Surrender fiscal sovereignty in return for bailout, Merkel tells Tsipras - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/12/greek-crisis-surrender-fiscal-sovereignty-in-return-for-bailout-merkel-tells-tsipras <comment><USER2> As Thomas Piketty pointed out, 60% of German debt was cancelled in 1953. ([http://thewire.in/?p=5851](http://thewire.in/?p=5851)) France defaulted on its debts after the Napoleonic wars. The United Kingdom defaulted in 1932. Apart from Greece's inability to inflate its way out of debt, how is this any different?

<comment><USER3> > Apart from Greece's inability to inflate its way out of debt, how is this > any different?

The debt forgiveness because of the London Debt Agreement amounted to about 11% of West Germany's 1953 GDP. Most of West Germany's public debt was internal and was wiped out by the currency reform in 1948 (which meant that West German savings took a 93.5% haircut) [1].

Germany has to be thankful to the Allies for imposing only very light sanctions after WW2; but debt forgiveness didn't play much of a role in Germany's recovery.

I.e. there is a strong moral argument that you can make, especially given that Greece largely waived WW2 reparations, but the economic situation isn't the same.

[1] Also, East Germany wasn't as lucky and got hit hard by reparations.

<comment><USER4> Why should they be "thankful"? I'm wary of this attitude. Isn't defeat and the brutal horror of war (especially that war) sanction enough? Not trying to be smart here, genuine question.

Did not know the numbers though, thanks. The situations aren't as alike it seems as people (myself included) are making it out to be. But they're not completely unalike and people remember history ...

<comment><USER3> Sorry, I meant to write reparations, not sanctions. Reparations to help restore the economies of those countries that the Third Reich had looted and pillaged and left in ruins.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Krugman's opinion:

[http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/killing-the- euro...](http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/killing-the-european- project/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Fiscal sovereignty was already surrendered when the adopted the Euro in the first place.

<comment><USER6> Was it? Not technically, I think; monetary policy was surrendered, not fiscal policy. Unless you're making a comment about how there can't be sane monetary policy without matching fiscal policy, in which case, carry on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It should never have come to this. They have commendable ideals but Tsipras and Varoufakis, and activist and an academic, were the wrong people at the wrong time. What the Greeks needed was old-school politicians who have played the game for years.

In an ideal world people would all work together for the common good, but in politics it's every person for themselves, and it's naive to think anything else.

Using mainstream media and social media to constantly attack the people on the other side of the negotiating won over their voters, the Greek people, and the left in Europe, but ultimately has only served to anger their creditors (the politicians and those who voted the politicians in).

</comment><comment><USER8> It's the same demand the Euro-elite are making to every other member of the 28 states. It's not that the offer is a bad one, it's just that it's not democratically done, not openly done, and we fucked them over for five years before this whole thing started.

That said fiscal Union is probably a good move.

<comment><USER4> I couldn't agree more. Very succinctly put.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> A lot of people are comparing this to the German writedown, which in someways is both apt and not apt. Its also important to note that there are no easy paths out of this - money is not invented from nowhere.

The Germans took a horrific beating at the end of World War II - whole cities (Dresden et al) were literally burned completely to the ground at the hand's of the creditor's planes.

While it was the German people's fault to some extent, they were also realistically under a dictatorship when it happened and that had to be taken into account (not everyone or even a majority of people were in favor of the war).

This is the same logic that applied during the first two Greek bailouts (and the 60% haircut the debt has already taken in the private sector) - the Greek people were mislead as to the fiscal state of their country and deserved some faith and leniency.

However, after that, they have done very little to improve the fiscal structure in their company. EVEN WITHOUT ANY DEBT PAYMENTS, the country still is running a deficit because they are way over generous on their pensions, have way too many people working in government, and have a continuing rampant tax collection problem.

This has gone on for 5 years since the start of the crisis and they haven't fixed it (or even close), and by not fixing it, have made the problem way worse.

This needs to change now. They have proven they are not able to do it themselves, it threatens the whole currency, and therefore, like receivership for a bankrupt company, they need to have an external actor come in and do it for them.

Or default and leave the currency. (Which is in my opinion what they should do.)

This is not pretty - but that's reality - and the Greek people have earned it at this point by not electing leaders that have put them on a path to a sustainable fiscal budget.

There is a lesson in there for all of us.

EDIT: And there comes the predictable vote downs. I am honestly not anti- Greek, just trying to summarize the situation as someone with an economics background.

EDIT2: This is also not "just the Germans" \- there is also substantial baltic opposition to bailing out Greece without reforms happening first:

[http://www.ekathimerini.com/199040/article/ekathimerini/news...](http://www.ekathimerini.com/199040/article/ekathimerini/news/eurozones- poorer-nations-take-hard-line-on-greece)

<comment><USER10> _" However, after that, they have done very little to improve the fiscal structure in their company. EVEN WITHOUT ANY DEBT PAYMENTS, the country still is running a deficit because they are way over generous on their pensions, have way too many people working in government, and have a continuing rampant tax collection problem."_

You know that the greek government was running a _surplus_ as recently as 2013, right?

Most of the "bailout" money never went to Greece -- it went straight to their creditors. Greece definitely borrowed too much, but it's just factually incorrect to say that they haven't improved their fiscal structure.

<comment><USER9> This is one of the key issues with just issuing more debt to "solve the issue" \- paying the right hand with the left hand doesn't solve anything. The reason the money went back to the creditor country is that the interest payments were due and they did this to "kick the can" down the road on how sustainable those payments were.

The can is down the road now and just throwing more money to Greece isn't going to solve anything. Honestly, I think Greece should just flip the bird to Europe and walk away from the debt. They should reintroduce their currency. They won't be able to get more than humanitarian assistance but this will give them the internal political will to balance their budget.

Re: Surplus: Here is the data I am working off of:

[http://www.tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2macro- eu-g...](http://www.tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2macro-eu- greece3.png)

No surpluses or even close - send a reference if you have different data - genuinely curious.

<comment><USER4> Oh come on.

        https://duckduckgo.com/?q=greece+surplus

(1st hit) NY Times: "Greece Has a Budget Surplus, a Respite That Could Be Shortlived"

(2nd hit) Reuters: "Greece sees 2015 budget surplus close to bailout target: report"

and so on ...

<comment><USER11> Greece had achieved _primary surplus_ , which means surplus before paying interest on debts is accounted for.

[http://www.merkfunds.com/currency-asset- class/glossary/prima...](http://www.merkfunds.com/currency-asset- class/glossary/primary-surplus.html)

<comment><USER12> Yes, and timr was replying to this:

> EVEN WITHOUT ANY DEBT PAYMENTS, the country still is running a deficit > because they are way over generous on their pensions,

So clearly primary surplus is relevant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> How is this philosophically different from demanding that your drunk friend (who, you know has always been a bit of a fuck up) surrender his car keys? He already has been to rehab a few times and, if you let him, he's gonna destroy a lot more than just his car.

In both cases, it is reasonable given the immediate circumstances. That said, you knew this would happen and you enabled him, so you're still an asshole.

<comment><USER14> As long as people continue this Greeks are reckless good for nothings myth it is going to be hard to find solutions.

<comment><USER15> Don't try to turn this into an argument about racism. There is something fundamentally, deeply broken with the Greek economy:

[http://www.lapasserelle.com/billets/greece_GDP_growth.jpg](http://www.lapasserelle.com/billets/greece_GDP_growth.jpg)

No-one with any sense is trying to make this about "Greeks". But there is clearly something wrong with politics and economics in Greece.

<comment><USER16> > There is something fundamentally, deeply broken with the Greek economy

The current growth rate is a result of austerity, not a bizarre retroactive justification for it.

<comment><USER15> I think you're conflating two different issues:

a) the Greek economy is currently in debt with no realistic way of repaying it in the short term, and

b) Greek politicians have adopted a socialist-minded Keynesian tinkering- around-the-edges that has somehow been named 'austerity'.

The root cause of a), and then the body politic adopting b), is broken economic culture:

[https://mises.org/library/greece%E2%80%99s-biggest- problem-i...](https://mises.org/library/greece%E2%80%99s-biggest-problem-its- anti-capitalist-culture)

"And so it is with Greece. After already securing debt relief and effectively being allowed to default by restructuring its debts over the next fifty years at subsidized interest rates — and after actually achieving economic growth in 2014 by cutting taxes and slashing the size of its sclerotic, bloated government — this toxic Greek culture prevailed once more and elected a team of socialist die-hards to drag it back into the mire. Of course it doesn't help that on the other side of the negotiating table is another bunch of central planners in the EU, IMF, and ECB. Nevertheless, Greece sits stuck between two central planning negotiation parties because its people have been too busy demanding goodies instead of freedom."</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Meebo reveals javascript performance secrets - <AUTHOR> http://blog.meebo.com/?p=2589 "All of these techniques come together in the next version of the Meebo Bar, making it the best performing and most technically advanced version of the bar yet." <comment><USER2> Useful to examine this comment:

<http://blog.meebo.com/?p=2589#comment-1142969>

which points to this (older) "devblog" entry having some actual detail:

<http://blog.meebo.com/?p=2320>

Here's the front page for the "devblog" category.

