Show HN: Recently started working on an open source data grid editor in JS/HTML - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/datazenit/sensei-grid/tree/master

<comment><USER2> There are quite a few open source grids out there already. What features are you planning and how are you going to set this apart from the other grids. For instance, my favorite grid is dgrid [1]. Go to their main site and go to the features [2] (scrolling down just a bit there will give you a comparison table to other grids) and let us know if you plan on implementing any of those (especially i18n) or if you're going to have any differentiating features.

[1] -- [https://github.com/sitepen/dgrid](https://github.com/sitepen/dgrid)

[2] -- [http://dojofoundation.org/packages/dgrid/#features](http://dojofoundation.org/packages/dgrid/#features)

<comment><USER3> While dojo once held a special place in my heart, it's not what it used to be and I think a lot of people have now moved away from it. I think the dojo dependency will be seen as a drawback by many.

Personally I spent ages waiting for WaveMaker to move to 1.7 and start using dgrid. Before I gave up on WaveMaker and dojo toolkit in favour of other technologies.

<comment><USER4> What do you use instead of dojo now?

<comment><USER3> We took a strategic decision to go strictly ExtJS, but so far I can only say we use _mostly_ ExtJS. I really like it. Most of our clients are big enterprise and all the stuff we do is very data heavy (analytics etc.), so we're happy to pay the licence fees just to see them stick around and support it for a few more years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a little surprised at the comments asking if another grid is needed since "theres other open source projects out there like the one I use at work (insert crappy grid here)".

There really aren't a whole lot of open source grids that compete with some of the commercial solutions like extJS or kendoUI. These suck because you can't use the data grid in piecemeal fashion, you have to adopt an entire widget library.

I've yet to see one that:

\- Is lightweight and standalone. \- Is easy to modify the look and feel \- Has good performance with tons of rows \- Has a super easy api \- Integrates easily with client side mvc frameworks.

</comment><comment><USER3> From a dev's point of view, as someone who has been exhaustively searching for the perfect JS data grid editor for a few years now:

What prompted you to write your own, rather than going with something like (the excellent and liberally licensed) Handsontable?

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually I am still using Handsontable (while Sensei Grid is under development) and have been using it for quite some time. Handsontable is not stable enough and has too many bugs, at least for our particular use cases. Handsontable is also resource heavy and quite complex - we rather prefer something simple and straightforward that is not a pain to maintain.

There are currently 571 open issues[0] for Handsontable on Github. Each new release breaks something major and we can't wait forever for them to fix the issues. I wrote two blog posts regarding this (without mentioning Handsontable, but it was the library in question):

* [http://lauris.github.io/development/2014/08/25/work-and-open...](http://lauris.github.io/development/2014/08/25/work-and-open-source/)

* [http://lauris.github.io/datazenit/2014/08/29/open-source-wor...](http://lauris.github.io/datazenit/2014/08/29/open-source-work-2-sensei-grid/)

These articles may shed some light on why did we start development on our own library.

[0] Handsontable open issues on Github - [https://github.com/handsontable/jquery- handsontable/issues](https://github.com/handsontable/jquery- handsontable/issues)

<comment><USER3> Yeah... having had to implement a couple of workarounds, I can't say I disagree with you. Which is a shame because I think it's a library with great potential and awesome features, but right now needs fixing and polishing rather than new features.

Any plans for developing Sensei Grid past what your use case requires? I hear all the cool kids get to paste cell ranges into their grid plugins :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I feel the same way, because I really liked Handsontable.

Sensei Grid will be kept simple, but additional functionality will be provided through plugins. I don't want to flood the core grid with functionality that would lead to complexity. However smart pasting is something I would consider including in the core.

Btw I just updated README.me file and added goals, blog posts and other info related to Sensei Grid - [https://github.com/datazenit/sensei- grid/blob/master/README....](https://github.com/datazenit/sensei- grid/blob/master/README.md)

<comment><USER3> Excellent. Good luck - I'll be keeping an eye on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> From a user perspective. providing the bower or component support will be better, and maybe you should place the dependency(jquery) in bower.json or component.json. but not directly in git folder.

<comment><USER7> Or we could all just use NPM

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Haven't looked at the code throughly, but from a quick glance looks like a grid I'd considering using in a personal project vs. the all the other crappy grids out there.

</comment><comment><USER9> Slightly off topic but, does anyone know of a data grid that supports an expandable tree in the left most column but the right side is a normal grid?

<comment><USER10> Sencha has a TreeGrid

[http://dev.sencha.com/ext/5.0.1/examples/tree/buffer- rendere...](http://dev.sencha.com/ext/5.0.1/examples/tree/buffer-rendered- treegrid.html)</comment></comment>


Increasing Your Luck Surface Area and Yes, the Big Dogs Read Hacker News - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/116160612483689327039/posts/b3FPV13dvHh

<comment><USER2> Jason Calacanis follows me on twitter, I presume it's through here. I find this absolutely hilarious because I basically only ever use twitter to claim special offers and send shoutouts to pirate radio stations.

I presume he's using some sort of automated marketing tool to follow lots of people who will then follow him back, the sly dog.

Thinking about it it probably means that those social media influence ranking tools give me quite a lot of points. I love how ePenis is now a real, measurable value.

</comment><comment><USER3> Am I missing something or was the linked post basically about someone of fame adding the author to its G+ circle? Very interesting.

<comment><USER4> "One of benefits of publishing something on the web is that if it's the right kind of post and if it catches some wind, it can greatly increase your luck surface area."

Nice opening sentence, but the article doesn't really hook you, as I got three paragraphs in, and didn't understand where this 'luck surface area' was going. I got the sense it was just some naval-gazing discussion of getting blog posts to appear on Hacker News, so I just stopped reading.

<comment><USER5> The article is short on substance, but I really like the concept of the luck surface area. The author does appear to be the coiner of the term (top hit on Google: [http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck- surf...](http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surface- area)).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Even though the article covers a lot of other things, I very much agree with the headline.

I am a newcomer to Hacker News, but after spending just short two weeks immersing myself into the community I only wish I have committed HN to my daily routine earlier.

There is definitely lots of benefits to posting your submissions and trying to hit front page to promote yourself and get business for your company... But merely following discussions on the multitude of technical and business problems can really help you find the solutions you have not thought about...

In just two weeks here, I've already made some contacts from the site and incorporated some learnings into our product.

Definitely want to thank the entire community.

</comment><comment><USER7> Jason, this is too meta. I clicked this because I knew you wrote it based on the title and thought it would be worth my time to read a well-thought content-filled Jason Roberts article. Imagine my suprise when it was a meta- article about another article you wrote and someone adding you on G+. Come on man.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair enough. I'll try to do a little better next time. But in all fairness it was just an anecdotal G+ post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If anyone is interested in more about the Luck Surface Area concept, I believe it was first mentioned on Jason's podcast TechZing.

Ep 59: <http://techzinglive.com/page/295/techzing-59-jasonism> at the 65minute mark

<comment><USER9> Oh, there's definitely some prior art here.

Woody Allen (80% of success is showing up) and Pliny the Elder (fortune favors the bold!) come to mind.

<comment><USER10> You know you've made it when you appear in the same sentence as Woody Allen.

<comment><USER11> Pliny the Elder will be so happy to hear that!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> HN is the new TED</comment>


Mixpanel adds retention analytics - <AUTHOR> http://mixpanel.com/docs/learn-the-features/retention-video/

<comment><USER2> We've actually had retention since we launched nearly three years ago, but this release gives it a lot more love.

The new stuff:

1\. You can calculate birth cohort retention based on anything (signup date, date of first payment, app install date, etc). Basically, the grouping of your users is configurable.

2\. You can filter and segment retention based on the properties you send. This lets you look at how things like A/B test version, Ad version, or user type impact retention rates.

3\. The visualization is prettier!

We're really excited about how flexible Retention is now. We'd hacked in a little flexibility before, but this is dramatically better.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah. Sorry about that. I'd update the title, but don't have edit rights anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I just got the email today and while I'm not accusing Mixpanel or anything, it was amusing to me how similar the screenshot looks like that of KISSMetrics. I'm currently a KISSMetrics customer but Mixpanel always looked like a good alternative/addition. How does Mixpanel's cohort analysis compare to KISSMetrics' in practice?

