in the bud."

<comment><USER10> Does anyone else find this extremely fucking creepy?

<comment><USER11> Creepy? No, why?

I wonder about the battery draw of constantly running the front camera and doing face recognition, but if that's not an issue I don't see any downside. I wish my own phone did it.

Even if it uses some power, it might be a net improvement for some people who would set their screen timeout to very long durations otherwise. I'm sure that is even more of an issue for a device with such a humongous screen -- it'll take you twice as long to read an entire screen of information.

<comment><USER12> Apparently it doesn't run the camera constantly: it wakes up to take a single shot immediately before the screen turns off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > sorry about the reflections, it's a really bright day

This is offtopic, but I really wish phone makers would put more effort into making screens that are usable outdoors. Even in gloomy England using my phone outside is a challenge.

There are few efforts to improve this (Pixel Qi, Mirasol), and they aren't getting into smartphones.

<comment><USER14> Under the same conditions, the SIII came out bottom of the outdoor test here: [http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/45801/which-smartphone- best-...](http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/45801/which-smartphone-best-screen- in-sun)

<comment><USER15> Thanks for this link.

I was seriously considering purchasing this phone until I saw the comparison shots.

My first "Smartphone" was the LG Incite, running Windows 5.5 (I think?). It was absolutely unusable outdoors, at all. I can't overstate how awful trying to do anything outdoors with that phone was. Since then I've sworn I would not purchase another phone that was anywhere as bad in this regard.

Unfortunately it's pretty obvious the SIII is even worse than the SII, which I had.

I'm really glad now that I've jumped to the iPhone 4S after being a devoted Android fan for 3 years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11>
      Social tag. When you first take a photo of someone, the phone asks you to name them. From then on, it does all the hard work of recognizing that person again in future snaps, and linking up their social networking profiles so that you can share your photos faster.

Is that done on-device, or using a remote service? I wish reviews would make this distinction. And I wish developers would put back some of the processing (another example: speech analysis) on to the devices themselves, now that they've got CPUs that put my netbook's to shame. I guess there's still the issue of draining your battery by actually tapping into those vast computing resources.

<comment><USER16> > I wish developers would put back some of the processing (another example: > speech analysis) on to the devices themselves, now that they've got CPUs > that put my netbook's to shame. I guess there's still the issue of draining > your battery by actually tapping into those vast computing resources.

I really think battery capacity is the reason this isn't happening. Battery capacity is really lagging behind everything else. Seems like every new phone that comes out is faster than ever, and runs out of power faster than ever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> New mobile phones are getting ridiculously big. Today, iPhone 4S looks like small phone. This is a cool, actual size comparison of iPhone, Galaxy III and Note (almost as big as tablet :-)): [http://www.sizeall.com/compare/Apple- iPhone-4S-Ruler-cm-inch...](http://www.sizeall.com/compare/Apple- iPhone-4S-Ruler-cm-inch-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-N7000-Samsung-I9300-Galaxy-S- IIIh/168)

</comment><comment><USER18> It doesn't compare performance or battery life with an iPhone.

But getting both 1.4GHz quad-core performance _and_ long battery life in 135 grams (mainly due to process shrink) is very impressive and bodes well for the future.

</comment><comment><USER19> My Android phone is coming up to being 2 years old. I look at this and I see no reason to upgrade. Yes its more powerful, has a better camera and has a few neat features like Smart Stay but does this warrant ditching my old phone? No.

With the current state of handset development I would say I only need to upgrade when the app store stops supporting my phone.

It seems to me like the Smart Phone Market is already hitting a plateau. It's like the desktop computer market. If you buy a computer today, unless you MUST play all future games on Ultra graphics it will probably last you just fine for 5+ years.

<comment><USER20> _It seems to me like the Smart Phone Market is already hitting a plateau._

Having gone through a number of devices over the years, I couldn't disagree more. Screens have gotten tremendously better, performance has improved by leaps and bounds, and connectivity has exploded. Even the touchscreen sensor on a current phone is a world better than a two year old device (well if we're speaking about non-iPhone. Apple had a pretty good sensor two years ago).

I'd say your lack of inclination to upgrade says more about you than devices. Not as an insult, but you just don't rely upon it as a principal device like many. Mine because essentially a portable computer and I am very excited about each new iteration.

<comment><USER21> What you say was true a year ago, but the limitations of the human eye won't allow much improvement over the 300+ ppi screens that have been available for a year or so. If something is coming along to replace 4G, I haven't heard about it, and 4G has also been available for a year or so.

