Google: Our assistant will trigger the next era of AI - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/google-our-assistant-will-trigger-the-next-era-of-ai-3c72a4d7bc75#.lvdwxi4i2 <comment><AUTHOR> The key quote here is this:

> "When you try to build a system for understanding natural language, and you > don't have many examples of the kind of understanding you want," Pereira > says, "then you have to prescribe, you have to write—essentially teach it > grammar—so that it can do the understanding. That teaching is very > laborious."

> When millions of people begin conversing with Google, through the Assistant, > the seas of difficulty suddenly part.

This is why Google has been able to continue to dominate search (IMO). Their original algorithm was radically better than the competitors, which allowed them to start to gather extremely relevant, and hence valuable, data. They have then used that data to make their algorithm better, creating a virtuous cycle.

Additionally, the same reason explains why Siri sucks- Apple might have brilliant researchers working on it, but they don't have the same data that Google has access to, which hamstrings them.

The extreme, non-linear value of the data makes me extremely bullish on Amazon. Alexa/Echo are allowing Amazon to gather an extremely large set of very valuable data that they can use. If they proceed to open up Alexa through an API (which I believe they're planning on doing), that value will continue to skyrocket.

<comment><USER2> > Additionally, the same reason explains why Siri sucks Apple might have > brilliant researchers working on it, but they don't have the same data that > Google has access to

Nah, I think it's mostly because Google has hired better talent (and more employees working on ML) and invested more money into research. It's only natural that a team of 300 does more than a team of 30, but I am just guessing. Apple has a web browser and two OS platforms, with cloud services. They have tons of data in the system, just like Google.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I have a nexus 5 running android 4.3. Even without this new assistant, I get all sorts of youtube suggestions that creep me out and make me think I am being profiled on every single detail about my life.</comment>


Amazon shuts down Lendle - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/21/lendle-amazon <comment><USER2> This seems to be happening over and over again. Two years ago, everyone wanted to be a platform, now all that embracing open API stuff has turned to shit.

Basically, the idea seems to be that once you've used your API ecosystem to grow to a certain size, you can fuck over the developers that allowed you to get to that point by building on top of your platform and by attracting users to it or keeping them engaged. The only way to get around this is to become so big that the platform can't shut you down (Zynga, Twitpic).

Twitter says, stop building clients, build in these verticals. Who is going to stop them from going after the most profitable verticals tomorrow once developers have proved that there's money to be made there? As a developer, why the hell would I want to deal with this?

Open API's seem to be the antithesis of the profit motive, or atleast, that's how it seems to be. Sad.

<comment><USER3> API ecosystem poaching is definitely uncool.

Twitters recent moves are disturbing and definitely will have a negative impact on how people view APIs.

The bad decisions by Twitter doesn't mean everything is going to shit.

Amazon is building their ecosystem with consideration of their ecosystem players - [http://www.cloudave.com/10992/aws-vpc-and-impact-on- ecosyste...](http://www.cloudave.com/10992/aws-vpc-and-impact-on-ecosystem/)

NPR is retooling their APIs to support partner efforts, licensing, digital rights, etc. - [http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2011/03/17/134259537/the- npr...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2011/03/17/134259537/the-npr-api-an- engine-rebuild)

This is some tough shit. No quick answers. Its different for different industries, mediums, etc.

Some API owners are making poor decisions, but there are plenty others like NPR, Amazon, and Netflix that are innovating and sharing their stories on problems they face and what went into their decisions.

The key in any of this is don't get swept up in the short term undercurrents. Step back and look at bigger pictures. I've been using APIs for 10 years. Cloud computing for 5.

I feel like we are just getting going. Lots to figure out.

<comment><USER4> If you read the headline, you will notice that this comment thread is about _Amazon_ screwing over their API users. Twitter was just brought up for context. So bringing up Amazon as somebody "innovating and sharing their stories" without addressing how they treated Lendle users is more than a little bit silly.

<comment><USER3> Actually...follow the tweet I used to get to this conversation. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351900>

No reference of master conversation with Title you mention.

Silly?

I still would have posted Amazon link as reference to areas they do confer with partners.

But you are correct I would have provided more discussion about Lendle users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It amazes me that the e-book providers think they can head down the same road as the music industry and not end up in the same spot.

I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. I've thought about using DRM-cracking software to free up my books, not because of any desire to share or lend but just because it's not right having a book in my possession locked away under a secret key some other bunch of people control.

This announcement doesn't bode well for Amazon. Technology can help you find markets, technology can enable markets, but using technology to _force_ a market to appear where none did before doesn't have such a great track record. Everybody understands that you read a book, you share it (or give it away). There is no further sale. Lendle was simply trying to help Amazon work in a natural way that people commonly understand.

<comment><USER6> I crack the hell out of my Kindle purchases. Not for piracy, but so I can read them on Apple's superior iBooks app. It's pretty simple to do. Funny part is, I didn't start buying Amazon eBooks until I was certain I could defeat their DRM.

The Kindle iPad app is anus.

<comment><USER7> Why is it superior to the Kindle app?

<comment><USER6> When I tried it awhile ago, the Kindle app had a page turning experience that can only be described as maddening. Tap in the wrong spot, boom, page has turned. The iBooks app, for all its over-done skeuomorphism, makes interacting with the book pretty easy. Simple things like page edges make clear what will happen when you tap in a particular place. iBooks just feels really nice.

More than that, the Kindle app is just _ugly_. It has this janky animation when you jump to another section of the book that's painful to watch. It's a shame – the Kindle v3 hardware is a pretty badass product. The Kindle iPad app feels barebones, insipid and unpolished. Does a disservice to the brand.

<comment><USER8> That's interesting. The initial feedback I read on iBooks vs Kindle back when both apps were first available was very heavily skewed the other way: people seemed to prefer the Kindle app.

Perhaps it was just a case of familiarity and the majority of the reports at that time being by existing Kindle users. Apple has also pushed out a few good updates since (including proper hyphenation!) so that has probably helped too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Time to trot out the Jeff Bezos quote again, from when authors were complaining about Amazon allowing used book sales:

 _"When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this."_

<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1291>

<comment><USER8> It's pretty clear that he was talking about physical books. E-books that have no limits on distribution are affected by different economic forces. In this situation, what rights the purchaser has or should have are far less clear.

<comment><USER10> Stop mryall, he's being a rational adult!

I completely agree, the 'old' model doesn't apply 100% but I don't think that publishers are trying for a new model that's fair. I can give thousands copies for free, yes... But they can SELL thousands at almost no cost. So the whole "You can't just GIVE it away" argument gets significantly weaker.

I think, however, that the end result will be to ignore the pirates. It makes the most sense. People will always want to get their book "NOW", at launch, from the store, not from hunting around for it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a shame but they kind of had this coming. Amazon's book-lending feature only really works with their business model as long it is just small groups of people lending to each other. They were never going to stand for people circumventing the whole model of individual payment by sharing books with random strangers over the internet.

I'm not saying Amazon (and the whole e-book industry) is morally right in restricting sharing like this, but you can't expect them not to stand up for their own interests.

In the long term, I'm sure we'll end up with freely distributable e-books. But that won't happen via Amazon's or Apple's online stores, which are quite clearly on the side of restricting distribution in order to charge for it.

</comment><comment><USER11> The Lendle team has their take on the matter here:

<http://lendle.me/amazon-api-revocation/>

Quote: _Our initial reaction was one of pure surprise._

Me, not so much:

 _Lending ebooks is a feature demanded mostly by people who don't pay money for ebooks (and don't pay money for movies, music, or videogames if they can possibly avoid it) and will not be induced to pay money by the feature._

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1821923>

The only use of the service is to turn one purchase of any popular book into the ability to read as many as 26 books per year free. Its essentially the classic music startup model: you don't want to pay money for music, we want to make that happen. _Of course_ it got negative attention.

</comment><comment><USER12> Amazon must be counting their blessings there wasn't a way for people to borrow & lend physical books or else there's no way they could have built a business around selling them!

<comment><USER13> I didn't know there was a website where I could borrow and lend physical books to random people across the world with the click of a button, absolutely no shipping fees, and a rock-solid 14 day return policy.

Does that site exist, or are you exploiting the (obviously false) "ebooks are books" train of thought for a pithy comment?

<comment><USER12> World-wide you might be right. But in the US for about the last 30 years you can borrow any book you want 100% free straight from your computer (albeit usually with a 2-3 day wait) thanks to the magic of inter-library loan.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Amazon's always played hardball with their API (see also Delicious Library mobile). They're like the Oracle of the generally-cuddly API world, but at least they've always been clear and upfront about it. Don't help them to sell things? Bam.

By contrast, Twitter's now suffering as it tries to retro-fit a hard-ass approach (though of course with a similar stance from the beginning it's hard to see them getting where they are now).

</comment><comment><USER15> They should do lending/selling via USB or wifi, that'd add some of the 'physical proximity' aspect back in, in that you couldn't lend to everyone all over the internet, just people you live with or work with.