<http://blog.meebo.com/?cat=13>

Unfortunately, while p=2320 says it's part 1 of 3, I don't see parts 2 nor 3 under that category; they appear to not exist (yet).

EDIT: Here's the mentioned presentation, as an unembedded YouTube URL:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SUFLFu3HI></comment>


Facebook Cookie Killer - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bgonpegbhnjepleakgjdbaepkfedhhnf

<comment><USER2> FYI: According to one reviewer of the extension, the extension itself includes Google Analytics tracking code. I haven't verified it myself (or maybe it's automatic for all Chrome extensions ... I don't know how those work).

<comment><AUTHOR> It does include Google Analytics, but that just tracks usage of the extension, not a user's every move across the web.</comment></comment>


Loci: A C++-like systems programming language - <AUTHOR> http://loci-lang.org <comment><AUTHOR> Found this the other day, and wanted to share. Source is here: [https://github.com/scross99/locic](https://github.com/scross99/locic). Pleasantly readable and surprisingly compact given that it implements polymorphism, templates, modules, etc, as well as code generation to LLVM.

What I think is particularly need is making lvalues and rvalues explicit constructs in the language: [http://loci- lang.org/LvaluesAndRvalues.html](http://loci-lang.org/LvaluesAndRvalues.html), as well as being able to redefine the behavior of certain implicit operations relating to copies and moves: [http://loci- lang.org/ImplicitOperations.html](http://loci- lang.org/ImplicitOperations.html).

<comment><USER2> That parser is something: [https://github.com/scross99/locic/blob/master/lib/Parser/Par...](https://github.com/scross99/locic/blob/master/lib/Parser/Parser.y)

<comment><USER3> It really is! I wonder why they didn't specify the namespaces they were using instead of littering it with namespace and scope operators?

<comment><USER4> The intention is to avoid any kind of name clashes; I don't think this really inhibits readability.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like this language because it doesn't try to do anything too fancy. It's "just" a streamlined C++.

I do wonder how they're planning on avoiding overhead with the garbage collector, though. Once you have a single garbage collected object on your heap, it seems like you'd have to start scanning the whole thing to make sure the garbage collected object is still alive.

<comment><AUTHOR> The overhead of GC is independent of heap size. Take the following variables:

        L = total size of live objects in heap
        H = maximum size of heap
        P = time between collections
        R_a = rate of allocation
        R_s = rate of heap scanning

It's easy to define P and R_s (assume a mark-sweep collector so we can ignore copy reserve):

        P = (H - L) / R_a
        R_s = L / P

Substitute and simplify:

        R_s = L / ((H - L) / R_a)
        R_s = L / (H - L) * R_a

In other words, _it doesn 't matter how big your heap is._ If you make your heap twice the live size, the amount of heap scanning you do will always be equal to your allocation rate times some constant. If H = 2L, that constant is 1.

So the way to improve performance is to cut down on that allocation rate. If you use RAII for most objects, and GC only occasionally, your allocation rate, net of non-GC allocations, will be very low, which means your scanning rate will be very low. You'll have to traverse all live objects every GC cycle, but you'll rarely have to do a GC cycle.

<comment><USER6> Are you sure about this? The main overhead of a mark-and-sweep GC isn't the marking phase, it's the sweeping phase - you need to find and free all dead objects (to mark them as free/add them to the free list), and since you don't know where they are (by definition, since they are dead, they have no references pointing at them) you have to scan the whole heap (or at least all the pages that were objects were allocated/live on since the last GC cycle).

<comment><AUTHOR> R_s for a naive mark-sweep looks like this:

        R_s = (L + H) / (H - L) * R_a

For a copying collector:

        R_s = L / (H - 2L) * R_a

If H is a constant multiple of L, then your scan rate will be a constant multiple of your allocation rate, independent of heap size.

In practice, you won't sweep the whole heap after each GC cycle, but will do it lazily: [http://www.hboehm.info/gc/complexity.html](http://www.hboehm.info/gc/complexity.html). The point in that article about marking time dominating allocation/sweep is even more true today. Allocation and sweep access memory linearly and are easily parallelized. Meanwhile, marking accesses memory randomly, and the maximum concurrency is dependent on the shape of the live object graph.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This looks very promising. As a Python developer who primarily does systems programming, I sometimes have to jump into C for system calls and optimization, or to Java for stronger type safety and real interfaces, neither of which I particularly enjoy. I could definitely see doing new projects in a language like this.

<comment><USER8> Have you seen Nim? ([http://nim-lang.org](http://nim-lang.org))

<comment><USER9> Nim should look very attractive to Python developers. It's a good looking language that has positioned itself in a good market: static typing, looks and feels like scripting (not verbose), and almost systems level (has GC).

I haven't got any experience with Go development, but from those I know that use it, I hear nothing but promising things about Nim. "Modern" is a word that gets used.

Between Rust and Nim, we're starting to see some really clever new languages that fix common pain points. Both of these are so neat it makes me feel as though we're in a programming language boom right now.

<comment><USER10> While it is not the case of nim, I tend to think LLVM enabled a lot of this "boom".

It gives you a high quality set of components that cover a big bunch of the things you need when implementing a compiler. Energy can be spent in the language itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't understand why vtables are implemented as hash tables.

The docs [1] describe that objects (of class type) only contain data (i.e. object fields), and no vtable pointers. Only when an object is cast to an interface type is a vtable generated and passed along with the object pointer in a _fat pointer_.

However, instead of just structuring the vtable as an array of pointers to methods (ordered e.g. by name), Loci instead generates a hashtable with method resolution stubs in case of conflicts. I don't understand why - since the target interface's type (and methods) are known at compile-time, it would be just as easy to fix the ordering of the methods and use the array approach (like in C++), instead of using a hashtable.

[1] [http://loci-lang.org/DynamicDispatch.html](http://loci- lang.org/DynamicDispatch.html)

<comment><USER11> This is the reason:

"This design also differs from C++ in that vtable pointers are not stored in objects, but are part of an interface type reference. _This decision is particularly appropriate to the language, since Loci doesn't require classes to explicitly implement interfaces_ "

<comment><USER6> This is irrelevant. Every time an object is cast to an interface, the compiler needs to know the definition of that interface. Therefore, it's just as easy to generate a hashtable or an array.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> After a quick read, I'm impressed. Looks like general improvement over c++.

</comment><comment><USER13> But why? If it is already like C++ why build a new language?

<comment><USER4> I think this page answers your question: [http://loci- lang.org/LanguageGoals.html](http://loci-lang.org/LanguageGoals.html)

Basically I've had a lot of experience working with C++ on various projects and while I like it very much I've also observed its weaknesses (right now I'm struggling against slow build times); after a while it seemed logical to build a language that would solve a lot of these problems so that I wouldn't have to face them over and over again for each project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think this may fill a void in the "teaching language" space. It doesn't require lots of boilerplate but retains some key teachable moments (type system, pointers, stack vs heap, interfaces, etc.). I think a language with this sort of brevity and breadth of features would do well as a replacement for the Java/Python/C/C++ hodgepodge that currently exists at many universities.

</comment><comment><USER15> So the kicker: is it ABI-compatible with C++? I've come to like the C compatibility in Julia and Rust (and I'm sure I'll come to like the C compatiblity in Loci, too), but the relative lack of C++ interface support (something that I know Julia's been working on, at least based on what I've seen on the mailing lists) has been a bit of a sore point for integrating with C++ projects.

<comment><USER16> A quick look at the docs make this a definite no.

The name mangling scheme is similar to (one of) C++'s so that could probably be made more compatible. However the vtable mechanism is completely incompatible and given the reasoning in the docs (to support structural typing), I don't think it's a big stretch to say that it's a fundamental incompatibility.

TBH I'd be quite surprised if many (any?) languages will aim for C++ ABI compatibility that's much beyond simple extensions to the C ABI. Even ignoring the lack of a standard C++ ABI, once you start getting into virtual functions, exception handling and, especially, templates, you end up constraining your language to a point where you're probably better off just using C++.

I may well be wrong on this, LLVM helps a lot with the grunt work of name mangling, exceptions, trampolines etc. so it may be possible to get to a sweet spot that supports a significant number of important libraries without hamstringing the language too much. Not going to hold my breath though...

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I can't find any mention of if they provide a C-compatible ABI. Kinda useless as a systems language if they don't - you can't call it from anything else.

<comment><USER18> [http://loci-lang.org/CompatibilityWithC.html](http://loci- lang.org/CompatibilityWithC.html)

<comment><USER17> Perhaps I scanned too quickly. I probably missed since there is no actual mention of ABI (or e.g. _which_ calling conventions it supports on what platforms). The page is confusing - it seems to discuss ABI and syntax and stuff, which isn't exactly related to "compatability" afaict.

I digress... just the usual problems with wiki-type sites.

<comment><USER11> It compiles to LLVM and LLVM abstracts the calling convention. So it might be safe to assume it supports all the calling conventions that LLVM supports.

<comment><USER17> Sure, but that requires knowledge of how LLVM works. Some dude checking out the language probably doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > the language aims to have no performance overhead versus C and C++.

Could someone expand on this for me? What is the performance overhead typically associated with C/C++?

