Rediscovering the lost power of reading aloud - never-the-bride https://lithub.com/rediscovering-the-lost-power-of-reading-aloud/ <comment><AUTHOR> Often times on river trips before going to sleep I'll read a few pages/chapters of whatever I'm reading aloud to whoever is near me, if they're interested. Sometimes during the day if we stop we'll pass around a relevant book, poetic'ish environmentally themed books..., to read to the group kind of like reading to the class in elementary school. Everyone has a unique style of reading aloud and it's always interesting to hear how they interpret the story and words through inflection/tone/cadence/etc... or as the article says "through the concentration of our faculties, the inflection of our voices, the warmth and presence of our bodies—to reach the listener."

This is one of those things we do not practice or really do for better or worse. For some the aspect of reading to others is terror inducing even among close friends. For some there's terror from being still and simply listening to another because it's so different from our normal lives of fast consumption and noise. Next time you're out in nature bring a short poem or story, take a pause and read it aloud to your group. It will probably be uncomfortable as it's strange to most but give it a try.

<comment><USER2> A girl i always chatted with at chipotle finally sat down with me the other day during her break. I told her I was a writer, and was elated when she handed me her phone to let me read a dark poem she had written. I asked if I could read it back to her out loud and she let me. It was nice.

I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been reading to myself out loud recently, and also at workshops where we have the opportunity to recite after doing writing prompts. I always like hearing people nervously sharing meaningful experiences.

In Houston we have something called Gentle Hour, where people gather in a rather cozy circle, taking turns to read something they wrote. Storytime is alive and well, and not just the "Grown-up Storytime" you find at open-mic bars!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> FTA: "With schools having largely withdrawn from the practice of making students memorize poetry, few of us today have anything approaching the interior resources of a rhapsode."

My son attends school in France and learning by heart and then reciting poems is something he does regularly as part of his homework.

Professionally, I've found that reading aloud is how I most easily catch the errors in text that I've written. Personally, there's something magical about reading aloud to children and being able to maintain their attention with voices, expression, and variations in tone.

<comment><USER4> I find reading my own writing out loud helps me to significantly improve the quality. I don't think this was ever suggested to me to try during primary education, but it is a writing strategy that I think more children should be taught.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> My wife and I recently started enjoying this! It's a very calming way to wind down in the evening instead of another installment of $TV_SHOW. I've been narrating Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I must say, the imagery and scenes stick in my mind much better than when I (quite quickly) read silently.

It's fun doing the voices, and taking time every now and again to discuss what happened gives us a more engaged sort of relaxation that's at our direction. It was a bit of a challenge finding a book we both agreed upon because we have very different taste, but we were able to meet in the middle by starting with a classic.

<comment><USER6> My wife and I recently tried to do the same with Dracula for Halloween! Unfortunately those first few chapters are on the longer side and we got tired of reading aloud :p

I ended up finishing up the book on my own, but the chapters we did read aloud were fun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reading aloud is one of Daniel Pennac's ten "Rights of the Reader":

1\. The right not to read 2\. The right to skip 3\. The right not to finish a book 4\. The right to read it again 5\. The right to read anything 6\. The right to mistake a book for real life 7\. The right to read anywhere 8\. The right to dip in 9\. The right to read out loud 10\. The right to be quiet

</comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone have any book or website recommendations for getting better at reading aloud? For impersonating voices and accents?

My eldest child is three and we both enjoy story time before bed; they are some of my fondest memories of my childhood. As I recall my father was a fantastic narrator and I feel I need to put some effort in!

<comment><USER9> Let me recommend you just keep practicing, and keep trying to do your best every day.

If you read aloud for 1+ hour per day, after a year you'll be a whole lot better. Anecdotally, reading aloud a variety of books (including some that push your kid's abilities, some that are easy, and some familiar favorites) is far and away the most important thing you can do for his or her language development and development of reasoning.

If you really care about improving you can try to film yourself and watch it back, and you can try to come up with specific aspects of your performance to focus on.

But if you're just trying your best and enjoying yourself, and you don't intend to make performing for groups a career or something, just regular practice and a little bit of effort (and focusing/staying in the moment, rather than devoting half your attention to thinking about something else) should also be fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Don't parents read to their children anymore? Is this actually a "lost art"? Our son is 12 and he still wants to be read aloud. Is this an aberration?

<comment><USER11> My wife read and recorded the whole Harry Potter series for our eldest, now the second gets to either hear Mom read live, or listen to a recorded chapter everynight before bed.

I've heard you should always read to your kids regardless of their age. They'll only ever read at their level, so even reading a poem or newspaper article or scientific journal to them when they're older increases their reading level.

<comment><USER12> wouldn't it be better to spend time with them and actually read it to them, rather than sending them to bed with a device to playback a pre-recording?

<comment><USER13> > now the second gets to either hear Mom read live, or listen to a recorded > chapter everynight before bed.

I assume mom reads live frequently, but if she can't for whatever reason the kid can still get his/her chapter at bedtime.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A lot of comments here concern reading to and with kids.

For those interested in practical aspects of reading out loud to children, check out Jim Trelease's "Read-Aloud Handbook". It has advice, advocacy, and specific age-appropriate book suggestions.

[http://trelease-on-reading.com/rah-contents.html](http://trelease-on- reading.com/rah-contents.html)

</comment><comment><USER15> Ten years of having to do reading groups and go around the circle reading a sentence or a paragraph at a time made me bitterly hate reading aloud.

Especially when for some insane reason the group was the entire class of kids with a spread of at least six grade levels in literacy, and it took so long to go around that you could be multiple chapters ahead by the time your turn came back up.

</comment><comment><USER16> I got tired of reading Percy Jackson with my kids and decided to read A Tale of Two Cities with them aloud. It's been a really interesting experience, my wife listens in and we discuss what's going on, the historical context, etc.

For me, I read at a different pace aloud which gives me moments to reflect more on what I have just read, producing a very different reading experience.

</comment><comment><USER17> Do you find it easier to write code if you can talk to yourself while you do it? I don't do it very often since there's usually people around, which would make it pretty awkward. But somehow I find it makes it easier to stay on track - it's as if a thought spoken out loud is easier to remember even after your mind has shuffled through five other thoughts. Almost like there's an echo lingering in the room.

<comment><USER18> I find I do most things with more focus if I can talk through the process.

It externalizes my inner monologue which is multithreaded and makes it more or less single-threaded so I'm able to stay focused. It also serves as a check on my brain.

I suspect this is why Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors in Japanese workers [1].

Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to talk to yourself. If only there was an invention like headphones, but for speech, a sort of a "cone of silence", I suspect it would improve my effectiveness by 10-20%.

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

<comment><USER9> > a sort of a "cone of silence"

Like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_(Get_Smart)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_\(Get_Smart\)) ?

<comment><USER18> Correct. (you got the reference) Except I want one that actually works. The closest thing we have today are those office pods you see in tech offices, but I feel a little claustrophobic in them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> When I used to tutor, if we hit any Shakespeare, I had the kids read it aloud. Often, I would rope parents in to read from a different copy (the trunk of my car was rather full of books) for other characters. This worked for most plays but especially well for Shakespeare. Poetry, too.

I sometimes rewarded good behavior with reading from _The Hobbit_ or something similar.

</comment><comment><USER20> Growing up, I used to hate reading aloud due to having a mild stutter. English classes were filled with fear and sweaty palms at the thought of being chosen that day to read whatever the book was at the time.

Interestingly, I've started to enjoy reading aloud to my kids and find that I don't stutter while doing so. My older daughter prefers to read on her own now most of the time, though my 4 year old has a mountain of books and loves being read to, so bedtime usually involves reading 3-5 books and has become a pleasant routine.

A few years ago, my daughter insisted I volunteer to read to her class at school, which also turned out to be a good experience and I think the kids enjoyed listening to "Jack and the Beanstalk" as well.

I've been thinking about signing up for something like toastmasters for a while, though a reading group for adults sounds like a good way to start fighting the fear of public speaking as well.

</comment><comment><USER21> Lost art...? Ummm, try having kids.

I used to be horrible at reading aloud. My brain couldn't simultaneously read aloud and comprehend the content so I never actually absorb the contents . Secondly, I didn't like reading aloud because I couldn't anticipate the meter/cadence do it always sounded like I was an illiterate idiot. As a result, even though I read silently a ton as a kid, I hated reading aloud growing up.

Fast forward to now after kids, and I am light years ahead! My pace and cadence is smooth, natural and fast. More importantly, I actually comprehend what I'm reading now. Like everything else, it just takes practice.</comment>


Show HN: A gem to stop progressively building ActiveRecord queries - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dobtco/filterer

<comment><USER2> While I think this is a good idea for smaller data sets, it just isn't feasible for larger data sets that require indices. Having every combination of columns as indices is just hell for the RDBMS. When you are faceting with a large dataset, it's better to use something like ElasticSearch or Sphinx.

<comment><USER3> I don't think anyone was implying that you would expose this for every combination of columns, only the ones you were allowing people to query on. Presumably, you've indexed the fields you want people to be able to scope results to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice. I've built something very similar in my current app. In my app it's called `SearchModel` and descendants live within the `app/models` dir. I include some modules from `ActiveModel` to make it act as a regular db-backed model, which allows me to use it with `form_for`.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, that's neat. I usually just build these forms without the Rails helpers, using something like:

        <form>
          <input type='text' name='email' value='<%= params[:email] %>' />
        </form>

Which works out nicely, since the method defaults to 'GET' and the action defaults to the current path.