<comment><USER16> That sounds like it would be trivial to overcome with a little bit of hackery.

<comment><USER15> Determined hackers will probably find a way to outwit pretty much anything. What they need to be doing is making it so that the path of least resistance is the 'legal' one for the 95% of people who generally don't want to fiddle with things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's a shame that they did this. I think Neil Gaiman summarized the wonderful benefits of using the web as a lending tool for books. He has a fantastic interview clip regarding his outlooks on piracy of his books that you can view here: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI>

Here's the transcript, emphasis mine:

When the web started I used to get really grumpy with people, because they put my poems up. They put my stories up. They put my stuff up on the web. I had this A.) a belief, which was completely erronious, that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn't tell them to take it down you would lose your copyright - which actually, is simply not true. And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice that two things seemed much more significant. One of which was [that] places where I was being pirated, particularly Russa where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading around into the world, I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. Then they were going out and buying the real books, and when a new book would come out in Russia it would sell more and more copies. I thought this was facinating, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard, you know, persuading my publisher for example to take one of my books and put it out for free. We took American Gods, a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it, and download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independant bookstores because that's all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent. I started to realize that actually, you're not losing books. You're not losing sales by having stuff out there. When I give a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people say, "Well what about the sales that I'm losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?" I started asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question. Which is, I'd say, "Do you have a favorite author?" They'd say, "Yes." and I'd say, "Good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands." And then, "Anybody who discovered their favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book raise your hands," and it's probably about five, ten percent. If that, of the people who actually discovered their favorite author, who is the person who they buy everything of. They buy the hardbacks and treasure the fact that they got this author.

Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it, and that's how they found their favorite author. I thought, "You know, that's really all this is. It's people lending books. You can't look on that as a loss of sale. It's not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free." _What you're actually doing is advertising. You're reaching more people, raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idiea of the shape of copyright and what the web was doing. The biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they otherwise wouldn't have seen._ Basically that's an incredibly good thing.

<comment><USER13> So far as my personal experience can be extrapolated, it's not _just_ advertising. Sometimes it is lost sales. That said, so far as my personal experience can be extrapolated, the lost sales are an almost insignificant slice of the new sales.

<comment><USER18> Well said.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The lesson in this is that building projects that depend on third-party data is dangerous; there needs to be some sort of guarantee of access to the data before you commit to the project. Building the project and then pointing fingers at the data provider after your api access is revoked does nothing to relieve the frustration of your users.

<comment><USER20> Sometimes you just build a project because it's fun, you can and you're able to launch it quickly. It's also an opportunity to pick up some skills and experience and build up a reputation.

I don't think Lendle set out to be a long term, full time, paying gig.

<comment><USER19> I guess that's what I'm getting at... they weren't serious (enough) about it and their users suffer the consequences. Nowhere on their website does it say "beta" or "just for fun" or "this could go away at any time".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Maybe my judgement is clouded because I really like Amazon, but this seems like something the publishers forced on Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER22> Of the 30 or so books I have in my kindle only 1 was even lendable anyway.

<comment><USER23> but still no excuse for Amazon

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wonder if part of the reason is because the name "Lendle" is a little too close to the "Kindle" trademark... similar to calling your app "Lendazon".

<comment><USER25> The reason is certainly that Amazon intended the lending feature to be used between a person's small network of acquaintances. This means that the likelihood of being able to borrow every book you want should be pretty low. Lendle gamed this by expanding the set of people with which you share / borrow. At that scale, the feature probably reduced Amazon's sales more significantly than the intended usage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Lesson: Don't get into conflict of interest with a monopoly that you rely on. If you are strategically threatening or simply unprofitable for them, they will kill you off.

</comment><comment><USER27> if we go 2 levels down the stack, to me that situation with private APIs [more precisely - "API services" ] provides a glimpse into the future what would happen with Internet without net-neutrality (as the service of carrying your network packets is just a "network API service" which owner of the service would be able to decline/limit access to to anybody he feels like to).

</comment><comment><USER20> One thing to keep in mind here: The Kindle only let's you lend each book you own once, mitigating the potential damage done. The site also prominently featured the option to buy the book before and after the lend.

</comment><comment><USER28> Very interesting.. I've built something almost exactly the same as Lendle in my spare time, but I haven't opened it up to a wider audience just yet.

I'm starting to wonder if it might be best to just keep it invite-only for now.

</comment><comment><USER29> It is the first time that I hear about Lendle, and as I read from their site it is a very interesting service. I think it is the online version of <http://www.bookcrossing.com/> in a way. You are "leaving" your online book in Lendle and everyone can pick it in order to read it.

I hope for a quick resolution of this matter.

</comment><comment><USER18> Very, very bad style. 2 weeks is mostly not enough time between work and life to finish the thicker books. So one ends up buying loaned books you otherwise wouldn't have considered.

This is a really stupid move and I implore others to make it known via the Helpdesk.

</comment><comment><USER30> Call me naive...and quotes aside...This may be due to Amazon possibly wanting to provide a similar service themselves? Possibly working in some sort of fee/etc?

</comment><comment><USER31> The idea that one can "lend" a string of bits is nonsense:

<http://www.loper-os.org/?p=351></comment>


Xbox Series X: A standard or common 60fps is not a mandate - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1260017717001678849 <comment><USER2> This hasn't been a debate in PC gaming for years, why do folks still look to buy consoles these days? Serious question.

Is the only real hangup the exclusivity of certain titles? Because it can't be resolution, framerate, peripherals, streaming, upgradability, game selection, skill ceiling, or sound quality.

<comment><USER3> Cost, convenience, and availability. PC gaming is still out of reach for many peie for one reason or another.</comment></comment>


Show HN: This Boulder startup will rewrite the rules of encrypted messaging - <AUTHOR> http://www.builtincolorado.com/2017/02/24/conclave-secure-encrypted-messaging-app <comment><USER2> A very interesting company I'll certainly be watching in the days ahead. The idea that I can see who my data is shared with is a really cool idea

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking us out! We look forward to bringing you super powers ;D

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> When you say "military grade crytpo" does it mean Elliptic Curve Crypto or something else?

<comment><AUTHOR> Conclave was originally designed for sharing classified information in Top Secret environments. Our entire security architecture, which includes some elliptic curve elements, is available on our website.

<comment><USER3> Well I must say that I have not been current with all cryptographic advancements. It would appear as though AES256-GCM is excellent for nearly every application. I am using S-crypt which, among other great advancements like slightly-different hashes for the same inputs, exploits the fact that non-sequential memory reads are slightly more expensive than sequential reads, [http://www.tarsnap.com/scrypt/scrypt.pdf](http://www.tarsnap.com/scrypt/scrypt.pdf)</comment></comment></comment>


A Toolbox for Microbiome Engineering - <AUTHOR> http://www.cell.com/cell-systems/fulltext/S2405-4712(15)00011-3 <comment><USER2> It has been clear for a while that the first medical nanorobots would in fact be medical microrobots, engineered microbes or cells or entirely artificial pseudo-cells capable of being programmed to perform an array of tasks. Small molecule drug manufactories with on/off switches are the easier first goal, and once that is a robust technology platform then moving on to provide a basis for spot improvements on antibody production in the immune system is an obvious next step.

There is still a great deal of work needed to determine which useful small molecule drugs for cellular manufactories to produce, however. I suspect we're moving into a phase of development in which the capacity to deliver small molecules will outstrip the capacity to identify/invent/determine useful ones, as a lot more must be known to produce the drug than to produce the manufactory and delivery mechanism. Hence antibody production as an early target, since those are much more readily categorized.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm glad to see the synthetic bio folks making progress down this path. I hope that the ecologists can catch up so we can develop a better understanding of human microecology. Control and regulation of the ecosystem that is a human is likely to provide as many, if not more, tangible benefits to more people than any direct genetic engineering of human beings.</comment>


Sam Altman on Choosing Projects, Creating Value, and Finding Purpose [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEl2KUZ3JWA&t=2s <comment><AUTHOR> I really enjoyed this video, and was impressed by a few things that Sam said, like being able to stay highly productive for 8 hours straight.

Also interesting to hear about his "take a year off", and what this means in Silicon Valley where your "status" is so important.

In fact, I recently stepped down from the startup I founded, and just yesterday I was at a business party, and several people were asking me about my startup and I was updating them on the new situation; it was a bit awkward.

In any case, I'd be curious to hear from Sam what's new with the "new cities" project. When it was launched I tried to get involved, and it seems it's not doing much, or it is but very quietly.</comment>


Who's Winning the Self-Driving Car Race? - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-07/who-s-winning-the-self-driving-car-race <comment><USER2> Waymo by miles with pun intended. Showed seeing with snow yesterday

</comment><comment><USER3> Watch the final 40 minutes of GTC 2018 and you will know who is winning this race

</comment><comment><USER4> TLDR: Waymo #1, GM #2, Tesla=?