<comment><USER4> Just looked up the Kissmetrics site. They do look strikingly similar. <http://www.kissmetrics.com/features/cohort-analysis>

But how many ways can you really present something like that in a pleasing manner.

I assume they work almost the same. I'm on the Mixpanel side of things so would be interested in hearing how Kiss is in comparison. Anyone use both?

<comment><USER5> Yeah, getting people to use cohort[1] is really hard unfortunately. Which is really sad because, as Shopify[2] pointed out recently, without it you can't really answer basic questions, such as: "is retention going up or down?", or even "is our work having any affect on our retention?".

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/kissmetrics-helps-you- hone-...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/kissmetrics-helps-you-hone-in-on- stats-that-actually-matter-with-cohort-reports/)

[2] [http://www.shopify.com/technology/4018382-defining-churn- rat...](http://www.shopify.com/technology/4018382-defining-churn-rate-no- really-this-actually-requires-an-entire-blog-post)</comment></comment></comment>


Donald Trump to sign executive order withdrawing US from NAFTA - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/donald-trump-nafta-executive-order-trade-deal-us-america-leave-latest-a7703926.html <comment><USER2> Sensational headline. This is nothing more than a re-iteration of his position on NAFTA since day 1: He wants to see changes, and if he doesn't get his way he's threatening to take his ball and go home.

Per the article:

"Mr Trump speaking in Wisconsin recently said that the agreement has been "very, very bad for our companies and for our workers, and we're going to make some very big changes or we are going to get rid of Nafta once and for all.""

<comment><AUTHOR> Hope you're right</comment></comment>


After Megaupload Bust, Putlocker and RapidShare Pick Up Slack - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/after-megaupload/ <comment><USER2> FileSonic have stopped file sharing about 1 week after the megaupload bust. You can still download only if your the upload of the file. I wonder why?!?</comment>


Airbnb for iBeacons - <AUTHOR> https://www.beaconsinspace.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> A beacon can never be considered "occupied" like a rented apartment or a car. Instead, the number of rentals and subsequent income per beacon at any given time is unlimited.</comment>


Google Outs Google Drive On Its French Blog: Here Are All The Details - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/google-outs-google-drive-on-its-french-blog-here-are-all-the-details/

<comment><USER2> So the things Google Drive has that Dropbox doesn't:

* 2-factor authentication!

* Comments on files (unclear if it's only for Google Docs or all files)

* OCR - like Evernote, you can search against text in images (e.g. newspaper article)

* Image recognition - if you upload a pic of the Eiffel Tower, you can find it with the search term "eiffel tower"

* Web-based file viewer - 30 file types including HD video, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.

The OCR and image recognition are going to be killer features for "normal" people. And I imagine it's something Dropbox can't easily duplicate (unlike the other features).

Then again, as a more privacy-minded technical person, the image recognition feature scares the beejezus out of me. Tagging faces on Facebook is one thing, but being able to semantically identify all contents of my images is really stepping up the creepiness quotient.

Should be interesting to see how Dropbox responds.

<comment><USER3> _Tagging faces on Facebook is one thing, but being able to semantically identify all contents of my images is really stepping up the creepiness quotient._

Why? I find face tagging much creepier than tagging a picture of a cat with "cat". (You can already use Google Goggles to see what Google knows how to recognize.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Google also uploaded videos on Youtube about Drive and Go Google: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SjRH3SImlM>

Update: Also Google Drive SDK <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ee3R3tfdd4>

<comment><USER5> And the start page from the video is already up.

<https://drive.google.com/start?authuser=0#home>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> it really feels like more of a rebranding of google docs, rather than a new service. People have been able to upload arbitrary files into docs for some time now, but I have met only a few who actually knew that.

My question is that if this is in fact the case, and it is "the next step in google docs", will they advertise docs as a feature of drive, as two separate products, or is the average user supposed to know that you open up Drive to edit your spreadsheet.

<comment><USER3> That's exactly what this is. The "document list" can now store arbitrary files instead of just documents. You also get syncing to your computer or mobile device.

<comment><USER6> 'The "document list" can now store arbitrary files instead of just documents.'

My comment was actually that this functionality has existed for quite some time, unless I misundersood you. I think that all that is new is the syncing and branding

<comment><USER3> That could be true. I never used Google Docs before working for Google, and it's been called Drive internally as long as I've been here :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm hoping that $4/m/20GB is wrong. I pay $20/YEAR for 80GB of storage in docs.

<comment><USER8> time to buy some annual storage and be grandfathered in?

<comment><USER8> So I think I was right.

I just bought 80GB a few minutes before the new pricing page went up. When I go back to my Accounts page and click on Storage-More Details I see the new pricing, but under my 80GB at $20/year I see the following: "* Your current plan is no longer offered.Learn more"

There is nothing yet under the Learn More link, but I can see that my next charge will occur next year. I hope that means old storage buyers are being grandfathered in.

Thinking about it some more, I should've gotten 200GB for $50.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So now I could activate Google Drive in my account, but ...

Dropbox has a Linux app, Google Drive has not. I have more than one computer, and one of them runs Linux. I think I'll stick with Dropbox.

<comment><USER6> Does anything prevent you from using the web interface of google drive with the drag to upload? Or did you just mean the folder integration part of the services?

<comment><USER9> The web interface obviously works, sure. But the "sync app" does not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think 5gb is fairly limited, and I fail to believe that this is the best Google can do. The way it is now all Dropbox has to do is up their default free space to 10gb and Google Drive loses.

<comment><USER11> If space is your primary consideration, your other free choices are: Microsoft=25GB, Apple=5GB, and Dropbox=2GB.

<comment><USER12> But... Dropbox has numerous options for expanding this up to 4-8 GB (maybe higher) for free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> And I thought it would be about robotic cars :)</comment>


Sipeed Longan Nano – RISC-V Development Board - <AUTHOR> https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-Longan-Nano-RISC-V-GD32VF103CBT6-Development-Board-p-4205.html <comment><USER2> Datasheets are here: [http://dl.sipeed.com/LONGAN/Nano/DOC/](http://dl.sipeed.com/LONGAN/Nano/DOC/)

As from my experience with GD's STM32 clones, they did not have a real flash, but copied all your code from SPI-like internal flash to main SRAM on startup. I wonder if they did pull the same stunt with GD32V's

EDIT: what is inside stm32 clone: [https://zeptobars.com/en/read/GD32F103CBT6-mcm-serial- flash-...](https://zeptobars.com/en/read/GD32F103CBT6-mcm-serial-flash-Giga- Devices)

EDIT2: original page now returns 404, it was this board: [http://dl.sipeed.com/LONGAN/Nano/Spec/Sipeed%20longan%20nano...](http://dl.sipeed.com/LONGAN/Nano/Spec/Sipeed%20longan%20nano%20Datasheet%20V1.0.pdf) for $4.90 ([https://www.seeedstudio.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=GD3...](https://www.seeedstudio.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=GD32VF103CBT6))

<comment><USER3> Executing from flash is patent encumbered.

<comment><USER4> Do what now? People have been executing out of flash for longer than patents are valid.

<comment><USER3> STM32 has special its ART accelerator cache to prefetch instruction lines from flash and significantly reduce wait states. A clone can't replicate the same performance with a bog standard flash peripheral.

[https://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/break- points/4440...](https://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/break- points/4440388/On-wait-states)

<comment><USER4> I know about ART. I actually have some contributions to the STM32F4 reference manual as my team had access to pre production silicon. There's bugs in the prefetching on that thing on early revs and you need to flip a chicken bit.

I still don't see anything in there that's not the usual way flash is accessed in cases where it's mapped into the address space for XIP applications. Hell, a lot of the time people will stick something nicer than a dog simple direct mapped cache like ST's implementation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> non-entity Pardon my ignorance, but besides being an open-source ISA what's the reason for the popularity for RISC-V? The buzz alone has piqued my interest, but I'm just trying to understand the "why".

<comment><USER5> As someone who works in a famous mixed-signal IC company, I note that almost everything I've heard about it comes from HN and not internal discussion. Instruction sets are just not where the leading edge of value creation is. And the design and manufacture costs of ICs remain pretty irreducible. People expecting lots of open source hardware to suddenly start popping up are going to be disappointed.