<comment><USER4> It'll do too, but I think it's nice to abstract the http-layer completely away from the view.

In case you want to replicate, I believe the relevant part is simply adding this to the base class:

        extend ActiveModel::Naming
        include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods
        def to_key
          []
        end

And then add `attr_reader` for each field.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Differences with [https://github.com/plataformatec/has_scope](https://github.com/plataformatec/has_scope)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Author here. Probably a matter of preference, to be honest. has_scope never really made much sense to me.

If we're checking boxes, two features that Filterer has and has_scope doesn't are:

\- results ordering

\- pagination (although most folks will already be using kaminari or will_paginate)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's basically a service object specifically built for scopes with its own DSL. I like it :)

Correct me if I am wrong.</comment>


Wi-Fi Alliance introduces low power, long range Wi-Fi HaLow - <AUTHOR> http://www.wi-fi.org/news-events/newsroom/wi-fi-alliance-introduces-low-power-long-range-wi-fi-halow <comment><USER2> There used to be a good wikipedia article about LoraWan, which is better than this (for IoT) in just about every way, but it has been replaced with this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRaWAN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRaWAN)

LoraWan consumes power at a similar rate that BLE does, except it has a 20km range. You're talking about months (or even years, depending on your interval) of usefulness out of a CR2032 coincell battery.

Sidenote: the removal of the wikipedia page on this irks me more than it probably should. They're claiming a copyright problem because some of the text of the page was taken _from the Lora Alliance 's official website_.

[https://www.lora-alliance.org/What-Is-LoRa/Technology](https://www.lora- alliance.org/What-Is-LoRa/Technology)

<comment><USER3> > They're claiming a copyright problem because some of the text of the page > was taken from the Lora Alliance's official website.

Stolen content (i.e. content not explicitly licensed as GFDL/CC by the author) is stolen content.

<comment><USER2> >Stolen content (i.e. content not explicitly licensed as GFDL/CC by the author) is stolen content.

Do you mean by wikipedia's definition of stolen? Because some things, like for instance: the description of Lora taken from the website that exists to provide descriptions of Lora to people, has an _implicit_ usability.

Like I said, this irked me more than it probably should. I totally get sometimes stuff will get caught in the margins.

<comment><USER3> Wikipedia's mission is NOT about usability, but to provide an encyclopedia that can be used, edited, forked, reproduced EVERYWHERE without anyone having to fear lawyer attacks.

It's not a "free as in free beer" encyclopedia, it's a "free as in truly free" encyclopedia.

(Yes I know that this is only valid for the text content, images (e.g. logos) and screenshots are not free but used under different legal regimes in different countries)

<comment><USER4> > Wikipedia's mission is NOT about usability, but to provide an encyclopedia > that can be used, edited, forked, reproduced EVERYWHERE _without anyone > having to fear lawyer attacks._

To that, I say [citation needed]. Where in their mission statement do they state this particular stance on lawyer attacks?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It looks neat, but it's hard not to be cynical about yet another competing standard for low-power "smart home" / IoT-type devices, just to muddy the ZigBee vs. Z-Wave vs. BT LE Longrange vs. conventional WiFi waters a bit more.

Not saying there's anything wrong with the protocol per se; it's probably perfectly fine. But the lack of widespread standardization in the 900MHz ISM low power space is really crippling what could otherwise be a robust market for smart devices. That's the key problem, rather than anything technical, and adding yet another option for hardware designers to choose from seems unlikely to improve things in the near future.

<comment><USER6> Relevant xkcd:

[https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)

<comment><USER7> Are we really downvoting xkcd? I don't see anything wrong with a little bit of humour on HN.

<comment><USER8> That comic is a trope at this point. Any discussion of standards includes it.

The comment didn't add anything. If it was a more substantive comment and mentioned the comic you'd have a point.

But the comment might as well be a copy and paste job. It's not really adding to the discussion.

I mean just from the discussion and the letters XKCD I knew which comic it was.

<comment><USER9> [https://xkcd.com/1053/](https://xkcd.com/1053/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33-centimeter_band](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33-centimeter_band) has more info on the 900MHz band they're using, which is an odd choice because it isn't recognized outside Region 2 (Americas).

<comment><USER11> 900MHz seems a curious choice to me as an Australian, because I know my mobile phone uses 850 and 900MHz to talk to the mobile towers. Attempting to use 900MHz for wifi wouldn't get you very far due to all the interference.

<comment><USER12> Not to mention all the regulatory hurdles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> [http://www.afar.net/tutorials/900-mhz- versus-2.4-ghz/](http://www.afar.net/tutorials/900-mhz-versus-2.4-ghz/)

900Mhz does not buy much for distance, however it works better under difficult line-of-sight situations comparing to 2.4Ghz. For real long-distance 4xx/3xxMhz might be better, or even the frequency we used for FM/AM radios.

<comment><USER13> TI etc has those decent 9xx/4xx/3xxMhz chips for long time, it's just that they were not wifi-certified.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is about minimizing power-per-range, not maximizing range itself. IoT devices have very local utility, one assumes.

I do like the idea of regular laptop-and-tablet Wifi having better range. But in dense environments, that might be an anti-feature: more interference from more (distant) neighbors. Suburban/rural might be the best use case.

<comment><USER15> I more would like the idea of laptops and smartphones being able to talk directly with low cost smart home stuff like your thermostat without having to have bridges or pay someone for access through some 'your data is now our data not yours' cloud services

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Would this interfere with phones that operate on the 800MHz frequency?

</comment><comment><USER17> Wi-Fi HaLow has a chance of success if it can be integrated into regular Wi-Fi access points.

LTE category-0 introduced with specification release 12 (and to be expanded in rel-13) is another competitor (other than LoraWan).

Here's more information: [http://blog.3g4g.co.uk/2015/03/lte-category-0-low- power-m2m-...](http://blog.3g4g.co.uk/2015/03/lte-category-0-low- power-m2m-devices.html)

</comment><comment><USER18> I'd be happy if they just spec'd a 2mW WiFi, thanks. The fact that I can see my neighbor's WiFi is actually a hindrance, not a benefit, nowadays.

<comment><USER15> I'm somewhat concerned about LoRa and things like it for that reason. Having a transmitter emitting energy in your band is bad. But having a bunch of transmitters emitting coherent energy you're receiver can detect it worse. The former just cuts down your signal to noise. The latter directly limits your available bandwidth. Which is to say, if your radio detects the beginning of a weak packet from far away it's locked down for the duration. Can't transmit, can't receive another stronger packet that arrives slightly later.

<comment><USER19> LoraWan is inherently monolithic. There is only supposed to be one LoraWan provider, who acts as the router, and passes traffic to receiver according to their address -- just like a cell tower. You don't have a hundred cell towers, you have 3.

<comment><USER20> Not so. Sigfox has a single operator model: they're the only operator for their proprietary technology. But LoRa is multi-operator: anyone can buy LoRa base station and deploy their network (it's in unlicensed spectrum). And it's already happening this way. So several operators and even technologies will share the same limited unlicensed spectrum. Should be interesting when it scales...

<comment><USER21> It was designed to be "single operator", but that's not how it is shaking out. I think a trainwreck is coming, because if you have multiple LoRaWAN networks operating in the same area, all the packets are colliding at layer 2. They have to be thrown away by the server. And since the Semtech SX1301 baseband chip only has 8 demodulators, capacity quickly approaches zero, if there are multiple uncoordinated networks.

LoRaWAN is an okay solution for European Carrier networks where duty cycle limitations come into pay, but for the 915MHz band, it is not a good design.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> How long is "long range" going to be ?

</comment><comment><USER17> I hope we see a 8011.ah version of the ESP8266 soon. A solar powered GK-RadMon ([https://sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/gk- radmon](https://sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/gk-radmon)) would be the perfect device for this new standard.

</comment><comment><USER23> Some very cool features included, I especially like using 900 MHz. I hope the WiFi Alliance doesn't pull the licensing crap that Bluetooth SIG has.

</comment><comment><USER24> I am pretty sure there are many, if not most developed countries which has their GSM Network working on 900Mhz.

How is that going to work out?

</comment><comment><USER25> So, can my Macbook connect to a HaLow router, or is this a new protocol that will require all new hardware across the board?

<comment><USER26> It looks like this runs in the 900MHz ISM (US) band, so we'll all need new hardware. The longer range is nice. Interference from other 900MHz transmitters (cordless house phones, baby monitors, etc.) may not be.

It seems everything old[1] is new again.

1\. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WaveLAN](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WaveLAN)

<comment><USER27> I'd hope no one's phone is running in 900MHz - what does DECT use in North America?

<comment><USER28> 1.9 GHz</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Status of Python branches - <AUTHOR> https://docs.python.org/devguide/#status-of-python-branches <comment><AUTHOR> Status and end-of-life dates for the most recent versions (branches) of python.</comment>


Anyone else facing issues with Google maps since last 3 weeks? - <AUTHOR>

Issues :
1. Takes longer to load (In chrome & FF) or the main page doesn't load at all
2. Parts of the map do not load - especially the tiles west of Wyoming & East of Indiana.
3. Directions on iphone are incorrect
Point 1 & 2 have happened just too often for me since the last 3 weeks.
First I thought it was happening from my office laptop/network only, but I've discovered the same from my home network+laptop.
Just me ? <comment><USER2> Not just you. Couldn't get Android version to work reliably on July 4.

</comment><comment><USER3> Google is an advertising company. The rest of their products suck.