<comment><USER20> It means Loci will perform similarly to C and C++, not that C and C++ have some particular overhead that Loci doesn't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Who runs the project? Who created it?

<comment><USER22> Seems it was created by one developer called Stephen Cross (scross.co.uk). I am quite impressed by his accomplishment. The only thing I miss are custom allocators.

<comment><USER23> He's 2.5 years out of his undergraduate degree. This is incredibly sophisticated code and documentation for such a person. Quite aside from the language, the person himself is worthy of note!

<comment><USER24> The guy seems to be one of those super-productive programmers.

<comment><USER3> We should ask him how he manages it - is it lack of sleep, loads of coffee and no social life?

I found that the best thing when I needed to be "productive".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Languages are tools you use for their syntax, not for the work they do for you or the abstract paradigms they encourage.

<comment><USER26> Eh? Languages are tools you use for their ecosystem, and especially for what work you can have done for you and what kinds of correctness the language encourages. Syntax is something you have to put up with as part of constructing a program.

<comment><USER25> languages can be cross platform. you can talk to 2 different person and they will understand you.

syntax is a huge help, it's a shortcut to being able to understand what the program does. syntax is good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> It bothers me that this is offered anonymously. I can't invest any time into checking it out without any concept of who produced it.

<comment><USER28> If that's seriously a problem then just don't check it out. I personally find it ridiculous that it's a requirement for someone's identity to be attached to a project in order for someone to even consider seeing what it's about.</comment></comment>


An Introduction to 5 Data Models - <AUTHOR> https://www.bookofbrilliantthings.com/book/rts/data-models

<comment><USER2> Missing out the RDF data model

<comment><USER3> RDF is an implementation of a graph model with named nodes and edges. <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/#section-data-model></comment></comment>


Pragmatic app pricing - <AUTHOR> http://www.marco.org/2015/10/13/pragmatic-pricing <comment><USER2> Looks like we've got some interesting thoughts from Marco.

Seems like he regrets keeping Instapaper a paid app and not making it free to go after marketshare and take on Pocket. He seems to conclude he "lost" against Pocket, and now doesn't want to make the same mistake with Overcast.

I personally don't think the patronage model will go very far. I think he's doing more to make the full app free and gain marketshare, and any money made by "donations" is just bonus. If he can grow his marketshare and get a lot of users, then it looks like he's going to try to raise funds. So, this business model makes sense for now... at least until he's able to raise outside funds.

Overall, Marco seems to be insinuating that the podcast market is bigger than people think, and VC money is going to enter the space; thus, he wants to prepare for that and maximize the potential for his app and the possibility to raise funds and go really big.

It does seem that when VC funds enter a market it presents a challenge to existing indie developers who are making a living with a paid app. The VC- funded company will provide a great app (usually) for free, since they don't need a monetization stream right away. They usually are aiming to build a big audience and then monetize later.

Indie developers are then faced with a decision. How do they compete with VC funded companies? They likely are going to have to either make their app free and go head-to-head with these VC funded companies (and maybe raise money themselves to do so). Or they can narrow their scope and become more niche apps appealing to a more limited audience with high-end (hard-to-copy) features that might not appeal to the masses but to the minority who might pay.

But overall, Marco's blog post does bring up the challenges indie developers face when VC funded companies enter their space.

Would love to hear more thoughts on this.

<comment><USER3> But let's assume we're not in a bubble, so raising funds isn't an end in and of itself. Where does the money come from to give investors a return when the entire app is free?

<comment><USER4> Podcast advertising is fantastically profitable even though it's extremely unsophisticated. As the profit margins shrink due to increased competition, more sophisticated ad formats are going to come along to keep the lights on.

Right now, every podcast listener hears the exact same ad regardless of where or when they are listening. It seems obvious that at some point soon, podcasts will include a custom code for "insert ad here" and an ad exchange will bid on that 30 second spot and put a targeted ad there. Currently, the MP3 + RSS format of podcasts doesn't support this degree of sophistication which is what Marco is alluding to with it's walled gardens comment. There's a goldmine for whoever can figure out how to move podcasts into a vertically integrated format and define the platform.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Marco says "I'm not doing anything that other developers can't do" a few times in this post, and sadly I think it's disingenuous.

I believe Marco got at least a couple million dollars from the ~$1B sale of Tumblr (dilution, not clear how much he started with, etc.). That's actually a _lot_ of padding, and means that _he_ can get by for a year or so to try out this free + patronage model. Someone that _needs_ an income, doesn't have that luxury.

<comment><USER6> Indeed, thinking of Marco Arment as an "indie dev" is sort of like thinking of Minecraft as an "indie game." Regardless of roots, at some point, they both crossed a money line. That being said, assuming he is somewhat financially prudent, Arment probably has enough money to just drop into mutual funds and live off the interest, so I guess it says something about his passion as a developer that he's still coding and trying to make an honest buck off of it.

I think the patronage model is interesting, and I'm curious how he or other developers will make it work within the confines of the App Store.

<comment><USER7> So once you're successful you're not an independent dev, even if you have no staff? And once a band is popular it's no longer good?

<comment><USER6> Once you achieve a certain degree of success, you no longer have the same challenges, concerns, or mindset of the typical "indie dev," yes.

This is a guy whose tech podcast I stopped listening to partly because he and some other dweeb wouldn't shut up about their brand new BMWs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Gotta respect Marco for all the success he's had with Tumblr, InstaPaper, (briefly) Peace, and of course Overcast so far...but I kinda feel like he is worried about the wrong thing/people here.

Who cares if other devs. or companies don't like his business model? Does that affect his users or potential customers in any real way? I don't think so.

Also - the patron model is super interesting and I'm excited to see people continue to play with and test it...but I'm not sold that it's a sustainable solution either.

The question to me is: Do people care enough to pay for podcasts? And for those that do, in their mind are they actually paying for the content or the experience/environment? What pain is this specific app itself actually fixing or removing compared to my alternatives?

Marco has proven he's amazing at building experiences and environments people love...and I think he can continue to do very well down that path...but without owning/controlling/providing the content or the 'talent' on the client side he'll never break out of being just one of the middle-men in that part of the ecosystem (and thereby evaluated and paid by users as such).

<comment><USER9> Just one persons experience, obviously, but I have paid for podcasts before. Free podcasts are by far the majority of what I have listened to, but I pay to get the full episodes of "The NoSleep podcast", and have donated to other podcasts when they have the option there and I have liked them enough.

<comment><USER8> Cool - but do you feel like you are paying for the content or are you paying for the experience/environment that you listen to the podcast within?

My point was just that when people do pay, in their mind I think they are paying for the podcast itself...and don't really care all that much about the middle men (same basic thing with music really -- there are, of course, exceptions)

<comment><USER9> Oh, I see. No, I am definitely not paying for the experience/environment per se, but I _did_ pay for a podcast app that had features that I wanted. I.e., the most popular free podcast app on Android (Stitcher) didn't have any way to speed up the audio, cut silence, etc _, so I paid for an app that did have those features.

_ Maybe it does now, this was a while ago

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Patronage works because he has a huge audience giving him some money. Without a huge audience, it doesn't work. He's one of the most well known developer in the world.

His situation only applies to him. Not anyone else.

</comment><comment><USER11> Looks like he still cannot get over with Pocket. They were supposed to clone features from Instapaper etc. I paid for both Instapaper and Pocket (when it was still named Read It Later and had paid version on Android). I stopped using Instapaper and used Pocket exclusively because Pocket is simply much better piece of software. Period. On iOS and of course on other platforms Pocket can run but Instapaper can't.

He wrote "They're coming with shitty apps and fantastic business deals to dominate the market, lock down this open medium into proprietary "technology", and build empires of middlemen to control distribution and take a cut of everyone's revenue."

Well, what if they are coming with _better_ apps and fantastic business deals.. ?

Being an indie dev (or a small indie company) does not automatically make you a better developer / software maker than anyone else. Part of that may be lack of resource, but maybe just maybe you're competing with someone better.

</comment><comment><USER12> Don't get me wrong but I have to say it: I kind of like the guy and what he does but it is getting closer and closer to not be surprised if he shoots belfie one of this days. Whole Peace drama and how it was performed is something I would expect Kardashians to do.

<comment><USER13> Don't forget when he banned 9To5Mac from Instapaper because they called it Instascraper: [http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/how-to-get-banned- from-...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/how-to-get-banned-from- instapaper)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> It seems the complaining competitors are betting on keeping content delivery mechanisms from being commoditized. History shows that it is a risky bet.

</comment><comment><USER15> The article's premise is that Big Money is rushing into podcasts but without giving details what that is. Maybe this is bad for Overcast and other clients, but it could mean that popular podcasts can make more money. Marco is definitely invested in that side of the equation, too, but doesn't talk about in this article.

<comment><USER16> I think the idea is exclusive content that you have to download "shitty apps" to listen to would be a bad trend for consumers, and probably all around. Sure some popular podcasts can make more money, but at what cost?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > But imagine you've been working on Castro 2 for the last year, betting the > company on a big launch and a sustainable income.