An instruction set is an API. It's the architecture behind it that matters.

<comment><USER6> Targeting all use cases with x86 is not unusual?

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure what the argument is here?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I been using esp8266 but have been looking to learn more about STM32 and RIsc-v since its closer to the hardware.

On a commercial standpoint, wroom-02 is fcc pre certified. An example of the sipeed nano dev board with WiFi on board is this, which uses esp8265

[https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-MAIX-I-module-WiFi- versio...](https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-MAIX-I-module-WiFi-version-1st- RISC-V-64-AI-Module-K210-inside-p-3206.html)

If someone were to use STM32 for business logic, why wouldnt they just use an esp8266 since its a microcontroller, wifi, and the wroom-02 is pre certified?

Also, for clarification. The STM32 is based off of ARM Architechture. Whereas the Sipeed Longan Nano competes against the STM32 but is RISC-V based?

</comment><comment><USER8> How I can distinguish news discussing a processor core design (seemingly, usually, marketed as a "core") from that discussing hardware that I can actually buy (a processor "chip")?

I would have thought that 1\. [https://blog.westerndigital.com/risc-v-swerv- core-open-sourc...](https://blog.westerndigital.com/risc-v-swerv-core-open- source/) 2\. [https://greenwaves- technologies.com/ai_processor_gap8/](https://greenwaves- technologies.com/ai_processor_gap8/) and 3\. [https://syntacore.com/page/products/processor- ip/scr1](https://syntacore.com/page/products/processor-ip/scr1)

would be pieces of hardware that I can buy. Instead, they seem to be designs for hardware which conform to the RISC-V ISA, which could then be fabbed by a semiconductor manufacturer or flashed onto an FPGA.

What marketing/technical terms distinguish the designs of these systems from their implementations? "Core", "processor", "MCU"/"microcontroller", for example? Are any/all of these uniquely constrained to describing either a design (on paper) or that design's physical implementation in hardware?

</comment><comment><USER9> As a tinkerer:

1\. I can read the official specs without agreeing to an onerous license.

2\. There are several open source implementations I can choose to run on an FPGA.

3\. I can choose the simplest combination of features. Want a multiply instruction, but no branch prediction? Want caching but no MMU requiring multi-level address virtualization?

A large processor vendor has to employ a small army of processor designers. The trend will always be in the direction of adding more features and increasing complexity. Customers will write code to require those features, and the cycle continues.

Only very rarely a fresh design will appear having the right combination of attributes to give it a chance of being a viable platform for a long time. This is what makes Risk-V attractive to me.

</comment><comment><USER10> A longan is an asian fruit related to the lychee.

FYI ICYWW NTIM

</comment><comment><USER11> Beware! Opinionated comment!

Seeedstudio is such ignorant to their customers. Delivery of my order failed due to local mail and person from other side of customer "support" email rejected even to write a request to mail service. I'm not talking about compensation and/or resend.

<comment><USER11> I wonder who's that [-] was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> 404 page not found - maybe the product was de-listed?

<comment><USER13> Well,

I'm getting a 404 too so I am guessing that the page was removed.

<comment><USER14> Page works fine for me. Maybe it was a temporary problem?

<comment><USER15> it's still 404 for me, so I opened it in private mode and it appeared.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This was an instant click but it seems the site is being hugged down.</comment>


The Idiot Line - <AUTHOR> http://biasedbit.com/blog/the-idiot-line/ <comment><USER2> Very condescending piece. There is no universally best design, it's always the best _for a set of people_. The developer's mistake is that he optimizes for his own kind and designs things such that people who have a clue get an awesome interface. But most people don't have a clue about a very specific piece of software. Therefore it's likely that they optimized for the wrong kind of people. That is the true reason. I myself just accepted that there's stuff that I love and stuff that the majority loves and most of the time the design choices are completely opposite, so I just settle for their 'best'.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am an engineer and I have built some rather impressive software in my time. However I grew up in design, I worked in design, my diploma says design. On what side of this line do I belong? I feel that not everything is as black and white as the author might suggest.

<comment><USER4> It's not a design vs engineering boundary; it's a competence boundary. Your boundary simply encompasses more knowledge, of more areas — and thus you don't fit the archetype the article talks about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Idiot Line between being an author and a hack must be somewhere between the heading tag where you all caps your negative then drop in an F bomb modifier for shock value.

Also, Leonardo Da Vinci.

</comment><comment><USER6> Design is easy. Good design is hard.

<comment><USER7> One might say design is nuanced.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Argue for your limitations, and they're yours."</comment>


Oops - this looks like the thing I applied with to YC - <AUTHOR> http://sf0.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, post 3, but actually it IS a bit disappointing ;-) I wasn't so disappointed about the YC rejection because of my shoddy application (sorry for that, YC, btw). But this sf0 thing really seems to implement many of my ideas, especially the community implementing the tasks.

Nevertheless I think it would still be fun to work on something like this, perhaps with a different angle. Or what do you think, should I just admit defeat?

<comment><USER2> Competition proves (at least at some level) the validity of your idea. Do it in a different city. Join their team. Build something that complements what they do. Or just do it better.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just found this page when I was googling for the business cards. I guess it won't interest many people, but anyway, I applied to YC with a similar idea (I think, from the superficial looks of it). Rejected, but my application was not put together very well (last minute thing), and besides, it might just not be YCs area of interest.

<comment><AUTHOR> And yes, I think I will probably go through with it anyway, so comments are welcome.

(Sorry for always posting twice in my own threads - I didn't even want to open news.YCombinator right now, so I am too hectic).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I don't like sites that need an explanation of more than a few words at the top.

</comment><comment><USER4> This looks like a more sophisticated version of a regular scavenger hunt, except with teams over the internet.</comment>


Microsoft And Nokia: A Marriage Made In Hell? - T-A http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/09/04/microsoft-and-nokia-a-marriage-made-in-hell/

<comment><AUTHOR> Or possibly Tuonela. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_mythology#Tuonela.2C_th...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_mythology#Tuonela.2C_the_land_of_the_dead)</comment>


Ask HN: Good 'classic' book for tech people to learn about building businesses ? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a cs student and would like to learn from some classic source about building businesses - there are tens of thousands of books about very specific domains in business, but I would like to read some general, high level perspective, let's say like the 'Structure and interpretation of computer programs' of business books. Rather 500 pages than 150. Do you have any ideas on that ? <comment><USER2> I think "Growing a Business" by Paul Hawken is pretty good.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was actually looking for something more textbook-like, but thank you nevertheless.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Help me find an article that I read on here about a year ago? - <AUTHOR> About a year or so ago, I read an article that I really enjoyed and want to pass on to people (and read again myself!). I can't find it and was wondering if anyone on here knows the article I'm talking about. The gist of it was:<p>- It was an article about change in your life and how you'll never know what you like until you take a risk of changing your life.<p>- It mentioned something along the lines of "what are the chances that you were born in the town/city that you will enjoy the most, work in the job that you will enjoy the most etc"<p>- It also talked about how even if you don't like the new thing you've tried, you'll never know that unless you try it and by doing so, you may realise what you currently have is exactly what you want.<p>Any ideas? I really can't find it :( <comment><USER2> Using your quote for the article and adding site:[https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com) to the search criteria I was able to find this request for help and the following links

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17595545](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17595545)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18682579](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18682579)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19062504](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19062504) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19891084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19891084)

<comment><AUTHOR> I finally found it :) [https://www.raptitude.com/2012/07/most-lives-are-lived- by-de...](https://www.raptitude.com/2012/07/most-lives-are-lived-by-default/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> using the string unless you try it and the site criteria as below [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20382164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20382164)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20388428](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20388428)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20368708](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20368708)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19822100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19822100)

Remember google tracks your every search, but in general can be very helpful</comment>


Run ChromeOS as a window manager in Ubuntu - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dz0ny/lightdm-login-chromeos

<comment><USER2> Not working anymore google changed links. However you can still compile chromeos manualy and it will work.

</comment><comment><USER3> Other than a cool hack, I fail to see the use for it.

<comment><USER4> People might like it as a WM over the mainstream things at least.