Also interesting that Apple wasn't mentioned.

<comment><USER5> Apple is being very Apple about it. They seem to have tried _something_ that didn't work out or missed its market window so now they're trying something _else_ which we'll only hear about if it succeeds and works really well.

Unless they partner with BMW and make the equivalent of the Motorola ROKR phone, I suppose...</comment></comment>


Succeeding at sales: a guide for small business owners - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/jan/28/succeeding-sales-guide-small-business-owners <comment><USER2> Bad copywriting at its finest: "No isn't always no"</comment>


"An API for your city" - LocalWiki API released - <AUTHOR> http://localwiki.org/blog/2012/aug/31/localwiki-api-released/

<comment><USER2> LocalWiki really is a fascinating project. I went to University in Davis right when the whole wiki project there was starting. This wasn't just a technical effort, it was also a social one -- regular wiki barbeques were held, and considerable unified effort was made to get enough content up before "launching" for additional publicity.

It is no coincidence that the modest city of Davis, California has quite literally the best town wiki in the world. If you happen to live in Davis, the wiki is more useful than Yelp, Craig's List, and Wikipedia combined. Local Wiki is the effort to extend that elsewhere.

I currently live in Woodland, a city right next to Davis. Woodland has a wiki too, and you can even share accounts between there and Davis. But Woodland gets maybe one edit a week on average, while Davis gets over 50 a day. I often find myself visiting places in Davis just because it's easier to learn about them than an equivalent local place.

It can't possibly be a technical issue -- it's the exact same software. To make a good wiki happen, I need to do what Davis did: organize a real community in real life, and work together to build something.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great work LocalWiki. This is a good way to build hyperlocal mobile/sms apps. I find myself usually scraping data off wikis, massaging it a bit, then building my own api endpoint to feed the mobile app.

I hope this one linked here is actually being built, can see a lot of folks re-using it. <https://trianglewiki.org/Wanderful_App>

Next step is to build a mobile app that feeds data back in (POST/PUT). Like YokoZar points out, it's a Sales task, not necessarily a difficult technical one.

<comment><USER4> You are in luck! I'm one of the developers working on the Wanderful app and it is very much being built. You can check us out at <http://wanderful.co/>

<comment><USER3> Cool, just installed it. Can you say anything about the platform it was built on, Cordova?

<comment><USER4> The current version of the app was built with Titanium, but I'm not sure that I can recommend it for nontrivial apps. The API still has plenty of gaps and the platform isn't as 'cross-platform' as we had hoped (there are plenty of controls and properties that are platform-specific.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Link to actual API docs: <http://localwiki.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> I should set up paloal.to with LocalWiki. Too bad I moved out of Palo Alto.

</comment><comment><USER7> APIs are teh suck. The net and web don't have APIs either.

</comment><comment><USER8> Glad to see the project continue growing and kudos for your continued work on it...but title is a little grandiose. It's an API for your city's LocalWiki...if it has one (NYC apparently doesn't).</comment>


Bankers Shocked by 45% China Tax Rate Mull Leaving Hong Kong - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-14/bankers-shocked-by-45-china-tax-rate-consider-leaving-hong-kong <comment><AUTHOR> Cache: [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-07-14%2Fbankers- shocked-by-45-china-tax-rate-consider-leaving-hong-kong)

</comment><comment><USER2> How to destroy a thriving city ...

<comment><AUTHOR> and they had the perfect alibi not to change this despite 45% being the standard rate...two systems. Instead of getting 15% of a lot, they'll get 45% of close to nothing (relatively speaking.) Not to mention the whole ecosy$tem that was built around this.</comment></comment>


Tracking Down REvil's "Lalartu" by Utilizing Multiple Osint Methods - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/underthebreach/status/1222915479800635393 <comment><USER2> The tweet is just a link to [https://medium.com/@underthebreach/tracking-down- revils-lala...](https://medium.com/@underthebreach/tracking-down-revils- lalartu-by-utilizing-multiple-osint-methods-2bf3a6c65a80)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) "Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter."</comment>


Putin: Leader in artificial intelligence will rule world - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/putin-leader-in-artificial-intelligence-will-rule-world/2017/09/01/969b64ce-8f1d-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html?utm_term=.d2f001d34881 <comment><USER2> > Putin: Leader in artificial intelligence will rule world

Correction: remove "Leader in" from the title.

</comment><comment><USER3> Artificial intelligence == ML/CV/NLP (not the AGI) will transform the world over the next two decades. People vastly underestimate importance of recent advances in detection/recognition/NLU tasks.

Sure it sounds boring by some sci-fi standards but when it comes to warfare ability to deploy cheap drones that can do near real time enemy identification will transform not just the battelfield but the entire society. Look at the current heated debate on Police stops leading to shooting. In less than a decade we will have autonomous cop car capable of disabling vehicles and firing tasers.

The world will be completely transformed just with todays state of the art tech. All it currently lacks are "platforms" for deployments.

<comment><USER4> I might believe in the advent of AI once my phone alarm disables itself instead of ringing when I have been travelling at 75miles per hour for 30 minutes, obviously awake and going to work.

<comment><USER3> Unless you are traveling in subway/Uber/Car-pool/commuter-rail and catching a quick nap.

What does this have to do with AI. In fact having an alarm that randomly gets disbabled is Stupid design.

<comment><USER4> Why would an AI randomly disable the alarm ? Indeed that would be a stupid AI.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have found the source video. Here is a link to the relevant part: [https://youtu.be/iXXHVZIkw9Y?t=3296](https://youtu.be/iXXHVZIkw9Y?t=3296)

He is actually talking not about AI in general, but about self-driving technologies and drones.

</comment><comment><USER6> In another piece of news:

China to add AI courses in primary education

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15154289](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15154289)

Where does the US stand? Any serious plans by its leaders and the government?

<comment><USER7> Oh goodness, please do not make courses mandatory. China adding AI courses to their primary education means their students will hate it.

<comment><USER8> Enough will get spit out from the grinder and do something. The vast majority will hate it, but who cares...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why is this flagged? If this was Musk or Page instead of Putin it would've been on the front page with 1000 comments.

You can dislike Putin because of his actions but you cannot deem his opinion irrelevant.

<comment><USER10> > you cannot deem his opinion irrelevant

Why not? Its not like he's an expert on that matter.

<comment><USER9> Because he sets the course for a nation, one with the will to ascend back to its former place.

The opinions of experts are often irrelevant unless they have the agency to act. Based on your categorization Musk and Page's opinions aren't relevant in this manner either, neither of them is what one would classify an expert in AI, but like Putin thier opinion matters because the agency they wield.

<comment><USER10> > Based on your categorization Musk and Page's opinions aren't relevant in > this manner either, neither of them is what one would classify an expert in > AI

Bingo!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Can't wait to see how these words sound in 20 years

</comment><comment><USER12> Don't get me wrong, I fully subscribe to the school of thought that he's a murderer, but honestly, drones fighting drones sounds pretty good.

<comment><USER13> It terms of life saved, I totally agree.

In terms of social progress, this causes a big problem: military power, until now, depended in big parts on having military people on your side. So sure, they can be corrupt, swayed by a more or less evil ideology or just plain racist, but in order to be a leader, you needed to at least satisfy a big group of people. And it was easier if it were the majority.

Automated warfare makes war and military power purely capital-based. That just seem wrong.

And also, do you really think that drones will be solely used on other peoples' drones?

<comment><USER14> This already happened in the 2003 Iraq invasion. It was wildly unpopular, so Cheney & Gang crafted a bullshit strategy around using very few troops and a lot more technology. It never made sense. They just wanted a war and knew they had to placate members of the military and people concerned about a Vietnam- style draft.

The next time their strategy might actually succeed. Once the U.S. military has a drone army capable of patrolling every street in Iraq 24/7/365.

> _In a January 2003 CBS poll, 64% of Americans had approved of military > action against Iraq; however, 63% wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution > rather than go to war, and 62% believed the threat of terrorism directed > against the U.S. would increase due to war._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq)

<comment><USER15> It's interesting the extent to which Americans didn't support going into Iraq and knocking over Saddam during the first Gulf War. The widely supported essentially what Bush did, in pushing their forces out of Kuwait and semi- crippling Iraq's military capabilities (no fly zones, sanctions, etc).

The American people had to be terrified into Iraq part 2. They had to be lied to constantly, abused with terrorism color codes on a weekly basis, constantly told their lives were in danger at the airport, lied to about the threat from WMDs, and the warhawks had to use 9/11 on a constant basis as a rallying cry to drive blind patriotism and to auto-silence anyone that would stand against it.

The authorities had to put on one helluva an aggressive propaganda effort to convince Americans to allow it.

Contrast that with the non-existent support for a large military action in Syria (invasion or otherwise), which Obama's Administration floated and quickly pulled away from. The American people are _very_ war sick at this point, fortunately.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Yet the actual purpose of this statement is lost on most.