Sounds like the Castro 2 dev(s) made a bad bet if their success hinges on the available of a free alternative :(

<comment><USER18> the quote was from a 3rd party; the castro devs said nothing about Marco going free.

edited to add: rather, after people assuming the quote was from them, the developers of Castro issued a statement of "Castro 2 is coming along wonderfully and we're not worried about Overcast going free. <closes twitter, gets back to work>"

[https://twitter.com/Padraig/status/654012918292320256](https://twitter.com/Padraig/status/654012918292320256)</comment></comment>


Autonomous cars will do more than drive you around - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/11/hitting-the-books-autonomous-cars-robot-take-the-wheel/ <comment><USER2> I can imagine cars that choose routes that are "optimized" for partners of the manufacturer. Considering a new big screen TV? Well, let's make sure you pass by Best Buy on your way home everyday until you do. Dinner time? Why not drive right past the Carl's Jr. drive through?

The opportunities for advertising are amazing, since you can place the consumer RIGHT at the locations they're most likely to make an impulse purchase.

Who'd opt into something like that? lol. Most of America.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Not mentioned in the article. I can imagine using my self driving car as a new mobile work office with a great view for calls and coding.

That's something I love about trains too, just coding away as awesome scenery moves along outside the window.</comment>


Thought Experiments in Mathematics: Gabriel's Horn - <AUTHOR> http://fermatslibrary.com/s/gabriels-horn <comment><USER2> The link is an image of a print-formatted copy of the Wikipedia article [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel%27s_Horn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel%27s_Horn) which is more easily read directly on many devices.

</comment><comment><USER3> This answer on Math SE illustrates the concept of finite volume-infinite area quite nicely ([http://math.stackexchange.com/a/14632/14643](http://math.stackexchange.com/a/14632/14643)).

Note that the converse is proven only for surfaces of revolution and for differentiable functions. Finding a pathological counter example that violates these assumptions would be interesting.

<comment><USER4> The converse is impossible in any context where the isoperimetric inequality is applicable.

<comment><USER5> Good point. Though the Wikipedia article on it gives the most general form as requiring our region to have closure with finite Lebesgue measure. This is necessary of course by the example another corner brought up about swapping the inside and outside. But that means it exactly can't rule out the existence of regions with infinite volume (outside and inside) and finite surface area!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a big fan of the Alexander horned sphere, which is even weirder. The interior is simply connected (like the interior of a sphere) but the exterior isn't.

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

</comment><comment><USER4> For what it's worth, this is a 3d version (finite volume, infinite surface are) of a phenomenon which might be more easily grasped in 2d (finite area, infinite perimeter).

And this idea of finite area described by y = f(x) [between this curve and the x-axis, say], with infinite perimeter, amounts to just the same thing some function f whose integral over an infinite range (e.g., from x = 1 to infinity) is finite. If you prefer to think discretely, this is essentially the same phenomenon as an infinite series with finite sum (splitting our curve into the block from x = 1 to 2, the block from x = 2 to 3, the block from x = 3 to 4, etc., the total area is the sum of the series of areas in these blocks, while the total perimeter is automatically infinite as at least length 1 on top and bottom is contributed in each of these blocks). So, consider, for example, y = 1/x^2, from x = 1 to infinity: infinite perimeter but finite area (as its antiderivative is -1/x + C, which only increases by a finite amount over this range; in the same way, differentiating any function with a finite asymptote yields examples, and every example comes in essentially this fashion).

In moving to 3d and making a surface of revolution out of our starting curve, we are now integrating πf^2 instead of f itself, so we need f^2 to yield a convergent integral rather than f itself, but otherwise everything is just the same. Thus, we can get away with f(x) = 1/x, as in Gabriel's Horn, but also, just as well, with f(x) = x^{-p} for any p > 1/2.

Not that these are the only such things; again, any convergent infinite integral or series yields examples. So, just as well, y = 1/2^x or such things would work.

</comment><comment><USER7> I remember finding this gem in my calculus book's exercises, and toiled over it and debated with my professor and lost sleep over it. Well, I didn't disprove it, but I learned a lot of good stuff along the way :)

</comment><comment><USER8> The most interesting thing about it is that at one point people thought it was a paradox.

<comment><USER9> It took lots of very intelligent mathematicians to realize that infinities are weird.

Even today, it takes quite some schooling to come to terms with some of the _easy_ examples.

For example, I expect that easily over 95% of university graduates disagree with the statement _" There are as many rational numbers as there are prime numbers."_.

I even fear that is true for the easier to believe _" 0.9999999... = 1"_

<comment><USER10> There probably is _some_ mathematical formalism out there where there are less prime numbers than natural numbers.

For example, most mathematicians would agree that there are as many reals in [0, 1] as there are in the real line. But according to a different definition of size, namely the most famous measure from measure theory, the Lebesgue measure --- the length of [0, 1] is 1 while the real line is undefined (I think). The person on the street would probably prefer the Lebesgue measure as more intuitive.

I guess my ultimate point is that imprecise statements are harder to prove wrong. There's a quote, I don't remember who said it, that you should mistrust precise statements rather than imprecise ones, because it's precisely precise statements that can be proven wrong.

edit: found the quote: [http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/raymondsmu190329....](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/raymondsmu190329.html)

<comment><USER9> _" There probably is _some_ mathematical formalism out there where there are less prime numbers than natural numbers."_

You could call Z[n] ?for any composite n? that (in Z[4], the multiplication table only contains 0, 1, and 2, so 3 is prime there; Z[p] for prime p gives you p different numbers and zero primes) but I think those are the only ones. If you accept that infinity exists you get Hilbert's hotel, which gets you all those paradoxes, which after lots of sleepless nights leads to the only logical conclusion that giving up intuition about infinities is the best way out.

If you don't accept that infinities exist, there must be a largest integer M, and you get to decide what M+1 or 2M are. That leads either to Z[n], to K&R's _undefined behavior_ , which is so ugly no mathematician would dare publish it :-), or to some formalized variant of it that isn't Z[n].

I'm not sure I would call the values of Z[n] _natural_ numbers, though, as that feels like it requires having negative numbers, too. Hm, maybe a shifted Z[n] would work. If you replace {0,1,2,3} by {0,1,2,-2,-1} in Z[5], you have two negative and three natural numbers in your universe, none of which is prime.

I doubt that any of this kind of mathematical hair-splitting would bring aboard those who have trouble with grasping _0.999999... = 1_ , though :-)

<comment><USER11> Can you not make a "tropical Zn" with elements 0 - (M-1), and a "big" element, representing anything M or larger, including infinite values?

I dont know that it would be exactly analogous to normal Z[M+1], and might have useful properties for some kind of geometric or combinatorical modeling. (My hunch is any time you want to be capable of carrying a "crossed threshold" flag as well as a value, and have that cascade through calculation.)

It would also model systems where you can get to infinity in finite steps, but can't traverse back. Not sure if those are useful in the abstract, though.

<comment><USER9> IEEE 754 ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_floating_point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_floating_point)) does that (for floating point, but the integer variant would be easily defined), with a few extensions. You need "small", too, for example, and "don't have the faintest idea" for when somebody subtracts "big" from "big".

That's pragmatic, highly useful, but a nightmare for mathematicians. You lose invariants such as _x+y-y=x_ (associativity and communicativity, in general), so you're no longer talking of a group (I don't know of research on 'almost groups')

Compiler writers may happily make matters worse by assuming those laws still hold, with the effect that the same computation may overflow or not on different CPUs, under different compilers, compiler settings, or even the same compiler in the same compilation run.

<comment><USER10> "almost groups" are called semigroups. Somehow people have written multiple books on the subjects.

<comment><USER9> Oops and thanks. I don't know how I managed to not fish that out of my memory while thinking whether half groups or incomplete groups existed. I even thought of the term quasigroup (or did I think of 'almost group'?) but unfortunately didn't google it, as it would have learnt me they exist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For programmers it is helpful to visualize the horn such that the volume = features and the surface = possible bugs

</comment><comment><USER13> Is this similar to the Dirac Delta function, which bounds a finite area, with infinite length? Could one say they are different dimensional analogues of each other?

<comment><USER14> The Dirac Delta isn't really well defined from a calculus point of view. It's basically a half line in space, so its area should be 0.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> How is this different from this: "a plain sheet of paper can have infinite surface area and finite (0) volume" ?

<comment><USER16> An ideal sheet of paper, a plain, is a two dimensional object and has by definition no volume. In case of Gabriel's horn we really have a three dimensional object bounded by a two dimensional surface. The bounding surface itself has no volume just like a plain.

<comment> ezequiel-garzon I cannot resist: it's a plane, not a plain.

<comment><USER16> Damn it, I even looked it up because I was unsure. But the German word Ebene translates to plane and plain and I missed that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Okay, tra la la. But can we all take note that the volume is PI, and that PI's decimal places are also infinite.

In this moment, I take issue with the idea that PI represents a "finite" volume.

PI, is more accurately a "known-volume-other-than-infinity."

Meanwhile, angels dance upon the head of a pin somewhere.

<comment><USER18> You can just re-scale it to have volume 1 if you want.

Also, uh, you realize that pi is less than 5, and more than 0, right?

If you draw a circle with radius 1, the area would be pi just as much as the volume of this at some scaling.

Would you say that such a circle has infinite area? That seems like it would be refusing to use a term as it is generally used. You can object by saying that circles do not exist, I suppose. That would be consistent.