<comment><USER4> Really?

Because last time I checked, they had the best Search engine, the best webmail, the best web maps and the best web office suite. Oh, and the 2nd best mobile platform. And a very good browser.

Any better alternatives to support your sweeping generalisation? Preferably ones that other people agree that are better too.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: easist way to build digital logic on civilization collapse? - <AUTHOR> Assume civilization collapses (to set the stage). What is the easiest way to build digital logic given copious scrap material at-hand? Is there any design I can use to build digital logic at-home? Enough to build _small but useful_ processors? Something like Intell 4004 or the 8086. <comment><USER2> Not an EE but I'll proffer an opinion. Pulling chips from scrap is largely useless because there aren't any datasheets available to identify the function, pinout, and timings to operate them. Options that come to mind are:

Diode logic with an amplifier between each stage ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_logic)) or DTL. Discrete surface mount diodes are still present on circuit boards and can be extracted for re-use. See the IBM 1401 for an example of a simple DTL computer.

Relay logic ([https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/relay_computer](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/relay_computer)). Building relays by hand using scrap material is practical, though difficult. Expect your gizmo to have the size, capability, and power requirements similar to the Zuse Z2 ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z2_(computer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z2_\(computer\)) ).

</comment><comment><USER3> The ARM2 had about 30000 transistors and was already capable of doing significant things. The questions then are:

* How would you build a transistor?

* How would you build _thousands_ of transistors?

* How would you make them reliable?

* How would you power them?

* How would you implement memory?

Depending on what materials you have to hand, and your abilities to machine them, and your power sources, many alternatives present themselves. You could even consider analog computers.</comment>


Congressman asks NSA for Lois Lerner metadata - <AUTHOR> http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/bay_area/opinion/stockman-asks-nsa-for-lois-lerner-metadata-after-irs-claims/article_7f4b3cc9-4d33-57f7-9a8e-d48c9452a976.html

<comment><USER2> Would be funny if NSA "lost" the metadata too :)

<comment><USER3> NSA is too big to comply anyway.</comment></comment>


I Build My Own Not-Hotdog Classifier from HBO's Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/kmather73/NotHotdog-Classifier <comment><USER2> If this last week's episode does one good thing it will be to convince programmers that it's not that hard to get started doing ML stuff. Not to say that it's all trivial or straightforward, if you look at the linked image below you can see that a simple NN will miss lots of stuff. In this example the image is being examined for hotdogness as a whole, not being segmented or searching for a bounding box of hotdogness.

[http://i.imgur.com/LxgowXI.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/LxgowXI.jpg)

<comment><USER3> Sorry to pry, but what is the "Fridge AI" Trello board in reference to? Are you automating your refrigerator at home? If so, details?

<comment><USER2> Kinda, one of the original ideas was to make a beer-dispensing fridge for my neighbor as he is 'slimming' and wanted to have his fridge limit how much beer he drinks. The real genius – dispense the beer INTO the fridge so you only have 1 or 2 cold beers at a time. No one wants to drink warm beer.

Since then it has evolved into a big AI project, will do a Show HN at some point soon.

<comment><USER3> outstanding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> That's pretty neat. If you're interested, the creator[0] of the real NotHotdog app posted some details here on HN[1], apparently a blog post will follow.

[0] [https://twitter.com/timanglade](https://twitter.com/timanglade) [1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14347865](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14347865)

</comment><comment><USER5> I put the app posted a few days ago on my phone, and took a photo of my dachshund. I won't lie - I was hoping that would be an easter egg and it would classify him as a hotdog. (he wasn't)

</comment><comment><USER6> is a hotdog a sandwich?

<comment><USER7> Err—good question. No, not really, but it's difficult to find a reason why it's not. It's meat between bread.

<comment><USER8> Is-a-kind relationship. Hotdog is a specific kind of a sandwich with a whole sausage (or sausage-like object, heh, vegan hotdogs) in it.</comment></comment></comment>


The three Fs of cloud pricing - <AUTHOR> http://blog.drgriffin.com.au/posts/2020-06-21-the-three-fs-of-cloud-pricing.html <comment><USER2> If I am currently in the free-tier, what's the next step for me as I look to scale?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question. I would attempt to track what your costs _would_ be without the free tier and use that to calculate your profitability and other business metrics.

So long as you think of it as a one off bonus then it should be OK.

<comment><USER2> Gotcha! And keen on implementing an effective cloud cost management tool as suggested. Do share updates; Looking forward to a solution like that. Thanks</comment></comment></comment>


Books in the Age of the iPad - <AUTHOR> http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/

<comment><USER2> I think the author could have gone further with his imagination. Yes, iPad will allow to display the formless content into different layouts, but that's hardly impressive...any e-book reader should be able to do that soon.

Actually, the iPad, or tablet computers in that matter, could open completely new ways of "reading entertainment", since the book could contain not only text and static images, but also other pieces of multimedia or even pieces of software! I am now making up a quick list of what could be possible:

1\. iPad books can have video illustrations or sounds embedded.

2\. Books can have some taxonomy data. For example, I could see a list of main characters which were presented in the book until the page I have read. I can see their short description, their relationship, or even where are they currently.

3\. The text can be "location aware" - for example I am reading some scene, and there can exist an interactive map for that scene, so I will look around myself how it looks like there.

4\. There can be some elements of gaming incorporated, like some puzzle or whatever, etc. etc. etc.

The possibilities are really endless here and I am excited to see what the content providers will be able to come up with.

<comment><USER3> Absolutely agree. But the goal of this essay was to lay a foundation for designers and writers to start thinking about content, form and context. I tried my hardest to keep it concise while still touching on all fundamental points. Which was tough because this is such a fun topic. The original piece was almost double the current length.

> Yes, iPad will allow to display the formless content into different layouts, > but that's hardly impressive...any e-book reader should be able to do that > soon.

Sure, however the important point is that this is the first device to do this and be of a form factor we will want to spend intimate reading time with. None of the individual technologies in the iPad are unique, but the combination in this form factor, wrapped in Apple's well-considered OS/interface is. This is most definitely not trivial. I'm sure (and very much hope) that Amazon, et al follow up with similarly great devices. The more competition the better our experience (one hopes) as readers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the general prediction that print will contract to the production of only high-quality "permanent" documents is spot-on. I'm not so sure, however, that pagination will go away, at least not without the invention of a new UI element to replace it (other than scrollbars).

Pagination is useful to our mental models of progress through a document. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the reasons scrolls died out while we're still using the bound book format many centuries after it was invented. A hundred pages is a lot easier to parse than an infinite number of positions on a scroll, while recall and addressing is vastly easier citing a page number than counting out a distance to scroll.

<comment><USER5> You know, I agreed with you (and even upvoted you) but as I think about it I think you might be wrong. I think the meta point to the article is that our entire idea of what the written word should be is about to change now that the last vestiges of print are reaching the end of their life.

In other words you don't see pagination going away because it's part of our mental model of what a document should be like. I think the article is saying that mental model itself is becoming obsolete and we won't have documents as much as we'll have formless information. That's not going to happen overnight (and the article points out there will probably be a hybrid period where print exists beside electronic). But eventually I think it's probably inevitable.

<comment><USER6> I get the feeling "pages" will be around for a while because we currently use them as a deep link into the material. When a new model for documents emerges, we will still need that index/deep link for citations (I don't think a keyword search with the book title will do for academics).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've basically stopped reading books, and have gone 100% audio books. I listen in my car, in bed, while going jogging. I love it, although I imagine it's not for everyone.

</comment><comment><USER8> "The true value of an object lies in what it says, not its mere _existance [sic]_."

Ironic that his post harps on the increased importance of _editors_ in the new age of rich digital textual content.

<comment><USER3> lol - thanks, fixed.

But this illustrates, of course, one of the greatest (and most dangerous?) qualities of digital -- trivial updates / iterations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Haven't books have been dying since the invention of the radio? How's this talk about the iPad killing books any different?

<comment><USER10> Oh the joys of predicting media innovations. There are plenty precedents, so anyone with any view can find more than enough examples to support his view. I think we are looking more at a iPad:Book::CD:LP or iPad:Book::MP3:CD than a iPad:Book::Radio:Book scenario (where iPad includes all other current and future similar devices). But that's just me.

(Note to all fuming LP fans: I know fully well that you can still buy LPs. You will still be able to buy printed books in one hundred years. That's not the point.)

<comment><USER11> Actually that is the point.

LPs are for collectors and very special music, you don't buy crappy pop on an LP, you buy a classic, something where the LP means something in and of itself.

Books will be the same, special, something beyond the ordinary, where as your pop books become something digital, because the book isn't part of the experience.</comment></comment></comment>


Top Things We Learned About SEO in 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://www.seomoz.org/blog/top-10-things-we-learned-about-seo-in-2010?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+seomoz+%28SEOmoz+Daily+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> Star #10, young funded startups. You're among the best positioned sites anywhere to exploit the heck out of that inefficiency.

<comment><USER3> Definitely. Just remember, if this is your strategy, choose some niche with little SEO competition (payday loans and the like should clearly be out). Also, optimize for that long tailed traffic! I have a feeling an incredible number of searches are so unique they've never even been seen before, and the majority of the rest are still long tailed. And I'll bet that will only trend up as people learn to properly search for information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> #11 Google recognized that some information is temporal - beyond blogs and social networks - and added search tools to specify the time. Personally, I've found this to be the biggest single improvement in search in years.