Using popular concepts to plausibly question the sustainable dominance of others in the geopolitical power-game. It really doesn't matter if this statement proves accurate or not in the future.

"Artificial intelligence" is an interchangeable subject for the purposes of that statement. It's Psy Ops 101. A non-falsifiable piece of propaganda, used to undermine and chip-away at assumptions, which is particularly useful for sowing doubt in perceived institutional strength and their ability to sustain success when new variables are introduced.

In short, swap "AI" for any emerging subject matter or previously unaddressed and now relevant issue and you can make the same statement, in perpetuity, as ammunition against your opponents.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is especially true when combined with mass surveillance, domestically and abroad. Huge trove of data that is likely already being mined with machine learning and other techniques.

<comment><USER18> Yeah if you think about all the unstructured phone conversations tagged with people who are terrorists, and then jammed into a neural net, things get powerful. But taking that a step further, you can identify political dissent, etc

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> And he thinks it's going to be China. (probably)

</comment><comment><USER20> He's not wrong.

<comment><USER21> What makes you so confident in that assertion?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> And that definitely won't be him, what with causing massive brain drain with his retrograde policies.

</comment><comment><USER23> Everybody knows it, everybody talks about it, Google is the only one who really does it for now (afaik).

</comment><comment><USER24> What is going on here

</comment><comment><USER25> Dude is 64 years old, and was never seen using a computer. Give him a break on this one, he's likely just parroting Medvedev, who in turn is parroting one of his distant underlings.

<comment><USER26> > Dude is 64 years old, and was never seen using a computer.

Putin became acting president of Russian Federation on New Years Eve 1999. In months since, the only thing he brought into Yeltsin's former office was a computer[1]. He may not be a digital native, but to underestimate him is a mistake.

[1] [https://youtu.be/EjU8Fg3NFmo?t=3m10s](https://youtu.be/EjU8Fg3NFmo?t=3m10s)

<comment><USER25> Immediately after that point in the video he says he doesn't know anything about it.

<comment><USER27> So you believe him now? It is in his interest to have his opponents underestimate him.

<comment><USER25> I would bet you $1000 that he doesn't even know how to use email. :-)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is a 4.7-inch screen too big? [PHOTOS] - <AUTHOR> http://www.jakeludington.com/gadget_envy/20120109_titan_ii_brings_giant_screen_lte_and_mango_to_att.html

<comment><USER2> I use a 4.7. For me it's the perfect size. Everytime I pick up my old phone it feels so tiny.</comment>


Reversing Industrial Firmware for Fun and Backdoors I - <AUTHOR> http://reversemode.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=1

<comment><USER2> Surprise surprise...

PLC and other industrial software is a long way behind in terms of "software engineering". A college classmate did a graduation project/internship figuring out how to do version control and modularize PLC programs with device drivers.

<comment><USER3> What makes you think that the engineering teams in companies like Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Mitsubishi, GE etc. are "a long way behind in terms of 'software engineering'"? It is extremely misguided to think that all the thousands of engineers working in the Industrial Automation field are somehow behind others. I guess most of the HN crowd has very little exposure to the technologies in this field and most people probably consider this field uncool. But that doesn't mean the engineers working on these technologies are dumb and lagging behind others.

<comment><USER4> > What makes you think that the engineering teams in companies like Siemens, > Rockwell Automation, Mitsubishi, GE etc. are "a long way behind in terms of > 'software engineering'"?

data.

[http://embeddedgurus.com/barr-code/2010/09/the-sad-state- of-...](http://embeddedgurus.com/barr-code/2010/09/the-sad-state-of-embedded- software-process/)

I was in a class taught by this guy and I seem to recall him saying that a large (20-40%) of embedded developers he surveyed reported using _no_ _version_ _control_ _software_.

and look at some of the responses in that thread!

"I think that gcc -Wall -Wextra can be subtituted by lint tool (if you use gcc)."

<comment><USER5> "I was in a class taught by this guy and I seem to recall him saying that a large (20-40%) of embedded developers he surveyed reported using no version control software."

Yeah, but that's a vendor issue; it's not that the Engineers don't want to use version control.

We'd like to, for example, but we usually can't. All of the file formats for these PLC tools are binary blobs, and since the language is usually a graphical language (ladder logic) the conventional idea of diff is pretty meaningless unless someone writes a proprietary version control to handle the binary blobs + representing ladder logic through diffs.

We still try to use it, but we lose most of the benefits. I suppose you still get a changelog, but you can't ever merge branches since merging binary blobs with binary blobs will not go well for you.

<comment><USER6> You get a change log, a central repository, and the ability to roll back to previous versions.

That's pretty valuable, even without the ability to merge.

<comment><USER5> It's not really as useful as you make it out to be, since PLC code doesn't exist in isolation; there is __usually__ corresponding hardware. Unless you plan on magically "rolling back the hardware" changes as well, rolling back the software isn't all that useful in practice. Even if you can, changes are not made by any one vendor. Plant modifications happen all the time, so it's more often the case that you just end up uploading directly from the controller itself to see what the latest code is. I don't really have a good solution to that.

The exception of course is some very large companies that do everything in house.

<comment><USER7> > It's not really as useful as you make it out to be, since PLC code doesn't > exist in isolation; there is __usually__ corresponding hardware.

You never change the SW without changing the hardware?

Wowsers. No new features and no bugs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > _Despite I'm releasing this information when there is still no patch > available, It has been my decission. I reported it to the ICS-CERT months > ago, I would like to thank the ICS-CERT and the Schneider security team, > they have taken these issues very seriously and are working on a patch. > During the process they have been keeping me updated on every > decission/progress. However, time ago I decided to change my disclosure > policy._

That's a lousy disclosure policy.

<comment><USER9> Playing devil's advocate: As the title says, the vendor included backdoors in the application. I'm not sure I can trust them and their clearly irresponsible development practices to patiently wait for them to handle this on their own.

<comment><USER5> Almost all PLCs have back doors. Just because it uses Ethernet doesn't mean it does anything fancy. Almost all the PLCs I am aware of simply wrap existing RS 232 protocols over IP from the 80s and even earlier. Most of the plants actually seem to want these back doors, because downtime at a production facility is incredibly expensive.

PLCs are not designed to externally accessible, ever. The back doors are completely irrelevant anyway given that the PLC will accept any packet from anywhere, and perform the operation. The RS-232 commands are functions such as "enable bit", "disable bit", "set value", "read value", for actuating inputs and outputs.

<comment><USER2> Someone forgot to tell the water pump engineers that in Illinois</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Samsung, CPSC Say Galaxy Note 7 Owners Should Stop Using Them - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-galaxy-note-7-users-should-stop-using-charging-devices-cpsc-says-1473453757 <comment><USER2> In fact, the lack of replaceable batteries is now becoming a consumer safety issue. Every city has a bomb squad who can isolate and destroy potentially explosive materials. This type of issue can be sorted out much more quickly, and much more safely, by having people turn in flawed lithium batteries to the local bomb squad.

Further, if the batteries were standard sizes then there would likely be replacement batteries readily available with a lower mAh rating that would work just fine, although with a lower lifetime.

In addition, if the batteries were standard sizes and replaceable, we could have a deposit on batteries of a few dollars. If you no longer need it, either turn it or hand it to the next street beggar that you see. Problem solved safely and quickly.

<comment><USER3> I'd appreciate it if someone with expertise can comment on why the market shifted to non-replaceable batteries. I know the suspicion that it's for planned obsolescence, but does someone really know?

My impression is that replaceable batteries limit the shapes, materials and engineering that can be used, reducing capacity while increasing weight and size. For example a replaceable battery must be safely handled by end users, shaped and placed so it can be easily removed, and its connection is limited to something quickly and easily utilized.

<comment><USER4> That's my impression too. I suspect it's mostly a matter of size and weight of the resulting phone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A good argument for having replaceable batteries is that this recall could be done by just sending new batteries to everyone. Now, they have to replace entire devices.

<comment><USER6> Or it would encourage people to keep using the defective battery as a spare or old-age replacement.

For the record, I'm nominally in favor of "replaceable batteries". But I also don't see how having to open a case makes a battery "non-replaceable", either. If I had to choose between easily-replaceable batteries or easier to open cases that didn't use snap-fit, I'd choose the latter.

<comment><USER7> I would note that opening the case in this instance requires high temperatures to soften up the adhesive, and might affect the water resistance of the device after replacement.

In addition to the back panel being glass, the above means that without the proper tools, I would not recommend self-service.

<comment><USER6> Well really I abbreviated my sentence.

... snap-fit, glue, welding, staples, rivets, plastic push-clips, and any other assembly mechanism which undoing causes the device to be structurally damaged, cosmetically damaged, or necessitates buying new non-standard fasteners for each open.