But saying that a unit circle has infinite area is either false, or using a term in a nonstandard way.

Similarly, you could reject such a horn (perhaps because it isn't bounded), but calling the volume infinite is like calling the area of a unit circle infinite.

Maybe you just object to abstract objects in general?

If so, alright. People are still going to study them though.

<comment><USER17> So, if I was going to argue about things not existing, the concept of pi, the irrational number, would be my first target. It's just an artifact of bean counting that people chase their tails over.

To say that pi is a non-repeating fraction with infinite decimal places, is to say that we cannot ever precisely know the boundary and definition of a circle, forever zooming in on a point never met.

That we find circles, and capitulate to what must be their true or approximate location is a cheat, and mere luck at the integrity of atoms or planck space or what have you.

But still, it's garbage in the same way that the divide-by-zero rule is garbage. Granted, dividing something into nothing isn't a practical operation. But, I can divide zero into as many parts as I like, and it's still zero.

So, if people want to keep stacking infinitesimally small tenths, hundreths, thounsandths, millionths and so on, to the end of any particular number, forever, well, forever sounds like an infinite quantity to me, and I'll argue to point that out.

Unroll the circumference of a circle. Where does it end? Approximately near _X_? Approximately???

Tell me the area of a circle. Approximately within this fuzzy boundary? Approximately???

I am dubious.

<comment><USER18> Are you objecting that infinite precision or irrational numbers do not physically exist?

That may be. Or it might not. Whether (physical) space is infinitely divisible or not is, I think, an open question. I think it is even plausible that the answer might be that it can be described equally well both ways? Not sure.

I don't mind thinking about abstract objects which do not physically exist. (Though, I generally consider abstract objects to exist in some sense, though you may disagree, and that's fine.)

If you don't care to think about them, that's fine also.

I believe that thinking about them is often useful. Treating pi as existing allows for reasoning about things more efficiently, even if it turns out that it results in inaccuracies in predictions about the physical world which are far smaller than our ability to measure/notice. (If we can't notice the results of the error, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.)

That doesn't mean you have to accept pi as actually existing. I think it would be to your benefit to at least accept its use though. I do consider it to actually exist.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


C++ exception handling mistakes and how to avoid them - <AUTHOR> http://www.acodersjourney.com/2016/08/top-15-c-exception-handling-mistakes-avoid/ <comment><USER2> Sockpuppet accounts, votes, and comments are forbidden here and will get the offending accounts and sites banned.

</comment><comment><USER3> Another useful article related to exception handling : [http://llvm.org/docs/ExceptionHandling.html#itanium-abi- zero...](http://llvm.org/docs/ExceptionHandling.html#itanium-abi-zero-cost- exception-handling)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - I'll check it out. I'm thinking to compile a list of good resources and add it to the current article.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I winnow my cofounders after a Startup Weekend victory? - <AUTHOR>

My team recently won a Startup Weekend event with what is by all accounts a great idea in a wide-open space, and we've been offered a substantial seed investment to take it full time. Unfortunately, the team is huge (8 people) and everyone says they want to stay on.
Not only do we lack anyone I would be comfortable describing as a technical cofounder (I'm a designer/PM with previous startup experience), but 6 of the 8 are marketing/PR/"business" types with little tech knowledge at all and won't fully commit until the company is on more solid footing.
Myself (the nominal team leader) and one other guy are ready to take the plunge, but we're conflicted about how to handle the others. Should we demand a full-time commitment or they get nothing? Should we give them a small amount of equity (3% each) to move along quietly? <comment><USER2> I'd suggest not granting equity outright, but instead granting it on a vesting schedule, maybe over four years.

And you could create a vesting agreement that would apply to everyone, including yourselves. Maybe something along the lines of: every day that you're working, your equity vests more, with it weighted more heavily on the first year or two since there's more risk involved.

Actually I've never heard of someone granting equity in that way, but it might get you thinking in the right direction.

</comment><comment><USER3> Overwhelmingly startups fail on things that aren't technology related - usually either the team falling apart or failure to get traction. If those marketing and PR people are good at what they do getting them on board for a small percentage of equity at the start will be invaluable.

<comment><AUTHOR> My concern isn't really technology (I used the lack of a technical founder as an illustration of the team's makeup) as much as the decision paralysis that comes with such a large team; I can hire a developer, but it's already near- impossible to wrangle the entire team together to set a meeting time, for example.

I guess the question is how can I gently push the rest of the team to a place where it falls apart now instead of 3 months from now, if that's the direction that it's headed? I'm worried that appointing a CEO-like figure with carte blanche over operations isn't going to be enough when equity is split 8 ways and the rubber really hits the road.</comment></comment>


Thunderstorms create antimatter - <AUTHOR> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html

<comment><USER2> The Fermi Gamma-ray Space telescope orbits at 550 km - I'm not sure how large its Gamma-ray Burst Monitor is, but, it's probably on the order of magnitude of a square meter.

From the graph, a TGF creates an additional 80 impacts per microsecond. Under the (admittedly incorrect) presumption that a TGF is omnidirectional, that would suggest a TGF is emitting enough positrons to cause in 10^-6 seconds an increase of 80 impacts on the 1 meter section of the surface of a sphere with a 550 * 10^3 meter radius.

If I don't munge the math, that would suggest each of these TGF is emitting approximately:

       4*Pi*(550*10^3  )^2*80 /(1*10^-6 )
       3*10^20 positron emissions per TGF that make it to the LEO of the satellite.

Divide as appropriate to account for the likely (per the article) non- omnidirectional nature of the burst (they tend upwards)

Not sure how many are normally absorbed in the atmosphere, or, in fact, if 10^20 is a significant number of positrons - but I'm thinking it would be interesting to mount a TGF detector near, or above, a frequently hit lighting target (Empire State Building gets around 100 Hits per year)

Checking Wikipedia - it turns out that lightning has been a well known source of Gamma Rays for at least 15 years - I read about the observations of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in 1994 - and compared it to the more recent discovery by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space telescope. It's hard to see what they discovered that was different this time around.

<comment><USER3> What's new here is the direct observation of a spectral feature--the well- known 511 keV line--which corresponds to annihilation of the positrons produced by the TGF with electrons. Gamma-rays and electrons had been observed before, but it wasn't known that positrons were produced as well.

Compton didn't observe it because its energy resolution was too coarse, and RHESSI (another satellite which has detected many TGFs) doesn't have enough collecting area to do spectroscopy.

There are current ground and airborne experiments looking for high energy emission from lightning.

(I'm a gamma-ray astrophysicist who works with these satellites on other sources.)

<comment><USER4> Where do you work? I handle the astroserver at SLAC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> And thunderstorms just got even more badass.

What are the potential implications from this discovery? Since it is so expensive and difficult to create antimatter on Earth (and it only lasts for less than a second), the obvious question to ask is if we can capture or study the antimatter produced in thunderstorms?

That would be amazing.

<comment><USER6> For some reason I feel this is only going to reduce the significance of anti- matter. I remember first hearing about it as some ominous "substance" that only exists in the emptiest depths of the universe. If it happens all of the time on earth, I'm sure we'll be able to conclude that anti-matter is as common here as it is elsewhere in the universe, and won't exhibit any super- interesting properties that we once thought it did.

<comment><USER7> What super-interesting properties are you thinking of? Antimatter has been pretty pedestrian for a while now.

<comment><USER8> Hm. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it's _pedestrian_. Well understood by theoretical physicists, perhaps. Inherently, though, it's still pretty damn interesting.

<comment><USER7> Interesting scientifically, sure, just like electrons and protons and Newtonian physics and all sorts of other things. But there's not much mystery to it. I agree with uvdiv, acconrad was almost certainly thinking dark matter/energy.

<comment><USER9> Or he's been misled by, like, every work of science fiction ever. They almost all portray it as the sort of mysterious, otherworldly stuff he's describing. I've known a lot of people who were kind of disappointed to learn that antiparticles are uncommon, but not _that_ uncommon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wonder if this phenomena is at all related to red sprites and blue jets <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jets>

</comment><comment><USER11> I just realized, doesn't Jupiter have constant lightning storms a couple of orders of magnitude more violent than ours? Just imagine the sort of animatter generation _those_ might be driving!

We gotta get another probe out there! Unless maybe we've got something that could pick up the signs back here...?

</comment><comment><USER12> I was more interested in the concept of the magnetic mirror point, which I was unaware of until now:

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

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-shell>

</comment><comment><USER4> I work for this experiment!

I think I'll have to play around with this data tomorrow.

</comment><comment><USER13> Is the antimatter arsenic-based?</comment>


OCLint - <AUTHOR> http://oclint.org/ <comment><USER2> I have installed OCLint on my work codebase (iOS ObjC), and I love having the extra sanity check on code, but it does not compare in terms of power / performance / ease of use to either of the two other linters i've used, swiftlint and eslint.

My biggest complaint is integrating it with xcode is not great - it requires a second compilation after your regular build runs to generate the json compilation database it needs.

This is not the oclint team's fault, but it makes it frustratingly slow to use for every build - which is how linters should be used in my view.

</comment><comment> ainar-g I guess the immediate question everyone has for such tools is how does it compare with clang-tidy for C++?