<comment><USER2> Basic idea was for Chrome OS extension and app develpers, to have full fledged enviroment, without to have to resort to chromeos device.</comment></comment></comment>


Windows Phone Market Share up 23.5% in Europe - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/07/30/windows-phones-big-july-market-share-ticks-up-23-5-in-europe/

<comment><USER2> As the article itself states

>Of course, it's easy to grow by large percentages when one's market share remains limited.

It still is a jump from 1.36% to 1.68%.

<comment><USER3> My thoughts exactly. Makes for nice headline and lot's of clicks though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I hate misleading titles like these. The base is very small to begin with so any sort of jump in sales will seem "significant", even though it's not. The whole WP7 market share is even smaller than it was when it started 2 years ago, at under 2%.

</comment><comment><USER5> Most likely Stephen Elop is buddy-buddy with the clueless CEO of a large company who probably went "Yes, we'll take 200000 handsets for 50 eurocents apiece to distribute to our employees, thankyousir."</comment>


Show HN: Curated Telegram Channel about the progress of mankind - <AUTHOR> http://progressnews.club <comment><USER2> So far, I love it... Great news, concise format. Always in your pocket.</comment>


Show HN: Top Fantasy Reads – Fantasy books Reddit is reading - <AUTHOR> https://topfantasyreads.com/ <comment><USER2> I feel like it would be nice to have a "rising" category - most of these are from heavy hitters/already famous.

However, very cool - any thoughts for other categories (SciFi, etc.)?

<comment><USER3> [https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/) is a sub for SciFi, and has occasional compilation and recommendation threads, and a wiki with some more links in it.

<comment><USER4> Speculative Fiction, not science fiction.

Fantasy is more than welcome there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Was a bit disappointed to see Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 - Gardens of the Moon so far down. It'd be interesting if they took the series as a whole. One example is The Lies of Locke Lamora, I think it's a good first book but almost everyone I've spoken to/read comments from agrees is bottoms out in book 2 and 3. Personally think the same of Rothfuss' work. Conversely a lot of people say MBotF improves past the first book (I think its excellent from the start), so it's a tough list to base the entire experience on.

<comment><USER6> Malazan is goddamn amazing, it has world building like no other fantasy series since LOTR. It's a real sleeper, I believe it will become much more popular in the future, perhaps after a grotesque screen adaptation. To my friends who are hesitant to jump in I often liken it to Berserk meets ASOIAF; unrelenting horror with captivating enigmatic lore meets a rich political drama of war and conquest spanning many continents and cultures. The prose isn't as gracefully written as Rothfus stuff and the editing is periodically disappointing, but I can't think of any modern fantasy series that even comes close in terms of the depth and complexity of the world's fantasy lore. Recommendations welcome!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> _American Gods_ and _A Game of Thrones_ were some of the most abandoned books in 2019 as well: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21957798](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21957798)

<comment><USER8> I had so much trouble getting through American Gods.

On the other hand, his pacing worked well in the short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" he published on his blog:

[https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/How_To_T...](https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties_\(Text\))

<comment><USER9> I saw the film Stardust years ago and liked it (didn't love it), and years later I thought I'd give the book a shot.

Although I did finish the book, I thought it was a slog to get through. It wasn't the fact that it was different than the film, but it had to do with Gaiman's writing style.

I'm definitely not rushing out to read his other novels.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> While we are on the topic, if I didn't like the "Mistborn" series, is it worth trying other Sanderson books? I felt like he did a really good job finishing the Wheel of Time, so it's not his writing per-se I didn't like, I just couldn't get invested in any of the characters in the series.

<comment><USER11> I liked the first trilogy of mistborn but lost interest in the sequels. There were parts of the first trilogy that .. well, were better than others.

I think the Stormlight archive is Sanderson at his fantasy best. Characters driving plot in a cohesive, complex world. Stormlight has huge tombs of books covering a story that feels like it is really moving and subplots that tie back and resolve.

<comment><USER12> I quite liked Mistborn - only read the trilogy.

I'm worried about reading the Stormlight Archive because it's unfinished and ASOIAF and The Kingkiller Chronicle have burned me in that regard.

Does it actually look like he'll finish Stormlight though?

<comment><USER13> Of all the authors I'm following right now I think Brandon is the most likely to complete his "work". The guy is a machine for writing, he's never let a year pass without a new book.

Of course death/accidents can happen to anybody, but I can't imagine he's going to suddenly drop his output, given how prolific he has been over recent years.

One of his nice tricks is to "relax" by writing different kinds of books, which seems to be working out really well for him.

I conciously avoid reading incomplete series, with only two exceptions and he's one of them. (The other is Steven Brust, who I've been reading for 20+ years. Slowly getting closer to the finish-mark there, the waits between books aren't as bad as with some authors, but they're still annoying!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I love how you linked each book into bookstore.org. Any specific reason?

<comment><AUTHOR> Saw a post about them a few weeks back and was interested in how they support independent bookstores so I thought, why not?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> _Iron Gold_ is Sci-fi, not fantasy.

Do that genre next!

</comment><comment><USER16> This is a fine list. I think the algos are probably reasonable and so forth.

The reason I can say that is because it reads pretty much like a greatest hits of fantasy fiction list.

It would be interesting to normalize it in various ways:

Most read book per unit time that has passed since it was released. (Contrast NK Jemisen's work from last year with Martins work from the 90s with Tolkien etc)

Most commonly read book that is not on the amazon list. (Most surprising book on the list)

Most widely read book that doesn't have a tv show or movie.

And perhaps other smart variations that you and other readers might think of.

</comment><comment><USER17> I would have preferred to see some examples of books that are really high quality, but not so well known.

Two Examples:

Daniel Abraham's (co-author of "The Expanse") The Long Price Books, "Shadow and Betrayal" and "Seasons of War".

Also, the truly fabulous and sadly not widely known books by Geoffrey Wilson in which he imagined a Europe ruled by the Indian Empire and their magic: "Land of Hope and Glory", "The Place of Dead Kings" and "The War of The Grail".

<comment><USER18> From that list: "Senlin Ascends" is a journey up a steampunk Tower of Babel whose main character starts off as a bit of a prat, but over the course of the book (and series) really matures and becomes a great character. I highly recommend it.

<comment><USER17> Thanks - I'll check it out.

<comment><USER18> You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can you talk a little bit about how you are finding book names in comments and how you are making your ranking?

</comment><comment><USER20> This is great tool to see what everyone is reading but I would refrain from choosing books solely on the ranking shown here because its always better to choose your own books, movies, music, battles,etc,. rather than aggregators or recommendation systems dictating what is good. I am not saying that this tool is doing the same but as a user we all need to be aware of the bias that naturally comes with these kind of services [0].

In rather harsh words of Arthur Schopenhauer

"The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17939766](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17939766)

<comment><USER8> I find the commercial top-n lists not useful.

top fantasy: #1 urban vampires #2 harry potter

top scifi: #1 star wars book #2 star trek book

recommended for you: author(s) you bought before

<comment><USER21> > recommended for you: author(s) you bought before

They're not going to do better than that. The author is almost the only thing that matters in determining whether or not you'll like a book.

Now, if it's an author you bought before and then you hated the book, there's room for improvement in the recommendation.

<comment><USER8> > They're not going to do better than that.

I can give you a few examples where there's room for improvement.

If you liked jules verne, maybe you'll like h.g. wells

If you liked isaac asimov, maybe arthur c clarke.

If you liked william gibson, maybe bruce sterling.

If you liked twilight, arrgh!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Grats for shipping something, but my advice would be to give it more social substance since a list of books isn't all that inspiring. I can just go to Amazon's fantasy section for an equally inactionable list.

For example, one idea is to link/embed comments that mention it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very true, main goal was to ship something to see if people are interested before I continue working on it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I haven't been very impressed with any fantasy novels except for the Game Of Thrones series, and even that series has started petering out.

Only other one which I liked was The Sundering series by Jacqueline Carey, and mainly for the dialogue between two of the characters.

</comment><comment><USER24> neat site and usual suspects are there, would prefer if you could add more books and some filters

I've been mostly reading fantasy books for past 5+ years and /r/Fantasy [1] has been the major source to find books. I like that there are plenty of discussions to focus on different categories, self published, underrated, webserials, etc.