General point is that the battery itself isn't so special compared to opening the rest of the device. Even on my i9500 with a standard "removable battery", the plastic clips which hold on the back cover have started to break off because they must have been designed for 20 insertion cycles. We don't need a "modular smartphone", we simply need assholes to stop "designing" them as if they're disposable.

Self-threading plastic screws aren't bad as long as you always back-thread them when reassembling. Soft thread-lock as used on eg Thinkpads is about the borderline of acceptability, and that's only because if you open your device enough you aren't really worried about a screw loosening over time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is this the battery or charging interface? Was it just a bad USB-C implementation?

<comment><USER9> > Koh Dong-jin, chief of Samsung Electronics' handset division, said on Sept. > 2 that the Galaxy 7 incidents were caused by a flaw in the battery cell and > had nothing to do with the phone itself.

So, the article answers that.

<comment><USER10> Don't know about who you responded to, but wsj is paywalled for me. I can read just a little over 4 lines.

<comment><USER9> There's the web link below the link that is usually pretty reliable for getting through the pay wall. Though I've had it fail a couple times, mostly at work I think.

<comment><USER10> Yeah...the "web" link didn't work from work, and I tried Google manually when I got home. I tend to forget the little tricks, because a paywall article is usually an insta-close. I've got a few friends with Note 7's though, talking big about how it's not going to affect them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's not an uncommon problem, apparently. The Shield tablet from Nvidia had a recall for defective batteries.

</comment><comment><USER12> Never buy the first batch of anything.

<comment><USER13> Same with Software or OSes. always wait for the first revision.

<comment><USER6> For OSes and other software, it's a much simpler "never buy.".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Does anyone have a non-paywall source?

<comment><USER15> Just click the "web" link at the top of this page, then click the article link via the resulting google search - this should get you past the paywall.

<comment><USER16> Why does that work?

<comment><USER17> A lot of sites let in traffic from Google so that their sites will be indexed and rank when people search for them.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Australian Stock Exchange Will Become World's First to Adopt Blockchain - <AUTHOR> https://cointelegraph.com/news/australian-stock-exchange-will-become-worlds-first-to-adopt-blockchain <comment><USER2> Let's see how this goes...</comment>


Booze Makes Comeback in Workplace, With Silicon Valley Twist - Businessweek - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-14/booze-makes-comeback-in-workplace-with-silicon-valley-twist.html <comment><USER2> Not sure how I feel about this, or the "We're All Adults" rationalization. What about the mormon, or the recovering alcoholic? Drinking at work won't put them in danger, but it may make them slightly uncomfortable. I understand a special occasion, or even casual Friday, but anytime, all the time sounds like a bit much.

<comment><USER3> The former will need to deal with it if they want to work for you, and the latter probably won't get hired.

Yes, that's bad to say. Pretend it's the opposite of what'll happen, but that'd just be spreading false information. ;P

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The same thing happened to me with salesforce.com, I ended up paying, basically because they already had my cc# and I didn't want to have to fight. With the credit card company.

</comment><comment><USER5> I feel like the leader board that yelp uses to track how much people are drinking I would think encourages more drinking. Cause you know once you got a leader board you have to become "mayor". I've seen this effect with portable breathalyzers...how drunk can you get!</comment>


Derek Slager – ClojureScript for Skeptics - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsffg5xxFQI <comment><USER2> Derek does a great job of providing a critical overview of ClojureScript, where it's been, and how it can be improved. All while being highly entertaining to watch!</comment>


Why is quicksort better than other sorting algorithms in practice? (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/3/why-is-quicksort-better-than-other-sorting-algorithms-in-practice <comment><USER2> There are annual contests for sorting large amounts of data, e.g.:

[http://sortbenchmark.org/](http://sortbenchmark.org/)

(I could be wrong but I don't think the winners ever used Quicksort.)

<comment><USER3> Big data sorting is a very different problem. At the top level, a merge sort is mandatory, because that's the only algorithm that can be effectively parallelized across N nodes.

<comment><USER4> Weirdly, merge sort might the only sorting algorithm that I learned in school I can actually write without thinking. It's very intuitive and simple, at least to me ?

<comment><USER5> Weird flex: I can implement bogosort in my sleep...

<comment><USER6> I implement cosmic-ray-bit-flip-bogo-sort in every program I write!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are too many different tradeoffs and dimensions to the problem to say that one sorting algorithm is the "best". E.g. quicksort without fallback has a denial of service attack against it.

<comment><USER8> Insertion sort is very interesting: as an online algorithm, it is capable of producing partial results.

<comment><USER9> I think you might mean selection sort, which picks out elements from the original in sorted order one at a time.

Insertion sort has partial results early as well, but they probably wouldn't be as useful, the only thing you could report early would be "here's the sorted order of the first k elements in the list" (as opposed to the first k elements in sorted order from the whole list, that selection sort gives you).

If you really did want online output like that, I think you'd want to look at heapsort instead.

If you compare the worst-case you have O(n) time to prepare the heap (once at the start) and then O(lg n) time to produce each single element of the answer.

Selection sort you'd require O(n) time to produce each element.

Selection sort doesn't win out in average or best case either. The best you could really hope for is it to win on constant factors, but it'd be hard for realistic inputs.

<comment><USER10> I think the poster means you aren't given the completed set. Elements come dribbling in a few at a time. With insertion sort, you're able to say, "this is the sorted list at the time we know it right now." Obviously when you get the next element, you don't have a sorted list anymore; you have a sorted list and one extraneous element. But then you apply insertion sort iteration and have a sorted list again.

<comment><USER9> Ah, yes that's true, good point.

If that is the goal, BST sort might be a good idea as well (put elements into a balanced binary search tree as you receive them). Not _quite_ the same semantics (you don't have an array exactly at each step), but much faster asymptotics and should be able to answer any queries you'd be doing anyway.

<comment><USER10> Yes, exactly.

One thing to keep in mind is that it's surprisingly common for a sorted array to outperform a binary search tree because of cache locality and pointer indirection being slow, even though random inserts into arrays are slow. Especially for small sets or when reads greatly outnumber writes. Boost has flat_map and flat_set for this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Oh my. Comparison sorts are still slower than counting sorts on typical architectures, esp. radix sort. (Coupled with insertion sort of small sizes.)

Or burstsort if the data size is truly huge.

As usual, StackOverflow is missing the forest for the trees.

<comment><USER12> Can you elaborate on why bubble sort is fast on huge dataset?

Also, If counting based sorting algorithm is faster in practice , why we are not seeing more of it in database system?

<comment><USER13> That was burst sort, not bubble sort.

(That said, bubblesort can be fast if the data are usually very close to sorted - one example here is depth-sorting polygons for a rendering engine on a highly constrained platform.)

<comment><USER14> See also: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_sort](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_sort)

Another example application of adaptive sorts is the sweep-and-prune broadphase collision detection algorithm that's somewhat commonly used in physics engines.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> if the input doesn't fit into memory than usually merge sort is better, because it is sequential and we do not need to jump around

<comment><USER16> I had an interesting experience sorting exam papers when I was a TA. I found that quicksort used up too much desk/floor space. I settled on splitting the papers into piles of 10 or so, applying insertion sort on each pile and then pairwise merge sorting them until I had a sorted pile.

<comment><USER9> Bucket sort can be pretty effective physically. An example would be separating the papers by first initial if you're sorting by name (pick whatever matches your sorting key), then sorting each bucket individually (pick whatever seems appropriate, another layer of buckets or just insertion sort for instance). When you've sorted each bucket, you just put the buckets in order, no real merge work needed.

You can adapt what you're doing by how the buckets look (huge bucket? do another layer of bucketing in there. Small bucket? Just sort it) and it's easy to see progress and you can "discard" buckets as you go (put them in one output pile as they're done).

<comment><USER17> In a way, quick sort, radix sort and merge sort are all just recursive versions of bucket sort :-)

* Merge sort: sort within buckets, then between buckets

* Quick sort: sort between buckets, then within buckets.

* Radix sort: can be either depending on whether you sort by most or least significant radix first.

Humans can handle dividing into more than 2 at each stage though, so sorting 100 things with 10 piles of 10 tends to be easier than 7 binary divisions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I checked the Haskell implementation of sort a while ago. Apparently it used to be Quicksort, which has a really elegant recursive implementation in Haskell, but they found that mergesort was actually faster. I wonder if it has anything to do with how a programming language implements lists, or if people just assume QuickSort is the fastest because of threads like these and don't bother trying out alternatives.

<comment><USER19> > they found that mergesort was actually faster. I wonder if it has anything > to do with how a programming language implements lists

It probably also has to do with using a non-in-place quicksort, which is where it really shines. Even more so as you'd implement the low arities using an insertion sort rather than a quicksort, which wouldn't work either for immutable collections.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> *for scar execution.

SIMD and GPGPU record-breaking parallel implementations use radix, bitonic, etc.