I have an HTC Rezound, top tier at the time of it's release about 6 months ago, and it was significantly improved over the Motorola Atrix it replaced, which was also top tier at the time of its release about 6 months previously. I haven't played with newer phones since then, but nothing I have read indicates that they've improved very much since the last batch of releases in December, and I don't think the human eye is capable of perceiving much more pixel density than we already have.

Screens have gotten so much better that there's no point in improving them. With 300+ PPI screens having been available for a year or so, the only real improvement possible would be to make them 3D or usable outdoors, which does not seem to be progressing very quickly.

I have an HTC Rezound, which was a top tier phone when I bought it 6 months ago, and the display is leaps ahead of my Motorola Atrix, which was a top tier phone when I bought it last April (something like ~340 PPI compared to ~275 PPI). That kind of improvement will never be possible again, because the human eye couldn't perceive it. So, yeah, I think we have reached a plateau, though certainly not 2 years ago.

<comment><USER20> From two years ago to six months ago is a world of difference, and the draw to upgrade obviously would be dramatically different.

 _Screens have gotten so much better that there's no point in improving them_

When did pixel density become the only element worth considering? Give me a screen with the power consumption and long-term viability of super LCD, with the contrast ratio of SAMOLED and I'd be over the moon. As is, however, each are serious compromises in one way or the other.

Make battery life better while offering high performance (the the Krait). Give me better cameras and speakers and sensors. Give me a little projector. Give me better integration.

There is a tonne of improvements to be had.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Skipping over the majority of it, I'm surprised they compared the camera to an iPhone 4. Surely at this stage the most apt comparison would be to the 4S? I'm out of the loop on Android devices but I thought the Galaxy S series was as top of the line as you could get?

</comment><comment><USER23> Would buy, if I didn't love my S II so much :)

</comment><comment><USER24> For a phone in the premium segment they should not be using pentile display.

<comment><USER25> An AMOLED RGBG pentile display with x pixels may not be as good as a similar non-pentile AMOLED display with the same number of logical pixels but it's better than a non-pentile display of y pixels. (I will graciously let you choose your own values for x/y, as it may vary by person though I'd suggest 2x = 3y as a starting point).

Dismissing it out of hand, particularly when basically every camera sensor, and every encoded video and jpeg does similar things with color, just seems odd to me. It's an engineering trade-off with lots of in-and-outs for each specific decision, not an unholy or unclean technology that contaminates everything it touches.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'll be lured by the dropbox deal.

</comment><comment><USER27> I was surprised to see they're still using the goofy PenTile display stuff. The device _is_ the display, you can't skimp on that.

<comment><USER23> Apple advertises their retina display with "you can't see any pixels". The S3 nearly has the same ppi (306 vs. 320), yet people complain about how they are somehow able to distinguish the subpixels? Something does not add up here.

<comment><USER28> You're not comparing the same pixels, one is a true pixel out of 3 subpixels, one is out of 2 subpixels. Thus higher subpixel density. You could see the colour difference.</comment></comment></comment>


RCelery: Ruby port of Celery (Python) - <AUTHOR> http://leapfrogdevelopment.github.com/rcelery/

<comment><AUTHOR> We'd love some feedback and, who knows, maybe some pull requests! We do have this running in production with no major problems to report. It is, however, under pretty light load. Thanks!

Edit: Check the README for a working example.</comment>


HN webpage visualized as a DOM graph - <AUTHOR> http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/?url=http://news.ycombinator.com/ <comment><USER2> WARNING: Java applet!

CPU usage shot up and my browser froze.</comment>


Look out: Google now offering in-app payments - <AUTHOR> http://sandbox.google.com/checkout/inapppayments/

<comment><AUTHOR> not sure, but I think I can use this to accept upgrade payments from within my Chrome extension.</comment>


A Gentle Introduction to Graph Theory - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/vaidehijoshi/a-gentle-introduction-to-graph-theory <comment><USER2> Nice! I always appreciate folks who take the time to blog about introductory topics. There's too much of the 'those who can't do, teach' mentality in software and it's good to see people take the time to do uplift while they learn.

<comment><USER3> >There's too much of the 'those who can't do, teach' mentality in software

Which is so weird, since almost everyone can point to a great teacher or at least, inspirational figure who got them started, or kept them going.

<comment><USER2> Agreed! It's totally strange when you consider that some of the most revered figures in cs are also great teachers/communicators.</comment></comment></comment>