</comment><comment><USER5> #11 SEO is it's own worst enemy and this bullshit industry will hopefully be gone in 2015 (disclaimer: i'm one of the most sccessful SEOs in the european market)

</comment><comment><USER6> #10 I am not so sure about. 15% is PPC. 85% Organic Click Traffic. Sure there is room and growth, but I think the numbers are misleading.

I think what isn't said is:

Not all traffic is created equal. What do you think the ratio of commercial vs non-commercial searches is?

PPC spend isn't only on searches. It's on AdSense and domain parking. Those account for ~33% of Google's PPC.

PPC gives immediate and quantifiable results. SEO is somewhat blackbox and the results aren't guaranteed or instant.</comment>


New Zealand Passes Law to Crack Down on Foreign Home Buyers - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-14/new-zealand-poised-to-impose-crackdown-on-foreign-home-buyers <comment><USER3> Seems reasonable to me. Housing should be for housing people, not a speculative financial investment.

It's reasonable for cities to ask that people show that they have some skin in the game, that they're living, working, paying taxes and contributing to and enhancing the community.

<comment><USER4> If they own a house, they are paying taxes, so they do have significant skin in the game. They pay property taxes despite not using the local schools or most other city services.

As far as not allowing housing as a speculative financial investment, there are some significant unintended consequences there.

<comment><USER3> The problem with absenteeism is that while taxes are still being paid to maintain city services, the city doesn't function correctly, because there's weak street life.

Here's an article about the struggles of retailers in Vancouver's Coal Harbour neighbourhood, which has estimates of around 20-25% empty housing.

[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/at-vancouvers- co...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/at-vancouvers-cold-harbour- a-neighbourhood-hollows-out/article11713598/)

<comment><USER5> Vancouver has a vacancy tax, which strikes me as a really good idea to avoid these problems. Does anyone know why these aren't more popular?

<comment><USER6> I agree with you that it seems like a good idea. However, the vacancy tax is still in its infancy, so we've yet to fully understand its effectiveness or side-effects. A big issue around the housing discussion in Vancouver is the lack of data and amount of misinformation being injected into the discussion.

<comment><USER7> The Netherlands has a system where vacant properties may be occupied by squatters after they've been empty for a year. There's an active squatting scene in Amsterdam, particularly OT301 (an abandoned cinema, now an arts centre).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 1\. It is banning non-residents. You can be a national from any other country and still buy a house if you live there.

2\. Watered down by interest groups: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us- newzealand-economy-housin...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand- economy-housing/new-zealand-softens-ban-on-foreigners-home-ownership-in- amended-bill-idUSKBN1JF01F)

<comment><USER9> Have they removed the "Trust" loophole?

This is where you setup a local trust, and purchase the property through that trust (and not a non-resident).

People can also still purchase properties through local proxies.

<comment><USER10> Proxy purchases would be common via the informal financing system in places like Wenzhou. It's hard to imagine how the NZ government could possibly enforce such proxy purchases, especially since Australians and Singaporeans are exempt from the foreign buyer restrictions. Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore all have high immigration from China, and such immigrants can easily act as the proxies of anyone with an informal business relationship with a lender in Zhejiang.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hope the Canadian government learns from this. We desperately need it. (ya, I know I know there will be trickle down impact of so much foreign money pulling out, but average home price of $1.36MM is unbelievable for the local salaries)

<comment><USER12> If they do, maybe the USA will learn from Canada. In my area the Canadians are the ones buying stuff up. Other than property taxes, their contribution is to all show up on the same weekend and empty the grocery store shelves - <USER2> driving up prices.

<comment><USER13> > maybe the USA will learn from Canada

Has the US ever learned anything from Canada?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> To add some context: NZ regularly rates in the top 10 least affordable cities to buy a house. The last stat I saw was that median house prices were 9.7x median salary.

That's absurd for a relatively small city of 1.4m people.

It has further negative effects: everyone gets into property as their only real path to financial freedom, with 95% of new loans using family financial assistance. It's stifling innovation and business that could be providing employment and international business.

<comment><USER15> NZ is a country.. not a city.

<comment><USER14> If you dig deep, you may be able to uncover the intention of that sentence. NZ has some of the least affordable property in the world. A tiny nation of 4m with minimal job prospects should never be able to achieve that title.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Good move. More cities need to adopt this. There is a flood of foreign capital into major western cities that is hurting those economies. And a lot of denial that this is happening.

<comment><USER17> Local owns house they bought 20 years ago for $50k

Local sells to foreign buyer for $500k

Local has lots of money

<comment><USER18> Local kids can't buy house and is renting forever at unreasonable price. The world is not just about giving everyone the opportunity to become rich. Just making a decent living for most is a nice objective.

<comment><USER17> Why would they pay an unreasonable price? It's clearly reasonable for the person paying the rent.

<comment> shady-lady > It's clearly reasonable for the person paying the rent

How so? They may not have an option to not pay it(as we're seeing happen in cities all over the world)

Definition of reasonable[[https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/reasonable](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/reasonable)]

1 a : being in accordance with reason - a reasonable theory

b : not extreme or excessive - reasonable requests

c : moderate, fair - a reasonable chance a reasonable price

d : inexpensive

<comment><USER17> Unless you live in a tiny country like singapore, you have a choice where to live.

Economic theory says that if the price is unreasonable, people won't pay it.

<comment><USER19> You have to live _somewhere_ though, and in NZ cities rents are high enough that they prevent many renters from saving any money at all.

So, no, supply and demand theory kinda doesn't stack up when it comes to housing.

<comment><USER17> 2 bed house, $310 a week, that's under half the minimum wage. That doesn't seem too extreme to me. That's for a two bed remember, so if you are a couple on median wage, you'll be earning $1800 a week pre tax, about $1500/week take home.

[https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property- to-r...](https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-to- rent/auction-1737239163.htm)

Should be able to save $450 a week out of that. After 3 years that's $70k, a 20% deposit on [https://www.realestate.co.nz/3341361](https://www.realestate.co.nz/3341361), with a mortgage then costing about $330 a week.

The problem people who complain about house prices seem to have is that they want to live in very specific and desirable locations (Certain parts of Auckland for instance). There is a high demand for these locations, therefore price is high. But clearly the price is reasonable as people can afford to live there, otherwise they wouldn't pay the rent/mortgage.

When people stop paying high prices for rent in aukland, and instead live elsewhere, then companies in Aukland will have to either

1) Relocate to cheaper locations to attract staff

2) Pay staff more so staff can live in the area

It's the same the world over. You can buy a house in the UK half an hour out of two major cities for £125k. That's a £7k deposit (£44/week or £190/month for 3 years) and £550 a month after that.

If you can afford £600 a month for housing costs (£400 rent plus £200 deposit), you can rent for 3 years, then buy, within 35 minutes of Leeds and Manchester. Minimum wage is about £1200 a month after tax.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Housing was already expensive in 2000, well before the current "foreign invasion."

Perhaps they should try reducing the red tape required to build new homes.

<comment><USER21> They are not placing all blame on foreign soeculative real estate investors, but are assigning some blame, which i think is fair.

Many countries require some form of either citizenship or residence in order to qualify as a real estate buyer.

<comment><USER20> I didn't mean to suggest that foreign speculation was without blame.

I just wanted to make it clear that that isn't the only, or even biggest, culprit in the current housing crisis.

<comment><USER22> How would you prevent new housing stock from being similarly bought up?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Western cities have only themselves to blame for turning housing into an appreciating asset. Housing is not supposed to appreciate and if it does not then nobody would speculate in it. In cities where they just build housing, like Vienna (typical rent ~1000 Euros/mo), they don't have a need of these kinds of laws.

<comment><USER24> I don't think it's fair to blame cities for what is a nationwide problem. The entire economy is shifting from farming and production to a service economy. The former provided incentives for people to be widely distributed across a number of small cities and town. The latter does not, so there is a mass migration to cities. It's happening faster than the infrastructure, zoning, and physical layout of the cities can adapt to accommodate.

This is a hard problem, and isn't made easier by moralizing, which seems to happen heavily on both sides.

Personally, in the US, I think we'd be better off trying to make our mid-sized cities more desirable than turning our handful of large cities into giant skyscraper-filled concrete grids. We have _plenty_ of space for everyone in the US. The problem is people all want to live in an increasingly small fraction of it. Increasing the density of that tiny fraction while the rest of the country empties out doesn't seem great to me.

<comment><USER25> I mean, what's wrong with SOME cities being giant skyscraper filled grids?

Personally I would love to live in that kind of city. And apparently this is also true for a lot of other people.

The low density people have 99% of the world to live in. Why can't us high density people get the 1% that WE want?

Let's just let everyone live how they want. There is more than space for both skyscrapers and suburbs.

<comment><USER24> _> I mean, what's wrong with SOME cities being giant skyscraper filled grids?_

Nothing at all, and I get that some people dig that.

 _> Why can't us high density people get the 1% that WE want?_

You can. What I disagree with is the moralizing tone that people take when others don't want their existing city _turned into_ that.

 _> There is more than space for both skyscrapers and suburbs._

I agree, but this discussion usually takes place when people argue that the existing single-family homes should be torn down and replaced with greater density.

I'm probably overly sensitive because I live in Seattle in a single-family home. But it gets really tiring always being made to feel like a bad person for liking the way I currently live.

<comment><USER23> > people argue that the existing single-family homes should be torn down and > replaced with greater density.