<comment><USER21> The thing that always bothers me about these sort tests is that once I got out of college I've hardly ever sorted numbers, either because the data isn't numeric or the API I'm calling does it for me.

I'm sorting text, or I'm sorting dates. Or I'm doing a compound sort, where it's dates, then text, then numbers. It's rare to me to see a benchmark where the compare() operation is accounted for. It is not difficult at all for the complexity of the compare() operation to trend toward log(n), causing an algorithm with a tighter upper bound on number of comparisons but high constant overhead to perform better.

I presume we can vectorize string comparisons at this point? How would we handle compound sorts with SIMD operations?

<comment><USER10> Or if I am actually sorting stuff, I'm using the sort provided by the standard library. I don't think I've ever implemented a sort outside of an academic context. Used them plenty of times, but I couldn't imagine not using the standard library.

Schools talk about sorting algorithms because it's instructive, not because they're important problems. You can explain the problem in thirty seconds, and even if you explain it badly, everyone will have an intuitive understanding of the problem.

Then you can show students intuitive algorithms of insertion sort and selection sort and they'll understand the algorithm.

Then you time it. Then you show them weird non intuitive algorithms like heap sort or quicksort and show that they're a ton faster. Not a lot faster, but like way way way faster.

Then your students understand they'll need to carefully consider their algorithms and all the ramifications moving forward.

If you start a CS101 student with a hard algorithms problem they'll switch majors. And that will be your fault for being a shitty teacher, not their fault for being lazy or dumb.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Because it is available in almost every standard library?

In most cases developers don't care for the worst case because they either have no idea what you are talking about or, if they actually understand the problem, they try to ensure they don't need to sort arbitrary amount of user- controllable data.

<comment><USER23> Libc qsort() isn't quicksort in several of the popular libc implementations. For example, it's (usually) a merge sort in glibc. [http://calmerthanyouare.org/2013/05/31/qsort- shootout.html](http://calmerthanyouare.org/2013/05/31/qsort-shootout.html)

<comment><USER24> Interesting. The man page just says "sort an array". [https://linux.die.net/man/3/qsort](https://linux.die.net/man/3/qsort)

<comment> mark-r Exactly. As long as you get the proper results within reasonable time and memory constraints, why should you care exactly which algorithm is used?

<comment><USER25> Maybe it's interesting to know what qsort does under the hood? Maybe you don't know what qsort's time and memory constraints are unless you know the underlying algorithim.

Obviously the sorting algorithim you use matters, so this post has some theoretical value.

<comment> mark-r Certainly it matters, but I'd expect a library implementation to have more research applied to it than I can do on my own.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Real Entrepreneur | What defines one? - <AUTHOR> http://thestartupcentre.posterous.com/the-real-entrepreneur

<comment><USER2> I often see the line between 'the next Google' and entrepreneur blurred here. Entrepreneur means you started something and you are taking the risks for it. If you make $500 or $5 billion with your company, doesn't make you less of a 'real entrepreneur'. If $500, in your country, is enough to pay everything and save money, that can make you a successful entrepreneur. This blogpost seems to be talking about the kind of disruptive, big and brass entrepreneurs again, while most entrepreneurs don't even _want_ to be that. Those things are, indeed, 1 in a million. Just making enough to buy a sports car, big house and live a very comfortable life; not 1 in a million. Just hard work and not making too stupid mistakes.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like what he says very much. Perhaps his title is a bit incendiary, but the principles he writes on are very lucid, and I found myself thinking hard about them. Excellent read.

<comment><AUTHOR> Appreciate the kind words.

Took your suggestion to heart. No theatrics, sticking to the crux of the topic now. Edited accordingly :)

Update: The title read before "The Real Entrepreneur | Why most are simply Fake"</comment></comment>


Netflix ends AirPlay support in an ongoing souring of its Apple relationship - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/netflix-ends-airplay-support-on-ios-in-an-ongoing-souring-of-its-apple-relationship/ <comment><USER2> Netflix has been using anti-consumer dark patterns for years. I avoid their app now, since it forces trailers in your face on the main menu. If they want to further sabotage their own presence on Apple devices, that's fine with me. It'll give their competitors an opportunity.

<comment><USER3> Isn't Apple introducing the same autoplay-trailers to their devices once Apple TV+ launches? I found this from MG Siegler:

"Trailers also now seem to autoplay inline, just like on Netflix, which many people — including people I'm married to — hate with a passion. Good luck with that, Apple."

[https://500ish.com/apple-unveils-the- ifawn-11c00912a686](https://500ish.com/apple-unveils-the-ifawn-11c00912a686)

<comment><USER2> Well, then perhaps I won't be getting Apple TV+. It's also possible that Apple will be more receptive to people's public hatred than Netflix has been:

[https://kotaku.com/netflix-s-auto-playing-trailers-are- just-...](https://kotaku.com/netflix-s-auto-playing-trailers-are-just-the- worst-1824082796)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Netflix does not have access to information about the device to which a user is streaming ... not having this information means it can't certify the target device to ensure a quality experience."

That's seriously the best excuse they could come up with?

<comment><USER5> This is industry code for "AirPlay receivers don't provide enough information ensure DRM is respected."

<comment><USER4> Worse– it sounds to me like PR-speak for "3rd party TVs are adopting AirPlay, and we can't collect telemetry about the device that users are streaming to."</comment></comment></comment>


Ten Years of Nokia N900 - <AUTHOR> https://postmarketos.org/blog/2019/11/01/ten-years-of-nokia-n900/ <comment><USER2> That would be the first phone running pmos with targeted "10 year life-cycle for smartphones"</comment>


Coca-Cola introduces new caps to re-purpose bottles [video]  - <AUTHOR> http://youtube.com/watch?v=rWgCQgzJOU4

<comment><USER2> Several similar items can be found on Thingiverse by searching for "bottles". I ran across a watering spout, a dumbbell attachment, and a sprayer.</comment>


Show HN: social news prototype for the publisher wanna be - <AUTHOR> http://f5ne.ws/

<comment><AUTHOR> Any feedback would be nice. We want to make something great and useful so criticism is welcome. We know some of the weak spots already but want people to show us all of them by using it.

Any suggestions, tweaks or ideas would be very welcome to.</comment>


Essentials of Metaheuristics (2015) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/Essentials.pdf <comment><USER2> Parent page with metadata: [https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/](https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/)

(Please don't link to PDFs where a sensible parent html page exists. We can click from html to pdf but not vice-versa.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, my book got posted to HN.

<comment><USER4> I feel like your book gets posted to HN every other year. My girlfriend is using it for one of her graduate OR classes at GMU.

Edit: I think they may be using a different metaheuristics text.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I bought a physical copy of this book through Lulu about a year ago; it presents some really neat algorithms and ideas. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to apply any of them to any real problems. That said, they seem like the kind of algorithms that, by having them in your back-pocket, would allow you to solve seemingly unsolvable problems.

I've been thinking about applying some of the algorithms to procedural content generation for a toy game that I've been working on. Specifically tweaking knobs and evaluating quality.

<comment><USER6> If you find this area fascinating, and I do, I can't recommend this cousera course enough: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/discrete- optimization](https://www.coursera.org/learn/discrete-optimization)

<comment><USER7> +1 Fantastic course.</comment></comment></comment>


How do you do marketing with no money? - <AUTHOR> https://www.groovehq.com/blog/friday-qa-february-17-2017 <comment><USER2> Twitter is a great way to get targeted traffic, but it takes work. You need to find users that are interested and interact with them.

I was able to get 5000 signups in a month for a product I was releasing. The product never really came to fruition (problems with my co-founder).

But, the marketing strategy still worked pretty well.</comment>


Grep your js objects - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/begriffs/objgrep

<comment><USER2> A small thing: If you are targeting Chrome, or modern browsers in general, use

      Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'grep', {
        enumerable: false,
        value: /* ... */
      });

rather than

      Object.prototype.grep = /* ... */

This way, your 'grep' does not pollute for () loops.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed.

Great suggestion, thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Wouldn't it be better if the return is just a list of either the result (in the case that the value of a KV pair matches), or a reference to the result (in the case that the key of a KV pair matches)?

</comment><comment><USER4> I would like something like this for getting fields/values from nested Go structs.

Does something like that already exist, or will I have to write it?

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks cool. It should be straightforward to make it avoid cycles itself, and default to infinite depth, which feels like a better default than 5.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually it does mark visited objects to avoid cycles in its search. The default depth limit prevents it from taking too long on huge dom objects, but the choice of an arbitrary depth limit (of 5) does seem kind of gross. I'm open to suggestions for improvement.

<comment><USER5> Oh cool. The readme (at the very bottom) makes it appear like it doesn't mark visited objects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6>
                if (i.match(/^[$A-Z_][0-9A-Z_$]*$/i)) {

broken

<comment><AUTHOR> You're saying it is too simple of a regex to reliably match well-behaved js identifiers? Or is it broken in another way as well?