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/lists](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/lists)

</comment><comment><USER25> This is great. Any plans to add other genres (sci fi, espionage, mystery...)?

<comment><USER26> Yes please! This is great. Another request for Sci-Fi from me! :)

<comment><USER20> I have heard good words about The Expanse. I haven't read the books but have seen the show and I think it's fantastic.

<comment><USER27> The books are quite good as well, but as is common with these things, the books and the show diverge in ways I won't spoil. Expect it and enjoy the books for what they are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is there a way to Link back to the HN comments on each book?

Btw I've been reading the robin Hobbs books for probably all of 2019 until now. There's just so much there. Really enjoyable.

</comment><comment><USER29> This is pretty cool. Is the comment processing restricted to some period of time? Maybe considering linking to Goodreads as well?

</comment><comment><USER30> Can you share a bit about how you implemented?

<comment><USER31> Seconding this :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> The page title is "Page Title"?

</comment><comment><USER33> Oof! I'm sorry, but Neil Gaiman's writing is... unpleasant. Purposefully so. A lot of people seem to like this, but I'm definitely not one of them.

<comment><USER34> What do you mean by that? I just finished Stardust and The Ocean At The End Of The Lane and his writing was quite lovely - but he was going for the fairy tale vibe with those books.

<comment><USER21> I have a similar, possibly identical complaint about American Gods. Reading American Gods made it clear that Neil Gaiman is very clever (intelligent, tricky plotting) and, independently, a great writer (good with words).

But his tastes are different from mine. There are sections of American Gods that are much too vulgar/crass/obscene/whatever for my taste.

This is also why I never read the sequel to Lies of Locke Lamora.

<comment><USER35> You find Scott Lynch crass and obscene? It's been a while since I finished those books but that doesn't ring a bell.

Do you mean metaphorically like a crass analogy or like full of swear words? The former would bother me much more than the latter tbh , especially since we're following orphan street urchins - seems in character almost.

<comment><USER21> In the case of Lies of Locke Lamora, the book is full of swear words.

That's not true of American Gods. The problem is the same, but the details are different.

<comment><USER34> Hate to break it to you, but life is full of swear words also.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


What is meant by "protection" in real OOP? - <AUTHOR> I read up on the history of Smalltalk and Object Oriented Programming, and one thing I have not quite grasped is the idea of "protection."
I know you can protect methods from being accessed by making them private or protected in certain programming languages but something else must be meant here.
Do you protect objects from being changed? Do you protect them from being "talked to" / responding with valuable returns to unauthorized requests / initial-message-senders? To what purpose?
And how exactly are they being protected, by what mechanism so to speak? (particularly in Smalltalk) <comment><USER2> Encapsulation[0] might be the term you are looking for. Enforcing object boundaries makes it easier to reason about program behavior and enforce security guarantees.

If objects can only change their own data, then all change affecting the object is either caused by the object itself, or indirectly by another when information crosses the interface the boundary presents (e.g. a message was received).

Most languages use a memory model that doesn't even have the concept of access rights, everything can potentially affect anything else. If your program has to be secure, this is a nightmare.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encapsulation_(computer_progra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encapsulation_\(computer_programming\))

Also interesting:

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

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability- based_security](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability-based_security)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent- based_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent-based_model)

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I've read all links and I think I would like to see more hands-on code regarding to how this is done in the systems (like Smalltalk) itself.

<comment><USER2> There are two types of languages which use encapsulation: those who use it merely as the main syntactic model (C++, Smalltalk, Java, Python) and those who actually enforce it by managing memory access during runtime (E, Erlang).

The following might be intuitive [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erights/uploaded- papers/ma...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erights/uploaded- papers/master/ocap-virtual-env.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> In Smalltalk, the only way how to communicate to objects is by sending messages. The way how they react on the messages is full the responsibility of objects, and they can refuse them. This decision is strictly late-bound because all message passing in Smalltalk is late-bound. You may say that all the methods in Smalltalk are "public", but it is not the very same meaning as in other languages.

The objects store the state in instance variables. You cannot access the instance variables of objects from outside of the object. All instance variables are "protected" in the terminology of C++.

<comment><AUTHOR> > The way how they react on the messages is full the responsibility of > objects, and they can refuse them.

Thereby any further protection is totally up to the programmer right?

<comment><USER3> Yes. It is actually very easy to extend Smalltalk to support private/protected methods (message bytecode based on the protocols, for example). But Smalltalk would need to do these checks in run-time because all message sends are late- bound.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Can you point me to where I can find out more about the eval-"loop" that the entire Smalltalk runs on?

<comment><USER3> Check the Blue Book: [http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook....](http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook.pdf)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Using drunk users to test the UX - <AUTHOR> https://www.cubui.com/design/user-experience/using-drunk-users-test-ux/ <comment><USER2> Major ethical concerns aside, only get drunk users to test your ux if you think your users will be drunk. E.g. quiz machines at pubs and bars. Condom machines in nightclub toilets. Taxi apps. Poker sites maybe. Etc.</comment>


Deep Learning Reading List - <AUTHOR> http://jmozah.github.io/links/

<comment><USER2> Don't forget "Intriguing properties of neural networks", otherwise known as "Does Deep Learning have deep flaws?".

In sum, you can teach a network to say "that's a dog" when presented with a picture of a dog, but you'll also be able to (1) find an imperceptibly modified version of the image where it'll say "that's garbage" and (2) intelligently generate an image of noise that also gets recognised as a dog.

(1) [http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6199](http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6199) (2) [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26691-optical- illusion...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26691-optical-illusions- fool-computers-into-seeing-things.html)

<comment><USER3> In (2)'s paper [2], the images are really neat. Staring at it for a few moments, I feel like I can see where the computer is coming from. A bit.

The robin, armadillo, centipede, peacock, and bubble all actually have a little swirl of features that - to me at least - resemble the labels provided. But from afar, and you've got to basically damp the noise. I did this by taking my glasses off and leaning about 8 inches from the screen (with the grid taking about 3 inches wide). I've got about -7.5 diopter near- sightedness, so this cleaned the images right up. At least the armadillo I would have guessed, as it's absolutely a little critter walking to the lower right, and it has the demi-circle body and long face. And it might make sense: it was told to make an armadillo, so it did. _And nothing else_.

(I also think the baseball was super clever - if this were abstract art, I would totally have fallen for that classification, as well as a few of the others. There's something cool going on there.)

I'm printing and reading the rest of the paper now (about a quarter done). To say it's both fascinating and interesting really understates it. Really neat stuff!

[2] [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.1897v2.pdf](http://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.1897v2.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You're going to get most of these from a simple Google search, if you're going to build a list of what to read you should at least put some effort into it. Currently, this list is missing a lot of history behind deep learning - only 3 papers listed!

if you want a good set of papers that starts with perceptrons and hebbian learning to multi-layered neural nets and the emergence of what we now refer to as deep networks checkout [http://deeplearning.cs.cmu.edu/](http://deeplearning.cs.cmu.edu/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. Thanks for the link. I have added stuff that i started with. will improve this list over time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Added the link to the list..

<comment><USER5> Perhaps of interest - [http://deeplearning.university](http://deeplearning.university) \- provides a bibliography of recent publications. See also [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8334875](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8334875)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I would add "Practical recommendations for gradient-based training of deep architectures" to the list for those who already have a feel for training multi-layer neural nets. It provides a good overview for those that want to learn more about gradient descent, hyperparameter tuning, and other practical considerations involved with training deep architectures.

[http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.5533](http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.5533)

</comment><comment><USER7> Karpathy's JavaScript demos are the first thing that I would show to a newcomer: [http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/convnetjs/](http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/convnetjs/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Automatic Speech Recognition: a Deep Learning Approach contains an excellent section about deep learning, as well as more content about ASR and hybrid deep learning methods.

<comment><AUTHOR> can you post the link?