Literally nobody argues this. Pure strawman. What people argue is that property owners should be _permitted_ to build _slightly_ larger buildings on _their_ property. The law today for most land in most American cities says that property owners are forbidden from building anything but detached single- family dwellings. To remove this prohibition and to allow property owners to develop their own land, if they want that, is not the same as bulldozing the existing neighborhood.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Good. Every country needs such laws. From NZ to London to Spain to Iceland.

If you live in a place and earn your income there you should be able to buy or rent residential property. Otherwise you have no business exploiting the inflexibility of the market to adjust the available housing. Rent is becoming an indirect tax to the rich in many major metropolitan areas around the world. And it's massive, often up to 50% of the median wage.

</comment><comment><USER27> I wish my government cared about its citizens this much...

</comment><comment><USER28> I hope SFBA does the same - not against foreigners per se, but against non- residents. Maybe a few ballot initiatives would help?

<comment><USER29> Corporations are people. It would probably be trivial to get around in the US.

<comment><USER30> Corporations are also owned by people. You get around this by making the law look at the entire ownership graph and seeing the total percentages from that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Logical. I wonder if it's possible to designate certain parts as investment property...leasehold for 99 years and sell to the rich and tax them more. You want it? Fine, it will cost more both in price and maintenance. Buying homes also is good for the econ...from the builder to the security company later.

</comment><comment><USER32> Sounds like a good time to start a NZ real estate company that takes investments from foreign buyers, buys the houses they tell me to buy, and then rents it out to them when they visit at very low prices.

</comment><comment><USER33> Sounds like pulling up the ladder after all the people who bought the houses already climbed it.

What about all the people who have already purchased and are just holding onto an empty house for speculative reasons?

<comment><USER34> Are you suggesting the government steal their property?

<comment><USER35> No, but it could implement hefty property tax on properties owned by non- residents.

<comment><USER36> And then those hefty taxes will be passed on in the form of rent. The non- resident never ends up on the hook.

<comment><USER37> I don't understand when people believe this - as an owner of an investment property in Auckland, NZ, I almost never can just pass on increases to my tenants, unless I want long stretches of no tenants, even with the shortage as it stands.

The market dictates what I can charge.

And if I have good tenants I'd rather keep them than immediately try to recover costs.

<comment><USER38> You might buffer changes in costs and provide some stability to the tenants just as they can provide some to you by extending a lease rather than vacating. But, you do need to adjust and pass on the costs, or fail as an investor. In a significant way, the service in a healthy landlord-tenant transaction is for the landlord to accept the liquidity hit and risk of property ownership and redistribute it along with other costs in the form of rent.

Where people may get confused is in ignoring the land appreciation assumptions built into a speculative investment. They don't always recognize that a capital-rich investor might be perfectly happy to buy a property and sit on it for decades without thinking of it as a revenue source. They can only imagine a more leveraged landlord where the property is purchased with a minimal down payment, the rents have to cover all mortgage, tax, and other operating bills, and the landlord may only have a limited amount of emergency capital.

<comment><USER34> The second point here is the most important. I know a handful of real estate investors and one that is far away the most successful. He buys everything in cash. He has a contracting team on payroll that fixes whatever needs fixing so he's not immediately outlaying any additional funds to fix up a property, other than the opportunity cost of having those employees busy. He hasn't mortgaged a property in probably half a decade or more.

If he thinks a property will appreciate and make money, he will absolutely buy it and let it just sit on his books for a decade while the RE value increases and he waits for an opportune time to develop or rehab it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Software development and screen readers at 450 words per minute - <AUTHOR> https://www.vincit.fi/en/blog/software-development-450-words-per-minute/ <comment><USER2> I wonder how many times in a regular day a blind person nearly throws thew computer out the window because some application randomly does something inaccessible and they get stuck.

Some tray app from dell popping up a dialog about your trial backup subscription expiring, with no standard/accessible UI? Things like that.

This is what surprises me most about not having a screen. I get that a blind person doesn't NEED the screen but when you want to ask someone about some code, or need help by a seeing person, the screen might help... I admit it does look cool though.

<comment><USER3> I'm wondering if they use screen sharing. It'd be dead simple to share your screen to someone and have them look at it, you don't even need your own monitor.

<comment><USER4> As some sort of comparison, imagine having to call an IT support guy to come restart your computer every 15-30 minutes... I'd lose my sanity before a single day was out.

I imagine you very quickly identify software / features that cause such interruptions and ruthlessly prune them from your environment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 450 wpm. I can't even descipher 2 words out of that. It is amazing if he can understand that fast. Did his brain just rewire the visual cortex to process audio?

Makes me wonder what a human would be with double the neurons in the brain.

<comment><USER6> I've been making a habit of listening to audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube videos at increasingly faster speeds, and after listening to the clip two or three times can understand about 80% of it. My comprehension problem with it right now is the style of the voice, not the speed it's talking.

Like anything, I think understanding this computer voice at 450 wpm is a skill anyone could learn with practice.

<comment><USER7> Though I'm not blind I would imagine it is like speedreading. Occasionally skipping words has no effect to the main idea of a sentence because the mind fills in the blanks. Anyway disability related tech news is very cool stuff and I hope to see a lot more on HN.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > A screen reader intercepts what's happening on the screen and presents that > information via braille (through a separate braille display) or synthetic > speech. And it's not the kind of synthetic speech you hear in today's smart > assistants. I use a robotic-sounding voice which speaks at around 450 words > per minute.

After listening to the English sample....maybe I'm being naive but is it typical to be able to understand computer speech at that rate? I could barely make out a handful of words and probably wouldn't have believed there was a text to understand in there if the words weren't above it.

<comment><USER9> You work your way up to it. Open up a podcast app and start listening at 1.5x. After a while (days to weeks), that becomes comfortable. Then work your way up to 2.0x. Once you're at that point, listening to familiar shows (familiar people/voices), at 1.0x makes them sound drunk. They seem. to. speak. so. slooow.

Some podcasts I listen at 3x which feels near my limit of comfort (comprehension drops off at speeds higher than that), but I suspect nearly any normal person can get used to 2x speed. When you are, you can absorb twice as much information in the same amount of time.

(The above applies to talk type podcasts. Music is best at 1x, and dramatizations and such are often best left at 1x to get correct pacing).

<comment><USER10> I've tried going faster but found that I had to concentrate too hard on listening to leave time for reflection during the listening, which is the whole point for me of listening podcasts. I wonder if a blind person struggles with similar issues, where they have to dose the speed reading to allow them to actually think about what they heard.

<comment><USER11> Instead of listening to a podcast/audiobook once on normal speed, you could try listening to it twice on double speed.

* Especially audiobooks generally have only one core idea so even if you miss a part, you're not missing much.

* By listing twice, you will 'revisit' the topic, increasing comprehension.

* Most podcasts/audiobooks actually don't have a lot of new ideas (especially after you've heard a lot of them), so in those cases you're only wasting half the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would totally put a screen on his desk hooked up to a separate computer that just displays nonsense so that people who don't know that he's blind think he's just hanging out in the office watching the entirety of strawberry shortcake or something.

<comment><USER13> Totally should have The Matrix screensaver playing at all times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was curious about the braille display mentioned, so I had a look: [https://www.google.com/search?q=braille+display&source=lnms&...](https://www.google.com/search?q=braille+display&source=lnms&tbm=shop)

These things are priced from $1k up to $12k. I understand it's complicated since there are tons of actuated pins needed, but wow.

<comment><USER15> They're actuated by piezoelectric strips. The PZT ceramic is low power and robust, but heavy-ish (lead), large-ish, and shockingly expensive.

History: [https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm00/bm0001/bm000...](https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm00/bm0001/bm000110.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Windows is the most accessible operating system there is

I was under the impression macOS and iOS are the preferred platforms for people with disabilities?

<comment><USER17> I'm totally blind and bought a Mac several years ago hoping to learn iOS programming. As far as I can tell it's impossible to create a simple app without using drag and drop in XCode. While it's technically possible to do drag and drop with Voiceover I can never get it to work correctly. Apple has not put out any documentation on how to use XCode when blind that I've been able to find. This is disappointing since I find iOS to be much easier to use then Android. I also find Voiceover on the mac does not have quite as many shortcut keys as my Windows screen reader when reading the web, for example I cannot jump to a heading at a specific level or move by region. While Mac OS did have easy availability of Unix tools as a plus that no longer is a point in its favor. I find WSL to be quite good and accessible. Luckily the 11 inch MacBook Air was the best ultra-book I could get at the time so I don't feel like I wasted my money even though I boot into Windows 95% of the time. For general use Mac OSX is pretty good. I find the screen reader to be quite intuitive and there is a good tutorial to help you learn it. Voiceover just doesn't have the breadth of shortcut keys or customizability of Jaws for Windows which is my preferred screen reader despite its cost.

<comment><USER18> If you're discussing storyboards in XCode (given you mentioned drag and drop), you actually don't need that feature and can lay out both iOS screens and the flows between them programmatically. I actually prefer writing views programmatically for iOS--it gives you readable diffs, which is especially helpful for code reviews.

<comment><USER17> I have not found an introduction tutorial that assumes you go from no iOS knowledge to a working app with just code instead of storyboards. DO you know of a tutorial that does this?

<comment><USER18> Here's one that might help for Objective C: [https://medium.com/@danstepanov/your-first-ios- app-100-progr...](https://medium.com/@danstepanov/your-first-ios- app-100-programmatically-updated-95951cb189c4)

Alternatively this is the same tutorial using Swift: [https://medium.com/@danstepanov/your-first-ios- app-100-progr...](https://medium.com/@danstepanov/your-first-ios- app-100-programmatically-xcode-7-2-swift-2-1-9946d09610c4)

Sadly the images in those articles don't have alt tags, but the images are well described by the surrounding text.