What would you suggest as a better test?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> this will be very useful when trying to reverse engineer something :).

</comment><comment><USER8> nice use of jabberwocky - I think I'll switch my lorem ipsum to that.</comment>


How do I open a TCP port on a Ubuntu physical machine (host) for a Win virtual machine (guest)? - <AUTHOR> http://roxority.posterous.com/how-do-i-open-a-tcp-port-on-a

<comment><USER2> To figure out what's going on, you can check the iptables for any firewalling with the command iptables -L -v

And ports that are listening for incoming connections with netstat -ltp

For example, it might be that you're listening for connections on a different interface (ip address) than the virtualised machine is connecting to.</comment>


Google Ads Boss: 'We Need to Deal With' Ad Blocking as an Industry - <AUTHOR> http://recode.net/2015/09/30/google-ads-boss-sridhar-ramaswamy-svp-ad-blocking-apple-ios/ <comment><USER2> You can't talk about ads without also talking about _trackers_ these days. So what are their plans on that? EFF's new DNT policies sounded pretty good. Are they going to adopt those, too, for "Acceptable Ads" policies?

[https://www.eff.org/pages/understanding-effs-do-not-track- po...](https://www.eff.org/pages/understanding-effs-do-not-track-policy- universal-opt-out-tracking)

[https://www.eff.org/dnt-policy](https://www.eff.org/dnt-policy)

<comment><USER3> They need to address this. I hope Google doesn't feel that blocking trackers is like "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".</comment></comment>


Scientists find how magic mushrooms alter the mind - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/03/health-magicmushrooms-idINL6N0PE2L220140703

<comment><AUTHOR> Link to research article in the journal Human Brain Mapping: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/hbm.2256...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/hbm.22562/)</comment>


An Asynchronous Image Uploading Interface for Svbtle - <AUTHOR> http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/svbtle-image-uploading

<comment><USER2> I'm using the Svbtle WordPress theme on my blog @ <http://lylemckeany.com>.

It's been great. Was simple to install and it's simple to use. Plus I can use the regular WP dashboard to deal with photos and things like that.

You can get it on Github here: <https://github.com/gravityonmars/wp-svbtle>

</comment><comment><USER3> That's all fine and dandy until you start caring about IE support. Even in IE9 the support isn't there. So while the "mask a file input && target a hidden iframe" is pretty archaic, it is (surprisingly) robust, and not too hard to implement.

[Note] compatibility data from: (<http://caniuse.com/fileapi>)

<comment><USER4> Haha, you have a valid point, but how many authors using the svbtle platform are using IE at all? Svbtle is totally an author/editor feelgood platform.

<comment><USER3> Oh totally! The implementation I wrote recently is part of an app that still needs to support a non-negligible number or IE users, hence the "bias".

<comment><USER4> For sure, you totally hit the nail on the head - the solution presented for svbtle is not an optimal choice for a production, user-facing web application.

<comment><USER5> I find this jarring. Web development is all about bending over backwards for the different systems in place. Here we have an article on how they achieved a nice minimal process for uploading images for a closed system nobody will be able to use (to protect the image they're not releasing the system yet aren't they?).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Totally off topic, but I'm absolutely in love with the Svbtle design. Does anybody know who the designer behind it is?

<comment><USER4> I believe Dustin Curtis is the author: <http://dcurt.is/codename-svbtle/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Out of curiosity, does that screenshot represent the regular editing interface? For something that's supposed to focus on the content, the huge black and color buttons at the bottom seem pretty distracting.

<comment><USER8> This is why my ideal solution for pretty much everything would be being able to publish directly from Byword.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> How does the author control where this image appears? If there's no visual confirmation/representation, how can they be sure they put it in the right place? Are they inline? Some controls will be needed.

<comment><USER10> "Finally we're inserting the image markdown tags into the page using the insertAtCaret() function. This too is a custom jQuery plugin called jquery.insert.js. It'll make sure that any text inserted is placed after the blinking caret."

Looks like it shows up wherever your cursor is

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I don't know if it's irony, but the images aren't loading. heh. (edit: working now, nevermind)</comment>


Ask HN: What salary would you pay me? - <AUTHOR> After one year at company X (a Bay Area late-stage startup) I believe I deserve a promotion. I'm currently a Senior Research Engineer, and requested a 10% pay increase. The CEO of X agrees that I've been exceeding expectations, but she says she needs data to justify this raise to the board, and keeps pointing to sites like glassdoor and linkedin to say that I'm currently at the correct pay-grade for my years of experience (four + masters deg). Yet my argument is we that should be more subjective: I am worth more to company X than my compensation reflects. What should I do? <comment><USER2> So their counter to your 10% ask was 0? I'd expect them to offer some bump just to appease you.

Sounds like it's time for you to test the market -- if it's easy for you to get 10% more than you make now doing the same thing, you can tell them that when you quit.

</comment><comment><USER3> Find another job that pays 10% more, quit and tell her she now has the data :)</comment>


Web design is dead - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2015/07/06/why-web-design-dead/ <comment><USER2> I would love to see a return to simple designs where the majority of kB come from content vs ads, tracking, advanced 'design' that's annoying.

</comment><comment><USER3> Note: this article is from July 2015.

</comment><comment><USER4> Trash article.

Points 1-5 are plain idiotic.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it ridiculous to want to create more privilege for yourself? - <AUTHOR> I graduated a few years ago and I have a few years of professional experience already. But it's not in a really good place and I self-taught my way in.
Schools that historically sent a lot of students to internship and new grad seats at great companies to work for will continue to do so because there's an element of "institutional knowledge" built up over the years and a reciprocal relationship with these companies through the representation of alumni.
Not a huge problem in itself but it sort of implicitly makes the lives of people who exist out of this feedback loop harder in terms of getting a "top job" straight out of college. Many of which didn't even know that any of this interplay existed and just chose to go to a decent school nearby or couldn't afford to move out. Reasons that would be innocuous, but result in sub-optimal treatment for those that don't clue themselves in well enough.
It is for this reason that I've made a personal goal for myself go to a better college to get internships on my resume and become as privileged as possible.
I know I can get into a better job without needing to go back to school, but I still won't have had the more "privileged" college experience. Is that ridiculous to think about retroactively changing parts of your life? After all, we have only one life to live (that we know of) so I believe it's everyone's right to go nuts and craft the best damn narrative you can for your life and be whoever you want, not just professionally but academically and privilege-wise too. <comment><USER2> I think there's nothing wrong with that.

As long as you don't ruin your life (debt or overwork) because of it then self-built priviliege is definitely worth it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Almost everyone wants to create more privilege for themselves, the problem is not admitting when that privilege is obtained at the expense of others.

<comment><USER4> It need not be obtained at the expense of others if you ethically source everything.</comment></comment>


Apple puts unlocked iPhone on sale in Hong Kong - $692-$794 - <AUTHOR> http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/09/25/unlocked.hong.kong.iphone

<comment><USER2> South Africa has this as well. It's R6500 ($804) for the 8GB and R7600 ($940) for the 16GB</comment>


Interview with James Simons [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNznD9hMEh0

<comment><USER2> Really nice interview.</comment>


Elon Musk's New Boring Co. Faced Questions Over SpaceX Financial Ties - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-new-boring-co-faced-questions-over-spacex-financial-ties-11545078371 <comment><USER2> Whoa. So he's diverting employees and equipment from investor backed SpaceX, to a side venture where he owns _90%_ of the equity?

This is sketchy fiduciary duty. Right up there when he bailed out his brother's SolarCity by having Tesla buy it because every car manufacture needs to get into the rooftop solar business.

<comment><USER3> You're being voted down by the Tesla brigade, but you are absolutely right. Given the de minimis SpaceX equity in BoringCo, Musk's use of SpaceX resources without compensation by BoringCo is a flagrant violation of his fiduciary duties to SpaceX's investors.

That's why it's been so important to him to keep his boards stocked with friends and family--an actual corporate board of directors would have sent him to the curb long ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Could this be tunneling? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_(fraud)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_\(fraud\))

</comment><comment><USER5> The Boring Company is on really shaky ground after the entrance cave in back on Dec 5th and construction setbacks. It'll be interesting to see if they survive, they're still in live or die startup mode.

<comment><USER6> _The Boring Company is on really shaky ground after the entrance cave in back on Dec 5th and construction setbacks_

I didn't hear of any cave in, and googling results in nothing. Care to explain what you're talking about?

<comment><USER5> Its remained relatively hush hush, but the entrance to the tunnel (not the tunnel itself) experienced some damage from a cave in, delaying the December 10th public opening: [https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-pushes-back-opening- of-b...](https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-pushes-back-opening-of-boring- companys-la-tunnel/)

Presumably everything else is on track, but when it comes to geotechnical engineering, stabilizing earth is challenging, and the engineers appear to want to wait more than 3 or 4 days after the cave-in to see if their method of stabilization (whether they used these neat ground screws, thicker walls, or a pairing) is stable and ready for non-employees to be near.