<comment><USER3> And, similarly, what about vs. clang static-analyzer?

<comment><USER2> Clang static analyzer is about checking logic errors - unused variables, memory leaks, etc.

OCLint does things like warn if there are too many non-comment-lines-of-code in a method, or too many methods per class. It's more about keeping tabs on complexity and code cleanlyness than true static analysis.

Ideally, use both! If you're using Xcode you can enable "analyze" for all builds. Highly recommended if it doesn't break your build times.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Panspermia as a Service to PaaS the Great Filter - <AUTHOR> https://www.pansper.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> TL;DR: Guarantee humanity a second chance via operating reproductive cryobank on the Moon and Mars.

We are currently in the very beginning of the very interesting, difficult, but, as we think, crucial project.

The goal is to guarantee humanity a second chance:

      - save humanity as a species and civilization,

      - extend as many family trees as possible

The concept is to build and operate cryobank for reproductive cells on the Moon and Mars

Then give birth to those new people through IVF, surrogacy or artificially, when there will be a sustainable and affordable place to live

So please stay healthy, join mailing list at [http://eepurl.com/hasLk1](http://eepurl.com/hasLk1) and join discussion and share your vision here or at [https://www.evryca.com/pansper](https://www.evryca.com/pansper)</comment>


Emissions-free energy system saves heat from the summer sun for winter - <AUTHOR> http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/chalmers/pressreleases/emissions-free-energy-system-saves-heat-from-the-summer-sun-for-winter-2731597 <comment><USER2> I'm confused, does this work by sunlight or heat?

"has the unique property that when it is hit by sunlight, it is transformed into an energy-rich isomer"

And

"The solar thermal collector is a ...."

Also what is the energy density? I assume the fact it isn't mentioned means that its pretty poor.

Does seem interesting though.

Edit: I'll answer my own questions:

They're getting referred to as photoswitches in the references, so I guess it's sunlight

And one reference quotes 155wh/kg, which seems not great.</comment>


Most Welfare Dollars Don't Go Directly to Poor People Anymore – FiveThirtyEight - <AUTHOR> http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-welfare-dollars-dont-go-directly-to-poor-people-anymore/ <comment><USER2> So it looks like, in short, welfare dollars have mostly stopped being spent as checks handed to the needy and, instead, are being used to help people with drug problems, childcare, and educational needs. Moreover, most of the states that have stopped giving out money are rural, and many of them are right- leaning. Which isn't a particularly surprising outcome, when you consider the GOP-spun narrative that welfare recipients are mostly lazy, poor people who are unwilling, but not unable, to work.</comment>


Photonic - Web Photo Viewer for iOS and Android Devices - <AUTHOR> http://photonic.onsysol.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

Photonic is a web based photo viewer for iOS and Android devices that provides the same photo viewing experience users are accustomed to when using native applications.

I've started this project because almost no web site (not even the photography-centric ones) offer close-to-native photo browsing. Most of them make you click the 'back' button or even open a new page for each image.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Cata</comment>


IPO48 Nairobi Startup Bootcamp Pitches & Winners - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AXpaepObY

<comment><AUTHOR> All the projects and investment winners listed here: <http://nairobi2011.ipo48.com></comment>


Ask HN: Are hours spent dealing with billing, billable? - <AUTHOR>

I have a client who recently refused to pay a very large bill on time and was 60 days late. It took me 3 hours total of emails, phone calls, etc. to get him to arrive at a payment plan.<p>Then I went and billed him for 1 of those hours. He doesn't want to pay that hour. I did it half to get some pay back on my time, half to stick it to him. Do I have any grounds for this or should I just drop the hour? <comment><USER3> I don't think you should charge him for that hour. You might instead try to charge him interest for being late (or add interest to payment plan).

However, personally, I think it's better to move on and instead spend your time diversifying your customer base. A friend of mine says the nice thing about consulting is "you can fire your customer."

<comment><AUTHOR> Your friend is right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You do not say which country (and thus legal jurisdiction) you live in - <USER2> that probably means you live and work in the USA.

If you were in the UK then you can't normally recover time spent in persuading your debtors to pay their bills. You can however start to charge interest on the outstanding balance after a reasonable period of time - and after giving due notice.

Perhaps others can contribute answers that relate to other countries.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice. I've already instituted new terms and have left it for them to decide whether to pay the hour or not.</comment></comment>


California Man Arrested for Leaving His Car Idling in Parking Lot - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedrive.com/news/20726/california-man-arrested-for-leaving-his-car-idling-in-parking-lot <comment><USER2> I'm certainly not one to always come to the defense of law enforcement, but this headline is false. He was not arrested for leaving his car idling. He was arrested for refusing to cooperate when being ticketed for leaving his car idling.

<comment><USER3> > I'm certainly not one to always come to the defense of law enforcement, but > this headline is false.

The headline is entirely accurate, though phrased in a way that people unfamiliar with the domain are likely to misintrepret the meaning.

> He was not arrested for leaving his car idling.

Yes, he was. Specifically, he was subjected to a _non-custodial_ arrest for that.

> He was arrested for refusing to cooperate when being ticketed for leaving > his car idling.

Yes, he was _subsequently_ subjected to a _custodial_ arrest for the offense of "resisting arrest" with regard to the preceding non-custodial arrest. Were the prior event not an arrest, the subsequent arrest would have no basis, since there would be no arrest to resist.

See, e.g., [https://www.bayerandblack.com/library/difference-between- a-c...](https://www.bayerandblack.com/library/difference-between-a-custodial- and-non-custodial-arrest.cfm)

<comment><USER4> > non-custodial arrest

While technically true (the best kind), this is not what 99% of English speakers understand the word "arrest" to mean. The headline is in letter accurate, but in spirit a lie.

<comment><USER3> It's true in the strict sense, and also true in a loose sense in that it conveys both the key outcome and the triggering event accurately, though you have to read the article to get the intermediate chain.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: List of companies NOT using Agile methodologies? - <AUTHOR> Lets not get into discussion that "real" Agile (or Communism) hasn't been tried yet and so on... :)<p>Would be great to have a list of companies NOT using Agile/Scrum or any other forms of micro-management and commoditization of engineering. The list of engineer-friendly companies that is. <comment><USER2> Basecamp</comment>


Ask HN: Can you learn web development/programming from watching video tutorials? - <AUTHOR> When I say watch video tutorials I mean practice with the video, not just passively watch.<p>There are a lot of paid and free video tutorials online that look great. It seems possible, but I need assurance. <comment><USER2> I find that Udemy courses are really good for this, you can follow along.

My advice is to watch and follow once, create your own project (even if this sucks), ask a lot of questions on Stackoverflow or irc freenode.

Get used to the official documentation. Find a different tutorial, follow along. Create a new project (even if it sucks).

After awhile you'll start to understand.

</comment><comment><USER3> They'll make one be less lost at the start, however you still have to do the work.

</comment><comment><USER4> I believe yes, video tutorials are a good way to learn. But one also needs to work with the exercises, write the code, and eventually write more code on their own :)</comment>


Ask HN: Examples of Industrial-IoT consulting firms or solution providers? - <AUTHOR> Do you know of any consulting firms or solution providers that specialize in Industrial IoT? I know this is an exploding field but these companies seem to stay under the radar. <comment><USER2> Yeah I am really interested too, I am in Australia and work for a traditional systems integrator (eg PLC/DCS/SCADA) and they seem to see IOT as a joke, but I see a whole new relevant layer, esp with MQTT and OPC, now you can do OPC server on a $10 ESP32.

I think they will get left behind and marginilised if not careful.</comment>


Conceptual engineering: the revolution in philosophy you've never heard of - <AUTHOR> https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9iA87EfNKnREgdTJN/conceptual-engineering-the-revolution-in-philosophy-you-ve <comment><AUTHOR> The next post about the relation between LessWrong itself and conceptual engineering is up too: [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8GiTowD6XqTNzgCz7/situating-...](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8GiTowD6XqTNzgCz7/situating- lesswrong-in-contemporary-philosophy-an-interview)</comment>


Ask HN: Can a 19 years old get a dcent job in web development - <AUTHOR> This question have been bugging me for a while now.
So i'm 19 years old and i've been learning web development since i was 13 and started freelancing 4 years ago.
I code in:
HTML and haml CSS, SCSS, SASS, LESS javascript and all its major libraries
i'm quite decent with Ruby and python
Also: I've coded about 100-120 website since i started learning I pride myself in writing beautiful understandable code
I know that none of these are special traits, but i'm thinking of quitting school since my final objective is to work as web-dev so if i can score a good gig with my current knowledge there is no use wasting 5 years of my life. And it's not like i lack experience, 4 years of freelancing should count for something.
I appreciate any input you have on this subject and any advice you have to offer! And thanks for taking the time to read my question <comment><USER2> I'd mirror sentiments I see elsewhere, but add some things...

"javascript and all its major libraries": bullshit. You may have good experience with JS, but anybody that claims they know everything is going to have a bad time. And on that subject, which technologies you've used is a little bit less interesting than how many large scale projects you've done. 100 websites? How many of those were of any substance? This is an important question because what you think is a big project may be different than what an employer thinks.