Googling "build iOS views programmatically no storyboard" should bring up some more resources. The rest of iOS development will be normal/consistent with other tutorials--the only thing that's different is learning to describe the view itself in code.

<comment><USER17> I haven't had a chance to actually run through the tutorial but looking at it I don't think I'll have problems following it. It's well written and the graphics are not required to understand what's going on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I worked with a blind dev for years and he mostly used the command line.

He said, this is the only real accessible interface where you get 100% control.

<comment><USER20> This holds true for everyone

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'd love to read more specifically how coding style makes things easier or harder. It'd be really interesting to know if there are some general rules in this space, and if so how they may or may not help sighted programmers read code. Really interesting perspective on a topic which is usually just a mosh pit of opinions.

<comment><USER22> I'm not blind, but I found this comment by a blind programmer really interesting. Block comments are way more important when using a screen reader: [https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/fmt- rfcs/issues/17#issu...](https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/fmt- rfcs/issues/17#issuecomment-250933230)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> On a related note, I wish Youtube had an option to play a video faster than 2X (other then downloading the video to play in a local viewer like VLC).

Even as a sighted individual, listening to conference talks at high speed is convenient (and you can still pause if you want to look deeper into something).

<comment><USER24> I have the same wish. Though not ideal, you can work around it in the console quite easily:

document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 3

<comment><USER25> Just create a bookmark with that code prefixed by "javascript:", then it becomes 1-click to activate:

        javascript:(function(){document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 3;})();

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I was thinking what I need for programming and assumed that no hands (or hand) and no vision would be complete deal breaker. But by now I've seen people programming using voice and now this guy without seeing. It's amazing what they can do just by being dedicated enough.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is amazing and a scenario I had never really considered before. I know it has been said that the best programmers carry around small programs in their heads and map things out mentally — this is kind of the same idea taken to the extreme.

I thought the portion on frontend development was really interesting. Something I had never considered, but to think of it from the angle in which it is presented just kind of blew my mind. This piece made my morning.

edit: I guess this post also just shows that if you want to learn to program and be an engineer, there are certainly ways to make that happen, regardless of specific elements of your situation (to a point, obviously). Really, really neat.

<comment><USER28> I worked with an engineer who was partially sighted and could only see a tiny fraction of the screen at a time, he had essentially memorized most of the code base.

What struck me was that when I started working, while not the same, that was how you got anything done, API docs were on paper, we had stacks of books on our desks, code navigation tools were laughable, no intellisence, and screen were small (14" 640x480). When I was regularly writing win16/32 code I would rarely need to look anything up, the cost of doing so naturally trains you to remember.

I don't miss it tbh

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> What about Notepad++ makes it work with screen readers while Sublime and Atom don't?

<comment><USER30> From [https://notepad-plus-plus.org/](https://notepad-plus-plus.org/)

 _..., Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size._

And which lets it piggy-back on Windows' accessibility features, which seem to be quite good.

I guess Sublime Text and Atom draw their own GUIs to get more control over the look-and-feel, but don't add the necessary hints to make screen readers work.

<comment><USER31> This is correct. By sticking to pure Win32 controls it allows screen readers to do their job properly. While making your own controls or using third party UI libraries will give you a nicer looking UI it makes the screen readers job _much_ harder if not impossible.

<comment><USER32> There must be an API for it though, right... That being my first reaction, after thinking about it again, well, a custom UI that is accessible and cross- platform... Maybe a semantic web site IS the holy-grail in that regard? ARIA[1] seems more detailed than Qt-quick[2], at least.

[1]: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/Accessibility/A...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/ARIA_Test_Cases) [2]: [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml-qtquick-accessible.html](http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml- qtquick-accessible.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm not blind but I also hate side by side diffs. When resolving conflicts, I prefer opening the raw text file with the conflict segments and manually delete and copy paste stuff; it's so much faster and more flexible.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h There is a fairly popular thought that software which is accessible tends to be better for "normal" users as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> FYI for anyone interested: There is a google group called Blind Dev Works. It is run by a blind developer. (I am co-admin, but it is his group.)

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/blind-dev- works](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/blind-dev-works)

</comment><comment><USER35> I'd be interested in learning more about how a blind person does software development. I already do most of my coding work in the terminal with keyboard only where possible, and it'd be an interesting exercise to try and get rid of the monitor altogether.

<comment><USER30> [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you- progr...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you-program-if- youre-blind)

Most recent discussion on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14702287](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14702287)

This video from the comments is worth a watch: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iWXebEeGwn0](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iWXebEeGwn0)

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> its about coding for a blind person

but under what circumstance would typing speed really matter? most of my coding is a creative process with tons of autocomplete via the IDE, as well as copy and paste for boilerplate that can't be inherited

<comment><USER37> How to spot the guy that didn't read the article.

<comment><USER38> It's a disingenuous title. The article is cool, but not what I was lead to believe.

<comment><USER3> It really is. There is nothing "software development" about the speed of his text-to-speech other than he uses it for reading code in addition to reading normal sentences.

The more accurate title would be "Software developer reads at 450WPM". Still interesting enough to get people to click to find out how, but "development at 450wpm" really really does sound like he's typing at 450wpm.

Reading code is not "software development", and reading is all he does at 450wpm.

<comment><USER38> A very skilled reader can read text at around 400wpm with good comprehension, so I can believe he can listen to code at those speeds.

A professional typist is somewhere around 80wpm, and a stenographer can reach up to 250wpm. 450 would have to represent an enormous innovation in typing methods.

Frankly, even if you could, 450wpm would be an irresponsible speed to code at. As mediocre as my own typing speed is, it's never the limiting factor when I code. There's just too much to consider.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


MOG Launches Ad Network, Columbia Records Exec Joins Board - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/11/mog-launches-ad-network-columbia-records-exec-joins-board/ <comment><USER2> Not sure what business sense Rick Rubin has, but as a music producer, he's beyond comparison.

Kinda wish I worked at MOG just for the possibility of access to him...</comment>


Show HN: Git-dit – a distributed issue tracker for git - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/neithernut/git-dit <comment><AUTHOR> Co-Author here.

git-dit is a distributed issue tracker in/for git, currently implemented as proof-of-concept in Bash. If you want to play with it, make sure you use current git versions.

It differs from things like bugseverywhere and fossil in that it is a distributed issue tracker for git only, using git features to implement issue tracking in a way so that merging of issues, attaching issues to commits, creating PRs, etc is possible. It does explicitely _not_ store any "structured data" like JSON, YAML or such, but simply uses git commit messages for issue messages. So, E-Mail workflows, github, gitlab and other hosting platforms and their issue tracking schema can be adapted and mirrored into "git-dit", technically. We are not there yet, though. We are planning to reimplement the current featureset in a more robust language.

When playing with this, please keep in mind that this is a POC - there are bugs, missing things and rough edges. Do not use on a production repository!

I'd happily answer your questions!

<comment><USER2> This is conceptually interesting but I think you would have been far better served by spending some time on the README before posting.

Filling out the paragraph you just wrote would be a start.

Adding some proposed workflows and the steps a user would take to get there etc.

<comment><USER3> My main question after reading everything but the source code is "how's it stored?" \- I would assume it just uses a .dit or similar directory, and so is updated on pull, or does it do something more fancy inside .git?

<comment><USER4> Reading the source, the key to understanding this is at [1].

Each issue is stored as a new commit tree, and head ref stored at .git/refs/dit/${issue_hash}/head. Issue replies are stored as commits referencing the commit they are replying to and a ref in .git/refs/dit/${issue_hash}/leaves/${reply_hash}

Seems pretty neat to me.

[1]: [https://github.com/neithernut/git-dit/blob/master/git-dit- cr...](https://github.com/neithernut/git-dit/blob/master/git-dit-create- message#L103)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for digging it out, that part really should be explained in the readme.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I like the keep it simple approach, what would be the added value compared to keeping org-mode issue tracking files with commit and issue tags in git like having an issues.org file where time estimates, schedules, person assigned and 'date done' can be documented with tags and properties?

* TODO [#A] :f3abe64:31415: FIX bottom row space

* TODO [#B] :d4aae31:31410: BUG add miligram property

* PENDING [#A] :f4efe20:31410: FEAT implement counter

* DONE [#B] :e4bae20:31410: FEAT implement back button

with some archival function to an issues_done.org file

<comment><USER7> Well that's what I do with my little projects and it's nice that it's not tied to a VCS, but it doesn't scale (nor would this I guess). You'd have lots and lots of unnecessary commits about issues and comments in your git repo and would need to merge them etc. It's easier to set up some bug tracking system.

<comment><USER8> Would it be a pain to put it in a branch?

My git-kung is not so good, but `git worktree add ../issues` might do the trick.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Honestly I still didn't really get what makes this special. You probably already know all the other attempts to put issue tracking into git repos. And you probably also know that none of them succeeded in scale, and that there are good reasons for that. I can't really see what you're doing differently here, yet. Hope when you're further in development and have a more indepth documentation you'll share it again.</comment>


Today's 2012 DA14 Asteroid flyby Images - <AUTHOR> http://arae.iaa.es/~jtello/h/2012DA14/2012DA14-BOOTES4-201302152145.gif

<comment><AUTHOR> Higher speed mirror: [https://dl.dropbox.com/u/378267/2012DA14-BOOTES4-20130215214...](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/378267/2012DA14-BOOTES4-201302152145.gif)

Thanks to the Spanish-Chinese BOOTES-4 robotic observatory</comment>


Show HN: AI-Powered Podcast Transcription Service - <AUTHOR> https://speechtext.ai/podcast-transcription-service <comment><AUTHOR> We've recently released new transcription service for podcasters. We trained our speech recognition model on 40000+ hours of human-transcribed podcasts. It helps us to achieve up to 97% transcription accuracy (depending on audio quality). You can check our free trial plan to see how new deep learning model works for podcasts. Select the audio type as 'Podcast' and your files will be accurately converted to text in just a few minutes.