<comment><USER6> _Its remained relatively hush hush, but the entrance to the tunnel (not the tunnel itself) experienced some damage from a cave in, delaying the December 10th public opening:_ [https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-pushes-back- opening-of-b...](https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-pushes-back-opening-of- boring-companys-la-tunnel/)

That article mentions absolutely nothing about a cave in. I wasn't disputing the delay thing (definitely an issue with any project of Musk's), but claiming that there was a cave in requires a legitimate source.

<comment><USER6> I did more research and still came up blank - I saw a number of headlines talking about "boring company caves in" \- but they use it as a metaphor for them abandoning plans to extend the tunnel significantly. Not an actual cave in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm glad SpaceX is private. There are legitimate concerns here but let the man build his tunnels!

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm somewhat horrified by the constant struggles Musk's companies have with ethics.

Why is there a cult following when fraud and employee abuse is common?

<comment><USER9> Because there have not been any serious reports of fraud and abuse, and the things he built are so important for the future of humanity, that even much more serious accusations won't change the total balance to a negative for Musk.

<comment><USER3> There have been dozens of articles detailing fraud and abuse at Tesla, quite a few articles about Boring Co's liberties with the truth and its outright lies to the people in the neighborhood where the tunnel is being built. SolarCity's financials were so bad they went through multiple auditing firms before they found one that would sign off on them.

All in all, Musk's companies have an above-average incidence of ethics- and truth-related issues.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I mean, its pretty clear he's building all the tech to colonize Mars. Boring is an important part of that.

<comment><USER11> Indeed. Underground construction is the most effective way to protect against environmental concerns like meteor strikes and radiation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> On the topic of The Boring Company, is anyone else going to the tunnel unveil event tomorrow?

</comment><comment><USER13> Wait until Boring Co is bought by another Musk company like Musk did last time with that failing solar company.

</comment><comment><USER14> Isnt it a subsidiary of SpaceX though?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nearly $113M raised, wsj article says it owns only 6%

[https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/16/elon-musks-boring-co- raise...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/16/elon-musks-boring-co- raises-113-million-to-chase-a-pipe-dream/)

[https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737630/000173763018...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737630/000173763018000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> un-paywall [https://outline.com/RcMRDF](https://outline.com/RcMRDF)

</comment><comment><USER16> I really believe Tesla, Boring and SpaceX is part of a grand strategy that will give Musk almost insurmountable moat.

<comment><USER2> Serious question. Do you mean like a physical barrier? Similar to absconding to New Zealand when SHTF and it's TEOTWAWKI? In a very real sense, Mars is the ultimate gated community.

See also [https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand- doo...](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand-doomsday- preppers/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's not like Musk hasn't openly stated that the whole purpose of SpaceX is Martian colonisation.

What do they think The Boring Company is really for? And Tesla, and Solar City for that matter.

Perhaps if they aren't smart enough to connect the dots they aren't smart enough to be investing in high risk private companies.

<comment><USER3> _What do they think The Boring Company is really for? And Tesla, and Solar City for that matter._

Uh huh. Sure it is. That would explain why Solar City has thus far failed to account for the significantly reduced amount of solar energy that reaches Mars. Solar cells can't charge EVs fast enough _on Earth_. With the same panel area, it would take most of a Martian year to charge a single EV _on Mars._

But as with the hyperloop, Musk has done a great job of getting people to fall for his half-assed fantasies. Somehow though, whenever you actually try to look into his ideas with more scrutiny, they always fall apart like a house of cards.

<comment><USER6> _That would explain why Solar City has thus far failed to account for the significantly reduced amount of solar energy that reaches Mars. Solar cells can 't charge EVs fast enough on Earth. With the same panel area, it would take most of a Martian year to charge a single EV on Mars._

What are you talking about? Solar can charge an electric car just fine. Take desired charge rate in kW, divide by nameplate power output of panel, and that's how many panels you need. If you live somewhere with constraints on solar input (eg reduction due to clouds, distance from sun, or night) then you can increase the panel amount, maybe add some stationary batteries to timeshift the input.

Edit: not meant as a personal attack at all, but noticed your other comments around the thread are loose enough with the facts. Musk could learn a thing or two :)

<comment><USER18> Your edit is very rude. If you're going to call him out, you should at least take the time to give an example.

<comment><USER6> Their profile says they don't read comment threads after 4 hours, so I didn't think they will see. But my mention of "being loose with the facts" and "Musk could learn a thing or two" was referring to another post of theirs where they said:

 _There have been [...] quite a few articles about Boring Co 's liberties with the truth and its outright lies to the people in the neighborhood where the tunnel is being built_ \- [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18704761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18704761)

I thought this was, itself, misleading - I follow the Boring Co pretty closely, and I only saw one negative article re: the local neighbourhood around the test tunnel - and said article was mostly raising the plight of the locals with the airport/highway/industrial activity in the area. The Boring Company was only attacked as a bit of a bogeyman.

Combine that with this sentence in their original post, which I did already call out for being flagrantly misleading:

 _Solar cells can 't charge EVs fast enough on Earth. With the same panel area, it would take most of a Martian year to charge a single EV on Mars_

The only way I can see that being true is if it's talking only about solar cells on the roof of the vehicle (which no one technically minded should expect to power a car).

<comment><USER3> [https://blog.pickmysolar.com/how-many-solar-panels-does- it-t...](https://blog.pickmysolar.com/how-many-solar-panels-does-it-take-to- fuel-an-electric-car)

From a pro-Tesla site. It would take 75 solar panels to charge a single Tesla in a day. Max theoretical efficiency on Mars is roughly 1/15th of Earth norm, not taking into account Martian weather, and assuming you are always somehow directly facing the sun the entire Martian day. Take weather and the day-night cycle into account, and it takes about a Martian year to charge one Tesla.

Google is your friend. A single search on Boring Co shows at least a dozen articles about their misrepresentative claims, so I assume the Google personalization filter is effecting both of our search results.

<comment><USER6> Hey, thanks for the detailed response. My original post was calling out your original point: " _Solar cells can 't charge EVs fast enough on Earth_". It seems you now agree with me:

" _It would take 75 solar panels to charge a single Tesla in a day._ "

So indeed, you can charge EVs with solar panels, you just need more. 75x250W panels can charge a 75kWh model S in one day, on average (equals 135000km/year). Such panels are available at consumer prices of $1/watt including charge controller, so ~$20,000 would buy me the panels I need to fully charge my car daily (4 times as much as I need).

 _Max theoretical efficiency on Mars is roughly 1 /15th of Earth norm, not taking into account Martian weather, and assuming you are always somehow directly facing the sun the entire Martian day._

These variables (martian weather, facing the sun) are similar to the issues faced on earth with solar panels. And the solutions are the same on mars as on earth: increase panels (aka overprovide) and include power storage, or include an alternate power generation system. Ideally both. Where the weather can have longer impacts (eg dust storms), an alternative power gen system (i.e. nuclear) is likely better from a launch mass point of view, but that isn't clear without doing the detailed math on it. That's before even getting into details on how different a vehicle on another planetary body would be (eg the lunar rovers had an 8.5kWh batteries and lasted multiple days - lack of atmosphere and lower speeds and mass make a car much more efficient)

 _Take weather and the day-night cycle into account, and it takes about a Martian year to charge one Tesla._

(or half a year if you double the panels, or a day if you have 365x the number of panels, or....)

 _A single search on Boring Co shows at least a dozen articles about their misrepresentative claims_

If by "misrepresentative claims" you mean missed deadlines and abandoned ideas - I'd agree with that. Tunnel opening delayed, further extension of test tunnel dropped in favour of full network at undefined future date. But that's par for the course with everything SpaceX has done (eg Falcon Heavy delayed 6 years, Dragon Crew delayed years, BFR changing plans every time it's talked about), and shouldn't be even a bit of a surprise for anyone who follows Musk. As a member of the public who couldn't invest in SpaceX or the Boring Co even if I want to, those things really don't affect me in any way - the goals remain the same, and the progress remains ...progressive.

 _I assume the Google personalization filter is effecting both of our search results._

Agreed.

<comment><USER3> We don't agree, but that's probably because I left some assumptions implicit in my earlier comment.

At an average size of 65x39 inches, 75 panels is more panels than most residential properties can fit; you would either need a mansion or a commercial-sized property. I should have been clearer on this, but assuming the number of panels that the average house can support (5-10), you're looking at a week or two to charge an EV by solar panel at the typical Southwest residence (longer, outside of the Southwest). Assuming the same solar panel area on Mars gets you to the Martian year.

As for Boring Co, I'm not referring to the missed deadlines, but to their claims that they wouldn't be tunneling under people's properties, and that it wasn't a backdoor attempt to avoid environmental review, and their liberties with capacity numbers, costs, and numerous other claims they've made in their short corporate lifespan.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>