<comment><USER8> [http://www.springer.com/engineering/signals/book/978-1-4471-...](http://www.springer.com/engineering/signals/book/978-1-4471-5778-6)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For those interested in learning deeply about deep learning?</comment>


An Android Developer's Top Gripes (plusses and minuses) - <AUTHOR> http://www.developer.com/ws/article.php/3857796/An-Android-Developers-Top-10-Gripes.htm <comment><USER2> "I'm looking forward to an Android-powered toaster oven any day now."

I assume that he's joking, but at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) this weekend, a company called "Touch Revolution" had a microwave with a touchscreen running Android. They also had Android on a Washer/Dryer and on a printer. Thankfully, though, I did not see an actual toaster running Android.

<comment><USER3> NetBSD already did toasters: <http://www.embeddedarm.com/software/arm-netbsd- toaster.php>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "4. Applications Never, Ever Quit" -- That's really not the case. If you press the "Home" button the app will receive the onPause() event, but if you press the "Back" button the app will quit after an onDestroy() event.

<comment><USER5> After you press the 'Back' try holding the 'Home' button down for a second. You should still see the application in the list that comes up. Further, after you receive 'onDestroy()' your activity isn't actually unloaded. It just 'could' be unloaded at some point in the future. Good developers will null all their pointers so the GC can clean up....and we're all good developers right?

<comment><USER4> If you hold the home button and see a list of apps -- that's the history. Not related to currently running apps.

Furthermore, have a look at the Activity lifecycle: [http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#...](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#actlife) If your app receives the onDestroy() event, there is no way it will ever recover to a running state.

<comment><USER5> In my experience, getting an onDestroy() call doesn't mean your process is about to be terminated/unloaded (this may be different in newer versions?)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hey HN, (author of that article here) was wondering if you guys had any general feedback. I'm an evolving tech writer and I'm always looking for pointers.

<comment><USER6> #3 sounds more like complete sarcasm, and just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the article in tone or meaning.

Regarding #8, have you explored the way that "Alternate Resources" [1] allows you to better handle fragmentation issues? I've found it at least to be useful enough to provide a few alternate layouts based on screen orientation, but it would be nice to get further feedback from fulltime Android developers about it. Things like how useful it is in the real world with real, fragmented devire types seems hard to come by...

[1] [http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/resource...](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/resources-i18n.html#AlternateResources)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the feedback. #3 was meant to be a more than a little sarcastic, but I guess it didn't mesh well with some of the others.

There are really two types of fragmentation. The first is UI screen size, which isn't too hard to work with. The second, and uglier, is code fragmentation. This is where a piece of code might work totally differently on two separate platforms. Right now Android has a lot of the former, but it's looking like there's a lot of the latter to come.

<comment><USER7> How could code run differently on one Android 1.6 device from another?

<comment><USER5> While Android might be internally consistant, the hardware drivers that support it isn't. Everywhere your software interacts with the hardware is suspect for fragmentation. Google will have compliance testing to force OEM's into correctly supporting the Android runtime. However, their only leverage is the inclusion or not of their Google Apps and the "Made with Google" logo for the back of the device.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Regarding point #2... the author is _criticizing_ a platform which promotes breaking your application into easily-reusable pieces that communicate with well-defined semantics? What?

</comment><comment><USER9> Comment on the page: _Most of your complaints can be summed up as, "I don't like developers having a choice," "I don't like consumers having a choice," and "I don't like not being given a choice."_

Seems about right</comment>


My experiment with smart drugs: Viagra for the brain? - <AUTHOR> http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1298 <comment><USER2>
      Man: (calling in panic) Doctor, I ate Viagra but I can't find my wife anywhere.
      Doc: Don't you have a maid?
      Man: Come on doc, I don't need Viagra when I'm with the maid.

May be the problem lies elsewhere.

<comment><USER3> While an interesting project can get you excited to work on something, I doubt it can simulate all the neurological receptors that this drug can. The great Paul Erdos was known for his use of amphetamines throughout his life, and after a period of voluntary abstinence famously said, "Before, when I looked at a piece of blank paper my mind was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece of paper."

<comment><USER4> I actually think the two sentences that follow that quote reveal a lot more about Paul Erdos.

"You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month."

([http://www.untruth.org/~josh/papers/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio- rev...](http://www.untruth.org/~josh/papers/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio-rev2.pdf))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I often wonder whether or not one could get similar effects through meditation. When I was doing regular Buddhist meditation exercises, I felt that I had an increased level of concentration. The disadvantages are that meditation is much harder than taking a pill and the effects might not be as strong. The advantages are that meditation has no harmful long-term side effects and has much longer lasting positive effects than any drug that temporarily alters brain chemistry. Meditation causes long-term changes in brain structure and function.

<comment><USER6> I'm pretty sure if narcolepsy could be controlled by meditation people would do it. Clearly Modafinil has a measurable clinical effect that no amount of wu can reproduce.

I was surprised how well tested it is, given this off-label use. It's a reasonably tested drug: [http://www.powerset.com/explore/semhtml/Modafinil?query=Prov...](http://www.powerset.com/explore/semhtml/Modafinil?query=Provigil)

<comment><USER7> Right -- I'll give you one guess what happens when narcoleptics try to meditate.

<comment><USER8> I know you're joking, but meditation doesn't have to be done sitting or lying down. It can be done standing, walking, or during practically any activity. It's just that some people get caught up in what they're doing rather than the meditation, so they sit and do nothing.

<comment><USER7> Actually I'm not joking, but I was referring to sitting or lying down meditation -- so point taken.

Narcoleptics usually aren't like the puppies in internet videos or the girl in Deuce Bigalow, falling asleep suddenly and at random. They fall asleep in non- stimulating situations like a classroom or church and enter the deep part of the sleep cycle much faster than normal sleepers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "As with any drug, Provigil has side effects. According to the [UK govt], the list is substantial, including nervousness, insomnia, excitation, irritability, tremors, dizziness and headaches. It may also cause "gastrointestinal disturbances", including nausea and abdominal pain, dry mouth, loss of appetite and cardiovascular effects such as high blood pressure, palpitations and tachycardia - a fast heart beat."

[http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,127...](http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1271038,00.html)

Still tempting for hitting immediate deadlines, but I'd be very reluctant to use it long-term.

<comment><USER10> Aren't insomnia and excitation the point?

Funny to see insomnia listed as a _side_ effect of Provigil.

<comment><USER11> If you look at the research, though, there are a few reports of patients having severe insomnia for weeks or months after moderate doses of provigil.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I did a similar experiment about 5 years ago and didn't experience any of the same effects. In my experience provigil was only good for what it was designed for - staying up for long stretches of time.

<comment><USER13> I took it for about 15 days last year when I was having trouble staying awake and was definitely more relaxed and productive. I think that was a result of just having a lot more time in the day.

The first few days I only slept about 1-3 hours per night. I would lie in bed for 30 minutes then get really bored and so I'd read, work, or clean our apartment. Since I had 20 hours a day, I never felt pressed for time and was pretty relaxed. It's pretty cool to have time to do laundry, clean, run errands, spend hours hanging out, read a book or two, exercise, and work all in one day.

I remember being scared the first night when for over 40 hours not only had I not slept, i wasn't even tired.

However, over time the effects wore off and I returned to sleeping 6 hours or so a night. Still less than normal, but at that point the (risk of) side effects outweighed the extra two hours of time per day.

<comment><USER14> Try humping multiple kilometers through mountain ranges on provigil on a 3-day training mission. It was one of the worst things I've had to do. Being tired and being in a state of living death because of drugs are bad. Drugs are bad, kids, mmmmkay?

<comment><USER15> I've done this not on drugs and the state of living death still comes on eventually during the long (20+ K) marches. Man was not meant to march dozens of miles with 80+ lbs on his back.

Lean forward... that always helps me ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "I decided to take three days off, to see what would happen. It was easy."

I recently had this thought that being easy to wean off might just be another trick played by drugs to keep us addicted. For example, I have several times weaned off coffee for a month. It was easy, too, but here I am, still drinking coffee (again). Since it is so easy to wean off it, I can just stop tomorrow, so why not have another cup today...?

Also, it seems that some schools "addiction research" only consider something a relapse if it happens after 6 months not taking the drugs. So anything below 6 months is not even considered as "weaned off".

<comment><USER17> If you ever seriously question this, try picking up smoking and quitting. Or, it's possible that you don't have the appropriate brain chemistry to get addicted to things easily.