<comment><USER2> This looks nice, and I might give it a try to transcribe the live Q&A sessions I am doing for the course I teach. My question is how well does it handle accents? My slight French accent often trips the Cortana-powered transcription that is integrated in PowerPoint, but I assume your models are a bit more complex than those.

<comment><AUTHOR> We offer Global English model for en-US language. All training data with different accents were contained into single model and it should work with different speaker accents (about 90% accuracy). But of course it depends on audio quality. For very noisy speech the accuracy may be lower than expected.</comment></comment></comment>


Ocean is an amazing battery-powered wireless server that fits in your pocket - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/01/15/ocean-is-an-amazing-battery-powered-wireless-server-that-fits-in-your-pocket/ <comment><USER2> Compare to Pocket C.H.I.P.[1], which has a screen but only a 5 hour battery.

1: [http://nextthing.co/pages/pocketchip](http://nextthing.co/pages/pocketchip)</comment>


Product Grunt: The worst old products, every day - <AUTHOR> http://www.productgrunt.com/

<comment><USER2> Very creative, great work. I especially like the downvote as upvote.</comment>


What do you think about my new, very minimalist and a bit stealthy landing page? - <AUTHOR> http://chilledlime.com/?

<comment><USER2> My 2 cents: \- I do not see what it does. \- I do not wants to register while I'm not sure I want to uses it. Even better if I can use it without identifying. \- It miss a demo part or a video that user can check on first visit.</comment>


Open-source Vulnerabilities up almost 50% cuz people looking for them - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/13/open_source_bugs/ <comment><USER2> This sounds like a pure marketing piece for whitesource.</comment>


Ruby on Rails plugin to easily perform full-text searches using MySQL - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wonsys.net/posts/26-our-first-plugin-acts_as_fulltextable/

<comment><USER2> For those of you using Rails on PostgreSQL 8.3+, you might be interested in using PGSQL's integrated full-text-search capabilities with this plugin, although it's not yet release quality:

<http://code.google.com/p/acts-as-tsearch/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Acts_as_ferret works okay, but when you run into a lot of writes (the problem the poster had), you have to run it with its built in DRb server to resolve the issues.

<comment><USER4> DRb? Ouch... another layer of complexity :( How difficult is it to run DRb over a few VPS'?

<comment><USER3> Never tried it, but it doesn't work so well on a shared host lol :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm frustrated with ferret, sphinx and so on..so I needed something functional..and this one works great! Well done Michele..thanks!</comment>


Bringing Google+ to work - <AUTHOR> http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/08/bringing-google-to-work.html

<comment><USER2> We use both of these features very heavily at Google, so I'm really happy to see them launch externally. The ability to restrict posts to within a company lets you create a corporate social network very easily (think Yammer, Chatter, etc.). One of the main complaints I hear about Google+ is that specific friends aren't on it, but that's much less of an issue if your company uses Google Apps. I spend a lot of time and get a lot of value out of within-our- company Google+ posts.

And since Google has widely distributed offices, I can't tell you how many video meetings I've attended, but it's a lot. Having the ability to join a video conference/hangout from a link in Calendar makes such meetings really easy to set up.

<comment><USER3> How easy is it to reshare a "company" post to the wrong people?

<comment><USER2> From the post: "Restricted posts are private to your organization and can never be re-shared with anyone outside."

Now if you do a corporate G+ post and say "Bob in accounting sucks" and then share that with Bob--that's on you. :)

<comment><USER3> Thanks; so, you would need to copy and paste it to share it.

I don't know why, but psychologically I would feel like this is somehow less private than, say, a mailing list. I'm probably becoming old :)

<comment><USER4> > I don't know why, but psychologically I would feel like this is somehow less > private than, say, a mailing list. I'm probably becoming old :)

I think that's a really interesting comment! Perhaps it's because the UX is more social network-y (FB/Twitter), which are historically public, and less email-y+historically private?

<comment><USER3> That's possible, but a more likely reference is forums. The ones I used were mostly public too :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a great move for G+, only concerns having not tried it yet are the following:

1) Free until end of the year, so in effect open roll-out beta testing and once we have it how you like it and enough hooked, then we charge you a unknown amount. Not sure in what depths of society that marketing model is drawn upon but it is something that stood out.

2) Garantee's - when you share data in a closed circle (company or select group of friends) withing a enviroment that allows open/public sharing and the identifiers being user changable parameters then I would ask and suggest one big addition. Make all interface changes approval acceptance only and by that I mean allow a company to have a technical social person for the whatever changes are needed but have the ability for all impacting changes (level of changes definable even) needing approval of at least another person, maybe even a few down to some needing CEO approval. You may have situations were you have a internal post and later on wish that to be made fully public in just the case that you dont want some internal posts ever publicly leaked and whilst the permisions to say who can see things is there. Perhaps the ability to add NEVERFORPUBLIC tags indicating that nomater what is changed down the line with facebook style permision bias in whatever fasion, they will never ever change unless the user who created them changes them. Also need to have orga chart ability for higher ups to change incase a person leaves.

3) Think Murdoch - What legal aspects do social media posts have in comparision to emails and do you have the ability to blind copy people into posts as you would say BCC your lawyer on emails. Some companies like that approach and how does G+ cater for them if it is going in the direction many think it is.

</comment><comment><USER6> I really enjoy Google+. It honestly has become my defacto "social network" when I just want to peruse whats happening in the world. There is a video game that I have been following for the past few years that went live this weekend and the community on Google+ is head and sholders above what I have found in other places. The content (as a whole) has been more thought out and and as a percentage I have wanted to read more of it than other sources.

That being said I think "circles" caters to niche groups of people wanting to discuss a certain topic, will be interesting to see how another "post fencing" appartatus plays with circles.

<comment><USER7> I have never used facebook, twitter, etc., but I have increasingly found relevant content and discussion on g+ pages.

So much so that last week I attempted, unsuccessfully, to create a g+ account for rsync.net. You'd think that wouldn't be rocket science.

Then all of that "real name" bullshit that I tried to ignore last year came back to me. Google refuses to recognize the account, blah blah blah.

No, I am not giving them my personal information for these discussions, and furthermore, multiple different people will be using this account (it's a business account) so it's not appropriate to tie an identity to it anyway.

Does the "g+ for business" solve this problem ?

<comment><USER8> I think the use case you describe is that you create a Google account as yourself, along with each of your colleagues. Then you create a G+ Page and make them all administrators of it. You can act/post/etc. as the G+ page and not as yourself, e.g. <https://plus.google.com/+TheCorcoranGroup>

Not saying this is ideal or that you should like it, just that I think that's how you can do what you want to do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In my world that makes about as much sense as 'your corporate intranet facebook'. Heck, just as much as Contoso YouPorn. Zero.

Social networks, ignoring the problems with the current implementations, are for your social life. I enjoy social interactions at work, but most of my social life is _not_ connected to work. So social networks and work don't mix for me.

And in what kind of business would you share stuff on a kind-of-but-not-quite blogging platform? That seems to be a SharePoint (no fan either) contender from a very weird angle..

<comment><USER10> I think it depends on the company, but I disagree with your point in general. There are plenty of companies that would benefit from an easy model for sharing content internally, whether it be links to articles relevant to the company, wide discussions about internal (confidential) topics, or pictures from a recent company BBQ. With the features Google launched today, companies can safely use a social network and assume that internal information will stay that way.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for the reply.

That is done today already. Ignoring SharePoint: Many companies I know of deploy wikis internally (for content) or just have shared network drives (for pictures, movies).

Why should that leave the corporate net? And what feature is G+ offering? That thing is about social interactions ('share content', 'chat', 'follow news').

So I have some issues here:

1) Mixing a type of site that is mostly for procrastination (FB, G+, this site) into the company culture doesn't seem a smart move

2) All the useful features of G+ are probably already deployed internally (which company doesn't have a way to share documents/news?).

3) What kind of (business) and size of (numbers of employees) would ever go for this thing? For lots of businesses storing stuff in the cloud is a no-go. For small-to-mid sized companies this seems .. laughable. Posting on G+ to your circle of co-workers sitting behind you/on the same floor, connected to the same network?

I'm sure I'm extra harsh because I don't even see the benefits of (some/most of) these products in general, but at work? There's just no way that I can see any added value.

<comment><USER10> Fair enough; again, it's probably not useful at every company, but in the companies that I've worked for in the past (big and small) that have used internal social networks (like Yammer for example), it's definitely been beneficial to me.

I think that wikis and shared network drives don't work as well for sharing content in the same way that they don't work for me sharing with friends. People like the format of a social network, curating content and sharing it with the right people in a way that it will pop up where they are looking and provide an easy way to have a discussion about it. And this sort of content shouldn't really "leave the net" (unless you're talking about the physical intranet); the idea behind this feature is that it stays within the company's control, in a place viewable only by employees.