Senior level is going to be reserved for people with degrees (at LEAST a bachelor's) and is very unlikely to fall into a young person's hands. You could probably find a place that just needs a web developer but does not have a large IT shop that will take a chance, but in my experience, it's not the kind of job that will take you anywhere. Go to college. It'll do you good, and you can freelance while you're there to get the leg up/not be as poor. What you find with what you have now will likely amount to an internship. This isn't just because you lack experience in a workplace (freelancing is different), but also just because you are a great risk at your age. Beginning employees are risky because the employer has to sink a lot of money in training and adjustment, and the employee can then flutter off to a job that the employer was not prepared to match in terms of pay and benefits.

</comment><comment><USER3> As someone else has suggested, keep doing freelance web development while studying at university, it is a perfect flexible income source that pays significantly better than the average pay a student would get from a part-time job.

It might be tempting to take your degree in Computer Science, however that will not set you apart as significantly as some other choices. A CS graduate who is also a competent developer? Great but pretty much expected. On the other hand if you study Design, UX/UI - now you are a wow for front-end web development. A second stand-out route would be to major in Statistics and really focus on mastering Python, R and data visualization libraries. This route would set you up to purse a data science career. In both of these routes everything that you have learned about web development continues to help you post college.

Also, as Patrick McKenzie and others advise, start raising your freelance rates. If you really are a solid developer and write beautiful understandable code that solves a business problem, you can probably double your rate over the course of the next few months. Then work toward doubling your rate again before you graduate.

My own son is 13 and I have been encouraging/nagging him to learn to code. He has the appropriate intelligence. I have often told him that 2-3 years of self study now would position him to do freelancing and pay his way through college and be an important skill regardless of what he ultimately chooses to do in life. Of course kids want to make their own way. I can't complain too much since he is getting pretty good at 3D modeling with SolidWorks and gaining skills in robotics, machining and 3D printing.

Good for you for learning practical, marketable skills so early in life. But I still think that long-term you will be well served by getting a college degree.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input man! I found your advice to be extremely helpful! And good luck with your kid, hope he grow up to be as good of a coder as his father

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are definitely jobs out there for you if you have the portfolio. But I hardly think college is a waste of time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Never meant that college was a waste of time, i was just stating that it would be a waste of time for me to go through it then get a job i would have gotten 5 years ago and i could have become a senior web developer by then! And thanks, but as i mentioned in the title are decent jobs a possibility for me? Because age i assume would always be a problem for me if i want to pursue higher paying jobs.

<comment><USER4> It depends on the company, but I doubt you could get a senior level position. But you could probably get a well paying mid-level position at the right company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks and sorry for bothering you with all these questions since there is no where else i could actually ask theme. And if i may ask what would be the salary range for someone with my portfolio?

<comment><USER4> No problem. It depends on where you are looking for a job. NYC and San Fran will be higher for instance. I don't know much about the foreign markets. But I would say starting salary around $60k-$75k. You might be able to get more, but I doubt it. All this is assuming your portfolio is well stocked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Dont see why u couldnt get a job with a big and decent portfolio. Although i would not state that you are " I'm a UI expert I use github I'm good at Photoshop and illustrator " . Whoever states being an expert is an idiot: let people find out ur an expert or a pro no need to advertise it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Noted, and it was my attempt to explain that i'm pretty good at graphic design as well. Anyways thanks for the tip. Also is a senior web developer position possible with this portfolio and with my age?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should I open up my apps data so anyone can use and derive from it? - <AUTHOR>

I've built a site for climbers called Bouldr (http://bouldr.net) - a worldwide, user editable guidebook for climbers.
Recently, I've been toying with the idea of making all of the data that has been submitted to Bouldr open (Creative-Commons) to everyone in the form of a downloadable archive as well as an API.
My thinking is that if I make the data available in a similar way to how Stack Overflow already does, then more climbers will be motivated to contribute, and more interesting uses of the data will come to light.
My only concern is that I may inadvertently kill my site to death by overlooking some glaring reason that this is a bad idea.
So my question is: Is opening up the data from Bouldr a good / bad / stupid / dangerous idea, and why?
Cheers! <comment> brown9-2 I think it would only constitute a "bad idea" if somehow having the only access to that data is the key to your business plan and revenue (if you even have one - not sure if this site is for hobby or for profit).

Otherwise, why not share it? Especially if you rely on users contributing the data to you in the first place.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Link to site: <http://bouldr.net></comment>


Microsoft Needs to Get Coherent for Windows Phone to Survive - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/editors-picks/9b574be11d16

<comment><USER2> Your second point is right on the money. Failure to integrate with my Windows household is my chief complaint [1] with my Windows Phone (a Nokia Lumia 920).

You cite USB ports, but I think that's going after the wrong kind of integration. Here's what bothers me most: my Windows Phone doesn't just seamlessly join my Windows "HomeGroup" network, and it should. Doing so would be a killer app in my household. All Microsoft devices should adopt a HomeGroup (or an evolution thereof) model, where sharing of resources is expected.

When I take a photo around the house, it should not only be automatically uploaded to Skydrive as it is now. Since the phone is on my wifi network, the photo should be immediately dropped onto my file server's Photos library.

When I fire up the music application, it should (a) be able to play anything from my file server's music library, and (b) act as a DLNA remote to my various PCs, including the one in the living room hooked to the big speakers.

It should be comfortable joining other "HomeGroups" or similar ad hoc private networks. If I am out and about with my Windows Phone 8 and Surface Pro--and I am usually carrying both--the two should play well together--over an encrypted private channel--whenever they are both on the same wifi network. If I receive a Skype message, I should _not_ have to dismiss it on both devices; they should each know I've been notified. (This last bit speaks a bit to my desire for "personal application omnipresence"\--a model where applications run single instances with multiple responsive views, all exclusively for me [2].)

Integration remains the most lacking and frustrating element of multi-device lifestyles, and it's not a problem exclusive to Microsoft, but it's one that I specifically want Microsoft to address.

[1] [http://tiamat.tsotech.com/lumia-920](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/lumia-920)

[2] [http://tiamat.tsotech.com/pao](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/pao)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's really odd that Nokia is the _main_ promoter of Windows Phone. There's no other option for them, so as there's no other option for Microsoft. Get your act together, Redmond people, or you will become the next IBM in 10 years.</comment>


Ask HN: How to become a independent researcher? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> That's a damn good question. I think part of it depends on what your topic / area of interest is. That is, some fields are easier (cheaper / more accessible) than others. Doing novel work in high energy particle physics as an independent is probably damn tough, since you probably can't afford a particle accelerator. OTOH, if you're doing something where all you need is a computer (or many computers even), like, say, researching novel applications of genetic algorithms, then you can probably accomplish a lot without a ton of financial backing.

I hope this thread catches on and generates some activity, as I'd really like to hear what other HN'ers have to say on this topic. I'd say more about some stuff I've learned recently, but it's bed-time here.</comment>


A probability based processor - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.in/computing/26055/

<comment><USER2> Previous submissions on the same subject:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1617639> <\- identical

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1614085> <\- identical, with comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611663> <\- different

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1610900> <\- very different</comment>


Ask HN: How do I convince non-technical people to hire me? - <AUTHOR>

I just had the somewhat interesting experience of interviewing for a freelance gig at a company that has no technical staff. They asked me a little bit about my experience, but their main concerns seemed to be my hourly rate, availability, and willingness to work on-site. I tried to talk about technical matters, how I would solve their problem. I dropped a few buzzwords at the beginning but they had no idea what I was talking about. I came out of the interview without a clue whether it had gone well or not.<p>What, in your experience, are non-technical people looking for in a freelance hire? <comment><USER2> That's an easy one: they are looking for someone they can trust to solve their problems. They don't care how you do it.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Depending on whether you have written a follow up email or not, maybe you can follow up with email now that addresses how you are going to solve their problem without buzz words (perhaps a wireframe or something visual can help too)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> So just to be clear, I didn't just sit there and spout "Ruby! Wordpress! Html5!" and wait for them to give me a cookie. Obviously they want to try to find out if I can solve their problem. But when they say "I want a slider that shows the part being taken apart and put together," they don't need wireframes, they need to know that I can translate their "vision" into code. I can talk about canvas and JavaScript APIs and whatnot, but I might as well be talking about klurblats and snorgflerms, for all they know. They have no way of evaluating whether I can turn their vision into code, unless I have done something else exactly like it in the past.

So my question is, on what basis are they making their decision? Gut instinct? Or are they just likely to wait around until they find somebody who can point to a project exactly like theirs?

</comment><comment><USER4> I would imagine they're looking for examples of prior work that was similar to their needs or even better, specific advice you can give them on their own needs (wireframes, prototypes, etc).</comment>


Ask HN: To BaaS or not to BaaS - <AUTHOR> We are a startup, working on ... well ... another instant messaging and sharing app!! The goal is of course to reach millions of users.
From a time to launch perspective we are wondering if it is at all a good idea to use BaaS services like parse/StacKMob/PubNub. While we are aware of most of the pros and cons of using a BaaS, our main worries with BaaS are high costs at a later stage when  users multiply, vendor lock-in.  Some things we would love some experienced hackers to throw light on are:
- Any idea on costs of BaaS once one moves into the enterprise usage range with millions of API calls per day
- can one launch with a BaaS backend, and then as the app is gaining traction, build out and switch to a custom solution? is this practically feasible?
- if above (switch to custom solution) is feasible then any specific advice on what  one must keep in mind while architecting the app, and any recommendations on a BaaS provider that is easier to switch over from
- any other insight if you think this is a complete no no
cheers Ani <comment><USER2> I believe that the question you should be asking yourself is this - Can BaaS (or any other service) help me get to the market right now at the lowest cost possible.