<comment><USER16> I don't understand the experiment? I guess I would not be able to quit smoking easily? But that wouldn't show me anything? Could be that coffee does the "easy to wean off" deception, and smoking doesn't. I suspect there are more coffee drinkers than smokers in the world (no idea, though).

<comment><USER17> I'm sorry, I should have been more clear with my meaning. I used to think similarly to you regarding addition - I could quit caffeine any time I wanted for as long as I wanted, but ultimately, I went back to soda or coffee or what have you.

So, I thought maybe that was the nature of addiction, that it was a subtle psychological thing.

THEN, I quit smoking, and the hair-pulling, hand-wringing, eye-gouging experience that followed showed me what addiction was really like.

On the other hand, my girlfriend quit smoking the same day I did, and when she quit it was like me quitting coffee; no big deal at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I use provigil when I'm on a work bender or playing poker. Helps a lot, no increase in anxiety, in fact I barely notice I've taken it except for the fact that concentration/focus is through the roof.

As most everyone knows, I'm a total stoner, so I won't get into that except to state that it's been nothing but positive on the quality of my work as well as quantity. But there is direct causality with the quality and variety of bud in question.

I don't drink alcohol, nor do I do any other drugs. Although I did a lion's share of ecstasy and LSD back in the early 90's.

<comment><USER2> While I certainly appreciate that you are sharing knowledge, I hope you will understand that I am a bit skeptical because I don't have first hand experience. So, entrepreneurs in Amsterdam should, on the average, be more productive than, say, those in Silicon Valley?

( Please don't take this as an assholic comment though it sounds like that. Just curious... Also see my startup angle ;) )

<comment><USER19> I would think that drug culture in San Francisco would be up there with A-dam. ;)

<comment><USER2> Ah that makes sense :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I've been experimenting with "smart drugs" (nootropics) for a few weeks. Piracetam, vinpocetine, aniracetam, inositol and choline. Varying effects, so far. Ranging from the equivalent of a cup of coffee (without the stimulant side effects), to extremely different "brain feels". None of them have (so far- I'm still experimenting) changed my productivity or memory drastically.

I don't view it as anything other than an experiment to see if my brain is underachieving in its normal state. So far, I'm reasonably satisfied with the conclusion.

I'd like to try provigil, but it is prescription only. Is there any way to get it semi-legally without a prescription?

<comment><USER21> Look for rms' post on this page

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I would recommend eating healthily and running 3-4 days per week. It makes you feel great, mentally acute, and you know that you're only going to become healthy and live longer, with no side effects.

<comment><USER23> diet-wise, about 2.5 of my 5 meals a day are just fruit, and it does wonders for sleep. it's like flipping a switch: eat mostly fruit, sleep 6 hours a night; eat mostly other stuff, sleep 8 hours a night. unfortunately in a couple weeks i'll be in startup mode and probably unable to afford it.

<comment><USER24> Will you afford not to have the extra time?

Try to move to seasonal fruits, and add raw seasonal vegetables on top of it. Cut out the meat.

(This is probably what I'll be doing when my bf goes out of the country for a month... or at least, that's what I'm telling myself. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Somehow this part of the article bothered me: "But isn't that cheating? What's the difference between Progivil for students and steroids for athletes?"

Is it cheating for tall people to play basketball? Should smart people take a drug to make them stupid for a test - to make things "fair"? If provigil really doesn't have long term negative effects it seems to me like it should be welcomed.

Using technology to change our natural abilities seems to evoke a certain amount of fear. More so than is explained by fear of potential negative long term effects. Why should that be?

<comment><USER26> The cheating angle has nothing to do with "fairness". It has everything to do with "safety".

Linemen in the National Football League are good examples. Performance enhancing substances (especially steroids) give such significant advantages over opponents, at one time you _had_ to take them to compete and keep your job. Twenty years later your health failed, partially from your occupation but mainly from the drugs. Many great linemen from the 70's and 80's are dead now.

No one should ever have that dilemma, therefore the ban.

<comment><USER25> Right. I understand that part. Same reason why professional cyclists wear helmets. Helmets slow you down a bit but everyone would rather wear one for safety even if they wouldn't because they would take the risk for a better chance of winning.

Still thats not quite my question. Getting braces for your teeth seems to be ok. Some people are uncomfortable with breast implants while others think they're great (insert your own joke here). What about surgery to make you smarter? In my gut that seems wrong but I'm not sure why.

<comment><USER27> It doesn't seem wrong to me. Surgery to give you 20/20 vision = OK, Surgery to give you 145 IQ = not ok?? Why? How about an expensive piece of optical machinery the rich can wear on their faces to give them good vision?

All of the arguments I can come up with for not allowing the smart surgery/drugs (like it will benefit only the rich, wouldn't be fair etc,) fail on the "Lasik test". I take this to mean that its simply a cultural taboo now and will soon be seen as a curious, archaic belief from the distant past.

<comment><USER10> > _Surgery to give you 20/20 vision = OK, Surgery to give you 145 IQ = not > ok?? Why?_

In my case, both would be downgrades.

<comment><USER27> Surgery to implant a modicum of tact, humility, and social grace?

<comment><USER10> Surgery to implant a sense of humor?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Provigil, the brand name of the drug Modafinil, is unfortunately _illegal_ to import without a prescription in the United States. [1]

And strange side effects listed... "PROVIGIL may cause you to have a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may result in hospitalization or be life-threatening. If you develop a rash, hives, sores, swelling, or trouble swallowing or breathing, stop taking PROVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency treatment." [2]

Lastly, more side effects: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=provigil+more:drug_...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=provigil+more:drug_side_effects&cx=drugs_for_patients&sa=N&oi=cooptsr&resnum=0&ct=col1&cd=2)

Interesting drug. Sounds great, but I wouldn't take it, though.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil#Legal_status>

[2] <http://www.provigil.com/pat/important-safety-info.html>

<comment><USER29> Adrafinil is a similar, but unregulated drug. Legal in the US without a prescription.

So, if you're planning on experimenting, at least avoid a felony charge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Ah, that's why results for it were sparse on Google.

It's _Provigil_ , not Progivil.

<comment><USER2> Side effects include dyslexia?

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm somewhat unsure about the 'online pharmacy' thing. Has anyone here ordered Provigil from an online pharmacy that ships to Europe? How do you evaluate these pharmacies? I don't want to get misslabeled pills etc...

<comment><USER31> <http://www.drugbuyers.com/freeboard/ubbthreads.php/ubb/cfrm>

Basically Modafanil is really hard to get in the USA without a legitimate prescription because the DEA/customs are really good about finding scheduled drugs in the mail. In the USA you will probably need to do a service where you pay an online pharmacist/doctor to do a consultation and prescribe you the medication.

Europe is easier.

<comment><USER31> [http://www.pharma- orders.com/product_info.php?cPath=33&p...](http://www.pharma- orders.com/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=1178)

this one might work, good luck and godspeed

<comment><USER30> thanks for the help, rms. I will check out the forum (your first link) this weekend. Regarding the second link: they sell Modalert, which is made by an Indian company that claims this is a Provigil generic. I have read some worrying things about Modalert, here is an example:

       I'm going to restore the statement regarding
       the effectiveness of generics. Yes, in theory,
       the basic ingredient is the same. However, (1) no
       one really knows if Modalert is pure modafinil,
       (2) according to Cephalon's research, modafinil
       loses efficiency if it's in the form of particles
       larger than 40 microns (see US patent 5618845).
       It's not known if particles in Modalert are
       small enough. --Itinerant1 22:47, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

(found here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Modafinil#Generics_.26_eff...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Modafinil#Generics_.26_effectiveness) )

and

        Modalert claims to be a generic Modafinil but almost
        all accounts describe it as inferior and its effect
        sounds like it could have something like caffiene
        and/or ingredients used in over-the-counter diet
        medicines to simulate an energizing effect.

and

        I recently reacquired my interest in Modafinil
        because I'm a first year graduate student and I
        need to concentrate for long periods of time.
        But, I chose to be a retard and got sucked into
        buying the cheap Sun Pharma internet crap from
        India that is UTTERLY WORTHLESS!!! I received my
        package today with glee anticipating all those great
        mental and emotional stimulating effects I received
        from Provigil 5 years ago - but listen people, the
        stuff is ENTIRELY INEFFECTIVE, [...] All I've
        experienced today is an unpleasant and extremely
        jittery ephedra like feeling - no fun at all, and it's
        NOTHING like the true effects of REAL Modafinil. [...]