To respond to your other points:

1) An interesting point, and this is where I think it depends on the company. I don't really view Google+ as a time-wasting site (though I do moreso with Facebook), because Google+ has a big focus on sharing interesting and relevant _content_ to the user. In a company that embraces this sort of internal sharing of content, I think it could be very useful.

2) Perhaps lots of places already have deployed solutions for internal sharing; Google is just providing another way (a way that is being actively developed and potentially already is being paid for by the company because of other Google Apps).

3) I used Yammer at a small startup once, and it proved to be a nice way to aggregate work-related content. But at really large companies that are willing to have their data stored with Google, I think this is even more useful because it provides a good way to communicate with people you don't know at the company, and a way to follow what is being said by the internal superstar developers.

<comment><USER9> I liked the second paragraph. It's possible that I have an inherent dislike (no pun here) for the 'social' format. It is to be, almost by definition, unprofessional and low quality.

Maybe that's what colors my view on G+ in general and a corporate version in particular. Have to think about it - hard to look past an assumption like this on a whim. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a really smart move by Google. This starts to eliminate the need for corporate social networks (like Yammer), and lets businesses take advantage of all the integrations that are happening with the other Google apps. As someone who has used internal social networks like Yammer at previous companies, I can honestly say that they are surprisingly useful - it gives other employees the forum to share interesting and work-related content, and provides a place for basic discussion on internal topics with a wide audience.

</comment><comment><USER11> Steve Yegge is most likely responsible for this feature being pushed through.

[https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesv...](https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX)

<comment><USER12> Steve Yegge accidentally posted his rant to the wrong account. Google+ for apps wouldn't stop anyone from doing that, unless there's a way for administrators to ban employees from using their personal accounts during work hours.

<comment><USER13> In a subsequent post about his current project and conservative vs liberal coding he seem to have mentioned it was not accidental.

<comment><USER13> I'm downvoted here, maybe because I'm wrong and misunderstood the last sentence of Yegges post (1):

        (Special Note to my fellow Googlers:
        Yes, I meant to post this externally.
        BOTH times. No, I am not the Mouth of
        Sauron.)

What can "BOTH times" mean, but that the first time, the "platform" rant, is included?

(1) [https://plus.google.com/u/0/110981030061712822816/posts/KaSK...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/110981030061712822816/posts/KaSKeg4vQtz)

<comment><USER14> My guess is that he accidentally posted it internally first and then posted it externally. And so, both times he posted it, he meant to post it externally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Great, so now people who don't want to sign away their privacy to a social network don't get a choice when their employer decides to mandate use of this company-wide.

This also pretty much forces you to merge your personal and work personas.

<comment><USER16> Nope.

Where I work, I have an enterprise account which has a gmail, drive, groups and calendar which is signed in using a email@example.com account.

My personal stuff is different and is a different account, signed in using firstname.lastname@example.com

The key point is, my company knows only about @company.com (and Google doesnt have any idea) and the other way around for @gmail.com account.

<comment><USER15> Whilst I know it's possible to have multiple google accounts, I always thought google+ was supposed to be restricted to 1 account per human being?

<comment><USER17> Within a domain, yes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's good that Google is trying to think about how companies (and people) might not want to share everything they do publicly. However, Google should spend considerable amount of time working on their core products.

Many of them are feature-poor (as an example, Google Calendar doesn't seem have a setting to prevent your phone from getting automatic notifications, no matter if you turn EVERY notification off).

<comment><USER19> Core product for whom?

Google+ brings Google valuable information about who you are and what you do to their ad-words (revenue)engine.

Improving a Calendar app which already provides them with that information, brings them little extra.

It's sometimes important to remember who Google's _real_ customers are. It's not you.

<comment><USER20> Ah yes the Google's _real_ customers meme again.

It hasn't ever had any validity. __You ___are_ Google's customer as they need you to click on relevant advertisements.

The advertising companies are also their customer. The intention is to hook two customers up together.

Google are matchmakers. How you can twist that into what you posted I don't know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Can we make a Joel Anti-Test? Ideally, you want zero points. Cases: Uses Google+ Internally. Uses JIRA. Uses a VCS you have never heard of. Entire product is licensed from an outsourced shop and resold under your own branding. Extensive use of Windows desktops or servers. Uses one or more of {MongoDB, Cassandra, CouchDB} at scale. ...

<comment><USER22> Why the first, why the last?

<comment><USER23> Comment felt a bit like this to me : "I don't like Google+, so I'm going to post a list of things that suck."</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: An iOS app for the Sharing Economy - <AUTHOR> https://get.outpost.travel

<comment><USER2> This has been posted at least 16 times in the last year. The submissions have been deleted and reposted; ring-voted; and now, upvoted with a ring of sockpuppets. We just banned all the suckpuppets.

It looks like a fine app, but please stop using shitty tactics to promote it on HN.</comment>


I Should Never Have Trusted HR to Keep My Secret - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2018/01/16/i-should-never-have-trusted-hr-to-keep-my-secret/#204c3cc35d19 <comment><USER2> HR is the department of the company tasked by management to minimize the cost associated with the acquisition, retention, and eventual disposal of the firms "human resources" (in more normal language, employees), hence the name.

It is not an internal ombudsman representing the interest of individual employees against other parties (especially management) within the firm.

 _Every_ interaction with HR should involve this understanding being front and center.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, but why aren't HR departments required to stress that to employees when hired? It's absolutely not OK to let people think they can raise an issue in confidence if that's really only a bullshit promise (to use Harry Frankfurter's term).

<comment><USER2> > Agreed, but why aren't HR departments required to stress that to employees > when hired?

You mean required by government? Because it's pretty obvious why _management_ doesn't require HR to highlight their adversarial relation to employees—it benefits management for the human resources to see the HR department and their friend and ally.

<comment><USER3> Yes, by law.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> In my dealings with HR, I have always come back to a quote from Avatar: The Last Airbender: "Azula always lies."

</comment><comment><USER5> HR is not on your side; they're present to protect the interests of the company, however ineffectively.</comment>


AlibabaGroup #newretail grocery concept, Hema - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/taps/status/1026461451333132288 <comment><USER2> Im going through a phase of depression right now, and I see things like this and it triggers a bit of discomfort with me regarding the future we are building.

I see these robotic grocery stores and fawning over the technology in them - with the comments about buying online, sending orders for delivery and dynamically adjusted pricing for food and it just feels really plastic, inhuman and depressing.

Food, and the experience of just purchasing the ingredients to make food is all so completely packaged and manufactured.

It really illustrates why people pay a premium for the false illusion of "farm to table" all-natural-ness theme-park-ride-like dinners... and how fake that is as well.

I get the convenience of this, but at that same time, I am turned off by this as it just feels like we are trying so hard to live in a Lego and Play-Mobile reality.</comment>


Ask HN: Should I get out of gov as engineer? - <AUTHOR> Due to a certain turn of events, I ended up as a software engineer at a government institute at a relatively young (<25) age and sticked there. Not developing Java EE applets but very enterprisey (MQ, non-REST SOAPy stuff) Spring-based Java law-to-software-systems nonetheless for a few (~5)  years now. The work is pretty challenging yet non-demanding (9 to 5 and you are expected to have left by then). The salary is obviously not top of market but competitive (Europe) and has a steady growth curve but you know what you are making 10 years from now unless you actively pursue promotions to a different function profile (middle/upper management, PO, architect role etc). Making sure you have more days off than you will normally spend seems to be govt's top priority and peers are often cheeky jealous about how I seem to have an infinite amount of vacation hours.
The biggest problem I have is thinking "is this it?". I like my job and my colleagues but working in govt I feel no commercial pressure whatsoever. Of course, we have deadlines but we are delivering the software regardless and our "clients" have no choice. We will never compete or have to fear that work is drying up, only that we have to do it with less people and we don't go too far over budget (and if it runs out, other work under a different budget code gets higher priority). As a result of this, innovation isn't really a thing. Optimization, really making things better, is not a concern or objective even though on a daily basis my hands itch to "fix" stuff. The law abiding citizens won't ever complain about inefficiencies in processes, why his data model is too complex for what it is doing or why some forms aren't 1 step instead of 5 of which we could already fill in 4.
1/2 <comment><AUTHOR> There is also a completely lackluster vision on staying up to date and having everything deprecate into legacy because _it still works_ (until the law or interpretation of it changes which happens more often than you think). This is also very noticeable within the organization where we are running on so much end-of-life/extended-life-support software/services that it's an insult to the tax payer's money.

My biggest fear is getting stuck and also becoming legacy. I am definitely keeping up with the industry and becoming a better engineer/problem-solver but looking at some of my colleagues they might think the same yet having worked for the same institute for 15+ years they wouldn't be able to function outside of it. I am also concerned I am "wasting" my best years by arguably under- performing for my abilities and drive. My ideal job would be working here but as an outsider, challenged to improve systems throughput, listening to the "client" and making things better (there is no "conversion" to optimize but I can think of several KPIs which are lackluster and am certain I can improve). There is also this kind of stigma in working for govt (your requirements/software cannot possibly be complex!) which I think will spiral most people into staying in govt for ever because they are seen as a "window staring" underperformer.

So yeah, even though it's not that bad and I like my job should I challenge myself more and try to switch to a more commercial organization? Is my experience too limited to make a proper judgement or am I vastly over estimating the difference between commercial and govt software engineers? Perhaps consider a path as consultant? Thank you for your time.

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<comment><USER2> Stay for another 15 years dude and then 'retire'</comment></comment>