For any such commodity as a service, the initial costs to you will be lower than if you had to build the service yourself. However, over time the costs will go up. The benefit to you will always be ease of development and having the time to focus on building the core features that will make your startup feasible. Most startups fail before they reach a point where they need to worry about rising costs and that's a good problem to have. (when you have it you can mostly pay someone to fix them for you)

My recommendations (having never used any of the above mentioned BaaS providers, do take these with a pinch of salt)

1\. Look at how easy it is to get your data back if you need to host the services yourself or change providers. Does the provider have any processes for the same? Speak to the sales (and support) people about this before you decide on a provider. Look for the provider that is transparent about this.

2\. Don't worry about what the cost will be when you reach a million users. Your time right now is spent wisely validating your idea. Cross that bridge when you come to it.

3\. The only "complete no no" scenario I can think of would be if you were hosting sensitive information (credit card etc)

Hope this helps

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi anish_t,

About six months ago I tested Kinvey (a BaaS) for an application that makes heavy use of data. Basically you upload your data (say, from CSV) and then you access it via API calls.

It looks like you can download your data at any time, say if you need to switch providers. I don't have any experience of other providers, but with Kinvey it doesn't look like there is a risk of vendor lock-in. It's data on the wire via AJAX requests. If things turn to be expensive when you grow up, you move the data to your own backend.

That said, I must add that I never ended up using them. The reason - I just needed something with serious geospatial capabilities. I mean PostgreSQL + PostGIS kind of thing.

There is also the DIY route, which is not necessarily the best, since it will prolong the time until you release a MVP. But, if you have the manpower to work on it, maybe Drupal is a good alternative for you. It can be set up as a backend, it is secure, and it's free. I think you can even set it up as a SPARQL endpoint.

Good luck with your startup! I don't wish you to reach millions of users, but instead to make millions of dollars :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't even worry about it, to be honest. If you are lucky enough to be in that situation, it would be a very good problem to have.

You would face technical scaling issues no matter what you were using. If the BaaS is your bottleneck you could fix it then.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have read your entire post and still don't know what BaaS stands for. B.. as a service?

<comment><AUTHOR> as Sumang already pointed out BaaS is "backend as a service". BaaS vendors provide the most common backend features for web and mobile apps such as user signup, social integration, notifications, storage etc. in a managed cloud. They have easy to use APIs for each platform thus making it very easy to launch quickly and across multiple platforms (ios, android, web...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Yes you should use them if they speed you up.

"High costs at a later stage when users multiply, vendor lock-in" -> it doesn't matter. 95% chance you won't get millions of users, so focus on that first.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everyone for your right on comments! now its time to focus! focus!!!!</comment>


Craigslist Sues South Carolina Attorney General McMaster; Asks For Restraining Order - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/20/craigslist-sues-south-carolina-attorney-general-mcmaster-asks-for-restraining-order/ <comment><USER2> Compare this piece of writing with the same coverage by a NY Times blog:

[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/pushed-against- wall...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/pushed-against-wall- craigslist-sues-south-carolina-attorney-general/)

"After all, our own poll shows that given the choice between keeping Craigslist or South Carolina, most of you would choose Craigslist."

Ridiculous.

</comment><comment><USER3> 2 things strike me.

The first is good one Craigslist: pre-emptive action is always the best move and I bet this crushes the guy! :D

The other is McMaster should sue TechCrunch for an image calling him a jerk - that's defamation :P

<comment><USER4> Scary:

 _"Defamation exists once a statement has been published lowering the plaintiff's reputation whether it is true or not."_

<http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/D/Defamation.aspx>

<comment><AUTHOR> So you can't say anything bad about another person? wtf

<comment><USER5> Yes, you can, if the the other person is a public figure:

"Under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1964 Case, New York Times v Sullivan, where a public figure attempts to bring an action for defamation, the public figure must prove an additional element: That the statement was made with "actual malice". In translation, that means that the person making the statement knew the statement to be false, or issued the statement with reckless disregard as to its truth."

[http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation....](http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Jakob Nielsen: Alphabetical Sorting Must (Mostly) Die - <AUTHOR> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/alpha-sorting.html

<comment><USER2> One problem with logical groupings is that, while useful, it introduces a new possible axis of confusion, if there's any grey area for what the obviously correct grouping is, or if different sites use different groupings for the same information. For example, with countries, an Egyptian might have to hunt to figure out whether they're listed under _Africa_ , _Middle East_ , _North Africa_ , or something else.

</comment><comment><USER3> Alphabetical ordering of countries is not super-helpful for English people such as myself. In general, I have to look in four places on the list to be sure I've got the right option: England, Britain, Great Britain and United Kingdom. (Yes, I do see all four of these in web forms.)

</comment><comment><USER4> Related (IA-related), for the first time ever, I saw the option "Latin- Spanish" yesterday. That's even better than "American English" (also an option I saw once).</comment>


AP: Man Denies He Is Bitcoin Founder - <AUTHOR> http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-man-denies-hes-bitcoin-founder

<comment><USER2> Tech news is incredible. The real founder comments he is not Dorian, Dorian denies he is the real founder, major publisher Newsweek caught in the middle.. seems as is if it were straight out of a script!

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd now like to see a response from Newsweek. They have a high threshold of proof to meet to establish that Dorian Nakamoto is Mr. Bitcoin, and I don't believe they've met it.</comment>


Throwing down the gauntlet: the diversity crisis and the startup community - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@delmarsenties/throwing-down-the-gauntlet-the-diversity-crisis-the-startup-community-f7a00ff312d4#.zbs3smmdt <comment><USER2> the article raises some interesting points. big tech corporations could do a lot more to diversify their workforces, especially in California.

i wonder what would happen if Apple pulled a couple billion out of its Irish cash hoard and used it to train a representative cross section of the California population to actually work in Apple's California operations.

my guess is that it would work well enough. people would do their jobs about as well as the current set of employees.</comment>


Rebuilding the pitch deck for the Pocket - <AUTHOR> http://reillybrennan.com/post/45738875908/comrades-edward-aten-on-rebuilding-the-pitch-deck-for

<comment><USER2> This is terrific, and definitely a compelling way to intro an idea, business, concept, etc. on a mobile device. The tapping interaction is great, and the language and image-progression (incremental text width; changing exposures; etc.) feels natural and polished.

I could imagine a market for a solution that helps build these mobile-ready "decks." Of course, the creator has to conceive and execute with a native mobile experience in mind (not convert their existing deck), but a technology layer that aids in the creation (either just the implementation, or with best- practices to boot) would be terrific.

Ideally, one could find a similar experience without downloading an entire standalone app, but I suppose you'll take what you can get. I'd just love to be able to tell a new contact: "Check out CopThis.com/go and click through to learn all about the project right from your phone!" Heck, I'd even be thrilled to use: Mobile-Decks.com/CopThis

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the feedback. It's something we have considered but decided against it for launch. Eventually we imagine the phone will be where we do 95% of our communication with non-enterprise users. We need to build a platform that lets us communicate with all of them quickly and easily. Mobile web will definitely be part of that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome, tried it on iOS and it really is a nice experience. Given the investment craze on mobile this would help to show you're really thinking about the problem from a mobile perspective.

</comment><comment><USER5> I tried this out on android and it was a really engaging experience. An auto- play feature with timing effects could make it better but then having the need for controls could be a setback.

<comment><USER3> We went user controlled because we wanted people to be able to guide their own experience. We watched a bunch of people use the app and noticed people went a very different speeds.

It turned out that we show so little at a time that people went through the deck in two ways: very slowly or very quickly. We couldn't have allowed both to do that with an auto-play or video function.

<comment><USER6> When I went through it I tapped as fast as if I'm playing a video game, although not because I'm a fast reader, more because there are so few words on the screen. I don't think there's a good way to solve this, or that you need to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm the creator of the Meet CopThis intro app. AMA!

Kidding. Thanks for the votes, downloads and words of encouragement. It is greatly appreciated.

Ed

Edit: I guess AMA if you want to. :)</comment>


Intel 8080 emulator created in Lua running inside Garry's Mod - <AUTHOR> http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1117587-Gmod-Gameboy-and-Intel-8080-emulators.

<comment><USER2> Would be great to see some real computers inside computer games. No more solving crappy puzzles to hack a terminal.

</comment><comment><USER3> That is ridiculously cool! I'm always amazed to see how people are creative like this.

</comment><comment><USER4> Man, you suck at Space Invaders.</comment>


Forests Around Chernobyl Aren't Decaying Properly | Science | Smithsonian - <AUTHOR> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/?no-ist <comment><USER2> Previously submitted under canonical URL with lots of comments:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7404345](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7404345)</comment>