(found here: <http://brainmeta.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18411> )

Here is a thread where someone thinks that the different effectiveness of Modalert is the result of a different formulation: [http://www.drugbuyers.com/freeboard/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showt...](http://www.drugbuyers.com/freeboard/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showthreaded/Number/312423/site_id/1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I wonder how the memory recall is on that Quantum/String Theory book (the elegant universe?)

Dr. Wozniak asserts that one of the primary functions of sleep is that of memory consolidation, and I've found his arguments quite persuasive.

For more reading:

[http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm#Physiological%20...](http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm#Physiological%20function%20of%20sleep)

</comment><comment><USER33> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/200...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2004/01/06/hwake06.xml) is one of the best articles I've ever read on modafinil and a much more enjoyable comprehensive read on the same topic than the submitted article IMO.

</comment><comment><USER34> "I think it's a stupid thing to do, because you shouldn't ever take drugs you don't need."

Amen sister.

<comment><USER35> Replace 'take drugs' with 'eat food', 'write software', 'go on runs', 'learn skills'.

Now also define 'need'.

I think blanket statements like this are ignorant. The vast majority of the population takes drugs they don't need, if you define drinking coffee/tea (for caffeine) or smoking or drinking alcohol as taking drugs.

<comment><USER36> Just because most people do it doesn't make it right.

Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are drugs, anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.

<comment><USER37> Just because the government says don't do it or people attach a blanket label to them doesn't make it wrong either.

<comment><USER34> Right or wrong is irrelevant. They're all bad for you when used frequently. I'm pretty sure that's why the person who said that meant you shouldn't take them, not for any moral reasons.

<comment><USER15> "Bad" is subjective.

I drink caffeine to stay awake or to wake up; getting my work done is not "bad" for me. I drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes because smoking is relaxing and helps me concentrate and drinking... I won't get into that here. I exercise because it makes me feel good. I eat healthy because I think non-junk food just tastes better.

In my mind, all of these things are not "bad" for me. Some may be bad for my physical health, but if physical health were humans' only consideration we would all live in plastic bubbles and eat synthesized protein mash or something. If somebody wants to take Provigil for 30 years and it effectively doubles their productivity and concentration while at the end of which turning their mind to mush, who are we to judge?

<comment><USER36> Right, we should probably use "effective for N" or "inhibits X" instead of good/bad, right/wrong.

Value judgments used to be effectiveness positions, wherin N and X were assumed to be common among people (or at least were implied to be superior to any dissenting view.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I am sorely tempted to try out these memory pills. Days used to be when I was preparing to ace my SAT's that I used to take spirulina to flush the system. These days, the designer pills have become more streamlined in their effects. I just wish there's more research done on these drugs. Right now, I'm too chicken to experiment with anything other than passive, non-endocrinal, CNR non-reactive drugs.

</comment><comment><USER39> LSD is said to improve analytical abilities. The "improved state" can last weeks or even months, although it is difficult to say if the change is permanent or not, as some claim.

There is a conspiracy theory also, that this particular quality of LSD caused its ban in 60s-70s.

(Actually, there is a legal substance with similar effects discovered not long ago, and I thought it might be used in psychotherapy the same way LSD was used before the ban.)

<comment><USER40> > there is a legal substance

Which is..?

<comment><USER31> Hey, shoot me an email, don't want to get into the discussion on this forum.

<comment><USER40> Actually I misread your original post. I thought you were referring to a legal drug with the thought-process benefits (but lacking the psychedelic effects) rather than the psychedelic aspects alone.

I am familiar with a few legal psychedelics, but it's not something I'm interested in :(

<comment><USER31> Yeah... the thought process alteration is really the same as the psychedelic effects. More so than visuals or anything, what the psychedelics do is temporarily change the way you think and perceive reality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Much much more of the same here:

<http://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Modafinil.shtml>

The quality of these reports is uneven, but the quantity should give you a better sample (especially if you want to know what happens when you mix it with Adderall, metadone, ecstasy, mushrooms, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER42> the author can improve this article greatly by learning how to spell the name of the drug.

perhaps there are some side-effects that affect the ability to read and write.

</comment><comment><USER43> The article discussing modafinil were a little over-enthusiastic, I think. It's more suited for people who have to say alert and watchful for long periods of time, rather than people who need to make better decisions. It would help night watchmen or troops on combat missions more than it would help a scientist or software developer.

</comment><comment><USER44> I find that I have the opposite problem: intense concentration and the ability to stay up for long periods of time. I have to take Tylenol PM just to conform to a normal sleep schedule. I don't know exactly what my natural bodily cycle is, but it is definitely longer than 24 hours.

<comment><USER45> There is a lot of natural variance in circadian rhythms. Mine is also much longer than 24 hours. If I let myself go "free-running" then my sleep/wake patterns cycle around 24 hours about once a month. The lengthened cycle is not necessarily unhealthy but it makes it very difficult to conform to a 24-hour schedule. If you have continued difficulty with your sleep cycle then talking to a doctor specializing in sleep disorders might be a good idea. There are a variety of options for dealing with the issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> It all comes down to my former worry: don't we need to strengthen the muscles of our brains? Once our brains find strength largely unneeded, because of the instant Provigil lift, then we'd surely become dependent on the drug.

</comment><comment><USER47> In 1st place, who is Viagra? Never seen her.

<comment><USER47> BTW, I think PG is 'very happy' for finally having the 'V' word on the front page...

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> cialias advertising.

if you can't find your girlriend, see alice.

</comment><comment><USER49> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect>

<comment><AUTHOR> He says it's been tested relative to placebo (I imagine only for its on-label use).

<comment><USER49> Right. Assuming the Wikipedia article is to be believed, the results relative to some of the effects he claimed were unsubstantial. A dramatic overall effect on cognitive function was not found. In the article, he talked about studying a textbook for hours straight, where he hadn't been able to do that before. My accusation of placebo effect is not to say the drug is useless, it's more against the specific claims such as that one in the article and "worked for me" claims made in other comments on this thread.

In general, if do something expecting some effect, and you get that effect, it's not something to talk about.</comment></comment></comment>


Fantasy Despot Syndrome and Healthcare.gov - <AUTHOR> http://american.com/archive/2013/november/fantasy-despot-syndrome-and-healthcare.gov

<comment><USER2> Pretty much anything Arnold Kling writes is worth reading, and this is no exception.

And, you know, my family spend a lot of time in Holiday Inns in the '60s and early '70s when we vacationed, and I can remember from then the tag line "and the kids stay free".</comment>


Global Accelerator Network - <AUTHOR> http://gan.co/

<comment><USER2> This site is plagued with the same problems a lot of other sites have today.

Lots of fancy visuals and moving parts but took me far too long to get what I needed.

<comment><USER3> Especially this huge circle expending automatically the left divs is extremely surprising and annoying. The worst part is that it doesn't give any more information. Just repeating the number in the div title...

It looks interesting but I am still not sure if this is about conferences or if it's an accelerator or something else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I clicked on it thinking it's some sort of content delivery network. After looking at the homepage, I still have no reason to believe otherwise.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think this page [http://gan.co/the-network](http://gan.co/the-network) would have been a better landing page. As others have mentioned I thought this was someone giving a content delivery network a hype-y flashy new name

</comment><comment><USER6> It took me a few minutes to understand what this is. You may want to rethink the structure and language of the site.</comment>


Writing Golang Tests with Testify - <AUTHOR> https://ncona.com/2020/02/using-testify-for-golang-tests/ <comment><USER2> It's hard to take a Go-related article seriously when the first step involves using dep to install the Testify library. If you've got and existing project that hasn't been converted to modules yet, you might have to deal with a legacy dependency management system (or better yet, upgrade it to use modules). If you've used an assertions library in another language such as AssertJ (Java), then Testify will feel pretty natural. If you're just learning to code in Go, then learn about modules first.</comment>